Chapter 6
Graham
The roadside diner was nearly empty at this hour.
It was the only one still open in the area, which shocked me because I’d been all around the country and late-night diners used to be very common.
The all-American staple was nearly extinct.
What was the world coming to? Why did everything close so early now?
At least it still looked the same, with the familiar chrome trim, fluorescent lights, and booths upholstered in cracked red vinyl. The air smelled like cheap coffee that had been sitting on the burner too long and greasy fries cooked in oil that should’ve been changed yesterday.
I could taste the fries already.
A waitress in a faded uniform hummed to herself as she worked her way down the row of booths, wiping the tables. Her hairstyle looked almost as old as the diner itself.
Meera and I sat tucked into a booth near the back.
She sat across from me, arms folded, shoulders tight, eyes flicking toward the door every few seconds like she expected a small army to burst through and steal the backpack she hugged to her chest. The egg wasn’t in it, of course.
It was just a decoy. Omelet was hidden in my vehicle, under a modified seat, in a padded, bombproof box Desmon just happened to have for this occasion.
Our food arrived at our table just as Mateo and Eva walked in the door. I waved them over, and the waitress took their orders too.
Meera gawked as Mateo proceeded to order not one but two cheeseburgers with fries, and a meatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy. Eva went straight for the sugar, ordering a chocolate milkshake. I introduced my friend and his mate as the waitress left.
“So you’re the egg lady,” Mateo said.
“And you’re the asshat who told me to take a hike.”
Oops. I’d forgotten about that.
I wonder if Meera would be so forward with her words if she could see through Mateo’s illusion spell.
My glamour hid my wings, tail, gray stone-like skin, and my sheer size, shrinking me down to something more acceptable to human eyes. The spell was potent, capable of subtly guiding those nearby to avoid my tail and wings. It made them ignore things that didn’t add up.
Mateo’s spell hid his feline facial features, a furry lion’s body, wyvern wings, and a scorpion tail.
As a manticore, he had both an upright and a four-legged form, but even when he walked upright, being a lion man with extra parts tended to draw a lot of negative attention.
Especially since he was massive, even for his kind.
Most humans reacted to seeing a gargoyle with a mix of fear and awe, like we were walking statues.
Sometimes they screamed. But with Mateo, the screams were usually louder, and the reaction often leaned much more to fear and a little less to awe.
Scholars believe it was because gargoyles appeared in cartoons and other literature, which helped set their human psyches up to accept us.
But manticores were less common, and so most people reacted negatively.
But I think it was the scorpion tail that did it.
Eva was human. And for the majority of her life, a magically plain one too. It wasn’t until recently that she realized she was one part of an equation to unlock some major magic. She was classically pretty by western sensibilities, with blonde hair and blue eyes, and she dressed well too.
But if you looked more closely, you’d realize that everything was covered in a layer of cat fur. Some of it from Mateo, and some of it from her four-legged clients. She worked as a cat groomer.
Eva laughed. “Mateo can be a bit of an ass sometimes. Did you know when we first met he accused me of being a thief?”
Mateo grinned at her. “I was right. You are a thief. You stole my fucking heart.”
That had Eva rolling her eyes. She’d heard it all before.
“Come on,” Mateo said, turning to Meera. “Your story sounded a little ridiculous, don’t you think? But I’m sorry. Would you forgive me if I told you I found your phone?” He brought out a device that looked a little worse for wear.
Meera’s eyes went wide. “Is that on? Turn it off! I think my ex is tracking it. He’s the one that…” She glanced around. “You know.”
I’d already sent Mateo what I’d learned from Meera.
“He was tracking you. I removed MapLocate, so you should be fine now.”
Meera frowned. “You mean my map app?”
“Yeah. It’s a tracking app masquerading as a normal map app. I don’t see anything else, and security is my job. I’d know.”
“Motherfucker. Karim put that app on my phone during our trip to the UK to visit his family last year. He’s been tracking me all this time?”
“I’m surprised so many people don’t know about it.” Mateo handed the phone back to her.
“I’m guessing this Karim guy is your ex?” Eva asked, her eyes landing on the ring still on Meera’s finger. “He called and messaged like a million times.”
“Yeah. I didn’t get the proof I wanted, but I got the proof I needed. I guess I shouldn’t wear this now.” She twisted the ring off her hand and tucked it into her pocket.
“Well, you know what they say,” Eva said. “Cheaters project and suspect they’re being cheated on and do things like track their partners’ phones. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were right about the cheating too.”
I leaned over and read the screen as Meera scrolled through the texts.
“I wonder if he knows for a fact that you have what he is looking for,” I said idly. “He never saw you take it. And none of those messages mentions the… uh… Omelet.”
“Omelet?” Mateo and Eva asked simultaneously with raised brows.
I shrugged.
“I left my gym bag in his office. And the bag the egg originally came in is in my apartment.”
“Does he have your keys?”
“No. And my building also needs a card key, and they updated it just last month.”
“Have you ever left your bags in his office before?”
“Yeah, actually. I left the same gym bag a few weeks ago. I’m forgetful sometimes. It’s something he hates about me.”
“Would he believe if you say you left that gym bag another time? And that you have no idea what he’s talking about?
She frowned. “Won’t work. He’s got a camera pointing at the door.”
“I doubt he’d have that running if he planned on his little meeting,” I said.
“You’re right. So he could be just guessing that it’s me because of the bag.”
“If you can convince him that you leaving has nothing to do with the meeting, it might make him or whoever he’s working with split their resources and go after someone else,” I said.
“There is more than one party after you. If we send them after each other, it will make our trip to Darlington easier, especially with all these stupid rules I have to follow.”
