db1bd484fe8700408f51338793ca8c56

Blinking away afterimages, Claire dragged herself up the wall.It’s that damn sander, she decided, perfectly willing to condemn it to the flames.How’s anyone supposed to concentrate through all that noise?

Innate good manners forced Dean to turn the sander off when Mrs. Abrams charged into the room.

“Mercy.” She coughed vigorously into a handkerchief she pulled from her sleeve. “It is dusty, isn’t it? And this room looks so small and dreary with no furniture in…” Her voice trailed off as she noticed just where the furniture was. “Oh, my. How did you ever…?”

“Clamps,” Claire told her. The older woman looked so relieved she could almost hear the sound of possibilities being discarded. Meeting Dean’s incredulous gaze, she shrugged—the gesture saying clearly,people believe what they want to believe.

[Ęŕđňčíęŕ: img_5]

A LIE!

A LIE IN KINDNESS. THEY CANCEL EACH OTHER OUT. NEITHER SIDE IS STRENGTHENED. NEITHER SIDE IS WEAKENED.

BUT…

INTENT COUNTS. Had anyone been there to overhear, they might have thought that Hell spoke through clenched teeth. IT’S IN THE RULES.

[Ęŕđňčíęŕ: img_5]

Suddenly inspired, Claire took hold of one polyester-covered elbow and turned the body attached to it back toward the front door.“You shouldn’t be in here without a dust mask, Mrs. Abrams. What would Baby do if you got sick?”

“Oh, I mustn’t get sick, the poor darling would be devastated. He’s so attached to his mummy.” Craning her head around, she took one last look at the dining room ceiling. “Clamps, you say?”

“How else?”

“Of course, clamps. How else would you be holding furniture on the ceiling. How very clever of you, Karen, dear. Have you heard from that horrible Mr. Smythe?”

“No, and my name isn’t…”

“He’s going to be so surprised at all you’ve done when he comes back. Are you going to open up the elevator?”

“The what?”

“The elevator. There’s one in this hall somewhere. I remember it from when I was a girl.”

Claire opened the front door, but Mrs. Abrams made no move to go out it.

“You ought to open the elevator up, you know. It would lend the place such a historical…” Her eyes widened as the sound of frenzied barking echoed up and down the street. She darted out the door. “What can be wrong with Baby?”

“The mailman?” Claire asked, following from the same compulsion that stopped drivers to look at car accidents on the highway.

“No. No. He’s long been and gone.”

They were side by side as they crossed the driveway. Claire, on the inside track, looked toward the back in time to see a black-and-white blur leap from the fence to the enclosure around the garbage cans to the ground and streak toward the hotel.

When Claire stopped running, Mrs. Abrams never noticed.

The noise coming from Baby’s little area—after a few years of Baby, it could no longer be called a yard in any domestic sense of the word—never lessened.

[Ęŕđňčíęŕ: img_5]

If the flames reflected on the copper hood were sullen before, they were downright sulky now.

IT ISN’T FAIR.

WHAT ISN’T?

THAT THE KEEPER SHOULD ALWAYS WIN. IF WE HAD ONLY PULLED HARDER. WE WERE SO CLOSE.

CLOSE! The repetition resounded in the heated air like a small explosion. CLOSE ONLY COUNTS IN HORSESHOES AND HAND GRENADES.

AND DANCING.

WHAT?

CLOSE DANCING.

SHUT UP.

SIX

[Ęŕđňčíęŕ: img_4]

“IWOULD LIKE A ROOM.”

Kneeling behind the counter, attempting to send a probe down into the mouse hole and settle the imp question once and for all, Claire felt icy fingers run along her spine. Shivering slightly, she carefully backed out from under the shelf and stood, curious to see if it was the customer or the possibility of actually renting a room that had evoked the clich?d response.

The woman on the other side of the counter was a little shorter than her own five feet five, with a close cap of sable hair, pale skin, and eyes so black it was impossible to tell where the iris ended and the pupil began.

Claire felt the pull of that dark gaze, found herself sinking into the dangerous embrace of shadow, jerked back, and said,“Room four?”

“How perceptive.” The woman smiled, teeth gleaming between lips the deep burgundy of a good Spanish port. “Where is the Cousin?”

“Gone. This is my site now.” It was almost, but not quite, a warning.

“I see. And should I worry that things have changed enough to need the monitoring of a Keeper?”

“You are in no more danger here than you ever were.”

“How fortunate.” The woman sagged forward, planted her elbows on the counter, and rubbed her eyes. “’Cause I’m bagged. You have no idea how much I hate traveling. I just want to dump my gear in the room and find something to eat.”

Claire blinked.

“Oh, come on.” Smudged mascara created raccoonlike circles on the pale skin. “Surely you hadn’t planned on continuing that ponderous dialogue?”

“Uh, I guess not.”

“Good. ’Cause I’ll be staying the rest of the week, checking out Sunday evening if that’s cool with you. I’ve got a gig at the university.”

“Gig?”