"Dude, you look rough."
Damien barely noticed the cup of coffee that Charlie pressed into his hand. He felt the drawing in his pocket, the hard corners biting into his side, to make sure it hadn't mysteriously dropped out. The coffee, strong and bitter, jolted him to reality, and he squinted against the bright sunlight that poured through Charlie's window.
"Rough night. Weird dreams."
"All right, you're verbal." Charlie grabbed the keys to Damien's car out of his hand. "But I don't trust your driving yet. Let's go."
Their first stop was the Hotel Tres Cher. Designed to look like a southern plantation in the middle of affluent Buckhead, the old money neighborhood of downtown Atlanta. The hotel stuck out among the more modern buildings. Damien felt his heart skip a beat when he saw the columns and portico, but a quick glance told him that it wasn't the building from Rizzo's drawing. Once again, he wished he could ask the older man what, exactly, he'd seen, what he was—he was still skeptical about the whole guardian angel thing—and how it all fit together.
"Worth a stop?" asked Charlie.
Damien ran his right hand through his hair. "I don't know. I'm not feeling it."
"Right, then." Charlie turned the wheel and made a quick five-point turn on a quiet street.
"You mean, we're not even going to check it out?"
"You've got that look in your eyes, like you're haunted. It's a different expression for you."
"I haven't been myself for a couple of days." He didn't want to admit it, but his heart thudded dully in his chest, like every beat pushed Audrey further away from him. He had wanted to stop by Maggie's on the way in, but seeing Audrey lying there limp and helpless would have broken his heart more.
And then there were Hades' words. What had he meant?
"This isn't like you, to be so torn up over a girl. I mean, I know it's been a rough week and all, but still. You haven't fallen this hard for someone, well, ever."
Damien looked out the window at the trees standing like naked skeletons along Peachtree Street and tried to remember specifically when the impulse to take care of and protect Audrey had hit him. "I don't know. I was in the hospital room with Audrey and Aphrodite and Nimue, and then Aphrodite and Nimue left, and suddenly I felt like I just had to be there—like it just flooded through me that my purpose in life is to be with her and to love and protect her because she's the most wonderful person who ever existed."
Charlie nodded like Damien's rambling thoughts had made sense. "Uh huh. And did you notice anything physical?"
"Now that you mention it, there was something like a bee sting on my neck, but there isn't a bite or a zit or anything there." He glanced at Charlie to see if his friend would look at him like he was crazy, but Charlie only shook his head, a wry smile on his lips.
"Just don't try to go too quickly with that one. You'll scare her off. She's a free spirit to begin with, and remember, her last guy cheated on her. It's going to take her a while to trust again."
"What are you not telling me?"
"I can't give you any info without knowing for sure. It would stir up more trouble than it's worth if I'm wrong."
Damien understood the feeling, but he couldn't help but poke back. "And what about you and Maggie?" Damien didn't want to think he could scare Audrey away.
Charlie tried to shrug it off, but his face softened briefly. "Phew, talk about a free spirit. That one's been around too long and seen too much to tie down. I'm just a pleasant diversion while she passes the time here."
Damien raised an eyebrow. "Oh, I doubt that. I've seen how she looks at you."
"Yeah, but every time I think that she's going to say or do something to encourage me and bring me out of this hell of uncertainty, she backs off right away. It's like she's got a thing about getting involved with mortals or something."
"It's gotta be something to do with her work. Doesn't she just appear occasionally when you've got a case with supernatural elements?"
"Right."
"Maybe she doesn't want to see you get hurt. She's going to have to take off again once this is over, maybe to Timbuktu or something."
"Dude, you're not helping."
"Sorry."
They finished the drive to the Plaza in silence, but Charlie's withholding of information bugged him, especially since he knew it had to do with Hades' strange comment the night before. As much as he wanted to go to Audrey, he couldn't do it unless he knew what was wrong with him. He didn't want to put her in even more danger. But why wouldn't anyone tell him?
