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"You sound surprised."
"I just thought… I never thought…" Delilah's gaze flashed down at me, and I knew what was bothering her.
"Honey, you may play fair, but Wisteria's our enemy. Never forget that," I said, carefully taping the edges of the gauze. "These demons are out for blood. They're out to take over this world, and our world, and they aren't going to make nice-nice and leave women and children alive. We can't allow them to succeed."
Her lips quivered. My softhearted sister, who always wanted to believe the best, to focus on the positive, to eliminate the negative by pretending it wasn't there, was beginning to understand the seamy underside of war. A harsh lesson, but one she needed to learn.
"I guess you're right," she said. "But I just can't imagine how one of our own would go in league with them. Doesn't Wisteria understand that the demons will kill her? I tried to tell her that, and she laughed in my face."
"Before she bit you in the neck?" I put away the gauze and antibiotic powder and washed my hands. "Listen to me. People—humans and Faerie and Sidhe included—hear what they want to hear and believe what they want to believe. It's the nature of life. Now, we need to stash Wisteria somewhere before I cast the location spell to pinpoint Luke's whereabouts. Any ideas would be muchly appreciated."
"I don't think we should put her outside. If Luke shows up, he'll set her free, and then we'll be dealing with two whack-jobs." Menolly glanced around, frowning. "What about the broom closet? You could lock her in there with one of your magic locks."
"Uh-huh. Like that's ever worked for me." My mentor's attempts to teach me how to cast magic locks had been one big waste of time for us both. To date, I'd managed to get it right exactly three times out of a hundred serious tries. "I can give it a shot, but I don't guarantee results."
"That's comforting. Oh hell, there's a chance, and it won't take much time to find out if you can make it work." She stood up. "I'll volunteer to carry the monster in here if you'll give it a shot."
I shook my head. "Menolly, you either have a lot of confidence in me, or you think you're strong enough to withstand anything I can throw at you. Okay, go get her, and I'll try. I promise you nothing, however."
As she carried the bound-and-gagged Wisteria into the kitchen, Delilah scowled but happily opened the closet door. Menolly tossed Wisteria inside, none too gently. She was about to slam the closet shut when a knock on the kitchen door stopped her.
Chase and Delilah drew their guns. Menolly paused, waiting, as I edged my way to the porch and peered through the curtains. It was Morio. I cautiously opened the door, and he hustled inside, stopping with a puzzled look when he saw the open closet, the pissed-off floraed, and Delilah's bandaged neck.
"What happened?"
"Wisteria decided to try her hand at sucking blood. We're locking her in the closet, and you're just in time to join us. After that, I'll cast the location spell to find Bad Ass Luke." I shut the door and locked it tightly. "Did you talk to Grandmother Coyote? What did she say?"
"I'm fast in my fox form," Morio said. "And yes, I found her. She's willing to let us use the portal. I assume one of you knows the mechanics of transfer?"
Menolly raised her hand. "I do. I learned at the Wayfarer. Speaking of which, I can probably kiss my job goodbye when the OIA finds out I didn't show up tonight."
"I doubt it, considering…" I stopped, noticing that Wisteria had perked up. "Shush. Our spy is listening."
With that, Menolly slammed the closet door and stood back. "Fire at will."
"Thank you, Madame Vamp." I couldn't believe I was going to try this again. I'd all but given up on ever mastering it. "As I said, I usually get this wrong, so I suggest all of you take cover to avoid getting hit by a backlash if this thing blows up in my face."
When everyone had retreated to the living room, I focused on summoning the magic that froze situations, that locked doors and barred gates and sealed secrets. It flowed through me clear at first, running thick in my veins. My father was a master of this spell—it was an innate ability with him, and I'd inherited the power, but with a pathetic twist.
I tried to bring my attention away from the possibility of failure, to concentrate on success, but once again, there was a familiar jog, as if the energy reached a certain point and then stalled out. The next thing I knew, the force that came rushing from my hands enveloped the closet door and the hinges exploded, a shard of shrapnel catching me in the arm.
"Damn it to high hell!" My arm burned like a mother-sucker. I clasped the forearm, where a two-inch shard of metal had lodged itself in my flesh. The door, freed from hinges or any other locking mechanism, teetered and fell toward me, and I barely managed to jump out of the way before it landed on the floor with a resounding thud. And that took care of any hopes of magically entrapping Wisteria in the closet.
The others rushed in. When he saw the blood, Morio grabbed my arm and inspected it. He motioned for me to sit at the table, and Delilah promptly fetched the same supplies I'd just finished using on her.
"You just couldn't stand the fact that I'm wearing such a haute couture bandage, could you?" she teased.
I snorted. "Oh yes, it's all the rage at Court and Crown this year. I heard the Queen will be sporting one just like it when Tanaquar gets done with her." I sighed, depressed. "My magic's been working pretty good the past couple of days. I'm getting good at blasting people, but I guess it couldn't last forever."
Menolly yanked Wisteria out of the closet. The floraed had a triumphant gleam in her eye, and I wanted to smack her a good one but refrained.
"I'll take our visitor here into the storage room," Menolly said. "There aren't any windows, and we'll just lock the door with a key and hope for the best." She trudged away, carrying the woman over her shoulder like she might carry a baseball bat.
"Good idea," I muttered. "I just hope my sudden flop doesn't presage the same failure in locating Mr. Bad Ass."
Morio held up a wicked looking pair of tweezers. "Inhale, then exhale sharply while I pull this thing out of your arm."
I obeyed, screeching as he ripped the barb of metal out of my flesh. "You could have been a little more gentle," I said, but he shook his head.
