For The Birds
We hit the landing at the bottom of the stairs, and I turn from the foyer to the hall with the library.
It’s a miracle we haven’t run into anyone so far. I did spot a few individuals outside the front windows, and it looks as if the councilman has much of the staff busy preparing things for the ceremony and a dinner afterward.
Hoisting Starla against me, I reach for the library doors.
“Yes, that will be fine. I’ll meet you around front in just a moment.” I recognize the speaker, Arloc.
On the one hand, I would like his help with the necklace, but I don’t think he’s going to miss the fact that we’re obviously running out on our own weddings.
I also have no idea who the vampire is speaking to, or where their allegiances lie. I manage to duck behind the door as it’s opened, and a harried member of staff rushes down the hall. Before anyone else can find us, I step into the library and pull the door shut behind me.
Vampires are quick, and dangerous, but I’ll get us by him one way or another.
My throat pulses with heat. A last resort. But one I’ll use if I have to.
“Carolina?” Arloc looks me up and down, eyes lingering on Starla.
The witch is beginning to stir. I set her gently on the floor, preparing to face Arloc.
“We’re leaving. Don’t try to stop us.”
“Dressed like that?”
I look down for a moment.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he says. “You’re both stunning, but I would imagine there will be multiple disappointed parties if you leave the wedding before it even begins.”
I take a step to the side, placing myself in front of Starla.
“He can’t make us take vows. These weddings are not going forward. Why are you still here, anyway?”
“My, my. Niceties dropped, now that the other guests are gone? Not that I mind. As I told you before, I prefer to be just how I am. These events can be tedious.”
Is he stalling? Giving someone else time to find us? I need to make a move.
He sidesteps, predicting that I was attempting to get around him.
“It doesn’t matter to me whether or not you go to your own wedding. I mean, it likely would have, if it had also been my wedding, but what do I care if Claude gets left at the altar? Or Piers? Insufferable, both of them.”
“Arloc.” I snap his name as a warning.
“I’m still here because I made an excuse, presented a few pieces to the councilman to choose from for wedding gifts. Bits of enchanted jewelry, and some that are just expensive. I wanted to stay long enough to run into you again.”
“Move, or be moved.”
The words sound silly to me. I’m not dangerous enough to be saying them without my song, but maybe I can fool him?
“No need to fight me. I want to help you with your necklace. Hand it back over, and I can give you a good idea of what it does.”
“I’m not just going to give it to you! Why would you help us?”
“Well, check downstairs! Every single room! Now!” The councilman’s angry voice echoes through the halls.
“Because you’re not the only one who puts on a front to survive these people. I had my own motivations for coming. My interest in you was genuine, but not as nefarious as you’re making it out to be. If you want to leave, I won’t stop you.”
I look back and forth between him and the door.
The necklace is important, and the opportunity has fallen in my lap. I can surely sing one vampire if absolutely necessary, can’t I?
“Come with us. This way.”
I lean over to scoop Starla up, but Arloc beats me to it. He straightens with the witch in his arms. The vampire follows me as I approach the shelf we used before and imitate the witch’s actions. The passageway opens, and we enter.
When we exit in the gardens, I just keep running. Arloc keeps pace, not pestering me with questions, but I have one for him.
“The councilman might suspect you helped us. What do you get out of this?”
“Let’s just say you’ll owe me a favor sometime.”
My voice, most likely.
“You trust me to hold up my end of any bargain? When I’m running away from a wedding?”
“I think you have more character than the rest of these guests, yes. Are we going far? I’m still going to return and try to salvage things with the councilman. He’s despicable, but he’s dangerous as an enemy. I’d rather not stick my neck out that far.”
Limits. But I can’t be mad. He could have just turned us in.
“We’re meeting someone,” I tell him.
The guys should be waiting at the property gates.
As we get close, I let myself worry how we’ll handle the guards that will surely be there, but my concern is short-lived. There’s a line of bodies, not dead but knocked out, leaned against the walls. The gate itself has been forced open, metal bent to bits.
Waiting for us are Exos, Jackal, and Ji-hwan.
The gargoyle takes one look at a barely conscious Starla in the vampire’s arms and charges.
He swoops, his skin stony and his wings out, but the vampire is quick and sidesteps the attack without jostling my best friend.
“Exos! He’s helping! He’s helping!”
The gargoyle pauses, still radiating rage, but calms a bit when Arloc passes Starla off to him.
“I’d recognize these arms anywhere,” Starla murmurs.
Exos stares down at her, gaze softening as much as a face made of rock can.
