to think about spending my life with you, and then you go do something so stupid that it gets you shunned. I don’t even want to know what it was.”
“Marshal.” I never had a choice. I never had a damned choice!
“I don’t want to do this,” he said, not letting me interrupt. “And trust me,” he said, gesturing, “I thought hard about it, really weighed what I wanted and what I was willing to give for a possible life with you. I came over here ready to curse the world, to try to find out who did this to you and find a way to get the shunning rescinded, but then…” Marshal gritted his teeth, making his jaw muscles bunch. “I’m only going to get myself shunned. I can’t live outside society. You’re a fun, beautiful, fabulous woman,” he said, as if trying to convince himself. “Even if you do get the shunning rescinded, what are you going to do next? I like my life.” He looked at me, and I blinked fast. “Now I’m just angry that you can’t be a part of it,” he finished.
I couldn’t seem to breathe, and I held the edge of the center counter to hide my vertigo.
“No hard feelings, okay?” he said as he turned.
I nodded. “No hard feelings,” I breathed. Marshal wasn’t a bad man for wanting out. He wanted to be part of something, and I clearly wasn’t able to put my needs aside and put ours first. Maybe if my life wasn’t so crappy, it wouldn’t show as much and we could have tried, but not now. It wasn’t his fault. I’d screwed up, and asking him to pay the price with me wasn’t fair.
“Thanks, Marshal,” I whispered. “For everything. And if you ever need help from the dark side…” I gestured helplessly as my throat closed. “Call me.”
A faint smile turned the edges of his mouth up. “No one else.”
And then he was gone, his steps fading as he walked away from me. I heard a soft murmur as he said good- bye to the pixies, and then the closing of a door.
Numb, I sank into my chair at the table. Eyes unseeing, I pulled my spell book closer, covering up the letter from the university. Wiping my eyes, I opened it and started searching.
Twenty-six
The wind funneling between the tall buildings down by the river picked up tiny bits of ice and grit, and they hit my legs like pinpricks. I hated nylons. Even black ones with glitter. Hunching into my dressy long felt coat, I hustled after Ivy, head down and pace fast. Trying to do this charm in the parking garage would have been miserable, and I was glad for the invitations if only for that, but now that we’d be inside, Jenks could come. He was currently in my bag sitting on one of those hand warmers hunters use. With him at my back and Ivy guarding the ladies’ bathroom door, this would be a snap. That is, if we got up there in time. If we didn’t hurry, we’d be in the elevator at midnight.
A gust of wind brought me the scent of fried vendor food, and I squinted ahead to one of Carew Tower’s street entrances. Carew Tower was right over Fountain Square, and people were everywhere, milling through the closed- off streets as both FIB and I.S. cruisers blocked the way. It wasn’t as bad as the solstice, when they closed the circle by lottery, but the uproar at midnight ought to be a big enough collective emotion to do the spell. Actually, it was a lot like the night I had first summoned Pierce, trying to bring my dad back for some parental advice, weather and all.
Reminded, I held my bulging bag tighter, trying not to squish Jenks. I had everything in it I’d need to do the charm, including a set of clothes for Pierce, and my splat gun. Beside me, Ivy’s steps were short and fast because of her heels.
“Sure are a lot of witches,” she said as we made our way across the street.
“Any excuse to party, right?” I said, then took a longer look. She was pale in her long coat with her hair whipping in the wind. And worried. “We make you nervous, don’t we?”
She met my eyes as we stepped up onto the curb. “You don’t.”
I smiled. “Thanks.” I understood. Most vampires made me nervous, especially when they gathered.
The doorman opened the glass doors for us so we didn’t have to use the revolving entryway, and we entered together. The cessation of the wind was a blessed relief, and I immediately opened my bag. “You okay, Jenks?” I said, peering down to find him sitting awkwardly beside the warmer.
“Freaking fantabulous,” he muttered. “Tink’s tampons, I think my wing snapped off. What are you doing out there? Jumping jacks?”
“Stay put until we get up there,” I said so he wouldn’t come out to prove that the echoing entryway wasn’t too cold-which it was. “I only have two invitations.”
“Like they could stop me?” he said, and I smiled at Ivy’s snicker.
I left the bag unzipped as Ivy and I clacked our feminine way to the restaurant’s elevator, where the man in the white uniform checked our invitations and then our coats. The night air from the revolving door was cold on my bare shoulders, and I let my coat go with regret. The doors to the elevator had been polished to a shine, and I resisted the urge to adjust my nylons as I shifted to get a better appreciation of the work I had done to look like this.
My heels, nylons, and a long black dress with no shoulders and a choker neckline looked good. I’d picked it out last week, almost able to feel Kisten in my thoughts as I shut out the clerk’s enthusiastic recommendations for something with more flash. I’d nearly gotten the little dress that showed off my butt, but I’d listened to Kisten’s memory instead. I looked great with my hair up off my neck in a complicated braid that had taken five of Jenks’s kids to do. It had even held up in the wind.
Ivy was dressed just as dramatically, having pulled a bright red dress out of her closet, and going from workout tights to glamorous sophisticate in ten minutes. Her neckline was cut low, and the slit in the dress went to midthigh. A lace shawl graced her shoulders. I knew the shawl was for a vampire’s benefit, more enticing around her neck than bare skin. Apart we looked good. Together we looked fantastic, with her Asian heritage standing as a beautiful contrast to my pale, dead-fish complexion.
An older couple smelling of too much perfume and aftershave stood ahead of us as the silver doors opened and we all got in. A spike of adrenaline went through me, and I shifted my lumpy bag to my front. This had to work. I’d prepped Pierce’s substance spells in exactly the same way, and I had my splat gun loaded with sleepy-time charms. Ivy would man the bathroom door, Jenks would help me with Al. Nothing would get past them. And when it was over, we could party the new year in together, ghost, vamp, witch, and pixy.
There was another doorman inside the elevator in case we didn’t know how to push a button, and as I nervously stood in the dead center of the small lift, the hairs on the back of my neck pricked. I slowly turned to see the couple who had gotten in with us, the woman’s lips pressed tight and the man staring straight ahead with a strained look on his face. I turned back around, and Ivy snickered.
“You’re a fun date,” she whispered as she leaned sideways. “People look at you.”
Whatever. Embarrassed, I stared at the elevator man while he hid a grin. Finally the doors opened. The older woman, who looked good in her own right, gave her husband a smack on the shoulder with her beaded handbag as they got out. He took it like a man, but I noticed he was already ogling the serving ladies in their modestly short skirts.
The murmur of conversations and the scent of high-calorie appetizers hit me first, and my shoulders eased in the warmth. Hidden around the curve of the restaurant, a live band played slow jazz. The tables were gone but for a ring around the windows. Elegantly dressed people mingled, holding little plates of food or champagne flutes, the occasional feminine laugh mixing with the clinking of expensive china to invoke a feeling of high class. Servers moved sedately or darted about, depending on what they were doing. And behind it all as a backdrop was Cincinnati herself.
Forgetting myself, I stood for a moment and took in the view. It had been pretty during the day, but now, with the black of the sky and the lights…it was riveting. The Hollows was glittering, showing the contours of the land as it rose up and away. A ribbon of illumination on the expressway ran as an informal border. The river was a black shadow, and I could see where it had cut into the hills over the millennium.
A woman’s laugh and the flash of Jenks darting from my bag drew my eyes away. Immediately the conversation seemed to grow loud. Jenks flew two circles around me to stretch his wings, then landed on Ivy’s shoulder. She was staring at the city, mesmerized. “It looks peaceful from up here,” she said when her line of sight was broken by a member of the waitstaff.
