Ethan already had Merlin in the front seat, not looking quite as bad as Owen did, but almost looking his age, for once. Ethan got out of the car and took the bags from me while I maneuvered Owen into the backseat. He wasn’t a big guy, but he was pretty heavy when he was practically deadweight. Once we were all settled in the car, Ethan asked, “Which way do you want to head?”
“I don’t know.”
“West,” Owen rasped. “Into the mountains. That might block whatever’s coming from the city.”
“Okay, then, west into mountains,” Ethan confirmed. Owen was sound asleep on my shoulder before the car reached the end of the block.
When we’d been driving a couple of hours, I thought Owen’s temperature had dropped, and his color looked better. Merlin stirred in the front seat, showing signs of life. “It seems to be working,” I said. “Let’s keep going.”
By the time we pulled into a roadside motel that wasn’t the least bit scenic or picturesque, which probably explained why it was the first we came across that didn’t have the “no vacancy” sign lit, both our patients looked more human. Ethan went into the office to get rooms for us and came out with a deeply uncomfortable look on his face, just as the “no” in the “no vacancy” neon sign over his head lit up.
“There was only one room left,” he said. “I went ahead and took it because I don’t think we’ll find anything else in the Poconos on a summer weekend, and I don’t think we want to keep driving this late.”
“We’re not here for sleep and comfort,” I said. “We just need a place to work.”
“That’s what I figured.” He began turning pink in a blush worthy of Owen. “And one more thing—it’s a honeymoon suite. I don’t know if you know anything about the Poconos, but it’s a big honeymoon destination, and the honeymoon resorts are known for their excess of what some might call kitsch. Others would call it tacky. I guess this place is the low-budget equivalent of that. Anyway, they think I’m here on my honeymoon, so we’ll probably want to keep our other guests out of sight.”
“They’ll be busy,” I said with a shrug.
Fortunately, the honeymoon suite wasn’t visible through the office’s front windows, so we were able to get Owen and Merlin inside without anyone wondering why I was going on a honeymoon with three men, one of them old enough to be my grandfather. Once we got them inside, Ethan and I took our time unloading the car.
When I got my first good look at the room, I realized that Ethan had understated the situation. “Tacky” didn’t begin to describe the place. For one thing, just about everything in the room was either red or pink—or mirrored. The few parts of the walls that weren’t covered in mirrors were covered in a pink, shiny fabric. The bed was round, in the middle of the room, and draped in a red satin spread, with piles of pink and red pillows. There was a mirror on the ceiling over the bed. The lighting fixtures must have been found at Liberace’s garage sale. They dripped with crystals and fake gilding.
“Oh, my,” was all I could say. This really wasn’t the kind of place where you wanted to spend the weekend with your boss.
“There’s also a kitchen,” Ethan said. “And a heart-shaped hot tub. Too bad I didn’t bring a swimsuit.”
“This is ideal,” Merlin said. “Thank you, Mr. Wainwright.”
Ethan and I turned to stare at him.
“The mirrors will be helpful in some of the work we have to do,” Owen explained while avoiding looking at himself in any of the mirrors. He still looked pretty awful, so I could imagine that facing that image wasn’t fun for him.
“Maybe you two should sleep now and get to work in the morning,” I suggested. “You still look pretty fried.”
“Probably a good idea,” Owen agreed, sinking to sit on the bed and rubbing his temples. “Wow, I didn’t realize how bad that buzzing in my head was until it stopped.”
“So you’re feeling better?”
“Yeah, but it’s more like the week after you have the flu, when you’re not sick anymore, but you still don’t feel well.”
We let Owen and Merlin take the bed, since they’d been sick and were the ones who’d be working. I tried to convince Ethan to take the sofa, since he’d been driving, but he swore it was too short for him and he’d be more comfortable dozing in a chair. The two wizards were still sound asleep when Ethan and I woke the next morning and slipped out to pick up some breakfast.