Free Vision Quest (The Demon's Apprentice Book 3) by Ben Reeder

brass button, set in a rectangular brass plate. A small red light in a metal cage was above the plate, and when I pressed the button, the light blazed to life. Moments later, the sound of a motor reached our ears.A minute dragged, by then another, and I could see Gage’s expression start to turn a little sour, a millimeter of a dip at the corner of his mouth, and the slightest lowering of his eyebrows. A loud clanging sound came from below us just as he opened his mouth to say something, and we all jumped a little. It was enough to keep him quiet for another thirty seconds.
    “Are you sure this is even the right place?” he demanded.
    “I’m sure,” I said.
    “It doesn’t sound very safe,” he said.
    “Nothing fun is,” I said with a squeeze of Shade’s hand. She smiled at me and leaned over to give me a slow, lingering kiss.
    “Are you saying I’m dangerous?” she asked with a wicked little grin.
    “Extremely,” I said, and kissed her again. Once we pulled apart, I leaned down and grazed my teeth along the side of her neck, eliciting a satisfied little sound from deep in her throat and a smile for my efforts. Gage made a disgusted sounding little snort as Shade turned so she was facing me and nipped gently at my neck, then grinned at me with her teeth bared and her eyes a deep green.
    “Could you two please keep your clothes on for a few minutes longer?” Gage said as a light began to shine behind the small window set in the elevator door. “The car should be here in an hour or so, and I’d hate for the two of you to have to dress in a hurry.”
    “I’m sure you’d be so disappointed,” Shade said. “Having to watch me get dressed, that is.” A creeping tide of red spread from his neck to this forehead as Shade’s comment turned the tables on him. He sputtered for a moment, trying to find something to say, but the elevator door opened and saved him from further embarrassment.
    Facing us was a Dwarf in a blue jacket with a broad leather belt around his middle that was covered in boxy pouches. A heavy revolver rode on his right hip, and I saw the hilt of a knife jutting from the top of his left boot. Fiery red hair flowed from beneath the matching blue hat he wore, a Dwarven style that resembled a longer version of a watch cap that had his clan insignia in brass pinned to the front. His beard was just as red but shorter, barely coming to the first button on his jacket, which, among Dwarves, marked him as fairly young and inexperienced, which could mean anything from forty to a hundred.
    “Seeking passage to the Underground are ya?” he asked with one hand on the butt of the revolver. His eye fell on me, then on Shade before he turned to glance at Gage.
    “I’m looking to open an account a Bjerning’s,” I said. “I am hight Chance Fortunato, gothi to the Diamond Lake Pack, apprentice to Wizard Corwin and Seeker of the Maxilla Asini. I serve no power of Hell or enemy of yours.” Dwarves loved titles almost as much as they loved the stories behind them. The trick was to drop at least one that they already knew. Evidently, this guy knew something about me that he liked, because his beard split to reveal broad teeth as he smiled.
    “Your name is known here, Fortunato,” he said. “Be welcome in the Underground. And you, how are you known, young lady?”
    “I’m…Shade,” she said, a little hesitant. “Alpha of the Diamond Lake Pack.”
    “That’s all?” the Dwarf said, his voice sounding a little disappointed. “That does you no justice, Lady Shade. Firemane, I call you. Lady of the Diamond Lake Pack.  Who are you, then?”
    “Wintrhop Gage the Fourth, alumnus of the Franklin Academy, heir to Winthrop Gage the Third and Proctor of the Academy by order of the Wizard’s Council,” Gage said confidently.
    “Your name is not known here,” the Dwarf said. “But your family’s is, and the Academy is well known. Step in, then, and be welcome to the Underground.” We stepped into the