“Hold on, they’re going after this thing tonight? Vance and Leo?” Wait a second. Did she just say they hate each other because of a woman?
“Yeah, they left like an hour ago.” She replied.
“They already left?!?” I shrieked.
“Uh yeah, did I stutter?” She answered.
Omigod, Vance and Leo together wasn’t a good situation in the first place. Adding a murderous demon to the mix was just asking for trouble.
***************
Okay, I am freaking out. I have a really bad feeling about this. I tried calling Vance but it went straight to his damn voicemail again. Feeling desperate, I tried Leo too. Same thing. Damn!
I got in my car and drove to Pixie Dust. I needed to talk to Erica and she was working tonight. I ran in from the parking garage and spotted her right away.
“Hey Erica! Over here!” I yelled from across the bar.
She walked over to me and said, “Hey K, whatsup? I’m guessing you heard about all the commotion going on around here? I was going to call you but we’ve been swamped.”
“Don’t worry about it.” I said. “Look, I need to find Vance and Leo. Can you do some kind of locator spell to find them for me?”
“Sure baby.” She replied. “All I need is a personal item from either of them. Do you have anything at your house…maybe some underwear that was left behind or a toothbrush in the bathroom?
“No, I don’t have anything like that.” I said. “It’s not like that between us. I haven’t been with either one of them.”
“If you say so sweetie. Well, if you go home and find something let me know. Hey I gotta get back to my tables, okay? Good luck treasure hunting!”
Damn! Why did I have to return that key fob? I could be getting something from Leo’s closet right now! Wait, I know! I’ll just get it back. I went up to the front desk and saw the same lady that I gave the key to in the first place.
I looked at her name tag. “Hi Marcy.” I said in my sweetest tone. “Do you remember me from yesterday? I came down here and returned a little black key fob from penthouse two?
“Yes, I remember you.” Marcy said, suspicion heavy in her voice.
“Great! Well, see Marcy, it turns out that I made a mistake in returning that key. The gentleman who’s staying there is a very close friend of mine. I promised him I would be waiting for him when he got back tonight but I have no way of getting up there now. I’d hate to disappoint him so I’m going to need that key back.”
“I’m sorry Ma’am but I can’t do that.” She said.
“Oh sure you can Marcy. I’m sure you wouldn’t want one of your penthouse guests to be upset would you? That wouldn’t be good for you, would it?” If charm fails, threaten her job security.
She narrowed her eyes at me and said, “Sorry Ma’am but I cannot do that. I would be more than happy to call Mr. Markos and explain it to him myself.” Damn, she called my bluff!
“Ugh! Nevermind!”
I decided trying Erica again. When I told her about my extortion attempt she said, “Well maybe Leo left something here.”
“That’s genius Eri! I knew I kept you around for a reason!” I teased. We looked around the bar but couldn’t find anything! Damn! Damn! Damn!
I hung out at work until closing just in case they returned. No such luck there so I went home and waited by my phone. Feeling completely helpless, I tried watching TV but nothing would take this nagging panic away. I had a feeling deep in my bones that something was horribly wrong. My anxiety must have worn me out because I eventually fell asleep on the couch.
My phone rang around seven in the morning, jolting me out of my slumber. I looked at the caller ID and saw that Leo was on the other end.
“Leo, what’s wrong? What happened? Are you okay?”
He replied, “Yes, my dear. I am fine. It is Vance who had an unfortunate incident with an angry demon last night. He’s in the hospital over on Maryland. I thought you should know.”
“Omigod, what happened? Is he going to be okay?”
“The police had a lead on a suspect so we went to check it out.” He said. “He was attempting to put a stasis spell on the demon so they could collect a DNA sample to check for a match. Vance was……. distracted while he was performing the spell. The demon sensed his magical presence and attacked. He had some internal injuries which required surgery and a minor concussion. They said he’ll be in recovery for a few days. I stayed at the hospital as long as I could before sunrise. He was resting peacefully when I left. I’m calling because I thought you might want to be there with him.”