Running like a crazy person back to the motel was definitely helping to warm her up a bit.
She didn’t bother answering Reggie. She had to save her energy for the single-minded goal of getting back to the Paradise Inn and using the key. Thinking about anything else—anything else—was just going to throw her concentration off.
For example, she wasn’t going to think about Nathaniel and what just happened at the mansion. His cutting words doing their damage to hurt her, to shake her confidence in him, and then at the last moment, something returned. It was obvious he’d been given behavior modification as punishment for breaking the rules—that was why he’d been so cruel and heartless. But if so, why did he let her escape . . . even creating the portal himself to allow her to escape?
See? she thought Thinking about stuff like that is only going to slow me down.
Also, thinking that as soon as Julian knew both she and Lisa had escaped from the
Underworld and had the key, he’d be coming after them with a fiery vengeance.
Nope. Not going to think about that, either.
“Where are we going?” Lisa panted.
“Back to the motel. We’ve got to get to Barlow.”
Val tried to clear her mind, but it kept racing as fast as her feet. Was she running to something or away from something?
Here, she’d thought she’d been so in control of what was going on. Just like the glamour on the Underworld, on Donovan, on herself to become an “evil witch.” She’d been fooling herself. All of it was false surfaces. She’d never had any control at all. She thought she could control Nathaniel through the summoning spell? He was a demon with a mind, an agenda, of his own. Maybe opening the portal was just another way to tempt her. To gain her trust after it had almost been lost completely. After all, no matter what Lloyd might have told her, she really had no idea how many assignments he’d had before her in two hundred years of being a demon? Hundreds at least. Probably thousands. Why did she think she was any different? Any more special than the rest?
Lucifer was probably laughing at her right now. As well as everyone else at the head office.
At the stupid angel who’d fallen for a gorgeous demon.
Not a story Trixie L’Amour would be telling any time soon.
So she kept running. And desperately hoped for a sign.
A little of that divine intervention would be really cool right now, she decided.
With Lisa right behind her, she slipped past a parked car and crossed the street. She heard the squealing tires and froze, staring stupidly at the big, black limo that lurched to a stop only inches from turning her into a frozen pancake.
The back door opened and slammed shut. She saw red hair and a fancy Chanel suit quickly come toward her.
“Val!” Becky called. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
Her heart pounded so loud she could barely hear anything. Lisa skidded to a stop next to them. She could hear Reggie panting on her shoulder, which, since he hadn’t been running at all, was a little disconcerting.
“You almost hit me!” Val exclaimed.
“You almost deserved it running out like that and not looking both ways. Geez. You practically gave me a heart attack. Sweetie, you’re shaking like a leaf. And FYI, it’s winter.
You’re a total candidate for What Not to Wear in that outfit.”
Becky waited for a reply but Val had nothing. She glanced at Lisa.
“Where are you two headed?”
“To the Paradise Inn,” Lisa told her.
“I’ll give you guys a ride. Come on.” Becky put her arm around Val’s shoulders and steered her toward the limo, directing her into the backseat.
Seraphina sat on the opposite seat looking at her. Her hair was done in perfect blond ringlets.
Her arms were crossed. She wore a yellow outfit with a cartoon duck on the front with the words GOING QUACKERS.
“I want McNuggets,” she said.
“That sounds like a plan,” Reggie murmured. “Running for my life makes me so hungry.”
Lisa joined them in the limo. Val shook her head and glanced at Becky. “We have to get back to the motel right now. It’s urgent.”
“You need to learn how to relax—I should give you the number for my masseuse. He seriously has the fingers of a Greek god. We’ll drop you off, don’t worry. As soon as we stop at McDonald’s for her majesty.”
Val blinked at her. “What are you doing here, anyhow? Didn’t you just leave for Disneyland?”
Becky shrugged. “Yeah, like a week ago. Thank God that torture is finally over. She made me go on Space Mountain eight times. In a row! They actually ran out of barf bags. I’m so glad we’re finally back. Besides, I still have a ton of Christmas shopping to do.”
Val’s mouth had gone completely dry. “Did you just say you were gone a week?”
“Yeah. We left a ago week today.”
A week? Her eyes widened. It hadn’t been a week. It couldn’t have much more than a day . . . two at the most . . . even though that time felt like an eternity. But back here an entire week had gone by?
“Her mother’s at the spa to recover from the trip,” Becky said, eyeing the little girl warily.
“I’m way stressed and we were only gone a week. And when I’m stressed, I eat. If we were gone any longer I might have come back weighing six hundred pounds.”
“McNuggets!” Seraphina whined. “I want my McNuggets.”
Becky sighed. “Okay, just hold on a minute, would you?”
“NOW!”
The limo drove up the road to McDonald’s and Becky climbed over Lisa to get out of the car.
“Reggie,” Val said softly.
“Yeah?”
“We’re going in.”
He nodded. “Where you go, I go. Lead the way.”
They slipped out of the limo and left Lisa in the car with Seraphina who began telling her all about her Mickey Mouse experience, and ran up the stairs to the restaurant.