Page 63 of Outlaw Witch

Too bad I’m stuck in a fucking cage.

“Let me guess, it alerts someone in the building that someone touched the book?”

Stupid snitch book.

It better not alert the city judiciary or my nightmare will just have come true. All these years hiding out and I’ve basically tied myself up with a little bow for them.

I wonder momentarily if Roscoe can hear me through the walls of my prison as I talk to the ghost without bothering to keep my voice down.

I sure hope not. Hopefully, if he can hear me, he thinks I’m just having a breakdown or something.

“It’ll alert someone all right,” a deep voice says right in my ear.

Afamiliardeep voice, one I last heard just a couple of days ago.

“I should have known,” Dante continues.

“Dude, you’re the one who told me to come here.” I can’t see him and I don’t think he’s actually in the room with me. But somehow this weird black box has linked the two of us so he can yell at me, anyway.

“Yes, but I didn’t actually expect you to find a way in here or to get down to this level. Or to pick the one book which instantly alerts me to its attempted movement.” His tone is dry, but he doesn’t sound annoyed, which is something at least. “How did you manage to get down to this section?”

“Just lucky, I guess.” I keep my tone light. I’m not about to start spilling my secrets, even to a voice in my head.

But it seems like Dante’s not satisfied with my brush off. I feel that telltale worm wiggling in my head again, like he’s trying to get inside my brain.

“Dude. Not. Cool.” I mentally slap him away. “I don’t want you inside my head. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that’s not how you treat a lady?”

“Remind me again how it is that you can do that?” he grumbles.

I shrug. “Can you get me out of this thing or not? What is it, anyway?” I’ve never seen anything like it and I have to say, it’s pretty cool now that I'm inspecting it. I press my fingertips against the surface in front of me and it’s rock solid. He’s able to immobilize and speak to me when he could be miles away across the city.

“I can get you out of there, yes,” he replies.

Letting out a sigh of relief, I wipe one sweaty hand on my pant leg. “And the book?”

He sighs and grumbles something I can’t hear, but I’m taking it as a good sign he’s letting me go and hasn’t called the authorities.

Not yet, anyway.

Dante then pauses for so long, I think he’s left me here after all.

“Uh, hello?”

“That sickness you were talking about is a blood curse, is it? There’s a blood curse on Fabian Nightshade and he’s the reason you went to the effort of breaking into a place that’s supposed to be impenetrable?”

There’s no point in denying it at this point, so I just nod and let out a little sigh.

“Honestly, I’ve seen his curse, and it’s the scariest shit I’ve ever seen in someone else’s body. And that’s saying something, considering I’ve watched a lot of those hospital shows where they’re always pulling objects out of people’s butts.”

“They—what?” I seem to have temporarily stunned him into silence. While I can’t see Dante’s face, somehow I justknowhe’s gaping at me like a goldfish.

I snort and decide that’s a topic for another day. “Little tip for you, dude. You might want to keep a closer eye on what’s going on with the other vamps in this city. One of them is going around cursing people with tainted blood, and I don’t think any of us want to see what happens if this curse spreads.”

Dante’s voice is a mixture of exasperation and amusement. “And how do you know I have any influence over the vampires in this city?”

“Please.” I scoff, waving a hand about. “You’ve got this whole large and in charge, big daddy vamp energy going on. I bet you’re a bigwig in the vamp community.”

He pauses. “I’m not sure how to take that,” he replies drily.

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