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I opened the line to the speakers at the front door. “Go away, Prax.”
“Oh, does that mean I can keep this, then?” He dangled the replica locket in front of the camera. The real one was already upstairs.
“I’ll come out and get it.” I stood, leaving Eva on the couch.
“Not so fast, Matty.”
I gritted my teeth at the unwanted nickname. He must have gotten that from Seth.
“I need to come in and talk to your little lady friend first. I know you probably want to get started on the naked fun times, but we’re on a mission for Desmon, and I can’t do my job if I don’t have all the information.”
Damn it. Why did he have to be so right?
“What information do you need?”
“Let me in, and I’ll ask her myself.”
“No.”
Eva was already getting up off the couch. “Let him in. He needs information on my workplace, and I need to figure out how we’re getting there in the morning, given that my car is still at home.”
“Fine.” I threw my arms up in frustration, and joined her at the door. I needed to invite him in myself, or else he wouldn’t be able to cross the threshold.
I opened the door and exchanged glares with Prax before I said, “I invite you in, demon. But this is a one-time only invitation. You can’t come and go as you please.”
He grinned victoriously. “Why, thank you.” He floated in through the door. He really did need to learn to use his feet.
He honed in on Eva right away, tossing an arm casually around her and leading her over to the couch. It wasn’t me who blocked his way but a particularly protective furball, who dashed out from the kitchen to get between his owner and the demon menace.
The cat was a lot friendlier to me now that he’d gotten used to my scent. I’d also fed him this morning, so that counted for something, I guess. I decided to forgive him for his previous attempts on my life.
“It’s okay, Sriri. This is Prax.” Eva bent and picked up the little furball, hugging him to her chest. Sriracha proceeded to swat at every part of Prax he could reach until the incubus backed off out of swatting range.
Attaboy, Sriracha! I was going to buy that cutie a huge bag of treats.
Eva made her way to the living room, her furry bodyguard in her arms. “Why don’t you let me know what information you need.”
She sat down on the couch, and I quickly took the spot next to her, forcing Prax to sit in the easy chair. As he grilled Eva about her workplace, I opened my laptop and got to work searching one of the two collectors forums I knew some of the wizards frequented.
Any collector of ancient artifacts worth their salt was on these forums. They were privately run, and the only reason I had access was because technically I was using Desmon’s account. Now that I knew Tony had had the first piece of the locket for two years, I had a lot of searching to do. Finally I found a post regarding a half-locket being sold through a buy-and-sell group on social media. Bingo.
I logged into my rarely used account on the platform and joined the group, glad that it didn’t require any form of admin approval. After scrolling for what seemed like forever, I found the listing for Eva’s locket. Tony had posted it in a group for mostly unwanted junk.
I’d been looking in the wrong place the whole time! I was lucky someone in the collectors forum had mentioned the posting, wondering if it was valuable or not. According to the people on the forum, the piece Tony was offering must be fake, since the real one was known sometimes to go on display at the Darlington Museum. One person mentioned also that this one looked too new to be anything other than a replica.
I noted the username of the person who’d made the comment. I wondered if it was our wizard, trying to deter any other would-be buyers.
Next to me, Eva had just dug a set of keys out of her purse and was tossing it to Prax.
“What’s going on?” I asked. I’d been too lost in my research to notice anything going on next to me.
“Prax is going to drive my car here so that we can take it in the morning.”
“And how are you going get over to her house to pick up the car? I know you can’t travel with her keys on you.”
“You’re right, I can’t.” He held up the keys and then dematerialized completely. The keys dropped to the ground right through his smoky body. Then he solidified again and picked them up. “I can only pop into and out of locations when I’m fully dematerialized, and I can’t bring anything along with me. But I can do this…”
He stared at the keys in deep concentration, holding up one finger. Slowly, the finger changed, turning into a perfect replica of the key shaft. “That’s why I asked Eva if she had keyless entry. This trick only works with old cars. I could imitate the look of a key fob exactly, but it would still be a part of my substance and would be limited to only what I could do. A physical key, on the other hand…”
