Blood, Smoke and Mirrors

Chapter Five

Just when I thought my day couldn’t get any worse. This had to be part of the test, because it was certainly testing my patience, if not my sanity.

“There are two vampires outside, and they are here to kill me,” I repeated numbly.

“Actually, there are five vampires outside, only two of them are across the street,” Lex corrected, shrugging. “And they sure aren’t here for the pie, fantastic though it might be.” His nonchalance about my imminent demise was just a tad bit off-putting.

“Great, just great. Now what do we do?” I mumbled around the cigarette, fighting with my cheap lighter as it refused to light.

“Easy, we kill them first,” Tybalt said matter-of-factly. “Five vampires should be no problem at all.”

“You don’t think that’s a little extreme?”

“No. Those witches poisoned your mind with that ‘do no harm’ nonsense. You need to listen to your inner faerie more,” Tybalt advised. “If anybody tries to kill you, you’re allowed to kill them back.”

“Geez, Tybalt.” I’d forgotten how bloodthirsty faeries could be, because my cousins always seem so innocent with their game-show fascination and addiction to sweets.

“That’s exactly why witches are the smallest percentage of the magician population,” Mac intoned.

“No shit, Sherlock.” Sad, but true, and I knew just how pathetic that fact was. Back in the olden days when hunters showed up to purge a town of magical influence, witches always held fast to their oath to harm none and refused to fight back. Better a martyr than a murderer, in their opinion-which of course was the very reason I’d been outcast.

Even though I wasn’t ready to throw in the towel and let the vamps get me just yet, I wasn’t ready to let Tybalt dash outside and slay them all either. There had to be a better way, a plan that would allow me to get around them with no killing involved, even if they more than likely deserved it. Life is a cycle, a great wheel that turns throughout time: we are born, we live, we die, and (if we are lucky) we are reborn again. Vampires take themselves out of nature’s cycle, jamming a hypothetical spike in the spokes to stop the wheel from turning. Their souls are tied to a body stuck in a sort of suspended animation, fueled by the blood of living magicians, and all the while gathering up more bad karma. I don’t know much about the underworld-the place where the restless dead reside-but I do know horrible things happen to vampires when they die. The things your worst nightmares are made of.

Becoming a vampire doesn’t make a person evil. They become one because they already are. And now every vamp in the tri-state area was gunning for me. Great.

“So, what’s the plan?”

“When you’re ready, I walk you home.”

“That’s it?” Sounded too simple to be true.

“That’s it.” Lex nodded. The man was as blasé about the subject as though there were angry Chihuahuas outside planning to nip at my ankles, instead of a posse of vampires waiting to turn me into a magical piñata.

“Huh. Well I guess I better finish cleaning up then.” I slid out of the booth, and Mac looked at me, sadness in his eyes. His expression alone nearly broke my heart, and I swallowed the lump that suddenly formed in my throat.

“You don’t have to clean up, Cat. I can handle it,” Mac offered.

I did my best to give him an encouraging smile and shook my head. “I’ve seen you clean. It’s better if I do it. Won’t take me very long. Just give me a few minutes. Do you want more coffee while you wait?” I asked Lex, in my very best customer-service-first voice.

“Sure, Cat.” He smiled, and I looked to my cousin.

“Okay. Tybalt, get Lex coffee.”

I turned and walked away. Mac coughed, sounding as though he was swallowing a laugh, and I picked up a half-full bin of dirty dishes. Hefting the weight, I headed back into the kitchen, and Mac followed. I set the bin next to the sink and started to empty it.

“Of all the cafés in all the world, he walks into mine. Again.”

“Well, at least he’s one of the best,” Mac said. “He comes from a long line of guardians. There’s Duquesnes across the whole country.”

“Yeah, I know.” I began placing dishes into the washer. I’d only met one member of Lex’s family, but I’d heard a bit about the rest of them. Besides, I didn’t need to know about his family history to know the Duquesnes were model guardians-Lex’d already proved that one when he’d turned me in to the witches’ council. Takes a special kind of devotion to duty to turn your girlfriend over to the firing squad.

