Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
T he air was a haze of powder. The guy in the other car was already walking toward us, spewing obscenities in a blend of English and Spanish. Bruised and in shock, I batted at the deflated airbag with the lingering sensation of being hit in the face with a padded shovel.
“Everyone okay?” I asked, glancing into the back seat. The driver’s side door was dented, and getting out was not going to be possible anytime soon.
“I gave you one simple job,” Britannia snapped as a siren sounded in the distance. Someone had called an ambulance, or police, or both. Britannia clambered from the floor onto the backseat.
I batted at the airbag. We needed to get the hell out of here.
Wald already had the back passenger door open.
He yanked open the front passenger door pushing the air bag back while grabbing my arm.
With some unladylike contortions, painful twisting, and a few yelps that he ignored, he pulled me out.
I was happy to be free of the car, but there were going to be more bruises .
“Here, take this, don’t let go of it, and stay quiet.” Wald pressed the marble from Aunt Agatha’s into my palm, folded my fingers over it, and nudged me down onto the curb.
Being annoyed by the manhandling faded against what I was seeing.
The world was still there, but I had the impression I was looking at it through a window.
Was it shock? When I reached out, I couldn’t touch a barrier, and my hand looked normal.
Wald was in front of me. His leather jacket had a crystal-like surface.
I shook my head, closed my eyes, and opened them.
The world still looked weird. Maybe I’d hit my head?
I kicked Wald in the leg, and he turned. I’m sure he was glaring at me from behind the sunglasses. His face was healed? There was no gash, not even blood. He dropped to the curb beside me as the sirens got closer. A police cruiser pulled up, blocking off the intersection.
The driver of the other car rushed at the squad car, spouting words like that crazy bitch before the officer could even get out of the car.
The man was lying. I had stopped at the sign and signaled, but as the car damage would show, he’d been driving too fast. It was his fault, but on a better day, I’d have managed to avoid hitting him.
My stomach hollowed. There was no way out of this now.
After all I’d done to run from it, this tiny screw-up was about to land me in jail.
I resigned myself to a big day of questions I had no way to begin to answer, followed by a prison cell that I might never leave.
I remembered the day my Mom went inside.
I’d cried, outraged the world would take her from me. Who would care if I was in jail?
Wald leaned in, the hair on my arms bristling with his proximity.
“I activated the artifact. With the marble concealed in your hand, they can’t see you—but move only in smooth movements.
Don’t let go of it and under no circumstances talk.
I’ll get us out of this.” He dusted a kiss on my forehead. For whatever reason, he cared.
I looked down at the marble in my palm and then over at the police car.
Britannia had walked up to the police officer, and I swear she was attempting to seduce him while telling off the other driver at the same time.
It was an impressive technique. From the shouted repartee, I gathered she’d convinced them she was the driver of our car.
She was wearing almost the same outfit as I was, not that the driver could have seen it.
But the people on the street would have seen her drive up.
Speaking of people, we now had a crowd around us.
Britannia excellently handled both the male and female officers, and Wald produced the rental car papers.
I still saw no good way out of this. A tow-truck pulled up, and after some measurements and photos, the car was towed off.
Someone came to rescue the other stranded driver.
A purple Ford drove up the street, parking by the curb as the police got back into their cruiser.
“You Charlie?” The driver asked out the window at Wald. Wald nodded and walked over to me.
“Time to go. Keep it slow,” he said, looking around like I wasn’t right in front of him.
I got up and shooting pains tore up my leg. I half fell back onto the curb with a moan.
“Shush,” Wald hissed. I got up again, shifting most of the weight on the other leg, and limped toward Britannia who had the purple car’s back door open.
Leg throbbing, I slid in beside Britannia as Wald sandwiched me between them. Warm leather and a sweet muskiness canceled out Britannia’s pear perfume as I cuddled closer to him .
Wald gave the driver the address of another rental car company.
“How are we getting another car?” I whispered.
He nestled his nose under my hair and licked up my neck.
His tongue was delicate and rough at the same time.
Tingles shot through me, and in a rush of confused sensations, I melted against him, not really caring where we were going. “Do that again,” I cooed at him.
