Hell Inc. (26 page)

I
crept down the stairs and twisted the handle, checking over my
shoulder to make sure that no one had seen me and made a run for it.
Jogging stupidly down the sidewalk quickly tired me out, so I
resorted to walking.
Stupid fucking 3
^rd
Century Realty. What do they need my raggedy old truck for anyway?

I
had made the decision to go back to my apartment weaponless, but at
least I could use the dagger if I could get to it. I had left it at
home
again
despite
Levie's previous warnings. If it really was spelled in combat, I'd
be fine though, right? Besides I had wishes and a very strange inner
voice that swore up and down that in a pinch, I'd be Jackie Chan
fierce. It so wasn't true (think Minotaurs and wheelchair vampires),
but I believed it anyway.

About
halfway there, I was out of breath and decidedly grumpy. What kind
of rescue attempt would I be making if I spent an hour walking? I
dug around in my pocket for some change and stopped at the nearest
bus stop. While I was waiting, I began to notice something
disturbing.

In
all of my life, the creatures that I had seen had never looked twice
at me without my giving them a reason to do so. Today, they were all
staring at me. Every single one of them, from the sirens standing
next to me at the bus stop to the gargoyles on the roof of the
library, they glared at me as if I were the single most offensive
thing on the planet. Creatures that I hadn’t known were even
capable
of glowering,
such as the nine tailed fox in the crosswalk, were giving me the look
as well. Needless to say, the wait for the bus was a long one. I
avoided making any eye contact and when it finally did arrive, I sat
alone in the front.

Luckily
for me, I made it back without incident. Unfortunately, it felt more
as if they were all waiting for something rather than that they'd
actually decided to leave me alone. My heart was beating loudly as I
took the stairs at a run, but it couldn't disguise a rather
strange buzzing sound coming from my apartment. A green light
flickered underneath the doorway, and I hesitated before opening it,
logicality finally hitting my brain with an almost painful sensation.

I
pulled my hand away from the knob and turned around. No, going in
the doorway with the magical green light was not an option. Not
unless I wanted to end up charred, barbequed and filleted immediately
thereafter.
Idiot
. My conscious reminded me. I turned
around, fully intending on going back to Levie’s house when a
blurry red light flickered into my vision, and I wound up lying on
the ground, kissing the cement. My left temple throbbed, and I could
feel sticky blood dripping down the side of my face. Hands grasped
my arms on both sides and pulled me up, dragging me into my apartment
and tossing me onto my own couch. I blinked the stars in my vision
away and tried to focus on who, or most likely, what, had hit me.

Oh.
Shit.

It
wasn't necessarily that I wasn't a fan of fairies. Really. It
wasn't that. It was that I wasn't a fan of being taken hostage by a
group of fairies. Now, don't get me wrong. It's not the shame
factor of being captured by six inch, butterfly winged, sparkly
beings. Fairies are actually quite mean.

"Don't
you fucking move," one of them spat at me, her monarch wings
moving in a blur, and red sparkles of anger dripping onto my couch.
"Sit the fuck down." I sat and watched the glittery cloud
move in closer around me. The flowery scent that clung to the air
was rather cloying, and I resisted the urge to gag. The one with the
candle stick that had valiantly struck me a rather painful blow to
the temple landed on the carpet directly in front of me and began to
grow. She didn't stop until she towered over me. Her wings brushed
the walls and the roof, and the scowl on her pretty mouth was even
more menacing. "Look you," she told me, pointing one
pastel green finger at me. "We had enough problems before you
came along. People mocking us with their ridiculous costumes,
calling out at all hours of the night, trying to snap pictures. Now
some of them can actually see us, you moron." Inwardly I
winced, outwardly I remained calm. I tried to channel some of
Levie’s arrogance into my voice.

“And
uh, what does that have to do with me exactly?” Okay, so I
sounded nothing like Levie but playing dumb worked just fine. The
faerie tapped me between the eyes with the candlestick, and I swayed
slightly as more stars burst into my vision.

“Don’t
you dare fucking pretend that this isn’t entirely
your
fault. That little blonde bitch was more than willing to talk,”
she sneered again and then spit angrily onto my carpet. I rubbed the
spot on my forehead and wondered who the hell she was talking about.

“Who?”
I asked tentatively, hoping they hadn't hurt someone, and that I
didn’t have even more items to add to my Guilty Ginger list.
The faerie smiled wickedly and shook her head slowly.

“That's
none of your concern. However ... ” Her smile
intensified, and she leaned down towards me until our faces were
inches apart. “We found that another of our witnesses was much
less willing to participate.” She straightened and snapped her
fingers. Another of the large fairies came around from behind the
couch and handed her a small photo then resumed his guard-stance next
to me, arms crossed and face stoic. She stared at the picture for a
moment and then handed it to me.

I
almost choked on my own spit. Erin. Tied to a chair. Great. Maybe
I did dislike fairies. “What the hell is this?” I
squeaked, wincing as the faerie frowned down at me. I didn’t
know if I could handle another candlestick blow to the head.

“That’s
a warning to you,” she snarled. “Undo the damage and
we’ll let your friend go.”

“She's
not my friend,” came to my lips automatically, but I bit my
tongue. They wouldn’t care, not really. I raised my head to
meet her gaze and attempted a sardonic smile.

