That would get her grounded for only a year or two.
And at least her mother would never call her "perfectly reliable" again.
Kelsa ran the bike's speed up a bit in celebration, though not enough to trip a traffic sensor into report mode.
***
They reached the campus in about twenty minutes; traffic was light this late on a Sunday.
Kelsa even remembered where the museum was, though having little interest in the history of the Southwest, she'd never gone there. It was in the oldest part of the campus, housed in several well-remodeled buildings that had been built as private homes a few centuries ago.
"Take your bike into the alley between those houses."
She was driving so slowly that Raven hardly had to raise his voice to be heard through the helmets. "There are no cameras back there."
The alley was only four feet wide, and very dark. When Kelsa turned into it, the bike's headlight illuminated several trash cans, and trash cans usually meant...
The door was just in front of the cans. Kelsa pulled the bike past them and made sure it couldn't be seen from the street before shutting it off.
In the absence of the headlight the alley became very dark. She removed her helmet, then took a few seconds to bring up her night vision, running her fingers through her flattened hair.
"I'll let you in." Raven dismounted and handed her his helmet. "It will only take a few minutes."
"What about the alarm?" Kelsa murmured. "And the security cameras?"
"It won't be a problem."
Even with her night vision engaged, she couldn't make out the details of the transformation. Perhaps it was too horrifying for her to want to watch closely. But only moments later a huge black bird struggled out of a pile of cloth and flapped upward.
Kelsa shook her head. Either she was completely deranged, or the world was even more full of wonder than her father had taught her. And if she wasn't crazy...
If the Native American spirits were real, what about other mythical creatures? Was she about to encounter dragons and vampires? And werewolves, oh my?
She reached down and picked up the discarded clothing. The fabric felt real, with the rough softness of cotton and denim, the heat of his body still lingering in the folds.
If she wasn't crazy, did the power to stop the tree plague really rest in her hands?
Kelsa's heart was pounding. When the door opened, she jumped and barely suppressed a yelp.
"That was fast!" She handed Raven his clothes and stepped inside, averting her gaze from his nakedness. "How did you get in so quickly? In fact, how did you get in without tripping the alarm?"
"The same way I did the other night, when I first located the medicine bag." His voice held none of the fear that tightened her throat. "Someone who works in one of the upstairs offices likes fresh air. They leave the window open about three inches."
"Even at night?" It was embarrassing listening to him dress. They were standing in a narrow hall, which led to what had once been a kitchen and now looked like some sort of workroom. A security camera hung from one corner of the ceiling, but its power light was dark. He must have handled it, just like he'd promised.
"The window's fastened so it can't rise any higher," he told her. "And it's not in a place a human could reach without a ladder. But I had to tear the screen again, and that may raise questions, so I'd like to finish here tonight. This way."
Alarms on the screen were unlikely. Kelsa followed him down the hall, through the workroom, and into a room filled with cabinets of pottery and informative signs. It should have felt reassuringly mundane, but...
"This is creepy," Kelsa whispered. "Everything's so old."
"Not all of it." Raven drifted over to a display of shiny black pottery. Kelsa had once been told the name, but she'd forgotten it. "Much of this is modern. Beautiful, though."
Maybe he had reason to be a history geek, but still...
"Shouldn't we get this over with?"
"You're right, of course." He turned away from the pottery and led her through another room, where the walls were covered with maps and flat panels that contained clothing, jewelry, and small artifacts. Nothing looked like you could black-market it for millions, so maybe this museum didn't have high-tech security. Kelsa relaxed a trifle.
In the next room a case of kachinas caught her eye - one in particular.
"Was that you?" She gestured to a small statue of