Page 110 of Kick the Candle (Knight Games 2)
Freeing Nightshade from her sheath, I tried to wedge the blade in the seam and pry the vault open. Crack! A bolt of electricity blew me backward. I landed on my ass, sword in hand. "Ow!" I said, rubbing my tailbone. "It's testy."
"The Book of Flesh and Bone is there," Logan said. "And Mom's warning me, we are in grave danger."
ook of Flesh and Bone
Several hours later, I changed into a heavy pair of Rick's sweats and allowed him to drive me home. Once he established the house was safe, he left, and I climbed the stairs to the attic to find Nightshade. I was done going out without her. Not with my face on Bathory's supernatural wanted posters.
As I turned the key in the lock and entered my most sacred abode, Poe dive-bombed me at the door, flapping black wings and squawking like a chicken. "Poe! What the hell?"
"Where have you been?" Poe demanded. "Your phone has been ringing off the hook. I can't answer it, you know." He waved a wing in the air. "No opposable thumbs. And some of the messages sounded quite urgent."
"I've been recovering at Rick's."
"Recovering? Is that what they call it these days? You do look better than the last time I saw you outside the Thames Theater. You were the color of death. I thought we might be worm fodder."
"We?"
"If you die, I die, remember?"
"Death sounds so permanent. Wouldn't it be more accurate to say we'd be recycled?"
He bobbed his black beak introspectively. "I'm not ready to be recycled, Miss Witch."
"Me neither. So, who left messages?"
"Your father, every day times three. Logan, my God that man needs a hobby, and your friend Michelle."
"I think the leprechaun who poisoned me stole my handbag. I'm sure they're just freaking out because I'm not answering my cell phone."
Poe flapped his wings and took off for the corner of the attic where I kept my trunk full of witchy paraphernalia. He grasped something in his talons and flew it over to me, dropping it in my hands.
"My purse!"
"I had to claw the little shit's face for it, but he was more interested in delivering you to the vampiress Bathory than keeping your bag."
I grabbed Poe by the shoulders and planted a huge kiss on the end of his beak. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
He chuckled, then cast me off with a ruffle of his feathers. "You realize you weren't this excited when I saved your life from the mountain troll? My God, what's in the bag? Rare, uncut diamonds?"
I reached in and retrieved my smart phone. The screen was cracked but still useable. "Better. My life, in digital form." The voicemail icon displayed a red number in the double digits. I jabbed it with my finger.
Damn! Logan sounded beside himself with worry and Michelle was pissed. She'd covered a shift for me at the hospital. My father's real estate agent voice devolved into his father's voice and then to something I wasn't proud to be related to. He'd tried pleading with me to call him again and again and bribing me with various apartments in the city (one of which was in Logan's building), until finally he left a message that the Nekomata sale would close on Friday, December 20th at ten in the morning. I'd have to be moved out by then.
"Shit, Poe. Julius told me the nekomata are waiting for the winter solstice. They need the energy of a celestial event to open the vault that the book is stored in, the one Julius thinks is under this house."
"The winter solstice happens December 21st."
"Exactly. What the fuck are we going to do?"
Poe didn't have the answers but he did demonstrate a very un-birdlike behavior. He began to pace. "Can you ask your father to push back the closing?"
"We're not exactly on speaking terms." I tapped my foot nervously.
An exaggerated sigh told me what Poe thought of my excuse. "Might you consider a reunion, considering it is the fate of humanity at stake?"
"Of course, I'll ask him, Poe. I'm not stupid. I'm just saying that he might not be receptive. Especially not with Seraphina around."
"Who's Seraphina?"