The Plaza Hotel, one of the tallest buildings on Peachtree Street in the heart of downtown Atlanta, looked like an old hotel at street-level. Its granite façade and marble accents quickly morphed into windows and steel that rose in a graceful, tapering spire to penthouse suites at the top. Damien craned his neck to look, but the sun reflecting off the buildings kept him from seeing anything useful. Not that he could stand on the ground and see if anyone stood on the balconies. They're too high up, suicide platforms waiting to happen.
But something told him this was it.
"What do you think?" Charlie asked.
Damien took a deep breath to loosen the tension in the pit of his gut. "Let's take a look around."
Charlie had parked the squad car in an "Emergency Vehicles Only" spot in the alley across the street and came to join Damien. "Shall we snoop a bit before we announce our presence?"
"Sounds good to me." Damien felt intimidated at the thought of just strolling through the revolving door of the hotel where the crème de la crème of society stayed and gathered. Indeed, something about the hotel told his inner sense, stay away, stay away, but he took it as a sign that someone or something wanted them away from there and imagined his spirit guide, the black wolf, walking beside him.
No one would mess with a guy with a wolf, right?
He jumped when he felt a wagging tail brush his leg, but he couldn't see anything.
"What was that about?" Charlie held the door beside the central revolving door open.
"Nothing." Great, now the sleep deprivation is messing with my head.
The two-story lobby seemed to stretch on for miles toward the curving, tapered staircase that led to the second floor and galleries, an illusion helped by the white, gold, and light wood that seemed to be everywhere. A giant crystal chandelier sparkled with a million tiny rainbows and hung suspended over a round cream suede divan. A couple of tired but chatty older women sat and waited for their husbands, who stood in line at the check-in desks to the left. An army of red-coated valets swarmed around their luggage.
Acutely aware of his comparative shabbiness in spite of his efforts to dress professionally, Damien noticed how no one took notice of them, and an image flashed into his brain of his spirit guide smiling its doggie smile.
"Yeah, I can see her in a place like this."
"Shhh!" Charlie looked around. "You never know who or what may be watching to make sure she stays hidden."
"Right, I won't say anything else. Where should we start?"
"Let's head downstairs to the meeting rooms and ballrooms. Then we can probably find an elevator that will take us to the top floors without someone seeing us."
They found a staircase hidden in an alcove and followed the brightly patterned carpet, likely leftover from the hotel's older days, to the gallery below, where a heavy wooden easel with a piece of poster board announcing the day's meetings sat.
"Hmm, let's see what the consultants are forcing on Atlanta's innocent businessmen and women," said Charlie.
Damien read along with him. Synergy and You, Leadership for Dummies and Introverts, Make Every Sale Count, and Administrative Secrets.
"You know, we really should have had more of a plan than this," said Damien.
"It all looks kosher except that last one. What kind of workshop title is 'Administrative Secrets'?" Charlie glanced around, then lifted the poster board off the easel. Beneath it, printed on another poster board colored like parchment,
was a sign, Meet the Goddess, Ballrooms A-F.
"Do you think it's her?" asked Damien. "That's a little obvious, isn't it?"
"Nah, modern folks won't believe it's literal, and Ames hopefully doesn't know we're on to him. Remember the plans on Amelia's table?"
"Right, for the party. Let's go check it out."
Charlie turned from where he was going to dash upstairs. "How do you know it's what we're looking for?"
Damien brought out the folded piece of paper with Rizzo's drawing. "Arthur dreamed this. It was in the book he loaned me."
Charlie studied the paper. "So you think this will confirm our suspicions?"
"I was told I could find Aphrodite if I found this."
"Okay, but be careful. Remember, they've been using were-bats and other nasties to guard their secrets."
