“Just let me down.”
She picked him gently off her shoulder and put him on the ground. He looked up at her.
“Wish me luck.”
Val opened her mouth to do anything but wish him luck, to stop him from whatever stupid idea had drifted into his gumball-sized brain, but he was gone. And he was headed for the stage.
“He’s very brave,” Lisa said. “For a talking rat.”
Val helplessly watched Reggie’s small, furry body dart from covering to covering, weaving in and out between lounge chair legs. If a demon glanced in his direction, he’d freeze in place until it was safe to move again. It was like watching a rodent version of Alias. She held her breath and clutched Lisa’s hand.
“Val,” Lisa whispered.
She didn’t tear her gaze from Reggie. “What?”
“If anything goes wrong here, promise me you won’t look back. That you’ll just run.”
“I promise. Same for you. But I’m not going anywhere without Reggie.”
She smiled. “You’re a good friend to him. And to Nathaniel. It’s so strange that you care for him despite what he is.”
“Nathaniel . . .” Val’s voice trailed off. “I’ll probably never see him again.”
“No. You probably won’t.”
She looked at Lisa sharply. “Not exactly helping.”
“You’d rather I lie to you? Trust me, the truth is always better than lies. Better than all these false surfaces.” She glanced around. “Like this ridiculous place. The truth is painful, it’s shocking, and it’s rarely easy . . . but it will open doors you never knew were there before.”
“Shh.”
Reggie slowly crawled up the steps to the stage. The key lay four feet away from where Julian stood talking to the mayor. The last couple of demons, and one angry-looking biker faery started to drift away.
“Mayor Vaille,” Julian began. “Great one, I’m so, so sorry. I can’t tell you how much I wanted to make this work.”
“Maybe you were fooled. The key is a phony?”
Julian looked appalled by the suggestion, then thoughtful, then sheepish . . . and then back to being appalled. “No, it’s real. I can feel its power.”
“Then what you are saying is that you are a failure.”
He opened his mouth, then closed it. “No. I will figure out why it’s not working. Then I’ll open the doorway and go in myself. Once it’s open we can enter at our whim. It doesn’t need to be tonight.”
The mayor sighed. “But it would have been so cool for the party.”
“Another party, then.”
“Perhaps we should have waited for Nathaniel. He may have been a great assistance to us in this matter.”
Julian laughed. “Nathaniel is a fool. He’s the true failure. Such power at his grasp and he refuses to use it to his full potential. Such a waste. Especially now.”
“What do you mean?”
“Nathaniel has turned soft. He’s at the head office right now answering for his many shortcomings. The next time you see him, I doubt you’ll even recognize him. No”—he smiled—“I greatly anticipate seeing what they’ll do to him.”
The mayor shifted position on his chaise and yawned.
“Yes,” Julian continued with a gleam in his eye, “aside from his continual failure at tempting, he has allowed himself to be manipulated and seduced by his current assignment. And you know very well that is against the rules.”
The mayor smiled a bright fan of sharp teeth. “I came up with that rule myself. Originally it was only a little inside joke at the head office, but it seems to have stuck. And let me guess, he broke my rule with the fallen one he was with earlier? The one you have tied up as we speak?”
“Yes.”
The mayor grimaced. “But she was so . . . trampy. All that fake red hair, and the inch of makeup. Those large, unruly breasts. She didn’t seem that enticing to me.”
Julian shook his head. “That was only a glamour. Underneath she is as pure, as good, and as beautiful as any fallen angel I’ve ever seen.”
Aw, Val thought. That was actually kind of sweet.
“That is why I will take great pleasure eviscerating her. The screams of anguish I shall coax from her beautiful lips will be music to my ears.”
Not sweet.
The mayor chuckled. “So our boy Nathaniel finally indulged himself with a fallen one, did he? Good for him.”
“Good for him?” Julian huffed. “I bend over backward with this key and he gets a ‘good for him’?”
“This was only an amusement to me, anyhow. And I am no longer amused. Perhaps I’ll go plan my next party.” He looked thoughtful. “Though, another band next time. Today’s was somewhat . . . lacking. Their version of ‘La Bamba’ was so weak. I may have them vanquished for displeasing me.”
Julian just stared at the mayor blankly as he was all but dismissed from his presence. Val noticed with a sinking feeling that Reggie had finally reached the top step and was panting hard from the exertion. Then he darted across the stage toward the discarded key, picked it up gently between his little yellow teeth just as Julian turned around.
Reggie froze in place.
“I think I will try a couple more times,” Julian said.
The mayor sighed. “If only the key came with an instruction manual.”
“Yes, if only.” Julian glanced down to where he’d thrown the key. It was gone. His eyes widened and he scanned the area, but before his gaze could rest on the galloping rat, Val saw
Lisa rise up next to her and step out from behind their hiding place. She reached out a hand to stop the girl, but it was too late.
“Hey,” Lisa said. “Remember me, you little bastard?”
All Val could do was watch helplessly as Lisa stepped out fully from behind the bar. Julian stared at her also, the key momentarily forgotten.
“However could I forget?”