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Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes. Since I didn't have anything that had belonged to Luke, I'd have to use a variation of the location spell. I lowered myself into the whirl of energy, and liquid silver raced through my veins as I formed a question in my mind.
"Where is the demon Lucianopoloneelisunekonekari? Where is he, right now?" I opened my eyes and looked into the water. After a moment, a mist began to form above the surface, spiraling like a DNA helix. Miniature tornadoes swept across the bowl as the mist bubbled, growing to form an oval frame above the table. Within the frame, a dizzying parade of Faerie fire danced.
I slowly stood, my body quivering. While I'd cast this spell a few times before, I'd never seen this sort of response and wasn't sure what to expect. Should I yell for everybody to run for the hills, or would I finally be able to say I'd performed a magnificent feat of magic and make my mentor proud?
Five seconds passed, then ten, then half a minute. Still the mist coiled, mirroring the oval of lights. Just as I was about to write it off to a pretty show and nothing more, the Faerie fire began to coalesce. A scene formed, remarkably like a television screen, but we weren't watching Leno or Letterman.
A house rose in the near distance, and I immediately recognized it as our own house, looming large under the full moon. Thick clouds built, threatening to cover the sky. A copse of cedar and fir and birch ringed the backyard, and a bird feeder hung on one of the larger firs that buttressed the dirt path that led from the fence surrounding the house down to the tree line.
I snapped my fingers. "Bingo, we're seeing the house from within the woods. Out back." Even as I spoke, a surge of anger raced through me and then passed on—it had to be Luke. He was out there, somewhere.
"I know what's going on! Rather than showing us where he is, the spell is showing us what he's seeing." Excited, I dropped my focus, and the mist immediately dissipated. "He's out back in the woods."
"He's hiding in the cedar grove," Delilah added. "And I know exactly where he's at. You know the path that leads down to Birchwater Pond? That's the trail. I recognize that bird feeder." A guilty look flashed over her face, and I had the feeling she'd been prowling around that woods in cat form. She caught my expression and grinned. Yep, the cat ate the canary all right.
"We're going out to meet him," I said. "I don't want him getting close enough to destroy our home."
"Forget the house. I don't want him destroying us," Menolly muttered. She flexed her back, arching lightly. "All right, shall we take the rumble to him?"
Resigned to our impending doom, I nodded. "Let's get moving."
We were about to head out when the doorbell rang. I cautiously peeked through the peephole. Surely Bad Ass Luke wouldn't come ringing the bell like some Avon lady? Startled, I yanked open the door.
"What the—?"
Smoky broke out in a wide and toothy grin. "I thought you could use a little help," he said. "I had a feeling something was going down, so I'm offering my services."
Speechless, I stared at the dragon. Man. Dragon-man? His gaze never left my own as I ushered him through the door and into the living room.
* * *
CHAPTER 19
"What the hell are you doing here?" I finally found my voice.
"Ah, Camille," he said. "Lovely to see you, too."
I flinched. He knew my name? Not a good sign, not a good sign at all. "How did you—"
"Find out your name? It wasn't difficult. Titania and I had a little talk. She can be very verbose when she's lonely and drunk. She misses her Tom, so she was nipping at the nectar. She doesn't have the capability to hold her liquor the way she used to," he added. I couldn't tell whether he was laughing or not behind those glacial eyes.
Somehow Titania had known my name and so, of course, Smoky did, too. In fact, he probably knew all our names by now, but I was betting that he wouldn't abuse that knowledge. At least, not until Luke was well and truly out of the way. After that, we'd have to be cautious.
"You're going to help us kill Luke?"
"I suppose, though I've heard rumors that the demon who walks your woods out there is a bundle of laughs." Smoky snorted at my sharp glance. "Don't think I'm clueless as to what's going on. I won't be able to shift into my natural form inside the forest, only in a clearing. But I've got other tricks up my sleeve that you'll find useful."
After introducing him to Menolly, we headed out the back door. The moon was riding high in the sky, she was a sliver away from being full, and I could feel her pull on me. Delilah could, too; her form shivered and trembled as if she could barely keep herself together. She'd be okay tonight, but tomorrow would be another story. We had to finish this before morning.
The woodland that buttressed against our backyard was a good twenty-acre patch with a path leading down to Birchwater Pond. Overgrown, the thicket was mostly composed of cedar and fir, of birch and huckleberry and fern. Vine maples looped their way through the copse, and an oak stood sentinel here and there, but for the most part, the tangle was so dense that it was nigh to impossible to travel off the path.
"How far is that bird feeder along the path?" I asked. Luke couldn't be very far in to have been looking at our house. In fact, chances were, he was watching us approach right now. There wasn't much we could do about that, but every second that passed gave him that much more time to gather his strength.
"A few yards," Delilah said. "Not far. I hope he didn't slip around through the undergrowth with the idea that he could sneak in the house while we were out."
I frowned. I hadn't thought of that possibility. "We just have to hope and pray that Bad Ass isn't as smart as you are."
Closing my eyes for a brief moment, I searched the area for any sign of demonic activity. Bingo! Over near the gazebo. He wasn't in the woods anymore, and he was headed for the house. Turning direction, I broke into a sprint, yelling at the top of my lungs. No use trying to surprise him, but perhaps we could engage him before he got inside and tore the place to the ground.
