“You okay, doll? You took an awful long time in there.”
“I’m fine. Idris may not father children, though.”
“Sweetheart, you’ve done the world a favor.” Idris then came limping out of the room after me. I pushed the cart ahead of me and ran, letting Sam deal with him. I hadn’t realized how fierce gargoyles could be. He gave a hissing roar and spread his wings to their fullest. Idris flinched, but he didn’t run.
The door of the next room opened, and the jerks I’d seen earlier staggered out, clutching their heads, coughing, and choking, only to find themselves facing a very pissed-off Sam. They all screamed at the top of their lungs and took off running across the parking lot. There went three more from their side, I noted.
The commotion drew Nita out of the office, hefting a baseball bat. “What’s going on?” she asked.
“No wonder your housekeeping staff quit,” I said, then pointed at Idris. “This—this—this person just made a pass at me, and not a welcome one either.”
“She assaulted me!” he said, still not standing completely upright.
“In self-defense. I’m not sure what he’d have done to me. He had me by the wrist and wouldn’t let me go.” I held out my arm to Nita.
As soon as she saw the red mark circling my wrist, she raised her bat at Idris, who flinched even more than he had at Sam in attack mode. “I want you out of here, now! No one treats my workers—or my friends—that way. I don’t care how big a rock star you are!” From my spot next to Nita, I stuck my tongue out at Idris, who looked confused at the rock star reference. Sam was practically rolling on the ground in mirth, safely invisible from Nita, I assumed. I had to admit, it was a pretty good show.
This was a big test for Idris. He probably could have gone after Nita—if Sam let him—but using magic on the nonmagical in a way they might notice was strictly forbidden. If he tried to zap her with magic, then he really would have broken with the legitimate magical world. Apparently, though, he hadn’t yet gone so far as to be willing to do that. “Let me get my stuff,” he said, but she waved her bat again. “Okay, I’ll, uh, come back later when things are calmer.” Then he ran for the rental car that I now noticed was parked at the other end of the motel.
“Sorry about that,” Nita said. “These guys have been jerks since they got here. I’ll tell Dad and Ramesh about it so they can take care of them tonight.”