A Perfect Blood

“Curses,” I affirmed, wishing I hadn’t shoved the chair out of the line. “I have to find HAPA or I’ll get blamed for several murders. But I broke the charm so that I could fix Winona.”

Al looked up from where he’d been analyzing his fingernails. Like magic, his glove ghosted back into existence. “Winona? A new friend of yours?”

I shook my head, remembering Winona’s courage. She was braver than I was. “They cursed her, Al, with my stolen blood. I can’t hide behind what I want to be anymore. It’s hurting too many people. I’m a demon, and I won’t let fear keep me from being a demon anymore. She needs my help,” I whispered. “It’s my fault she’s the way she is, and no one is going to fight my battles anymore.” I looked up. “Even if it scares me.”

Trent cupped a hand under my elbow, supporting me in such a way that Al wouldn’t readily see. “HAPA has a vial of her blood,” Trent said. “Once they get done analyzing it, they’re going to try to duplicate it and use it to eliminate Inderland one species at a time.”

Al turned to face us fully, his eyebrows high. “Let’s all hope they start with the elves,” he said drolly. “How very careless of you, Rachel, giving out free curses.”

“It wasn’t my idea.”

Taking off his hat, Al wiped a gloved hand over his hair before replacing the hat and squinting into the sun. “Demon,” he scoffed. “You may be a demon, but you don’t have two curses to rub together to protect yourself. You’re coming with me where you will be safe.”

I shifted my weight, and we backed up a step, to the edge of the line. “No.”

Al stepped forward, and Trent put a hand out between us, stopping him cold. “She doesn’t want to go with you.”

Al’s eyes narrowed. “Rachel can’t protect herself,” he said as if I wasn’t standing there. “You know it better than she does. If you truly care about her, let her go. I’ll keep her safe. Fill her with curses until she can stand on her own.”

I blinked. Care about me? Boy, did Al have it wrong.

Trent leaned forward over my shoulder, our heads almost touching, his front to my back. “Safe? The same way I kept her safe by hiding her? I nearly killed her trying that, and hiding with you will do the same. No. She will have the sun and shadow both.”

Sun and shadow both? I’d heard that before. It was an elf thing, and I suddenly felt uneasy. Things were spiraling out of control. I pulled away from Trent to see him better. He looked grim, squinting in the bloodred light, his hair blowing in the fitful wind like the tall grass around us. His jaw was clenched. Determined. He looked determined, and something in me twisted. Not again. I didn’t want his death on my soul.

Al smacked his walking cane against a large rock standing like an island in the sea of grass. “Sun and shadow. Sun and shadow!” he shouted, and Trent’s grip on me tightened. “There is no both. There is one or the other, and you will come with me now!”

Al reached, and I pulled the line into me. Like a flood it burst into my soul, raging through the hard-won, already desensitized channels, and racing to my hands. Feeling it, Al jerked his hand away, and Trent got it instead. The man grunted as the full force of the line burned him, and I winced, dampening the flow immediately. “Oh, crap. I’m sorry, Trent!” I said, and he frowned as he straightened from his pain-instilled crouch.

“My fault,” he said as he found his full height. “It’s okay.”

Al leaned forward, and Trent grasped my shoulder, ready to yank me away. “It’s down to pride, Rachel,” the demon said, so close that I could see myself reflected in his goat-slitted eyes. “Even if I could get the rest of them to accept that you are sun and shadow both, there’s the undeniable fact that you broke the balance of the ever- after. I’m paying Ku’Sox through the ass to keep it quiet. I need a source of income, and you’re it.”

Pride. That I could fix. “What if I sign the income from my tulpa over to you? You can pay him from that until I fix the line,” I said breathlessly.

Al jumped as if startled, and even Trent made a questioning noise. “Tulpa?” Trent breathed, his words tickling my ear.

“I’ll tell you later,” I said, distracted as Al frowned, a calculating squint to his eyes. “That might buy a few groceries until I can work out something with Trent in lifting that elven curse,” I offered, and sure enough, he twirled his walking cane in wide circles as he thought about it. If I could satisfy him, give him something he wanted, he’d let me do what I wanted for a little longer.

“And you think you’re not one of us,” Al said, his tone flat but with a trace of pride.

“Oh, but I do,” I said, my jaw clenching against the pain in my leg. I had taken off the bracelet. I had gotten Al to listen. I had Trent as an ally. Three impossible things before midnight. I began to shake, the limits of my flagging endurance reached.

For a long moment, Al eyed us. “Sun and shadow,” he grumbled, and Trent jumped when the demon snapped his fingers dramatically and a piece of paper floated down, flashing into existence from a space three feet over Al’s head. The demon reached for it as it fluttered, his gaze never leaving mine, a hint of a smile about his lips. “Sign it,” he said, extending it.

I reached out, but Trent was faster, snatching it before I could. “She’s not signing anything until my people look at it.”

I was going to fall down if we didn’t finish this soon. My feet were soggy, hidden by the dry grass, and I reached for the pen stuck in Trent’s pocket, making him blink in surprise. “Why?” I said, taking the paper from him as Al smiled. “If it’s not what I agreed to, I will burn Al’s gonads off the first chance I get. Turn around. I need to use your back for a second.”

“Ah, hold on a tick,” Al said, snapping his fingers again and catching the new paper drifting down. “How silly of me. This is the one. Here.”

I crumpled the first and dropped it. Al burst it into a quick flame that vanished before it could reach the dry grass, ashes melting into the gritty wind. “Mmm-hmm,” I said, satisfied, as I slapped the paper on Trent’s back and signed my name. Al would need it to get at my funds, and apparently there was a lot there if he wanted physical proof of our agreement.

The demon was smiling as Trent stood and I handed the signed paper across him. Al was standing a bare three feet away, his mood almost jovial as he took the paper and it vanished in a wash of black sparkles. “Thank you, Rachel,” he said, carefully reaching for my hand as Trent stiffened. “Welcome back, my itchy witch.”

I couldn’t help my smile, feeling a wash of energy flowing from him to me as he kissed the top of my hand in an overdone show of flair. Trent was glowering, clearly unhappy, as he stood within yanking distance while Al flirted. I was ready to cry in relief. I was back, alive, with the line in me and on good terms with my teacher. Somehow we had done it.

“Bye, Al,” I said as he eyed me from over his glasses.

“If I ever see you in sweats again, I swear by Bartholomew’s balls I will flay you.” Al dropped my hand. His smile faded as he looked at Trent, and then he was gone, the grass he had displaced whispering back into place.

I took a deep breath, exhaling the gritty wind and feeling my feet go cold. I’d done it. No, we’d done it.

“Signing an unread contract with a demon wasn’t very smart,” Trent said, and I dropped my second sight. The hum of the line fell to nothing in me as I dropped it, too, but I could feel it just within my reach, easing my headache away with the heartbeat of creation.

Reality superimposed itself over the red-sheened ever-after. My hair settled, and I looked at the ruin of Trent’s office. Smiling, I walked over to the desk to see how much of that coffee was left. “Oh, I beg to differ,” I said smugly, dropping my crutch on the rolling chair in passing.

He looked mad, but I was in a great mood even if I had one hell of a night facing me.

“My office is trashed,” he grumped as he squished across his damp carpet and took the coffee that I was holding out to him. “Why are you smiling? My fish are dead.”

“Because Al and I are okay,” I said, taking a sip from my cup and musing silently over the rim of it. “And that’s important to me. But I’m sorry about the fish.”

“You think that was okay?”

I sat back against Trent’s desk, trying to look sexy in sweats. “Yup. Al fixed my leg.” I smacked it to prove my