Page 127 of Throwing Shade
“No,” Emmett said. “You’re not stuffing me in your trunk again.”
“Harley has a van,” Jude said. “I’ll call him.”
We all walked out of the elevator. Laurent pulled the gate shut behind us, turned off the light, and hit the call button. The doors closed.
“Harley is an Ohrist?” I said.
“Yup,” Jude said, pulling out her phone and dialing. “He helped me bring all the clay into the studio to make Emmett.”
Harley showed up soon after to take Jude and Emmett back to her townhouse. I gave her my spare key to her place, since she’d lost her purse in the kidnapping.
“Can I come hang with you and Sadie Mayhem soon?” she said.
“Of course. I told her you’d had a family emergency and that’s why you hadn’t taken your Scrabble turn.” I waved a hand around her face. “We’ll have to make up an explanation for this, and fix the lighting so she doesn’t see your lack of a… hey. Check it out.” I pointed at the floor.
Where the rest of us had hard shadows, Jude had a little inky nub protruding out from her feet.
She flicked her fingers and one of the sofa cushions wobbled. “Will wonders never cease,” she said.
Emmett and Laurent fist-bumped and then the golem turned to me. “You’re a piece of work, lady.”
“Is that a good thing?” I said.
He looked down at his stump. “I don’t know.” With that, he hobbled out the door using his cane.
Jude thanked Laurent, and then there were two.
He poured himself a drink. “Want one?”
“God, yes.” I took a sip of the bourbon he handed me, letting its warmth roll off my tongue and through my body.
He eased himself onto the sofa. “How did you figure out what to do about the dybbuk?”
“I had some help from Tatiana’s friend…” I swallowed at Laurent’s stormy scowl.
“Who?”
“This guy called Max.”
Laurent’s eyes darkened with a turbulent cast. I didn’t understand the reason for his anger so I felt compelled to add, “But he’s dead now.”
His hand tightened on the glass. “All this time and she could have given me a way to help them. Now I can’t even talk to this guy. Fuck!”
I frowned. Help all enthralleds or was Laurent speaking about someone specific? I gestured helplessly. “It’s not like that. Tatiana didn’t withhold a way to save them from you.”
“Semantics. Her friend knew how to help the enthralled and she didn’t tell me about him.”
I paused. “Did you ask?”
“I shouldn’t have had to!” He kicked the ottoman, sending it flying across the room.
I balanced my glass on the arm of my chair, weighing my words. “I realize I haven’t known you long, or very well, but you really do give off the impression that other people’s assistance isn’t required or particularly wanted.”
He stared at me in stony silence, so I blathered on.
“Max only told me a bit before a vampire got him, and I had to figure out what to actually do, but he was extremely clear that only a Banim Shovavim could pull this off. I asked specifically, you see, but he didn’t know of any way for you to help enthralleds, so Tatiana really wasn’t holding out on you.”
Something shifted in his eyes, eased, and warmed. I folded my hands in my lap, relieved that I’d removed his anger at his aunt.