“Exactly what did you do to piss the vamps off this badly?”

“Oh, a little of this, little of that.” I waved a hand dismissively. “Swore vengeance on my father in a faerie mound while invoking the Lord and Lady.”

Mac snorted in amusement. “Nice one, Cat.”

“I’m nothing if not creative.”

I headed out to the dining room and went about the rest of my routine-clearing, cleaning and getting the café back to its pristine glory. While concentrating on the music playing through the overhead speakers, I almost managed to ignore the guardian drinking coffee and the certain death that waited outside, lurking in the shadows my own stupidity had caused when I’d blown out the streetlights. See what losing your temper gets you, kiddies?

As I worked I hummed along with the music until I recognized the song-“This Kiss” by Faith Hill. I stopped so suddenly I nearly tripped over my own feet, and then ignored the guardian’s stifled chuckle as I tried to regain my dignity. With a full bin of dishes I retreated into the safety of the kitchen, and when I returned I found Lex and Tybalt enthralled with their battle plans. I almost felt bad for the vampires outside. Almost.

Despite being distracted by his discussion, I felt Lex’s eyes on me as I moved through the room. Usually men only watch me when they’re wondering where their order is, or if they want their check. I assumed Lex was trying to gauge how useful I’d be in a fight, which is not much. Sure, I own a sword and a few knives, but they are forbidden from drawing anyone’s blood but my own (and really, I didn’t want to be encouraging my own blood loss in the middle of a fight). I also have been through a few self-defense training courses, but that knowledge would do jack against a vampire. They’re just about indestructible, as long as they’re well fed. Stab ’em, they keep on coming. Shoot them. Run them over with a car. Drop an anvil on their head.

Okay maybe not the anvil, but as long as their heart isn’t completely destroyed or their head severed, vampires just keep coming back for more. It’s really damn unfair, and the horror-film solutions for vamp slaying don’t do a damn thing. Garlic? Uh, no. Silver? Please, they drape themselves in it since it looks so wonderful with their all-black wardrobes. Sunlight? Unless they get burned red like a tomato with fangs, it’s not going to slow them down much. Which leaves us with wooden stakes. Really, any kind of stake (not steak, stake, the difference is important) would work if you managed to totally obliterate the heart in one shot. The tough part is hitting that one shot right on, and the wood does help if you’re looking for a lovely splintering effect to do maximum damage.

In short, if you should find yourself in a fight against a vampire, you are really right and proper fucked.

The thought was less than comforting to me.

When my tasks were finished I popped into Mac’s office to say goodbye. He did his best to look encouraging as he gave me a hug and a quick peck on the cheek.

“Blessed be, Cat.”

“Thanks, Mac. Are you still leaving tomorrow for the conference in D.C.?” There was a big librarian get-together he was going to. I wasn’t sure what librarians did when they had a conference. Maybe they all sat in the same room and read spellbooks, or had lectures on the finer points of casting anti-dust wards.

“Yeah.”

“Have a good trip and a safe flight. Maybe I’ll already be Titania by the time you get back,” I joked.

“Maybe. I can get you a snow globe of the White House as a congrats gift,” he offered.

“Sure.” I smiled. “Love you, hon.”

“Love you too. Good luck.”

I headed back into the dining room. “I’m ready,” I proclaimed, and Lex nodded. “So, what’s the plan?”

“I doubt they’ll leave quietly, so Tybalt and I are goin’ to convince them to let us alone. After they’ve lost a few limbs they’ll get the message and clear out.”

I wrinkled my nose at the thought of severed dead-people parts.

“Are you sure we can’t just kill them?” Tybalt asked, sounding disappointed.

“Nah, that’d just end up in too much paperwork.” Lex shook his head and slid out of the booth. I’d forgotten how tall he was. I’m on the tallish side, so I don’t encounter a lot of people taller than me. He was wearing all black as usual, from his steel-toed boots to his jeans to his plain cotton T-shirt and long duster. No one wears a jacket in June in Illinois unless we’re experiencing one of our more freakish weather patterns, so I was willing to bet there was more than muscular arms and a tight butt under that duster.

