Wolves and the River of Stone (27 page)

“Philip is going to try to resurrect Prosperine,” Zola said. “He can do it without you if he has the soulstones.”

“What?” Ashley said. “Prosperine? The Destroyer?”

Zola nodded. “We have to stop him.”

“What kind of maniac would want to resurrect a god of destruction?”

“I thought Prosperine was just another demon,” I said. “A badass demon, yes, but we just killed a demon last year. Permanent like.”

“Not permanent, necessarily.” Zola sighed and rubbed her forehead. “Some days Ah’m ashamed to call you my student.” She cracked a small smile.

“Yeah, Prosperine’s just a demon,” Foster said. “Like a tsunami’s just a wave.”

“Watch it,
bug.
I didn’t know that either,” Sam said.

Aideen laughed and elbowed Foster in the ribs. Foster’s chewing slowed and his swallow was deliberate. He glared at Sam for almost ten whole seconds before he burst into laughter.

“She’s real?” Ashley said.

“Prosperine?” Zola said. “Yes. She is as real as any of us. Ah’ve seen enough to think there are many more demons than we have names for.”

“So what makes Prosperine so great?” I said.

“She is an arch demon,” Ashley said. “Every terrible story you’ve ever heard about demons can’t add up to the terror and brutality of a single arch demon.”

I pursed my lips and frowned.

“She’s right, of course,” Cara said. “Arch demons are said to have killed the old gods. And the ones they couldn’t kill, they dragged off into other dimensions, other circles of hell.”

“Not all of them,” I muttered.

Zola flashed me a grimace, then shrugged.

“What was that?” Sam said as her eyes roamed from me to Zola.

“Nothing, nothing,” I said. “So, how do we keep Philip from resurrecting, reviving, or whatever, Prosperine?”

“Cut his balls off,” Foster said.

I set my fork down and stared at the fairy. “Good god man, you’re on a serious ball cutting kick.”

Ashley laughed as she was taking a gulp of orange juice. It sprayed over her plate, soaking her eggs, and Sam.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!”

The rest of us burst into laughter.

“Hey, Sam, you got a little something,” I rubbed my finger on my cheek, “right there.” Nixie jumped when Sam growled at me.

“Enough,” Zola said. “How do we stop Philip’s cult? We know where he is. Ah don’t think he’ll have enough soulstones to bring Prosperine onto our plane, but Ah could be wrong. We need to act fast. Ah’ll talk to the wolves. Sam, can you talk to Dominic today? And get some volunteers together for an attack tomorrow night?”

Sam nodded.

“Tonight, we should rest. Ah’m still weary from last night, but Philip and his survivors likely are too. If luck is on our side, they’ll still be exhausted tomorrow.”

“And if there actually are dozens of them?” I said.

“Then we have a war on our hands.”

“Super.”

Nixie squeezed my leg and polished off her eggs in two quick bites. “I want to help.”

“It may be more dangerous than anything you’re used to,” Aideen said.

Nixie’s eyes darkened and the creepiest laugh I’d ever heard came out of her thin smile. “I doubt that very much.”

Foster raised his eyebrows as he shoved another piece of bacon in his face.

“Okay, let’s get breakfast cleaned up and get moving. I want to run by the store today and spend some quality time with my girlfriend.”

“Who? Frank?” Nixie said.

Sam held her hand out and high-fived Nixie, instigating a round of chuckles.

I blew out a long breath and said, “I don’t know why I put up with you people.” I tapped my chin as another thought occurred to me. “Say, Ashley, I don’t think we have a car. You mind driving us back to the shop?”

For some reason, everyone found that rather amusing.

W
e dropped Zola off at Carter’s house before we went back to the shop. It was a lot more comfortable in Ashley’s Prius once there were only four adult-sized people in the car.

“I call couch,” Sam said as she stumbled over a cobblestone. She’d been dragging her feet as we walked the short distance from the car to the shop.

