Fire Me Up (33 page)

My jaw sagged. He wasn't talking about what I thought he was
talking about, was he? I decided that Tiffany's unfurled petals were none of my
business. The amulet was. I pulled it over my head and held it up. "I'm sorry I
had to run out on you yesterday without giving you the amulet, but as Tiffany
told you, it was a bit of an emergency. I wondered if I could ask you a few
questions about it—"

"Keep it," he said, trying to tug his shirt from my hands.

I clung even tighter, knowing full well that if I let go,
he'd be off and running to the petting zoo. "What?"

"Keep it. I have no need for it now. Why don't we check on
Tiffany? She might wish to see around the rest of the park. I could show her my
cavern. She would like it. She would appreciate all the sights of nature."

"I'm sure she would, but about the am—"

He wrestled his shirt from my grip, backing away from me
quickly. "It is yours! I absolve you of your charge to deliver it. Let us find
Tiffany." He hared off without even waiting for me to finish my sentence.

"Well, hell," I said, slipping the horrible thing over my
head again. "Now what am I supposed to do?"

Go back to the hotel, apparently. Gydrgy was unhappy when
Tiffany opted to return with us rather than staying ai the park and allowing him
to show her around.

"But I have many things to show you! Many flowers and sweet
animals and birds in the trees!" he protested, almost on his knees begging.

I tried to give them a little privacy, but Tiffany was
absolutely indifferent to Gyorgy's obvious infatuation with her.

"The flowers and birds and sweet animals will be here another
day," she told him firmly. "I must go with Aisling. She is paying me. I will
share my smile with many people. Perhaps later, if you promise not to say the
things to me that you said last night, I will share it with you, too."

With that put-down, she left, scattering sunshine hither and
yon as she headed for the main gate.

Gyorgy groaned such a pathetic, love-struck groan that I felt
sorry for him. "She is a goddess. No, beyond a goddess, a... a... what is beyond
a goddess?"

"A virgin?" I suggested.

"Yes! She is a virgin, the purest of the pure. There is no
other one like her. She must be mine!"

I gave him half a smile, not at all comfortable with the
possessive light in his eyes. "You may have a bit of a fight there. Tiffany is
awfully set on her course of celibacy. You might say it's her business. Look, I
know you've got other things on your mind right now, what with trying to woo
Tiffany, but I can't keep your amulet. It's way too expensive, and besides ...
it's just weird."

"Weird?" he asked, moving to the edge of the waist-high brick
wall that marked the boundary of the petting zoo. Beyond, through the big black
wrought-iron gates, Tiffany was strolling through the parking lot toward Rene's
car. His shoulders sagged. "How is it weird? It is a Venus amulet, created by
Marsilio Ficino, inscribed with both the third and the fifth pentacles of
Venus."

"Ficino? The Ficino who served the Medicis? The man who wrote
the De triplici vital"

"The Three Books on Life, yes, that Ficino. The amulet was
one created by his hands, but I have no need for it now. Not now that I have
found her."

He looked with longing out the gate to the parking lot. I
paid him little mind, too busy eyeing the amulet, turning it in the bright
sunlight until I found, so faintly etched they were almost invisible, two
circles topped with a tiny pentagram, scribed with spells along the perimeter
and invocations inside. The pentacles of Venus, as described and drawn in an
ancient grimoire known as the Key of Solomon the King. I'd seen them before in
one of my translations of the Key of Solomon, but never had I held an object
bearing the marks. One pentacle would be enough for a strong love charm, but for
an amulet to be scribed with both ... hooo! No wonder it rendered me nigh onto
irresistible to mortal men.

I frowned at a rogue thought, looking at Gyorgy. Why hadn't
he been overcome with passion for me? I'd been wearing the amulet both times,
and yet he hadn't blinked twice at me. I slipped it on over my head, holding it
in my hand.

"Well, Gyorgy, I'd better be going." I leaned close to him,
invading his personal space. He nodded, his eyes still on Tiffany as she got
into Rene's car. "It's been a pleasure meeting you. If you don't mind me
borrowing the amulet for another day or so, I'd like to keep it. I'll return it
to you later, of course."

He flashed me a look that was mostly distraction. "Yes, yes,
that's fine. You keep it. I have no use for it now that I have found the one who
shall save me."

I pursed my lips, blowing a little breath on his cheek. He
shifted his weight. Away from me.

"I can't do that, but I will gladly borrow it. Say, I have a
thought! Why don't you come with us back to the hotel? There are some lovely
gardens there, as you probably know. Maybe we could take a little stroll through
them? Just you and I? And you could tell me about the sweet birds and plants and
stuff?"

"No, no, it is forbidden."

"Huh?"

He turned and gave me another friendly smile. "It is
forbidden to the order of hermits to which I belong that we should dally in
regions not assigned to us. This park is within my domain. Trie gardens on
Margaret Island are not."

"But you were there last night," I pointed out.

"I did not visit the gardens. I stayed only in the hotel. My
clan is strict, but we are allowed to make contact with an outsider once a day."

"Ah."

I took a deep breath, and while his attention was on the
front gate, closed my eyes, opening myself up to the environment and all the
possibilities that existed therein. Glorious color flooded my mind, the trees
beyond the edge of the clearing clad in a million variations of green and brown,
swaying in an intricate dance that I suddenly realized was a form of language.
The trees bowed and scraped, almost as if they were talking to each other!
Fascinating as that was, it wasn't what I had wanted to examine, so with real
regret that I couldn't watch the trees, I pulled my mental vision back until
Gytirgy filled my mind. He looked ... human.

"Damn."

"You said something?" he asked without turning to look at me.

