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“We’ll be fine.” If Casanova gave me any grief about the rooms, I’d have Billy rig every damn roulette game in the house. Come to think of it, he was pretty good with craps, too.
“You sure? ’Cause, I mean, I kind of get paid a lot. It wouldn’t be, like, hurting me any, you know?”
Françoise was giving him the kind of look I expected to see incubi giving her. She saw me notice and gave a shrug that could have meant anything from “I was just looking” to “I haven’t had sex in four hundred years, so sue me.” I decided I didn’t want to know.
“Thanks. I’ll be in Shoes,” I said, snagging the lightest of the remaining carts.
Sixteen feet—I wasn’t counting the baby because so far she hadn’t proven able to keep up even with socks—need a lot of shoes. I stood up from fishing around on the bottom row, trying to find a pair of Converse look-alikes in Jesse’s size, and hit my head on somebody’s elbow. Somebody who looked like he’d escaped from Caesars Palace and forgotten to take off the costume.
“Why are you here?” The voice echoed loudly in the large space.
I looked around frantically, but nobody seemed to be paying the ten-foot golden god in the shoe department any attention. “I could ask you the same question!” I whispered.
“I came to remind you that time grows short. Your vampire will die if the spell is not lifted.”
“I’m aware of that!” I snapped.
“Then I ask again, why are you here? Have you made any progress?”
“Yes, sort of. I mean, I know where the Codex is.”
“Then why have you not retrieved it?”
“It isn’t that easy! And why do you care? What is Mircea to you?”
“Nothing. But your performance has not been as…focused…as I had hoped. This is an important test of your abilities, Herophile. And thus far you have let yourself be distracted by unnecessary tasks. These children are not your mission. The Codex is.”
“Uh-huh.” For someone who didn’t care about the Codex, he sure brought it up a lot. “Well, maybe I could do a better job if I had some help! How about sticking around for a while? And while you’re here we can get in a few of those lessons I keep hearing about.”
“I cannot enter this realm, Herophile. This body is a projection; only you can see it. And I cannot maintain it for long.”
“Then how about telling me a little more about the Codex?” Why, for example, Pritkin was willing to kill to keep it safe.
“You know all you need. Find it and complete your mission. And do it soon. There are those who would oppose you.”
“I kind of noticed.”
“What has happened?” he asked sharply.
“You’re a god. Don’t you know?”
His eyes narrowed dangerously. “Do not forget yourself, Herophile.”
“My name is Cassandra.”
“A poor name for the Pythia. Your namesake opposed my will and lived to regret it. Do not make the same mistake.”
It was more than a little surreal, even for me, to be discussing a myth with a legend in the middle of the Wal-Mart shoe department. Especially with a clerk giving me the hairy eyeball from the next aisle over. He didn’t say anything, though. Maybe a lot of his customers talked to the shoes before buying them.
“Maybe so, but it’s still my name and I’m doing the best I can. Threats aren’t going to speed up the process.”
“Find something that will,” he told me flatly, and vanished.
I sighed and fought the urge to bang my head against the metal rack and just not stop. The clerk was peering at me around the size twelves with an expression that said he was thinking about calling for security. I decided not to risk it.
I held up the red Converse wannabes. “You have these in a nine?”
Chapter 14
