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I nodded, opened my eyes again. We were getting closer. But we weren’t there yet.
“We’ll put out an APB,” Yuen said. “But I suspect we won’t find him until we find the rest of them.”
“You’ll let me know if you find him?” I asked. “And the SUV?” At worst, Claudia was in danger. At best, getting her back might help stop whatever the fairies were trying to do.”
“We will,” Yuen said. “While I’m still not entirely convinced by your Rogue-vampire argument, it would be wrong of me to discount your contributions. So thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“If we don’t find anything before dawn,” Theo said, “we should get together at dusk. Give everyone an update.”
“Arrange it,” Yuen said, then glanced at me. “And in the meantime, if you could stay out of Dearborn’s line of sight, all the better.”
• • •
I left the Ombuds to their work and took an Auto back to Lulu’s place, where I’d had my mother messenger the suitcase I’d left at the House.
She’d seen the news about Grant Park and had waited up for me. Even Eleanor of Aquitaine seemed a little mellower—hissing at me only once as I walked past her.
We turned on some Blondie, sat down in the rainbow of light that reflected off the windows, and worked on a box of crappy wine.
She sipped her mug of rosé. “Times like this make me wish I’dchosen the magic route,” she said, ankles crossed on the coffee table. “That I could snap my fingers, and everyone would act the way I wanted them to. No one would get hurt.”
The rosé was terrible. So I drank some more. “I don’t think magic works that way.”
“Do you know why I say no to magic?”
“Because of your mom?”
“That’s part of it. Because magic—the entire world of supernatural drama—makes me feel powerless. It makes me feel like that little kid who was mortified by her evil-villain mother, who didn’t have a choice.”
“Your mother is a good person.”
“With an addiction, and who hurt a lot of people because of it.”
“No denying it,” I said. “I think it’s all about choice. About decisions. For a really long time, I felt like I didn’t have any. So I decided to make some, starting with going to Paris. And, I guess, staying here while the rest of them ran back. Those are just choices. You make the choice, and you take the next step.”
She nodded. “And what’s the next step? Using the magic? Staying away from it? Being myself or being someone’s daughter?”
I regretted that I’d brought these questions to her door, that my coming home forced her to face questions and issues she’d clearly tried to put aside.
“I think,” I said after a minute, “that the next step is just to be Lulu. Whatever that means to you. Whatever feels right to you. I like you either way.” I looked at her, smiled. “And, to be honest, it’s kind of nice to have a safe place without magic. Where Steve and Eleanor of Aquitaine are the only disturbing things.”
“Hell of a night,” she said again.
And I thought that summed it up pretty well.
NINETEEN
I woke to pounding on the bedroom door.
“What?” My voice sounded as irritable as I felt.
Lulu looked in. “You awake?”
I swore under my breath. “I am now. What time is it?”
“Dusk. Get your ass up. We have stuff to do.”