“Didn’t get much sleep, huh?” I said as I turned the key in the deadbolt and waved to Ashley. The lower deadbolt whined as it saw my boot headed for its face. I pushed the door open and stood to the side. Sam still had her eyes on the sidewalk when Bubbles leapt. Sam squeaked when the cu sith hit her mid-chest and took her to the ground with a thud. Bubbles’s ears were draped over the side of Sam’s head and the cu sith’s tongue was a bright pink weed whacker on Sam’s face.

Peanut sauntered to the door and sat his butt down right in the doorway.

“Hey boy,” Foster said. Peanut’s face vibrated as he growled. Foster landed by the cu sith’s paw anyway. “Hungry?” Peanut jumped to his feet and shot back into the shop.

“I’ll get him some food,” Nixie said. She scratched Bubbles’s head and slid in through the back door.

I heard Sam groan and I laughed. I leaned over and picked Bubbles up before staggering under the weight. “Gah! How much do you weigh now, girl?” A sloppy tongue bath was the only response I got. I waddled into the shop with Bubbles in tow and set her down beside Peanut. Both pups stared at Nixie while she dug through the fridge.

Sam was still on the ground when I walked back outside. I grinned and offered my hand. “All your vampire friends are going to think you’re weird, lying out in the sun like that.”

She raised both her hands up like a B movie zombie. “Just drag me to the couch.” She started laughing when I grabbed her wrists, dragged her across the asphalt, up the step, and into the back room of the shop.

“Alright, you have to get on the couch yourself. I think Bubbles threw my back out.”

Sam pulled herself up to one knee and then flopped across the old couch. “Ah, the green monster. I haven’t slept on this in a while.” She yawned and rubbed her eyes. “Wake me when it’s over.”

I checked the time on the grandfather clock as the fairies disappeared into it. “You know Frank should be here in like an hour.”

“Mmm, wake me when Frank gets here,” she said as a small smile curled her lips. “I need a snack.”

I left Sam and Nixie in the back with the cu sith feeding frenzy. The sound of giant tongues slurping up everything that came within striking distance followed me to the front of the shop. I unlocked the door and flipped the sign to open before heading to the register. There was a knock at the back door and then a crack of light when Nixie opened it. I was surprised to see Ashley there. She crouched down and scratched the cu siths’ ears while Nixie slapped more food in front of the garbage disposals.

Ashley came up front and whispered, “Do you mind if I pick up a few things?”

“You don’t have to whisper. A freight train wouldn’t wake Sam up.”

I heard a snort from the back room.

“It’s all yours for the browsing,” I said. I watched Ashley walk to the other side of the register and pick up a small wicker basket. “What’s that?”

“Oh, you haven’t seen them?” She smiled and held it up higher. “I told Frank he should get some shopping baskets. They’ve been here for a week or so.”

I walked behind the counter and leaned over the side of the display cases. Sure enough, there was a small stack of five wicker baskets. “Cool, I never thought about that. I guess most of my customers only buy a handful of stuff.”

“Not me,” she said as she piled in a bundle of bramble leaves, bramble thorns, dried figs, and damiana. I cocked an eyebrow at the damiana.

“Got a hot date?”

Ashley grinned. “Maybe. That’s none of your business.”

I gestured at the basket. “Actually, it does seem to be my business.”

She rolled her eyes and moved down the aisle. I laughed and turned my attention to the laptop beside the register. Frank had replaced our ancient cash register with a real-live inventory system. My eyes widened when I looked at the month’s totals.

“Go Frank,” I said. I’d made Frank my gemstone buyer last year. It was probably the best business decision I’d ever made. I could actually afford Frank’s salary now.

I glanced into the glass display case below the laptop and smiled. A few more of the old obsidian arrowheads had sold. I wondered if Hugh had told someone about them. Frank had a new piece of metal in the case too. It took me a moment to realize it was Magrasnetto, as the sharp edges and oblong shape were far from the norm.

