A Fistfull of Charms(52)

“I’m a white witch, Nick,” I said tartly, my words harsher at the reminder of what I’d done to myself. “I didn’t make a deal with anyone. I twisted the curse myself.” Well, Ceri twisted it, actually, but pointing that out didn’t seem prudent.
“But you can’t!” he protested. “It’s demon magic.”
Ivy tunked the brakes, and I caught my balance when the van stopped quick at a new yellow light. Behind us, Jenks blew the car’s horn, which Ivy ignored. “Are you calling her a liar?” she said, turning in her seat to look at Nick squarely.
His long face reddened, his newly shaved cheeks a shade paler. “I’m not calling her anything, but the only place you can get a working demon charm is from a demon.”
Ivy laughed. It was ugly, and I didn’t like it. “You don’t know shit, Nick.”
“Stop it, both of you!” I exclaimed. “God, you’re like two kids fighting over a frog.”
Angry, I retreated to sit on the cot, leaving two silent, sullen people in the front. The soft clinks of the toll money slipping through Nick’s fingers were loud. As we crept forward in the slow line, I forced myself to be calm. Most likely Nick was right that I wouldn’t suddenly find myself dying from a childhood disease again, but it was still a worry.
“Look there,” he said suddenly, his voice thick with warning. “Ray-ray, stay down.”
Immediately I crowded to the front to earn Ivy’s huff of impatience. Before us spread the bridge, its glory marred by construction crews. We were nearly on it, and the guy holding the Slow sign was watching everyone far too intently. I could tell from three cars away that he was a Were, a Celtic knot tattoo encompassing his entire right shoulder.
“Damn it,” Ivy muttered, her jaw clenching. “I see him. Rachel, hold on.”
I braced myself when Ivy flicked the turn signal and pulled a right to get out of the bridge traffic at the last moment. Peering out the dirty square of a window in the back, I saw Jenks following. Jax and Rex were scampering about on the dash, and I don’t know how Jenks managed to keep the car on the road.
The van rocked as it found its new momentum, and I felt ill. “Now what?” I said, finding Jenks’s old flip-flops and putting them on.
Ivy sighed. Her grip on the wheel tightened and relaxed. Glancing into the rearview mirror, her eyes met mine. Nick’s truck would have to wait. I listened to the traffic and Nick’s frightened breathing. I could almost hear his heart, see it pulse in his neck as he fought the fear of his entire week of torture.
“I’m hungry,” Ivy abruptly said. “Anyone want a pizza?”
Nineteen
E yes on the rearview mirror, Ivy eased the van to a halt in the restaurant lot in the shade between two semis. The sound of traffic was loud through her window, and I couldn’t help but be impressed at being so well hidden this close to the main road. Shifting the gearshift into park, she undid her seat belt and turned. “Rachel, there’s a box under the floorboard. Will you get it for me?”
“Sure.” While Ivy got out, I scuffed back the throw rug and pried up the metal plate to find, instead of a spare tire, a dusty cardboard box. Trying to keep it from touching me, I set it on the driver’s seat. Ivy looked out from between the two trucks when Jenks parked across the lot. She whistled, and Jax darted up before his dad could even get out of the car.“What’s up, Ms. Tamwood?” the small pixy said, stopping before her. “Why did we stop? Are we in trouble? Do you need gas? My dad has to pee. Can you wait for him?”
I was pleased to see that Jax was wearing a scrap of red tucked into his belt. It was a symbol of good intentions and a quick departure should he stray into another pixy’s territory. Seeing him learning the ropes made me feel good, even if the reason behind it was depressing.
“The Weres have the bridge,” Ivy said, gesturing for Jenks to stay where he was beside Kisten’s car. He was fumbling with his inside-out cap, and with the jeans he now had on over his running tights and his aviator jacket, he looked good. “Tell your dad to get a table if it looks okay,” Ivy added, squinting from behind her sunglasses. “I’ll be there in a sec.”
“Sure thing, Ms. Tamwood.”
He was gone in a clattering of wings. A light breeze shifted Ivy’s hair, and standing beside the open door, she pried the dusty flaps up to pull out a roll of heavy ribbon. A faint smile quirked the corner of her mouth, and Nick and I waited for an explanation.