I scolded myself for wondering about the state of Lex’s posterior and then shrugged. “Anything else I need to know?”

“Nope. When we step outside, you shield yourself and don’t distract us.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“Great.” Excellent plan. It was simple, easy to remember. Probably stupid as all get out, but hey, he’s the professional, right? I’m just the target. “Sure you don’t want to duck out the back?”

“They won’t learn anything that way. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.”

“Right.” I motioned toward the door. “After you, gentlemen.”

Squeezing my eyes shut, I hugged my arms to my chest as my shields snapped into place. It was a globe of safety that moved with me, but also made it harder to maneuver, like walking through water. I did my best not to be terrified out of my wits as I walked through the door of the Three Willows. There were no less than five vampires out there waiting for me in the dark, ready to tear me apart and bleed me dry, just as they had my mother and Maureen, two women who were by all accounts much stronger and more knowledgeable about their arts than I. The door shut behind me, and I shivered with fear. I was outside neutral ground. I was fair game.

“C’mon, let’s go,” Lex said. I obeyed, following behind him. He turned in the direction of my apartment, thankfully, and I hurried to keep up. It’s damn hard to move and shield at the same time, and because it takes a lot of concentration it slowed me down.

The silence frightened me the most. A Saturday night in the city should be louder, full of urban noises like cars and cell phones and televisions, but here there was nothing, not even the rumble of an approaching train on the tracks. A slight breeze brushed my face and I caught the scent of vampire magic. It’s a peculiar but memorable scent, the smell of the last dying ember clinging to a candle’s wick, refusing to be snuffed. Really, that’s all vampires are, that last spark of life clinging like hell to this world, terrified to give in to what lies beyond. I knew that smell all too well, remembering how it had mixed with the fear and death in my mother’s house, and I panicked. Something squealed high and hideous just out of arm’s length, and I turned as a small, skinny woman recoiled away from me, her pale hands smoking where they had touched my shield. Glaring at me from beneath her black bangs, she hissed and snarled something that was either incoherent or a completely foreign language, possibly both, and launched herself at me again. The woman bounced off my shield and was thrown backwards like she’d leapt onto a trampoline, a much louder electric sizzle scorching the air.

“Not real bright, are ya?” I smirked, suddenly feeling much braver than I had any right to be. A small crowd of vampires circled around us, and a quick count revealed a few more than we’d expected, nine attackers in total.

“They really aren’t the smartest breed, cousin,” Tybalt commented. The faerie brushed his disguised white-blond hair out of his face and eyed the mob.

“Settle down now,” Lex warned them. “This woman is under my protection, so you’d better head on home.”

“You said there were only five.”

“There are,” he replied. “The rest are just necromancers.”

“Oh great, I feel so much better now.”

“Go on, get out of here,” the guardian repeated to the crowd, as though scolding a disobedient puppy. They ignored him.

“Step aside, Duquesne, you have no business here,” said the vamp who’d bounced off my shields. The overly goth outfit she wore made me wonder if the vampires had lowered their standards for membership. She would blend in perfectly with the late-night Denny’s crowd. It was damn hard to take her seriously.

“Now, Merrideth, I just told you that this young lady is under my protection, so if you and your people don’t turn around and walk away, we’re going to have a problem.” Lex slipped his hands into his duster, reaching for whatever weapons he had concealed beneath it and sending a clear message to the crowd that he meant business.

“Maybe I should kill one, Duquesne, just to set an example,” Tybalt suggested.

“Don’t even think about it, Silverleaf. Just cut ’em off at the knees, that’s always fun.”