A thump caught my attention when Ashley dropped a candlestick on the hardwood floor. She blushed and set it back on the shelf. Her basket was almost full as she made her way to the gemstone display.

“Frank said he was getting some more moss agate. Do you know if it came in?”

“Should be in the third drawer down on the right if it did.”

I heard one of the dark wood drawers slide open. “Perfect!” Ashley said. “Maybe just one more piece of amber too.” Ashley was our best amber customer by far.

“You still making jewelry out of that stuff?”

She sighed. “If you mean
protection charms,
yes.”

“It does make nice jewelry.”

Ashley shot me a look and I gave her a wide smile.

The front door jingled and we both looked up when Frank walked in and waved to Ashley. He was wearing a fabulous brown bowler that I recognized from one of our previous ... adventures. It was an excellent mask for his graying baldness. Sam thought it looked dignified. I kind of thought it looked funny, especially with the plaid shirt. I watched him walk, his usual bouncing gait making him look peppy, and shook my head.

“Hey Damian, what are you doing here so early?”

“I’ve been up since eight this morning.”

Frank’s bushy eyebrows crawled up his forehead.
“You?”

I nodded.

“The world is ending.”

“Frank, you look even thinner than the last time I saw you,” Ashley said.

Frank grinned and his arm ran down his stomach to his belt. “Thanks Ash. I’ve been trying.”

“Well, it’s working.”

I tapped the top of the laptop. “I saw the numbers Frank. They’re fantastic. I don’t think the shop has ever done this well.”

“I don’t want the place to go out of business,” Frank said. “I’m out, and want to stay out, of my–” his eyes flashed to Ashley and back to me “– you know.”

“Yep,” I said. Frank used to run with a very bad crowd before he tried to adopt the retail life. He was, more or less, a small time arms dealer with his father until the whole thing went south. His dad didn’t make it out alive. I knew it, he knew it, and even Sam knew it. Frank wanted out of his old life and he’d been enough of a friend to me that I wanted to help him out. Although giving him a job hadn’t been my first choice. “Oh yeah, Sam’s waiting for you in the back.”

“Really? It’s daylight.”

“She’s weird like that.”

He smiled and almost skipped into the back room. I heard a muffled cry before I made out, “Ugh, wet!”

I heard Nixie laugh and was pretty sure Frank had just gotten a faceful of Bubbles. Nixie came up front and set her butt on the counter beside me. “Sam’s snacking. I think I’ll stay up here for a while.”

“Out in the open?” I said. “Good god, I guess she was hungry.”

Ashley set her basket beside the register. “Okay, I think I’m done.”

I tried to be delicate, but just threw the question out there. “You going to be alright going back home?”

Ashley paused and frowned for a bit. “I think so. Some of the coven is coming over. Plus, I mean, I don’t have any more soulstones, so you don’t think they’ll come back, right?”

“That’s Zola’s assessment.” I unloaded everything and started ringing up her treasure trove. “I’m sure she’s spot on about the necromancers, but I don’t really know about the werewolves.”

“It’s the wolves that are trying to take Carter’s pack, right?” Nixie said.

“Yeah,” I said.

“I doubt they’d come back for a priestess,” Nixie said.

“If that didn’t make me so happy, I think I’d be offended,” Ashley said with a weak smile.

When I was almost done ringing up the pile, Nixie hopped off the counter.

“Damiana?” she said.

Ashley blushed. “Yes, I’m buying damiana, okay? You people sure are nosy.”

I grinned as Ashley paid and hustled to the back door with her brown paper bag in tow. I heard her gasp when she walked into the back room. “Oh, oh god.” I could only imagine what she’d walked in on. “That is just
wrong.”

I heard something like a slurp and someone talking with an entire chicken stuffed in their mouth. The back door slammed closed a moment later.

Nixie walked to the doorway and started laughing. She glanced back at me and said, “They still have their clothes on. I’ve seen worse.”

“Don’t tell me. Just don’t tell me.”