Chapter 11
Chapter
Eleven
S tella twirled on the balls of her feet as Ethan spun her across the dance floor. By then, they’d covered every inch of it and, so far, no sign of Hurley.
Ethan pulled her against his body and touched his lips to hers while murmuring, “Anything yet?”
“Still no.” Stella had to close her eyes to keep the room from spinning, but they snapped open again when a woman screamed on the far side of the ballroom.
“Jesus!” Ethan exclaimed. “What’s all that?”
The scream was followed by the bellow of several indignant men and the rattle of windows.
“Is that…?” Stella whispered. The rattling sound had been nearly drowned out by all the shouts.
“Abby’s signal,” Ethan said. “They’ve spotted him already?”
Stella couldn’t see what was happening in the middle of the crowded room, but she sensed a path quickly parting for a tall hairy wolf costume that was ripping and clawing its way toward the exit.
“So much for subtlety,” Ethan said.
“So much for an evening of mere reconnaissance.”
Stella knew she should have picked a more sensible costume. She kicked off her shoes, then reached down and tore the slit in her dress even higher, all the way up to her hip.
An elderly woman standing nearby gasped in horror, as if intentionally ripping one’s dress was the worst thing going on in the ballroom.
If she only knew!
“Let’s go!” Ethan said, and they pushed through the crowd, leaving Stella’s shoes behind.
They reached the ballroom doors simultaneously with Electra Woman, Dyna Girl, Cleopatra, and Einstein.
“Which way?” Antoinette asked.
Out of her peripheral vision, Stella caught the fluttering edge of a red cape disappearing around a corner at end of the hotel lobby.
“There!” she cried, pointing.
Stella’s bare feet pounded against the carpeting as Ethan and Jun rushed past her. Antoinette surged ahead too, those long legs requiring half the steps that Stella needed to cover the same amount of ground.
Ethan crashed his palms into the hotel’s front door and pushed them open. Jun, Antoinette, Izzy, and Jade followed right behind him.
Stella made it outside onto the sidewalk and winced as a pebble pressed into her tender arch. Too bad she didn’t know a spell to toughen the soles of her feet. All she could do was pretend she didn’t feel the pain.
Ethan’s head twisted right, as he looked down Dalton Street, then left.
They all heard a shriek coming from that direction, and Ethan yelled, “This way!”
They ran toward the corner, and Ethan cut back toward Belvidere Street. He shouted over his shoulder, “Keep up!”
Stella rounded the corner, pumping her arms hard. She may have been at the back of the pack, but there was no way she was going to lose him. Ethan didn’t need to worry about that.
“There they are!” Jade said as she ran just a few steps in front of Stella, her superhero cape flying out behind her.
Pain sliced through the bottoms of Stella’s feet.
“I see them,” Izzy replied.
Thirty yards ahead, Abby in her red cloak and Stryker—who’d wisely thrown off his wolf head somewhere along the way—disappeared around another corner.
Seconds later, Ethan and Jun barreled around the same corner, going so fast the centrifugal force nearly slung them into the street.
Then Antoinette did the same but at a slower clip.
Finally, Stella limp-hopped around the same corner, just in time to see a man in a black coat with a wide white collar straddling the top of a chain link fence at the end of a private alley.
By then, Stryker had closed the gap. He leaped into the air, swinging his arm to snag the man’s ankle, but he missed.
The man dropped over the other side of the fence, and took off down the alley.
Stryker and Abby whirled to face the rest of them as they finally caught up.
“He got too much of a head start on me,” Stryker snarled. “I couldn’t get out of the ballroom fast enough in this stupid costume.”
“Don’t worry,” Ethan said. “I know this area. It’s my neighborhood. There’s only one other way out of the alley. It’s not a straight shot, and he’s got a lot of obstacles to get past before he finds the exit. We need to split up, go around these apartments and cut him off at the other end.”
“What if he lives in one of these?” Antoinette said, tipping her head back to look up at the apartment block.
“Then he won’t be coming out of the alley,” Ethan said, “and we’ll have narrowed our focus. Now, go! But someone stay here in case he doubles back.”
Stryker and Abby took off immediately, headed around the right side of the block.
“I’ll stay,” Stella said. “It’s too hard for me to keep up without shoes.”
“I’ll stay with her,” Jade said, putting her hands to her knees as her chest heaved.
“The rest of us…” Ethan said.
