Fury of the Demon (Kara Gillian 6)

Mzatal lifted my hand and kissed it. “It is as it is, zharkat,” he murmured. “I will manage it.”

I gave his hand a squeeze. He knew I worried about him. “Next question. Can you, um, turn down your mojo at all?”

“It is minimal now,” he informed me. “What preparations must be made?”

Fine, I’d let him dodge the subject. For now. “First, we decide who’s going,” I said as we returned inside. “Zack and Ryan need to remain here to hold down the fort. They can handle any weird crises that come up, and help Steeev watch over Jill.” I entered the office and considered Bryce and Paul. Both of them would be pretty damn useful. The only hitch would be finding a way to sneak them out of town without any of the bad guys knowing. “Y’all up for a road trip?” I asked t

hem.

Paul drew in a pleased breath and flicked a hopeful glance to Bryce, face brightening as the older man gave a nod.

“Austin? Sure,” Bryce said as Paul swiveled back to the computer to resume typing. “What do we need to do to prep?”

“We’ll probably want an SUV so we aren’t too cramped,” I said. It would be hard enough for Mzatal to be enclosed in a vehicle for several hours, so might as well get something big. “Eilahn can follow on the motorcycle.”

“I can help with the driving,” Bryce pointed out, and I gave him a grateful nod.

“When will this SUV be acquired?” Mzatal asked.

“We’ll rent one,” I said, then shifted my attention to Paul. “Can you find a company that will deliver one here within the next few hours?”

A grin spread across his face. “I’m working on it. Unless I’m completely wrong—which I’m not—I can get an Escalade here in an hour and a half. Two hours at the outside. You guys gonna wager on whether or not I can set it all up in under five minutes?”

I shook my head, smiled. “One of these days I’ll remember how good you really are. No way am I betting against you again.”

Paul simply grinned.

“Wait,” I said. “How are you going to pay for it?”

He gave me an unmistakably withering look while Bryce choked on a laugh.

I lifted my hands in surrender. “Forget I asked. Holy shit, but I’m glad you’re on our side,” I said, then a slow smile spread over my face as a plan came together in my head. “Hang on.” I scribbled an address on a sticky note and gave it to Paul. “Have it delivered there instead of here.”

I quickly laid out my clever, and actually quite simple, plan to sneak Bryce and Paul away. We’d have the SUV delivered to the back lot of an out-of-business furniture store, which was a five mile drive from my house via the highway, but only about a half mile trek through woods beyond the back fence of my property. I had no gate or driveway there, and the woods were heavy enough I figured the chances were exceedingly slim that Farouche would have people watching along the fence line.

Bryce listened carefully, then had Paul call up a satellite photo of the area. “You’re right,” he said as he noted the clever shortcut. “He wouldn’t have people watching the middle of the woods. That should work.” To my relief, no one else found any glaring problems with the ruse either.

Mzatal nodded, face serious and focused—in other words, utterly Mzatal-like—then exited the room. Bryce and I followed him out, though Mzatal continued on outside and to the mini-nexus, while we two humans stopped in the kitchen. Bryce’s gaze followed him.

“I’m having a hard time seeing him in a car for eight or nine hours,” he murmured with a frown.

I winced. “I imagine we’ll be taking a lot of breaks.” Crap, this road trip would probably end up taking closer to ten hours. “We’ll be getting to Austin after dark. I’ll get Eilahn up to speed and have her watch for anyone tailing us then hook up with us once we’re clear.”

“What do you need me to do?” he asked.

“Pack snacks,” I replied. “Jekki can help you. And get all of Paul’s stuff charged up.”

He gave a crisp nod, smiled. “Munchies and power for Paul. I’m on it.”

Chapter 32

The next hour turned into a flurry of activity as humans and demons scurried about to get everything ready, though I had a brief setback when I caught Eilahn by her motorcycle with an empty cat carrier, a colorful tangle of bungees in one hand, and duct tape in the other. For the next ten minutes I waged a grim war to convince her that Fuzzykins could not come with us. I made a little headway with the fact that Fuzzykins would be miserable cooped up for hours in the carrier on the back of the motorcycle. I lost ground on the alternative of the back of the SUV, then reclaimed some advantage with the assurance that Zack would take good care of Fuzzykins here, and of course Eilahn could call her as often as she wanted. Yet it wasn’t until Fuzzykins stalked off the porch, wound around Eilahn’s ankles and apparently told her, “No, I do not choose to go this day as I am certain the motion will upset my digestion,” that Eilahn finally put away the duct tape and bungees.

Ludicrous as it was, in that one shining moment, I loved that stupid cat.

With the Fuzzykins crisis dealt with, I went back inside and ran through my mental checklist of things to do. Jill stepped through the front door, looking relatively well-rested after her night in her new place. “What’s going on?” she asked after a few seconds of watching our frenetic activity.

“We got a hot lead,” I told her as I threw stuff into a bag. “We’re going to Austin to follow up on it.”