“I’m only guessing since I haven’t examined her, but she just went through ten days of diet and strenuous exercise. Her system probably isn’t reacting well to booze and bar food. If she’s not better in the morning, we can take her to the hospital.”
“If it’s just too much alcohol,” Tasha said, “she might be embarrassed if we took her to the ER.”
As the stoplight shifted, yellow glowed on the pavement of the intersecting highway. The bottom disk on the north-south side flipped to green. Tasha turned the wheel left and headed up the mountain road.
Lilith sat back and closed her eyes…and failed to notice the pair of headlights that swung left at the intersection and followed in their wake.
Nine by Night: A Multi-Author Urban Fantasy Bundle of Kickass Heroines, Adventure, Magic
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
When they reached the cabin, Lilith made Tasha stay in the car with Erin while she checked the wards she’d placed a couple of months ago when she’d last visited.
No more taking chances with the innocent and the ignorant.
The outside of the log structure was unchanged. Her wards remained neatly sealed and untouched except for some nibbling at the edges by minor earth spirits. She’d expected that and often placed an extra ward or two for that reason. The tiny magickal creatures considered the flows trapped within her spell constructs like tasty treats.
Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, she sketched the symbol and spoke the words that opened the seals.
As the magickal wall fell and the solidity of the place, her home, flowed into her, it made the knots in Lilith’s heart relax and unfurl. She loved the rustic, sturdy cabin, and how it was deeply rooted to the earth energies of the mountain and the slow-moving consciousness of stone and soil. The vagaries of magick and humans and the politics of the Kinraven were all things too fleeting for the soul of the mountain to care about. Her mother had hated that fact of the high reaches, but Lilith loved it.#p#分页标题#e#
She would live here all the time once she’d banked enough cash to hold her for a decade or more. However, human economics were irritatingly unpredictable. Aside from the constant of greed and corruption, financial magick was a rapidly changing field, and one that took increasing amounts of her time. If the rate of change in society reached the level of chaos her models predicted, she might have to retire here soon, whether she was ready or not. Life among mortals when their civilization went through periods of crisis was something to be avoided at all costs. She’d barely escaped the French Revolution with her head still attached to her shoulders. Not that she expected a return of the guillotine. The mountain men who’d fled the cities and haunted the western slopes could be plenty dangerous in their own way, which was the biggest reason for the installation of protection wards around the cabin.
The current chaos she faced, however, was of her own design. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, Remy had been right. Without her interference, Owen would never have called Gideon Black. He and Tasha McNeil might be cozied up in a were den somewhere right about now, fucking to their heart’s content. And she might have been able to relax enough to find out if she wanted more from Remy Lemarchal.
At least, enough to make it worth the risk.
Behind her, a motor whirred as Tasha buzzed down a car window. “Is it all clear?”
Lilith turned and said, “Yeah, we’re good.”
“Can you come give me a hand? I think Erin’s waking up.”
With a sigh, Lilith padded back to the car and opened the passenger side. Erin Waverly rolled her head to the side, her eyes wandering and almost tracking with her movements. She was too pale and her aura was tinged with a gray color that threaded through the spectrum like ugly wires in a dancer’s tutu. Lilith didn’t like the looks of it. Alcohol was often more destructive than people realized. However, alcohol didn’t do that to auras, that is, one night’s indulgence wouldn’t have that effect.
“How do you feel?” Lilith asked.
Erin grunted.
Tasha exited the car and joined Lilith. Together they scooted Erin out of the Kia and half-carried her across the yard, up the steps and inside the cabin. Tasha tilted her head back to look the loft high above the main floor while eyeing the wooden ladder used to reach the space. “Is that the bedroom?”
Lilith nodded. “Let’s put her on the couch here.”
“Good idea.”
When Erin was situated under a thick quilt, Tasha collapsed in an overstuffed chair by the fireplace and propped her bare feet on the polished stump that served for a coffee table.