Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 121008 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 605(@200wpm)___ 484(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121008 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 605(@200wpm)___ 484(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
There’s something about the building that pulls at me. “I think you may be on to something,” I say with the first real enthusiasm I felt in weeks. “Let’s get those cameras.”
Four hours and a half-eaten burger later, I’m sure my eyes are going to burst out of my head if I have to watch one more minute of nothing.
It’s like watching paint peel. I’m not going through frame by frame, but I can’t speed it up much either for fear of missing something. Dante covered as much of the space as he could with four cameras. So far, there’s nothing but the eerie green glow of the night vision.
“Anything?” Dante walks into the office from the store. He strides past the long table cluttered with laptops and desktops, their inner workings open to the air.
“The place has rats. Other than that, nothing except a few pigeons that flew by the camera. This is the second camera I’ve sat through.”
“Whoa, what the fuck was that?” There’s real alarm in Dante’s eyes. He goes a little pale.
“What?” I move the mouse to back up the feed. And then my heart seizes with joy at the sight of a long, thin man gliding past the camera. His body is swathed in a hooded cape, but there’s the briefest glimpse of his eyes. I want to jump and shout my happiness to the world but settle for announcing triumphantly, “That’s a Planeswalker demon.”
Dante slumps into the seat beside me. “You aren’t crazy.”
I slide him a bemused glance. “I thought we settled that a few weeks back.”
“Nope,” he says, shaking his head. “I was still certain you were either trying to scam me or had some real problems.”
“Then why have you been helping me?”
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, sweetheart, but you have fabulous tits,” Dante says with a sigh. “I figured once you gave up on the whole idea of being queen of the faery world, you might consider sleeping with me. Now I see that demons are real. I’m going to church tomorrow.”
I’m not going to talk religion with him. I need to concentrate on the question at hand. “What was the time? Did you see which way he came from?”
Dante backs up the tape and checks the time log. “It was three minutes after midnight last night.”
“That makes sense. It’s an in-between time. I read about it. The veil between worlds is thinnest then. That’s when the door opens.” I look at the clock. It isn’t even ten yet. There’s still time. “We can make it.”
Dante takes a moment and shoves his hair back, running his long fingers over his scalp. “You’re really leaving.”
I turn to him. He doesn’t have a lot of friends. He seems content to spend his free time working on computers or helping me. “I have to go back. On my plane, I’m married to your cousins. I love them very much, and they need me. I hope you understand.”
He smiles slightly. “And I’m a vampire? What am I like there, Meggie? Am I lonely?”
I laugh at the thought. “As if. Dante Dellacourt doesn’t lack for anything except tact.”
“Tact is overrated,” Dante points out.
“Spoken like your vampire self.” I let my hand drift over his. “The Dante Dellacourt I know doesn’t let anything stop him. He once told me that if he was going to do something, he would do it big. There was no point in anything less. Of course, he was discussing lying through his fangs at the time.”
“I sound like a character there.”
“You could come with me, you know,” I offer. He reminds me a little of myself before fate changed my life completely.
Dante shakes his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. One of me is probably more than any plane should have to handle. I think I’ll have to try to make a go of it here. Besides, I have my shop, you know.”
He’s scared, and I don’t blame him. I might spend more time trying to convince him, but I only have two hours before that door opens. “If you change your mind, you know where the gate is.”
As I move toward the stairs that lead to the apartment, I see Dante sitting very still, obviously deep in thought.
I heft the duffel bag in one hand. It’s heavy but nothing I can’t handle. My heart races as Dante slams his door shut and turns on his halogen flashlight. My boots crunch the gravel beneath my feet as we make our way to the door of the warehouse. The air is cool at this time of night, and I pull my sweater closer.
Dante goes first, pushing the heavy door aside and holding it open. He holds his free hand out. “Let me carry that for you. Come on. It’s my last chance to be a gentleman.”