AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“They have books that I want to check out.” That was the one thing in the world that would make her stop looking suspicious.
She pulled out her cell phone and called. “Hello, Michael dearest. What is the Sphinx’s Curse in Song?” She listened intently, then narrowed her eyes at me, her mouth going tighter and tighter until she said, “Thanks. No, that won’t be necessary.” She put her phone away and scowled darkly. “Why are your books in Song’s fifth precinct?”
“Fifth what?”
“Police station, or the equivalent in Song. What did you do to get involved with the law element, particularly in the undercity?”
I stared at her for a really long time. The werewolves had run away from the law? Did that make the vampire a criminal? Maybe the guy that had grabbed me wasn’t the police, but the books had been picked up by them. “It’s a long story. I’ll be right back with your sushi.”
She gave me a look that said that she wasn’t dropping it. She was married to an extremely powerful vampire, who probably had contacts in the under city’s police force. She was also my mother’s best friend. I needed to take care of this issue quickly, before things spiraled out of control. I also needed to buy chocolate cake and chocolate muffins and really good hot chocolate for my three a.m. meeting with a gargoyle, if he really came back. For a second I forgot about everything else and was with him, dancing through the air in the circle of his arms, until Rynne’s mom yelled at me and I hurried back to work.
The Sphinx’s Curse was a great name for a police station, if you wanted people to avoid it, which apparently, they did, whoever ‘they’ were. The place was in the middle of the block in a part of Song I’d never been to before, more run-down, more creepy and uncared for, except for one park labeled, ‘Wonderland,’ with an elaborate gate and signs that made it look all whimsical and charming, with a castle in the distance that you might be able to reach through the magical maze that was twenty times the size that the actual garden should have been, if we were dealing with conventional physical restraints. The Sphinx’s Curse was right across the street from Wonderland, and other than the two lions in front of the doors, it was an ugly, solid stone box that rose up to the cavern roof of Song without anything to make it pretty.
I didn’t have time to hesitate because I needed to get home and do homework before my night shift started at Gray College. If I didn’t have the books back by then… I’d been such an idiot to take them from Percival in the first place. If he did set me up with an elaborate hallucination, I’d make him regret it. He knew perfectly well that I wasn’t a passive wallflower who would sit back and let him walk all over me without reciprocating in some way. Like after that first time with the garbage can, the next day at dinner when he’d been eating on the outdoor balcony, I’d had Poe drop worms in his soup while I’d stood at the top steps, watching him.
He’d looked up, seen me, looked down at his soup, seen the worms, and then smiled at me and eaten them with a glint of pure orneriness in his eyes. It was so disgusting watching him that I’d had to leave before my own stomach got upset.
I hadn’t planned revenge for two years, but if he’d really had made me hallucinate, I’d get Rynne to use her magic to mess with his head. Drugs. I’d drug him and kidnap him, tie him to a tower somewhere and leave him there to get struck by lightning. Maybe I could hire the vampire woman to help me carry him.
I took a deep breath and crossed the street, avoiding being driven over by a noxious car that honked repeatedly at me. I hurried up the front steps between the enormous lions that were much larger close up than they had appeared. Why call it the Sphinx’s curse? I got to the large front doors and pushed on them, but they were locked. I peered inside and it looked like some lights were on, so I checked the smaller side door. Jackpot!
Inside was warm and slightly humid with soft weird instrumental music playing that went with the long blue rectangular pool stretched out between the Egyptian pillars. I wasn’t much for elevator music, but it was a good blend of jazz and classical that made me relax my grip on my board.
I headed to the desk on the side where a thin woman was swaying to the music while typing with fingers that went a hundred miles a minute.
I pulled out the flier and put it on the desk, waiting for her to look up and stop typing. She finally blinked at me with filmy eyes.
“What’s this?”
“I found this in an alley where I lost my books last night. I’m here to claim them.”
She frowned at the flier intently. “I see. Yes, just a moment.” She picked up a white shell and gold phone and spoke into the receiver. “Someone is here for lost books. Is it a girl? I’m not sure. Is that essential?” She held the receiver against her gauzy suit top and frowned at me. “Are you a girl?”
I sighed heavily. “Yeah, not that it’s anyone’s business.”
She smiled brightly and replaced the receiver. “Oh, yes. She’s a lovely young woman. An alto. I don’t know what sounds she makes when she’s frightened. Hansen’s on his rounds. Yes, of course.” She hung up and then pointed at the gold elevator behind me. “He’ll see you in his office.”
“Who?”
“The Sphinx, of course.”
I took two steps towards the elevator, then swung around back to her. “Is he a real sphinx? What’s with the curse business? Will I end up cursed if I go up there?”
She blinked long pale lashes at me. “He has the books. If you are very polite, he probably won’t curse you.” She smiled brightly, then went back to typing a million words a minute.
I didn’t have time to hesitate or think twice and anyway, Libby knew where I was going and this was Song’s police station, even if it looked more like a museum’s lobby.
The elevator ride was quick and smooth, coming out in a large space surrounded on three sides by glass, so I could see the stretch of Song’s darkness all around, punctuated by red lamps and headlights.
When I knocked on the door of the office, it swung open, allowing me into the police officer’s domain. It had a lot of pillars for your run-of-the-mill cop’s office. There were flags between pillars from all over the world, current and past countries and states.
The Sphinx himself was sitting hunched over a desk on the far side of the pillars and flags, looking basically like a long-haired administrator with an unhealthy obsession for plaid.
I walked just the right speed so that he’d know I was serious but also respectful, and came to stand right before his desk.
“Excuse me, Mr. Sphinx, I hate to bother you, but I’m looking for the books that were found in an alley…” I trailed off when he looked up, because he was the guy from the night before, the one who had grabbed me and punched out the vampire.
“They were your books?” he asked, raising one brow over golden eyes.
