Dakota snickered. “What a drama queen. Here.” She reached into her back pocket and tossed me her cell phone. “That’s three, though.”
“Three what?” I asked, clicking her phone’s screen on. It required a code. “What’s your password?”
She told me, then said, “Three times I’ve saved you today. I found Elizabeth for you. I bought you some drinks. I unlocked this door.” She frowned. “Four. You’re using my phone, now. You owe me four times over.”
I scratched my eyebrow. “Do I?” I asked, tapping the dial pad. I typed in Xander’s number, hoping he hadn’t changed it over the past five years.
“You do. Big time. I’m thinking—”
I held up a finger, cutting her off, as I put the phone to my ear. Turning my back to her, I gripped the ramp’s railing and shuffled away.
“Joey?” Xander answered, his voice quiet.
“What the fuck, Cumberbatch?” Like Benedict Cumberbatch, à la Benedict Arnold. I can’t keep explaining my jokes to you. Try to keep up, please. “You told the detective to send a squad car over? You allowed me to get arrested? Do you want Mel dead?” My tone was far from quiet.
“Joey,” he said.
“No, fuck you.” I pulled the phone from my ear and hung up on him, then I attempted to destroy it in my grip. I could feel Dakota’s inquisitive eyes staring at me, and I almost placed my fury on her and asked what the hell she was looking at. Instead, the phone buzzed in my hand.
I answered. “What do you want?”
“I followed Elizabeth to her home,” Xander said. “I’m sitting a couple blocks from her house, watching her front door as we speak.” He hesitated, and I was at a loss for words. After a beat, he said, “They let you go?”
“What?”
“The detective, he let you go?”
“No,” I said.
“No? Did you escape?”
“Why do you fucking care? Going to call them again, tell them where I’m at?” I glanced at Dakota. She shrugged at me. I shook my head and turned away.
“I had no other choice,” he said, sounding remorseful and confirming my hunch that he had turned me in. “I swear. I told them where you were, that you were drunk and upset. I was vague with them on purpose. It felt slimy for me to lie.” He sighed. “You know I can’t lie. It goes against my pact.”
Choir boy would rather shove his teeny-weeny into a meat grinder than lie, so he had told the truth and tattled. He took spiritual torment to Job levels. “Why did you do it, then?”
“To protect you,” he said. “I had to keep my involvement out of it. Especially after the incident at the lounge. If they brought us both in for questioning, neither of us could have continued looking for Mel. But if they just had you, I could still follow Elizabeth to her house. I could surprise her later tonight to retrieve the information we need.”
I gripped my pounding forehead and massaged my temples. He had killed some of the Empousa the investigators had found in my burnt-down home. He had been present during the fire. If the detective had detained us both, that wouldn’t have done Mel any good. “I guess… you saved my ass again.”
“What was that? Service isn’t too strong here.”
“Not going to work,” I said, smiling despite myself. “Listen. While detained, Hephaestus wrapped me in some smoke and teleported me to one of his shops. He lectured to me about the Nephil Laws and the Nephil Council. Said he chose me for a reason, blah, blah, blah. But I had broken too many rules to avoid punishment and I was too dangerous to leave out in the world—whatever the hell that means. Not only that, but I sort of attacked him.”
“You attacked him? By ‘him,’ you mean Hephaestus?”
“Yup.” I glanced over my shoulder at Dakota.
She sat against the gray door, staring at me. What’s going on, she mouthed.
I shrugged and shook my head, turning away.
“And you’re still alive?” Xander asked. “What were you thinking?”
Lowering my voice, I said, “Apparently the magic he imbued me with doesn’t necessarily affect him. So, there was that moment. Quite embarrassing, I might add.”
“Yeah, I bet,” Xander said. “So, what happened? You just… get to keep your powers? You get a second chance?”
I scoffed. “No. Not at all. I told him my sob story. He gave me a choice—get my power stripped, find Mel before sunrise, then die. Or he said I could serve him blindly forever. But I’ll get to live.”
“So, I take it we have until sunrise to find Mel?”
I grinned. “You take it right… which I think isn’t the first time I’ve said that to you.”
“So, you plan to fight the Priestess and Hecate without your magic?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’ll figure it out. Elizabeth is this Priestess right? She knows how to find Hecate?”
“That’s what we’re betting the house on.”
I exhaled. Having never been the greatest gambler, I didn’t like my odds.
“Your daughter,” Xander said, “your call. What do I do?”
“With three hours, we have to scramble. You mind approaching Elizabeth now to try and talk with her?” If she really was this Priestess the Empousa had mentioned—Hecate’s right-hand woman—than she would have some oomph behind her magic. It might take more than Xander’s pact with capital-G God to get him through this encounter.
“I can do that,” he said.
“Send her address to this phone. I’ll be over there as soon as I can.” Before hanging up, I added, “Thank you. For everything.”
“You have a car?” I asked Dakota after ending the call with Xander.
“Who was that? Sounded serious.” She bounced to her feet and ambled toward me.
“Very serious,” I said. “You have a car?”
She stood a foot in front of me, both hands planted on her hips. “Are you asking for me to bail you out a fifth time? If I consent to that amount of assistance, I’ll definitely need a few favors in return.”
“Do you