“Let’s go!” Izzy said, and she, Ethan, and Antoinette took off to the left.
Despite the sounds of city traffic, all Stella could hear was her own rapid breathing and the whirl of her thoughts.
“Do you… Do you think that was really Dad?” Jade panted.
Stella shook her head and pulled off her long gloves. She was so sweaty, it took some doing to get them off.
“You don’t think so?” Jade asked.
“I don’t know,” Stella said, looking around for a good place to stash her gloves. Finding none, she set them on fire, and the cheap fabric melted away. “He’s nearly sixty. Do you see him climbing over chain link fences?”
“A spell?” Jade asked.
“Do you know any that improves your athleticism? Because if you do, I could use it about now.” Or maybe they wouldn’t have to climb the fence. Maybe Jade knew an opening spell?
“It could be more evidence toward the whole-body takeover,” Jade said. “Hurley’s about—” She took another deep breath. “—twenty years…younger than Dad.”
“Maybe,” Stella admitted. “But…” She reached for her sister’s hand.
Jade straightened and wove her fingers together with Stella’s.
“If he comes back this way,” Stella said, “I’m glad I’ll be facing him with you.”
Ethan never enjoyed being separated from Stella. It made his magic feel twitchy and unsettled, like a sneeze that never came. It also reduced his potential to half-strength, not being able to access the aether of their paired magic. But in the moment, he hadn’t seen much choice.
Stella wasn’t dressed for pursuit, and they couldn’t lose momentum. They also couldn’t leave the alley entrance unprotected because they had no idea whom they were chasing.
On the one hand, the real David Hurley shouldn’t have had any reason to run. On the other hand, the Collector was prone to silently disappearing, not raising commotions.
Whoever it turned out to be, if he doubled back on Stella and Jade, they were strong. They’d be okay. They had to be .
Antoinette’s sandals slapped against the pavement behind him.
He glanced over his shoulder and saw Jun running beside her. Somewhere along the line, Jun had lost his wild gray Einstein wig, but his oval masquerade mask was still firmly in place.
There were only a few random people out on the sidewalk on this block. If they thought three people running pell-mell in masks and costumes was an odd sight, they were jaded enough not to stare.
Ethan turned the next corner just as Stryker and Abby came around the corner at the opposite end of the short block. They were closing in on each other, but no one was dashing out of the alley between them.
Were they too late? Had the Collector already exited the alley?
If so, he could be anywhere by now. Or maybe Antoinette’s earlier question had been more on target than he supposed. If they had to knock on every apartment door, they’d be doing that for hours. Someone would likely call the cops about people banging on doors.
“Anything?” Stryker yelled ahead.
“No,” Ethan said.
Something metal and heavy tipped over near the exit to the alley, and the resulting sound reverberated off the brick walls.
They all turned their heads toward the sound just as a black blur of velvet raced out of the alley. The man saw them, skidded to a stop, whirled, and ran back into the alley.
“Christ!” Stryker cried, and they took off after him.
This time, their prey didn’t have the benefit of a head start.
Stryker reached out, caught him by the shoulder and threw him up against the brick wall.
“It’s time you stopped to catch your breath,” Stryker said to the man—and more credit to the shifter because he wasn’t even breathing hard.
What was hard was the grip Stryker had on the front of the man’s black velvet coat.
“We can’t do anything here,” Jun said, glancing over his shoulder toward the end of the alley. “The residents walk through here.”
“Get your hands off me!” the man protested, trying to dislodge Stryker’s hand.
“That doesn’t sound like the Collector’s voice,” Abby said.
Stryker made a frustrated growl and yanked his hand back.
Ethan took over, holding the man to the wall while Stryker whipped down the zipper on his furry wolf suit. He stepped out of it and kicked it behind him. Thankfully, he was wearing a black cut-off T-shirt and basketball shorts underneath.
Ethan pulled off the man’s mask, and David Hurley stared back at him. Looks could be deceiving though. Ethan wasn’t so naive to be fooled by either mask.
“If he took Hurley’s face, he could take his voice too,” Antoinette said.
“What the hell are these crazy people talking about, Mather?” the man asked.
Ethan felt a muscle twitching in his jaw. This was either the real David Hurley, or the Collector was an above-average actor.
“What do we do with him now?” Jun asked.
“Before we do anything,” Ethan said. “We need Stella. She can confirm what we’re dealing with. We’ll go from there.”