He nodded, but his expression was troubled. I hugged him and said a quick goodbye, and I followed Susan's car out of the driveway while Logan and Jack were still squabbling over whether Logan could stay in a spare room or "go sleep in a tree."
At home, I locked my doors, although who knew if that would do any good against a vengeful Fae queen, called Aunt Ruby and Uncle Mike, and filled them in about the story to date and the dawn rendezvous to find the missing dagger. Then I brushed my teeth, texted Jack good night, and fell into bed. Lou jumped up, curled up next to me, and started purring, and the next time I looked at the clock, it was beeping, and I was trying to understand who the idiot was who'd set my alarm for five o'clock in the morning.
I sat up, woozy, and it all rushed back. "I'm the idiot," I mumbled to Lou, who gave me a slitted-eye look of disdain, rolled over, and promptly went back to sleep.
Lucky cat.
I stumbled to the kitchen for coffee, then back to my room to find a clean Dead End Pawn shirt and pair of jeans (Sundays were laundry day, andthathadn't happened), and tied my shoes.
"Here we go. Wish me luck," I told Lou, who'd deigned to come out to the couch and was curled up on the embroidered pillow Molly gave me that said,
"What greater gift than the love of a cat.—Charles Dickens"
She yawned, which I took to be her best wishes, and I kissed her head and then headed out into the chill November morning in search of a magical dagger so that a Fae queen wouldn't destroy my town.
My life this past year—Wow.
Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.
15
Tess
We were a party of five. Jack said Jed had been too exhausted to come with them, so he'd urged his granddad to go back to sleep. There wasn't much a three-hundred-year-old man could do to search a tree that the rest of us couldn't manage, anyway. He'd never seen the dagger, either.
"Two shapeshifters, a sheriff, a vampire, and a pawnshop owner walk up to a willow tree," I said as I ambled over to where Susan, Logan, and Susan's brother Carlos Gonzalez—the vampire—waited. I had to laugh, despite the situation. "Our lives are now the beginning of a terrible joke."
Susan sighed, but then laughed too. Jack and Carlos joined in, and Logan stared at us like we were all buffoons. Maybe we were. But at some point, a girl just has to laugh at Dangerous Situation #703.
"Hi, Carlos! Welcome back," I said. "Good trip?"
Carlos, who had a mysterious job that involved the ruling North American Vampire Council, was the male version of Susan—dark hair, golden skin, and gorgeous. Throw in the natural arrogance, wicked sense of humor, and love of pecan pie, and he was one of my favorite people.
He shoved his long, wavy black hair out of his face and grinned at me. "It was fine, but not nearly as exciting as what's going on here, if Susan hasn't been pulling my leg."
"No leg pulling," I told him. "Sorry."
"Okay, everybody," Susan said, hands on hips and staring up at the tree. "The tree is over three hundred years old and was ninety-two feet tall last year when we had to hire the tree doctor to spruce it up—"
Logan started laughing. "Heh. Spruce it up. Get it? Tree? Spruce?"
Jack groaned, and Susan and I both rolled our eyes, and then she continued. "I don't know where to begin. Could it be hidden inside? There are nooks and squirrel dens, for sure. But what if it is or was hidden somewhere high up? I can get the tree guy back, but—"
"Allow me," Logan said with a bow. He stepped back from the group and leapt into the air, transforming into his eagle shape in midair. Then he flew up and landed on a branch at the very top and started hopping from branch to branch, his head moving in short, jerky, birdlike movements as he searched.
Well, not really birdlike, since he wasactuallya bird.
Sometimes, magic made my head hurt.
Speaking of which … I rubbed my temples with my fingertips. The headache had been gone when I woke up, but was roaring back.
Carlos leaned closer. "Are you all right?"
"It's just a headache, but it won't go away," I told him. "I'll take something when I get to work."
"You're going to work today?" Jack shook his head. "Maybe you should take a sick day."
"I can't take a sick day for a headache—or for a potentially town-destroying situation," I said impatiently. "In fact, it's more important than ever for me to go to work. If we don't succeed—" My breath caught in my throat, and it took a moment for me to continue. "If we don't succeed, we'll need to evacuate Dead End. So I need to figure out what I can transport out of the shop before … before …"