"Nothing important." I examined him from the tips of his
scuffed, worn boots to the top of his head. There was nothing about him that
looked different from any other mortal man Fd used my super-Guardian vision on.
So why was he immune to the charms of the amulet?

"Yes, I totally agree. You are quite right. Who is that in
the car with Tiffany?"

"Rene. He's a friend of mine. He's also a taxi driver, and in
case you were worried, he's not looking for a little action. She's perfectly
safe with him."

He turned to look at me then. I blinked as my vision returned
to normal. "I was not worried. It is clear he poses no threat."

"Ah. Good."

There didn't seem to be much else to say, so I told him again
I'd be back to give him the amulet in a day or two, then headed off to the car,
my mind a whirlwind of thoughts, none of which seemed to make any sense.

"What do you know about Venus amulets?" I asked Jim later,
after we had checked on Nora. She was up, dressed, and breakfasting with Pal,
who, I couldn't help but notice, was being very pleasant. Nora looked like she'd
been to war; Gabriel's magic spit had worked wonders, but not enough to hide the
fact that she'd been beaten. Her lip and eye weren't swollen any longer, and the
cuts had healed to angry red stripes, but there was a bit of telltale bruising.

We left her after she swore she just wanted to rest. Pal
vowed he would stay there to protect her, which I thought was a bit unnecessary
since it was daylight and incubi sought lovers only in the dark of night, but
Nora seemed pleased to have his company. She also looked as if she was
recovering her usual cheerful spirits, which, in turn, made me feel better.

"They're amulets. Supposedly created in Venus's name.
Supposed to make the wearer irresistible to men. Is that what you've got there?"

"Yup. Gyorgy says it contains both the third and the fifth
pentacles of Venus."

Jim whistled. "No wonder guys have been falling all over
you."

"Is it enough to summon incubi without my knowing?" I asked
as we stepped off the elevator, heading for the side of the hotel where the dog
park was located.

"Well, yeah! Unless you deliberately summoned those ones
who showed up in your bed before you and Drake shacked up together."

"No, not that. Could it be powerful enough to bring forth
incubi, but not to my bed? You know, kind of"— I made a vague gesture as we went
out into the sunny morning—"free-range incubi."

Jim just stared at me.

"What?" I asked it.

"Free-range incubi?"

"Oh, don't be so pedantic. You know what I mean."

"Yeah, I do, but it's only because I'm a superior sort of
demon."

"Uh-huh. Answer my question, superior demon."

"I can't." Jim stopped to smell a beautiful bronze rose, its
back leg lifting automatically.

"Use it and lose it," I warned. Jim huffed and marched over
to a small shrub. "And I gave you a direct order, buster. You have to answer
it."

"I can't. And by that I mean I cannot answer the question,
not because I don't want to but because I don't know the answer. I don't know
the extent of your powers, Aisling. For all I know you could be some sort of
walking turbocharged Guardian who can pull beings in without a conscious
thought. I'm only your servant. I have no way of knowing what you can and can't
do until I see you do it."

"Oh," I said, kicking a tuft of grass as T strolled down the
groomed lawn toward the trees where I'd been ambushed my first night in
Budapest. "Poop."

"Thank you. I don't mind if I do."

I shook its leash at it. "No, you won't. I don't have a bag,
and besides, you had a potty stop earlier. Come on. If you're done watering
everything, I have places to go, ghosts to see."

"
The nun ghosts? I thought you'd written them off." Jim
shambled along behind me as I cut through the cool shade created by a crescent
of trees, emerging on the other side to blink in the sunlight.

"I made a promise, and dammit, I always keep my promises.
Most of the time. When I can. Which way is the convent?"

"North."

We walked through the gardens I'd seen only by moonlight, now
filled with bike riders, picnickers and sunbathers, and children running after
dogs, balls, Fris-bees, kites, and balloons. Jim stopped to beg for an ice cream
cone, but I refused, mindful of the diet the vet had given me. T made a mental
note to come back when I could admire the water lilies in the Japanese garden,
the gorgeous roses in the rose garden, and the shady bowers of the English
garden. By the time we reached the northeast side of the island where the Saint
Margaret's Dominican nunnery lay in picturesque ruins, I was so relaxed and
filled with the beauty of the island that I had almost forgotten what we were
doing there.

Almost.

"Jim. Go stare at that couple."

Jim looked over to where a young man and woman were evidently
checking each other's tonsils with a thoroughness that would do an ear, nose,
and throat specialist proud. "Sure. Can I drool, too?"

"You always drool. Just go make them uncomfortable so they'll
leave us alone here."

I looked around the stone ruins, finally finding a partially
standing stone-and-mortar arch at the rear that looked like a good spot to
commune with ghosts. The lovebirds toddled off after Jim sat unmoving, staring
at them while long ropes of saliva dribbled from its flews.

I sat on a shady patch of grass, cleared my mind, and opened
the door in it to everything that might be.

The nuns were there waiting for me.

"Hi," I said, trying to look confident and in control, as if
I talked with spirits all the time. "I'm glad to see you're so prompt. I don't
have a lot of lime, so if you could be as brief as possible about what it is you
want me to do for you, I'd really appreciate it."

Jim flopped down next to me in the shade, panting just a
little. "Oh, way to go, Ash. Rush the poor dead nuns."

"Sorry, um, ladies. Go ahead and tell me what you want."

The first nun, the one closest to me, shimmered and looked
agitated. I think. It was hard to tell under all that medieval cowling. Her
mouth opened, but she didn't speak, not exactly. A dim, breathy rushing sort of
noise came out of her mouth, almost like a wind heard at the end of a tunnel.
Riding the top of the noise, so faint it was almost impossible to hear, words
formed.

"
Thread of crime," the first nun said.