Darkest Night - Smoke and Shadows Part 24

"A couple of minutes?"

"Or less. Or more. When you're thinking about evil wizards and brain-sucking shadows, you don't really have a grip on time pa.s.sing."

"Next time check your watch. The interval might be important later.""What do you care? I thought you weren't helping."

"And yet you keep showing up at my door."

He wasn't sure that twice merited "keep showing up." Setting his backpack on the floor, he sat down and almost instantly had a black and white cat on his lap.

"That's Zazu." Brows drawn into a deep vee over her nose, Arra didn't look happy. Tony slowly moved both hands away from the cat. "She doesn't ever do that."

"Do what?"

"Sit on strangers."

"She's not exactly . . . OW . . . sitting."

"She's just making your lap more comfortable."

The cat's claws went once more through denim and into skin. "For who?" Tony yelped.

Arra's expression suggested the question was too stupid to answer. She went back to her games and Tony tried to hold perfectly still. G.o.d only knew what the cat would stick a claw into if she thought she was in danger of falling.

"I could feel it more this time," he said after a moment when no further blood loss seemed imminent. "The gate, I mean."

"It's because you were shadow-held."

"Yeah, I figured. But it was more of a shadow-grab than a hold. I mean, shouldn't there be a time limit on held?"

Hand poised over the laptop's touch pad, Arra turned to face him, brows up. "Does humor help?"

He risked a shrug. Zazu rolled over on her back in the crease between his tightly clamped legs, all four feet in the air, her stomach a blaze of white. The fur looked soft.

He tentatively reached out a finger.

"I wouldn't."

And he s.n.a.t.c.hed the finger back. The cat looked disappointed.

Arra snorted and turned back to the games. "So, as much as I'm thrilled to have the company, why are you here?"

"I brought back the thermoses." About to bend over and open his backpack, he caught sight of the expression on Zazu's face and reconsidered. "We didn't use any more of the potion, but I wasn't sure how long it would last. You know; the sparkly part of it."

"The potion part will last indefinitely but I will need to reactivate it before it'll do any good magically." She turned up a king, moved queen to ace over, and waited while the line collapsed. "Now why are you really here?"

"The potion ..."

"See that?"

He leaned forward. "The game?"

"Stalled on that seven. I had no way of knowing what was under the king, but it was my only option." Swiveling her chair around, she lifted a limp Zazu off his lap. "Look beyond the obvious. Examine the truth behind your motives. Buy low, sell high."

"What?"

She sighed as the cat leaped back onto Tony's lap. "Why are you really here?"

"I was thinking . . ." He paused, waiting for a smart-a.s.s remark that didn't come. "... the construction crews are going to be in today building new sets. I might be able to hang around, but I'm not going to be able to move the lamp back into place and I sure as h.e.l.l won't be able to turn it on."

"Your point?"

His point seemed obvious but she was going to make him say it. "You have to be there."

"No. I won't go near the gate while it's open."

"You don't have to. You don't even have to leave the bas.e.m.e.nt. You're my cover story- just send me upstairs with a light meter or something to take some readings."

"The carpenters will still be working ..."

"Yeah." He snorted. "Like it's hard to get them to take a break."

"They'll still be there, though. If one of the shadow-held does show up, how will you explain it?"

Greatly daring, he stroked the top of the cat's head. "I have no idea. Which is why I think we need to get the addresses of everyone who was on set yesterday. We need to find where the rest of the shadows are and take them out before they get back to the soundstage."

"Take them out?"

He mimed shoving his hand in someone's chest. Zazu stretched out one paw and embedded the claws in his leg.

Ignoring his whimpers, Arra snorted. "So this whole I'm your cover story' on the soundstage is just a ... cover story? You want me to take the shadows out."

"Two part plan!" Tony protested. "First the soundstage because we don't have time to get them all before the gate opens, and then we go after whoever doesn't show up away from the gate."

"Fine. You still haven't told me how you'll explain the shadow-held to the carpenters then."

"I thought you ..."

"What part of I'm not getting involved in this do you not understand?"

"I'm not asking you to do any more than you've already done." Even to his own ears that sounded sulky. "Look, we're trying to stop an invasion and save the world without a lot of options, so we need to make the Shadowlord wonder a bit. Confuse him. Throw him off-balance. Not, why are my shadows being destroyed at the gate but why aren't they coming back to the gate at all? Maybe that'll convince him there's something here he doesn't want to tangle with."

Arra set up a new game on the laptop. "Have you spoken to the vampire about this?"

"Yeah. Sort of ...""Tony ..."

"I'm fine."

"I don't doubt it, but I'd appreciate it if you could move just a little faster; I've got to feed."

Still struggling with his seat belt, Tony froze. I can't.

Something of the thought must have shown on his face because Henry sighed. "Not on you. I don't think that would be safe for either of us tonight."

"Good call." The buckle jammed. Working the release with one hand, he yanked on the strap with the other. It didn't help. In fact . . . "Uh, Henry. I think I've really f.u.c.ked this up."

