Liz chuckled. “You’ve been watching too much television. I doubt they were going to “check the perimeter.” More likely they were ducking out for a smoke.” She patted his head again. “Still. It wouldn’t hurt to check the inventory tomorrow, I suppose.”

  Henry let the subject drop. No. It wouldn’t hurt to check your inventory tomorrow. He glanced at the door leading to the store room. But I’ll get a head start on that tonight.

  Chapter 2

  The library was dark, its windows leering at Henry like a monster out of a kit’s nightmare. He knew buildings weren’t inherently evil or good, but the small glimpse he’d gotten of the medallion made him wonder what other powerful artifacts were hidden away amongst the items yet to be cataloged and displayed, waiting to be unleashed on the unsuspecting world. He shook himself from head to tail, trying to dispel the foreboding.

  Henry dashed across the street and under the bushes. He searched the shadows around him for anyone who might have seen him. A young couple meandered down the sidewalk toward the park opening. A car hushed by, its lights illuminating nothing more sinister than a large trash can on the corner.

  He slunk around the building’s corner and headed toward the rear entrance,hoping the door’s lock was like Liz’s apartment door. He’d studied it while she was in the shower, learning exactly what to focus on to make the knob turn and unlock the door so he could make his escape after she went to bed. If this lock weren’t similar, he would have to find another way in.

  Peering around the corner, he watched and waited for several breaths. Nothing moved in the alley’s shadows. He padded out, looked both ways once more, then turned to stare at the imposing glass door. The door handle wouldn’t be problem as it was a simple pull down configuration, but there was no dead bolt. Instead, attached to the metal door frame like a blob of black detritus was a box with a tiny red light.

  Henry’s fur fluffed and he lashed his tail. Of course it’d be protected by a contraption. Seems everything in this bloody world works with an artificer’s blasted gadget. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment, letting his fur flatten. When he opened his eyes, he focused on the door handle and gathered himself for the leap. He thrust downward, propelling himself toward the door. The handle felt cold and hard under his paws. It didn’t budge, as he figured it wouldn’t.

  The black box smelled faintly like the hard casing on Liz’s coffee maker. Its mechanisms were hidden from sight, but the lightning like charge coursing through them made his whiskers tremble. Fascinating. They’ve harnessed lightning in a box. Henry lashed his tail. Not here to investigate devices no matter how intriguing.

  He dropped to the ground and backed up, studying the windows on the building. He could swarm up the apple blossom tree to his right, but he’d need to jump several cat lengths from narrow branches to an even narrower ledge to get to a window. And what if the locks on those weren’t ones he could manipulate?

  Henry shook his head, letting his whiskers droop. He peered at the locked door. Hopeless.

  “Look’s like you could use some help,” Liz said, stepping into the pool of light cast by the security lamp on a nearby pole. “Unless you plan to sit here all night and skinning past Wray’s legs when he opens in the morning.”

  “Actually, I was considering shorting out the black box.”

  “Bad idea. We’d have the local police here first, then they’d call Wray and he’d have to come down and, let me tell you, seeing him when he’s been pulled out of bed in the middle of the night is not something I want to experience. Besides,” she continued, “the door would be locked the whole time, so it’d be a wasted effort. It’s programed to automatically lock when there’s a power outage.”

  “That’s pretty much what I figured, though there were some added embellishments including going to jail or some such thing.”

  “Me, yeah. I’d go to jail, but you? They might take you to the pound, but I’d bet one of our patrons would rescue you first thing in the morning.”

  “Be that as it may, I still need to get in.”

  “Good thing I have a key-card, then.”

  Henry studied Liz. Having her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail highlighted her porcelain skin and delicate bone structure. The baggy gray sweatshirt and worn through jeans gave her the appearance of a street child from his own time. It all added up to one word in his mind: fragile. He shook his head.

  “I can’t let you do that.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s dangerous and I cannot allow anyone else to get hurt because of my failings.”

