Meg wore her hair down now all the time. She’d given up on makeup and looked younger for it. She moved with an ease and grace that came with being comfortable in one’s skin. The awkward, shy girl was gone. In her place was a wife who had one job to do, get back to her husbands.
“That’s it,” Dante said as he pulled into the small parking lot.
They were on the outer edges of downtown and parking was more plentiful. Meg stared at the warehouse. It was dilapidated and hadn’t seen better days in years. The door hung haphazardly from its frame. Meg noted the staircase was missing some steps.
Dante opened his door and slid out. “The last two owners sold it at a loss. It’s had fifteen owners since it was built twenty years ago. It was a warehouse for one of the big department stores. They had so many accidents the chain closed it down. I came out here yesterday morning and installed a couple of cameras. I thought I would cover some of the big spaces and see if anything came up.”
There was something about the space that pulled at her. “I think you may be on to something,” she said with the first real enthusiasm she’d felt in weeks. “Let’s get those cameras.”
Four hours and a half-eaten burger later, Meg thought her eyes were going to burst out of her head if she had to watch one more minute of nothing.
It was like watching paint peel. She wasn’t going through frame by frame, but she couldn’t speed it up much, either, for fear of missing something. Dante had covered as much of the space as he could with four cameras. So far, there had been nothing but the eerie green glow of the night vision.
“Anything?” Dante walked into the office from the store. He walked past the long table cluttered with laptops and desktops, their inner workings open to the air.
“The place has rats. Other than that, nothing except a few pigeons that flew by the camera. This is the second camera I’ve sat through.”
“Whoa, what the fuck was that?” There was real alarm in Dante’s eyes. He had gone a little pale.
“What?” Meg queried as she moved the mouse to back up the feed. Her heart seized with joy at the sight of a long, thin man walking past the camera. He was in a hooded cape, but there was the briefest glimpse of his eyes. Meg wanted to jump and shout her happiness to the world. She settled for announcing triumphantly, “That’s a Planeswalker demon.”
Dante slumped into the seat behind her. “You aren’t crazy.”
Meg slid him a bemused glance. “I thought we’d settled that a few weeks back.”
“Nope,” he said, shaking his head. “I was still certain you were loony.”
“Then why have you been helping me?”
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, sweetheart, but you have fabulous tits,” Dante said with a sigh. “I figured once you gave up on the whole idea of being queen of the faery world, you might consider sleeping with me. Now I see that demons are real. I’m going to church tomorrow.”
Meg didn’t think she wanted to get into how to save his soul. She chose to concentrate on the question at hand. “What was the time? Did you see which way he came from?”
Dante backed up the tape and checked the time log. “It was three minutes after midnight last night.”
“That makes sense. It’s an in-between time. I read about it. The veil between worlds is thinnest then. That’s when the door opens.” She looked at the clock. It wasn’t even ten yet. There was still time. “We can make it.”
Dante took a moment and shoved his hair back, running his long fingers over his scalp. “You’re really leaving.”
She turned to him. She had noticed that he didn’t have a lot of friends. He seemed content to spend his free time working on computers or helping her. “I have to go back, Dante. On my plane, I’m married to your cousins. I love them very much, and they need me. I hope you understand.”
He smiled slightly. “And I’m a vampire? What am I like there, Meggie? Am I lonely?”
Meg laughed at the thought. “As if. Dante Dellacourt doesn’t lack for anything except tact.”
“Tact is overrated,” Dante pointed out.
“Spoken like your vampire self.” Meg let her hand drift over his. “Dante Dellacourt doesn’t let anything stop him. He once told me that if he was going to do something, he would do it big. There was no point in anything less. Of course, he was discussing lying through his fangs at the time.”
“I sound like a character there.”
“You could come with me, you know,” Meg offered. He reminded her a little of herself before fate had changed her life completely.
Dante shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. One of me is probably more than any plane should have to handle. I think I’ll have to try to make a go of it here. Besides, I have my shop, you know.”
He was scared, and Meg didn’t blame him. She might have spent a little more time trying to convince him, but she only had two hours before that door opened. “If you change your mind, you know where the gate is.”
As she turned toward the stairs that led to the apartment, she saw Dante sitting very still, obviously deep in thought.
Meg hefted the duffel bag in one hand. It was heavy, but nothing she couldn’t handle. Her heart was racing as Dante slammed his door shut and turned on his halogen flashlight. Her boots crunched the gravel beneath her feet as they quietly made their way to the door of the warehouse. The air was cool around her, and she pulled her sweater closer.
Dante went first, pushing the heavy door aside and holding it open for her. He held his free hand out. “Let me carry that for you, Meg. Come on, it’s my last chance to be a gentleman.”
Holding the bag out, she allowed Dante to take it. She took the flashlight. He slung the bag over his shoulder and followed her into the darkened recesses of the warehouse. It was very different from when they visited earlier in the afternoon. There was a gloom over the whole place that seemed very foreboding. Meg took a deep breath and had to force herself to continue moving forward.
“Wow, I really don’t like this place,” Dante said.
She looked back at him. His face was pinched and tight with fear. She sympathized. If she didn’t have to be here, she would probably be running right now. “Dante, I’ll be fine. You don’t have to come in with me. I can make it on my own.”
His eyes narrowed, and even in the shadows, she could see she’d pissed him off. “Just lead the way, sister. I might not be a vampire, but I can handle it.”
“Of course you can, Mr. Dellacourt,” a silky voice said from the outer reaches of the light. Meg nearly jumped out of her skin as the light revealed that they were not alone. A Planeswalker was standing on the steps leading to the second floor. He turned his head from the light. “If you please, Your Highness, that light is intrusive.”
Meg directed the light out away from his face. Her hands were shaking as she faced the demon. Was this the same demon who had taken her here? She thought she recognized the voice. “Are you here to stop me?”
The demon’s laugh filled the space. “No, Your Highness. I am here to use the door. I walk these planes on a daily basis. I gain strength from crossing through the veil. I also take contracts and receive payment to access the doors from those less intelligent than yourself and the great Mr. Dellacourt.”
Dante snorted. “Yeah, I’m great. I almost peed myself when you started talking. Is he going to kill us?”
“As I haven’t been paid to do so, I will forego any murders this evening,” the demon promised. “I was looking forward to a very dull passage. Now I have a bit of excitement. It was very clever of you to find the door, Your Highness. The hag is going to be somewhat upset to discover you’ve found your way back to your kingdom. I believe her employer will be upset as well.”