Bryce stalked over and pierced us both with a glare. “Pellini has more fucking sense than both of you put together,” he said, voice scathing.
“Excuse me?” I asked then realized with chagrin that Idris and I hadn’t kept our voices low. Crap. Pellini heard all of that.
“He gets that he’s between a rock and a hard place.” Bryce’s glare didn’t let up one bit. “He also gets that the entire situation is dangerous and he’s a danger.” He snorted. “He was smart enough to figure we weren’t going to let him leave. All he’s worried about is his dog alone at his house. You two hot shots need to come to a compromise between damnation and ‘Fly! Be free!’”
Fuck. It was a sad day when Pellini was the reasonable one. Idris looked similarly chastened by the dressing down.
“Maybe . . . locked down here, unless he’s with one of us?” I offered.
Idris visibly fought down his resistance to the elimination of the demon realm option, and I was pretty sure he pygahed. Twice. Maybe three times. “Locked down here?” he finally said. “How?”
“He moves in here,” I suggested and prayed that Idris’s receptive mood would continue. “If possible he takes a leave of absence from work, and we would reassess as needed.”
What followed then were negotiations that rivaled the Louisiana Purchase. With Bryce’s not-always-gentle guidance we managed to reach a compromise that kept Pellini from being summarily deported to the demon realm while also keeping him from roaming free. Idris wasn’t happy with it, and I hated screwing Pellini over like this, but it was the best possible compromise in a horrible situation.
“I’m sorry it has to be this way,” I said to Pellini after everything was decided. “Is there anything you need right now?”
“Another hamburger,” Pellini grumbled. “The demon ate mine.”
Chapter 13
After Pellini ate a replacement hamburger, Bryce accompanied him to his house to pick up his dog and a few days worth of clothing and sundries. An hour later they returned with Sammy, a goofy chocolate labrador retriever with a dangerously exuberant tail. Though uncertain at first with all the new smells, it only took a few minutes for Sammy to decide that having the run of ten acres—full of wildlife to bark at—was the absolute Best Thing Ever.
Fuzzykins was less keen about the presence of a DOG in her demesne, and wasted no time establishing the pecking order. The silly dog wanted nothing more than to be best buddies with the cat and made many enthusiastic overtures of unconditional friendship. It took a muzzle covered in bloody scratches for him to accept the futility of his efforts. Poor guy.
Bryce relinquished the guestroom to Pellini and took over the sofa, more to monitor Pellini’s movements than to be nice. Pellini had the run of the property, but surveillance cameras, the perimeter fence, and Bryce’s eagle-eyes kept him under polite house arrest. I gave Pellini the basic tour, set out fresh towels for him, then finally fell into bed long after midnight. At least I didn’t need to set an alarm for the morning.
Once asleep, I drifted in and out of a weird dream involving giant mosquitoes with human faces auditioning for a talent show. The bizarre scene faded, only to sharpen into a vivid and strange landscape of shifting color and light. Fine threads of lightning coruscated through clouds of energy accompanied by a soft, pleasant crackle. I floated among the clouds, passing through and between them, delighted when I found myself able to choose my direction at will.
“Kara Gillian.”
My name slid through me—felt, not heard—and lured me to its source. I reached up to touch my ears but, where my arm should have been, there was nothing but a swirl in the clouds. Gah! Where’s my body? Even as the panic began, I coalesced into a semitransparent shimmery form as though I’d willed it all into existence. I turned my hands over, flexed my glittering fingers. Too cool.
“Kara Gillian.” The call came again. Closer this time and familiar. I spun toward it and saw Kadir. Sparkly Kadir, composed of a billion twinkling crystals like perfect grains of sand, colorless except for the striking violet of his eyes. Behind his left shoulder drifted a man, semitransparent and shimmery like me, and an equally shimmery Paul knelt close to Kadir’s right leg.
This was some dream.
“Wow, Paul,” I said. “You look really good.”
Kadir laid his hand on Paul’s head. “Kara Gillian.”
The resonance of my name drew me more into myself. “Yo, Kadir. ’Sup?” I laughed and threw a mock gang sign. “Weird having you in my dream.”
Kadir drifted closer. “Wake up.”
The command echoed through every fiber of my being. The surreal landscape leaped into greater clarity. In shock, I recognized the shimmery man behind Kadir as a much more trim Pellini. Everything felt utterly real—not like a lucid dream anymore. Sonofabitch. Kadir had called me into Pellini’s out-of-body wonderland.