“You could have called me,” I said.
Alexei’s expression flattened. “If we called you every time there waspotentialfor trouble at the bar, you wouldn’t have time to work anywhere else.”
“Fair enough,” I said, and looked at Lulu. “And you?”
“He dragged me with him,” she said, eyebrows furrowed as she redrew a curve to make the arc she wanted.
“Good man,” I said, and forked a meatball. “Want?”
Lulu glanced at it, laughed. “Are you rewarding him with meat?”
The meatball was gone before I could answer, and he was chewing happily.
“If it works, it works,” I said, and dug in again.
* * *
I got the call shortly before dawn, and went outside to take it. The house was beginning to quiet down, but I wasn’t sure how this was going to go.
“Well, hello,” I said when Jonathan Black’s face appeared on-screen. Or mostly. He was outside and standing in shadow, but I could see his pale skin and blond hair.
“I don’t have much time,” he said. “I’ve been busy.”
I hadn’t asked, which made it interesting that he started with an excuse.
“With clients?” I asked politely.
“Manner of speaking,” he said, and shifted, a streetlamp putting his face—and the injury that marred it—into sharper focus. There was a long laceration across his left cheek.
“Wrong end of a blade?” I asked.
“I’m fine.” His voice was tight. “A client didn’t like a result and lashed out. I’m fine.”
“What kind of client does that?” I asked, snagging a quick screenshot of his injury.
“A confidential one,” he snapped. “Sorry. I’m in a shitty mood.”
“Because of your client? Or the city’s new demons?”
His eyes widened. “Demons?”
“And demon-involved killings,” I said. “You haven’t seen the news on-screen?”
“I’ve been busy,” he said again.
“Did you feel the pulse of magic?”
“No. I was asleep. I heard it was due to extra magic in the ley lines.”
He’d worked with the fae before, so perhaps Claudia had passed that along. But I pushed a little more. “Did the ones you heard it from know where the extra magic came from? Or who put it there?”
“No one puts magic in the lines. They’re natural phenomena.” He lifted a shoulder. That move was casual, but the sudden snap of his head wasn’t. He peered into the distance, then stepped into the shadows again. Avoiding someone? Hiding from someone?
“Do you need help?” I asked. “I can send a car. Or come get you.”
“No. I have to go.”
And then the screen went blank.
