“Are you sure you can’t use your evil sensing powers?” Dimitri asked, trying yet another barred door. “We wouldn’t have time to go through every room even if they were unlocked. Besides, Aunt Zizi will beat my ass if she catches me going through her nighties.”
Frick. He was right. “Okay. New plan. How about we search the public areas?”
He gave me a sideways glance as he tried yet another locked door. “You do realize that the odds of anyone hiding a weapon in the dining room are zero to none.”
He still thought we were looking for poisons and such. This was ridiculous. “Let’s also keep an eye out for evil markers and omens,” I said, as casually as I could. There. I didn’t tell him. I hinted. He deserved a hint.
He knew something was up. Of course he did. He wasn’t an idiot. “Lizzie,” he drew it out, expecting me to say more. He waited, not giving me an inch.
“Trust me, okay?” I said, falling back on a loophole he’d used, oh, about a thousand times.
He knew it, too. He pressed his mouth closed, unhappy. But he didn’t say anything.
We searched both the third and the second floor hallways before moving down to the foyer. The wood walls in the entryway were beautiful. I hadn’t taken the time to really study them before. They were hand-carved in intricate flower and wildlife motifs. I did catch the occasional wooden spider, but that was all. No markers.
It was getting late and the sitting room was clearing out.
“I’ll take the front by the windows, and you take the area by the dining room,” Dimitri said.
So he thought. I’d have to figure out a way to search the whole thing.
Frieda and a bunch of biker witches walked over. She held a cup and saucer, and I was tempted to sniff her tea. “What’s the problem?” she asked.
“Lizzie lost her earring,” Dimitri said. The lie came from him so smoothly I almost believed it myself.
“We’ll help you look,” Frieda offered, much to the annoyance of a few of her companions. They followed Dimitri to the front of the room while I headed the opposite way. There was a card game going on in the dining room, boys versus girls. That should be fun.
“Lizzie,” my mom entered from the hallway. Her hair was flawless. She’d re-done her nails and changed her outfit. Only her eyes betrayed the impact of this afternoon. She was wary, scared. “Are you okay, honey?”
I was ready with a formulaic answer when she rushed to close the distance between us and gave me a real, genuine hug. It felt so good that I almost forgot about our mission down here.
“I’m fine,” I said, swallowing some unexpected emotion. At least I had to think I would be. I drew back to look at her. “Are you? How are you doing with the demon slaying and the biker witches and,” I searched for a way to say it, “Dimitri’s claws.”
She brought her chin up, steeling herself. “I’m going to be fine,” she said, in a way that at least told me that she was determined to make it true.
Mom took my hands, running her fingers over them and inspecting them, like she couldn’t believe I was really okay.
I let out a breath I hadn’t even realized I was holding. “I’d meant to tell you sooner.” I really had.
She nodded a few too many times. “I can see where it would be…difficult.” Tears filled her eyes. “I’m worried about you, honey. Your grandmother says these kinds of attacks happen to you more often than not. I realize she’d hoped to make me feel better, but I don’t want to see you go through this. When you hurt, I hurt.”
I knew she meant well. And I hated to put her through this, but, “Mom, I can’t stop being a demon slayer.”
“I know.” She quickly wiped away a tear. “I’d never ask that.”
That stunned me. “You wouldn’t?”
Creely stood behind mom, giving me the thumbs up. I wondered exactly what the biker witches had told Hillary.
“It wouldn’t stop you anyway,” Hillary said.
“True,” I said slowly, waiting for the other shoe to drop. This wouldn’t be the end of it. Not by a long shot.
She folded her hands in front of her. “Tell me what I can do to help.”
That part was deceptively simple. “You have to keep going,” I told her. We needed everyone to stay, to have fun. My mom was great at organizing groups. “Only,” I didn’t quite know how to tell her this, but, “no more guests.”
She looked at me like I’d sprouted horns. “Your wedding is in two days. Of course there’ll be more guests. We have the VanWillens, and the Frosts. Pipsi Carmichael and her fiancé. Oh, and of course Matt Shott and his lovely girlfriend, Kimmy. Matt owns a hockey team.”
