A glance at the clock on her nightstand told her it was now about ten minutes after seven. She supposed her demon visitor could have magically transported the two of them to the Buffalo Thunder resort, but she thought it was safer to drive, or at least more reassuring.
Her regular purse — an embroidered backpack she’d bought in one of the import stores in Santa Fe — really didn’t work with the outfit, so she hurriedly stuffed her wallet, phone, and car key fob into a small black bag that was her default for whenever she needed to look ladylike, then went downstairs. Loc was already waiting in the entry, his casual outfit from earlier in the day traded for a pair of black dress pants and a dark gray shirt.
Looking at him, Cat wondered how he knew exactly what he should wear for this sort of occasion. Then again, he’d spent months and months exiled here on Earth, so he had to have picked up some of the finer details about existing in modern society. She knew it was safer to ponder these sorts of questions rather than pay too much attention to how drop-dead gorgeous he looked.
It’s all a façade, she reminded herself. He doesn’t really look like that.
But then he smiled up at her as she descended the stairs, and she felt a stab of guilt for dwelling on the ugliness of his true form. That smile had been a genuine one, no matter what the face doing it looked like underneath.
“Are you ready?” he asked. There had been the slightest hesitation before he asked the question, as though he’d wanted to comment on her appearance but then had decided against it.
“Yes,” she replied. “I’ll drive — we have to go out through the kitchen to get to the garage.”
For a second, he appeared puzzled. Had he thought he was going to whisk the two of them away to the restaurant?
If he had, he didn’t seem too put off by the change in plans. A nod, and he said, “Lead the way.”
She managed to smile, then headed toward the kitchen. Alarms were already starting to go off in her head, but she knew she couldn’t really back out now. No, all she could do was hope they would have a quiet dinner, and that she wouldn’t bump into anyone she knew. At the moment, the last thing she felt like doing was explaining Loc to a fellow Castillo.
As they went into the garage and he climbed into the passenger seat of her Mercedes SUV, she sent a silent prayer to the universe.
Dear God, let me survive this dinner….
7
Loc knew Cat was tense, although he couldn’t determine the exact reason for her obvious nervousness. Was she afraid he might embarrass her in some way? He wished he could reassure her on that front; by now, he’d spent enough time in human company that he knew how to comport himself well enough. Perhaps he wasn’t aware of the etiquette involved in a state dinner, for example, but for a meal in a regular restaurant, he thought he should do just fine.
Or perhaps she feared they might encounter someone she knew, and she would have to explain his presence to them. Again, such a meeting didn’t necessarily have to be problematic, for she’d already concocted a false identity for him, along with a reason for being here in New Mexico at this time. Even if their paths crossed with someone from her clan, no witch or warlock would be able to detect anything out of the ordinary about him unless he wanted them to, and of course he knew he needed to be discreet. No, she had nothing to worry about on that front.
The third possibility was one he was not sure he wanted to acknowledge. Was Cat on edge because she was battling some sort of attraction to him? He thought he’d sensed something earlier, but subtle nuances of human behavior sometimes eluded him, especially in an area as unknown as human sexuality. There had been a certain light in her dark eyes as she caught sight of him standing there in the foyer. He thought he might have recognized that spark simply because he’d experienced much the same thing as he looked up at her as she descended the stairs. The emeralds had gleamed at her throat, and the clothing she wore did far more to show off the slender curves of her body than most of the garments he’d seen her wearing so far. And the shape of her mouth under the gloss of its dark lipstick…he’d had to force himself not to stare, because he wasn’t sure he had ever seen anything so beautiful.
He was not supposed to find her beautiful. She was only a human being, after all, albeit one who possessed certain supernatural powers. Still, he knew he should not be dwelling on her outward appearance. That was no way for a demon lord, a master of his own plane, to behave.
But she smelled good, too….
He forced himself to look out of the window and not at her as Cat backed the SUV out of the garage, then engaged the self-driving mechanism, sending them down the narrow lane that led to the main road. Apparently, that road led away from here and up through the mountains, and would eventually bring you to Taos and its environs, but Loc had never been that way.
At least at this time of year, everything around them was lush and green, thanks to the monsoon rains this part of the world tended to get every summer. Loc watched the tall cottonwoods and low-spreading poppies go past outside the window, until Cat took them down a side road that brought them in around the rear of the casino complex.
To tell the truth, he had not expected it to be quite so large. Cat had referred to a casino, and he had seen several of those during his travels. This was more than merely a casino, but also a large hotel and convention complex, and apparently a golf course as well, since he could see the well-tended lawns off to his left as she brought them through the casino’s parking lot and up toward the main entrance.
Someone was backing out of one of the closest spaces just as they approached, and Cat pulled into the open spot, a small smile playing around her mouth. Once she’d turned off the engine, she glanced over at Loc. “Your doing?”
“As I said, I can often…smooth the way, so to speak.”
Her smile didn’t fade. “That’s useful.”
“It can be.” He didn’t say anything more than that, and so she gave a small shake of her head, then picked up her purse from where it had been resting in the footwell and climbed out of the vehicle.
