Everyone else blinked. “Honky?” Jason asked.
“Whatever, man,” grunted Alex.
“Hands up in the open,” Jason said. “He’s right. We’re not into killing and we’re not into kidnapping, so if you cooperate you both go home tonight. But you move one inch and he’ll shoot you.”
The prisoner faced a crazed young man in the torn, bloody bathrobe, with a sword in his belt and a gun in his hands. He made the obvious choice. “Anything you say.”
Jason claimed the man’s gun, then pulled the handcuffs out of his belt pouch and put them to use. Seconds later, the other sentry was similarly trussed up. Both sat on the stairs, though the one whose head Alex treated so roughly wasn’t exactly upright.
Satisfied that neither of her companions were about to commit a murder, Amber kept watch. She made note of the badge numbers in front of her. “Can’t say this is a good environment for interrogating these assholes,” she said, then bit her lip and hoped her comment hadn’t revealed too much.
“No, probably not,” Jason agreed.
With their prisoners sitting several steps below them both and facing the other way, Jason took another quick look at his phone. Nobody had answered his emergency text yet. “Dammit,” he hissed. He poked his head up to see a deserted street. “We can’t go back to the hotel for my car. They found us there in the first place, so they might still have people watching the party. Plus the first cop that sees us on the street is gonna arrest us on the spot… fuck.”
“They’ll only stop us for the guns,” Amber reminded him. “We could just hide them and walk a few blocks. It’s Halloween, who’s gonna care how we look?”
Jason shook his head. “Your costume is enough reason to stop you ‘cause you’ll look like you might have a gun. And where’d you learn to shoot like that?”
“Hey, I told you, father-daughter bonding,” Amber countered. “If anyone has a lot of questions to answer, it’s you two.”
“No, no, fair enough,” he replied, holding up his hands. He glanced at the two prisoners and sighed. His eyes flicked to Alex. “How you doin’?”
Alex blinked hard and nodded, his weapon still on their two prisoners. Fresh air and a moment to breathe seemed to reduce his tension. “Getting there,” he mumbled, then swallowed. “Familiar sights help. The street and stuff,” he added, gesturing up a bit. “Modern clothes. The cop uniforms. It helps. I’m sorry. I was confused. I’m still confused.” He paused. “I might start blubbering in a minute, too. Trying to hold it together.”
“Don’t worry about it, man,” Jason said. “We got clear and Rachel took care of business. I’m sure she’s fine,” he added quickly. “She could leave that fight anytime she wanted, right?”
“Alex,” ventured Amber, “is Rachel… is Rachel really an angel?”
He didn’t answer at first, but then he nodded. “Yes. I’m not supposed to tell anyone, but you saw.” His words came out slowly. Foreign urges and memories still echoed through his brain, telling him that it was crazy to hold a gun on police officers, and that this was war and nothing could be taken for granted, and that fleeing before Bjorn and Unferth lay dead in the snow was intolerable. He blinked all that away. He shouldn’t tell Amber any of this, but talking about his life-his real life, not the memories of old ones-seemed to help.
“Yes. She’s an angel.” He kept his voice low.
“And she’s your girlfriend?” Amber asked gently.
“Yeah,” Alex nodded. He let in a deep breath, which shook on its way back out of him. “Rachel and Lorelei are both my girlfriends. Those were really vampires and werewolves. They were looking for me.” He inhaled once more and blinked something back. “This wasn’t Jason’s fault at all. You shouldn’t blame him. Only thing he ever did wrong was stick by me and save my life. Again.”
Jason fiddled with his phone. “Like you wouldn’t do the same?”
“If Rachel’s an angel,” Amber continued, realizing how shaky Alex had become in the last few seconds, “is Lorelei one, too?”
“No,” Alex answered, shaking his head again.
“That guy said she’s a demon. Is that true?” He didn’t answer. Amber tried again. “Is she normal? I mean, human?”
“No.”
Waiting a beat to see if Alex would volunteer the details, Amber finally asked, “What is Lorelei?”
“Awesome!” blurted Jason. He hit the answer button on his phone and put it to his ear. “Lorelei? Yeah, Alex is here with me and Amber. We’re okay. Rachel came to the rescue but we’re on our own now. We’re at the entrance of the bus tunnel on Pine Street, between the malls.” He fell silent, then looked at his companions with obvious relief. “Looks like we’ve got a ride.”
* * *
“Gonna take forever for them to dig our cars out of this, even with the valet parking,” Molly grumbled as she and Onyx followed Lorelei to the garage.
“I’ve taken that into account,” Lorelei said. She scanned the garage entrance for threats or signs of trouble. Instead, she only saw a pair of bored-looking valets standing near a podium-style desk.
That a knockout like her would walk brazenly out into the cold of the garage in little more than tall boots and a bikini already made for a highlight of their night. Yet when Lorelei reached them, her face full of purpose and two fingers slipping into the side of her top, the two valets-now standing straight and perking up with interest-she put a whole new twist on things.
“This is my ticket. It’s for the white Lexus in space 131. My friends here need their car as well. This,” she said, producing several folded-up bills, “is a six hundred dollar tip. Every minute we wait for our cars will reduce this tip by one hundred dollars. You understand?”
“Y-yes!” blinked one of the valets. The other was smarter, and didn’t waste time on idle conversation; he simply snatched the keys for Lorelei’s car off the back side of the desk and took off running.
Lorelei smiled crisply at the remaining valet as Onyx fished her ticket out of her small leather belt pouch. “Forgive my curt manners. We’re in a hurry.”
“N-no problem!” the man said. He grabbed the ticket from Onyx and immediately shuffled through the rack of keys for the corresponding tag. He knocked more than a few to the ground, but couldn’t have cared less. In seconds, he was gone.
Onyx pursed her lips. “Is this why you insisted on springing for valet parking on top of the tickets?”
“I’ve learned to treat my friends well,” Lorelei said, turning her attention back to her phone, “and to prepare for emergencies. Please keep an eye out. We don’t know who else might be on the prowl tonight.”
The dark-haired witch gave a little nod, but said nothing more. She took Lorelei’s meaning perfectly and turned her attention to their surroundings. Molly stood close, tense and ready to lash out at the first threat to appear.
“Fun party while it lasted,” Molly muttered.
* * *
“I have four suspects, all under arrest under my authority. We need to keep them separate and isolated. You will remember that this entire matter is top secret. Do you understand?” Hauser expected the guard at the front desk to respond with a snappy “Yes, sir.” When he didn’t hear it, his eyes turned back from scanning the hallway for witnesses to the sentry.
The grey-haired guard’s attention was less on the ID and badge presented by Hauser and more on the agent in the Spider-Man costume, also presenting badge and ID, standing directly behind him. They were the only people in the otherwise completely quiet and empty lobby.
“Wake up!” Hauser barked. “I don’t care if all you ever see walk through these doors are Treasury lawyers and their secretaries. You are a sworn Federal officer and you will comply with interagency authority, you got me?”
“Yes, sir!” blurted the guard.
Keeley sighed and folded up his ID wallet. He moved to stow it on his person, and then remembered for the fourteenth time tonight that his superhero costume didn’t have any pockets. “I always hate going outside the Bureau for things like this,” he sighed, watching the desk guard shuffle away.