Waylaid (4 page)

“You’re okay?” Rachel gushed, an odd hunch to her as if she were afraid she might hurt him, but was trying to protect him all the same. “How’s the mystic population? Jenks, can you fly?”

Peri’s pulse was fast, as if she couldn’t seem to get enough air. Had someone hit her with a hallucinogenic dart? Maybe she’d finally snapped.
This can’t be real.

Jenks put his hands on his hips, wings clattering even as he didn’t move. “The mystic population here is low, really low, and scattered. I don’t think they even know they’re a collective.”

“It’s a fairy!” Peri finally blurted, scrambling back as the winged man rose up into the air, trailing faint silver dust that pooled on Rachel’s hands.

“I’m a pixy!” he said, threatening to poke her. “Or Jenks, to you. Get it straight, lunker, or wake up dead.”

Peri stared, fascinated at the glimmer of silver that spilled from him like silk. But then he faltered, and Rachel reached out, giving him somewhere safe to fall to. “Whoa,” Jenks said as he picked himself up off Rachel’s palm. “It’s like there’s no oxygen. The mystic level is really low. These guys need to start talking to each other, or I’m never going to stay in the air.”

The click of a phone pulled Peri’s attention away. Rachel, too, noticed the growing crowd around them, drawn by a glimmer of dust and Jenks’s sarcastic, high-pitched voice. Hands curving around Jenks, Rachel smoothly got to her feet. “We have to go,” she said softly, and Peri rose as well.

“Where did you get it?” someone asked, and Peri grimaced at the video being taken. Opti would remove it, but she didn’t like it when they had to clean her image from the Web.

“Ah, Cincinnati,” Peri said, and Rachel seemed to start. “It works through your glass phone, but you need version eight. It’s a 3-D holo. You should see the one that looks like a unicorn.”

Rachel relaxed, but Peri could hear tiny complaints coming from her cupped and covered hands. Peri took Rachel’s shoulder, leading her out of the press of people and back into the foot traffic. Immediately Rachel opened her hands, and Jenks made a wobbly flight to the woman’s hoop earrings. He sat down on one of them as if on a swing, holding the band of gold for balance, and Peri’s lips parted. The earrings weren’t a retro fashion statement. They were there for the . . . pixy.

“Unicorn?” Jenks said, meticulously cleaning a wing, and Rachel shrugged, even as their pace quickened.

“Maybe they have them here,” Rachel said, pointing out the sim-mules. “Look at that. You ever see anything like that?”

“No. How about food?” Jenks said, swinging on the earring. “You got peanut butter here? I’m starved.”

“Ahhh . . .” Peri said, thinking about the busy food court. “We really should go. I’ve got food at my apartment.” Calling Bill was now out of the question. If she was hallucinating, she wanted to go home to sleep it off. If she wasn’t . . . well, if she wasn’t . . .
My God, what if I’m not?

“Anything but honey,” Rachel said, and the tiny man made an indignant huff. “The Turn take it, I can’t tell you how glad I am to see you, Jenks. Everything okay at home?”

“Al says you were summoned, but we can’t pull you back,” Jenks said, and Peri led them to the exit. Security was following, but they wouldn’t bother them if they were clearly leaving. Wouldn’t even check the facial recognition.

“And trust me, we’ve been trying,” Jenks added. “Trent would start World War Three if he knew who to blame. There’s not enough ley line on this end to hold your pattern during transition. But even a dead line means there used to be traffic back and forth once. I think it’s been like forever, though. The mystics are really flaky.” He hesitated, and Peri blanched when she realized the pixy was looking at her. “Did
she
summon you?” he asked, coming across as derisive.

“No, her partner did. I knocked him out.” They’d reached the main doors, and Rachel pushed them open without hesitation, clearly having seen the security following them and knowing the wisdom of retreat.

“Rache . . .” Jenks complained. “We’ve talked about this. You gotta stop hitting people until you know who they are.” He hesitated, then added, “Piss on my daisies, it’s cold. I’m about freezing my nubs off here.”

“I panicked, okay?” Rachel grumbled, her pace slowing to allow Jenks to make the move to her hair. It sounded like an old conversation, confusing Peri even more. How could two such dissimilar people work together so well? Because obviously they did. Peri hadn’t missed Jenks pointing out the security to Rachel or that Rachel knew Jenks’s limitations better than her own. The commitment to each other was there, as strong and enduring as anything she’d ever seen, a bond that could only be forged under great pressure and trust.
Like I have with Jack
, she mused.