  “Then I guess you’ll have to find your own way in. Or...” she said as she cocked her head to the side. Henry suddenly found himself being lifted into the air by the scruff as Liz carried him toward the library entrance.

  “Set me down,” he protested. “This is quite undignified.”

  Liz ignored him, sliding her card through the slit in the black box. There was a quiet click as the lock disengaged and the little red light turned green. Liz yanked the door open, card still in hand, and twisted inside before the door closed. She dropped Henry to the floor. He shook himself from head to tail, then licked his ruff, trying to cover his embarrassment.

  “Well, that takes care of that. Now where to? The exhibit, am I right?” she asked, already heading that direction.

  “I really must insist you involve yourself no further in my mission.”

  “Why? Because it’s dangerous?” Liz spun around, hands on hips.

  “Of course, but—”

  “Look, before you ran out in front of my car the most dangerous thing about my life was whether or not I might scald my tongue on my latte. The most interesting thing that’s happened in the last eight years was getting this exhibit. Then I met you and everything went topsy turvy.”

  “I would think you’d want to return to your normal world, then,” Henry said.

  “Are you kidding me?” Liz said, throwing her arms wide as she backed toward the new exhibit. “There’s no way I could go back knowing cats can talk and magic is real. Who’d want to?”

  “But your life is in danger. You could die.”

  Liz raised her arms and looked toward the ceiling as if she were addressing the One himself and said, “When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home.”

  She looked back down. “Chief Tecumseh supposedly said that a long time ago to his warriors just before they were slaughtered in a terrible battle.”

  Liz bent down to look Henry in the eye. The fierce desire he saw there made his skin shiver.

  “Please, let me have a chance at being a hero. Let me help you find your way home.”

  Henry nodded, his tongue feeling glued to the roof of his mouth. Liz stared at him a moment longer, then stood and strode toward the exhibit. He shook himself again and followed Liz through the new wing. He wished he had the Huntress’s ability to read people’s life energies as he watched his new partner unlock the door to the artifacts room.

  “So, I’m guessing you duped the thieves and hid whatever they were after. Where?” she asked. She flipped on the lights and held the door for him.

  “Over there on that statue,” Henry said, nodding toward the back corner of the room.

  Henry led the way. With a twitch of his tail, he lifted the medallion from the statue and floated it closer. Henry could just make out faded markings etched around the square center hole. Miniature triangles decorated the outside of the square and the edge of the pendant. He flicked a whisker to turn the coin-sized emblem around. More faded markings were etched on that side, with tiny vines replacing the triangles. Liz squatted down beside him.

  “Other than the etchings, it looks rather ordinary,” she said, reaching out to touch the terra cotta colored disk with a finger. The medallion spun lazily in the air. “I half expected it to shock me or something.”

  “Perhaps if you wielded magic it might have, provided it was booby trapped.”

  Liz grunted and sat back on her heels. Henry stopped the medallion’s spin with a paw and dragged it through the air toward himself, then ducked his head through the cord. The necklace settled around his neck as if it were meant to be there.

  “Any idea why they wanted it?”

  “Only suspicions,” Henry said, shaking his head. “I need to investigate it further before I have any solid thoughts on the matter. Were there any manuscripts with this token?”

  “Might have been. Let me check.”

  Liz backtracked to where the thieves had been searching through the files and flipped through several folders. Locating the one she wanted, she perused the contents, then made a couple notations on some scrap paper. She slid the folder back into the drawer she’d taken it from and headed to another section of the storeroom. Henry’s eyes narrowed as the young woman lifted a large book from the stacks.

  “Is there a picture of a Winged One--an angel--blowing a trumpet in one hand and pouring something out of a bowl onto a world with the other?” he asked.

  Liz’s eyes widened and she nodded. “You’ve seen this before?”

  Henry flattened his ears and shook his head. “No, but I’ve heard of it.”

