Golem in My Glovebox (3 page)

I frowned. “You have teams?”

“A few freelancers, like your friends Darius and Kam. It’s not ideal, but when Iliandra Northrup died, I didn’t have anybody running the Covenant Enforcement Department. Art’s doing his best to get everything back in order, but until we identify who killed the rest of the board members, we can’t leave the compound. Putting the squads back together or creating new ones requires someone to go out in the field.”

I grunted. Darius was a freelance soul catcher. The last time I’d seen him, he and Kam rode off into the sunset together with a plan to train Kam to help him, attempt to find—and release—Hidden who’d been sold at the Collector’s auctions and, most importantly, look for clues as to where my mother and the other Aegises had been taken. The idea was they were already traveling as soul catchers. With luck, they’d find more than escaped souls. The fact that Bernice now had them rebuilding O.G.R.E. squads as well was news to me. It was also a testament to how shorthanded she was.

Riley, having dried himself, tucked his towel around his waist and straightened his spine, all business. “We’re on it, Bernice. On our way in five minutes.”

“Do whatever you have to do.” She paused, as if deciding how much more to tell us. “Just get whoever it is off the streets. If the general population knows about the Hidden, the Covenant will be broken and it’ll make our current troubles look like a bad hair day.”

The call blinked out on the display. “Well, that sounded dire. I guess we better get dressed,” I said, wrapping my head in a towel turban.

Riley already had his pants zipped and one arm in his shirt. “I’ll run out and let Maurice know where we went then meet you in the car.”

I nodded. “Tell Molly I’m sorry we’re missing the party.”

It was more like ten minutes before I stepped off the porch. I wore a pretty white sundress covered in cherries, and my low-heeled sandals had matching cherries on the straps. The purple fedora didn’t exactly match, but it was the first hat I’d grabbed to cram over my wet hair to avoid insta-frizz. My dark red curls would turn to a snarled, angry mass the minute one of us opened a window while we drove down the highway.

When in doubt, wear a hat.

When I stepped off the porch, Riley was already behind Mabel’s wheel with her engine running.

I frowned and ducked my head into the open window. “If we’re taking my SUV, why do you get to drive her?”

“Because I got dressed faster.”

“Why aren’t we taking your car?” I glanced over at his green sedan. “It’s less noticeable.”

“We’re taking yours because we have no idea what flavor of Hidden we’re picking up. We may need the extra space and the tinted windows.”

I pulled a face. I wasn’t over losing my VW Bug a month ago. A thunderbird had fallen from the sky right on top of it. Mabel was its replacement. I’d given in to peer pressure and my own sense of responsibility and bought something more suitable for conveying monsters and mythical creatures. I had nothing against Mabel, exactly. But I missed my Bug. And for the record, I didn’t name her—that was all Maurice.

The drive from Bolinas to San Francisco took about an hour, so whoever the problem child was had a good chance of getting gone before we could be in the area. I watched the rolling patchwork of hills on our way to the city. Going out on an assignment was a new experience for me.

In the last year, I’d discovered my empath abilities, met and tended to a host of fantastical creatures, and taken down an incubus, the Leprechaun Mafia and a crazy sorceress bitch. I’d also discovered that, like my mother, I was an Aegis—a protector and caretaker to the Hidden. We had no clues as to why every other Aegis, including my mother, had been kidnapped by someone with a twisted sense of humor and sloppy handwriting.

The kidnapper had left a childish note stuck to a ragdoll where my mother had last been seen. It said “
She’s my mommy now.
Come and find us
,
Aegis.
Let’s play!
” Not much to go on. Other than that, we had nothing. Riley had been to Mom’s house, searching for clues, but since the Collector had been the one to take her from there, he found no leads to the person who had her now.

Since I was the only Aegis, the Board of Hidden Affairs wanted me to sit tight, take care of any Hidden who appeared on my front porch and above all, stay safe.

But now, Bernice had me going out on an assignment. This nagged at me and made my stomach queasy. Before all the Aegises had been kidnapped, most of the board members had been murdered. We’d thought one of the missing board members had been a mole and was responsible for the gruesome deaths of his or her fellow members. With each body, the suspects narrowed, until the last board member’s body appeared about three months ago. Only Bernice and Art remained—and Art was a new addition at my suggestion. Up until last year, he’d been middle management and Riley’s boss. He hadn’t known about the Board’s problems until recently. And Bernice—well, you can’t fool an empath. Her surprise and grief were genuine. Whoever had killed the board members had come from the outside.

