Free Linda Welch - A conspiracy of Demons by A Conspiracy of Demons

them the talk too?”
    “I will , bu t I wanted to speak to you first.” I sighed. “You were getting along well for a moment there .”
    “Until you asked me to go to Provo with you.”
    “Yeah. Bad enough you can go where you want to, I had to make it worse by soliciting your help.”
    A big engine purred up the hill. “ Sounds like Royal .” I rose up.
    Carrie sounded much happier. “I am excited, Tiff.”
    “I can tell.” I stepped to the curb . “ R emember why you’re there. I’m relying on you.”
    Royal pulled alongside and leaned over the passenger seat to open the door. He looke d impossibly gorgeous in a pale-gold shirt, long black leather coat, black jeans and those sexy brown cowboy boots. Carrie slipped into the back seat as I climbed in.
    “Bloody hell,” came from the back seat . “He couldn’t get any sexier if he tried.”
    He leaned in, but pulled b ack before our lips could meet. “Is she here?”
    “Of course I am, darling,” Carrie crooned.
    “She’s in back.” I took his face between my palms and brought him in for a kiss. I took my time with it, too, and ignored Carrie’s comments. I didn’t hear her as more than a murmur, my senses consumed by Royal’s intoxicating scent and his lips on mine.
    She raised her voice. I vaguely heard her declare, “Do you mind!”
    I released him and he sat back, smiling. “And a very good morning to you, too.”
    “Nothing like starting the day off right,” I agreed.
    He eased the big machine into the street. W e went left and headed for University Drive . Carrie oohed and aahed over the old, once-stately mansions as we drove the secondary street s .
    “My niece came to America. She went to some historically significant places, but all she said is it’s not really old, is it, as if that made them less important . I told her age doesn’t matter, it’s still history.”
    She rattled on. “Look at this! The buildings look Wild W est if you ignore the cars and m odern signs. Ooh, look at that - was it a saloon once upon a time?”
    I glanced to t he side. “A hotel , I think .”
    I passed the time by giving her an abbreviated version of Clarion’s history . The organize d gambling parlors and brothels, s trip joints and opium dens . The local Mafia, assassinations, murders. How decent people avoided downtown and it went into decay until the 1980s when the Clarion Restoration Society started raising money for renovation and t empted specialty stores and restaurants to move in. Today it is Clarion’s entertainment Mecca .
    Royal’s mouth looked tight.
    I walked a fine line, talking to s hades when Royal hung out with me. Since meeting him I ha d gone from hiding my abilities, to declaring he had to accept I came with baggage and would not pretend they weren’t there, to trying to be sensitive to his feelings. I mean to say, not every guy c an tolerate hearing his girlfriend have animated conversations with thin air.
    I talked freely to Carrie now. I wanted her in a good mood , cooperative . I’d try to explain to Royal later when Carrie had gone on her way .
     
    After an uneventful drive through Clarion, we circled the lake and drove down Fork Canyon, where we merged with traffic on the I-15 and headed south toward Salt Lake City. The Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island stretched along west of the highway. Carrie kept up a one-sided conversation, asking questions and answer ing them herself. Fine with me.
    “Is that an amusement park? It is, by golly!” she enthused as we drove past Farmington. “Can we stop there on the way back? I haven’t been on a ride for donkey’s years.”
    “It’s closed for the season.”
    “Oh bother. Well never mind. I remember the last time I went to an amusement park. I was a tiddler. They had one of those huge gravity drums. I don’t think they were called that, but you know what I mean. You get inside, it spins and you’re sucked against the wall. Well, I was plastered to it, didn’t dare