Loc followed her across the small expanse of asphalt that stretched between the parking spaces and the sidewalk that fronted the casino. People were coming and going, some of them as well-dressed as he and Cat, others so casual, he wondered if they had bothered to look in a mirror before leaving the house.
Well, perhaps they had come here only to gamble, and so what they were wearing didn’t matter so much. It appeared that the casino itself was on the lower level; Cat ignored the escalators and led him to a restaurant off to one side of the large hallway that seemed to split this floor of the building in two. The entrance did not front on the corridor, but was built into one side of their destination, making for a more private, intimate feeling.
A young man who appeared to be Native American was watching over the host station. “Do you have a reservation?” he inquired as Loc and Cat approached. She looked dubious, but Loc knew they had nothing to worry about.
“I was hoping you might have an open table,” he said.
The man seemed to frown for a second, but then he smiled and said, “Actually, we do have one available. Right this way.” He gathered up two menus in leatherette covers and took them through the open space in the center of the restaurant and over to a secluded table off to one side.
As they followed, Cat shot a sideways glance at Loc, and he couldn’t help grinning back at her. Why had she doubted him? He could always makes things go his way…all save one, of course.
After they were seated, she remarked, “I think I’ll want you around the next time I try to go to dinner at Sazon.”
Loc had never heard of the place, but he assumed it must be a popular restaurant in Santa Fe. “Of course, I am happy to go to dinner with you anytime you like.”
She appeared somewhat taken aback, as though she’d just realized that she’d tacitly agreed to another dinner date with him. But then she lifted her shoulders and said, “Sure. Although I think tomorrow
we should stay in. Going out to dinner can get old after a while.”
“If you say so.” He was perfectly content to stay at her home with her; that would be quite cozy as well.
After that exchange, they were silent for a few moments as they studied the menus. A waiter came by to take their drink orders, and Cat requested a single glass of wine. That surprised Loc somewhat, since he’d thought it was customary to order a bottle to go with dinner. Once the waiter had left, though, she said, “I had a glass and a half of white wine at home, and we have to drive back. I know the self-driving function handles most of it, but I still need to be in control.”
“Of course,” Loc said. He did not entirely understand her caution, but he knew arguing with her was not a good way to start off their evening.
“Does it affect you at all?” she asked. “Alcohol, I mean.”
He shook his head. “Not in the way it does you. That is, I can feel something from it — just a bit of elevation — but I could drink ten bottles of wine in a row and not get drunk.”
“Good to know,” she replied, then made a rather ostentatious show of drinking some of her water, as if she wasn’t quite sure what else to do.
Sitting across the table from her like this was somewhat awkward. He’d felt much more comfortable when it was just the two of them together at her home, rather than out in public like this. Well, it was too late to change his mind now. This had been his idea, and so he needed to see it through.
Besides, Loc thought he might as well try to get whatever information about the grimoires out of her that he could. He waited until the waiter had returned with their glasses of wine and had taken their orders, knowing that they should be undisturbed for some time now.
“I was thinking of something after this last trip also proved fruitless,” he remarked, fingers playing with the stem of his wine glass.
“Of what?” She’d taken a small sip of her pinot noir, but clearly, she intended to nurse this one glass through their entire meal.
“I thought of how Simon Escobar brought me here. But I know he did not do it entirely on his own — in addition to drawing on your sister-in-law’s power, he also used certain books of magic. I was wondering…do you know what happened to those books?”
At once, she shook her head. “No. I mean, things were kind of crazy afterward, what with getting Miranda settled as prima, and then her and Rafe’s wedding.” Cat paused there, dark eyes intent on his face. “Are you thinking that maybe you could use the books yourself to get back?”
The idea hadn’t even crossed his mind, mostly because he knew it was an impossibility. These were not the sort of spells one could cast on oneself. However, Cat didn’t know that, and she’d now unwittingly given him the perfect excuse to probe deeper. “I was considering it. I thought that perhaps I didn’t need to find a magic-worker to perform the spell, that if I had access to those books, then I could try to send myself home.”
“I could ask Miranda,” she offered.
No, that wouldn’t do at all. Because if Cat started making those sorts of inquiries, then the prima would want to know why she was asking now, after so many months had passed. While Cat might not understand all the ramifications of the spells contained in those books, Loc had an idea that Miranda just might. And if she didn’t, she’d reach out for help, for someone to clarify the matter, and would learn that there was no way any of those spells could be worked in such a manner.
“No, don’t do that,” he said quickly, and one of Cat’s eyebrows shot up. Doing his best to recover from such obvious backtracking, Loc went on, “That is, she must be very busy. This is only a theory of mine. I was merely wondering whether your clan still had Simon Escobar’s spell books.”
Cat still looked puzzled, but she seemed to give an inward shrug as she reached for her glass of wine. “Well, Miranda does have a lot on her plate, especially now.”
“Now?”
“She just told the family that she’s expecting. I think the baby will be born around the first of the year.”
