A.K.A. Goddess (29 page)

Not a bad landing, Magdalene.

Now a mere three stories up, I sidled my way along the wall toward the far corner of the east wing. Without a drainpipe, my best route down would be the crenellated corner stones, right?

Unfortunately, every time I passed a window I had to carefully navigate around its two inches of sill.

I didn’t look down. Though I thought I heard banging above me—some jerk trying to get back into his room, maybe?—I didn’t bother looking up, either.

Instead, I dug out my cell phone and pressed the speed-dial button for Lilith.

Sidestep. Sidestep. She picked up on the first ring.

“Are you ready to go?” she asked.

A breeze chilled my bare shoulders. “Something like that.”

“Was it lovely? Did you get what you wanted?”

Sidestep. Sidestep. “I certainly got more than I expected.”

“Oh, love, you didn’t have breakup sex, did you?”

In the background I heard a surprised noise. Like Rhys.

“No, we didn’t have breakup sex.” I used my free hand to judge a sill as I eased around it. Only four windows to go before I reached the corner. “Give me a little credit.”

I heard her say, “She withstood his dark powers.”

“Lil,” I said, “I’m in a bit of a rush, here. Could you pull up in front of the manor? As close to the east wing as the drive goes? I’ll be coming around the side of the building.” I edged around my third-to-the-last windowsill and kept going.

“Why aren’t you coming out the front door, Maggi?”

Here came the second-to-the-last windowsill between me and the corner. “It’s a long story. Can I tell you in the car?”

“Meet you there. Rhys sends his love. Ta!”

I heard Rhys protesting even as the line disconnected. Now I was able to drop the phone back into my purse and concentrate on careful steps and those last two windowsills. Far, far below me, I saw a cat trot silently across paving stones. I eased around the next-to-the-last window, having to pooch my tummy outward to make room for my butt, trying not to let the dress rub on the wall. There. I made my way slowly toward the last windowsill, and eeked my way around it…. Yes!

Then I stood at the corner, three stories high, with another problem.

The stones fit as seamlessly here as they did across the rest of the manor home’s exterior. They weren’t crenellated at all. Instead, they offered the same, sheer, almost forty-foot drop.

Oops.

I’m in a motel lobby and my hand is shaking too hard to dial my cell phone. If only I hadn’t erased his number off speed dial when we broke up the previous summer—but I did.

I use the voice-recognition feature instead. “Lex.”

The phone buzzes protest. My voice is shaking, too, which is stupid. Nothing bad has actually happened. Just something…unsettling.

I take a deep breath, hoping the clerk at the desk isn’t eavesdropping on my foolishness, and try again. “Lex.”

Beep. The call goes through.

“Be there,” I whisper, as it rings. But it’s 2:00 a.m., and he’s been seeing some heiress for over a month—about as long as I’ve been seeing Evan. “Please be there….”

Another ring.

Then a sleepy, familiar voice. “Mag? What’s wrong?”

“I…” I’m not sure why I called him, except that everything feels wrong and I need a friend even more than I need a ride and he’s the first person I thought of.

The only person I thought of.

It’s selfish. It’s needy. It’s everything I’ve disliked seeing in other women. But my voice shakes as I say, “Can you come get me?”

I hear shuffling on his end of the line. “Yes. Of course. Just tell me where you are.”

I do. I think he understands what’s going on as soon as I say it’s a motel, but he just asks, “Do you want me to stay on the line with you?”

I think I hear a woman’s voice in the background, but that could be projection. “No. My battery’s low. I’ll just wait.”

“Are you hurt? In some kind of danger? This Evan guy…” I hear the ding of an elevator.

“No!” So he knows my dating life as surely as I know his, huh? “You think I couldn’t take Evan Prescott?”

“Not me,” he says, deliberately cheerful for my benefit. “You could wipe the floor with the guy.”

He’s right. I’m tough. I’m also twenty-three, and very single. We haven’t talked for months, not since I refused to marry him, and he gave me an ultimatum, and I took it.

Calling a cab would have been a lot less complicated.

“Never mind,” I say quickly. “I shouldn’t have gotten you up. I’ll be fine. Pretend this never happened?”

“No,” he says. “I plan on breaking some speed limits. Whether or not you’re there when I arrive is up to you.”

