Pluto's Hardware and Accessories was packed with people drinking and dancing to the lively band on stage when Josefine and Neirin gave the password at the door and were let in. Josefine approached the bar while Neirin lingered a few steps behind, a few shades paler and looking like he'd just robbed a bank only to walk into the police station immediately after, except that Anna's wrath was far more dangerous than jail time. Josefine leaned against the bar and flagged down one of the bartenders.
"Is Manhattan in?" She raised her voice to be heard over the band and the chatter of voices.
"Who's askin'?" The bartender looked her over with an appraising eye.
"Dr. Josefine Wolfe, she asked me to look into a case for her." He nodded slightly and waved the other bartender over for a moment, leaning over to whisper something in their ear before he gestured for Josefine to wait where she was and disappeared into the back. Josefine took the minutes he was gone to survey the crowd, watching the patrons chat and dance with bright smiles. Then the bartender returned.
"She said to send you straight back," he waved her toward the end of the bar and she turned to catch hold of Neirin's wrist before weaving through the crowd around the bar and into the back. She didn't pause to knock on the door, not now that they were getting down to the last few minutes before the deadline.
"My little Wolfe," Anna glanced down at her watch from the pile of papers she was going through on her desk, "you're cutting it awful close." Josefine checked her own watch.
Fifteen minutes.
"You left out some information," she gestured to Neirin where he shrank behind her, the black grimoire huddled in his arms.
"You found it," Anna smiled wide.
"It was easy when it left a trail of bodies every time it passed hands," Josefine didn't manage to keep the bitterness from her voice.
"Why do you care so much little Wolfe?"
Her brow pressed in as her grey eyes sharpened, for once holding Anna's liquid mercury ones despite Wolf shying away inside. "Because he's my brother," Josefine finally admitted the words out loud and didn't miss the sharp intake of breath from Neirin behind her. "If we give you this book, you'll break the curse?" Anna smiled her amusement, looking more like the Devil by the minute.
"Are you trying to make a deal with me?" Josefine swallowed hard, her mouth dry. "You do realize how easy it'd be to simply kill the pair of you and take it?"
Neirin took her hand and shifted so that they were shoulder to shoulder. "I'll give you the book. It was my partner who stole it, just leave Josie out of it."
Anna cocked her head to one side, curious. "And if you die?"
"Then I die and stop causing everyone problems." Josefine blinked up at him in shock. The room remained quiet for a long time. Then, Anna let out a delighted laugh, as if taking great pleasure in the situation.
"I like you, kid," she looked younger than they were but somehow getting called kid by her didn't sound patronizing. "Give me the book," she held out a hand, "I've no interest in either of your souls today." Neirin seemed to hesitate for a moment before he held out the book. Anna grabbed his wrist in an iron grip and drove a canine into her other thumb hard enough to draw blood and mercury and black fire welled in the wound. With it, she drew a rune on the back of Neirin's hand and slipped the book from his hands. Josefine and Neirin held their breath for a moment, waiting for the runes to appear on his skin and his temperature to drop.
Nothing happened.
"Relax, I removed the curse," Anna looked mildly amused at the tension and after another moment, they exhaled heavy breaths. "Go enjoy yourselves, on the house. I believe your friend Anthony is playing again tonight." Josefine swallowed, her throat still dry.
"Thank you," she nodded, "we'll do that." She tightened her grip on Neirin and they hurried out of the office before Anna changed her mind.
#
Josefine didn't drink but after the stress of finding the cursed black grimoire for Anna, she was seriously considering it while she smoked her fifth cigarette of the evening trying desperately to ease the nerves. Neirin had no problems drinking enough for both of them, trying to shed his nerves from the meeting too. Anthony had joined them while the band was on break and now he chattered rather cheerfully with Josefine even if she wasn't wholly focused on the conversation.
"How did things go with Manhattan?"
Josefine stared at him for a moment before breathing a long-suffering sigh. "It went. We came out of it alive, that's all I could ask for." He raised his glass as if giving her that. He turned to pick at Neirin as they'd been doing since the group home and Josefine took a sip of her water.
"Hello Emil," Anthony looked past her shoulder a few moments later, a warm, welcoming smile on his face, "glad you could make it." Emil appeared at Josefine's shoulder, hand lightly brushing the small of her back as he leaned forward to clasp his hand over the table.
"Anthony," he paused to look over Neirin, "and I see Neirin survived Manhattan's curse."
"I wasn't going to just let him die," Josefine bit out the words. Emil raised an eyebrow at her before reaching out to take her glass, taking a whiff as if checking for alcohol.
"Never thought I'd hear something like that from you."
"He's my brother, family is different." They both knew real family made no difference to them, but something told him she meant a different kind of family this time.
"I'll keep that in mind," Emil murmured to himself, voice lost in the noise of chatter.