Page 2 of A Subtle Scar
Lucifer waved the remark off. “Of course not. Well, have a look at the invite. I’m very afraid there will be private parts.”
“In the invite?” It didn’t look like it, but Lucifer’s magic was the immortal kind, so anything was possible. The invite might be a short porn movie playing directly into my mind’s eye, beckoning me to…come. I glanced at what looked like a regular, if fancy, card inside.
“No, although that’s a good idea for the next invite. There will be private parts at the party. To which you are invited. As are your private parts, if you so choose.”
I pulled out the card, and it did have the heavy feel of a fancy invitation. It was light peach cardboard with red and silver accents, readingYou Are Invited.There was a skull and some lilac flowers next to the words, seriously classy. Inside, handwritten in black ink on cream white paper, it said:
We would love to welcome you to the celebration of Lionel Hawkes’s twenty-and-sixth birthday this Equinox. Festivities will begin at sunset. Evening attire or less required.
Underneath that, it had Lucifer and Lionel’s Brunswick address and a hand-drawn poodle.
“Or less?”
Lucifer shrugged. “With your private parts out. My Nelly will be shocked, but the party will be memorable. It’s the first I get to have for him, so of course it has to be memorable.”
“I’ll just go with the evening attire then, but thanks for clarifying. Might bring my handcuffs though. Just in case.”
The Devil definitely had a Cheshire grin. “Man of my own heart. Ask nicely, and Trony will happily give you a tour of her own playroom.”
I chuckled. “I’ll think about it. What do I give Lionel?”
Lucifer smiled his fondest smile. “Well, you cannot go wrong with horse treats for his pegasus. But Nelly has actually taken up a hobby now; he grows mushrooms in the cellar of Persephone’s castle, and Hades has been helping him, mixing all the dirt with magic and helping the spores grow. I am not sure what goes into all that, but he’ll adore anything mushroom themed.”
“That’s a weird hobby. Probably good though, something not to do with seeing so much death,” I said. Just from reading the file of the minotaur case and then from riding out the second case related to that with Lionel and seeing how it had gone, the kid had ended up with the short end of the stick in the family department, to put it mildly, and the sabbatical he was still on was likely what the shrink had ordered.
Lucifer shrugged. “Well, he’s still fussing over piles of dirt in a scantily lit basement, which is a lot like being at a murder scene, minus the corpses. I suspect it soothes his chthonic magic. But just between you and me, yeah, it’s a little weird. I don’t mind all the mushroom dishes though.”
I aimed for commiseration and said, “So long as he enjoys it.”
“Exactly.” Lucifer stood and picked up his coffee. “Will you be needing a room? You are very welcome to stay with us of course. Trony won’t like it if you don’t, in fact.”
“Oh, right. Yeah, that’d be nice.” I’d have to take the day of and the day after off work to get there and back again. The HR department would be delighted I finally took some vacation days.
Lucifer grinned. “Wonderful. Feel free to extend your stay into a mini vacation. Or a longer vacation.”
I gave him a level look. “Did you talk to HR?”
Lucifer shrugged. “I didn’t have to. You and Nelly are similar enough when it comes to your desire to solve all the human crime. At any rate, we will be expecting you.”
He waved at me before winking out of existence. Well, not winking so much as teleporting to somewhere else. I emailed HR to let them know I’d be off for two days the week after next. It took Julia less than ten minutes to respond she’d received my vacation request for the entire week of the twentieth. I pondered whether to just take it or go down there myself and charm her into tearing up that vacation form.
If I did the latter, she would bring out my file and explain to me exactly how much overtime and unused vacation time I had and how bad that was, and she would lecture me. And lecture me some more. I’d not get back to my desk before eight. So I decided to take it. If I happened to stop by the office during my vacation, there was nothing Julia could do to stop me.
Being a planner, in my opinion, made life a lot easier, especially when things did not go according to plan.
On the Equinox, yet another beautiful Monday, I got into Brunswick two hours early because traffic had been light, and also, I’d left early because not being at work was boring, and I was aching to do something.
It was in Brunswick that I got caught up. Or let myself get caught up because I had the time to spare.
They had stopped traffic on one of the busier streets, and I saw the blue and red lights, even from way back in the sluggish line of cars which only moved every few moments as drivers were directed to take smaller streets around the incident.
I almost ignored the scene because it really wasn’t my jurisdiction at all, and a consultant usually had to be invited to begin with, but then I spotted a messy bun of brown hair in the fray of officers ahead, and I decided to go check it out and see if they needed a mage.
Parking was a bit of an issue, so I drove up right to the police tape and flashed the officer who was waving me to move away my badge and a smile.
“Hi there,” I said through my open window. I glanced at his name tag. “Officer Muller. I just wanted to check with Detective Rice about the case. Will you let her know I’m here?”
Muller looked over his shoulder. I could see Rice was already busy telling people what to do.