Apparently they took offense to that idea, and without another word they attacked, moving in a dark blur that was hard to see. As the vampires swarmed him Lex drew his weapons in a quick flash of bright metal, swinging a short sword in each hand. Guess that answered the question of why wear a long black coat in June, because swords were a tad hard to conceal without it. The guardian moved with inhuman speed as the fight boiled into the street. I couldn’t spot how he was wounding them, but I smelled the stale scent of vampire blood in the humid night air.

Tybalt’s rapier appeared in his hand and his clever human disguise vanished as he abandoned all pretense of hiding his true nature. The vampires around him hissed in surprise, and he launched himself at them, moving in a dark blue blur I couldn’t follow. I felt pretty useless inside of my safe little bubble, but there wasn’t anything I could do to help. I wasn’t trained as a fighter, and thanks to my witch upbringing I didn’t know any offensive spells. Best I could do was hurl harsh language.

A vampire fell away from the fray in the street, stumbling and then scrambling about searching for something on the ground. After a moment I realized it was looking for the rest of the severed arm that had rolled under a parked car. My stomach heaved and I swallowed hard, looking down at my feet and trying to shove that image out of my brain.

“C’mon now, that had to hurt,” Lex teased the armless vamp. “Why don’t you just take your hand and go home?”

“Only a flesh wound,” the vampire growled as it stretched to reach beneath the car.

Like the worst part of a horror film, it was morbidly fascinating, and I couldn’t help but watch. They were stronger, faster and outnumbered him, but somehow Lex held his own. While the vampires were slashed and bleeding, the guardian didn’t have a scratch on him. Yet.

“Come out and play, little Cat,” a new voice crooned. Turning my attention away from the fight, I found four strangers pacing around the edge of my shields. Necromancers, from the awful smell of them. They circled me like hungry sharks, searching for a weak spot in my shields. Yeah, good luck there. It’d take a lot more than four necromancers to get through my shields, as long as I stood still and concentrated. Unfortunately I couldn’t stand there all night, and it’d be a real long walk to my apartment with them trying to sabotage me the entire way. Not a happy thought.

“No thanks, I like it here.”

“What’s wrong? Afraid?”

Oh, please. Like that was going to tempt me into throwing a temper tantrum and let them jump me. I wasn’t falling for that lame trick. I put my hands on my hips and smiled again, more confident this time as I glanced over the speaker. Another sad fashion disaster dressed in black from head to toe, the necromancer reminded me of one of the many reasons why I hate the goth trend: it was created and nurtured by vampires. The woman wore a ridiculous getup of black lace and vinyl complete with spider-web hose and a corset top, doing her best to look dark and mysterious. She’d make a fabulous vampire stereotype when they killed her.

“I’m real scared of that outfit. Was there a sale at Hot Topic?”

Apparently I hit a nerve and she snarled at me. I opened my mouth to toss another witty insult at her, but was interrupted by a distinctly male sound of pain cutting through the tumultuous noise of the fight, too deep to be a faerie’s voice. My panic level rose as I smelled the scent of strong magical blood. Lex had fallen to one knee.

Charging into the fray, I rushed to Lex’s side. My shields bent perilously inward for a heartbeat before rebounding and hurling vampires out of the way like undead bowling pins. When I reached him my shield stretched and enveloped Lex. My brain paused for a heartbeat to wonder about that bizarre detail, because really it should’ve bounced him out of the way as well since I hadn’t had the good sense to drop them before reaching his side. Deciding to ponder that later, I focused on the set of claw marks slashed across his midsection as I hauled him to his feet.

“This qualifies as distracting me,” he growled in annoyance.

“What? You’re hurt, you need help.”

“Barely a scratch. Ol’ no thumbs there, now he needs a medic.” He nodded at a nearby vampire who was indeed missing his thumbs and most of his fingers, which were scattered around his feet like fat, pale worms.

My stomach bolted up near the back of my throat and I realized we were in trouble, because I was sure I couldn’t shield and retch at the same time. “I think we should let him set an example.” I nodded at the faerie-sized blur darting in and out of the mob.

“No, we’re not, and I was doin’ fine on my own.”

“We need a new plan.” Poking at his wound, I tried to gauge how severe the damage was, accidentally coating my fingers with his blood in the process.

