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fidgeted furiously while clenching his jaw as I carried yet another stack of towels to the bathroom and took my time arranging them. I whistled cheerily to myself while I worked, wandering in and out of the room to get a feather duster, which I used liberally all over the room, and then the vacuum cleaner. The feather duster was good at knocking things down so I could get a better look at them as I set them right—always just before Idris could get to me to keep me from touching them.
With the vacuum cleaner cord I managed to wipe out everything he had spread out on the bed. A few pages of parchment found their way into the pocket of my apron while Idris sputtered and I apologized heartily.
“You have got to be the worst hotel maid ever!” he blurted after I toppled a pile of books.
That was my cue to burst into sobs. “Oh, please don’t tell my boss. I need this job. I got three kids at home, and their daddy took off months ago. He was a no-account hard drinker who barely kept a job more than a week, but we needed what pay he did bring in. If I get fired here, my kids’ll starve.” I sniffled and ran a sleeve across my nose. “I’ll just get out of your way now. Have a nice day, sir. No need to tip me, since I caused you so much trouble.”
I’d almost made it to the door when he called out, “Hey, wait a second!” and caught me by the arm. I kept my head down and hoped he’d do something uncharacteristic like apologize, but instead he pulled the baseball cap off my head. It got tangled in my ponytail, so it didn’t quite work as a dramatic moment of revelation, but it was enough to show my face. “You!” he shouted. “What are you doing here, spying on me?”
I drew myself up to my full height, jerked my arm out of his grasp, and put a hand on my hip in an indignant posture. “You were the one who invited me in. Didn’t you recognize me? It’s not like I’m in disguise.” I gestured at my work clothes and set my baseball cap back on top of my head. “I really do work here. My friend’s family owns this motel, and I’m doing her a favor since you and your gang of merry men scared off the housekeeping staff. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”
I almost made it to the door before it slammed shut on its own and he stepped in front of me. He couldn’t use magic directly on me, but it looked like he could use magic on other things that could affect me. I should have thought of that sooner, but now wasn’t the time for reevaluating this plan.
While he guarded the door, I turned and ran for the bathroom. That took him by surprise, so it was a few seconds before he realized I was running away from him instead of trying to get past him. His hesitation gave me just enough time to be armed when he got to the bathroom.
I hit him right in the eyes with a big burst of “Player” the moment he showed his face in the bathroom doorway, then while he was still rubbing his eyes and fumbling blindly, I dropped to my hands and knees and crawled past him back into the main part of the room. Then I got back to my feet and sprinted for the door, hoping he hadn’t used a spell to seal it shut. Fortunately, it did open, but before I could get out, the smell of “Player” hit me, meaning Idris wasn’t far behind. He grabbed my wrist, pulling me back into the room. I backed away from him as much as I could with my wrist still in his grasp, but instead of pulling me back, he moved with me until I hit the wall, then he kept moving forward. The smell of his body spray was strong enough in that proximity to make my eyes water.
“I don’t think I’ll have to worry too much about Owen anymore,” he said in a pleasant, conversational tone that was more menacing than a growl, “considering I’ve got you now, and we both know what he’s willing to do to keep you safe.”
That made me more angry than scared. I’d given up the best relationship I’d ever had, left the best job I’d ever had, and exiled myself to the middle of nowhere in order to avoid exactly this situation, and here I’d walked right into it. I tried edging away from Idris sideways, not only because the thought of his body against mine was so repulsive to me, but mostly because if he got close enough, he’d find all of his stuff that I’d stashed in my pockets and in the pockets of my housekeeping apron. Priority one was getting away. Priority two was getting away with all the things I’d found in his room.
He kept coming after me, giving me just enough leeway to move but never releasing his grasp. Then he made the mistake of getting too close to me at just the right angle, and that gave me the opening I was looking for. A well-placed knee to a sensitive spot made him release my wrist as he grabbed at himself, then while he was still doubled over, I darted out of the room, grabbed the housekeeping cart, and nearly ran into Sam.
“You okay, doll? You took an awful long time in there.”
“I’m fine. Idris may not father children, though.”
“Sweetheart, you’ve done the world a favor.” Idris then came limping out of the room after me. I pushed the cart ahead of me and ran, letting Sam deal with him. I hadn’t realized how fierce gargoyles could be. He gave a hissing roar and spread his wings to their fullest. Idris flinched, but he didn’t run.
The door of the next room opened, and the jerks I’d seen earlier staggered out, clutching their heads, coughing, and choking, only to find themselves facing a very pissed-off Sam. They all screamed at the top of their lungs and took off running across the parking lot. There went three more from their side, I noted.
The commotion drew Nita out of the office, hefting a baseball bat. “What’s going on?” she asked.
“No wonder your housekeeping staff quit,” I said, then pointed at Idris. “This—this—this person just made a pass at me, and not a welcome one either.”
“She assaulted me!” he said, still not standing completely upright.
“In self-defense. I’m not sure what he’d have done to me. He had me by the wrist and wouldn’t let me go.” I held out my arm to Nita.
As soon as she saw the red mark circling my wrist, she raised her bat at Idris, who flinched even more than he had at Sam in attack mode. “I want you out of here, now! No one treats my workers—or my friends—that way. I don’t care how big a rock star you are!” From my spot next to Nita, I stuck my tongue out at Idris, who looked confused at the rock star reference. Sam was practically rolling on the ground in mirth, safely invisible from Nita, I assumed. I had to admit, it was a pretty good show.
This was a big test for Idris. He probably could have gone after Nita—if Sam let him—but using magic on the nonmagical in a way they might notice was strictly forbidden. If he tried to zap her with magic, then he really would have broken with the legitimate magical world. Apparently, though, he hadn’t yet gone so far as to be willing to do that. “Let me get my stuff,” he said, but she waved her bat again. “Okay, I’ll, uh, come back later when things are calmer.” Then he ran for the rental car that I now noticed was parked at the other end of the motel.
“Sorry about that,” Nita said. “These guys have been jerks since they got here. I’ll tell Dad and Ramesh about it so they can take care of them tonight.”
“No problem. Thanks for coming to my rescue.”
“So much for the Rock and Roll Motel idea,” she said with a shrug. “I don’t think they’ll be famous enough for it to pay off, anyway.”
While she went back to the office, I put the housekeeping cart away, except for the sack of tainted towels, which I threw into the trunk of Mom’s car. Then I headed back home to report what I’d found.
Sam must have called ahead to Owen, for when I pulled into the driveway and parked behind the house, a worried-looking Owen was there waiting for me. He took me by the shoulders and asked,
“Are you okay?” It would have been nice if he’d taken that maybe one step further and actually hugged—or even kissed—me, but the fact that Dean and Teddy were there with him probably restrained him some.
“I’m fine. I was mostly putting on a show to get Idris in trouble. He’s the one who’ll be needing an ice pack. But I did bring you some presents.”
He frowned in confusion. “Presents?”