“Well, you’d better hope he’s okay,” the pixy said, muffled in Rachel’s hair. “We have to duplicate what he did if we’re ever going to get home. If the line is dead on this side, it must have been a mix of earth and ley line magic that got you here.”

“Demon,” Rachel said around a sigh, and Peri jerked herself back to reality. “Figures. How come it can never be easy?”

“You’re real,” Peri said, and a burst of pixy dust briefly lit Rachel’s hair to fall about her shoulders and vanish.

“As an STD, babe,” Jenks said as he poked his head out. “And I’m forever, too. How did you summon Rache with no functioning ley lines? Come on. Give. Was it an earth charm?”

Earth charm? Ley line? Maybe Jack will know what he’s talking about.
“There was wine,” Peri offered, hitting her fob to unlock the car doors. If Jack could see Jenks, too, then maybe she hadn’t gone completely nuts.

“It’s Trent’s label,” Rachel offered as she got in. “But it’s not his name on it.”

“No shit,” the pixy said, making Peri wonder if he swore so people would take him seriously. “Which one?”

“Pentimento,” Rachel said, and the pixy whistled. The clear sound struck through Peri like a forgotten memory, and she froze for an instant before slipping inside the car and starting it.

“Dude,” Jenks said, flying down to the vent and holding on to the direction fins as it blew him back. “Hey, the engine block is still warm.”

“It’s electric,” Rachel murmured.

“It’s got a warming engine, though,” Peri added, turning the heat up, as he obviously needed it.

“Any blood involved in the charm?” Rachel asked reluctantly, and Peri recoiled. “It’s a carrier of intent,” she added. “Even a drop would make a difference.”

Peri watched, fascinated as the silver dust being blown off Jenks shifted to gold. It was hitting the seat, collecting only to fade as more was added. “Ah, Jack cut his hand on the glass when it broke. He got blood on the accelerator before he dropped it into the wine.”

“Let me guess,” Rachel said, hand to her forehead. “He drank it.”

It sounded nasty in hindsight, but honestly, she and Jack had done so much worse that accidentally ingesting a lick of blood was like a drop of water in the ocean. She nodded, making Rachel groan. “He, ah, also recited some bad poetry based on a Simon and Garfunkel song,” Peri offered.

Jenks let go of the vent fin, Rachel’s hand flashing out to catch him before he hit the seat. But the pixy must be feeling better because he caught the wind under his wings and rose, hovering at the center of the still-parked car. “Witches?” he guessed, and Rachel winced.

“Ixnay on the itchesway,” Rachel muttered, and Jenks spun to her, hands on his hips.

“She’s got a pixy in her car, Rache,” he said sarcastically. “You really think her knowing that witches are real in our world is going to freak her out?” He glanced at Peri. “Any more than she already is?” he added.

Peri stopped rubbing her forehead when she realized Rachel was doing the same thing.
I have to be hallucinating
, Peri thought. She was going to wake up in Opti’s psychology wing with Jack bringing her cocoa and toast.

“So we got blood and wine,” Jenks said, his tone apologetic. “And words of power. What’s an accelerator?”

Peri’s head snapped up. “Classified.”

The tiny man spun in a circle, a burst of dust lighting the car. “There it is!” he crowed. “I bet you ten jars of honey that’s what did it. Whatever an accelerator is.”

“I’m sure Peri will tell us,” Rachel said, a new tone of warning in her voice. “I am not staying here.”

Jenks landed on the top of the wheel, strutting back and forth as if they were halfway home already. “Yeah, you don’t want to see Rache homesick. Last time she got homesick, she blew up the St. Louis arch and burned down Margaritaville. Not to mention trashing San Francisco. Blamed it on an earthquake. We’re still not allowed in California. Or on a plane.”

“I was not homesick. I was doing my job,” Rachel said sullenly, it clearly being a sore point.

All the same place names
, Peri thought, wondering if she was strapped to a chair in a rival company’s basement, hallucinating it all. But then she looked at Jenks’s wings, and marveled. She couldn’t invent anything that beautiful. Or snarky.

“Peri,” Rachel said, pulling her attention from Jenks. “What is an accelerator? Some kind of ley line tool?”

Peri started the car, the need to go home and see Jack almost an ache. “It’s new technology,” she said guardedly as she pulled out. “Really new. One-of-a-kind. It breaks down a communication wavelength into individual particles so it can carry more information.”

“A lot more?” Rachel asked, and Jenks went to sit again on her earring.

Peri shrugged, unable to bring herself to look at them. As weird as it was seeing a tiny man on Rachel’s earring, it somehow looked right. “Enough to code the universe, Bill says.”