“Had to call a guardian and your pixie buddy, eh witch? Not strong enough to defend yourself,” another new voice commented. I spun around to watch in morbid fascination as the limb-impaired vamp reattached his severed arm.

“And you? Needed a hand?” Lex drawled. “Now you, stay here,” he ordered as he glared at me. He lunged toward the vampire, and the two circled each other in a frenzied dance. “You tired yet? You’ll run outta blood ’fore I even break a sweat,” he taunted the vampire.

“Kitty!” Tybalt called out to me as a vamp landed with a thud at the faerie’s feet.

“What?”

“Better idea. Conjure sunlight!”

“What?”

“Just do it. Invoke Apollo, trust me,” the faerie ordered.

I shrugged, not sure where Tybalt was going with his request, considering sunlight doesn’t hurt vampires like it does in movies. Instead of burning them into a pile of ash it gives them severe sunburn, but hey, I didn’t have much else to do while inside my shields, so I decided to run with it. Grabbing my lighter, I held it tight in my right hand, and after sorting through the collection of symbols hung around my neck, I found my sun medallion and clutched it in my left. Holding the button down on my lighter, I turned the flame up to its highest level and held it aloft.

“Great Apollo, drive your chariot hence,

Burning bright for our defense.

Life from light, push back the night,

Chase the darkness from our sight.”

Honestly, I wasn’t quite expecting the result I got. I figured the spell would give me a little bit of sun like the one that had illuminated the room beneath the faerie mound. Instead a small supernova formed from the fire in my hand, a bright white light that blinded me for a moment with its pure intensity. I squeezed my eyes shut as piercing inhuman howls split the summer night. The awful scent of burnt flesh and toasted vinyl filled my nostrils, and I flinched at the heat building up in my grasp. My brain warned me that it would be a smart idea to drop the lighter a split second before it exploded.

I shrieked, shaking my open hand back and forth as lighter fluid and melted plastic rained down on me and scorched my skin. The light died, but I was in too much pain to care at that point. My hand was on fire, I was sure it had to be, even though I hadn’t opened my eyes to actually look at it. The pain was all the information I needed right then.

When I was tackled to the ground I realized my shields had dropped in my distracted state. I mentally resigned myself to the fact that my dumb ass had gotten myself killed, and I braced for the inevitable.

“Catherine!”

“Kitty? Kitty!” Tybalt’s voice assaulted me as I was shaken back and forth and battered by two sets of hands.

“Fire, on fire!” I squeaked.

“I know,” my cousin answered. For a few seconds more the battering continued until finally the assault ended.

“Are you all right?” Lex asked.

“On fire! Hello!”

“You’re not on fire anymore, Kitty,” Tybalt assured me.

“I’m not?”

“Nope.”

Slowly, I opened my eyes, peering down at myself. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but I had some very nasty burns on my right hand, with a sprinkling of minor ones on my arm and across my torso. Thankfully my clothes seemed to have taken the worst of it.

“Great idea, Tybalt. ‘Invoke Apollo.’ You lit me on fire, damn it.”

“Only a little. You lit the vampires on fire a lot more.”

“We need to get her home. My truck’s this way,” Lex interrupted us. He scooped me up into his arms and began to carry me away like a slender damsel in distress, something I certainly am not.

“Whoa, whoa, put me down, you’re injured.”

“You distracted me.”

“I did not. Put me down.”

“Not a chance, honey,” he drawled. I briefly considered the childish response of biting him to get my way. The thought of biting reminded me that the area had somehow become vampire and necromancer free.

“Where’d all the dead people go?”

“Ran home to their mamas, I imagine, after the toasting you gave ’em. Never seen that trick before. You’ll have to teach me that one,” Lex explained, seeming impressed.

“Yeah, it was perfect until you lit yourself on fire too, Kitty.”

Wonderful. From now on I’d just have to light myself on fire every time I got attacked, and all would be right in the world.

