“Oh yeah, newsflash. Secret government agencies exist. I work for one.” I shrugged. “I’m not supposed to tell anyone, but I figure this is better than getting killed. So—ideas?”
Domingo sat back against the wall, staring up at the sliver of sky we could see between the two buildings. Clouds were moving in again. Smelled like rain. He was probably thinking about what I’d told him, but I knew it wouldn’t take him long to wrap his brain around it. My brother was tough as fuck.#p#分页标题#e#
“Isobel,” he said after a minute. “The woman you were telling me about.”
“Yeah. The woman.”
“She worth saving?”
Was she? She’d stolen Suzy’s Glock and gotten my friend detained. But she’d also been taken by Eduardo or Joey. If she’d framed Suzy, then she needed to come to justice—and not the vigilante kind.
The thought of turning Isobel over to the OPA didn’t sit well, either.
Cross that bridge once I come to it.
“She’s worth it,” I said.
Domingo grabbed the last burger out of the bag and scarfed it down. Once he was done, he wiped his hands off on his sweats and stood up. “’Kay. I’ve got an idea.”
Domingo had everything he needed in the trunk of his car—his “mobile command center,” he joked. He tossed me a big black can of salt and a skein of yarn and told me to help him circle the building. He’d take the north and east sides; I’d take the west and south.
“Don’t let anyone see you,” I warned him.
Domingo flashed a dazzling smile. “Me?”
This was the guy that had once stolen a dozen MacBook Pro laptops from an Apple Store while it was open—and escaped without getting caught. Casting a circle of power around a bar filled with demons unseen was nothing compared to his battle with the Geniuses.
I still moved to cast my half of the circle as fast as I could. I kept low, crouched under the windows, and unspooled the yarn as fast as possible. Then I joined up with Domingo in the back alley. He clapped his hands to close the circle, and the shock of magic was strong enough to make me sneeze twice.
“Shut up,” he said, clapping a hand over my mouth. I sneezed on him. “Sick, dude.”
I scrubbed my face clean. “What now?”
“Sleeping spell,” Domingo said. “The Cèsar Hawke Special. I got all the herbs you recommended—including passionflower—so all we have to do is amplify and project it.” He tossed a gemstone to me. An emerald the size of my thumbnail. “I’ll get the chants going over here. Put this on the western point of the circle. Once the spell activates, take the emerald and head inside with it—everyone’ll be unconscious.”
I rolled the gem over in my fingers. “Everyone?”
“Everyone but the guy holding the emerald.”
That’d make getting Isobel out tricky. But hey, it also meant skipping a fight and getting my ass kicked. I’d take it.
“What are you doing driving around with the supplies for sleeping spells?” I asked.
“I’d been planning to take it around to test it on friends. Well, covenmates. Help me tweak it a little, you know?” He planted his hands on his hips, giving the circle’s circumference a hard look. “This should probably work.”
“Probably? I’m feeling real confident in your skills right now.”
He grinned. “Go save the woman, Cèsar.”
Nine by Night: A Multi-Author Urban Fantasy Bundle of Kickass Heroines, Adventure, Magic
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The magic was already building by the time I reached the front of the building. I was fighting so hard against the urge to sneeze that my eyes were streaming, blurring the street around me. But even though my vision was shot, I could see that one of The Pit’s windows was suddenly open.
All of the windows had been closed when I’d checked the building out earlier.
I dropped into a crouch, hiding below the windowsill. I could hear footsteps on the other side of the wall. Whoever had opened the window was still nearby.
On all fours, I crawled to the edge of the circle and set the emerald on the western point. It sparked with blue light.
Domingo’s magic surged, sudden and powerful. The sneeze caught me off-guard. My face pretty much exploded—and the sound echoed.
Shit.
The front door unlocked behind me.
I was standing by the time it swung open, but I didn’t draw my gun in time. Eduardo Costa stared at me from the other side. He looked as surprised to see me as I was to see him. He wasn’t wearing a jacket, so I could see that he had a shoulder rig with a holster under each arm.