  “What is it?”

  “Nothing good.” He lifted a paw toward the book and said, “We need to get that somewhere safe where I can take a look at it. The sooner we know what this medallion is—”

  “The sooner we’ll know why someone would want to steal it,” Liz finished. “Follow me. We can go out the back.”

  Henry followed Liz out the door and stopped mid-trot. Barring their way was Man-in-Charge.

  “I’ll take that,” he said, flicking his gun at the book in Liz’s hands. “And you can hand over the kitty’s necklace, too.”

  Henry narrowed his eyes. He tapped his tail in a slow, steady rhythm on the ground, releasing an invisible lasso of will into a slow circle above his ears. He gauged the distance between them and factored in the man’s height, guessing at his weight, then focused on fraying and connecting the will lasso into a net.

  “Hurry up. I ain’t got all night,” the man said, jerking his gun in Henry’s direction.

  Liz bent down to unlatch the collar. When she looked him in the eye, he nodded slightly and raised a paw to grip the air, hoping she would understand. A smile crept across her lips and she shifted her weight to the balls of her feet. Henry’s whiskers widened. His tail paused at the height of the rhythm.

  “Now,” he shouted.

  He slammed his tail onto the ground. In the next instant the man was ensnared in an invisible web of magic and Liz was racing away down the alley, Henry close on her heels. Together they ran two blocks to Liz’s car. Liz yanked open the driver’s side door and threw herself behind the wheel. Henry leaped in, skinning under the steering wheel and onto the passenger seat. He raised up to look out the windshield, placing his paws on the dash, and peered down the alley to see if the man was pursuing them. The alley remained dark, save for the periodic splashes of light from the security lamps.

  “I don’t see him,” Liz said, panting.

  Henry glanced at her, noting her hands trembling on the steering wheel as she watched the alley, too. He stared back down the alley, sure that his better vision would make it easy for him to spot the man wriggling on the ground like a worm. The alley was empty. The fur along Henry’s spine rose.

  “I’m sure he’s wiggled his way behind something,” he lied. He sat back in the seat and groomed his ears, turning to face Liz in hopes she wouldn’t notice he’d doubled in size. “We should leave.”

  “Good idea.”

  Liz started the car and pulled onto the street. “Now what?”

  “Now you drop me somewhere out of sight and go about your normal life.”

  “I thought we’d settled this. I’m not leaving you. Besides, whoever these people are, they’ll know we’re working together now, which means going back to my “normal life” isn’t an option anyway. So,” Liz said, “what do we do now?”

  Henry sighed and settled onto the passenger seat, tucking his paws under his chest. “I suppose we find somewhere safe to study the medallion and the book. I think you’ll have figure out the exact where.”

  “Not an issue. I kind of expected something like this to happen.”

  “You expected a man with a gun would ambush us at the library?”

  “Not exactly, but that’s what happens in the movies, so I figured I’d better be ready just in case.”

  Henry’s whiskers clamped together. “Humans. You’ll believe any story told to you.”

  “Sure and cats don’t talk,” Liz retorted.

  “Point taken. So in these stories of yours, where do the characters go?”

  “Usually some abandoned warehouse outside of town.”

  “Then I guess you’ll be driving us to one of those?”

  “Not on your life, buddy. I have a better idea.”

  ***

  Henry jounced painfully in Liz’s gym bag, making him gasp. He wished he hadn’t as the smell of unwashed workout clothing threatened to smother him. Finally he felt the bag come to rest on something soft and it was unzipped.

  “By the One. I thought women were a tidy gender,” he said as he clawed his way out of the bag.

  “Sorry about that,” Liz said, “I meant to get them washed sooner, but, in case you haven’t noticed, things have been kind of crazy the last couple of days.”