Britannia shot me a withering look. Wald smirked at her, but he didn’t lick me again.
He put his finger to his lips, reminding me we were being overheard.
I slouched down and closed my eyes, descending into the glow of whatever that tongue had done to make my leg stop throbbing and other places start.
A half hour later, we had new wheels. A white innocuous four-door beast of a car.
We promptly drove to the impound, which had the old banged up black sedan.
Wald got out, leaving me with Britannia.
Neither of us talked, though I gave her a couple of glares that said, I’m only tolerating you for Wald’s sake .
In far too short a time for normal police paperwork, Wald returned, carrying the box and our luggage to the trunk with the help of a somewhat glazed-over guy in a uniform. He handed the guy some cash and slid back into the driver’s seat.
Back on the road, I stuffed the marble into my pocket.
“Okay, I have questions. How are you not dead, and why the fuck are we trusting her? Oh, and how could I have been invisible for the last hour? And where are we going?”
Britannia turned from the passenger seat and glared at me with pursed glossy lips the color of crushed pomegranate seeds.
“Yeah, how was she invisible?” Britannia asked.
Wald ignored her, his lips curling on one side. He pulled onto the highway. “I’m not dead because Britannia healed me. It’s one of her abilities. We’re going to Britannia’s hotel to drop her off, and then you and I are continuing on our way back to Oregon as planned.”
“What about food? I’m hungry again.” I was about to ask about the marble and the ring, but instead, I returned Britannia’s smug look. I’d almost forgotten I wasn’t supposed to talk about the marble.
We got to the hotel. A chic boutique place. Britannia didn’t even toss a backward glance as she walked away from the car. Whatever she was up to, she had it planned without the need of us, which made me extra super uncomfortable.
“What does the marble do?” I asked, bursting with questions as I slid into the passenger seat.
“The marble, as you call it, is an artifact with a sort of phased effect where you are still able to view this world and time but are in a safe place. The holder of the artifact is cloaked unless they speak or move too fast for it to keep up.” Wald said it matter-of-factly, but jeez, it was hard to wrap my head around.
So basically, invisibility with limitations.
Why was I feeling like I was playing a live action role-playing game but with real blood and monsters?
I glanced around, like one of them would jump out at me from an invisible shadow.
What if people, or things, were watching me when I didn’t know it?
“How many of these artifact things are there?”
“One.”
“Wait. Only one?” That dampened the odds of lurkers.
“It’s an artifact. Something made by an old power. They are not easy to come by. ”
“Well, that makes it crystal clear, thanks,” I said, pouting at the way he’d delivered it, like I was dense. A sign for a burger joint whizzed by, and hunger pangs gripped me. “I actually do need food. Whatever you see first,” I said, changing my own subject.
Wald chose a taco joint. I was good with that. I got a burrito slightly smaller than my head. It was hellaciously messy, and I took pleasure in wiping my hands on Britannia’s trashed catsuit. Mouth full of burrito, I rattled off the list of my remaining questions.
W ald pulled into the mall’s parking lot and drove into a space between two sections of stores reserved for deliveries.
“You weren’t kidding? We’re actually going shopping?” I had my hand on the door release, thrilled to be getting out of the car.
“Sort of. You do look like you could use a new outfit. You’d better let me handle it though. The store cameras might land you in jail.” His jaw twitched.
I flopped against the seat. “Then what am I supposed to do? Wait here in the sweltering car?”
“If you use the marble, you’ll find the heat isn’t a problem. Besides, it will keep anyone from seeing you,” he said with a smirk, opening the door.
I crossed my arms with a scowl. Alone and feeling like I was being watched, I cupped the marble in my palm.
Closing my eyes, I scrolled through the details of the last twenty-four hours, or was it thirty-six?
Forty-eight? I added up the hours. Two days and almost twelve hours.
Sixty hours of complete chaos. The humdrum life I had resigned to was destroyed.
Even if by some miracle I was cleared of the string of murders, I was still likely fleeing a warrant.
But a magic ring was going to fix everything.
I guffawed at the exact moment I noticed the security guard in the rearview mirror.