Red-Headed Stepchild

by Jaye Wells

Page 22

 

  “What did Clovis borrow in return?”

  I swiveled my head and looked at him. His eyes were on my neck. My hand flew to the sore spot instinctively. “Also none of your business. ”

  He looked at me for another moment, but eventually gave up and went to curl up on the other end of the couch. I hated it when he pouted.

  “If it makes you feel any better, I think I’ve found a spell to send you home. ”

  His little ears perked up, but he didn’t look at me. “It’s not nice to tease, Sabina. ”

  “I’m not teasing. Actually, I can’t believe how simple it is. ”

  Obviously intrigued, Giguhl padded back toward me, eyeing the book on the table. “Is that it?”

  “Yeah. You want to give it a try?”

  “Are you sure you can handle it? I mean, you’ve never done magic before, right?”

  “It seems pretty straightforward. You game?”

  He jumped off the couch and looked back at me. “Sure. What’s the worst that could happen?”

  Twenty minutes later, we had our answer.

  “I can’t freaking believe this!”

  I cringed. “I’m so sorry. ”

  “I’m bald!” Giguhl continued. “I look like a freak. ”

  “It’s not that bad,” I said. But it was. Oh my lord was it bad. I’d never seen an uglier cat in my entire life. “Look at the bright side, you won’t have to worry about shedding anymore. ”

  A deluge of expletives both in English and demon followed this observation.

  Behind me, the front door opened and Vinca walked in. Her gasp was almost lost in the wave of profanity coming from the hairless demon cat.

  “What happened?” Vinca whispered to me.

  I shrugged, but Giguhl had plenty to say. He paced in front of us. His gray skin wrinkled disconcertingly as he stalked around the room, swishing his naked tail. “What happened? I’ll tell you what happened: She’s the worst mage ever,” he said to Vinca.

  I glared at him. “Hey, now, you knew going into this that I’ve had no training. Just because I have genes from my Hekate side of the family doesn’t mean I know Jack shit about spell casting. ”

  “No shit, Sherlock. ”

  “I said I was sorry. ” I crossed my arms and plopped onto the couch. I knew I shouldn’t be angry that he was upset, but I was. He knew the risks. I looked at Vinca. “I tried to send him home using a spell I found in a book. I guess I got the translation wrong. ”

  Vinca grimaced and looked at Giguhl with sympathy. “At least you’re not a toad or something. ” I smiled at her, thankful she was trying to help. She walked over and picked up the spell book, which lay on the table next to the white candle I’d lit for the spell. “Where’d you find this?”

  I grimaced, not wanting to admit I’d stolen it from the male she worshipped. “I borrowed it from Clovis. ”

  “How did you translate it?”

  Warmth spread across my cheeks as I ducked my head. “The Internet. I found a Sumerian translator engine. ”

  Vinca’s mouth fell open and her eyes widened. “This isn’t Sumerian. ”

  My stomach dropped. “It’s not?”

  “It’s Hekatian. ” Behind us, Giguhl groaned and said something I didn’t understand.

  “It can’t be,” I said. “The symbols matched those on the Web site. ”

  “It’s an easy mistake. The languages developed in the same region around the same time so the symbols are almost identical. But the pronunciations and meanings are quite different. ”

  “That’s it,” Giguhl said. “All bets are off. You have to let me change back into my demon form. ”

  Guilt and embarrassment warred for supremacy in my gut. I nodded, figuring it was the least I could do for him given my screw-up. “Giguhl, you may change into the demon. ” To Vinca, I said, “You might want to cover your eyes. ” She stared back at me, wide-eyed with curiosity.

  Giguhl sat back on his bald haunches and closed his eyes, waiting for the transformation. When nothing happened, he opened one hairless lid. “Why isn’t it working?”

  “I don’t know. Try it again. ”

  He stood on all fours and seemed to focus his eyes on a distant point in the room. Every muscle in his body seemed tense as he concentrated. After a few seconds, his legs shook with effort. “It’s not working. ” His voice sounded panicked. He screwed his eyes shut and his little mouth pursed into a grimace. When that didn’t work, he blew out a large breath and collapsed.

  “What’s going on?” Vinca asked.

  I had a sneaking suspicion, but I didn’t want to say it. Giguhl said—actually he yelled—it for me. “When she screwed up the spell, she took away my ability to shapeshift. I’m stuck in this hairless carcass!”

