"I'll be there soon," she promised, running into her room for her wallet; she wasn't up to dealing with the trains now, and a cab would be faster. She was almost out the door, before she stopped, and bent down to dig under her bed. After she'd been attacked, she'd bought a small silver cross on a chain, and had it blessed by a priest at the church near their house. Piper might not have had much faith in capital-G God, but what she did have was the belief in how powerful and prevalent symbols and stories could be. In vampire legends, blessed things kept the monsters away. Maybe it would work on this thing too. It couldn't hurt, at any rate.
She flagged down the first taxi she saw, and got the driver to take her to the shop. It was empty, and far too quiet, and it made her feel deeply unsettled. She picked up a heavy iron candlestick-like that would do any good, but it made her feel better to wrap her hand around it-and quietly padded towards the storage area.
She leaned her head around the door, and had to bite her tongue to keep from crying out. The black shape that hung in the air made the bottom of her stomach feel like it was falling out, and the sense of 'wrongnobadbadbad' was so strong, she just wanted to turn tail and run. She was just thinking that maybe she could slip away and call Anthony, when she turned too fast and banged her elbow into an end table. She let out a whimper, more out of fear than pain, because now there was no way she could get anywhere unnoticed.