Darkest Night - Smoke And Ashes Part 48

Mr. White's secretary seemed unimpressed.

"That was a f.u.c.king waste of time we don't have." Tony sagged against the elevator wall and glared at their reflections in the stainless steel. "I should come back with a Notice Me Not on and just boogie by."

"I thought you didn't know how to get noticed again after you did a Notice Me Not."

"Yeah, well. Flaw in a brilliant plan." Without Henry around to call him back, he'd be stuck unnoticed.

"I say we just let the demon trash Mr. White's office." Amy snorted, rocking forward and back, heel to toe.

"Works for me. This could be one of the ones I don't get to."

"Unless you get to all of them, shut Mckaseeh down cold."

"Not going to happen." Her lip curled. "Not with that att.i.tude."

"Not with only twenty-four hours in a day."

"Time travel!"

"No." He locked eyes with her reflection so she'd know he was serious. "No messing around with time. It's a lot more dangerous than demons."

"And you don't know how to give us more time anyway, do you?"

So much for that whole locking eyes thing. "Well, no."

She bounced, once, happy with her victory. "I wonder what's missing in Mr. White's office?"

"He's a lawyer," Tony muttered, as the elevator door opened and he pushed past a neoprene-covered bicycle messenger and out into the lobby. "Where to start..."

"Ms. Wong, please. If you could just wait for a couple more minutes. We're stuck in traffic. Yes, I realize you'd like to go, but...

We're coming in on Hastings. No, that probably wasn't the best idea at this time of day. Just give us fifteen..." Amy glanced over at Tony who raised his right hand, fingers spread. "... twenty minutes. No, we won't be long once we get there. I promise. Thank you. We won't be long, will we?" she asked, closing her phone.

"Hard to say, the old Carnegie Library probably has... Hey!" He broke off his explanation to yell at the car ahead of them. "What are your f.u.c.king turn signals for, a.s.shole!" And broke back on at: "... a s.h.i.+tload of nooks and crannies. It could take a while to find the exact position of the weak spot without Leah."

"I don't think we're going to have a while."

"You said the library was open until ten every day, Sunday to Monday. And this is Monday."

"The person CB spoke to is only there until five and, if you'll recall, our plans did not enjoy much success in the absence of Mr.

White."

Tony sighed and geared down. "I'm clinging to the hope that librarians are more helpful than lawyers."

Wizards had the same trouble everyone else did finding a parking s.p.a.ce in Chinatown at nearly five on a weeknight. Or any other time for that matter. He thought about parking illegally and putting a Notice Me Not on the car but was afraid he wouldn't be able to find it again later. They got to the library at 5:21. Ms. Wong was not impressed. Nor was she impressed by their desire to just wander around and "get the feel of the place."

"You are not the first people who have wanted to use our interior in their television show." She folded her arms and the toe of one sensible black pump tapped lightly on the tile. "You're not even the first people this month. Tell me the effect you're looking for, and I will take you where you need to go. This does not have to take the rest of the evening."

"Couldn't you just hand us over to the evening staff?" Amy asked.

"No. You're my responsibility, and the evening staff has work of their own to do. What do you need?"

"Well..." "We need a place where something's missing." Tony stepped into Amy's pause.

The librarian frowned, stared at him for a long moment, and said, "There's a cus.h.i.+on missing off one of the seats in the reading room. Someone walked off with it last week."

"That's a good place to start. If you could..." He gestured and waited.

She stared at him for a moment longer and then shrugged, the barest lifting of one worsted shoulder. "This way."

Eight down; nineteen to go.

"Talk about a hot seat," Amy snickered. "Some guy's sitting there, reading a newspaper and pow, demon up the a.s.s."

Tony suppressed any thought of Ryne Cyratane in that context.

"I called the office when you were closing that last one because Ms. Wong didn't need to be distracted, and CB says the next one is another private house and Lee's going to meet us there at seven."

"Why?"

"Teenage daughters."

Okay. "Why at seven?"

"Because you've got to eat. And," she added before he could suggest they hit a drive-through and eat in the car, "because CB's estimating another half hour before Peter's through with Lee for the day."

"Oh, for..." Tony accelerated through a yellow light. "I think saving the world from demons is more important than getting Lee's last shot."

Amy snorted. "No, you don't."

No, he didn't.

"So why'd you just tell that librarian you needed a place where something was missing?"

Good question. "Honesty is the best policy?"

"As if."

"I thought she'd understand. She looked like she'd been..." He searched desperately for a less PAX TV way of saying it and couldn't find one. "... touched by magic."

Folding her knees up by her chest, Amy propped her boots on the dashboard. "Touched by who?"

"I don't know."

But she was a good-looking woman and he knew Henry Hunted in that part of the city."That sounds absolutely fascinating, ladies."

Tony could hear the smile in Lee's voice and knew that Mom and both girls were basking in full-on Lee Nicholas charm. There'd been shrieking when the door had first been opened and constant babbling as the whole group of them headed upstairs. When it looked like the babbling might ease up, Lee merely asked a question or made a comment and they were off again.

Dad had retreated behind a copy of the Vancouver Sun pretty much immediately.

Tony faced the five closed doors at the top of the stairs and pointed toward the northeast corner where Leah had placed the weak spot. "That room."