“So
let me guess, if I take away this
gift,
” I ground this
last word out between my teeth. “Of being able to see you
away, you’ll let Erin go without hurting her?” I sighed
and nodded because really, what else was I going to do? The
glittering cloud hovering around the ceiling certainly wasn’t
going to back down on any threats made by yours truly.

“Good.
Then we’re on the same page. We’ll give you until next
week.” Wow. So I had a week less than the mummy had given me.
Perfect. Now I could be in an even worse time crunch. I winced as
she tossed the candlestick onto the couch next to me and shrunk back
to her normal size. The buzzing intensified as the crowd swarmed
into the hallway and the last faerie to remain human sized slammed
the door behind them.

I
sat numbly, staring at a spot on the carpet.
My landlord’s
probably going to charge me for that one
, I thought stupidly.
Faerie dust stains were not covered under normal wear and tear. I
curled up into a ball on the couch and stared at the photograph.
Erin looked petrified, eyes swollen from crying, cheeks red and
blotchy.

“You
have a right to be scared,” I told her, “If you knew just
how much shit I was in.” I considered and discarded several
different wish ideas and then gave up trying. Swinging my feet onto
the ground, I stood shakily and rubbed at my temple again. “Fucking
fairies,” I swore because it made me feel better.

I
went into my bedroom to find not only the knife Levie had tried to
give me but also the sphinx lying on the bed. It stared straight at
me, its eyes piercing and sharp and said, “Sometimes, what you
seek can be found right under your nose.” I stared back at it
and shook my head. Of course it had found me. Of course.

“Go
fuck yourself.” I ignored it and rolled the knife around in my
fingers wondering what it would feel like to actually use it. Most
likely, I would never get the chance. By the time someone or
something was close enough to me, it would be too late. I slipped it
under my belt anyway and tried to think of what to do next. The
answer was obvious but painful. I had to go back to Levie and
explain my rashness and hopelessly absent self preservation skills.
I glanced at the phone and wished I had his mother’s number.
It was a long walk of shame back.

The
sphinx stretched and climbed onto the floor. It trotted around the
bed to me and cocked its head to the side. “Remember, the
treasure is still in the shipwreck,” he said, whatever the fuck
that meant. I shrugged anyway and pulled the picture from my pocket
and showed it him. His all too human mouth turned up at the corners,
and he gave me an idiom in a very cheerful tone of voice.

“The
devil is in the details.” I frowned.

“Is
that supposed to make me feel better?” I turned the picture
around and studied it carefully. If I could figure out where Erin
was being held, maybe the sphinx and I could get her out. The
fairies would probably still try to kill us, but it would make me
feel better to know she wasn’t being held captive somewhere. I
studied the photo closely but didn’t see anything that could
alert me to her location. As I was putting it back into my pocket,
the sphinx trotted out into the living room.

When
it came back, it was carrying the candlestick. It dropped it at my
feet like a dog with a bone and waited patiently while I picked it
up. The engraving on the handle (which had obviously been torn
straight out of a wall since said candle was an electric imitation)
was for the Everett Hotel. I grinned as I squeezed the cold metal in
my hand and picked up a phone to call a cab.

“Why
are you helping me?” I asked the sphinx as I stood nervously
fidgeting on the sidewalk. It wasn’t just the supernatural
beings glaring at me that were making me jumpy, though that was a
large part of it, but I was worried about what I was going to do when
Levie found me. I was sure that it was only a matter of time before
he did, and he was going to be pissed. Admittedly, I had made a
stupid decision but doesn't everyone at some point? Granted mine was
just one in a very long series of bad decisions... I
chalked it up to youth and inexperience and breathed a sigh of relief
as the taxi cab pulled up to the curb. The sphinx declined to answer
me as we both climbed into the backseat, and I gave the driver
directions. I was damn lucky that I'd had some cash stored in a jar
in my bedroom. This whole wishing thing was turning out to be far
less profitable than I had originally thought.

The
ride to the hotel was short, and it didn’t take me long to find
the stairs and start on my way up. I had no idea where I was going
but the sphinx was sniffing the floor like a bloodhound, and I was
following, feeling stupid for trusting my captor but not really
having much other choice. When we reached the fifth floor, the
sphinx pawed at the door, and I pushed it open slowly, letting it
bound through first.

It
wasn’t until we turned the corner that I saw it. I paused,
wondering if it would ignore me as everything always had or if this
whole staring at Ginger situation was about to get a whole lot worse.

The
yeti was pissed; that much was obvious. But really, what can you say
to an angry yeti? “How's it going?” I asked him, trying
to avoid conflict altogether and sidle my way down the wall and into
a nearby elevator, vowing to come back after it was gone. That
wasn't going to happen as the doors had just opened to reveal a
second yet slightly more pissed looking yeti. "I was on the
board for the yeti protection act," I lied to him stupidly,
trying to smile and resist the urge to cough up blood. He didn't say
anything, just stood there and stared at me. "Do you speak
English?" I asked it. It stared some more and then switched its
gaze to its companion who had moved out of the elevator and stood
blocking the hallway. With the stairs and the elevator out of the
question, my options were fairly limited. Maybe I could defenestrate
myself ... "Is there something I can do for you?" I
asked the new yeti who was holding a spiked club in its massive
hands. "Something that doesn't involve dying or being maimed,
dismembered, or beheaded?"