Being stuck in a dark elevator in a blackout with a beautiful woman is supposed to be fun. Except for the part where you're stuck. In an elevator. With no power. The beautiful woman part is always a plus, especially when it's my fiery cop friend, Connie Murphy.
Of course, the elevator hadn't been dark to begin with. There was an emergency light that flickered faithfully on the moment the elevator shuddered to a stop between floors. Regrettably (from some viewpoints), Murphy had crashed back against me as the elevator car jostled, and her hand had brushed against, let's say a private part of my anatomy. I jumped and the power I was holding for demon slaying jumped with me, shorting out our only source of light. Good one Harry.
"Harry?" I could hear laughter in her voice. I'm sure of it.
"Yeah Murph?"
"What was that?"
"Dunno Murph. Seems like the power went out."
"Harry," her voice had that take no prisoners tone in it now, "I see that the power went out. Why is it that we no longer have our emergency light?"
Well, that wasn't something I wanted to explain. It had been easier to explain that the cute fluffy bunny that was chasing us was actually a demon with Really Big Teeth. Folks, that's only funny when you're watching it on Monty Python. What I wouldn't give for a holy hand grenade right about now. Or, really, an hour ago, before the thing had taken out the city's power grid.
Instead of explaining our lack of light, I decided to go with a distraction. I pulled the amulet out from under my shirt and gave it a soft blue glow that gave Murphy's features a different quality that I wasn't sure I was ready to dwell on. Her eyes were wide and focused on my face. Interesting, I had thought she would be focusing on the amulet.
"Harry?" she asked, her voice quiet and small.
"Yeah Murph?" My voice sounded rougher than I had hoped. We were definitely standing too close, and I felt myself starting to lean down toward her.
"What is that?" Her eyes flickered to the amulet and then locked gazes with me. I was definitely leaning down now. Falling toward her as if gravity was suddenly pulling me down to meet her.
"Magic" I said. My voice whispered, even though I hadn't meant it to. I was sure that Murphy was stretching up toward me. We were as magnets being pulled together. Polarity. It's a bitch.
So, it appears is power. The lights slammed on, ruining the strange spell cast by my own light. At the same time, elevator crashed into motion as we were mere centimeters from what I'm betting would have been an unbelievable kiss. The sudden motion knocked us into each other, thankfully bumping foreheads rather than teeth. I grabbed Murphy's waist and pulled her to me to keep us both from falling (that's my story, and I'm sticking to it). And I held her there until we reached the ground floor. She didn't even try to swat my hand away, at least, not until the doors opened onto the lobby.
There, she stepped away from me, brushed her hands down her sides to straighten her clothes, and stepped out into the chaos. I admit it, I stood there for a moment in the elevator like a great dumb lout. But then Murphy looked back at me and smiled. "Coming?" she asked.
I nodded and checked my grip on my hockey stick/staff. We probably wouldn't talk about this later. And I'd deal with that at some point. For now, though, we had a fluffy killer bunny rabbit ass to kick.