Rachel’s sigh was long and full of relief. “That’s probably how I was able to use the defunct line, then. Jenks, I think we can get home.” She hesitated, then asked, “You don’t think your partner would have drunk it all, do you? A lot of curses are wine-specific.”

Peri nodded.
Curses are wine-specific? Good to know.
“If not, we can get more. Cincinnati isn’t that far from here. If we can’t get you home tonight, we have tomorrow.” Though she didn’t know how she was going to explain this to Jack.

“No, we don’t,” Jenks said, suddenly sober. “The only reason we were able to get here at all was because it’s the equinox. Come sunup, we’re both stuck here.”

3

The pixy was sitting on Peri’s shoulder when they got out of her apartment building’s elevator. It made Peri nervous, as if she might break him or he might fall, but the little man seemed to be able to predict her movements and compensate for them with little bursts of wing motion. She was starting to like the faint tickle, and he smelled like a hot summer field, reminding her of her grandparents’ farm.

“Oh, cool.” The pixy darted from her when Peri tapped her building card to her door pad. “Rache, it’s all electronic. Pixies could rule this world in three days if they wanted.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Rachel muttered as Peri opened the door. “He exaggerates.”

“Jack?” Peri called when Jenks darted in before them. “I’m back. I’ve got . . . friends.”

Rachel flashed her a smile at the hesitation. But even though the lights were now back on, the apartment felt cold when Peri followed the woman in. The couch where they’d put Jack was empty, and the note she’d left him was on the kitchen counter. Irritation flashed through Peri when Jenks came out of her bedroom, zipping through the main room and into the den.

“No one here,” the small man said as he went to the lighted shelf where Peri kept her mementos of past jobs, each and every one of them deposits of her memory with which to rebuild herself if she should ever forget again.

“Hey, get away from my talismans,” Peri said as she took off her coat and dropped her purse by the door.

“Rache. Look at these things!” Jenks said enthusiastically, darting over them like a kid in a candy store. “Peri has talismans. How come you don’t have talismans?”

“Because I don’t need them,” Rachel said, making Peri wonder how much she’d guessed about drafting. “Jack is gone?” Rachel added, her brow furrowed. “Did he take the accelerator with him?”

Peri took her phone out to call Jack. “Probably. It’s worth too much to leave alone.” The line clicked open, and Peri glared at Jenks to make him stop touching her talismans. “Jack?” she said urgently. “Where are you? Have you seen Carnac? He got out again.”

“Your
cat
is here with me,” came Bill’s voice, not Jack’s. “I figured you didn’t want him roaming the halls. Jack is in observation sobering up with a lump on his head. Where are you, Peri? You weren’t at home when I came to pick up the accelerator.”

Focus distant, Peri put her phone on speaker and went into the living room to sit down.
Why did he come to pick up the accelerator?
Peri wondered as Jenks finally settled on Rachel’s shoulder.
He knew we were going to bring it in tomorrow morning.

“Who’s Carnac?” Jenks asked, and Rachel waved him to silence, whispering that he was her cat and that he looked like Rex.

“I’m sorry, Bill,” Peri said. “Jack got drunk and hit his head.”
Stick to the truth when you can.
“I went out to get him something. He was okay when I left.”
And lie when you have to.

“To the mall?” Bill asked, making Peri glad she’d asked Rachel to stay in the car until the drone had left.

“Yes.” Peri didn’t like how Rachel was looking at her, as if she should be scared. “I left a note in case he woke up. I thought one of those wraparound ice bands you can get at the sports store would help. Why is he in Opti Health?”

“Because you were gone and he’s got a lump on his head,” Bill said dryly, and Rachel flushed. “He’ll be fine, but I’d feel better if he stays here for observation tonight. You and Jack are my best team. I’m not taking any chances.” He hesitated, then added softly, “I’m looking at a rather interesting video from the mall. Are you compromised, kiddo?”

Peri’s eyes flashed to Rachel, the woman looking ill in Jack’s coat and her clubbing dress as she sank down into one of the cushy chairs. If Peri said she was green, Bill would have Opti forces in her apartment in five minutes. If she said no, then he’d assume everything was okay. “No,” she said, eyes fixed on Rachel’s. “I’m more worried about Jack than a mall fruitcake. Honest, he was okay when I left. He gave you the accelerator, didn’t he?”

“Mall fruitcake!” Jenks exclaimed, and Rachel stood, taking him into a distant corner of the living room, whispering for him to be quiet.

“I’ve got it, yes,” Bill said, and Rachel went white. “Right in my pocket. I’ll deliver it to Event Horizon first thing tomorrow. No need to come in unless you want to check on Jack.”