She didn’t get it.
“Look, mom—”
“Your father arrives tomorrow.”
“No, mom. Listen to me. There’s still a danger.” Heads in the dining room swiveled our way. “A slight one,” I amended. “We don’t know who or what is after me. So let’s keep this wedding small, and then we can have a nice reception somewhere later.”
A furrow formed between her brows. “We’ll talk about it,” she said, reluctantly. She knew I had a point.
“You said you wanted to help.” I was relieved to see her nod. “I don’t want to be responsible for anyone else getting hurt. Right now, the witches and the griffins can defend themselves, the VanWillens cannot. No more guests, okay?”
She began to argue, then simply said, “okay.”
Mom helped me search the back of the sitting room until we ran into Dimitri’s family. Then she hit up Dimitri with a load of questions on what it was like to be a griffin. I was glad for her curiosity. It meant I could covertly re-check his section and hit the dining room as well. I have to admit I did feel bad for the guy, having to answer things like:
Do you eat…food?
Yes. I wanted to ask her if she remembered the time he fixed breakfast for us.
Exactly why do you
want
to fly?
Because he’s fricking griffin, mom.
And,
What happens to your clothes when you shift?
Mom went red after that one. Some things, you don’t want to know about your daughter’s fiancé.
Dimitri, bless his heart, was unfailingly polite. I could tell mom felt better talking about it. Maybe the truth wasn’t so bad after all.
We searched the kitchen together, my mom trying to make us snacks the entire time. I settled for an artesian cheese sandwich but forgot it on the counter as Dimitri and I readied ourselves to descend into the basement.
I kept a hand on my switch stars and he took the stairs before me. They were incredibly steep. Narrow as well. A chill seeped up from the cavern, along with a pungent, musty odor. A single bulb above lit the stairs, its light dying as it reached too far underground.
“Let me go first. I’m a demon slayer.”
“You’re injured,” he said, starting down. “Don’t think I don’t see how you keep leaning up against the wall.”
He had me there. My entire body ached. “I have the weapons.”
Dimitri reached up and pulled the chain for a second, dangling bulb. This one lit parts of a gray floor that stretched out into the darkness.
“You know,” I continued, worrying a bit when I began getting light headed, “demon slayer. Demon attack.”
He cursed and stepped aside to let me pass as we neared the bottom. My palms were clammy and my knees were weak.
“Ready?” He asked, pausing to search for a light switch.
I drew a switch star. “Ready.”
Light bathed the space at the bottom of the stairs. The walls were made of stacked stone, painted white. The floor was concrete. And that was it. No storage. No ping-pong table. No demons. As far as I could tell, whoever was in charge of renting out the place didn’t seem to use the basement.
“I don’t get it.” There had to be another room, a secret space with those faceless statues and maybe a few minions of the devil.
Dimitri and I followed the basement around a U-shaped bend and came to a door to the right. I nodded at him, switch star in hand, and he threw it open.
“Ha!” I drew my star back, ready to throw, until I realized it was a utility room, lit by the same ceiling lights as the rest of the basement. “This is way too normal.”
Dimitri glanced at me, then back inside the room. “We might as well check it out.”
We thoroughly searched the small utility room because, well, where else were we going to look? But as I expected, I didn’t find any demonic markers behind the water heater.
I didn’t understand it. The house had been a bust.
My entire body ached.
Logically, there had to be something down here, or maybe upstairs or
somewhere
. I severely doubted we’d find a demonic marker hidden in a random bedroom. But those were the only places we hadn’t searched. That and the parapet.
“Maybe it’s in the garden,” Dimitri said, taking one final look behind the furnace.
“No,” I said, heading for the stairs.
All I wanted to do was crawl into bed.
His footsteps were heavy behind me. “You asked me to trust you. I get that. But this will go a lot easier if you told me what the hell we’re looking for.”
“I’m too tired to argue.” My legs ached. My chest and arms still felt tight from the poison’s effects, and I’d swear I hadn’t slept in a year.
