“Sure,” EJ said. He closed his eyes, blood pounding in his head as he tried to calculate the participants in a Rule of Three working for demon magic. He stood slowly, his body stiff and uncoordinated. He opened his eyes and fought the blackness that swam through him, threatening to steal consciousness. He motioned for Villetti to holster his weapon, but spoke to Walter. “If theyhad gotten you at the reception, or here today, they wouldn’t need a human. Right now, they still need a third, and you still being with us may be the only thing keeping our subject alive.”
“They have Nyoka and Ivyanna and yet they are still after me,” Walter said. “I do not understand why the human hasn’t been eliminated.” His voice full of loathing he added, “Unless Ravensport keeps her alive toplaywith her.”
“The more I hear about Ravensport, the more she sucks,” Angie mumbled from the sofa. She sat up with a groan. “What’d I miss?”
“Your lover threatening to shoot out my eye andPretty Thang—the names are disgusting—trying to paw Boots’s bosom,” Walter said.
Boots hooted and offered Walter an arm, pulling him to his feet.
“And?” Angie’s tone was mussy and sleepy.
“I came away with my dignity and purity intact,” Boots said primly.
Grizz snorted.
“Not all of them were at the soirée,” Walter said, “but, like the collection vessel, they could have been nearby. Grizz, will you have whoever is now on shift, go over more footage and rule out the telltale greenish glow on Willim and Karson at the reception?”
“Roger that.”
“Whilst I,” Walter said, “shall go feed the boy from whom I overdrank and thence upstairs to my bed.”
Grizz said, “Thence? Who the hell says ‘thence’?”
He both needed and dreaded sleep. After so long in Delta Mode, with it kept ready for use, and so little downtime, he waslikely to dream. If he did, they wouldn’t be happy ones. They would be dreams of war. But he had to chance it. He was useless.
On the way to his apartment his unicom alerted him to a call.
Alex said, “Hey, little buddy. Section Seven has done a prelim inventory. A storage facility holding twenty-seven collection vessels is empty. An investigation is wide-ass open.”
“Little buddy? What…Never mind.” He cut the connection.
EJ took George out for his business, showered in ice water, took a painkiller, set his amulets on the battery to charge, and fell into bed before dawn.
It usually required a full eight hours to restore Delta Mode. He didn’t have eight. He set his mental clock for four.
He had things to do.
Angie
I slept hard, nearly eight hours. When I woke, the storm was finally blowing itself out. The sun was dropping toward the mountainous horizon, casting golden rays through the last of the purplish clouds. Even though it was only projected on the bedroom wall screen from the rooftop cams (since my room didn’t face west), it was glorious. I yawned widely and stretched, and my heel hit one of the cats.
Which grunted.
That wasn’t a cat noise.
I froze. Didn’t turn my head. Just held my pose like an extended yoga position and inhaled silently. Holding the breath, I swiveled my eyes. I was not alone in my bed.
Villetti lay beside me, on his left side, his head resting on his curled arm, one of the extra pillows scrunched up between hishead and biceps. His other arm was resting on the covers between us. Like me, he appeared to be…naked.
My memory returned, sketchy and incomplete. Everyone had left, only Villetti remaining. He’d been unable to get home. I’d said, “What the hell, Lee. Stay.” I had dragged myself to the bedroom, stripped out of post-battle clothes, and fallen into bed, instantly asleep.
I had meant,Stay on the couch.
He had taken my words otherwise.
But he hadn’t made a move.
Most men would have taken my nakedness as invitation.
