Ever After (The Hollows #11)(88)
Author: Kim Harrison

"Please, just take it," I said, and she finally did just to shut me up. "I must have been half asleep." My order came up in its bag, and the woman realized she was going to have to go home and change. I could see it in her eyes. Behind her in the parking lot, the top was almost closed. "At least let me pay for your drinks!" I said, reaching out as if I was going to take her arm.

She backed off fast. "I already paid for them," she said, bouncy no more. Grimacing, she plucked at her sweater and looked at her watch. "Bill, I gotta go. Forget the coffee."

"Catch you tomorrow, Barbie," one called, and I almost choked. Barbie? Really? Was that legal?

But the car again had a roof. "Wait! Your coffee!" I exclaimed, taking my own bag of duplicate brew and following her.

"Look, it’s okay!" the woman said, starting to get angry as she headed for the door. "I have to go home and change. Just forget it, okay? Accidents happen."

I hesitated, a forlorn expression on me as she stormed out. Accidents do happen, especially when you plan for them. The chimes jingled merrily, and my eyes fell to my feet. "Well, I tried!" I said to everyone, then darted back to the counter and shoved everything back in my purse.

Hustling after her, I stiff-armed the door open. She was almost to her car, and she jerked when she saw me. "Really, it’s okay!" she said as if knowing I was going to follow. I almost smiled. My gaze slid to the nearby Dumpster, looking for a leprechaun catching a smoke beside it. Today I might risk accepting a free wish.

Jenks dropped down, and I fluffed my scarf as he snuggled in. "Hey, you think it’s gotten colder?" I asked him as we click-clacked to her, more to be sure he was watching his temps than any need for conversation.

Jenks tugged the scarf tighter around himself. "Dropped two degrees since this morning. We’ll be inside tonight."

Adrenaline flowed, sweet and beautiful. She was standing at her car, fumbling for her missing keys in her cluttered purse. It was so easy to take someone. Really, it was astounding it didn’t happen more often. She was so frazzled she didn’t even remember the top had been open when she’d gone in.

"Here, take some money!" I said, arm out to her as I came forward. "I owe you for the drinks."

"I said it was okay!" she shouted, clearly pissed. Still no keys in hand, she got in her car, thinking it was safer. The door slammed, and I stood there, tapping on the window. "Leave me the f**k alone!" she shouted, open purse on her lap. "My God, are you trying to pick me up?"

Ivy sat up from the backseat, a pale arm sliding around her neck. "No, we’re trying to abduct you," she whispered. "There’s a difference. You’d have more fun if we were trying to pick you up."

The woman took a breath to scream, and I tapped on her window, shaking my head.

"I wouldn’t," Ivy breathed, her eyes a nice steady brown.

"Yeah!" Jenks shouted through the glass at her as he hovered at her eye level. "It will only get her excited. You won’t like her if you get her excited."

"Unlock the door," Ivy demanded, and Barbie fumbled for the lock, scared.

I opened the door, smiling now so she wouldn’t be so frightened, but it kind of backfired. "Slide over," I said, gesturing. "Go on. You’re skinny. Get in the passenger seat."

"Money?" she said, white-faced. "You want money? I don’t have any brimstone. Here, take my purse. Take it!"

"I’ve already been in your purse," Jenks said from the dash. "You don’t have any."

"Just slide over," I said, concerned someone was going to notice me. "Now, Barbie, or I’ll turn you into a frog."

Jenks’s wings clattered, his dust a happy silver. "She’ll do it!" he warned. "I used to be six feet tall."

Ivy rolled her eyes, but the woman awkwardly moved over the console. "You really need to stop making up stupid names for people you come in contact with," the vampire muttered, shifting with her. "It’s not respectful."

Mood improved, I flipped the seat to put the bag of coffee on the floor. "That’s her real name," I said as I got in, and Ivy winced.

"Sorry."

"Please don’t hurt me!" Barbie said, really scared now, and I felt bad as I took the keys Ivy handed over the seat and started up the car with a satisfying rumble.

"Hurting you isn’t in the plan," I said as I carefully backed up and put it in drive. "So please don’t do anything to change it. All we want is your car for a few hours, and then we will drop you off in downtown Cincinnati with a story that will get you a ghostwritten novel and a movie of the week. Okay?"

Barbie licked her lips. "You’re Rachel Morgan, aren’t you," she said, eyes wide.

I met Ivy’s eyes in the rearview mirror, not sure if I should be flattered or not. Ivy shrugged, and when Jenks snickered, I turned to the woman, smiling my warmest.

"Yep, and you’re going to help us save the world. What’s your parking spot, Barbie?"

Chapter Twenty-One

But I want to help save the world!" Barbie said plaintively as I helped her into the backseat of the cab, my hand on her head so she didn’t hit anything. Her hands were bound with those fuzzy cuffs, and it made her balance chancy. "I can help. Oh God, don’t leave me here. It smells like bad tacos!"

My nose wrinkled, and I took her ID tag from around her neck and stuffed it in a back pocket. "Larry gets one of the no-frill blacks, Susan the pumpkin, and Frank the chai, right?"

Jenks hovered over the roof of the cab, impatient. "You’re gonna be late for your first day," he warned.

"Yes, but I can help!" she insisted, and I leaned back in to wiggle her shoes off. I hadn’t worn the right heels, and the doppelganger charm would only glamour me to look like her. It would be more convincing if we were the same height.

"Trust me," I said as I shifted out of the backseat. "You’re helping. Really."

I stood and looked over the empty park, hoping no one was watching from the town houses across the way. Ivy was bent over talking to the cabdriver, giving him a wad of cash and a peek at her cle**age as she told him to take the woman to the hospital-the mental hospital. By law, they had to give everyone who was dropped off an exam, and with the story Barbie had, they’d give her the long version. It was the best I could come up with on such short notice, not very nice, but better than stuffing her in the trunk of her car or leaving her tied up somewhere.

"Good?" I asked the driver, and he met my eyes through the rearview mirror, nodding.