Don't Hex with Texas

Page 99

“You okay, doll? You took an awful long time in there.”
“I’m fine. Idris may not father children, though.”
“Sweetheart, you’ve done the world a favor.” Idris then came limping out of the room after me. I pushed the cart ahead of me and ran, letting Sam deal with him. I hadn’t realized how fierce gargoyles could be. He gave a hissing roar and spread his wings to their fullest. Idris flinched, but he didn’t run.
The door of the next room opened, and the jerks I’d seen earlier staggered out, clutching their heads, coughing, and choking, only to find themselves facing a very pissed-off Sam. They all screamed at the top of their lungs and took off running across the parking lot. There went three more from their side, I noted.
The commotion drew Nita out of the office, hefting a baseball bat. “What’s going on?” she asked.
“No wonder your housekeeping staff quit,” I said, then pointed at Idris. “This—this—this person just made a pass at me, and not a welcome one either.”
“She assaulted me!” he said, still not standing completely upright.
“In self-defense. I’m not sure what he’d have done to me. He had me by the wrist and wouldn’t let me go.” I held out my arm to Nita.
As soon as she saw the red mark circling my wrist, she raised her bat at Idris, who flinched even more than he had at Sam in attack mode. “I want you out of here, now! No one treats my workers—or my friends—that way. I don’t care how big a rock star you are!” From my spot next to Nita, I stuck my tongue out at Idris, who looked confused at the rock star reference. Sam was practically rolling on the ground in mirth, safely invisible from Nita, I assumed. I had to admit, it was a pretty good show.
This was a big test for Idris. He probably could have gone after Nita—if Sam let him—but using magic on the nonmagical in a way they might notice was strictly forbidden. If he tried to zap her with magic, then he really would have broken with the legitimate magical world. Apparently, though, he hadn’t yet gone so far as to be willing to do that. “Let me get my stuff,” he said, but she waved her bat again. “Okay, I’ll, uh, come back later when things are calmer.” Then he ran for the rental car that I now noticed was parked at the other end of the motel.
“Sorry about that,” Nita said. “These guys have been jerks since they got here. I’ll tell Dad and Ramesh about it so they can take care of them tonight.”
“No problem. Thanks for coming to my rescue.”
“So much for the Rock and Roll Motel idea,” she said with a shrug. “I don’t think they’ll be famous enough for it to pay off, anyway.”
While she went back to the office, I put the housekeeping cart away, except for the sack of tainted towels, which I threw into the trunk of Mom’s car. Then I headed back home to report what I’d found.
Sam must have called ahead to Owen, for when I pulled into the driveway and parked behind the house, a worried-looking Owen was there waiting for me. He took me by the shoulders and asked,
“Are you okay?” It would have been nice if he’d taken that maybe one step further and actually hugged—or even kissed—me, but the fact that Dean and Teddy were there with him probably restrained him some.
“I’m fine. I was mostly putting on a show to get Idris in trouble. He’s the one who’ll be needing an ice pack. But I did bring you some presents.”
He frowned in confusion. “Presents?”
I pulled the necklace from the pocket of my jeans. “Well, there’s this. He had a bunch of these in his room, and they don’t strike me as his usual style. They felt like magic, so I swiped one. It also looked like he’d been making potions in the bathtub, and it seemed like he cleaned up after himself with the room’s towels, which I have for you in the trunk if you want to analyze them. Then there were some papers—”
“How many of these did he have?” Owen cut me off. He held the necklace in his hand, staring at it in horror.
“I didn’t count them, but there were a bunch.”
“No wonder I got so tired this afternoon. He must have been tying up every magical circuit in the area to make these. It also explains how he was able to magically teleport earlier, if he already had one.”
“What is it?”
“He’s turned this into a power magnet. It draws in available power and directs it to the user. It would have the effect of making the user more powerful while limiting access to power for everyone else around. And you said he had a bunch?”