  Vinca patted my arm. “You know, it’s amazing you’re so bad at this stuff. ”

  I’d had it. Tension and embarrassment combined into anger. “What do you guys want from me? I was raised by vampires, remember? It’s not like they were going to send me to mage school or wherever it is the Hekatians learn this stuff. ”

  Giguhl dragged himself off the floor and came toward me. I tuned out his latest rant as I put my head in my hands and tried to figure out what to do next.

  “… that mage you mentioned. ” I caught the tail end of Vinca’s statement and then the room fell silent. I looked up to find the hairless cat—lord, he looked spooky—and the nymph looking at me expectantly.

  “Huh?” I said.

  Vinca rolled her eyes. “Do you think that mage you mentioned could help you with this?”

  I realized she was suggesting I go to Adam for help and began shaking my head. Before I could speak, though, Giguhl jumped in.

  “Mage? You never mentioned a mage. Do you think he’d help us?” He looked so hopeful I hated to disappoint him, but that was so not an option.

  “No way, that guy’s crazy,” I said, hoping they’d drop it.

  They both started speaking at once, trying to convince me. As I half-listened I thought about Adam’s offer to help me learn magic. Of course, I couldn’t take him up on it. All I knew about him was that he was insane.

  “Sabina, call him,” Giguhl was saying. “Please? I don’t want to be a hairless cat for the rest of eternity. ”

  My stomach clenched. He walked over and stood on his hind paws. His bald little front paws landed on my knees and he pleaded silently with wide eyes. His batlike ears fell back as he switched to meowing at me.

  “Stop it. That sad little kitty thing isn’t going to work on me. ”

  “Come on, Sabina,” Vinca said. “Look at him. He’s shivering, the poor thing. ”

  I looked at her with disbelief. “I thought you hated him. ”

  She shrugged. “That was before you turned him into the ugliest cat on the planet. Besides, I’m a sucker for stuff like this. ”

  Great, I now had a pitiful cat and a bleeding-heart nymph on my case. I considered lying to them. I could just tell them I didn’t have a way to contact Adam. The truth was his business card was sitting in the pocket of the pants I’d worn the other night. I decided to take the middle road.

  “Look, I’ve got a lot going on right now. If you’ll give me a couple of days, I promise I’ll try to get in touch with the mancy. But I’m not—” Their cheers cut off my words. I was going to tell them I couldn’t promise any miracles, but it was obvious they wouldn’t listen anyway. My only hope was to hold them off with excuses while I tried to find some other way to help Giguhl. The other option—asking Adam for help—was the last thing I wanted to do.

  17

  The next night, I left Vinca to deal with Giguhl. To make him feel better, she’d run out and bought him a trunkload of stuff from the pet store. He’d protested, but by the time I left, Vinca had bribed him with catnip into trying on a little red sweater. He looked ridiculous, but seemed to be basking in Vinca�
��s attention. I left them around nine to go face Clovis.

  When I arrived at the Temple, Clovis leaned in for a kiss, but I shied away. He noticed the move and backed off with a knowing smile.

  “I trust you’re not suffering any ill effects?”

  I’d really hoped to pretend last night hadn’t occurred. Obviously, Clovis had other plans. I simply nodded and took a seat, ready to get down to business.

  “You said that once I passed my initiation you’d tell me about my role in your organization?”

  He hesitated at my abrupt change of subject, but quickly recovered. As he switched into business mode, I surreptitiously wiped my palms on the legs of my jeans.

  “How familiar are you with the Dominae’s business dealings?”

  The question took me off guard. Frowning, I said, “A little. Honestly, if it didn’t involve killing someone, I wasn’t privy to much. ”

  “So you’re not aware of their recent foray into winemaking?”

  I nodded, recalling the wine they’d given me. “Actually, I did know about that. The last time I met with them, they let me try their blood-wine. It was excellent. ”

  He leaned forward. “What did they tell you about it?”

  I shrugged, figuring it was safe to tell him what little I knew. “Not a lot. Just that they were expanding their business interests. They said they were also marketing real wine to the humans to earn more income. The blood-wine would be marketed to the vamp population. Why?”

  “They didn’t mention anything about mages?”

  I shook my head, wondering where he was going with this.

  He pulled a manila folder from one of the drawers. Placing a hand on it, he said, “We’ve had several reports recently about mancies disappearing—friends of Temple congregants and the like. I had my team check out the cases to see if I could help in any way. What they discovered is shocking. ”