Cool fingers shoved his out of the way. "It's stuck."

"No s.h.i.t."

Henry glanced up at him, his eyes darkening, the masks slipping. Vampires didn't screw around with seat belts. The strap separated from the buckle. Vampires ripped their victims free.

Adrenaline lent Tony's bruised body speed and he all but threw himself out onto the sidewalk. Then, in an attempt to reclaim a little dignity, he braced himself between the door and the roof and leaned back into the car. "I was thinking that maybe we should try dealing with these things before they get back to the studio."

"Fine." The dashboard lights painted eerie highlights in Henry's eyes which were . . .

Oh, f.u.c.k. And the worst of it was; Tony wanted to climb back into the car. To offer his wrist or his throat. To offer his life. No. That wasn't the worst. It was much worse that Henry knew it, too. Leaping back, he slammed the door closed and muttered, "Why don't I just leave a message on your machine" at the BMW's a.s.s end as it disappeared down the street.

"Yes, I'd say that fits the definition of sort of. His kind are not unknown on my world; I'm amazed you've managed to retain as much self-determination as you have. A man cannot serve two masters after all."

Tony's lip curled. "That's not how it is."

"And I believe you where thousands of others wouldn't." Arra closed down the laptop and stood. "Let's go."

"Go?" The cat on his lap showed no indication that it planned to move any time soon.

"Studio, gate, shadows ..." The wizard sighed as he continued to sit awkwardly in place, not daring to stand. "Just dump her on the floor, she won't break."

Figuring he had enough mayhem in his life at the moment, Tony tucked his hands in Zazu's armpits-front leg pits?- and carefully lifted her down to the floor. She snorted, sounding remarkably like Arra, sat down, and licked her b.u.t.t. Never having spent much time with cats, Tony'd never realized they were so good at making their opinions known.

"I thought I didn't understand about you not getting involved?"

"What?""You said you weren't going to get involved." He stepped carefully around Whitby who was now winding between his feet, determined to be punted across the apartment.

"I'm still not going near the gate when it's open, but I suppose I can bulls.h.i.t you past a few carpenters."

"What changed your mind?"

She paused, yellow raincoat up over one arm, and stared for a long moment at a framed Darkest Night promotion poster. "The cats like you," she said at last.

"Arra!"

She jabbed at the elevator call b.u.t.ton a couple more times as though hoping it would realize she was in a hurry and arrive.

"Arra!"

"I don't think he's going to go away," Tony murmured.

Smiling tightly, she turned. "Julian."

He shifted the Chihuahua in the crook of his left arm and, eyes narrowed suspiciously, stared around her at Tony. "It's your turn to dust and vacuum the party room."

"I don't even live here," Tony protested.

"Not you. Her."

Except he was still staring at Tony-who'd have found it creepy had his creep level not risen over the last few days. It was, however, becoming more than a little annoying.

"The party room's done."

That snapped an equally suspicious gaze back to Arra. "It wasn't done a moment ago."

"Well, it's done now. And look, here's our elevator." Her hand closed tightly around Tony's arm just above the elbow, she propelled him inside, following right on his heels.

"Ow!"

"Sorry." Arra turned and waved jauntily at Julian through the last six inches of open s.p.a.ce.

Shoving his foot back into his shoe, Tony waited until the door was fully closed before asking if the wizard had magicked the room clean. He hadn't seen any incantations or a wand or even an ambiguous gesture but then, what did he know about wizards?

She leaned against the back wall and folded her arms. "No. I lied."

"You lied?" Wizards lied. All things considered, it was something to remember.

"Prevaricated, even. Julian's an actor, you know. He got up my nose before he became president of the co-op board; now he's unbearable."

Even on such short acquaintance, Tony could see where unbearable might be a justified definition. "And his dog is fat.""Tell me about it."

"What if we shot flamethrowers through the gate?"

Arra finished merging her mid-80s hatchback with traffic and glanced over at her pa.s.senger. "Flamethrowers?"

"Yeah. We just sit under the gate and when it opens . . ." He mimed shooting toward the ceiling. "... whoosh."

"Where would we get flamethrowers?"

Tony shrugged, shuffling his feet into a more comfortable position among the discarded coffee cups that littered the floor. "Same place we get them for the show; the weapons warehouse."

"They aren't..." Her voice trailed off and Arra scowled out at the road, her frown deepening slightly at each slap of the windshield wipers.

When she didn't say anything more for about five kilometers, Tony figured that was it.

The suggestion of flamethrowers had clearly brought up some bad memories. Beginning to doze off-even with all the lights on, it hadn't been a particularly restful night-he jerked awake as she started talking again.

"I think he'd take it as a challenge. He's never been stopped, so at this point he has to believe he never can be."

"We've stopped some of his shadows."

"Minor players. They are to his power as UPN is to network TV. He wouldn't for a moment a.s.sume that because you've defeated them you could defeat him." She snorted. "Evil wizards who style themselves the Shadowlord and go on to conquer vast amounts of territory seldom have a problem with self-esteem."