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“Just describe it to me.”
Malakai lifted his hands in exasperation. “Black. Bars separating the front seats from the back. Lights were on.”
“Did you notice anything funny about the lights?”
Malakai widened his eyes with exaggerated intensity. “No, but maybe that’s because I’m not on drugs.”
“That would be a first,” Dominic said.
Malakai bared his teeth at him.
“If you knew Max at all,” Dallas cut in, “you’d know he would never take drugs.” She looked up at him, her eyes soft with understanding. “He’s telling the truth.”
“It was like a glamor or something,” Max said.
“Glamor?” This question came from Blue.
Dominic explained, “It’s when a person uses magic to trick people into seeing something else.”
“That’s what I did to you earlier—when I disguised you,” Dallas said. “Here—watch.” She took her stave out of the back pocket of her jeans and waved it through the air. She spoke an incantation in a low, robotic voice, and a moment later the color of her lips changed to ruby red.
“Like the Eye,” Blue said, squinting at Dal’s face.
“The Eye?” Max repeated. “Isn’t that a place in—”
“Spirit Terra,” Dallas finished. “Maybe that’s the type of magic that gives veneficae the ability to use glamors?”
Dominic cut in. “But glamors only work on people.”
“Unless,” Dallas insisted, “someone’s figured out how to use it on objects too?” It was a stretch, Max knew. Glamors had been around for far longer than any of them could hope to live. There was no way someone could have suddenly figured out how to do something that seemed so…simple. It would’ve already been done.
“Or,” Malakai said with an edge of frustration, “he’s reading into it too much.”
“Did you make sure she didn’t see your tattoo?” Max’s question was for Malakai; he trusted Dominic would’ve taken the necessary precautions to hide his identity, but Malakai could be so cocky that Max never knew what to expect from him. And from the sounds of the text he’d sent before coming out here, Malakai had given the cop enough attitude to warrant calling her a ‘cunt’.
Malakai narrowed his eyes. “No, I pointed right at it and said ‘I’m Malakai fucking Delaney’!” he snapped. ““What was so funny about the lights, anyway?”
Max looked out at the stop sign. “They weren’t reflecting.”
“And this is your great mystery?”
“Piss off, Malakai,” he growled.
Malakai walked away. “Thanks for the dismissal. Call me if anything actually important happens.” He disappeared into his room and shut the door.
Dominic smirked and fluttered his wings. “He’s a dick, hey? Why’d you even invite him?”
“Darien wanted me to work with him.” Max sighed. “And because he’s a tough motherfucker.” With Darien and the others gone, there was a shortage of tough people around, and he had no idea what he might encounter out here, in this place so far from home.
“If it’s any consolation,” Dominic said, “I believe you.” He turned his head to look at the road just beyond the parking lot, black hair gleaming like fresh tar. “I don’t really get it, but I believe you.”
Max shook his head. “Maybe Malakai’s right. But…something about that cop seemed…I don’t know. Odd.” He chewed on his lip as he looked out at the stop sign again. “I just don’t know what.”
Malakai slammed the door to his hotel room and reached for the deadbolt.
Scaredy-cat, said a misty voice. Creature was on the bed closest to the door, chewing noisily on a chunk of banana.
Malakai glared over his shoulder. “Are you making a mess in my bed?”