“Phew. Good.” Peri waved her hand to try to tell Rachel it was okay. “I’m glad to get that thing out of my responsibility. Event Horizon had it behind six locked doors and a CO
2
detector. Soon as I get this spilled wine cleaned up, I’m coming in. You going to still be there?”

“I will be if I know you’re coming,” Bill said, but Peri was distracted by the sight of a sexy redhead in a clubbing dress arguing with a flying man shedding green dust. “I’ll have them put a cot in for you.”

“Thanks, Bill. You’re the best.”

“See you soon, kiddo.”

Peri hung up, jerking back when a ball of glowing dust short-stopped two inches in front of her face. “Son of a fairy fart. How are we going to get home now?” Jenks complained, and Peri rocked back, not liking him that close. “I hope that was just nice-nice talk to get us in there.”

“It was.” Peri glanced at Rachel as she sat on the raised hearth, elbows on her knees, head in her hands. Jack’s coat hung open on her wide shoulders. “It isn’t going to be easy, though. We have to get the accelerator out of his pocket, send you home, then I have to get it back in his pocket without him knowing I had it. He won’t dare put it in his car safe, much less anywhere else off his person.”

Jenks’s wings clattered, and Rachel’s head snapped up. “Ah, the accelerator comes with us,” Rachel said as Jenks swung a low path back to her. “I thought you knew that.”

Peri’s lips parted. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. No one said anything about giving it to you. I thought you were just going to use it and I could put it back.”

“We can make a fake one to switch them out. It’s not a big deal,” Rachel said tiredly. “And before you freak out, I’m not after your precious accelerator. If I was, I wouldn’t have left it here and gone to the mall looking for a ley line. I just want to go home.”

Peri’s eyes narrowed as she thought about how Rachel had been in their apartment, waiting for them. But then there was Jenks . . . She’d seen him appear from nothing. And that man in the mall with goat-slitted eyes and wearing green velvet. She hadn’t imagined that. And she wasn’t drugged. She’d swear to it.

“Hey, you owe Rache,” Jenks said, and Peri jerked back, surprised when he darted to her. “You pulled her out of her reality. It’s up to you to get her back. Sorry if it needs a super-special magic ball.”

“Take it easy, Jenks.” Rachel stood, looking glum in her black sequins. “Peri will do the right thing.”

The pixy lost altitude, his mood easy to read. But Peri had just spent two weeks prepping for the task, risked her life, her partner’s. Bill had it. It was safe. To negate that . . . How could she?

“I can’t just give it to you,” Peri said, not liking her plaintive tone. “It belongs to Event Horizon. They invested billions developing it. That’s why Jack and I were contracted to steal it back for them.”

Rachel turned from the window, arms around her middle. “And that’s why it’s in Bill’s pocket?”

Peri stiffened. “You think Bill is corrupt?” she said hotly. “That we stole it so he could sell it to the highest bidder? That’s not how Opti works. That’s not how
Jack and I
work.”

“It’s how the world works,” Jenks said, making Peri feel like a fool.

“Look,” Rachel said, and Jenks darted into the kitchen.

“Oh, God,” he muttered as he scanned the counters. “Here comes the list.”

“I have a
boyfriend
,” Rachel said, clearly peeved. “And a job, and responsibilities, and I’m not going to stay here in this dead world you made by killing all the Inderlanders, or lines, or both. I’m not going to do it!”

“Rache, relax,” Jenks said as he nibbled on a cracker half the size of himself. “Peri isn’t going to just leave us hanging. Are you.”

It wasn’t a question, and Peri didn’t answer them. She couldn’t help but wonder how the woman stayed alive through her pressure-induced panic attacks, but as she watched Jenks calmly trying out the plastic drink sword, she thought she knew. That, and the woman wasn’t a slouch. She’d taken Jack down. Whether he was intoxicated or not, that wasn’t easy.

“How about this?” Rachel said, calming. “We make a fake one. Change it out for the real accelerator. Jenks and I go home. Bill gives the fake one to the company he says invented it. It doesn’t work, they make a new one. If Event Horizon didn’t make it, the company who did makes a new accelerator. Nothing changes, no harm done.”

Silent, Peri went into the kitchen and opened a jar of peanut butter. It made sense, but she didn’t like the subterfuge. Opti had given her everything, made her valuable, irreplaceable, strong, and important—even if no one outside a small circle of people knew it.

“And you’ll know if this Bill guy is corrupt or not,” the pixy added. “Bonus!”

