Ever After (Rachel Morgan)

it!”
    “I’ve already been in your purse,” Jenks said from the dash. “You don’t have any.”
    “Just slide over,” I said, concerned someone was going to notice me. “Now, Barbie, or I’ll turn you into a frog.”
    Jenks’s wings clattered, his dust a happy silver. “She’ll do it!” he warned. “I used to be six feet tall.”
    Ivy rolled her eyes, but the woman awkwardly moved over the console. “You really need to stop making up stupid names for people you come in contact with,” the vampire muttered, shifting with her. “It’s not respectful.”
    Mood improved, I flipped the seat to put the bag of coffee on the floor. “That’s her real name,” I said as I got in, and Ivy winced.
    “Sorry.”
    “Please don’t hurt me!” Barbie said, really scared now, and I felt bad as I took the keys Ivy handed over the seat and started up the car with a satisfying rumble.
    “Hurting you isn’t in the plan,” I said as I carefully backed up and put it in drive. “So please don’t do anything to change it. All we want is your car for a few hours, and then we will drop you off in downtown Cincinnati with a story that will get you a ghostwritten novel and a movie of the week. Okay?”
    Barbie licked her lips. “You’re Rachel Morgan, aren’t you,” she said, eyes wide.
    I met Ivy’s eyes in the rearview mirror, not sure if I should be flattered or not. Ivy shrugged, and when Jenks snickered, I turned to the woman, smiling my warmest.
    “Yep, and you’re going to help us save the world. What’s your parking spot, Barbie?”

Chapter Twenty-One
    B ut I want to help save the world!” Barbie said plaintively as I helped her into the backseat of the cab, my hand on her head so she didn’t hit anything. Her hands were bound with those fuzzy cuffs, and it made her balance chancy. “I can help. Oh God, don’t leave me here. It smells like bad tacos!”
    My nose wrinkled, and I took her ID tag from around her neck and stuffed it in a back pocket. “Larry gets one of the no-frill blacks, Susan the pumpkin, and Frank the chai, right?”
    Jenks hovered over the roof of the cab, impatient. “You’re gonna be late for your first day,” he warned.
    “Yes, but I can help!” she insisted, and I leaned back in to wiggle her shoes off. I hadn’t worn the right heels, and the doppelgänger charm would only glamour me to look like her. It would be more convincing if we were the same height.
    “Trust me,” I said as I shifted out of the backseat. “You’re helping. Really.”
    I stood and looked over the empty park, hoping no one was watching from the town houses across the way. Ivy was bent over talking to the cabdriver, giving him a wad of cash and a peek at her cleavage as she told him to take the woman to the hospital—the mental hospital. By law, they had to give everyone who was dropped off an exam, and with the story Barbie had, they’d give her the long version. It was the best I could come up with on such short notice, not very nice, but better than stuffing her in the trunk of her car or leaving her tied up somewhere.
    “Good?” I asked the driver, and he met my eyes through the rearview mirror, nodding.
    “Wait!” Barbie cried, as I shut the door and she pounded on it with her fuzzy-cuffed wrists. “How will I know?” she shouted, muffled but understandable through the glass. I motioned for the driver to roll the window down, and she leaned toward me, breathless. “How will I know if you save the world?”
    The really, really long version. “If we’re all still here Saturday, then it worked,” I said, then patted the top of the cab to let him know we were done.
    “I want to help!” the woman cried as they drove off, and Ivy crossed the pavement to stand beside me. Jenks flitted close with a strand of Barbie’s hair, and using it, I primed the doppelgänger charm. The ley line up here was barely usable on the best of days, running right through the man-made ponds and under the Twin Lakes Bridge, but now, with the lines unbalanced and screaming in discord, it was awful.
    I shuddered as I invoked the charm and dropped it into a pocket. Jenks made a long whistle, and Ivy nodded. I looked at my hands, seeing nothing different, but obviously they could. Even my voice would sound like hers. Illegal. Everything we were doing was illegal, and not for the first time, I wondered how I’d gotten to this place, doing illegal things to help Trent. Help him save the world.
    Maybe I