When Tiny glanced her way and raised an eyebrow, Mirabeau merely shrugged. She herself usually stayed up nights and slept days. However, she hadn’t had much sleep today. There had been too much to do to get ready for the wedding. She wouldn’t mind a nap herself. Blood sounded pretty good too. As for a shower, Mirabeau thought she’d kill for one just then…and a change of clothes. Dear God, she wanted out of those sewers as well, and she was not riding ten hours in an SUV in sewage-soaked clothes.
That thought at the forefront of her mind, Mirabeau handed the map to Tiny and turned back the way they’d come.
“Where are you going?” Stephanie snapped with dismay, hurrying after her. “I told you, I’m not walking back through the tunnels.”
“And yet you’re following me,” she pointed out dryly and wasn’t surprised when the teenager stopped abruptly.
“Only to tell you I’m not going,” she said shrilly, as Mirabeau continued up the dark tunnel.
“Fine. You stay here and sulk. But we passed a manhole to the surface a few minutes back, and I’m using it to get the hell out of the sewers,” Mirabeau said calmly.
“Really?” The excited and surprised squeal was followed by the tapping of the girl’s shoes on the concrete as she hurried to catch up to her. Mirabeau had expected as much.
Tiny followed more quietly so that she nearly missed the sounds of his approach before she heard him murmur, “What’s the plan here?”
Mirabeau sighed to herself and paused. They were supposed to be partners, but she wasn’t used to having mortal partners, or even male ones for that matter. Eshe usually thought pretty much along the same lines as she did, so that they rarely disagreed or even needed to discuss matters. The other woman would have been leading the way to get out of the sewers, but she suspected Tiny was going to have a problem with it. He was probably one of those by-the-book guys.
“The plan,” she said quietly, “is to get out of here, check into a hotel, shower this crap off, get us all a change of clothes and food, catch a nap, then find the SUV before dawn to head out of the city.”
“Yay!” Stephanie squealed happily and did a little dance on the concrete.
Mirabeau felt her mouth twitch but managed to keep from smiling, and said solemnly to Tiny, “Lucian provided the name of the parking garage on the map. It should be easy to find topside. If it’s as far away as I suspect it is, we can take a taxi and wipe the driver’s mind when he drops us off.”
Tiny stared at her silently through the gloom for so long, she was positive that he was going to balk and insist they stick to the plan Lucian had given them; but, much to her surprise, he nodded, and simply said, “There doesn’t appear to be anyone following us, and it beats driving ten hours in these clothes.”
Mirabeau relaxed and allowed a smile to curve her lips, until he added, “Now we just have to worry about there being a hotel within walking distance.”
She frowned over the words briefly, then shook her head. “You can’t walk a block without tripping over a hotel in this town. There has to be one close by.”
Despite the brave words, Mirabeau was worried that the offshoot they’d wrongly taken had led them to a part of New York City that didn’t have any hotels. With that worry on her mind, she led the way back to the ladder to the surface that they’d passed sometime ago. Tiny offered to go up first and see if he could open the manhole at the top, but Mirabeau merely shook her head and began to climb. She suspected they had special locks or something on manhole covers to prevent people from messing with them and a little muscle might be needed to get it open. Tiny had a lot of muscle…for a mortal, but she had more.
“Can you tell where we are?” Tiny asked, as she got the cover open and eased it upward to look out.
Mirabeau took a moment to peer around as much as she could. They were near a corner, but a parked van blocked the street signs from her view.
“Where are we?” Stephanie said impatiently.
“I’m not sure, but there’s a hotel across the street,” Mirabeau answered. She noted that the driver of the van was off-loading trays of what appeared to be food and fresh vegetables. She supposed it was easier to make deliveries at night when the streets weren’t so congested. Turning, she peered at the duo at the foot of the ladder. “Come on. We’ll check into the hotel, then sort out where we are.”
Stephanie was halfway up the ladder behind her before the last word had left Mirabeau’s mouth. Smiling wryly, Mirabeau shifted the manhole out of the way and quickly climbed out to crouch on the street before Stephanie trampled over her to get out. Tiny was right behind the girl and helped Mirabeau shift the manhole back into place before they straightened and moved to the side of the road. Traffic was slower at night in New York, but it wasn’t nonexistent, and they had been fortunate to climb out when they had. They’d no sooner stepped up onto the curb than a taxi came flying past.