So I wait. He gets there in under fifteen minutes, gliding to a wet stop in front of the motel in his latest sports car. I run to the passenger door, and not just because it’s raining.

“Somewhere else,” I plead as I tumble into the low, leather seat. “Anywhere else.”

With a press of horsepower, the car takes off.

We end up parked outside the Cloisters, in Washington Heights, looking across the river at Fort Washington. The police will probably show up and ask us to leave.

Or, this being Lex’s car, maybe they won’t.

“I’m sorry,” I say at my lap. “I shouldn’t have dragged you into this. God, this is embarrassing.”

For a long time, Lex says nothing. Then he tries, “Now you know how I felt at that drive-in movie.”

I stare at him in the shadows. “What?”

“When I admitted to sleeping with someone who wasn’t you.”

“We’d broken up,” I remind him.

“Exactly.” Just like this time.

“So why do I feel like I’ve cheated on you?”

“Same reason I do.” When I stare, stricken, he adds, “Feel like I’ve cheated on you, I mean. Every time.”

Oh.

“Maybe we’re just supposed to be together,” he suggests.

“I can’t talk about us,” I protest. “Not now. Not…yet.”

But we will. We always do, don’t we?

“Okay, then,” he says. “Maybe Evan’s just bad in the sack.”

“Lex!”

“Well, it sure isn’t you.”

I laugh. It comes out uneven, but it’s better than the gut-sick confusion I’ve felt since my less-than-orgasmic attempt at moving on. Speaking of which…“I really should go back.”

“Don’t ask me to do that.”

“I didn’t leave a note. He’ll freak. He’s not a bad guy.”

“If you break up with him, may I take you to dinner?”

I look at him, and he says, “Please?”

“I’m even less ready to get married than I was before.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I took you for granted, then I felt rejected, and instead of owning up to what an idiot I was…”

Well, we know how that turned out. But he wasn’t alone.

“I didn’t have to accuse you of trying to own me.”

“Unless that’s what I was trying to do. I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry, too. But I do need to go back. I’ll take a cab.”

“No.” Lex starts the car. “I’ll take you.”

“I need to think this through on my own. Without you.”

“I know.” He doesn’t sound happy, but it’s something.

“Thank you,” I say. “You’re the best friend I’ve ever had.”

And he is. Within a month we’re dating again, better than ever.

It’s like we can tell each other anything.

S tupid manor home. The corners had been crenellated in the front—I’d seen that much. But apparently the back of the home was where they cut costs. No columns. No bright lights. The place still had old-fashioned electrical and telephone wires running up to the roof…and within my reach.

If I were willing to reach out over the drop for them.

They sloped down to the yard, like in some kind of steep confidence course, albeit one that could incinerate me.

A bird or bat flew by. I flattened my bare hands against the cold stone wall behind me, anchoring myself to lean around the corner and check for a continuation of the ledge.

Nope. Not on the side of the building.

I looked back at those wires, wary. There was no way to tell which lines were harmless cable or telephone lines, and which ones carried electrical death, except to hope the power lines were the highest. Would any of them even hold my weight?

It was a stupid gamble. But was I imagining it, or did I hear a faint bang from behind and above me?

Like, say, a door being kicked in?

I was pretty sure I heard Lex call, “Maggi!”

I read somewhere that dry silk doesn’t conduct electricity. So I unwrapped my silk gloves from my wrist and stood on my toes. I stretched out as far as the lowest and hopefully safest of the cables. I whipped the gloves over it, double-looped their ends firmly around each fist, started to lose balance…

And leaped outward, like launching myself into flight.

The cable held.

I slid—flew—all the way down to the yard. And it felt wild. Free. Magic. As soon as my feet touched grass, I strode around the corner, far below Lex’s next, faint call of, “Maggi?”

Lil’s Ford idled at the eastern curve of the drive, waiting for me. It took all my willpower not to race for it. Instead, I strolled over and let myself in sedately.

“Drive,” I said, waving pleasantly toward the bouncer who hadn’t been fast enough to see me and get my door.

Frowning, he said something into his wrist.

I waved again, gloves frayed in my hand. “Now!”

Lil hit the gas, and we hurtled out of the FitzGeoffrey estate like a shooting star.

It’s more than a three-hour drive from Canterbury, in far southeast England, to Lilith’s home near Cornwall.