Eyes narrowed, Peri slammed the silverware drawer shut. “Bill is not corrupt,” she said as she scooped out a spoonful and set it on the counter.

“Then you know that for sure, too,” Rachel said, her mood softening as she came forward to lean on the kitchen bar. “Thanks for the peanut butter. He’s got a fast metabolism.”

“Me, too,” Peri muttered as she put the jar away. Giving her a meek nod of thanks, Jenks began eating the peanut butter with a pair of tiny chopsticks he’d pulled from a back pocket.

Steal from Bill? She didn’t know if she could do that. He’d been her handler since day one, giving her and her partner the high-profile jobs and all the perks.

But knowing if Bill was selling their work to the highest bidder would be worth a few hours of her time. “You really think you can make something that looks like it? Bill is not stupid, and Jack knows what it looks like.”

“Absolutely.” Rachel hiked herself up on the bar stool. “You probably have what I need to make it.”

“Which is?” Peri asked, her doubts rising again.

“She’s got copper pots, Rache,” Jenks said as he finished, cleaning his chopsticks with a drop of water and darting off to her shelf of talismans.

Peri warily watched him. “Stay out of my stuff,” she demanded, though she was ignored.

“Copper pots?” Rachel questioned. “You sure you’re not a witch?”

“She’s got more candles than a teenage vampire,” Jenks said, flitting among her talismans. “You can melt one down. Make a mold of it. Holy crap, you still play with dolls, Peri?”

Peri strode out of the kitchen. He was messing with the figurine she’d gotten from the aborigines in Australia. It had straw-blond hair and contained the memories of a wonderful night she’d spent with Jack under foreign constellations. “You. Pixy,” she demanded, to make Rachel laugh. “Sit your butt down and keep your dust off my things.”

Spinning on the bar stool, Rachel said, “Candle wax is inert. We need something for the base that embodies energy.”

“Make me,” Jenks said, flying a looping path within inches of Peri’s nose. “Like you could catch me, lunker.”

Peri reached out to snatch him, and the pixy darted away, laughing at her.

She’d had enough. Reaching out with her mind, Peri yanked time back two seconds.
The world flashed blue, and she stared at Jenks,
who was once more almost touching her nose.

“Make me,” he said again, oblivious that they were replaying time. “Like you could catch me, lunker.”

Again, Peri reached for him, aiming for where he was going to go. Jenks moved, wings clattering, and her fingers pinched his foot, catching him.

“Hey! Le’go!” he shrilled, shocked.

Peri stared at the frantic little man as she gripped his boot. From the kitchen’s bar, Rachel gasped. “You will sit your butt down and stay away from my talismans,” Peri intoned
.

“Yes, ma’am,” Jenks said, cowed.

But then the world flashed red and settled, and she forgot everything she rewrote.

Peri stared at Jenks, his foot pinched between her careful fingers. Bright red dust spilled from him, coating her hand in pinpricks. The last thing she remembered was him touching her doll. Clearly she’d drafted to stop him, and it bugged her she didn’t remember it.

“You going to let go now?” Jenks said, clearly uncomfortable.

“What did I tell you to do?” Peri prompted, hoping her intuition and his words would piece this together. She hated jumping without an anchor to fill in the blanks, but Jack was five miles away in Opti Health.

Jenks’s dust shifted blue. “Keep my dust off your talismans and sit down.”

“Then do it,” she said, letting him go.

Jenks darted up to the ceiling, making a high flight to the window, where he sat on one of her plants and sulked.

Peri primly fixed her doll, blowing the last of the dust off it and turning to find Rachel behind her. One of Peri’s small copper mixing bowls was in her hand. The woman was stealthy, she’d give her that.

“I don’t know which is more impressive,” Rachel said softly. “That you caught Jenks, or that you tricked him into telling you what you forgot.”

Warming, Peri glanced at Jenks and back again. “Was it that obvious?”

Rachel shook her head, lips pressed. “No. Peri, you are the most powerful, vulnerable human I know outside of Ford. I’m glad this happened. You deserve to know the truth.”

“I do know the truth,” Peri said indignantly.

“Holy troll turds, Rache!” Jenks exclaimed, hovering before the window with his hands on his hips. “Those lights are flying machines. I thought they were fairies!”

Rachel was looking at an orb of crystal Peri had picked up in Arizona. It held the memory of one of her earlier tasks, before she’d met Jack, even. “Can I use that?” Rachel asked.

Crystals
, Peri thought derisively as she nodded, but it was the tripod the crystal was sitting on that Rachel took, carefully setting the chunk of quartz down so it wouldn’t roll off the shelf.