at the black road. "He sacrificed himself so we could get out. Damn it, we left Jax, too. We wouldn't have gotten out without them!"
"I think you wouldn't have gotten caught without them either," Pierce said sourly.
"I don't believe this!" I shouted. "You're ditching him! After what he did?"
Jenks landed on the dash, glowing brightly. All his kids were in the back, adding to the noise. "Turn it on, Ivy," he said grimly, and I hesitated in my feeling of frustration.
"Turn what on?" I asked, and Ivy twisted, unbuckling her belt pack and tossing it to me.
"Just hit the button," she said, eyes glued to the black night. No one was following us, but I wasn't surprised. They had Nick, and all they had to do was radio ahead.
Feeling sick, I found a small recorder in her stuff. "This?" I asked, holding it up, and Jenks flew to me, kicking a small recessed button. The device warmed in my hand, and a soft squeal came from it, almost unheard, hitting the bones in my ears, not my eardrum. "What is it?" I asked, and Jenks's wings sifted a gold sparkle and all his kids complained.
"The bug we put on crap-for-brains."
My eyebrows rose, and Jenks wrapped his arms around a dial, turning it until the static cleared. I heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh, and Jenks hovered backward, expression angry. Clearly Nick wasn't wearing his demon-born disguise anymore either. I didn't think they'd smack him if he still looked like Trent.
"Enjoying yourself?" I heard Nick say, almost laughing. He had been tortured for days by fanatic Weres. Being slapped by Trent's security officer wasn't going to scare him. My heart gave a thump. We had to go back. Maybe not this instant, but soon.
"Leave off," came a high voice, followed by Nick's raw cough. "Mr. Kalamack's here."
I held the device tightly, staring at it when the unmistakable creak of a door opening came from it. "Leave us," Trent's cool, confident, and ticked voice said softly. I shook my head at Nick's ever trying to duplicate it.
"Sir?"
"He's cuffed," Trent said, voice harsh. "I want to speak with him before Quen arrives."
"Sir." It was respectful this time, fearful. We couldn't just leave Nick, and my fingers tightened as I heard the door close and the soft creak of plastic as Trent sat down.
"What happened?" Trent said, his voice low. "You weren't supposed to get caught. Rachel was."
My lips parted, and I think my heart skipped a beat. God bless it. Nick had screwed me over again! The slimy little rat fink! Jenks's wings lowered in pitch, and he landed on my hand. I hated the sympathy in his eyes. No wonder Nick had known I could get through that elf door. Trent had told him.
From the black plastic in my hand came the jingle of cuffs. "Think you could get these off me?" Nick said, the slimeball.
"Quen is in the vault," Trent said, his beautiful voice icy. "The inventory isn't complete, but more than that canvas is missing. I gave you the code so I could catch Rachel with a fake picture, not let you steal a sensitive artifact."
Trent knew I could jump realities on my own, and hadnt bothered to tell me. My entire body warmed as I started to shake.
"The statue?" Nick said, the cuffs jingling again. "That's why I stayed behind. Let myself get caught. The witch took it along, with the canvas. I lifted it from her before she ran. You won't believe what she wanted to do with it."
He's blaming me for his theft?
"Ran off?" Trent said, and I heard Nick grunt in pain. "Your bug of a pixy dropped a magic-generated pinch on my gatehouse. Thirty-six seconds it took to reboot. Do you know what can happen in thirty-six seconds? Just whose side are you on, Sparagmos?"
"Mine," he rasped, taking a new breath. "But I know who's running Cincinnati. Don't get your wick out of whack. She may have taken it, but I swiped it back."
There was a creak of plastic, and I couldn't breathe. Nick was blaming me for his theft, the lie falling from him like a baby's giggle.
"I figured you'd want it," Nick was saying, and my eyes warmed as Jenks's pixy dust sifted onto my fingers, trembling as I held the radio. "So she escaped. So what? You'll get her, and now you still have your statue. I look like a self-sacrificing hero in her eyes - she gets a worthless picture."