She plants her hands on her hips. “Huh. I wonder what else they can do?”
I walk over to her and place my hands on top of hers, then spend a moment thinking about the amazing sex we just had, and get the urge to kiss her. And even though we just ran through a portal wearing our monster bodies, and were seen by our current archenemy, she kisses me back.
It’s a nice, long kiss too.
I smile all the way through it. And when she leans back, forcing us to part, I miss her immediately.
“Pell, we have to go get this whole banishing thing taken care of.”
“I know. But can’t it wait until tomorrow? It’s the middle of the—”
“Nope. I cannot sleep tonight knowing that Russ Roth could roll up at any moment and come through our gate!”
“Fine. I know. You’re right.” I back off, take her hand, and lead her out of my tomb.
When we get outside all the monsters are gathered around the radio they keep on the patio near the cathedral. Tomas and Batty are talking excitedly, but we only catch Tomas’s parts, because, of course, we don’t understand Batty.
“And then,” Tomas says, his voice animated and loud, “they ran like pussies!”
All the monsters laugh.
Then abruptly stop when they see Pie and me coming towards them.
“Oh, good,” Tomas says. “You’re here. I was telling them how we scared the shit out of Big Jim and his boys on the monster hunt tonight!”
“Is Russ Roth one of his boys?” Pie asks.
“How did you know?” Tomas replies.
“I wonder,” I deadpan.
Tomas’s face falls. “Oh, no.”
“Oh, yes,” Pie says. “We ran into him at the bar.”
“At the bar?” Tomas is confused. So we spend a few minutes going over what we found out about the doors and the keys.
There’s a sudden commotion amongst the apothecary monsters.
“What are they saying?” I ask Tomas.
He puts up a hand, still listening to them, then turns to me. “They say we need to hide the sanctuary. That’s the proper protocol when outsiders want in.”
“Oh, hey!” Pie says. “That’s a good idea. Instead of banishing the sheriff, we can just hide the sanctuary!”
“How do they propose we do that?” I ask, already annoyed by the change in plan.
“Oh, it’s very simple, they say. There’s just one thing they need.”
“I can’t wait to hear it,” I deadpan.
“The book, Pell. They need a spell from the book.”
“The book?” Pie asks. “As in Tarq’s book?”
“That’s correct,” Tomas replies.
“Forget it,” Pie says. “I’ll do a banishing.” She looks at me. “We’ll find a way to make those used scales work.” But when I don’t agree immediately she says, “Pell. I’m not going back. He’s getting weird. I’ll get stuck there!”