by Tina Folsom
“From the translator’s office?”
“I’m not sure. It doesn’t take two and a half hours to get home from Kilgore’s office. Not even with public transportation. No, she must have stopped somewhere.”
Grayson pulled his cell phone from his pocket and hit the map app.
“I thought GPS doesn’t work inside the compound.”
“GPS works, but magic prevents it from pinpointing the compound. However, I can still get directions from one point of the city to another, like from Kilgore’s office to your mother’s house.” He punched in the addresses, then hit go. “There. That’s the route she would have taken with public transportation. Forty-five minutes max.”
Kim pored over the route the app was suggesting. “So, why did it take her almost three times as long to get home?”
“Did she have any other appointments after Kilgore?”
“Nope. And we know she didn’t stop at the supermarket either.” So, what had her mother done during that time?
“Do you think she would have carried the book with her to Kilgore’s office?” Grayson asked suddenly.
Immediately, Kim shook her head. “If she believed it to be valuable enough to get a translator, she would have put it somewhere safe.” She suddenly knew what Grayson was alluding to. “But after what Kilgore told her, namely that it had something to do with fairy tales and such, she would have realized that she needed to get it to the Stealth Guardians. Which means she would have retrieved it from wherever she’d left it temporarily.”
Grayson pointed to the app. “There are plenty of places you can hide a book for a few hours or a few days and nobody would know. Luggage lockers at the bus station, for example, or even her office. That would have been relatively safe. I mean, they have 24-hour security at the museum.” He pointed to another spot on the map. “She could have gone back to her office, gotten the book, then made her way home.”
“And somewhere on the way, the demon must have followed her,” Kim said. “Probably alerted by Kilgore.”
“Makes sense. But if she didn’t have the book on her when the demon killed her, and it wasn’t in the house, then where did she hide it, assuming she retrieved it earlier?”
Kim shook her head. “She must have known she was being followed, or at least suspected it.” She pointed to the app. “Give me the route from the museum back to her house.”
Again, Grayson punched in the addresses when the door suddenly opened.
Kim turned her head and saw Ryder entering, a small rectangular package in his hand.
Grayson didn’t look up but said, “Hey.”
“Do you guys need anything from the outside world?”
“Can’t think of anything,” Grayson said. “Where’re you going?”
Ryder lifted the package in his hand. “Mailing this home. It’s little sis’s birthday in two days, and I finally found that first edition of The Catcher in the Rye she wanted so badly.”
“Yeah, read that, couldn’t really get into it. If you ask me it’s over—”
“The post office!” Kim interrupted. “That’s it. She must have mailed it somewhere.”
“Excuse me, what?” Ryder asked.
“The book! When my mother realized she was being followed by a demon, she must have mailed the book to hide it.”
“Brilliant!” Grayson said and looked at his app again. “Hmm. There’s no post office on her way home from the museum.”
“Doesn’t have to be a post office,” Ryder said, coming closer now. “I’m not gonna go all the way to the post office. There’s a mailbox place not too far from here. They do the same thing as the post office. It’s just a bit more expensive.”
Kim jumped up and almost leapt into Ryder’s arms. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Then she turned back to Grayson to explain, “The receipt. When Winter had the vision, she dropped my mother’s handbag, and a bunch of receipts fell out. I’m pretty sure one of them looked like it was a mailing slip.”
She hoped she wasn’t wrong. She hoped that this was it, that this was what her mother had done to keep the book out of the hands of the demons: to mail it somewhere, where it would be waiting for her to be found. Somewhere, where the demons wouldn’t suspect it.
“We have to go to my mother’s house and get the receipt.” She looked at Grayson, pleading with him.
Grayson hesitated. “Manus said not to let you leave the compound.”
“Please, Grayson. We need to do it now. We can’t afford to lose any more time. What if the demons figure it out while we sit here and twiddle our thumbs?”
Grayson exchanged a look with Ryder. “What do you think?”
