A Demon Does It Better (26 page)

“I know you will.” He rose at the same time she did. “I have kept you from your duties long enough. And think about what I have said. I do believe we can go a great way if I have your assistance in my research.”

“I will,” she promised, even as she knew there was no way in Hades she’d even consider it.

Lili didn’t waste any time taking the scrolls to her office and locking them in her desk, overlaying the drawer with a major “keep out—or else” spell. Once she finished, she cleansed her hands in salt water then used a lotion on her skin. She collapsed into her chair, feeling exhausted.

“How do I get mixed up in these things?” she muttered to herself.

“Because getting involved is strong in your aura. I don’t know what you put in your desk, but whatever it is, it’s not good for any of us,” Cleo warned her, sitting up tall on her pillow. She lifted a paw and delicately licked it then started hacking. “Damn hair balls,” she muttered in a raspy voice, pointing a paw at the hair ball and torching it. “I don’t know which is worse, them or the ability to lick my ass. Although I must admit, I do have a lovely butt,” she mused, admiring said body part.

“Self-absorbed. Party of one.” Lili pulled her hair up into a ponytail, allowing the curls to drop down to her shoulders.

“What did Dr. Musty want, other than to give you something that smells worse than a month-old dead rat and holds nasty magick?” The cat stared at the desk, wrinkling her nose in distaste. “You shouldn’t have that around you, you know.”

Lili sniffed, but she already knew her sense of smell wasn’t like her diva feline’s olfactory senses. “All I noticed was an old paper smell, although it does feel nasty. What did you detect?”

“I can tell it’s something bad. Like magick that’s gone to a bad place.” She curled back up on her pillow, her plush tail wrapped around her body. “What’s on those scrolls he gave you?”

“I haven’t read them yet. Why, do you want to look at them?” She doubted Dr. Mortimer would expect her cat to read them.

“I’ll stick to my erotica, thank you very much. It’s much more enjoyable than whatever those scrolls hold. I don’t think you should read them, either. They wouldn’t be good for you, just as I bet they weren’t good for him. They changed him, and they’d do that to you too.” Her blue eyes rimmed with gold blazed with fire, a sure sign her magick was flaring. Now she stared at the desk as if it held something deadly.

Lili felt the sickness in her stomach flare up. She already had a pretty good idea what was on the scrolls, while Cleo had to rely on her magick to ferret out the contents. And the cat would absolutely do that. Curiosity couldn’t kill her for doing it, either.

“Anything else your senses tell you?” she asked. “Do you think I can scan them to my computer?”

Cleo thought for a moment. “I’d have to touch them to tell you that and, personally, I don’t care to do so.” She groaned when she caught Lili’s expression. “But you expect me to.”

“You got it.” Lili knew just how stubborn the cat was, but she wasn’t about to back down. If she could transfer the contents to her computer, she could return the scrolls to Dr. Mortimer and then read them at her leisure.

Cleo continued staring at the desk drawer as if she had X-ray vision. She suddenly hissed and arched her back, her fur standing on end.

“What have you done, you foolish witch?” she spat, spearing her with a fluffy glare. “Those are bad!”

“You already told me that!” Lili batted her hands to indicate the feline keep her voice down.

“Oh no, I first just sensed bad magick,” Cleo told her. “But further examination shows we’re talking so bad, it could get you into a lot of trouble. Honestly, did you think I spent all these years training you to lose you now?” She leaped off the couch and stalked toward the witch, who had dropped into her chair.

Lili lifted her hands, setting the privacy spell in place. “There’s no reason to have a hissy fit.”

“There is if you’ve accepted dangerous materials.”

“Dangerous in what way?” She had her own idea, but she badly wanted that second opinion.

Cleo hunkered down, her butt up in the air, her claws unsheathed. “The spells written on those scrolls used the wrong kind of blood. If you aren’t careful, something bad will happen to you.”

