More panic swept over her. Surely they were going to demo Littleton at any minute? Who was left in the building? Oh my God. Was one of the seniors still here?
Poppy poked her head around the corner, careful to stay pressed flat to the wall, but she couldn’t see well enough to distinguish who the figure was.
There was a heavy scrape of something against the floor and a grunt, but still, she couldn’t make out any definitive features. Yet, her skin crawled and goose bumps rose on her arms when a dark shadow moved, with only a thread of light from the front doors to help her see.
But she didn’t really need to see the shadow for identification. All she needed was to hear the shadow speak. “I’ve waited a long time for this, you bloody beauties! A long, long time.”
Avis.
Fuck, fuck and fuckity-fuck. This intuition thing obviously had its downside, and finding out she was right about Avis was definitely one of them. Whatever he was up to, it was no good. Her bones said as much.
As the picture became clearer, and Poppy watched Avis flit about the lobby, she didn’t know what the hell he was doing, but she knew it was something really bad. Super bad. But what? What did Littleton have to do with this bad feeling?
Yeah, they were knocking the building down, but no one but her seemed to care. Rick had been honest with Mr. Rush during the sale, so what was Avis doing milling about here, talking to some pillars? She’d bet her bobbleheads it had something to do with magic.
By hell, when all was said and done, she was going to insist someone give her a history lesson in magic and familiars. Like from the beginning of the beginning so she knew all the ins and outs.
And then that damn persistent voice called to her again. “Poppy!”
“Goddammit, knock it off!” she muttered under her breath while Avis used his weight to shift one of the pillars holding those stones matching the spire on the roof.
With sudden clarity, something hit her.
Now, more than ever, she was convinced Rick wasn’t in the building at all—but she was, and that was probably right where Avis wanted her to be. She didn’t know why, but she knew she was right.
Foiled again, McGuillicuddy.
“Where the fuck are we?” Nina yelled to Rick over the strong wind.
“The roof of Littleton!” Rick yelled back, tucking his face to his chest to block out the torrent of leaves slapping at him.
“Are you insane? Dude, they’re gonna blow this thing the fuck up!” Nina bellowed her anger in his face.
Marty and Wanda clung to one another, fighting the sheer force of the wind, Marty’s face chock full of worry. “Why are we here? Where the hell is Poppy in all this?”
A spell. Someone had cast a spell on Littleton.
He’d done a transporting spell a million times as a warlock. He’d pictured in his mind exactly where he wanted them to end up—in the garden of Littleton—but somehow, they’d landed on the roof? It had to be a spell blocking him out of the interior of the building. But why?
“Follow me!” he yelled over the howl of cold air as he fought his way to the staircase leading to the top floor. Lightning cracked above their heads, illuminating the spire in front of them, casting an ominous, almost evil glow upon it.
Reaching for the door, he wrapped his frozen fingers around the handle and instantly jumped back. “Fuck!” he yelled, the burn of his flesh a sharp jolt.
“Shit!” Calamity cried. “Is it a spell? Jesus and hellfire, what’s going on?”
Gripping his hand to his chest, Rick’s eyes wildly sought another way to get off the roof.
“January!” Wanda called out. “Thank God you’re here!”
The doctor raced across the rooftop, her eyes wide, her clothes flapping in the gusts of wind as she reached for his injured hand. “What happened?”
Rick grit his teeth, the hot ache of his burned hand throbbing. “Forget my hand, I can’t get the damn door open! We think Poppy’s down there. We need to get there now!”
January’s nostrils flared as her eyes flitted across the landscape of the roof. “A spell. Someone cast a spell here. Can you smell it? Who’s preventing you from getting down these stairs?”
As the wind battered Nina’s slender body, she drove herself into it with determination. “Fuck this! If the kid’s downstairs, I’ll just jump over the side. I can fly, remember?”
Rick didn’t even have time to think about the fact the vampire could fly, but if he got Poppy out and was still alive after doing it, he was going to re-subscribe to Paranormal World News, because he was severely out of the loop about his own kind, let alone vampires.