Within five minutes, I’d freed the printout and the CD from my gown. In another minute I’d read the note. “Crap!”

Sir: Thank you for your interest. The auction for this item will be at 2:00 ET this Saturday. $100K bona fide by Thursday. We will ship the package to your verified address.

“What’s wrong?” asked Rhys, while I clawed my cell phone back out of my chain-mail dress purse.

“What day’s today?” I demanded, dialing.

“Thursday,” said Lil, and glanced at her dashboard clock. “Rather, we’re pushing Friday. Why?”

“We may have missed our chance to put down earnest money. And there’s no damned location!” I pressed the send key.

Rhys said, “Perhaps you should calm down first…?”

After all this and what I’d overheard in the hallway?

Lex picked up on the first ring. “Are you all right?”

“No, I’m pissed. What kind of instructions are these?”

I only realized how raw his first question had sounded when his voice cooled. “The same instructions I was sent.”

“You said there would be a location!”

“You know my address in New York.”

“Your apartment? No way.”

“Then I just lost $100,000. Unless I decide to bid myself.”

My annoyance at the threat tripped over his first tidbit. “You put down the earnest money for me? And before talking to me?”

“You weren’t showing up until tonight. And speaking of tonight…Mag, my room is on the fourth floor.”

“No kidding.”

“Wouldn’t stairs have been more appropriate?”

“I overheard you talking to your cousin.”

After a moment of silence, Lex asked, “What did you hear?”

“That I apparently wasn’t going anywhere.”

He sighed. “I meant not going anywhere as in, I’m still dating you.”

“But you’re not still dating me.” I shook my head at Lil, whose eyes widened in concern, and pointed to the road.

“And I didn’t want him to know that,” said Lex.

It was possible, considering the ruse we’d used to snag private time. Just a good lay could even have been preceded by the word, not. But that was the problem with conspiracies and lies. Once you start doubting, it’s hard—and unwise—to stop. “I hate this,” I said.

“I know. But this isn’t a secure line, so can we table this discussion until our erstwhile date?”

“We don’t have a date.” The car swerved slightly.

“Not a romantic date,” said Lex. “A datebook date.”

“And did you just say erstwhile?”

“If you’re going to no-show, tell me now. There’s work I could be doing here in England.”

And I should trust him why? Because I wanted the Melusine Chalice. He was my best chance at getting it. QED.

Some risks are worth taking.

“We do this alone,” I warned. “None of your hench-thugs lurking around. No Cousin Phil pounding at the door.”

“The apartment will be empty. Come alone yourself, and you can check.” Which wouldn’t do me a lot of good in an ambush.

“Then it’s a datebook date,” I said anyway. Risk. Woohoo.

“Good. And Mag?”

“What?”

“Steal from me again and we’re through.”

I blinked, then reacted. “We’re already—”

But he’d hung up. If I weren’t afraid of scaring Lil at highway speed, I would’ve screamed. Instead, I muttered, “I really wish we could still hang up phones by slamming them. Pushing a button doesn’t even come close. Maybe if I just whack it on the—”

Rhys reached forward from the back seat and took the phone out of my hand. “Could you perhaps fill us in?”

So I relayed a G-rated version of my evening. Lil kept sending me suspicious looks from her right-hand driver’s seat. Rhys, in the back, seemed so intrigued by my mention of the Sangreal file from Lex’s computer that I passed him the CD.

When we parked at a truck stop, so that I could change into something a little more comfortable and far less expensive, Lilith loaned him her laptop to check it out.

“We look at the files, then we destroy them,” I instructed as we all headed inside. “It doesn’t go beyond us. I know the Comitatus stole my files first, but…I still feel kind of yucky about taking his.” I’d always hated eye-for-an-eye thinking.

“That’s a good sign,” Rhys said, sitting at a booth and opening the laptop. “It means you have a conscience. We could just destroy the files now, you know.”

“No!” I caught his wrist, in case he was serious. “I need to know if he’s a bad guy, Rhys. For the grail and for me.”

“Of course he’s a bad guy,” said Lil.

“I’m getting mixed signals. Since he can’t say anything…”

Rhys nodded, solemn. “I’ll see what I can find.”

As Lil and I went on to the ladies’ room, she said, “Rhys likes you. And I like him a lot better than Satan.”