Jennifer Rardin - [Jaz Parks 1] - Once Bitten, Twice Shy

couple of minutes they bickered like ten-year-olds. But nothing they said could distract me from the fact that Bergman hadn't seen me either. Bergman and Cole were definitely alive. Well, maybe you could debate about Cole, but since human effort had brought him back as opposed to gold-light, crew-cut guy, I was grouping him with Miles. Vayl, Cassandra and me… well, that was another matter entirely. Another matter that now evidently included David. Too. Much.

Cassandra snapped me out of it. She and Bergman had quit slapping each other around conversationally and now she'd moved back to her under-the-breath revelations. 'Thinks I can't fight this thing with magic, eh? Well I'll show him!' She flipped through a book like an impatient client at the beauty parlor.

'Any luck?' I ventured.

She rolled her eyes at me. 'I cannot find anything more telling about the Tor-al-Degan than I already knew. It is so aggravating! What kind of name is that anyway? I even typed it into Google. You know what I found? Nothing!' She flipped some more, traded books and continued her search.

'At the risk of sounding over much like Sherlock Holmes,' said Vayl as he sauntered in, giving Cassandra a knowing smile, 'Jaz and I seem to have found a rather compelling clue.' Cole came plodding in after him and collapsed on the couch.

Cassandra gaped at him, then at Vayl, then back at Cole. 'How can you discuss clues when there is an injured man at your heels?'

Vayl gave Cole an appraising look, 'He will live. Now tell me what you think of this.' He pulled the pyramid from his coat pocket and held it out so they could all see it.

Bergman gave it one hard look and dismissed it. Factoring in his previous comments and Cassandra's complaints, I gathered he wasn't interested because he thought it might be magical. Instead he grabbed the first aid kit from where he'd stowed it under the sink and went to sit by Cole, where he spent the next ten minutes cleaning, dabbing, patching and urging him to go to the hospital before his nose healed that way.

Cassandra reacted much differently. She flattened her hands on the open pages of her book, her thumbs and forefingers framing a picture of a horned, winged, fanged version of Cyclops eviscerating some hapless bystander. But her attention wasn't on the picture. It was on the key Amanda had passed on to us. It sat in the palm of Vayl's hand, looking like a kid's toy that's been rolled in the mud.

'I think I've been looking at this all wrong,' Cassandra said. 'All this time I have been focusing on the Tor-al- Degan when I should have been looking for the key. Not that I really knew what it looked like until just now,' she darted a furious glance at Bergman as she grabbed a new book from the pile she'd scattered across the table.

I gathered Bergman hadn't entirely passed on the description I'd given him of the pyramid. Considering the import of such information, I seriously considered calling in some folks with handcuffs and squad cars. Maybe that would scare him out of his idiotic prejudices. But that would be for later. Now, Cassandra seemed to be on a roll. She studied the book with more and more interest while the men studied her. About the time I expected her to jump up and shout, 'Eureka!' or something equally enthusiastic but a lot less geeky, my cell phone rang. After an odd moment when my nonexistent hands itched to dive into my absent pockets, I realized Vayl had it. Our gazes met across the room and he raised his eyebrows as if to say, Should I answer it? I nodded.

'Hello, you have reached Jasmine Parks' phone. This is Vayl speaking.' He listened intently. 'No,' he said, 'I am afraid Jasmine is not available. Can I take a message?… Oh, hello Mr. Parks.'

Holy crap on a t.v. tray! My dad is talking to my undead boss, uh, boyfriend, um, whatever! Could this get any stranger?

Apparently so. Because when Vayl hung up he said, 'You never told me how kind your father is, Jasmine.'

Kind? This was the man who cut off little old ladies with his grocery cart so he could beat them to the checkout counter. If you caught him at the park, he wouldn't be feeding the pigeons, he'd be shooting them. Once I saw him punt a chihuahua twenty yards because it nipped his ankle. Kind? Huh!

I whooshed at Vayl, making him blink. 'Oh no you don't,' I ordered him. 'You don't get to like my dad until I like my dad, and I don't. Do I?' I could tell he thought I'd really flipped out. So I tried to distract him. It turned out to be remarkably easy. 'What did Albert have to say?' I asked.

'Senator Bozcowski does have a pool. His cousin-in-law owns the firm that made your faulty beacon. He is also vacationing with his family in Miami at the moment. But you knew that. Did you also know when he is scheduled to return to Washington?'

'Well, I'm pretty sure his dance card's full tomorrow night, so I'll say… day after tomorrow.'

'Nope.'

'No?'

'He is leaving in the morning.'

'This morning?' As Vayl nodded I checked out the Regulator clock hanging over the fireplace. It showed nearly midnight. Oh my God, it's happening tonight! Those lying weasels!

'Um, Vayl?' Bergman ventured hesitantly, 'is there a reason you're talking to the mantle?'

Vayl quickly explained, making it sound like I'd gotten myself into a predicament when I was, in fact, trying to rescue poor Cole from the sling we'd wound him into to start with! While Vayl talked, Bergman searched the air for clues to my existence, Cassandra smirked at Bergman and Cole just slouched among the pretty pillows, scowling at the drawn curtains. When Vayl had finished, Cassandra stared at Bergman triumphantly. 'Explain that with your equations!' Before he could think up a suitable retort she went on, 'By the way, while you were playing doctor, I found it.'

'Found what, Cassandra?' Vayl demanded. 'Talk fast, Jaz and I have to leave.'

'The key!' She pointed to the artifact. 'The Tor-al-Degan! I believe I have found the words—' she glanced at Bergman '—the spell that activates the key.' She held up, not a book, but the Enkyklios. 'We seem to have a detailed record of this beast after all.'

'It sounds as if you are coming with us, then.'