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She lunged for the letter, slamming Clay with a knockback spell. I dove to cut her off, but her fingers wrapped aro
und the tube as she cast another spell. Her form blurred and, for a second, she seemed to disappear.
"Elena!"
Clay sprang to his feet. A blur appeared at my shoulder. I spun out of the way as fingers grazed my side. The blur faltered, thrown off balance. She hit the nightstand, sending the lamp crashing to the floor. I lashed out, but missed. The blurred form raced for the door. Clay ran at her and threw himself down in her path. Anita tripped over him, reappearing as she struck the floor. I raced past her and grabbed the dropped letter.
"Elena!"
I wheeled as Anita's hands flew up in a knockback spell. Our eyes met and she faltered, giving Clay time to roll up from the carpet. He charged, grabbed her by the back of her blouse and threw her over his shoulder. She hit the floor lamp, taking it down with her. Clay stalked over. She tried to scramble backward, out of his range, but he kept coming. Finally he was above her. Her lips parted in a spell, but she was shaking too badly to get the words out.
"Clay," I murmured.
He hesitated, then backed off. I stepped into his place.
"Playing games doesn't go over well with us," I said. "We take them seriously."
I reached down and helped her up.
"Sit there," I said, gesturing at the chair. "Then tell us the real story behind the letter--the one that has something to do with immortality."
She still tried to protest and sidetrack us, but finally told us the letter's history, the one she'd known before she'd approached Shanahan to see it.
The story went that a sorcerer had created the portal. He'd been finishing work on an experiment, one that promised a form of immortality. A common enough type of experimentation, but something about this one made other supernaturals think he may have actually hit on a way to do it. Some wanted to steal his research. Some wanted to stop it. So he created the portal to hide, and put the trigger in the paper used to make the From Hell letter.
When Anita was done, I told her Hull's version of the tale.
She frowned. "That seems like a blending of the two stories--the half-demon one and the immortality experiment one. Perhaps that campfire tale bears more truth than one would imagine."
I said nothing. After a moment, she continued.
"The demon's boon may be immortality. Or the secret to it. The sorcerer only created the portal--it was the half-demon Jack the Ripper who hid inside."
"And will be unleashed to wreak unholy terror on an unsuspecting world," Clay drawled. "He's doing a half-assed job of it so far."
"Maybe he's just warming up."
Two hours later, Jeremy walked into our room, looked around and sighed.
"So much for resting," he said as he righted the broken floor lamp.
"It wasn't us," I said. "Anita Barrington stopped by and all hell broke loose."
Another sigh.
"You think I'm kidding? Seems Shanahan wasn't the spellcaster who broke into our room last night."
We told him what had happened.
"And after all that--plus nearly giving me a concussion last night--she had the gall to ask again if she can speak with Matthew Hull."
"Probably hoping he knows more than he's saying, which, after speaking to him today, I doubt. But as for the letter, I can't imagine what she hopes to learn from that."
"Our theory? She's hoping to use it as leverage with Shanahan. If the zombies seem to want it back, what better offering to the man she believes may hold the secret to immortality."
"Did you confront her on that?"
I shook my head. "It seemed better not to. Not yet."
