happen.
“You think he’ll be okay, right?” Bella asked, and for a minute I couldn’t think who she was talking about, my thoughts had wandered so far. “And Gavin and Byron too?”
“Bram’s going to be fine,” I answered, with more certainty than I felt. I couldn’t imagine what the police could hold Byron and Gavin on, since neither had thrown a single punch.
“You don’t know that,” Bella said faintly.
“I have a strong premonition,” I said. I had to steer things back around to the arcane somehow. My investigation so far had only led me to more questions. No answers that I could use to barter with the Feds.
“You mean, like a vision?” Lily asked. “I get those sometimes.”
“Not as strong as all that, though I wish. Maybe you can work with me, teach me how to get more in touch with my powers.”
Lily’s eyes shown when I looked into them via the rearview mirror. “Absolutely. Maybe we can try a healing spell for Bram while we’re at it.”
Bingo , I thought. I wondered if the zippy feeling I’d felt at Red Rock had anything to do with a spell. Hopefully, I’d know soon enough.
• • •
The lady at the hospital reception desk gave us the same look the woman in the school office had given me yesterday. I was tempted to stick out my tongue or cross my eyes, but I behaved myself. For once. After all, we needed her to give up Bram’s room number so we didn’t wander around aimlessly.
Ulric made the approach, hoping, I think, to charm her. He wore his most wolfish smile as he asked after Bram.
“I’ll need names and IDs,” the woman said, unimpressed by his charm. Of course, she was old enough to have been on duty the day of his birth, so that might have factored into it.
She directed us to a bank of elevators up to the fifth floor and handed us green visitor passes. They matched my eyes—the passes, not the elevators, which were an industrial gray color, stark against the white walls which were broken two-thirds of the way down by a wide strip of mustard yellow that was probably meant to be cheerful. Or to make the visitors look as jaundiced as the patients, so the latter didn’t feel so bad.
We were halfway to the elevators when I heard her pick up the phone and say into it, “Four for Thomkins on their way up.”
I didn’t think any of the others heard, since they didn’t have my vamped-out senses. I looked over my shoulder and found the reception lady staring back. “That’s right,” she said to the person on the other end of the line.
She replaced the receiver, and I knew we were screwed. I figured I could have another of my “premonitions,” about what awaited us at the other end of the elevator ride, but running again would only compound the police interest in us. Maybe I could learn something from the questioning, like the identity of the missing kids.
Sure enough, there was an armed officer waiting for us as the elevator doors opened on the fifth floor, though he wisely held off making himself known until the doors slid closed behind us. He insisted on escorting us to the visitors’ lounge and stood guard outside, promising that someone would be with us shortly. Oh joy, oh rapture.
“Damn it, damn it, damn it,” Ulric said, slapping the particleboard table in the midst of the 1970s Day-Glo orange chairs. “Trapped. Although,” he said slowly, “three girls, no waiting. I could do worse.”
“Dream on, loverboy,” Lily answered, with a slap to his arm.
“Go easy on him,” I said. “Every lounge needs a lizard.”
Ulric clutched his heart and fell, mock-wounded, into the closest chair. Only Bella wasn’t joining in. She slumped onto the couch, looking like guilt’s poster girl.
We cooled our heels for ten or twenty minutes that felt like a century before the door opened again, letting in the two officers we’d evaded at school. Oh yes, we were criminal masterminds.
I hadn’t gotten a good look at the detectives back at school, but now that
“You think he’ll be okay, right?” Bella asked, and for a minute I couldn’t think who she was talking about, my thoughts had wandered so far. “And Gavin and Byron too?”
“Bram’s going to be fine,” I answered, with more certainty than I felt. I couldn’t imagine what the police could hold Byron and Gavin on, since neither had thrown a single punch.
“You don’t know that,” Bella said faintly.
“I have a strong premonition,” I said. I had to steer things back around to the arcane somehow. My investigation so far had only led me to more questions. No answers that I could use to barter with the Feds.
“You mean, like a vision?” Lily asked. “I get those sometimes.”
“Not as strong as all that, though I wish. Maybe you can work with me, teach me how to get more in touch with my powers.”
Lily’s eyes shown when I looked into them via the rearview mirror. “Absolutely. Maybe we can try a healing spell for Bram while we’re at it.”
Bingo , I thought. I wondered if the zippy feeling I’d felt at Red Rock had anything to do with a spell. Hopefully, I’d know soon enough.
• • •
The lady at the hospital reception desk gave us the same look the woman in the school office had given me yesterday. I was tempted to stick out my tongue or cross my eyes, but I behaved myself. For once. After all, we needed her to give up Bram’s room number so we didn’t wander around aimlessly.
Ulric made the approach, hoping, I think, to charm her. He wore his most wolfish smile as he asked after Bram.
“I’ll need names and IDs,” the woman said, unimpressed by his charm. Of course, she was old enough to have been on duty the day of his birth, so that might have factored into it.
She directed us to a bank of elevators up to the fifth floor and handed us green visitor passes. They matched my eyes—the passes, not the elevators, which were an industrial gray color, stark against the white walls which were broken two-thirds of the way down by a wide strip of mustard yellow that was probably meant to be cheerful. Or to make the visitors look as jaundiced as the patients, so the latter didn’t feel so bad.
We were halfway to the elevators when I heard her pick up the phone and say into it, “Four for Thomkins on their way up.”
I didn’t think any of the others heard, since they didn’t have my vamped-out senses. I looked over my shoulder and found the reception lady staring back. “That’s right,” she said to the person on the other end of the line.
She replaced the receiver, and I knew we were screwed. I figured I could have another of my “premonitions,” about what awaited us at the other end of the elevator ride, but running again would only compound the police interest in us. Maybe I could learn something from the questioning, like the identity of the missing kids.
Sure enough, there was an armed officer waiting for us as the elevator doors opened on the fifth floor, though he wisely held off making himself known until the doors slid closed behind us. He insisted on escorting us to the visitors’ lounge and stood guard outside, promising that someone would be with us shortly. Oh joy, oh rapture.
“Damn it, damn it, damn it,” Ulric said, slapping the particleboard table in the midst of the 1970s Day-Glo orange chairs. “Trapped. Although,” he said slowly, “three girls, no waiting. I could do worse.”
“Dream on, loverboy,” Lily answered, with a slap to his arm.
“Go easy on him,” I said. “Every lounge needs a lizard.”
Ulric clutched his heart and fell, mock-wounded, into the closest chair. Only Bella wasn’t joining in. She slumped onto the couch, looking like guilt’s poster girl.
We cooled our heels for ten or twenty minutes that felt like a century before the door opened again, letting in the two officers we’d evaded at school. Oh yes, we were criminal masterminds.
I hadn’t gotten a good look at the detectives back at school, but now that
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