6
After Colby fell asleep in her faux-forest bedroom, I retreated into mine to scry for legal help.
Cross-legged on the bed, I sat with a mixing bowl cradled between my thighs. A drop of blood got the party started, and I dialed, for lack of a better word, an old friend from beyond the veil. With Halloween around the corner, the connection ought to be crystal clear.
“Megara, I summon thee.” More blood, more intent. “Megara, I summon thee.”
The stubborn wench refused to show until I jumped through all the hoops, which probably explained why she was aces with contracts.
“Thrice I bid thee.” Even more blood, even more intent. “And thrice I tithe thee.”
I ran a fingertip along the edge of the bowl, and the water rippled, darkened, swirled in a mini whirlpool.
“Hear me,” I called in a resonate voice. “Arise.”
A face appeared wreathed in smoke, not from theatrics, but from the cigarette hanging from her bottom lip. I had baked bread pudding with raisins that had fewer wrinkles than Meg, but I wouldn’t accept legal advice from a dessert, no matter how delicious it might be. Meg, on the other hand, had practiced law in one form or another for a good three hundred years before she took a silver bullet to the heart.
“Your form is rusty, darling,” she chided in a deep rasp. “How long has it been?”
“Eight years.” I squirmed under her disapproval. “Time flies when you’re having fun.”
“Fun?” Her eyes, hidden beneath folds of papery skin, narrowed on me. “You’re having fun?”
“Not particularly?”
“Oh, but you are.” She sat back. “Your cheeks are flush, your eyes are bright, and your heart is racing.”
“You can’t tell that last part.”
“Let’s call it an educated guess.” She glanced at the bed behind me. “Where is he?”
“Who?”
“The man who put that glow about you.”
“There is no man.” I hesitated. “Actually, there is a man. Sort of.”
“Mmm-hmm.” Her lips spread, lipstick spiking the creases. “Tell me all about him.”
“It’s Clay.”
“Darling, no.” She shook her cigarette at me. “He’s a good boy, don’t get me wrong, but he’s…”
“Not anatomically correct?”
“Precisely.”
I could have educated her on how that didn’t slow him down from pursuing his interests, but I was afraid tiny ears might overhear. I did not want to explain the battery-operated birds and the bees to a moth.
“Black Hat found me.” I redirected her. “They want me back.”
“They never let you go,” she said sadly. “Albert would rather die than part with you.”
The director’s name wasn’t spoken, to avoid drawing his attention, but the veil was beyond even his reach.
“I negotiated the terms of my return with the agents they sent after me. I have a contract.”
“I will have to charge my standard fee, you understand, but I can look over it now if you like.”