For a Few Demons More

For an instant, Ivy had seen herself as I did: strong, capable, able to love someone fully and be loved in return. By giving her my blood, I had told her that yes, she was worth sacrificing for, that I liked her for who she was, and that her needs weren't wrong. Needs were needs. It was us who labeled them right or wrong. I wanted her to feel that way all the time.

But God help me, it had been a rush.

As if she had heard my thought, Ivy turned from Jenks. 'Stop it,' she said, and I flushed. She couldn't read my mind, but she might as well have. A vamp's sense of smell was tuned to pheromones. She could read my mood as easily as I could smell the sharp scent of rose hips coming from my untouched tea. Crap, Ceri really expected me to drink this?

Jenks's wings reddened, clearly not liking the shift in topic from how to spend our pooled business money to how to keep our teeth to ourselves, and Ivy gestured with a long, slim hand to include me in their argument.

'It's not that I don't want to spend the money,' she said, both soothing and assertive. 'But why do it if a demon will take it down again?'

I snorted, turning to the phone book and shifting a page. 'Newt isn't just a demon. Ceri says she's one of the oldest, most powerful demons in the ever-after. And she's stark raving nuts,' I muttered, turning a page to another listing. 'Ceri doesn't think she'll be back.'

Ivy crossed her arms to look slinky and svelte. 'So why bother re-sanctifying at all?'

Jenks snickered. 'Yeah, Rache. Why bother? I mean, this could be good. Ivy could invite her mom over for a housewarming. We've been here a year, and the woman is dying to come over. Well, at least she would be if she were still alive.'

Worried, I looked up from the phone book. Alarm sifted over Ivy. For a moment it was so quiet I could hear the clock above the sink, and then Ivy jerked, her speed edging into that eerie vamp quickness she took pains to hide. 'Give me the phone,' she said, snatching it.

The black plastic slipped from my lap, and Ivy drew the heavy book off the table. Retreating to her end of the table with quick steps, she set the directory on her knees and pulled a legal pad from a stack. While Jenks laughed, she sketched a graph with columns headed by phone number, availability, cost, and religious affiliation. Confident we'd be on holy ground before the week was out, I stifled my ire that she had taken over.

Jenks was smiling when he flitted from the windowsill, gold sparkles landing in my teacup before he settled beside it. 'Thanks,' I said, knowing Ivy would hear me even if I whispered. 'I don't think I'm going to sleep again until we're resanctified—and I like sleeping.'

Head bobbing in an exaggerated motion, he nodded. 'Why don't you just put the church in a circle?' he questioned. 'Nothing can get through that.'

'It wouldn't be secure unless we removed all the electricity and gas lines coming in,' I explained, not wanting to tell him that Newt could apparently get through any circle with enough reason. 'You want to live without your MTV?'

'Oh, hell no,' he said, glancing at Ivy when she offered the person on the phone double to get the job done before sunset tonight. Ivy didn't get along with her mother very well.

Tired, I slumped back into my chair, feeling the weight of the insane morning hour fall on me. Jenks's wife, Matalina, had gotten the pixy kids out of the living room, and the sound of them in the garden slipped in with the morning breeze. 'Ceri said if Newt doesn't show up in the next three weeks, she'll probably forget about us,' I said around a yawn, 'but I still want to get the church resanctified.' I looked at my chipped nail polish in dismay. 'Minias hit her with a forget charm, but the demon is freaking crazy. And she shows up without being summoned.'

Ivy stopped talking on the phone, and after she and Jenks exchanged a look, she clicked it off without saying good-bye. 'Who is Minias?'

'Newt's familiar.' I gave her a tight-lipped smile to soften the shortness of my answer. Sometimes Ivy was like an ex-boyfriend. Hell, she was like that most times, as her vampire instincts fought with her reasoning. I was not her shadow, aka source of blood, but living with her blurred the lines between what she knew and how her instincts said she should feel.

