Free Agent Read Free

good at, it was divining.
    â€œOf course you did. Bet you lunch I can guess too.” He was paying for lunch either way, so I liked to play “Guess the Imp Name.”
    â€œRumplestiltskin,” I said, wasting my first guess.
    Grimm rolled his eyes.
    â€œHumperdink?”
    He sighed impatiently. “Really, Marissa, I thought I trained you better.”
    â€œYou did,” I said with a laugh. “The name is Brittany.”
    Grimm pursed his lips and glared at me over his glasses. “You know it doesn’t count unless you can spell it right.” Some things never changed.
    I went back to my office to call in backup. Some of Grimm’s agents had magic in their blood. I got mine the old-fashioned way: I hired it. I drummed my fingers on the desk and punched in the number for Grimm’s contract agency from memory. They were a bunch of lowlife scum who would never stab you in the back because it might ruin a kidney they could sell. I worked with them a lot.
    The phone rang, and rang, and rang.
    â€œHello?” asked a woman on the other end.
    I dropped the receiver. My hands felt like ice and my tongue wouldn’t move, but this was no spell.
    â€œHello? Hello?”
    After several seconds I recovered enough to pick up the phone “Mom—”
    Only the dial tone waited on the other end of the line. I slammed the phone down on the desk hard enough to crack it.
    â€œMarissa,” said Grimm, appearing in my mirror. “What is wrong? I heard that through the walls.”
    â€œI called home again.”
    He nodded. “Did you speak to her?”
    My tongue felt thick as I tried to answer. “No. I wanted to. I wanted to.” I couldn’t look at him. I knew this wasn’t a spell he put on me. I froze every time that happened, because it wasn’t supposed to.
    â€œMarissa, if you’re ready—”
    â€œI’m not.” I said. “Let me make a call and I’ll get over there.” It wasn’t what he meant, but the answer was the same. I picked up the phone and dialed the contractors, watching each number with care. With each digit I damned myself for dialing a number I couldn’t consciously remember.
    â€œI need someone who can help me trap an imp,” I said to the receptionist. “Standard pay. Hold him long enough for me to christen him, I’ll take it from there.” I hung up the phone and went down to my car. I was ready to face a half-demon imp that would just as happily devour my brain as my soul. My family, on the other hand, was a different matter.

Three

    I DIDN’T GET down to the waterside until nearly eleven in the morning. Turned out our little slice of royalty miscounted the number of guesses she’d made at the imp’s name. I had to use kinetic energy–based negotiation techniques, and those royal types got ticked when I ventilated their palace. I looked a bit like death, with imp blood in my hair. One glance at my watch told me I couldn’t possibly make it back to my apartment to clean up. In fact, I had just enough time to rent a hotel room and take a shower.
    At least Grimm had the decency to stay out of the bathroom mirror this time. “You’re running late,” he said while I got dressed.
    â€œSue me. And while we’re at it, how do you want this played?” Grimm was a master manipulator. He’d have made a good matchmaker, if it weren’t for the fact that his idea of “great chemistry” usually involved explosives.
    â€œSame as always. Have him meet you over an accidental meal, stroll along the waterfront, spend the evening at the marina,” said Grimm. He sounded tired, or maybe that was just me. He didn’t sleep, as best I could tell.
    â€œKiss?” I asked, though I knew the answer.
    â€œAbsolutely not. You need to go now.”
    So I checked out of a hotel room I’d had for exactly fifty minutes and rushed to the restaurant.