Page 62 of Demon's Bluff

Elyse smiled. “There’s an ATM in the lobby.”

Chapter

15

“Ah, it’s a costume shop.”

I gave Elyse a sidelong look. The young woman was clearly unimpressed as she stood at the curb and stared at the store across the street. Everyone else saw her as a perky blond co-ed, but I got the ugly reality of gray sweats and sleep-flattened hair. My regret that I’d let her come had gone from thinking it was a mistake to knowing it was. Other Earthlings wasn’t a costume outlet. It was a high-end image consultant firm…and in her glamoured image of shorts and tank, Elyse looked as if she was skipping out on her high school gym class. I wasn’t much better in my sequined shirt and bedazzled jeans and jacket.

“It will have exactly what we need,” I said as I waited for the light to change and we could cross. The old storefront was a quiet place in July, but come early October, people would be lined up down the sidewalk to get in, like a must-see movie or concert.

Elyse twisted her lips in doubt. “The University Spell Shoppe is a quick cab ride away. It will be hard to outfit with standard spells, but I’ve worked with less.”

I tugged my bag higher up my shoulder. That it had lost two years of wear and tear was an unexpected pleasure. “And Patricia’s is two blocks up,” I said. The light changed, and I stepped off the curb. Glamoured or not, Elyse was still a person of interest, and I was nervous.

She jumped to keep up. “Why don’t we use your glamour stone?”

“You mean the one I left in the library so Newt wouldn’t take it?”

Elyse gestured as if in disbelief. “We need hard-core spells, not straight hair and four inches of height.”

“Agreed.” Boots thumping, I strode down the sidewalk and tried to hide my worry. Sylvia had recognized me the last time I’d come in, but that hadn’t happened yet and it had been because of my hair, currently spelled blond. I should be okay. “It’s not a disguise shop. It’s an outfitter. Trust me on this,” I said as we reached the door and I pulled it open. It was the off-season, and there wasn’t a doorman/security. “They will have what we need,” I added as the delicious scent of expensive coffee hit me.

“I still say a few gray spells would serve us better,” she muttered, her expression easing. “Oh, that smells good.”

But seeing as what we’d had this morning had come out of a vending machine, everything smelled good. “You can’t out-spell a demon,” I said softly, hesitating just inside to scan the quiet front. “We aren’t arming for war.” Well, we were, but it was a war of wits, not skills. Besides, I might run into myself at my usual haunts, and I knew I wouldn’t be here.

Elyse wrapped her arms around her middle, her jaw dropping when she saw herself in the mirror. “Wow.” Hand falling from her hair, she took in the high-end shop. “I don’t know what you expect to find here. How elaborate a disguise do you think we need?”

“I told you, we aren’t here for a disguise. We are here to be outfitted,” I muttered.

“Well, if it’s clothes you want, the mall is…”

I quit listening, smiling in appreciation as I soaked in the odd mix of upscale clothier and tattoo parlor. There were large fitting rooms in the back with couches and chairs where you could have a catered lunch as you built a costume, but up front it was all business with brightly lit mirrors and multiple computer consoles and tablets. They even had an image scanner where you could upload a three-dimensional image of yourself and then try on clothes and prosthetics to see what you’d look like without everleaving your chair. There were a few racks of clothes here, mostly to get an idea of how much you were willing to spend, as in taffeta, or cotton, but most of it was in storage.

Some of the charms sold here were tightly regulated, but much of what was available could be found anywhere. The magic was in applying them together. It was a skill that used to be hidden in the makeup trailers in the back lots of Hollywood, and in truth, that was where the money still was…unless you went all out, becoming world-renowned as Sylvia had done.

“I didn’t know Cincinnati had anything like this,” Elyse said. “It’s like Sammy’s in LA.”

“I think that’s Sylvia’s sister, actually.” I turned at the sound of a small scuff to see Sylvia, clearly having been eating her lunch as she dabbed at her mouth and tossed a napkin away. Come October, the owner/operator would be busy with her more affluent customers, but in July, she was more hands-on.Which bodes well as long as she doesn’t recognize me.

“Good afternoon,” the smooth-faced woman in her sixties said pleasantly. “I’m Sylvia. Can I help you ladies?”

I smiled to hide my nervousness as Sylvia studied us, taking in our body shapes, our hair, noses, shoe sizes—and if we were spelled to look this way. If we were tracked here, the I.S. would get a very good description.

Elyse shuffled her feet. “I have no idea why we are here.”

Impatient little brat,I thought. “Ah, hi. I’m interested in working up two ley line professors. Formal spelling robes, mostly. You stock them, yes?”

“Sure.” Sylvia dusted her hands and reached for a tablet. “Have a seat.”

My breath slipped from me in relief. She didn’t recognize me. “Thank you.” I followed the classy woman to a seating arrangement.

“Getting a jump on Halloween?” Sylvia folded herself onto the white couch and focused on the tablet. The large screen on the wall brightened with her logo, quickly shifting to mirror what was on her smaller screen as she searched their clothing options. “Good idea. We are already booked for two weeks before. Are you thinking silk or synthetic?”

“Silk,” I said, and Elyse perked up, turning from where she’d been idly fingering a rack of fabric samples.

“We have a nice selection right now.” Sylvia glanced up from the tablet. “Could you both step onto the imager? We don’t keep our entire stock on hand, but I can have just about anything sourced between now and October.”

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