Perfect. Although Loc had never paid much attention to the gestational habits of human beings, the Castillo prima being pregnant gave him the perfect excuse to make sure she stayed out of all of this. “Congratulations to her,” he said. “But it’s very important that she not go near those books, because the dark magic contained in them could affect her child.”
Cat’s dark eyes widened, and she abruptly set down her wine glass. “Then I have to say something to her — ”
“Yes, go ahead and warn her. Only it is probably better that she not know where the warning came from.”
This request didn’t seem to trouble Cat, as Loc already guessed that she had expended considerable mental energies on ensuring that the rest of her family knew as little as possible about her improbable house guest. She gave him an abstracted nod, then said, “Do you mind if I send Rafe a quick text? Not that I think they’re keeping the books in the house or anything, but….”
“No, it’s fine,” Loc replied. He also doubted that the prima had the books on her property, but it was possible that she checked on them regularly to make sure they were still safe. Now she would do whatever she could to stay far away from them…which could only work to his benefit.
Cat’s fingers flew across the screen. When she was done, she set the phone on the tabletop rather than putting it back in her purse, as if she knew that her brother would reply sooner rather than later.
Which of course he did. Once again, Cat typed out a hasty message. When she was done, she sent him an apologetic smile. “Sorry, but he sort of freaked out.”
“Has she had any contact with the books since she became pregnant?”
Cat sent another message, then held the phone as she waited for a reply. It came soon enough, and she sent him a relieved smile. “No. Rafe says she hid the books and protected them with a bunch of wards months and months ago, and she hasn’t seen them since. They’re safe at the house of one of my cousins here in Santa Fe, and she checks regularly to make sure they’re still there, but Miranda hasn’t gone near them.”
No wonder Loc had been unable to catch even the faintest whiff of the books. Any wards Miranda Castillo set would be very, very strong. He wished he could ask the name of the cousin who was guarding the grimoires, but he feared such a question would be too obvious. At least he now knew for certain that the books were in Santa Fe, which would narrow down his search considerably.
“Then that is good news,” he said. “And good news that the books are safe. I will try to do more research as to whether I can even use them, but in the meantime, I will also keep up with my search.”
Cat smiled a little uncertainly at those words, probably because she herself was ambivalent about the prospect of him leaving this plane forever. No, she would never come right out and say it, but he could tell that she did not look forward to that day with any real joy.
To tell the truth, now he was not sure whether he did, either.
Cat watched Loc place a couple of hundred-dollar bills in the little case that held their check and let out a mental sigh of relief. Except for that scare about the grimoires — which turned out to be nothing, after all — the meal had gone smoothly enough. No one had bothered them, tucked away at their secluded table, and Loc had asked her more questions about fiber arts in general, and her own work in particular. She figured that was because he wanted to make sure he could lie plausibly on the subject if asked, and maybe also because he could tell that talking about the grimoires or his search for someone who could send him home upset her on some level, in a small, secret place in her soul that she really didn’t want to acknowledge.
Now all they had to do was walk back to the car, get in, and go home. Easy peasy. Soon the night would be over.
Except….
As they exited the restaurant, Loc paused and looked across the wide hallway to a neon sign that spelled out the word “Echoes” in a vaguely Art Deco font. A thumping beat was coming out of the d
oorway just beneath it. “What is that?” he asked.
Cat stifled an inner groan. They had been so close…. “Echoes? It’s a nightclub.”
“People dance there?”
“Um…yes.”
“I want to see it.”
“Loc, I really don’t think that’s a good idea — ”
But it was too late. He was already walking over to the nightclub entrance, and Cat couldn’t really do anything except trail helplessly after him. The burly man guarding the door told Loc there was a twenty-dollar cover charge, and Loc handed over a hundred-dollar bill without batting an eye, telling the man to keep the change.
“I’ve always wanted to go in one of these places,” he told Cat as she came up to him.
“They’re nothing special,” she said. “Bunch of people getting drunk and dancing badly.”
The scene that met her eyes didn’t give the lie to that statement. It was early in the evening, and so the club’s attendees hadn’t had a chance to get truly wasted yet, but Cat had no doubt they would, given enough time. The dance floor was fairly crowded, everyone bumping and grinding against each other. She hoped Loc didn’t expect her to dance, although the thought of moving with him like that was enough to send a little shiver down her spine.
“I see an open table,” he said after scanning the inside of the club for a few seconds.
Of course he did. For Loc, there would always be empty tables at clubs and restaurants.
He led her over to the table in question and she sat down, figuring she was a little less conspicuous that way. Sure, it was dark in here, and she hadn’t seen anyone she recognized, but better to play it safe.
“I’ll go get us some drinks,” Loc said. “What would you like?”
“A white wine spritzer,” she replied. Yes, she was drinking like an old lady, but she’d already had enough wine tonight. A spritzer was the most innocuous thing she could think of that still had a bit of alcohol in it.
Loc didn’t seem put off by her request, but only nodded and headed over to the bar. Cat remained where she was, pretending to study the little card in its plastic stand on one side of the table, a card that listed all the happy hour specials and proclaimed that Tuesday was ladies’ night.
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