A Wolf at the Door

you do next?”

“Call the cops. Notify hotel security. Get a restraining order.”

“Notify hotel security, then. They already know to be on the lookout for people who don’t belong, so leave it vague, and tell them that only known personnel are to be coming up to this floor. Anybody else has to be cleared by one of us first.” Surely, even Bobby or Tai could spot a six-foot-tall Roman centurion, right?

“I’m gonna take a shower,” Gretchen announced, standing suddenly. “Things are getting too weird for me, I just need to chill out a little.”

While she went to do that, I skedaddled down to my room to get my stuff. Unfortunately, someone else had the same idea.

Now, I know I’m not the most organized guy in the world, but I think I would have remembered flinging my clothes all over the damn room. “Shit,” I muttered, surveying the damage.

Like any truly paranoid person, I did have the stray thought that whoever it was might still be in the room, and I stood in the open doorway for long moments, just being still. A living presence leaves a mark, something felt beyond sound or scent. A tremor in the Force maybe. But no…in the end, there was no one there. The door had been shut and locked. Whoever had paid me a visit was long gone.

My first thought was for my sword and armor, but both were tucked in the back of the closet right where I’d left them. What kind of robber didn’t check the closet? Just to be sure, I flipped the case open, holding my palm just above my sheathed sword. Prickles rose all up and down my arm as the tiny hairs stood at attention. Yup, spells still there. Examining my armor found the same result. My gear hadn’t been touched.

The only way to see if anything else had been taken was to start the process of cleaning up. I had the feeling reporting it wouldn’t do a damn bit of good. “Can you describe the suspect?” “Sure, he was about this tall, plumed helmet, bit on the stocky and indestructible side.” It would have been easy for the centurion to ransack my room while we were having our shopping spree, then meet us at the movie lot for our exercise in fleeing like a little girl. All the more reason for me to move into Gretchen’s suite. We were too separated here, too vulnerable.

As I gathered up my scattered belongings, I was puzzled to realize that nothing seemed to be gone. The drawers had been turned out, though most were empty. The bed had been stripped with no attempt made to put it back together. The desk was rifled through, Post-its and pens tossed all over the floor. But every personal item of mine was accounted for. Even the slashed-up black T-shirt. “What the hell were you looking for?” Worst burglar ever. I had to be missing something.

It took me another fifteen minutes to find it, and even then I couldn’t be sure it had been taken by nefarious forces. My trash can was empty. The trash can where I’d unthinkingly dropped the extra few inches of Cam’s blessed string that I hadn’t needed. Most likely, housekeeping had come in and cleaned. Perfectly innocuous. But I had no way to be sure.

What could someone do, with a snippet of magic string? I had no idea, and I mentally kicked myself as I dragged my repacked bag down the hallway behind me, my armor riding on the top and my sword case tossed up on one shoulder. Careless. So damn careless to just discard it that way.

“Well, either housekeeping in this place is the worst I’ve ever seen, or my room was ransacked.”

“No shit? Anything taken?” Tai was at the bar making phone calls apparently, but he put the phone down when I came in.

“Not sure yet. But they didn’t touch this,” I nodded toward the case on my shoulder. “And if they wanted to hurt me, this woulda been the thing to snatch.”

“What is it?” I laid the case on the couch, opening it for him. He whistled lowly. “Daaaamn. You really know how to use that thing?”

“Yup.” I lifted The Way out and handed it to him hilt first. “Watch it, it’s sharp.”

Tai was used to handling weapons. I recognized it in the careful way he held the sword, keeping his fingers away from the blade, not because it was sharp, but so he didn’t get fingerprints on the metal. “This is too pretty to use.”

“I’ve had the same thought myself.” I packed it away, piling my meager belongings in an out-of-the-way corner. “Let’s hope I don’t have to.”

“Bobby went downstairs to talk to security. We should tell him about your room.”

“Yeah, we need to get this door rekeyed. Too many people have access, the way it is.” I gave him a pointed look. “And, we’ll need to re-ward the door. I can’t be sure mine will hold anymore.” That’s all I could come up with. What better way to figure out a way through a magical ward than to steal a piece of it?

He raised a dark brow at me. “You need me to ask the kitchen for more string?”

“Um…no. No, we’re gonna try something different. More precisely, you’re gonna try something different.”

“I’m gonna what?”

Back in the day—I say that like I’m eighty years old or something—Mira and Ivan worked tirelessly to awaken the magic ability they were sure I had. Needless to say, it hadn’t worked. But I remembered those exercises. If I could walk Tai through them, get him to consciously access his magic, I was sure I’d at least be able to tell if it was working. I had to get Tai to reset the ward.

First, we had to wait for Bobby to return. I didn’t want people passing in and out of the door while we were trying to do this. And while we were waiting for him, Dante returned, no worse for the wear for being abandoned at the movie lot.

“Oh, Boo! I heard what happened! Are you all right?” Gretchen, fresh out of her shower and wrapped in a big fluffy robe like armor, allowed herself to be comforted.

“Sorry we had to leave you behind, Dante.” I did feel a bit bad about that, after the fact.

He just waved a hand dismissively. “Ain’t no thing. You did right, protecting my girl here.” He hugged her tightly and they sat quietly on the couch, her head nestled against his shoulder. Part of me felt a teensy-weensy bit jealous. Must be nice to have a best friend that didn’t hate you.