“Hey, Tybalt, that doesn’t count as part of the test, does it?” I asked.

“No, but I’m sure they’ll give you at least a night to yourself after that last one.”

“Oh good.”

The three of us approached an SUV. The lights flickered as it chirped and the doors unlocked. The car was black. I suppose I should have expected that.

“What happened to your pickup?”

“Needed a change. This one’s a hybrid.” When we reached the SUV, Lex set me on my feet and opened the passenger side door for me. “After you, Miss Baker.”

I brushed myself off before climbing into the car, and I noticed I’d picked up even more blood that wasn’t mine. “You’re still bleeding.”

“It’s only a scratch.”

Frowning, I got into the car and he shut the door. Tybalt let himself in behind me and climbed into the backseat, and then leaned forward to stare wide-eyed at the million-and-one electronic gadgets scattered across the dashboard.

“Ooh, what does that do?”

“Don’t touch anything.”

“Though I do appreciate the light show, I was doin’ well enough on my own,” Lex drawled as he plopped into the driver’s seat.

“Uh-huh. So those slashes across your ribs are what? A pre-existing shaving accident?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Resisting the urge to comment on the idiot macho nature of men, I sat silent while Tybalt pestered Lex about what all the buttons did. It was a short drive to my apartment, and the trip was uneventful. Lex paused to grab a gym bag out of the back of the car before we headed into the building. Once we were safe inside my place I escorted Lex into the kitchen to tend his wounds at my breakfast table. Magicians heal injuries faster than the average human, but even we can catch an infection if it’s bad enough. No telling where those vamps’d been. They were probably crawling with all kinds of nasty undead cooties.

“We ought to take care of your burns first,” he insisted as I plunked down my first-aid kit.

“I just need a new shirt. This one’s trashed.”

“No, your hand should be bandaged. Give it here and have a seat.” Before I could protest he gently took hold of my injured hand and turned it over to examine it. I sat in the chair he pulled out for me and surrendered to his demand. “Explain to me how you lit those vamps up.”

“Is that what I did? I was a li’l distracted by being on fire at the time.”

“They’re char-grilled. It was great!” Tybalt exclaimed from his perch on the edge of the sink.

“Which, I might add, I’ve never seen before. You drag a vamp out into the sunlight and it gets sunburned, it doesn’t burst into flames. What you did is something out of fiction.” Grabbing a tube of antibiotic ointment from the kit, he unscrewed the cap and poised himself to squeeze some onto my burns. “This’ll probably hurt.”

“Yeah, I figured that. Go ahead.” To my credit I didn’t shriek when the gob of ointment hit my skin, and I kept my composure while he spread it over the angry, reddened wounds. “Tybalt, the spell was your idea. You ever hear of that kind of reaction happening?”

“Sure, that’s why I had you invoke Apollo. Magic sunlight’s got a chance to do it when it’s properly blessed, and the caster’s strong enough.”

I stared incredulously at the faerie. “Why haven’t you mentioned this before?”

“Thought you knew about it.”

“Nobody knows about it.”

“It’s not my fault you humans forget things so easily. You all used to know about that,” he pointed out, a scolding tone in his voice.

“Great. Anything else you want to share with the class?”

The faerie blinked and looked thoughtful for a moment before shaking his head. “No, not really.”

“Those vamps didn’t die, did they?”

“Nope,” Lex replied. “Just ran off like someone lit their tails on fire.” Finished with the ointment, the guardian wound a thin gauze bandage around my hand.

“So they’re going to be extra mad later, pretty much?”

“More than likely.”

“Wonderful.”

“They’ll be less mad than if we’d killed any of them though, so it’s not that bad. And no paperwork. There you go, all set,” Lex proclaimed, releasing my hand.

“Thanks. Your turn,” I said, as I got to my feet.

“I can take care of it.”

“It’ll go faster if I do it. Guardians may know a thing or two about first aid, but witches are natural healers. Now let me see.”