The doors to ballrooms B through F were locked, but Ballroom A opened with a creak. Recessed lighting along the walls shone on to a ceiling painted dark blue and studded with twinkling L.E.D. stars. Tables and chairs lay jumbled against the walls, but Damien ignored them. He found what he sought under a drop cloth on a stage at the other end of the long, large room in what would be Ballroom F if the dividers were up. Three Styrofoam columns painted to resemble marble held up a triangular piece. Together, it looked like the façade of a temple, and the lines on Rizzo's drawing resolved into a crudely drawn image of it. Burgundy curtains fluttered behind it, and the way they moved made Damien's heart thud.
The sound of claws scrabbling on the wood of the stage confirmed his fears, and he jumped off the stairs and pushed Charlie ahead of him.
"Run! There's something in here."
24
"And me without my silver bullets." Charlie didn't wait for a second look. They wove around chairs and tables and leapt over piles of tablecloths and napkins. The creature, a mix of matted fur, yellowed teeth, and red eyes snarled at his heels, its leathery wings beating the air behind him. Thankfully the light fixtures kept it from being able to fully take wing. They crashed out into the hallway and shut the doors, holding the handles so that whatever had chased them couldn't follow. The doors vibrated against their shoulders, and then all was silent.
"So the locked doors…"
"…were to keep those things in," Damien finished. "As for how we got in…" The door handle tingled under his palms, and he caught a flash of how it would only open for human hands. "This one has a spell on it."
"How do you…? Oh, that's right." Charlie looked down at his own hands.
Damien clenched his hands into fists so they wouldn't shake. He didn't know how he knew, either, but he had a suspicion. "C'mon, dude, what are you not telling me?"
"You've been influenced in some way. I'm not sure how."
Hearing Charlie, who probably knew him better than anyone, say it finally drove it home. Damien's heart dropped into his knees and weakened them so he sank to the floor. He spoke around the knot in his throat. "You mean, I've been touched." A memory shoved its way into his brain, of his grandmother stirring a pot on the old stove in her yellow kitchen.
"Your cousin Lee," she said with a tap of her gnarled index finger on her forehead, "he was touched, and he wasn't never the same again. He had to go live in the hospital with the crazy people."
And she followed him a few years later. Something licked his hand, and he looked down expecting to see his grandmother's golden lab. Instead, the black wolf looked at him.
"Damien, yoo hoo. Come back, Dame."
"I'm here." He opened his eyes—when had he shut them?—and felt like he woke from a dream.
"I've called Maggie. Did you nod off down there?"
"No." But when he got to his feet, his limbs felt leaden, and he didn't remember Charlie calling anyone. Where did I go? "I don't think so."
"Good. Look, I know all this magic and fantastic creature stuff takes some getting used to, but you'll get there."
That's not what I'm worried about anymore. He didn't voice his concern about his own sanity to his friend, but rather asked, "Did she say how Audrey is?"
"About the same. Lucia is staying with her."
In spite of the plethora of workshop offerings on the white board, Charlie and Damien didn't see anyone in the hallway until Maggie arrived about thirty minutes later. No hotel employees appeared, either. Damien guessed the rest of the humans felt the "stay away" vibe.
"It's strangely deserted down here," Maggie said. "Were-bats can do that to people, drive them off." She wrinkled her nose. "Ugh, I smell them. Cat pee and sulfur. It's worse when they're not allowed in sunlight and can't change into human forms."
"Can you get rid of them?" asked Damien. Just the thought of facing one of those creatures again gave him chill bumps.
"I'm more interested in finding out why they're here. Unfortunately, they're quite stupid, so if we captured one, it wouldn't give us anything useful. No, we're going to have to figure out what, exactly, this gala is about."
"That means we're going to have to talk to the lovely Amelia Ames," said Charlie. He flipped out his cell phone, and Damien remembered that he had put her number in there the day before. They waited, and Charlie grimaced.
"Number disconnected. Damn! I knew I should have checked it when she gave it to me."
"You'll have to go and talk to her, then," said Maggie. "I can stay here and see who goes in and out."
"How will you do that?" asked Damien. "Can you make yourself invisible?"
