‘Fuck,’ she said. ‘Does anyone have a phone?’
‘Vail does but it’s no use to you now, I’m afraid,’ Leona declared with far too much perkiness. ‘Not with the level of workings in that room. Fried the circuits. I think I saw smoke rising from the back of that television. Did you not notice that we had blessed silence in the end? No more dreadful advertisements.’
Kira rested back against the seat. ‘Nope, was kind of busy.’
Up ahead, the traffic light shifted to orange. Leona could have floored it and gotten through without much fanfare. Nope. She brought the car to a neat stop and pulled on the handbrake. This was not how dramatic getaways rolled in the movies. The smell of burnt herbs, cinnamon maybe, niggled at the inside of Kira’s nose. In the ashtray between the driver and passenger, there was a small clump of sticks tied with a fine red string.
‘You know what,’ Kira said, ‘I really think we should get out.’
The woman regarded her in the rearview, her eyes partly hidden behind wayward strands of stark-white hair.
‘Oh, okay then,’ Leona said. ‘So you’re fine with being strangled again by possession spirits? Because they will come for him.’
Kira eyeballed her back. ‘I’m asking you nicely to let us out.’
‘I’m asking you nicely if you have the faintest idea that you’re walking around with a bright one.’
The light flicked to green, but Leona didn’t press the accelerator. The car behind did one of those polite but clear move-the-fuck-on toots of its horn.
‘No need to be a sarcastic bitch,’ Kira said. ‘Az is just a little slow.’
Kira didn’t like it. Didn’t like it at all, the way Leona stared at Az every time she had a chance. Azrael was oblivious. He was still in some kind of mute mode. Hadn’t uttered a single word since they’d gotten in the car. Maybe he was still drunk. Or maybe he felt like she did. Like someone had just thrown her into a screwed-up reality game show with a fucked-up premise – Roll up, roll up, get nearly deaded, watch someone die, run away and hope like a motherfucker no one saw you.
‘You can’t see him at all, can you?’ Leona interrupted Kira’s game-show storyboarding. ‘He’s as bright as the sun, girl, and you have no clue at all.’
Another less polite toot from behind and Leona shifted into gear and pulled the car out into the intersection.
‘I can see him just fine.’ Kira pressed a hand to her belly. ‘Look, I’d really like to get off the crazy bus now.’
Car sickness wasn’t a problem. Not normally. But Kira’s insides weren’t behaving. A crack in the vinyl seat poked at her ass no matter where she shifted, and she was pretty sure she’d pissed her pants a little. She glanced down at herself. And sighed. Realising for the first time since bolting that she didn’t have the faux skin on her arm. Armadillo was plain for all to see. Way to go incognito. At least the prosthetic didn’t seem to ring any bells for these two.
‘Say I let you out here, just drop you off at the nearest Taco Bell. Then what?’ A toss of white hair, a bob of cheap plastic hair clips. ‘You weren’t doing so well dealing with the supermundanes back there. I’m guessing that whoever you are, you don’t know any wardings or incantations.’
‘There was nothing super about those crazy fucking cows. And I have the only incantation I need.’ Access to the Facility. That vapid concrete hell seemed like fucking heaven right now.
‘Ah, but we can offer you the protection of the Maiden. Something I very much believe you are going to need.’
So the woman thought of herself as some kind of killer bubble-blowing witch. Maybe one of the long sticks in the back was her broom. Happy days.
‘Definitely time for us to leave you.’ Kira grabbed the door handle, intending to rattle it. The handle came free in her hand. ‘You’re fucking kidding me. Stop the damn car. Now.’
Vail chose then to show signs of life. He turned in his seat to face her, eyes red-rimmed from crying, the end of his nose damp and glistening with snot.
‘Kira, it’s okay. We mean well,’ he said. ‘Let us help you. I’m not sure you know what’s around you, what those things were.’
His own internal memory of ‘those things’ seemed to jab at him. He flinched, pale as all hell. And Kira couldn’t bring herself to tell him what she really thought of his offer to help. It would be like yelling at a teddy bear. And the kid had had a fucking awful day. But she was tired of this party. She wanted to go home. Surely this wasn’t what Blake had in mind. Death while babysitting?
Taking a breath, Kira focused on Vail. ‘I have somewhere I can go. Somewhere they can deal with this. So thank you, for whatever you did back there, but we need to go.’
She needed to pee like a racehorse. Needed a drink right after that. Azrael shifted beside her, trying to find more space for his feet amongst the papers. Kira glanced at him, about to ask him what his problem was when a flash of black caught her eye. Small, fast, and down near her foot.
‘Rat, a fucking rat.’ Kira hurled herself back in her seat, pushing her butt towards the door. With the jerk of her body weight against it, the handleless door decided to open.
‘Fucking Jesus!’ Kira yelled.
Magazines and newspaper spilled out onto the road.
‘Pull over, Leona. Pull over!’ Vail shouted.
She shouted right back. ‘I’m not blind!’
Someone grabbed Kira’s flailing arm and pulled. Hard. She slid across the cracked vinyl seat as if it were covered in oil, colliding with Azrael. The dude might as well have been a brick wall. Leona jerked the car
