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about right?"
Coyote nodded and we were all quiet a few seconds, contemplating that, until my stomach rumbled loudly
enough to make Gary sit up straight. I clapped a hand over it, and must have looked unusually pathetic, because
Coyote shook his head without me saying anything. "We shouldn't eat. I'd put this off until we'd been up a full
twenty-four hours if I thought we had time, but I'm afraid that'll just give it a window to regain strength."
"You mean, to eat people." I didn't want to sugarcoat any of this, particularly if I was using it as an explanation
for my belly as to why my throat had, from my stomach's perspective, apparently been cut. Also I hoped the
idea of eating people might make me less hungry, but my stomach growled again. Guess not. Let's hear it for
long pig.
Which was exactly what the wendigo was thinking. I picked up a pillow and hit myself in the head with it a few
times, much to the bemusement of the men. I said, "Nevermind, forget it," into the pillow, then dropped it and
scrubbed my hands through my hair. "Okay, if we have to do this thing, why don't we get it done so we can hit
the hotel restaurant before it closes? I'm going to become very unreasonable if I don't get to eat until tomorrow."
Coyote, sotto voce but not very, said, "As opposed to how she usually is?" to Gary, who snorted laughter.
I hit them both with the pillow. "I don't know if you have any bright ideas, Ro, but I do." His eyebrows shot up
skeptically, which I didn't think was very nice. Justified, maybe, but not very nice. "Soul retrieval happens in
the Lower World, right? And it's dangerous for everybody. So we're going to want as much protection as we can
get on every level."
He said, "Okay," in a dubious tone which suggested I was making sense but that he didn't quite believe I could
be.
I got no respect. Fine. I was just going to have to be right. That would show him. "So we're going to want a
power circle, and I think it needs to be drawn outside in the snow."
Coyote drew breath like he was going to argue, then let it out in a slow dismayed sound. "I think you're right."
"I think she better have some kinda good frostbite cure ready. Are you two nuts? It's ten degrees and fallin' out
there, not to mention there's a man-eatin' monster roamin' around."
"I can handle the frostbite," I said with a blithe confidence I hadn't had a few hours ago. "And luring the man-
eating monster out is kind of the point. Know anything about trapping demons in a power circle, Coyote? I
figure if we limit its range of motion we're going to be in better shape than if it's able to run free. What happens
if someone doesn't want his soul retrieved?"
"Ever tried picking two cats up out of a fight?"
"Er, no."
"Me either, but that's about what it sounds and looks like. Only the cats are as big as you are, in this case."
Whatever confidence I'd had turned tail and ran. "I definitely think a power circle is in order."
"You going to build it?"
I stood up, trying to look and sound like I knew what I was doing. "As a matter of fact, I am."
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
We tromped down to the hotel lobby armed for battle, which was to say bundled up like snowmen and Gary
carting my drum in a pack over his shoulder. The lobby was deserted except for one floppy-haired desk
attendant who raised his eyes despondently when we came in. "Checking out?"
I said, "Not even metaphorically," cheerfully, hoping to counter his Eeyore impression, but he looked at me
with the emo gaze of a youth for whom all hope is gone. No sense of humor at all. I muttered, "Right, then,"
under my breath, and tried again. "We're just going out for a moonlight hike. We'll be back in a few hours.
Why, have a lot of people left?"
"Everybody but the federal agents and you." The lobby wasn't deserted after all. Laurie Corvallis had been
hidden in one of the chairs, its back to the front desk, but giving her a line of sight to the front door. She scooted
the chair so she could see me, and so I could see her camera guy in the next chair beyond her. "Interesting
decision," she said. "Going hiking out in the mountains in the middle of the night with a killer around."
"I'm an interesting person." I turned to the emo desk attendant. "I'll give you a hundred-dollar tip if you can
keep her from following us."
Gary muttered, "Since when do you have a hundred bucks to be throwing around?" and I elbowed him. He
grunted, but the kid missed it, his dull gaze lighting up as he looked at Corvallis.
She gave him one of her devastating barracuda smiles, and he shrank back behind the desk. "Sorry, ma'am, I
can't stop the guests from coming and going."
"I can." Sara Buchanan I had to stop thinking of her that way came down the stairs in a thump of boots. "No
one's going out there without my authorization. Joanne, one of my men didn't come back from the crime scene
this afternoon."
"Shit."
"Shit? What does shit mean?"
I bit back a scatological explanation, pretty sure she wouldn't be amused. "It means he's probably dead. I'm
sorry."
I had to hand it to her: she didn't even blink. "Probably?"
"Only one person's survived one of these attacks, and she& " Sudden hope seized my heart. The Sight flashed
on, sending the whole room into surreal bright colors. Corvallis was about to fall out of her chair, she was so
eager to hear what I had to say. Her aura stretched toward me like the borealis reaching for earth, like it would
find the culmination of its being in touching me. Sara was tightly wound caution, afraid even to hope. Coyote
blared with an unexpected combination of professionalism and awe, like he had a job to do but was a little
overwhelmed. It was disconcerting to realize the awe was inspired by me. I was a mess, not somebody who
should be able to impress a shaman with a whole lifetime's study behind him. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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