I didn’t even protest when Dimitri led me into his room instead of mine.
“It’ll be the least of your mom’s shocks for today,” he said, closing the door behind us. We eased our shoes off and he drew me into bed.
It was so soft. Perfect. I curled into the warmth of his arms. “I love you,” I said, and before he could answer, I was asleep.
***
The next morning, Dimitri and I made up from our tiredness the night before. He was acting perfectly normal, although he certainly made love like a man possessed. Very refreshing.
Afterward, I curled next to him, naked, wishing I could tell him what was happening with the marks. Of course, it was impossible, for his sake and for mine.
I purposely kept my head tucked against his chest. I couldn’t look at him as I said, “my mom wants me to make wedding doves today.”
He drew back, trying to look at me. I kept my head down.
“Lizzie, we’re in the middle of an attack.”
“I know, but I promised. She wants us to glue sequins onto the backs of these fake birds she got at Michaels.”
He forced me to look at him then. “Are you okay?” He searched my face, looking for evidence of an addled brain. I didn’t blame him a bit.
I pasted on my best smile. “Sure. In the mean time, can you and the griffins make sure the grounds are secure?” I did worry about what was out there in the garden, and what could be approaching from any direction. We weren’t safe in this house, not until I could find and destroy the markers. Dimitri may not be able to help with that, but if I had the griffins protecting the house, I’d feel a lot better while I looked.
He ground his jaw tight. “Fine. But I know you’re not gluing doves.”
Okay. Caught. “What if I said I was making rose petal sachets?”
His eyes were steel, his expression hard. “Be careful.”
Easier said than done.
We showered together and dressed with our backs to each other. I felt for him. I really did. I knew what it was like to have your partner, the person who is supposed to love and trust you above all others, go rogue with no explanation or apology. But I didn’t have a choice here.
He left to gather the griffins while I set out to investigate what we could have possibly missed inside the house
This place was old, with plenty of nooks and crannies. Well, everywhere except for the basement. I stopped at the second floor landing and closed my eyes. I reached out, trying to feel the energy of the house, to sense any disruptions that may lead me to the third marker.
Nothing.
I shoved my hands into my pockets. “Cripes.” It was worth a try.
Maybe there was a hidden part of the house, or a secret passage. I could really use the ghost right about now. “Help me,” I said, as I ran my fingers over the paneling on the second floor landing. I moved down each stair, feeling the wall as I went. “Help me.”
That’s when Creely nearly ran me over.
“Watch it,” I told her.
“Hey, sorry. I thought you might actually be walking down the stairs.”
“I’m looking for hidden passages.”
She stopped a few stairs below me. “That’s an outside wall, sweetheart.”
“I know that. But wouldn’t this be a great place for a passage? You could make it a foot or two wide in this spot. Nobody would suspect.”
She looked at me like I was nuts. “It’s a load bearing wall. In an old house like this, of course, it would be a foot thick.”
Yes, well some of us weren’t engineers.
She gave me a cock-eyed look, clearly deciding if she should stay and harass me, or if she should continue barreling through the house.
“Come here,” she said, heading down the stairs. “The trick to discovering any kind of hidden room or structural oddity is to look at what you can see.”
“Have you been brewing more tea?” I asked, following her down.
“No, look,” she said, as we stood in the foyer, with our backs to the front door. “If we went outside, you could see that the walls are built in proportion on the outside, so no secret passages there. Then you simply move forward,” she said, leading me through the house. “The sitting room is out. No missing spaces, so to speak. I’ve already checked the dining room.” She shrugged. “I suck at cards.”
We moved farther back into the hallway.
It was old and had these neat woodcarvings.
“Now I wonder what’s behind that wall,” she mused.
Was this a quiz? “It’s the stairs.”
“No. The stairs are toward the front.” She tilted her head, studying it. “That back part doesn’t line up.”
I leaned forward to look.
“See?” She continued, starting to get a little excited. “The kitchen doesn’t go that far back into that space.”