Page 31 of Wicked Deeds

Glorious to look at, but the candles only added to the heat in an already crowded room. And, as always, I wondered why they didn’t just ask everyone for a donation and give that plus the money they would have used putting on the event to the charities they were trying to support. Lizzie had explained to me that people wanted a reward for their money. She agreed it was dumb, though.

But when you played at certain levels, you had to do certain things for show. Damon donated a lot of money he never talked about, even outside his own foundation. But there wassomething about being seen to be charitable that seemed to matter.

“Let’s just make out,” I said, “Save the rest for when we get home.”

His grin widened. “I am on board with that plan.”

I thought about Lianith waiting at home for us.

Damon had put her in one of the guest bedrooms with two pounds of top-shelf steak, retrieved from the refrigerator, and several water bowls. Callum claimed she knew how to use a toilet for her…needs. I hoped so. Offering a litter box to a creature who could talk to me seemed wrong somehow

I’d ordered a couple of fancy water fountains and food bowls and a few large plush pet beds while I was being curled and primped and polished but they wouldn’t arrive until the morning. Hopefully nixlings were like cats and she had napped a lot.

I wriggled—as much as my skirts would allow—closer to Damon while Boyd pulled up to a traffic light.

But before Damon could lean in and distract me, something caught my eye out of the window. Something dark, skittering up the side of a building.

I went cold and hit the intercom button without thinking. “Boyd, pull over please.”

“What?” Damon said, twisting around.

I pointed out past his shoulder. “I saw something on that building. Something climbing up the wall.”

“A person?”

“No, smaller.”

He watched a moment before turning back to me. “I can’t see anything. Probably just a trick of the light.”

“No,” I said, “I definitely saw something.” I didn’t want to be right about it, but the skittering motion reminded me of an afrit.Too small to be an imp and I had no idea if imps could even climb a wall. Afrit could though. “I need to check it out.”

“Are you sure?”

“Lizzie and Zee got called out about a ‘giant bug’ earlier this week,” I said. “They didn’t find an afrit but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t one. I can’t take that chance.”

His mouth went flat as he gestured at my gown. “You’re not dressed for chasing afrit around in the middle of the night.”

“It was headed for the roof, I just need to get up there. I’ll take Maia.” I hit the button to lower the partition between us and the front seat where Maia was sitting with Boyd. “Maia, I need you to come with me.”

“You’re just going to waltz in there? It’s nearly one a.m.” Damon objected.

I eyed the building. It had to be an office block or apartments. Eight floors. No one had rebuilt any skyscrapers in San Francisco after the Big One.

“I’ll figure something out.” My training sessions with Callum, chasing illusionary creatures around the city, had taught me there was a way to get into most buildings. Or there was always Lizzie’s lockpicking lessons to fall back on.

“Luckily you won’t have to,” Damon said, reaching inside his jacket for the tiny datapad he carried to events.

“Why not?”

“I own it.” He swiped something on the screen and said, “Mitch? I need you to contact whoever’s on security at the office building we bought last year in Alamo Square. Maggie and Maia need access immediately. Tell them to give Maggie anything she asks for, but otherwise stay the fuck out of their way.” He listened for a moment. “Yeah, one of those things. I’ll let you know if we need any help.”

“There’s the usual in the trunk?” I asked him when he ended the call. He nodded. We kept go bags of gear and weapons forboth of us close at hand these days. I didn’t love that we needed them, but it was useful to have them for moments like these. I didn’t have time to change clothes, but I could grab a gun.

“All right,” I said, reaching for the door handle. “Call Cassandra. If she doesn’t answer, call Callum. Tell them I think I saw an afrit.”

Maia had already retrieved my gun from the trunk by the time I’d wrestled the dress out of the car. I took it from her and shoved it into my pocket. I had a license to carry a gun—but no point causing a scene if I didn’t need to.

At least my shoes had low heels. I’d figured no one would see them under the gown anyway and it was heavy enough to make it tricky to walk in without adding stilettos to the mix.

---