A startled, “Watch out!” came from behind us.
I sprinted for the Jaguar without waiting to see if anyone was giving chase. I jumped into the back a second before Simon landed in the passenger seat, smearing white goo all over the expensive leather. Temi lagged behind, a grimace of pain on her face as she limped down the sidewalk. I’d forgotten about her injury. I lunged over the seat back to open her door for her. She flung herself inside, hardly the graceful form she’d once been, but she got her legs into place and shoved the key into the ignition.
At the Vendome, several people had come out onto the porch, some with drinks in hand. Great, we were the evening entertainment. I didn’t see our strange leather-clad men though.
Temi tore out of the parking space and roared off down the street at twice the speed limit. I checked that corner window on the way by, and caught Blue Eyes staring down at me. It was probably only in my imagination that a strange glow brightened the room behind him.
Nine by Night: A Multi-Author Urban Fantasy Bundle of Kickass Heroines, Adventure, Magic
CHAPTER 6
By the time the Jaguar pulled into the campground, my skin felt like it’d been burned by acid where the fire extinguisher propellant had struck it. I was glad none of it had landed in my eyes—and that we had a first aid kit in the van.
Temi parked behind Zelda. Darkness gathered in the trees, and the traffic had dwindled on the highway. Crickets chirped and some small animal scuffed about in the brown leaves carpeting the ground. I eyed the deepening gloom without favor and wished there were more miles between us and the Vendome.
Temi turned off the car and faced us, her elbow on the backrest. “So, am I hired yet?”
“Yes,” Simon said.
His hair and shirt were crusted with fire extinguisher propellant, and he already had visible burns on one cheek where the goo had spattered him. If the riders had taken the brunt of the attack, they’d be even more irked at us than they had been before. Clearing out of Prescott might be a smart move, though I had a hard time entertaining it, not with the memory of that golden disk at the forefront of my mind. I wished there’d been time to examine it. If Simon and I were the ones to break the story of some one-of-a-kind relic on our website, this time someone else couldn’t get credit for bringing awareness of it to the community, not like with the Anasazi find. I don’t know why it mattered so much to me, but I wanted my old professors and classmates to see that I hadn’t become some sleazy grave robber just because we were selling some of what we found, items that most people would consider junk anyway.
Temi was looking at me, waiting for a response.
I nodded. “If you want it, you’ve certainly earned it at this point.”
She inclined her head once. “I apologize for not getting a warning to you earlier, but you didn’t give me your phone number.”
“I know. I was thinking about that up in the room.”
“I had to call your mother. Your parents’ number has been the same for decades.”
“Erg, what’d you tell her? Not the part about us being caught in some strange guys’ room, I hope.”
“No, but I did need to relay a sense of urgency, so she’d know I couldn’t chat. In the twenty seconds we were on the phone, she managed to ask if you’re eating regularly, staying away from the booze, and how your rash is doing.” Temi smiled faintly, one of her eyebrows twitching.
“Rash?” Simon grinned. “What rash?”
“None of your business.” I glowered at him, then gave Temi a plaintive look. “What did you tell her?”
“That you’d gone for take-out and had forgotten your wallet at the hotel. I needed to call you before you tried to pay and found out you were missing your money.”
I sank into the backrest. “Oh, good. That shouldn’t alarm her.”
“No, it’ll make her happy,” Simon said. “She’ll think we’re doing well enough to afford hotels and take-out. Your grandma seemed really concerned when she saw all the ramen bags in Zelda’s cupboards when we visited this summer.”#p#分页标题#e#
“She was more concerned that I showed up with some scrawny Indian boy.” I said the last in my best impersonation of her accent, though Yaiyai’s words had been even more derogatory than mine. “She keeps hoping I’ll take a trip to Greece to find an appropriate Prince Charming.”
“I’m not scrawny,” Simon said, throwing a glance at Temi, who was smiling and nodding in recognition at my Yaiyai tone. Adopted or not, she had a similar mother and grandmother and knew exactly where I was coming from. “There’s a lean mean beast hiding under this innocuous packaging,” Simon added, gesturing at his clothing.