“I know they’re uncomfortable. You deserve something soft.”
Starla nuzzles into his stony embrace.
“Nonsense, this is perfect.”
Arms wrap around me, and peace washes over me like a wave, rinsing some of my worry away.
“You are a gorgeous bride, but I was ready to gate-crash your wedding,” Jackal says, trying to run a hand through my hair and getting caught in the ludicrous number of bobby pins the maids used.
“These two have been an absolute handful, I don’t mind telling you. Now then, that’s everyone. Is he coming with us?” Ji-hwan points at Arloc, waiting a few feet from us.
Jackal snarls, eyes glowing.
“Don’t think I don’t know what you did! Proposing to my mate? I ought to rip you apart. And I will, if you’d like me to.” Jackal shoots me a questioning glance.
“No. He’s going to try to tell me more about the necklace.” I unclasp it, letting it slide down my neck and then handing it to the vampire.
“Here. You have your bargain. A favor for what you can figure out. Hurry.”
Arloc ignores Jackal, who is still snarling at the vampire.
I can hardly blame him. The fact that he’s not in his fur and attacking is quite frankly a miracle.
If our situations had been reversed this weekend, I don’t think I’d have been able to hold myself in check.
I probably would have sung any other woman away from him, even if it meant the gardens were swallowed into the ground in the resulting chaos.
There’s a yip and I see Pickles hopping out of the open door of a car parked nearby.
“Pickles!” The dog runs to me, and I scoop him into my arms. He wiggles and licks, dirt getting all over my dress.
I don’t care in the slightest.
“If we ever, ever take a trip like this again, you are coming along,” I promise him.
Grammy said we’d need him, and while for the sake of his safety I’m glad it was just for a fiery distraction, I’ve missed him terribly.
“Lottie wasn’t happy to see him go. I’ll give you one guess what her parents are getting her for Christmas,” Jackal says.
Maybe that’s what he was needed for. If so, I’m happy my dog could help her heal.
She’ll get a dog after all. Good. She’s clearly done a great job looking after Pickles.
“This is a vessel,” Arloc says, holding the shell necklace up. “It holds magic.”
“Well, of course it holds magic. We knew that much,” Ji-hwan says.
“You’re not understanding me. I’m saying that the magic the necklace possesses, is the ability to hold other magic.
It’s a temporary containment space. Right now, it’s empty, but you could place something like a spell, a curse, or the like in here for safekeeping, then remove it when you needed to make use of it later. Handy to have.”
“How can you possibly know that? Vampires can’t read magic. That sounds like a witch’s key,” Jackal says, tone less than friendly.
Arloc sneers.
“I’m very good at my job. Not all skill in this world has to rely on innate magical skill. She should be enough to convince you of that,” Arloc gestures to Starla, on her feet and leaning heavily against Exos.
“If you mean to insult her, you will find yourself buried under the gate,” Exos threatens.
The vampire sighs, looking upward as though some supernatural deity will save him from the sniping men on the lawn.
“You are a touchy bunch. I merely meant that those willing to work at it can learn more about magic than what they are born with. That is all.”
He ignores the skeptical stares of the others, approaching me and handing the necklace back.
“A pleasure, Carolina. Until we meet again.”
He bows to me, and then he gone, running through the woods at such a fast pace I lose track of him.
“Good riddance,” Jackal snorts.
“Do you think he’s right?” I ask.
Ji-hwan looks at where the vampire was a moment ago.
“Most likely. He’s not wrong about skills. I was born with seduction and learned interrogation; Starla got electroshock but has a whole arsenal of spells she can use if she doesn’t mind the magic drain. We’re all of us more than we first appear. We can’t count it out.”
“Let’s go,” Jackal urges, ushering us into the vehicle. It’s a tight squeeze, particularly with Starla’s dress puffing out in all directions, but we make it work.
“You got the information from the councilman’s office?” I think to ask as the final door is forced closed.
Pickles curls up in my lap, and I lean against Jackal’s shoulder. Escaping your own wedding is more tiring than I would have imagined.
Exos turns back from the passenger seat, smirking.
“Of course I did. That pocket portal worked a treat. Could have used a few more, but that’s on me for not badgering Danger myself.
We’re headed to a small island, as suspected, far out in the sea.
But now we have coordinates. At least we guessed we’d need a dock.
You have a contact for us to meet? A boat to take? ”
I shrink, pressing myself further into Jackal’s side.
Malcolm got us a way out, and one I don’t think Councilman Taylor will be able to track easily.
But I’m not sure how the others will react.