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“Stop that! And find me a way in.”
He shook his head. “That’s what I came to tell you, Cass. There is no way.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I figured it out when I tried to float through a window and I couldn’t. I couldn’t do it!”
“So? Maybe it’s warded.”
“It shouldn’t matter. I’m a ghost. There’s never been a ward invented that works on me.”
“Well, obviously, there is.”
He shook his head. “No, there isn’t. It took me a while to figure it out, too. I probably wouldn’t have, but a couple of the guests were talking about it. Apparently, they don’t do it often and the mages are having a collective magicgasm over the whole—”
“Billy!” I said impatiently.
“I couldn’t go through the wall because it wasn’t there,” he said simply.
“Come again?”
“Near as I can figure out, they’ve turned the whole inside of the house into a portal. The outside is still here, but they’ve transported the inside . . . somewhere else.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know. There’re only two doors that work—the front and this one—and none of the windows do. I guess when you go through one of the working doors, you go through the portal to . . . well, wherever they’ve taken the place. And when you come out, you’re back here.”
“That’s why I can’t shift,” I said slowly. “They’ve taken the house outside this world, and my power only works here.”
“That would be my guess, yeah. So, like I said, you’re not getting in.”
“Oh, I’m getting in.” This only made me more determined. Not only were they having my coronation without me, but they were having it somewhere my own power didn’t even work. And, apparently, no one saw the irony in that.
Billy crossed his arms. “Okay, say you do. What then? Most of the major players in the sup world are in there. If something big is about to go down, let them handle it.”
“They can’t handle it if they don’t know what it is.”
“You don’t know what it is.”
“And I’m not going to if I’m stuck out here. Now get back in there and get me something I can use!”
Billy sighed and faded away, muttering something, while I stared in frustration at the ultramodern sphere looming overhead. It looked vaguely like aliens had crashed into the side of the mountain, leaving half of their flying saucer sticking out. Much of the visible part of the house was glass, I suppose to take advantage of the panoramic view of the tree-lined valley below and the snow-capped Sierra Nevadas beyond.
It was gorgeous, sleek and impressive, much like its owner. With a shell just as maddeningly hard to crack. But I had to figure something out or this was going to be one memorable evening—for all the wrong reasons.
I was still standing there when a couple emerged from the darkness. The man had a seventies nerdstache and eyes as cold as a new razor blade. The woman adjusted a spill of mink over her shoulder and tried not to look like she’d been feeding a vampire in the woods in the middle of the night. Neither paid any attention to the snack carrying snacks as they mounted the stairs.
The man rapped imperiously on the door, which promptly opened. His lip curled as his eyes took in Jack’s complete dearth of sartorial elegance. “Even tonight, you couldn’t make an effort?”
“An effort?” Jack inquired, deliberately disingenuous.
“You know what I mean! Half the guests are human!”
“And half are vampire.” Jack ran a bony finger under the guy’s too-wide polyester tie and gave it a flip. “Do you think for a moment that fine clothes and a pretty face make them forget what we are?”
“Not with you wearing that ridiculous costume!” the man snapped with a total lack of irony. He and his dinner swept inside.
Jack laughed. It looked no better on him than the smile, but the sound was surprisingly full and rich. “Everyone here is in costume,” he called after them. “Some are even smart enough to know it!”