Lili’s stomach took a nosedive. She already knew blood spells had to have been mentioned there, or Dr. Mortimer wouldn’t have referred to them. Still, she had hoped this was one of those times she was wrong, and the parchments held nothing more than the ramblings of a delusional writer. She knew there was a lot of it out there. Too bad this wasn’t one of those times.

She sighed heavily. “You know, just once I wish things would go halfway normally.”

Cleo flat-out ordered Lili not to even consider scanning the scrolls, either using her computer or even magickally. Lili agreed. Her cat had never been wrong before—something the snarky feline loved pointing out too.

In the end she came into work a couple of hours early the next day so she could catch up on her paperwork and take a peek at the scrolls. By now, she wished she hadn’t even asked for them.

She settled in to her office and lit a vanilla-infused candle while she spent her time updating her present cases, then went in search of the offices that held Special Services. It didn’t take her long to realize the two Guides there weren’t what she needed for Amy. She put a quick call in to Rea, who passed along a pair of phone numbers. In no time Lili had spoken with both Guides, and by conversation alone knew that Rissa would interact the best with little Amy. The Guide promised to be there later that day, and Lili was free to return to the paperwork piled on her desk.

“You’d think we’d be beyond all this,” she muttered, flicking her finger over the papers as a way to scrawl her signature. “It’s the twenty-first century! At least in Chicago, computers handled it all, because Dr. Hamish loved gadgets.”

“Boring,” Cleo sang out, hopping off her pillow. “I’m going up to pediatrics.”

“Have fun.” Lili’s attention wandered in the direction of the scrolls that silently wailed her name. The temptation to pull them out and study the contents grew stronger by the minute, but she silenced that voice in a hurry. A glance at the clock warned her that her free time here was waning. She waved her hand to pull up the staff schedule on a blank wall. Names and times clicked into place, showing who was on duty and who wasn’t, along with when they’d be in next. She noticed that the space next to Dr. Mortimer’s name was blank, with no indication when he would next be on duty.

“Where do you go, Dr. Mortimer?” she murmured, frowning at the schedule. She leaned back in her chair, resting her head against the back. “Most heads of hospitals practically have to be carried out of a hospital, while it seems you’re gone more than you are here. No contact information there, either.”

“Hey.” Deisphe popped in, carrying two cups of coffee, and set one on Lili’s desk before she dropped into the guest chair. She inclined her head at the schedule. “What’s up with that?” She watched as Lili changed the dates and went backward.

“Just checking out something. Do you notice how often Dr. Mortimer isn’t here?” She nodded toward the schedule as she picked up the cup, holding it up in a silent thank-you.

“Dragon lady loves it when he’s not. It means she’s in charge.” Deisphe sipped her coffee. “His main job is down in the asylum, so I guess he doesn’t think he needs to be here every day. Or he’s holed up in his office or laboratory.”

Lili straightened up at that piece of information. “Laboratory?”

The Were nodded. “He doesn’t like anyone near it, so it’s one of the last rooms before the hall dead-ends, and the door’s heavily warded. I only know about it because one of the orderlies was down there and opened the door by mistake. He only put his hand on the handle and was practically zapped back to his birth. He couldn’t speak for a month.”

“What excuse did Dr. Mortimer give for that happening?”

“That a faulty spell must have been triggered, because there was no reason for it to happen. I should have filched some pastries from the break room.”

Lili grinned. “Sugar, chocolate, good fruit. Bring us goodies, nothing healthy, and more coffee to boot.” She snapped her fingers.

Deisphe squealed with delight when a platter of doughnuts and pastries appeared on the table next to a tall coffee carafe.

“Did I ever tell you you’re my very best friend?” She studied the array and finally chose a lemon-filled doughnut.

Lili picked up a cream-filled doughnut frosted with chocolate and bit down, relishing the thick custard filling.

“Do you really feel he had something to do with Sera’s and the others’ disappearances?” the Were asked, licking lemon filling off her fingers before choosing another pastry.

Lili didn’t hesitate when she nodded. “But I have no proof, only a gut feeling.”

“The same gut feeling that tells you Jared isn’t really insane?”