Apparently, Riley and I were now one of Bernice’s freelance teams. I found it exciting to get a chance to do something a little different, something out in the field. But it meant Bernice was getting desperate. My queasiness outweighed my excitement. The entire Hidden world was unraveling, and there weren’t many of us left to reknit it.

“So,” I said, tilting myself toward Riley in the car. “What’s this ‘Covenant’ thing? Bernice made it sound like the apocalypse was coming if we don’t sort this out.”

He took his eyes off the road for a second to shoot me a serious look. “You know about the First Story and how the Hidden came to be, right?”

I shrugged. “Sort of. Maurice gave me the gist of it.” I’d figured it was mostly something monsters told their kids at bedtime. Monster fairy tales. “When humans started telling stories, it sent out a spark of creativity that grew and evolved until the first Hidden was born.”

He nodded. “Something like that, yes. Each new story fed the spark a new bit of material which created—and continues to create over time—new forms of Hidden.”

“That’s why we’ve got chupacabra, right? Because that’s a fairly new story.”

“Exactly. But humans don’t do anything but
start
the idea of a Hidden. The Hidden grow and evolve on their own after that.”

I tucked one leg under myself, getting comfortable. “Okay. But there are plenty of things we tell stories about that I haven’t seen.”

Riley signaled and changed lanes to get around a pickup truck packed with furniture that looked like it could fall off and hit us any minute. He grinned at me. “Like sexy vampires?”

“Sure. Or even ugly ones. If everything is possible, why haven’t I seen any vampires or werewolves?”

“No zombies, either,” he said. “Those three creatures—and a few others—have something in common.”

“They’re all snappy dressers and blend in?”

He shook his head. “They all have the ability to infect humans and turn a human into one of them.”

I stared out the window at the passing cars while I thought about that. “So, where are they?”

“They have their own worlds. Like the demons and the djinn. They keep to themselves. Anything that feeds off of or can infect a human must, by Covenant law, live in a separate world.”

“Djinn don’t do that, but they have their own world. Kam wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

“In their case, the djinn are the vulnerable ones. Humans feed off of them, in a way.”

I nodded. Kam had been held prisoner for a very long time in a cramped, wooden box until we’d freed her from doing her master’s bidding. “So, this Covenant keeps the Hidden and Humans safe from each other.”

“Yes. Thousands of years ago, when humans had more magic than we have now, the shamans and elders and wise men of the various tribes came together with the leaders of all the existing types of Hidden. The demon queen and the king of the djinn worked with them to create other worlds, and to this day, they still control the portals that keep us all safe from each other. The Hidden who remained agreed to stay out of sight, and the humans agreed to form a secret government to care for them. That’s why the Board exists.”

I folded my arms across my chest. “We made a pact that they would stay undercover, and in exchange, we would govern them? That kind of sucks.”

“The Board does a lot more than make rules and enforce them. When it’s functioning, a lot of wonderful programs keep the Hidden safe, sheltered, well fed, and happy.”

I snorted. “Sounds like the humans are breaking the Covenant before the Hidden get a chance, considering how the Board has been decimated. Without the Board, we’re struggling to keep up our end of the bargain.”

“I’ve been worried about that myself. It’s a mess, but so far, the Covenant is holding from our end. I think that’s mostly due to you.”

I shifted in my seat, uncomfortable with the idea that I was holding back some mysterious apocalypse. “So, what happens if the Covenant is broken—either because we’re not taking care of the Hidden or because Hidden are exposing themselves to humans?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe all the portals will open and hot vampires will spill into the world, stealing all our girlfriends.”

“Pfff.” I waved a dismissive hand. “I’m sleeping with Death already. Some pale guy in a fancy cape isn’t likely to impress me.”

Whatever the danger was, it sounded like the protections for both Hidden and human would fall away. And if we were already on the cusp of breaking the Covenant, with the Board being so ineffective, I had to get whoever it was off the streets of San Francisco in case he was the final nail popping out of the vampire coffin.