  He glanced at her, his whiskers twitching at her defiant posture with her hands on her hips and head cocked to the side. Henry padded across the bed, his paws sinking into the bedspread, and took in the textured walls and heavy curtains. A reddish colored wood wall with small frosted glass insets partially blocked the view to what he guessed was a sitting room, based on the gigantic flat story box on the wall facing the area. The room smelled faintly of lavender and another sharp scent he assumed was a disinfectant used to clean. Under that was the smell of multiple humans.

  “Are we in a hostel?”

  Liz lifted an eyebrow. “A hostel? No. They haven’t been called that around here for a long time. It’s called a hotel.”

  “This doesn’t look like the kind of place you described seeing in a movie.”

  “Nope. I thought, if we’re going to do the spy thing, we should do it like James Bond. Nothing but the best.”

  Liz tossed her gym bag onto a small folding table in the closet. The table collapsed.

  “Okay, so maybe I should say the best I can afford.”

  “It’ll do fine.”

  Henry dropped to the floor and padded around the partial wall. A brown L-shaped couch dominated the sitting area. A matching rectangular table on wheels that could serve as either a coffee table or a footstool took up most of the floor. Between the couch and partial wall was a small end table, a large glass vase with tall white lilies covering most of the top. In one smooth leap, Henry landed on the couch. He twitched his tail and the medallion unlatched, then floated to the coffee table. He turned to stare at Liz.

  “We should get started. Would you fetch the book, please?”

  “Am I your dog now?”

  Henry sighed. “I can’t use a fetching spell because I don’t know where the book is. I could look for it, but, seeing as you’ve decided to be a part of this, it would be quicker if you could bring it here so we can read what it says about this medallion.”

  “Oh,” Liz said, her face coloring a shade of pink that made him think of roses in first bloom.

  She retrieved the book from somewhere in the sleeping area and laid it next to the medallion on the coffee table. Henry patted the couch beside him when Liz remained standing. She lowered herself on the far end of the couch, hands clasped in her lap. He twitched his tail to open the book and flipped through its worn pages. The silence grew heavier with each passing moment. He glanced at Liz from the corner of his eye, noting the way she was stretching to see the book’s contents without trying to seem like she was doing any such thing.

  “It would be easier to read if you were closer,” he said. Liz didn’t move. Henry sighed and turned to face her.

  “Are you sure I should? I mean, I know I said I want to help, but in the movies it’s always the dumb one who says some spell out loud that brings the monster to life. Then everyone gets killed.”

  “It is highly unlikely.” Henry furrowed his brow. “From what I can tell you have no magic in you. No magic, no spell casting.”

  “I don’t know whether to be relieved or insulted,” Liz said, crossing her arms.

  “Suit yourself,” Henry said with a shrug.

  He scanned page after page. He tried to ignore Liz’s stare. His gaze wandered from the page to the corner of his eye. She was still glaring at him. Henry sighed.

  “Look. I’m sorry if I sound insensitive. I’ve been told before that I can be—”

  “Irritating?” Liz asked, raising an eyebrow. Henry’s skin warmed with embarrassment.

  “Something like that. Am I correct in assuming you’re interested in learning about magic?”

  “Real magic? Not the tricks they do on stage, right?”

  “Yes. Real magic.”

  Liz bit her lip. “Are you sure I can’t call up zombies or blast a city block to smithereens if I say the wrong thing?”

  “I suppose anything can happen,” he said. Noting her look of concern, he put a paw up and continued, “But, it’s as remote a possibility as me leaving my Library and taking up ballet.”

  Liz cocked her head to the side and smirked. “You’d look cute in a pink tutu.”

  “Hardly. Besides,” he continued, “If you’re going to help, you need to know at least the basics of magic. This book won’t make any sense otherwise.”

  “So teach me,” said Liz, scooting closer and leaning over the book.

  Henry looked toward the ceiling, searching for a metaphor Liz would likely understand, then turned back to her.

  “Have you ever played on a teeter-totter?”

  “Of course. Who hasn’t?”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9