"Oh, my G.o.d!" The fourteen-year-old grabbed at Lee's sleeve. "That's my room."

"May I see it?"

Tony would have shown him anything if asked in that tone. If the renewed shrieking was any indication, he wasn't the only one.

Fourteen raced in to tidy up while her sixteen-year-old sister tried to convince Lee that her room was infinitely better. Mom pointed out that he'd find the master suite not only bigger but more comfortable. The wink, wink, nudge, nudge was strongly implied.

Once in fourteen's bedroom, after his vision adjusted to the Day-Glo That '70s Show decorating, Tony discovered that the closet door was missing, replaced by a curtain of multicolored beads. The weak spot filled the s.p.a.ce. With any luck, it was practice making the s.h.i.+mmer easier to see, not the imminent arrival of a host of demons.

"I might need to look at the other bedrooms," Lee said thoughtfully, when Tony gave him the sign.

More shrieking.

It suddenly became clear why Lee was willing to face demons. Demons were quieter.

Nine down. Eighteen demons were still eighteen demons too many.

"Where to after this?" Lee asked sotto voce as they walked side by side down the porch stairs. This prime s.p.a.ce had opened up when Mom had been forced to physically intervene before an argument over who'd walk beside Lee to the curb had come to blows.

"I'm meeting Henry at a construction site," Tony told him as, behind them, fourteen accused sixteen of having been in her face her entire life. "You're okay driving Amy home?"

"Sure. You'll get some sleep? I mean, later."

"I don't need much."

"I have to admit you look better than you did." Lee's gaze skittered across the side of Tony's face and ended up locked on the path. "Better in a medical sense. We're all worried about you."

Tony took a few seconds to examine and abandon several possible responses before sticking with tradition. "I'm fine."

"You've lost a lot of weight." "When this is over..." He paused as sixteen threw in an oh, grow up too vehement to talk over. "... I'll gain it back."

"I'm not saying you're looking less studly; I'm saying you look a bit thin is all."

Studly? Tony tripped over a bit of concrete edging. Lee grabbed his arm and yanked him roughly back onto his feet.

"Guys!" Amy's voice cut through the October evening like a siren. "We've got incoming fen!"

Fourteen and sixteen buried the hatchet and began yelling at their friends to hurry.

Several voices shrieked, "Oh, my G.o.d, it's Lee Nicholas!"

Several more shrieked, "Lee, I love you!"

Tony's car was across the street and half a dozen houses down. Lee had found a spot barely twenty meters away. "Run!" Tony gave him a shove. "You can make it to your car!"

"What about you?" Lee demanded as the shrieking lost vocabulary and degenerated into a primal fannish keen.

"Don't worry about me, once you're gone, they'll calm down."

"What if they don't?"

"d.a.m.n it, Lee, run!" Just for a second, Tony was sure he heard an overwrought soundtrack, then Lee turned and sprinted for his car, digging out his keys as he ran.

A chime as the doors of the new Mercedes SUV unlocked.

"Amy!"

"Already here." She glared across the hood as Lee raced for the driver's door. "And do you have any idea how much gas one of these things uses?"

"It's bio-diesel!"

"No s.h.i.+t?" Half in, she leaned out for another look and nearly went flying as Lee pulled away from the curb. She dragged herself in and as the door closed, Tony heard Lee getting an earful of Spanish profanity.

At least Tony thought it was profanity. He didn't speak Spanish.

News to him that Amy did.

As the crowd realized they'd lost a chance to get up close and personal with the actor second billed in the opening credits of the highest rated vampire detective show on syndicated television, they turned their nearly hysterical, thwarted gaze on Tony. Just in case Lee hadn't been impressive on his own, Tony was wearing his show jacket to impress the homeowners.

The crowd didn't know who he was or what he did, but they knew he was with the show.

They were between him and his car.

He'd never make it.

This was not the time for discretion.

Bright side, no one would believe this lot anyway.Tony grabbed for his focus, reached for his fly, and snapped out the Notice Me not.

There was a security guard on duty at the first construction site. A six-foot-four ex-cop from Ghana, he was studying to be an EMT. With an exam coming up, the odds were good he'd have never noticed a quiet visit tucked in between his appointed rounds, but Henry leaned just enough to raise the odds a little more and then went out to meet Tony.

Although the last of the evening's commuters kept the traffic fairly heavy over on Norland Avenue, Ledger Avenue-where the condominium complex was being built-was nearly empty. Henry heard Tony's car before he saw it. Even knowing it was there, it was nearly impossible to keep his attention on it. He found himself distracted by the hearts beating all around him; by the scent of blood, warm and contained; by the hundreds of thousand of lives that could be his for the Hunting.

Snarling, he forced himself to watch as the car stopped and the driver's side door opened and...

There was a woman singing in a third-floor apartment across the road. The song was melancholy, and it told him he'd be welcomed should his Hunt take him to her door.

A touch on his shoulder.

He whirled, grabbed a fistful of fabric, and slammed someone, something to the pavement-the familiar scent registering a moment too late.

"f.u.c.king ow, Henry! That hurt!"

"Tony." Lying at his feet. Heart racing. Glaring up at him as if this was somehow his fault. "I see. You used the Notice Me Not again."