“Rules?”
“Usually I like working for Desmon because he doesn’t care how you get the work done.
But this time, he doesn’t want anyone to know he’s even aware of the egg.
That’s why we have to stay in glamour. And we can’t draw attention to ourselves.
That means no casualties or using strong magic.
We have to stay under the radar. And we can’t travel via portal with Omelet. It’ll scramble him.”
“Portals! I’ve seen them in videos, but I’ve never been through one before.”
“I’m sure you’ll get the chance soon,” I said. “It’s not safe for you to go home until this is over, so you’ll probably be staying at Redrock’s.”
A little voice inside told me I should bring her straight up to the penthouse the first chance I got and see how she looked in one of my towels. But I shook off the ridiculous idea. Redrock had a secure room downstairs near our offices for guests who needed somewhere safe to stay.
I’d told her she wasn’t my type back in the motel room, but that had been a lie. She was totally my type. In fact, she was the first woman my gargoyle wanted since Seraphina.
And therein lay the problem. I felt guilty just wondering about what her lips would taste like, and how her body would feel like under mine. Sara was long gone, but it still felt like I was cheating on her memory.
On the outside, Seraphina had been meek and soft-spoken, a pawn under her wizard father’s thumb, but she hid a scheming female who only prized money and power.
We would’ve never had a future anyway. I hadn’t been free at the time.
My brothers and I had been bound to a wizard family for generations, and I’d only been in her father’s service as a loan.
Things were different now. I had autonomy and was free. And in the short time I’d known Meera, I could already tell that she didn’t have the practiced artifice Sara had.
We quieted as the waitress brought Eva’s milkshake.
“Okay, so I get why confusing Karim is a good idea. But if we’re heading to Darlington now, wouldn’t the people already after me know Desmon is involved?” Meera asked.
“Yup. And that’s why you’re going to give me your driver’s license and the keys to your place.” Eva held out her hand.
Meera frowned. “I don’t get it.”
“I’m going to pose as you and return your rental car,” Eva said. “Then I’m going to head to your apartment and get rid of the evidence.”
Meera wrinkled her nose. “You don’t look anything like me. You’re like super blonde.”
“Nothing a little magic can’t fix. And I don’t actually need to keep the license, I just have to see it long enough to make a copy.”
Meera looked even more confused, but she handed the items over. She watched in fascination as Eva held their driver’s licenses side by side, and slowly the information on them changed to match.
“Your chin is on the floor,” I said, amused. It was kind of adorable.
“I’ve never seen magic at work before. I mean, I’ve tried those one-time-use makeup spells. But it’s not the same.”
“It hasn’t really changed,” Eva explained. “It’s just an illusion.”
Their food arrived, and we all ate quickly. I’d used the canned look-away spell on the actual restaurant, so anyone looking for us would gloss it over. But the spell was meant to cover a much smaller area, and I didn’t think it would last long.
Meera barely touched her food, but I didn’t blame her. She’d had a stressful day. I ate what she didn’t. It took a lot of calories to keep my body running. And if she got hungry later, we’d find food again.
She and Eva chatted for a while, and I watched the tension in her shoulders finally ease. Now that the nerves were fading, the exhaustion in her face was impossible to miss. She could sleep in the car while I drove.
“Where did you leave the rental car?” Mateo asked as we walked out of the diner.
I sent him the location of the motel. And Meera did the same for her address, and we parted ways.
We’d just gotten back into the car when her phone started ringing. Meera stiffened up immediately.
I reached over and took the phone from her hand. Sure enough, it was her murder-happy ex calling. I don’t know what prompted me to do it, but I picked it up.
An angry male voice started yelling at her through the speaker, asking what the fuck she was doing and why she wasn’t picking up.
The insults and demands came back-to-back, like he never even expected her to speak.
He didn’t mention the egg or the office, leading me to believe he hadn’t checked or didn’t have access to the building’s cameras.
He was trying not to give anything away if he didn’t have to.
When he finally stopped yelling, I spoke. “Are you done?”
The line went eerily quiet for a spell, and if it weren’t for the sounds in the background, I’d have wondered if he’d hung up. Curious as to what he’d say, I waited, turning the speakers up so Meera could hear as well.
“Who the fuck are you?” He didn’t give me time to answer. “Wait. You caught her. So you must have the egg.”
“What egg? What the hell are you talking about?” I asked, my gaze meeting Meera’s. “Meera, your ex is a weirdo. No wonder you left him for me.”
Meera’s jaw dropped, and she covered her mouth, mirth bubbling up her face into her eyes.
“Her ex?”
With one hand still covering her mouth, she put her hand out, reaching for her phone. I handed it to her.
“Yes, my ex! You two-timing, cheating bastard! You think I wouldn’t find out about you and Michelle?
I’ve known for a while.” Her eyes sparkled as she spat out the words, her voice shaking in mock anger.
Or was that nervousness? I didn’t think lying to murderers was something she had a habit of doing.
“Oh.” There was shock in that one simple sound. “This is about Michelle. But your gym bag…”
“I survived a whole damn week without it. You can keep it. We’re done, Karim. I don’t care how much my mom likes you. It’s over. I’m not staying with a freaking cheater. Don’t call me again.”
I took the phone back from her. “You heard her. Don’t call her again. And if I see you around her you’re answering to me.” I hung up. I looked up at Meera. “Do you think he bought it?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. He’s smart. But he’s also full of himself.” There was a dullness in her eyes that wasn’t there before, showing just how tired she was.
“Let’s get going.” I handed back the phone and started my car. “We have a long drive ahead.”