I will come to you. Where are you? Are you with Sally?
Yeees, I said slowly. About that -
Stay with her. We will escape with Diamond. Christ, I think he's here. I will find you as soon as I have Diamond safe.
He shut off communication before I could warn him that Sally wasn't as benign as he believed. I hesitated to do so with Bael right there about to pounce. "I think we're on our own for a little bit, Ulfur, while everyone gets away from Bael. You doing all right?"
"Yes," he answered, his voice pained.
"I don't suppose you can move?"
"No. I wish I could."
"You and me both."
"Cora - "
"Yes?"
He hesitated a few seconds. "I'm sorry that I got you involved in this. With Bael, and being made a Tool. I had no idea there were others outside the exit from Bael's palace."
"Well, it's not like you had a choice in the matter, is it? I mean, didn't de Marco force you to steal the Tools?"
"Yes," he said, his voice filled with misery. "But I'm still sorry."
"And I appreciate that. Don't be so quick to give up, though. We'll get through this. First things first - we have to get away from Sally. There's got to be some way we can knock her out, or blast her with Bael's power or something. If I could just put my hand on you, I might be able to channel the power through you. . . ."
"There, so much better. I just feel absolutely stark naked if I go out without lipstick," Sally said as she emerged from the bathroom, fresh as could be. "Now, shall we get going? Lord Bael wants you to be taken to his palace, but the nearest entrance to that is in Paris, and that is a nightmare trip I just don't even want to think about. My palace, however, has a presence in the form of a lovely little Louis the Fourteenth villa in the town of Privas, which isn't too far from here. I'll take you there first, and then we shall proceed to Bael's Black Palace."
"We're going to your villa?" I asked, hope blossoming. "You can't possibly carry us all that way."
"Of course not," she said, laughing.
She'd have to remove the immobility spell. She'd have to let us up to walk, and then . . . I sighed with relief. Then we'd escape. "Well, I have to say, as much fun as it has been being a human blob, I really do welcome the chance to move around. I'm starting to get a cramp in my calf."
"Oh, I'm not going to be able to take the spell off you," she told us, making a face that looked as sincere as hell. "You'd try to escape, and Lord Bael would be most angry with me if I let you do that."
"You just said you couldn't carry us," I protested.
"And so I won't."
My hopes plummeted. "But then . . . how are you going to get us to your villa? Do you have henchmen like Bael?"
"Thousands of them, but they're busy wreaking havoc and destruction, so I'll just have to do this myself."
To my astonishment, she reached out into the air, and with a jerking motion tore . . . well, tore what I assumed was the fabric of space. It gaped open like the wall of the hotel room was a photograph on a sheet that had been ripped apart, a swirling blackness beyond it.
"Madre de Dios," I swore, shrieking as Sally, with a strength that belied her tiny little form, grabbed me with both hands and flung me through the rip in space.
Alec absently wiped the blood that dripped down his arm and off his fingers onto the material of his pants, very aware of the heat building in his left arm as the shoulder-to-elbow slash made by the wrath demon's claws slowly healed itself. "This way," he said, holding up his uninjured hand to help Diamond down the last few yards from the balcony where they'd made their escape. "I think this alley leads to . . . you can't possibly be serious."
"Oh, I am, I assure you. You wouldn't believe how cutthroat the real estate business is in northern California! You think the demon lords are bad? They don't have anything on - "
"Hush," Alec said, lifting his hand in warning as he turned his head, straining to catch the words of the two men who ran past the entrance of the alley.
". . . Sally, said she . . . Corazon . . ."
"I think Alec's comment referred to those two men, not your experience in real estate, Diamond," Kristoff said as he leaped to the ground, holding up his arms for Pia, who followed him with a whomp.