She remained silent, clearly having heard the lack of completeness. I didn't want to talk about it, the fear being too damn close to my skin. Literally. I stank like the ever-after, and all I wanted was to clean up and hide under my covers for the next three days. Having had Newt in my head gave me the willies, even if I'd regained control almost immediately.

Ivy took a breath to press for more, dissuaded when Jenks clattered a warning with his wings. I'd tell the whole story. Just not now. My blood pressure dropped at Jenks's show of support, and, lurching to my feet, I went to the pantry for the mop and bucket. If we were going to have a holy person in our church, I wanted the blood circles gone. I mean, really…

'You've been up since noon yesterday. I can do that,' Ivy protested, but lack of sleep had made me bitchy, and I dropped the bucket in the sink, slamming the cupboard door under it when I brought out the disinfectant and tossed the scrub brush in.

'You've been up as long as I have,' I said over the rush of water. 'And you're arranging who's going to bless the grounds. The sooner we get that done, the better I'll sleep.' Something I was taking care of until you butted in, I thought snarkily as I took off the metallic bracelet Kisten had given me and draped it around the base of Mr. Fish's bowl. The black gold of the chain and mundane charms glittered, and I wondered if I should take the time to try to put a ley line spell into them, or just leave them as something pretty to wear.

The sharp orange scent tickled my nose, and I shut off the tap. My back protesting, I lugged the bucket over the edge of the counter, spilling some. I awkwardly rubbed the mop over the drops and headed out, bare feet squeaking. 'It's not a biggie, Ivy,' I said. 'Five minutes.'

The clatter of pixy wings followed me. 'Isn't Newt's familiar a demon?' Jenks asked when he landed on my shoulder.

Okay, so maybe it hadn't been a show of support but merely him wanting to feel me out as to what info to give Ivy. She was a worrywart, and the last thing I wanted was her thinking I couldn't go out for a can of Spam without her 'protection.' He was a better judge of her mood than I was, so I set the bucket by the circles and whispered, 'Yeah, but he's more of a caretaker.'

'Tink's a Disney whore,' he swore, taking a potshot at his infamous kin, as I plunged the mop up and down a few times before squeezing out the excess water. 'Don't tell me you got another demon mark?'

He left my shoulder when I sent the mop across the floor, apparently finding the back-and-forth motion too much to take. 'No, he owes me,' I said nervously, and Jenks's jaw dropped. 'I'm going to see if he'll take Al's mark off me in exchange. Or maybe Newt's.'

Jenks hovered before me, and I straightened, tired as I leaned on the mop. His eyes were wide and incredulous. The pixy had a wife and way too many kids living in a stump in the garden. He was a family man, but he had the face and body of an eighteen-year-old. A very sexy, tiny, eighteen-year-old with wings, and sparkles, and a mop of blond hair that needed arranging. His wife, Matalina, was a very happy pixy, and she dressed him in skintight outfits that were distracting despite his minute size. That he was near ing the end of his life span was killing me and Ivy both. He was more than a steadfast partner skilled in detection, infiltration, and security—he was our friend.

'You think the demon will do that?' Jenks said. 'Damn, Rache. That'd be great!'

I shrugged. 'It's worth a shot, but all I did was tell him where Newt was.'

From the kitchen came Ivy's voice raised in irritation. 'It's Oakstaff. Yes.' There was a hesitation, then, 'Really? I didn't know you kept those kinds of records. It would have been nice if someone had told us we were a paranormal city shelter. Shouldn't we be getting a tax break or something?' Her voice had gone wary, and I wondered what was up.

Jenks alighted on the edge of the bucket, wiping a spot to sit before settling himself, his dragonfly wings stilling to look like gossamer. The mop wasn't doing it; I would have to scrub. Sighing, I dropped to my knees and felt around the bottom of the bucket for the brush.

'No, it was sanctified,' Ivy continued, her voice growing louder, clear over the hiss of the bristles. 'It isn't anymore.' A slight pause and she added. 'We had an incident.' Another hesitation and she said, 'We had an incident. How much to do the entire church?'

My stomach clenched when she added softly, 'How much to do just the bedrooms?'