“The same one,” she said softly.

“So why can’t you get him sprung? State that in your professional medical opinion, he’s no longer bonkers and is safe to be released?” Deisphe asked.

“That decision is up to Dr. Mortimer, not me, and he doesn’t agree.” She felt the familiar pain deep within her, the one that she’d come to associate with Jared and her inability to do much to help him. She lived in fear she’d go down one day and be told that she couldn’t even talk to him. At least the ogres hadn’t figured out she’d used amnesia spells on them when she went down there on days she wasn’t supposed to be there.

“What will you do, Lili?” Her golden eyes were warm with concern.

She shook her head. “Figure something out. Maybe approach the Physics Council, although that can be a career-ender unless I can provide a lot of hard evidence to back me up. It’s the same reason I can’t say anything about Sera and the others. It’s all hunches, and if he is behind them, why did he do it? How did it benefit him?”

“Sure wasn’t any kind of longevity or good-looks spell,” Deisphe muttered. She straightened up as she refilled her coffee cup. “Maybe he has a beautiful wife hidden away somewhere and he needs their life forces to keep her young and gorgeous. Or he’s repairing horrible scars on her face and body. Or…”

Lili laughed so hard she almost snorted her coffee out her nose. “Don’t tell me. There was a horror movie marathon last night.”

“You’d be amazed how many of those movies were based on real life,” Deisphe countered, eying her nails that suddenly looked razor-sharp before she retracted her claws. “I wouldn’t mind getting my paws on Bradley Cooper. He’s just so darn cute.”

“Come on, you know you want dark and dangerous,” she teased.

“Dark and dangerous means Shemar Moore.” Deisphe mentioned one of the profilers on
Criminal
Minds
in a sultry purr. “He can handcuff me anytime. I’ve always tried to figure out if he’s one of us, but I don’t get the furry vibe. What a waste.” She sighed then turned pragmatic again. “What will you do about Jared?”

“Protect him any way I can.”

“Dr. Mortimer’s in charge here, babe. He may look all sweet and befuddled most of the time, but he’s got that steely side too,” she advised. “I wouldn’t cross him, Lili.”

“I got that feeling too,” she admitted.

They both glanced at the clock.

“Off to clock in.” Deisphe snatched another Danish. “For the road.” She grinned. Her smile dialed down a few degrees. “You’ll be careful, won’t you? I hate losing good friends.”

Lili nodded. “I promise.” She held her hand up to further strengthen the vow.

After the Wereleopard left the office, Lili first thought of heading below to see Jared but decided to hold off, since she would be going down when Rissa arrived. She alerted Reception that she would have a visitor and to page her the moment the Guide showed up.

She remained in her office for a few moments, mentally cataloging all she knew so far, even if she still had more questions than answers.

She knew one thing. She needed to find out just what was in that heavily warded room of Dr. Mortimer’s. She’d just have to find a way to break in there without leaving any evidence of her presence.

***

Since the ER proved to be busy, thanks to an influx of Ashbury rash at one of the local magick prep schools, Lili didn’t have much time to think before Rissa arrived.

It only took her a few minutes to sense that the young witch was perfect for the job.

“I’ll admit I’m surprised you called me, since I know the hospital has some very excellent Guides already working here.” The petite blond witch had an edge to her, thanks to her battered brown leather jacket that Lili was positive had a designer label attached to it and her leg-hugging jeans. Her high-heeled boots didn’t slip once on the stone steps. Lili had already warned her of the surroundings she’d find there, but Rissa assured her she had worked in stranger places and not to worry.

“As I explained on the phone, Amy is a special case. A mundane who was somehow brought here a couple of centuries ago,” she explained. “Considering how long it’s been, I guess we can’t even hope you can connect her with her mother.”

“There’s nothing stronger than a mother’s love,” Rissa replied. “Admittedly, crossing state and time lines isn’t easy, but if her mother never forgot her, she might be in the ether, somewhere she and Amy can reconnect. Do you have any clue how it happened?”