Red-Headed Stepchild by Jaye Wells

Author:Jaye Wells
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-07-26T16:38:58+00:00

19

The card Adam gave me listed only a cell phone number. About twenty minutes outside the city, I called it. He picked up after the second ring.

“Lazarus.”

“It’s Sabina,” I said. “We need to talk.”

He didn’t hesitate. “Meet me at the Fog City Hotel.”

A while later, I pulled the minivan into the portecochere of the hotel. The valet guy opened my door. He jumped back in surprise when the hairless cat jumped out ahead of me.

“Sorry, he needs a potty break,” I said.

The guy took the keys without a word and handed me a ticket. I chased Giguhl over to a small patch of monkey grass.

“I can’t take you anywhere,” I said under my breath.

“Bite me.”

“Keep up the backtalk and I just might.”

The hotel wasn’t what one would term five-star. But it wasn’t shabby either. Adam’s room was on the second floor. I bypassed the lobby by slipping down the first hallway I saw. From there I took the stairs two at a time up to the next floor. The last thing I needed was some nosy hotel employee telling me the cat wasn’t welcome.

Adam’s room was the second on the right from the stairs. I knocked and waited.

“What’s our plan?” Giguhl asked, squirming in my arms.

“Just keep quiet,” I said. When Adam didn’t open the door after two more knocks, I pressed my ear to the wood. I didn’t hear any movement.

“Are you going to ask him about how to send me home?” Giguhl whispered.

“Not yet,” I said. His body went slack from disappointment. I sighed. “Listen, if you just play along and be a good kitty, I promise I’ll talk to him about it soon.”

“Okay.” He sounded crestfallen, but resolved.

Pushing my guilt to the side, I knocked again. Why would Adam leave when he knew I was on my way?

Left with no other choice—at least to my mind—I decided to let myself in. Giguhl muttered a protest, but I shushed him and transferred his scrawny frame to my left arm. I turned the doorknob hard and forced my right shoulder into it. The door cracked open. I looked to my left and right to be sure no one noticed my B&E before slipping into the room.

I pushed the door against the slightly splintered doorframe. From the outside, it wouldn’t be noticeable. Turning back toward the room, I stopped short.

Standing in front of me, wearing nothing but a white towel, was a scowling, wet mage. Giguhl squirmed from my arms and streaked further into the room.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Adam demanded. With one hand, he held the towel, and with the other, he dragged me further into the room by my arm. “And what the hell was that thing?”

“Whoops, sorry,” I said. “You didn’t answer so I thought you’d stepped out. And that,” I motioned in the direction Giguhl fled, “was my cat.” I wasn’t ready to introduce him to the demon he’d sent.

“First, that was not a cat. It looked like a bald weasel or something.

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