I might be able to scare away the Leprechaun Mafia or take down a crazy bitch with a magical staff, but I was so not equipped to stake vampires or lop off zombie heads with a jeweled sword.

Not to mention getting bitten by a werewolf. Hell, with my luck, I’d get attacked by something stupid and end up turning into a were-llama.

The afternoon sun had burned off most of the morning fog over the bay, and the water beneath the Golden Gate Bridge gave off sparks of gold in its foam. Once we were off the bridge and on the San Francisco side of the water, trees enveloped us, and the air temperature dropped.

Riley handed me my purse. “Could you call Bernice, please? Find out if anything’s changed, now that we’re closer.”

My phone rang before I could hit her number.

Bernice’s words were sharp and clipped. “Zoey, the creature moved.”

“Where are we going, now?” I tapped the speaker button and Riley nodded his thanks.

“My goblins say Pier 39.”

Riley frowned. “Still no idea what we’re dealing with?”

“Tall. Reports range from six to nine feet. Eyewitnesses are notoriously unreliable.”

I blinked. “Tall. That’s all you’ve got?”

“Several reports say the creature is green, but not all. Deformed face. Likely female, since some are saying it’s wearing a tutu.”

Riley shook his head. “Are you sure we’re not dealing with someone in a costume? It’s San Francisco, after all. I’m surprised anyone’s even noticed.”

The call dropped, and Riley and I looked at each other with wide eyes. I tried to call Bernice back, but her line was busy.

“So, that was helpful,” I said. “Be prepared for anything. And nothing.”

“That sounds about right.” He was quiet for a moment, his brow furrowed in thought. “Maybe it’s a circus clown escaped from an institution.”

“You know I hate clowns. Why would you say that?”

“I thought you were fearless.”

“Hardly. I’m brave, not fearless. Two totally different things.”

“Will you be okay if we have to transport a clown in the back of your car?” He couldn’t entirely hide the silly smirk on his face.

“I’ll survive it, I suppose. Might be scarred for life though. Probably never want to have sex again.”

“That’s cold.”

I shrugged. “You’re the one who brought up clowns.”

“
You’re
a clown,” he said.

We parked the car and made our way out onto the pier. The weekend crowd of shoppers and tourists bustled around us, and street performers vied for the crowd’s attention. Bowling balls flew into the air over the onlookers’ heads, and a juggler with solid muscles caught each one with a deft hand, sending it back into the sky.

A mime, tragically caught inside an invisible box, struggled to escape, despite the thin crowd watching him. A statue of an angel stood silent watch as people walked past, until she reached out and grabbed a small child, making the girl squeal and the adults laugh.

Of particular interest was a woman in a green, rubber horror mask that had pointy ears and deep crevasses around the long, curved nose. She wore bright orange contacts that made her eyes look twice human-sized. The tutu hadn’t been a lie. It was lime-green and matched her sneakers. It went well with the black-and-orange sparkly tank top. Most people might think the pink-and-yellow-striped tights were a mistake, but personally, I thought it was a perfect choice.

I’m fully aware I am not most people.

It was a brilliant piece of street theater—she didn’t seem to notice or care about all the attention she gathered walking through the mass of people. She carried a bag of cotton candy and nibbled while she gazed through shop windows and stopped to watch other performers. Children pointed. Adults gaped.

The closer we got, the less likely it seemed that we were looking at a mask.

I grabbed Riley’s hand and dragged him with me to get nearer.

No. Not a mask. Not contacts.

She turned and looked at us, her orange eyes wide. “Reaper!” she said.

Her face went snarly and feral, the cracks deepening into craters. Her six-foot height blew up into the reported eight feet.

And that’s when the screams from the crowd started.

Chapter Two

Sometimes, my warped sense of fashion comes in handy.

It bears repeating: When in doubt, wear a hat.

The creature, now a couple of feet taller than me, terrifying to look at and snapping at Riley, backed away toward the edge of the pier. I had a pretty good idea of what she really was. I’d seen Maurice pull a similar stunt once. If my guess was correct, the growth spurt and snarly face were illusions. She was frightened, which triggered her transmonstrification.