Where Demons Dare. Kim Harrison
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the table, and I pulled it closer. “Jenks let me in before he headed off for his nap,” he said. “Matalina …”
His words drifted to nothing, and I looked up from Jenks’s note. “What about her?”
“She’s fine,” he said, easing my worry. “But she was going to bed early, and there was no need for him to stay up to man the door if I was here, so I told him to go.”
I nodded and turned my attention back to the note, uneasy about Matalina, but glad that Ivy and I had broken Jenks of answering the phone without taking a message. According to the note, Marshal’s interview had been moved from tonight to this morning, and he wanted to know if we could get together at about three instead. Plenty of time to do something before Al started gunning for me after sundown. There was a number, and I couldn’t help but smile. Below it was another number with the cryptic message JOB, and Jenks’s reminder that rent was due on Thursday the first, not Friday the second or Monday the fifth.
“I should get home,” David said softly as he rose and took another gulp from his mug. Hat in hand, he said, “Thanks for the coffee. I’ll let Serena and Kally know you like their idea.”
“Um, David,” I said, and I saw his brow crease at the sound of Ivy moving about. “Do you think they’d mind if I went with them when they got their tattoos?”
His sun-darkened face broke into a smile, the faint wrinkles about his eyes deepening in pleasure. “I think they’d like that. I’ll ask them.”
“Thanks,” I said, and he jumped at a bumping sound from Ivy’s room. “You’d better get going unless you want to be here when she gets up.”
He was silent as his face reddened. “I’ll lope in to work later and check out the recent claims for possible demon damage. There won’t be anyone in two days before Halloween, so I won’t have to explain myself.”
“This isn’t illegal, is it?” I asked suddenly. “I’ve gotten you in enough trouble as it is.”
David’s smile was easy and a bit devilish. “No,” he said, shrugging with one shoulder. “But why draw attention to yourself? Don’t worry about it. If someone in Cincy is summoning demons, any claims will be odd enough to be flagged for investigation. At least you’ll know then if it’s a local threat. Help you narrow your suspects.”
I drew my coffee closer and slumped into the hard chair. “Thanks, David. I appreciate it. If I can shut down the guy summoning Al, then I won’t have to take Minias up on his offer.” I didn’t want a demon’s summoning name, especially Al’s. Unusable or not.
A sliver of worry slipped between my thought and reason, and I forced my smile to be light, but David saw it. Coming closer, he put a small but powerful hand on my shoulder. “We’ll get him. Don’t do anything with that demon. Promise?”
I winced, and David sighed when I didn’t say anything. There was a soft creak of a door opening, and David started like a deer. “I’ll, uh, bring Jenks’s sweats back later, okay?” he muttered, then grabbed his hat and almost ran for the back door, red faced, as I chuckled.
Still smiling, I stretched for the phone and brought Jenks’s note with the number for the potential job closer. I wasn’t going to work until after Halloween, but it would be nice to have something lined up for the first of the month. Besides, I didn’t have anything else to do this afternoon but surf the Net for local demon sightings and bug Glenn for his findings.
And that, I thought as I reached for the phone, would only slow him down.
The muffled thump, thump, thump of the rubber seal of the revolving door overtook the street noise and turned into the echoing sound of sporadic voices as I entered Carew Tower. It had grown warm, so I’d left my coat in the car, deeming jeans and a sweater would be enough until the sun went down—and I’d be back in my church by then. Hoping I didn’t lose my signal, I tried to catch what Marshal was saying as I held my phone to my ear and waited for my eyes to adjust to the dimmer light.
“I’m really sorry, Rachel,” Marshal said, sounding embarrassed. “They asked me to come in early when someone canceled, and it wasn’t like I could say no.”
“No, it’s okay,” I said, glad I was my own boss, even if my boss was an idiot sometimes. Stepping inside, I shifted out of the foot traffic and took my sunglasses off. “I had an errand come up, so this might work out better anyway. You want to grab a coffee at Fountain Square?” Three is good. Not breakfast, not lunch. A nice, safe hour with no expectations attached. “The only thing is I have to be back on hallowed ground by sunset,” I added, remembering. “I’ve got a demon gunning for me until I can figure out who’s sending him to kill me and knock some sense into him or her.”
As soon as I said it, I couldn’t help but wonder if I was trying to drive him away. But Marshal laughed, quickly sobering when he realized I was serious. “Uh, how are your interviews going?” I asked to break the uncomfortable silence.
“Ask me in a few hours.” He groaned softly. “I’ve got two more people to meet. I haven’t kissed so much ass since I accidentally knocked a customer off the dock.”
I chuckled, my gaze rising across the busy lobby to the signs directing people to the elevators. My smile ended with a flash of guilt, then I got mad at myself. I could laugh, damn it. Laughing was not saying I had cared for Kisten less. He had loved to make me laugh.
“Maybe we should try tomorrow instead,” Marshal said softly, as if he knew why I was suddenly silent.
Tucking my shades into my bag, I headed for the express elevators. I was meeting a Mr. Doemoe at the observation deck. Some people just love the cloak and dagger. “There’s a coffee cart at Fountain Square,” I suggested with a bitter resolve. I can do this, damn it. It was right next to a hot dog cart. Kisten had liked hot dogs. A memory hit me—an image of Kisten in his snappy pin-striped work suit, leaning casually next to me against the huge planters at Fountain Square, smiling as he caught a drop of mustard from the corner of his mouth, the wind ruffling his hair and him squinting from the sun. I felt my stomach cave. God, I can’t do this!
Marshal’s voice intruded. “Sounds great. First one there buys. I take a grande with three sugars and a hint of cream.”
“Black, straight up,” I said, almost numb. Hiding in my church because of heartache was worse than hiding there because of a demon, and I didn’t want to be that person.
“Fountain Square it is,” Marshal said. “I’ll see you then.”
“You got it,” I replied as I passed the security desk. “And good luck!” I added, remembering what he was doing today.
“Thanks, Rachel.’ Bye.”
I waited until I heard the phone disconnect, then whispered, “’Bye,” before shutting the phone and tucking it away. This was harder than I had thought it would be.
My melancholy trailed behind me like a shadow as I went down the short hall, my thoughts slowly turning to the upcoming client meeting. The roof, I thought, rolling my eyes. Honestly, Mr. Doemoe had sounded like a mouse of a man when I called him earlier to set this up. He’d refused to come to the church, and I hadn’t been able to tell by phone if he was nervous because he was a human asking a witch for help or if he was just worried that someone was out to get him. Whatever. The job couldn’t be that bad. I had told Jenks to stay home since it was simply an interview. Besides, I was running errands, and dragging Jenks around when I went to the post office and FIB building was a major waste of his time.
My trip to the FIB had been productive, and I now had information on my original three witches plus an additional one from this morning’s obituaries. Apparently two of the recently dead witches knew each other, seeing