"I wish. No, there are other ways not to be noticed. I'll be right back." She stepped into an alcove, and when she emerged, she wore a hotel uniform. "Now I'm just part of the scenery."
Damien couldn't help but grin at the look on Charlie's face.
"Wow." Usually when Charlie got that expression, it was followed by a smack across the cheek. "What else do those magical clothes do?"
No slap. Maggie winked. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
Damien cleared his throat to distract them from their flirting. "While you're blending in, can you go upstairs and check the hotel computer and see if there is a Ms. Aphrodite staying here?"
"Dame, that's brilliant." Charlie clapped him on the shoulder. "Maggie, can you handle the computers?"
"I'll see."
She returned after about ten minutes. "No one under the name you suggested," she said, and Damien blushed. He'd screwed up and said it out loud again. "But," she continued, "there is a Mrs. Diteroaph staying in the penthouse suite. Room occupancy listed at four-plus."
"That's got to be her. With her attendants."
"Right, so now what?" asked Damien. "It's not like we can just go up there and rescue her."
"No, but Maggie can bring her room service."
"Too obvious." She tapped her upper lip with a manicured index finger. "You guys go on and talk to Amelia. I'll stay here and make sure the beasties don't get out to the rest of the hotel. I doubt Ames knows the extent of the nastiness he's dealing with."
Audrey looked out the window, or at least what she could see of it. The dingy glass panes with the blooms of mold between them reminded her of the gym at her high school. Did the windows look that decrepit yesterday? The room reeked of mildewed decay, and cracks in the plaster grew like leafless kudzu. Was this the effects of the barriers between the C.U. and the waking world eroding?
None of them said anything. J.J. stood by the door and kept watch. Eros had soon tired of their company and sat in a despondent heap on the floor. His half-unfurled wings covered his shoulders against the damp chill. Even the little silver dragon shivered in her lap, and she stroked its head, not sure how else to soothe it. She wondered what happened with her body, what Damien was doing. And why her mind kept straying toward him.
Ah, Damien. Will he rescue me this time? Do I want him to? Saving my life twice would put me under quite an obligation to him.
"How do you know Damien?" she asked J.J., whom she'd determined knew Damien in another capacity. "I can't believe you didn't say anything when you saw who my coffee sh
op cop was. Or did you set that up?"
J.J. grinned. "I can't tell you that. As for Damien, he's a good guy," he said again and sat by the cage. "Did he tell you he was seriously hurt in a gun fight?"
"What happened?" Audrey's heart skipped a beat. "Wait, I don't want to know." She sighed. "Wait, I do."
"Yes, and you need to. If you're going to get over your stubbornness and be with him, you need to know what you're getting into. He dragged his friend Charlie out of the way, and he got shot near his groin area, right side. Bled like crazy. It's amazing he survived to get to the emergency room."
"At Dekalb?"
"Right. Didn't have time to get him to Grady."
Audrey sat back and pictured the tall, dark officer. The image that came to mind was of him in her dream, and she quelled the heat that blossomed in her core when she thought of them joined and the passion on his face. "I can't imagine him being weak and helpless."
"He’s not as uncomfortable with it as some guys." J.J. chuckled. "But still, he gave the nurses and physical therapists a hard time, kept asking for exercises that would get him better faster. How'd you finally meet and talk to him? I thought you'd never get the guts to say hi."
Audrey ran her finger over the bars of her cage. "We exchanged a few words at Java Lemur but didn't really talk until he found me wandering an empty lot near where he had found Nimue and the others. Both of us were relieved that the other was mortal." She smiled at the memory. It seemed so long ago now.
"I bet. He told me he had a grandmother who would tell him all sorts of crazy stories. She was fundamentalist, but something not mainstream. He said he used to have nightmares of demons being after him."
"I wonder how he would feel about…" She looked at Eros, who pouted back at her.
"About what?"
"Someone's mom got pissed and told her son to shoot Damien in the neck while he looked at me."
"Hey, don't blame the archer," said Eros. "He ignored her."
Tangled Dreams Page 23