Ryder nodded. “She’ll be safe if we both go with her. I’m sure if Manus knew what you guys just figured out, he’d say the same. We’ve gotta act quickly.”
“Thank you!” Kim tossed both hybrids a grateful look and already headed for the door.
“Wait,” Grayson said. “Fine, we’ll assume Manus is okay with it considering the changed circumstances, but let’s not advertise the fact we’re leaving to the rest of the gang, okay? They might have different opinions.”
Kim knew only too well from her first encounter with Pearce and Logan that they could be pretty hard-nosed about the rules. She didn’t want to risk them delaying her. “Whatever you say.”
“And as soon as we know whether your mother really sent the book somewhere by mail, we’ll notify Manus. Agreed?” Grayson asked.
“Agreed,” Kim replied impatiently. “Now let’s go. Can we take the portal?”
Both Ryder and Grayson immediately shook their heads.
“No can do,” Ryder said. “Only Stealth Guardians can operate portals. We’ve gotta leave via normal means.”
Grayson opened the door. “Rock ‘n’ roll.”
He stepped into the hallway, and Kim followed him. Ryder was right behind her and pulled the door to the kitchen shut behind them.
“This way,” Grayson directed and pointed toward one end of the corridor.
As they walked along, Grayson suddenly said, “Shit. Someone’s coming.”
A couple of seconds later, Kim could hear the footfalls of several people approaching quickly. A moment later, two men came around the corner: Aiden and Hamish.
“Just who we were looking for,” Aiden said upon discovering them.
Kim’s heart beat into her throat. Did they know that she was planning to leave the compound against Manus’s wishes?
“What are you guys up to?” Hamish asked.
“Nothing, just hanging out with Kim here,” Grayson said as casual as possible.
“Good,” Hamish said, “because we need you guys. There’s been a possible demon sighting in a mall. We need you guys to sniff them out for us. Let’s go.”
“Uh, yeah, about that…” Grayson shifted his weight from one foot to the other.
“What?” Aiden asked sharply. “You guys have been complaining for weeks that you haven’t had any demon activity, and now you’re chickening out?”
“Hey, I’m not chickening out,” Grayson protested, then pointed to Kim. “But I’m on protection duty for Kim. Manus made me swear not to leave her alone.”
“I’ll go with you,” Ryder said quickly. “You only need one of us anyway to identify the demons. I’m up for it.” Ryder motioned to Grayson. “Let him babysit.”
Hamish and Aiden exchanged a look.
“Fine, you then,” Hamish said. “Hurry.”
Aiden and Hamish were already rushing in the other direction. Ryder tossed a quick look at Grayson and Kim and mouthed Go. Then he turned on his heel and followed the two Stealth Guardians.
Kim and Grayson didn’t speak until the three were out of sight and earshot.
“What now?” Kim asked.
“We’ll go, just the two of us. We’ll be fine. Trust me, I can handle protecting you on my own. Piece of cake.”
Relieved, Kim nodded.
“The exit is this way,” Grayson no
w instructed and led her around the bend in the corridor, then to the left, where a small foyer opened up. He opened the non-descript door, and Kim followed him through. They were in a second foyer now, and the door they faced now was made of old oak and was adorned with iron hinges and ornaments looking like runes.
She pointed to the runes. “What are these?”
“Part of the magic that protects this place from being discovered.” He reached for the door handle and opened the heavy door. “Come.”
Grayson exited ahead of her. She followed him and stepped into the alley. Opposite them was a row of one-story buildings that looked like workshops, down one end of the alley was the entrance to a garage, and the other end led to a larger street. When Grayson pulled the door shut behind her, she looked over her shoulder.
Shock made her freeze in mid-movement. The building they’d just left, the Stealth Guardian compound, wasn’t there anymore. In its place was an empty city lot with trash and overgrown weeds.
She gasped. “Where did it go?”
