Moonlight's Ambassador (Aileen Travers Book 3)(41)

"What kind of favor?" I asked. That was a pretty broad term and could mean anything.

A heavy hand pounded on my door. "Aileen! I know you're in there."

"Do you have a choice?" Inara asked.

I stared at the door. Not really. Not if I wanted to find Caroline.

"Break it down," I heard Liam order.

"It cannot hurt any around me, and cannot involve my death or someone else’s, or any body part being severed from my body." It said something about the kind of life I was leading that those were my conditions.

"Done."

"Can I bring the bike?" I asked.

She rolled her eyes and fluttered away, her wings a blur of color.

"Does that mean yes?" I whispered. There was movement beyond the door, the kind that said they were preparing to breach it.

I wheeled the bike after Inara, following her down the hall.

"In here," she said from my bathroom.

It took some doing, but in moments, the two pixies, my bike, and I were all crowded in my postage stamp bathroom with its peeling paint and cracked linoleum.

There was an explosion at the front door, then heavy boots, as the intruders moved into my apartment.

Inara said a long word—one that was lyrical and resounded through the air with a thunderclap. There was a moment where nothing happened, and then it was like the world spun and kept spinning. It halted with a sickening jolt, my stomach lurching painfully.

I blinked up at a white ceiling, my bike half on top of me, and the two pixies hovering above me with slightly disgusted looks on their faces. Better them, than the irate vampire who had been moments from breaching my bathroom.

The heavy thud of footsteps sounded from above us as I found myself in a bathroom much like the one we'd just left.

"Where are we?" I asked.

Both pixies shushed me. Lowen pointed upward and then curled his fingers and pointed to his ears.

"I don't know what you're trying to say," I told him. His movements made no sense and had nothing in common with the nonverbal communication I'd dealt with in the past.

"Be quiet, you idiot, or they'll hear you," Inara hissed, zooming close to bat me on the nose. I jerked back in reflex even though her tap hadn't really hurt. It was surprising, more than anything else.

I looked up, as indistinct voices drifted down from above us. I couldn't make out the words, but I thought one voice sounded very similar to Liam's. Pushing the bike off myself, I stood and stared around in disbelief before tilting my head to look up again.

She wouldn't have. The guilty look on Lowen's face and the crafty one on Inara's said she very much would. I dropped my head into my hands and groaned. How was I going to explain this to the current tenant? I wasn't an expert on such things, but I was pretty sure he was going to flip when he came in here to use the bathroom and found a woman with a bike standing here.

A flick to the top part of my ear sent pain shooting down it. I cradled the offended appendage and glared at the over-sized insect hovering next to me as she held one finger to her lip in the universal sign of hush. She, at least, understood nonverbal cues.

I nodded and bent a nasty glare her way before flipping down the lid to the toilet and taking a seat. If we were going to be stuck here for a while, I might as well make myself comfortable, or as comfortable as I was likely to get, sitting in a stranger's bathroom with two pixies.

I turned my eyes to the ceiling, listening as the boards above creaked and groaned as Liam and his men moved around. It took over an hour before they gave up; much longer than I thought necessary, given how tiny my place was. Did they think I was hiding in a dresser drawer or something?

Even after the apartment above fell silent, we remained motionless. Liam was a tricky vampire, and I wouldn't put it past him to have stationed someone in my apartment in case I turned up.

The bathroom door creaked open, startling me into standing. A tall man with shoulder-length copper hair and a face full of hard plains slouched against the door frame, observing us. He held a coffee mug in one hand and raised it to take a long slip, not taking his eyes off me.

I watched him with mouth slightly agape, speechless for once. It crossed my mind to say this wasn't what it looked like, but the shock of his presence had frozen me in place, stealing my words and making even a pretty lie impossible.

His lips quirked at some hidden amusement, and he straightened before turning and disappearing into the apartment. I stared at the door he'd left ajar for a long moment, fighting the urge to hyperventilate. I was pretty sure Liam or one of his guys were still hanging around somewhere, and a cop car showing up to arrest me would probably call their attention in a big way.

"Inara," I said in warning.

She fluttered out of the room without answering. Lowen rose from the sink, hovering before me. "It'll be fine. You'll see."

He followed the other pixie.

How could it be fine when they'd involved a normal in spook business?

Alone in the bathroom, I dropped my head into my hands and groaned, running the events of the night back in my head and trying to figure out a way I might have made this end differently. If only time machines were real, along with magic.

Well, it did nothing to postpone the inevitable. Might as well get this over.

I stood, grabbing the bike and maneuvering it carefully out of the bathroom, careful not to scratch the walls. Bad enough I was trespassing where I didn't belong, no need to damage their home as well.