He looks at me.
“That’s cold, man. And for your fucking information, I’m going into the closet. You think I haven’t been waiting for you to flip out this whole six months, you crazy drunk motherfucker? I’ve been scratching spells in the walls. And I’ve been online loading up on protection charms whenever I ordered videos. I’m Fort Knox, man. I’m the goddamn Death Star.”
He looks at me. I nod.
“Actually, that’s a pretty smart idea. Go and lock yourself in. You have a phone in there?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. Stay in there until I give you the all clear.”
“What if you don’t come back?”
“I’ll get Allegra or Vidocq to come and get you if anything happens to me.”
“Do they even know about me?”
“Sort of. No.”
“Great.”
“Don’t worry about it. Nothing is going to happen to me. I’m not human, remember?”
“Part of you is.”
“Not enough to matter. And all it means is I have a migraine. You don’t look any more appetizing to me now than when I first met you.”
“You’ve always been my dream date, too, Penelope. Just stay over there on the bed, dead man.”
“Do you remember where I hid the belt buckle?”
Kasabian rolls his eyes.
“You really are in good shape. It’s under the mattress at the foot of the bed.”
I move the mattress and pull it out. Toss it onto my coat. I don’t know what to do with it, but I want it nearby.
“Did you ever figure out what the writing on this thing was?”
“A little. Lucifer can read it and I used the bits and pieces I grabbed out of his head to find more stuff like it.”
“What does it say?”
“It’s a warning and a blocking curse. It’s keeping something from getting in somewhere. But I don’t know who or where.”
“Drifters?”
“Or Jehovah’s Witnesses. Or census takers. Or the Fuller Brush man.”
“When you figure it out let me know.”
“Sure.”
I go to the nightstand and find some aspirin in the top drawer. I pour out four and sit there for a minute.
“Your JD is under the bed, in case you forgot.”
I shake my head.