For a second it looked like he wanted to argue with me, but then he shrugged. Slipping his coat off, he placed it on top of the table, and it made a loud clunk as Lex set it down. Next he removed the torn, bloodied black T-shirt, and I blushed from the roots of my hair down to the tips of my toes. Lord and Lady, I’d forgotten just how gorgeous that man was-or rather I’d repressed those memories. But hell, I’d seen him naked, so I was sure I could survive a few minutes of shirtlessness without making an idiot of myself.

“What did this?” I focused my attention on the marks. Five evenly spaced slashes had gouged through his shirt and into skin. Just deep enough to need stitches, they looked really painful.

“Vampires can grow claws when they don’t feel like using fangs to draw blood. Short, stubby claws your average shapeshifter would laugh at, but they get the job done.” Lex grimaced, shrugging again.

I nodded in reply and set about dealing with his injuries. I dabbed at the cuts with a clump of gauze soaked in hydrogen peroxide to clean off the blood. The tough guy didn’t even flinch, good for him.

“I’m going to need a few more things to close these up a bit, unless of course you’d rather I break out my sewing kit.”

Lex winced at the thought of me stitching him up, and I couldn’t blame him. It’s not something I’d be eager to try either. “Go ahead, I’ll wait.”

Leaving the two males alone in the kitchen, I ducked into my bedroom and rummaged through my ritual supplies. Normally I’d light a green candle for healing energy, but I’d had more than enough fire for one night. Instead, I raided my collection of rings and slipped a moonstone and silver ring on each finger of my right hand. Moonstone’s not normally associated with healing, but it’s my zodiac birthstone, so it gives an extra kick to my magic (something I needed at the moment). The rings and my bandages combined to create a ginormous fashion faux pas, but I didn’t care. Returning to the kitchen, I found Lex and Tybalt chatting about the finer points of decapitating vampires.

“Hold still.” Squaring my shoulders, I stared at the claw marks, holding my right hand just a hairsbreadth above them. I closed my eyes, concentrating as I visualized the slashes closing from the inside out, the tissue and muscle slowly knitting together. The energy moved in a cool, soothing wave, and I passed my hand across the length of the wound. To my disappointment I realized I couldn’t close it completely. I just didn’t have the strength left in me, but I managed to reduce the gouges to mere scratches.

“That’s all I can do.” My voice was hushed and breathy as I opened my eyes and sagged into the chair behind me. I was tapped out-between the exertion of the test, the strain of holding up über-shields, and healing the wounds, I was at my magic’s limit.

“Thanks, Cat. I can handle the rest.”

“Nah, I started it, may as well finish it.” Grabbing a tube of triple antibiotic ointment from my first-aid kit, I leaned forward and smeared a generous amount on the claw marks. “Hey, if you heard about my death sentence, I don’t suppose you heard why the vampires want my father to be Oberon?”

“No, that’s goin’ to take more research.”

“It’s a power play of some sort,” Tybalt stated.

“Yeah, but what sort? We need to figure out what they’re up to before we do anything else.”

“That thought had crossed my mind.” Lex smiled dryly. “I’m going to do some askin’ around tomorrow.”

“You mean we are going to do some askin’ around, right?” Frowning at my collection of bandages and the placement of his injuries, I debated how best to wrap them up. The prospect of putting my arms around him to do something as simple as winding bandages turned my face even redder, and I cursed myself for being a blushing idiot. With an annoyed sigh I stood up again and got to work.

“No, I meant just me. I wouldn’t advise you leaving here right now. Your apartment still warded?”

“Of course. I have the whole lot triple warded, for everything but faeries.” With my relationship to Tybalt and Portia’s clan, not many beings from Faerie would try to pick on me, so I don’t worry about keeping them out. Clan Silverleaf is respected, powerful and well connected.

“I’m impressed,” he said, and his expression echoed the sentiment.

