get me in so I can enter the code to disable the alarm."
"Alarm?" Ivy said, probably thinking that's why I looked sick. "You didn't say anything about that before."
He turned to her. "And you thought the vault was being hidden in a magnetic resonator. Roll with it, vamp. Or can't you function without a plan to blow your nose?"
"Uh, Rache?" Jenks interrupted, looking worried. Rainbows spilled from him, his aura falling like pixy dust. He knew what it might mean if I could do this, and I hoped he'd keep quiet about it.
"Just... let me see," I said, then faced the blank wall, shaking out my hands and trying to find a sense of calm. This wasn't like trying to jump from one line to another. I simply wanted to slip into the ever-after through a ley line. Just go into the ever-after, walk three paces, then get out of the line. Right into a demon coffeehouse. Great. And hope that when I reappear in reality, I'm in an open room and not buried in dirt. If Trent could do it, maybe I could. I'd never be trapped in the ever-after again, either, provided I could find a ley line.
"Rachel," Nick said, bending close. "There is a room behind the wall. Why have a lock on an empty room? I trust you. You can do this."
I eyed him and his smutty aura, and he took his hand off me. How come he knew I was different? This didn't smell good at all.
But closing my eyes, I strengthened my second sight. Once more, the red-tinted burnt amber smell enfolded me. The ley line ran right through the wall. Best to take two steps maybe.
"Rachel?"
"I'm fine, Ivy," I said, my voice harsher than I had intended. "Jenks, don't even think about it." Just do it, I thought, and then I stepped into the line and let it take me.
The smell hit me, jerking my eyes open. Noise jangled, a hundred conversations, arguments, loud gossip. Shit, I'd done it. I didn't know if I should be happy or depressed. It sounded like Takata being piped in. It was hot, and sweat threatened to break out. Pushing my hair back, I took a shallow breath. I was what I was. The door to the coffeehouse was ahead of me, THE COFFEE VAULT painted on it in big silver letters. You ve got to be kidding. It was too obvious to ignore. Grasping the handle, I pushed open the door and went in.
Two demons looked up, the laughter of their joke still showing on their faces. Dressed in leisure suits I wouldn't be caught dead in, they looked me up and down, assessing how high I was in the familiar hierarchy. I felt naked without Al, and I gave them a bunny-eared kiss-kiss. "Hey, hi," I said, feeling stupid. "Just passing through." Damn it, I shouldn't be able to do this.
The better dressed of the two eyed me. "Who the hell do you belong
to?"
Ambivalent, I let the door shut behind me. There was a room mirroring this one in reality. I could sense it, like an unheard echo. "I'm Al's student. Nice to meetcha."
The second demon smacked the first on the shoulder. "See, I told you she was alive."
Alive? I thought, wondering what the gossip had been. "Toodles," I said, blowing him a sarcastic kiss and stepping from the line and back into reality.
The noise cut off with a suddenness that almost hurt. The air was cooler. Dark. Black. In the corner, a shadow moved. Shit, something was in here! Not a demon, I told myself, panicking. They couldn't just slip into reality like that. Not like I could. This is good, right?
Heart pounding, I backed up into the wall I'd just walked through. Not taking my eyes off the moving shadow, I fumbled, finding the light switch. Light flickered into existence, and I sighed. It had been me. The movement had only been me, my shadow reflecting off the ornate mirror propped against the wall.
Slowly my pulse eased. Before me, large racks held old clocks, locked metal boxes with faded index cards, and slatted crates. One side of the room held a huge chest freezer. Actually the entire room looked a lot like Nick's basement in a much higher tax bracket. If I was lucky, there wasn't a camera. I thought of the demons at their table, able to see me with their own second sight but unable to cross over, and I shivered.