We clattered down the rest of the stairs and quickly left the hospital, walking down to where the car was parked. Once I’d adjusted the seat and pulled on the belt, I started the engine. Its deep-throated burble momentarily had delight overrunning worry. There was nothing quite like the sound of a big gas engine....
“Wouldn’t want to swap cars, would you?” I said as René clipped in his seat belt. “I have a very nice BMW I can offer you.”
It’s lime greencame Atticus’s comment.And disgusting.
He was sitting on the console between the seats, his form somewhat hazy, suggesting he wasn’t fully in either the real world or the spectral. I resisted the urge to push him off, knowing that when he was between like that, it wouldn’t affect him.
René glanced at me, his amusement evident. “I would have thought a racy red more your type.”
I put the car into reverse and carefully backed out. “A racy red would clash with my scarlet hair. We can’t have that.”
He snorted softly but didn’t reply as I switched over to drive and put my foot down. The tires made a satisfying squeal before I backed off a little and slipped smoothly into the traffic. I gave René the address, and once he’d punched it into the GPS, followed its directions across town to Hamilton. It was basically an upmarket residential area close to the Brisbane River, meaning the Merc didn’t really look out of place. I turned into the street and slowed as we approached forty-eight but didn’t stop. It was a large single-story house with a long front garden and lots of trees; deep shadows haunted the latter, and while most would have assumed they were simply a result of the drizzly rain, threads of magic wove through the greenery; the spell had been designed to protect the house from the curious and to warn those inside if anyone entered the yard.
“That’s going to make things a bit more difficult,” René commented. “Though it does at least suggest we’re in the right spot. I can’t see why a resident would have reason to weave such an intricate net.”
I glanced at him. “Intricate?”
He nodded. “There are a number of snares hidden within the overall spell, designed to trigger if anyone tries to disengage the concealment and warning spells.”
“That definitely deletes the option, then. I’ll drive around to the street behind it. Maybe we can use their neighbor’s yard to get in.”
“They likely have a similar setup around the back,” he commented. “They’d be fools not to, and we are not dealing with fools.”
No, Atticus commented, but when spells have been hastily set, the possibility of wildlife intrusions is rarely considered.
René glanced down at him. “What makes you think they’re hastily set?”
You may be a container for your father’s vast knowledge and skills, but I am far older than even he was.
Container? That’s an odd way of putting it, I commented to Atticus alone.
He is an odd man.
Sounds like you’re figuring him out. Care to share when you do?
Perhaps.
Please?
Perhaps.He added René back to the conversation and added, In this case, though the alarms rise from the ground, the snares have been set at about four feet, so if you keep low you should be fine. I shall prance through the alarm magic like the regal soul I am, which should be enough to draw at least one of them out to chase me away.
“Sounds like a good plan,” I said.
I never offer bad plans, came the reply.
I snorted softly, a sound echoed by René. “I suspect you have driven many a witch up the wall during your long years of tenure as a familiar.”
Is that not the goal of any good familiar?he replied with a mental shrug.Given I have never been one to follow the rules, I cannot say for sure.
I smiled, though I suspected he was being more truthful than sarcastic. I drove around to the next street, where we discovered a costly-looking two-story apartment building that partially shared the rear fence line with our target house.
I found parking a few houses further down, and we climbed out. The drizzle had deepened and now shrouded the entire area in a shimmering cloud of wet silver. Thankfully, it wasn’t particularly cold, but I was grateful for the coat René tossed me after he opened the car’s trunk.
“You got any holy water in that bag of yours?” he asked.
“No, because I generally deal with bad men rather than demons.” I pulled on the coat. It swam on me, but that was better than getting soaked. “I don’t even have a blessed silver knife on me.”
He tsked. “A silver knife, blessed or not, is an excellent deterrent.”