“I haven’t done this in years,” she said, looking to the narrow slice of visible parking lot. “I don’t think they saw us,” she said, “but by tonight they will have tracked you and Jenks to your motel, and that lady will tell them you were driving a white van. If we’re going to be in town longer than that, we need to change a few things.”
I recognized the thick tape in her hands as magnetic striping, and my eyebrows went up. Cool. A vehicle disguise.
“There’s a license plate somewhere in there,” she said, and I nodded, going back for it. “And the screwdriver?”
Nick cleared his throat, sounding impressed. “What is that? Magnetic pinstripe?”
Ivy didn’t look at him. “Kisten has black lightning and flaming crosses too,” she said.
And illegal flash paint, I mentally added when she shook a can of specially designed spray paint.
She moved the box to the running board of the nearby semi. The door thumped shut, sealing Nick and me inside. “By the time I get done with her, she could win the goth division in a car show,” she said.
Smirking, I handed her the Ohio plate and screwdriver through the window. Even the tags were up to date.
“Sit tight,” she said, taking them. “Nobody moves until I get Jenks’s take on the restaurant.”
“I’m sure it’s fine,” I said, moving to the front seat. “I’m so hungry, I could eat a seat cushion.”
Ivy’s brown eyes met mine from over her sunglasses, and her motion of shaking the spray can slowed. “It’s not the food I’m worried about. I want to be sure it’s mostly human.” Her face went worried. “If there are any Weres, we’re leaving.” 
Oh, yeah. Worried, I slumped behind the wheel, but Ivy looked unconcerned, taking a rag from the box and starting to wipe the road dust off the van. I was glad she was there. Sure, I was a classically trained runner, and while subterfuge was a part of that, hiding from large numbers of people out to get you wasn’t. This stuff was what she had cut her teeth on. I guessed.
Nick undid his belt when Ivy edged out of sight. I could hear her work, the sporadic hisses of paint followed by squeaks as she wiped down the bumpers before the illegal paint took. The smell of fixative tickled my nose. I glanced at Nick, and he opened his mouth.
“Hey, a disguise sounds like a good idea,” I blurted, twisting to reach my bag. “I’ve got a good half dozen in here. They’re for smell, not looks, since Weres track by smell and will find us that way long before they see us. They took the ones I had on the island, but I made extra.”
I was babbling, and Nick knew it. He puffed his breath out and settled back while I rummaged for them. “A disguise sounds good,” he said. “Thanks.”
“No prob,” I answered, bringing out a new finger stick along with a handful of amulets. I broke the safety seal and arranged four amulets on my knees. I didn’t know how to treat Nick anymore. We had done well together until it fell apart, but it had been a long, lonely three months until he finally left. I was mad at him, but it was hard to stay that way. I knew it was my need to help the downtrodden, but there it was.
The silence was uncomfortable, and I pricked my finger anew. I invoked them all to make the scent of redwood blossom, then handed him the first. “Thank you,” he said as he took it, lacing it over his head, where it fell to clink against his pain amulet. “For everything, Ray-ray. I really owe you. What you did…I can never repay you for that.”
It was the first time we’d been alone since pulling him out of that back room, and I wasn’t surprised at his words. I flashed him a blank smile then looked away, draping my amulet over my head and tucking it behind my shirt to touch my skin. “It’s okay,” I said, not wanting to talk about it. “You saved my life; I saved yours.”
“So we’re even, huh?” he said lightly.
“That’s not…what I meant.” I watched Ivy spray an elaborate symbol on the hood, her hidden artistic talents making something both beautiful and surprising as she blurred the gray paint into the white of the van to look very professional. Glancing at me in question, she tossed the can to the box and went to the back to change the plate.
Nick was silent, then, “You can Were, now?” he asked, stress wrinkles crinkling the corners of his eyes. The blue of them seemed faded somehow. “You make a beautiful wolf.”
“Thank you.” I couldn’t leave it at that, and I turned to see him miserable and alone. Damn it, why did I always fall for the underdog? “It was a one-shot deal. I have to twist a new curse if I want to do it again. It’s…not going to happen again.” I had so much black on my soul, I’d never be rid of it. I wanted to blame Nick, but I was the one who took the curse. I could have submitted to the drugs and stuck it out until someone came to rescue my ass. But no-o-o-o. I took the easy way by using a demon curse, and I was going to pay for it dearly.