Grayson grinned. “Pretty cool, huh? When I first saw this, I was pretty stunned too, but Aiden explained to me that the building is still there, but it’s cloaked. No human can see it. Heck, no preternatural creature other than a Stealth Guardian can see it either. But it’s still there.” He placed his hand on the spot where the door had been. “Here, try it.”
Hesitantly, she put her hand next to his and felt the wood of the door underneath her palm. “Oh my God.”
“Yeah, freaky.” Then he motioned to the street. “Let’s go. I’ve got a car parked a couple of blocks away.” They were already walking in that direction when he suddenly added, “You know now where the compound is located. You can never tell anyone, or you’ll endanger us all. Promise me.”
Kim nodded automatically. “I’d never do anything to put any of you in danger.” And she meant it. Despite her initial reluctance to trust a vampire, she’d come to see them for what they really were: honorable men, albeit with a thirst for blood. But then, who didn’t have a flaw? Not even the noblest human was entirely without fault.
~ ~ ~
Arrived at the house about a half hour later, Kim quickly unlocked the front door and let herself and Grayson in. She locked the door behind them while the young hybrid quickly surveyed the property to make sure no demon was lurking in the shadows.
“All clear.”
Kim pointed to the stairs. “The handbag is upstairs.” She took the stairs two at a time, anxious to get to her mother’s bedroom quickly. The fear that a demon could have gotten there before her seemed suddenly very real.
Inside the bedroom, everything was just as she’d left it. The handbag lay on the floor, some of its contents spilled. Kim crouched down next to it. She opened the bag and emptied it out completely, then went through the contents: wallet, pens, makeup, keys. Everything a woman needed. Where were the receipts she’d seen the day Winter had been here? She glanced around and suddenly felt a gust of air accompanied by the closing of a door. She looked over her shoulder and saw Grayson come toward the room from the other end of the hallway.
“Sorry, had to use the John. Have you found it?”
She shook her head. But the gust of air that had accompanied Grayson’s closing the bathroom door told her that the receipt she was looking for couldn’t be far. She bent down and peered under the bed.
“There!”
She reached for the two pieces of paper. The first one she examined was a shopping list. She tossed it, then looked at the second piece of paper. Exhaling slowly, she read it. It was from a mailboxes business and showed the sender’s name, her mother’s, as well as the recipient’s name, also her mother’s. Only the addresses differed. The sender’s address was her mother’s home address; the recipient’s address was one she wouldn’t have immediately recognized hadn’t the field for company been filled in: ABC Storage.
“She sent it to the storage facility.” She looked up at Grayson. “She sent it to herself, care of ABC Storage.”
Grayson nodded. “That way the storage facility wouldn’t open it. They’d just hold it for her. Brilliant.”
“We’ve gotta call the manager.” She rose, receipt in hand, and headed for the door. “I’ve still got their invoice downstairs. The telephone number was on there.”
The invoice was indeed still sitting on the sideboard where the mail was kept. Kim grabbed it and reached into her pocket to take her cell phone out. But the pocket was empty.
“Oh, crap, I left my cell at the compound.”
“Use mine,” Grayson offered, unlocked his cell phone, and handed it to her.
“Thanks.” She was already punching in the number and letting it ring.
A click on the other end, and then a male voice. “ABC Storage, Rick speaking.”
“Yeah, hi, may I speak to the manager, Mr. Songhurst, please?”
“This is him. Who’s this?”
“I’m Kim Britton. My mother has a storage unit with you. I was there the other—”
“Oh, yeah, the break-in. I’m sorry we won’t be able to compensate you for anything that was lost. We advise all customers to carry insurance—”
“That’s not why I’m calling.”
“It’s not?”
“I just found out that my mother sent a small package to your office about three months ago, right before her death. And it wasn’t in the storage unit when I looked through it.”
There was a short pause during which Kim instinctively held her breath.
“Ah, yeah, that’s ‘cause we don’t enter the storage units.” There was some rustling in the background. “But I remember something arriving for her. I was holding it until the next time she was visiting. Hmm. Where did I put it?”