“Yeah, well, I got real into security after…” I trailed off. Lex nodded in understanding and didn’t comment. After my attack I’d been extra jumpy, but I’d been twitchy about safety even before that. Not many witches have come home to see a loved one ripped to pieces on the carpet. If my mother had taken more precautions, the vampires might not have been able to get in to attack her, though admittedly it was a very big might, considering my father would have just undone whatever wards she put up. He let those monsters in. Very little feels safe again after that.

“With your wards it’s safer for you to stay here,” he pointed out.

“I’m not going to lock myself in my room and hide under the covers and hope the monsters go away. I need answers, so I’m going with you. There, all done.” Stepping away, I let him inspect my first-aid handiwork.

“Thanks, sugar.”

I flinched at the nickname, the scene a little too familiar for my taste. Lex’d spent a lot of time in my apartment while we were dating, because my place was closer to most of his work than his house was. Walking around him, I crossed to the sink, nudging Tybalt aside so I could wash up. As I dried my hands off, I fought the urge to yawn. I was exhausted. I hadn’t been this tired in years, possibly never. Throwing around so much big magic put a drain on my magical batteries and I hadn’t really given them an opportunity to recharge. If we got into another fight, I’d start to worry about the strength of my shields. Then again, it wasn’t a question of if we’d get into another fight, but of when.

“You look like you could sleep for a week,” Tybalt said.

“Wouldn’t that be nice.”

“You should come home with me, stay with the family.”

“It’s not a bad idea,” Lex agreed. “You’d be safe from the vamps in Faerie.”

“Yeah, but I’m safe from the vamps here as long as they don’t drop a house on my building.” I didn’t want to run and hide behind my faerie cousins-it seemed like cheating somehow.

“Fair enough. So you’ll be leaving now?” Tybalt asked Lex. The faerie folded his thin arms across his chest and watched the guardian carefully. It made me want to give Tybalt a big hug.

“I’ve been ordered to look after Cat. It’s best if I stick close. She does have a nice, comfy couch.” He nodded toward my living room.

“And you’d best make sure you stay on that couch, Duquesne.”

“Of course.” Amusement danced in those beautiful light blue eyes, but Tybalt and I weren’t laughing.

“I don’t know what idiot assigned you here, but I don’t like it, and you’d better be on your best behavior.” The faerie glared up at Lex, and then he turned to me and gave a slight bow. “Blessed be, Kitty. Rest well.” With a soft pop the faerie blinked out of the room, leaving only me and the half-naked guardian. Well, me, the half-naked guardian and my two cats who had been staring at him since he entered the apartment, watching Lex as though he were the King of all cat-kind and they were awaiting his orders. It made me want to yell “boo!” just to see if they’d jump.

“We ought to get you into bed soon,” Lex advised.

I blinked, certain I’d heard that wrong, and struggled to maintain my composure. Certain death was almost easier to face than the idea of Lex spending the night in my apartment.

Placing my hands on my hips, I glared up at him. “Why are you here?”

“Orders, actually.”

“From who? Obviously they didn’t come from the witches’ council. They’d be more than happy to see me dead.”

“Now that’s just not true. And you know I can’t tell you.”

“Great, classified information, got it.” Deciding I wasn’t going to get anywhere, I walked away into the living room. “I’ll get you a pillow, and I have extra sheets in the linen closet.”

“Cat-”

Ducking into the bathroom, I yanked open the door to the linen closet and began rummaging through it. I didn’t think he would need a blanket-it was warm up here on the second floor and my bedroom was the only one with an air-conditioning unit. It was a little comforting to know he’d suffer while trying to sleep in the sauna that was my living room.

“You don’t need to go to any trouble,” he said from behind me. Startled, I jumped and rapped my head hard on the underside of a shelf. It took a great deal of willpower to swallow the string of curses that came to mind, and I rubbed the bump on my head with one hand as I thrust an old set of gray cotton sheets I’d used in college at him.

“Here. Just…just go.”

“Thanks, Cat.”

“Don’t mention it,” I muttered as I retreated hastily to my bedroom. Shutting the door behind me, I crawled directly into bed and hid my head under my pillows. Tomorrow had to be better. I couldn’t see how it could get any worse.