“Could you look, please? It’s very important.” Kim exchanged a tense look with Grayson.
“Ah, yeah, now I remember. It’s in the back office. Hold on a second.” It went silent, and all Kim could hear was the faint sound of footsteps and a door opening.
“He’s looking,” she said to Grayson.
The hybrid nodded.
The seconds stretched to minutes, until Mr. Songhurst was finally back. “Yeah, I was right. It’s still in the back office. Do you want me to mail it to you? I’d have to charge you postage though.”
“No, no,” Kim said quickly. “I’ll come by in the next hour to pick it up. Could you please hold it for me until then?”
“Sure, I can do that.”
“Thanks, Mr. Songhurst. I’ll see you shortly.” Kim disconnected the call and looked at Grayson. “Let’s go.”
“Hold it,” he said. “We agreed to let Manus know about this.”
Though she didn’t want to delay any further, Kim knew Grayson was right. “Fine.” She looked down at the phone when she noticed what was wrong with it. “Oh.”
“What?” Grayson reached for his phone. “Damn it. Out of juice. I don’t have my charger on me.”
“Tell me you know Manus’s number by heart.”
“Of course.”
“Good. I haven’t disconnected the landline here yet. We can call him from it.” She hurried into the living room and picked up the receiver there. “Can you dial?”
Grayson took the phone from her hand and punched in a number. “Here you go.”
When Kim put it to her ear, the call was already connecting.
“You’ve reached Manus. Leave me a message.”
“Voicemail, damn it,” she said and waited for the beep. “Hey, Manus, it’s Kim. Grayson and I have found where Mom hid the book. It’s at the storage facility. She mailed it there, and the manager is holding it for me to pick it up. We’re going there right now. Meet us there if you get this message within the next hour.” She disconnected the call.
“We should wait for Manus to come with us,” Grayson suggested.
Kim vehemently shook her head. “No, out of the question. Now that we know where it is, I can’t just sit around and wait. We have to get it n
ow and bring it back to the compound, where it’ll be safe.”
Grayson sighed and ran a hand through his black hair. “Fine. But once we have it, we go straight back to the compound, no other stops, no other delays. Is that clear?”
“Crystal,” Kim said and was already heading into the foyer.
Grayson grumbled something unintelligible and followed her.
35
Zoltan looked up from his desk and stared at the demon who’d entered his private study. He didn’t like to be interrupted when he was thinking.
“This had better be good news.”
“It is, oh Great One,” the demon replied, bowing low and sufficiently long.
“Report.”
“We intercepted a call made from the house of the emissarius. Her daughter found the book.”
Zoltan jumped up, excitement coursing through his green blood. He pumped his fist. “Finally!” The waiting had paid off. “Where is it? Does she have it in her possession?”
“Not yet,” his underling said.
“Then where the fuck is it?” Zoltan interrupted, impatience tamping down his excitement.
“At the storage facility her mother had a unit at.”
Zoltan made a dismissive hand movement, ready to toss his subject in the lava pit. “I’ve been to the storage unit. I’ve searched it top to bottom. It wasn’t there. Get out of my eyes before I crush you with my bare hands!” Zoltan turned away, rage now blinding him. Could his underlings not get a single thing right? Could they not even do the simplest things like tapping an old phone? Did he have to do everything himself?
“But, oh Great One, I speak the truth.”
Zoltan pivoted, glaring at the idiot. But the demon continued even though he trembled with fear. “She said it herself. She told the Stealth Guardian warrior over the phone that her mother mailed the book to the storage facility and that the manager confirmed that he’s got it somewhere in his office.”
Zoltan’s rage evaporated. “The manager has it?”
The demon nodded. “Yes, and the woman is on her way to pick it up. Together with somebody she called Grayson.”
“Hmm.” Zoltan wasn’t familiar with that name and was pretty sure it wasn’t one of the Stealth Guardian warriors. Maybe some other friend?