Cole, is that you giggling?”
“No! Never! Although now I real y wish I’d bought you a whip and some leathers for your birthday… Mistress Berggia.”
“Hey! Masochistic stalkers are not funny. I mean, I’m contemplating kil ing the man, and al I can think about is how much that would turn him on!” Roar of laughter from my entire crew. “Thanks for your support,” I drawled. “Can we get back to business now?”
“We’re al ears,” Bergman said loyal y. Then he added,
“And cameras.”
“No!” Cole exclaimed.
“Yup. I got a primo shot of that guy Yousef’s face after she pushed him down.”
“Madame B.!” Cole said. “You
“You are an assassin for the United States government!” I hissed, covering my mouth to make sure no one could overhear. “What the hel are you doing on Facebook?”
“Don’t worry, I go by my alias. You know, Thor
“Don’t worry, I go by my alias. You know, Thor Longfel ow?”
“I do know Thor Longfel ow, and if he doesn’t get his shit together pretty soon, parts of him are going to be a lot shorter!”
Cole did his rejected-beauty-queen huff. Then he said,
“Your sense of humor has shriveled like an old spinster since Vayl forgot what time it was.”
I thought about slapping myself in the face again in the hope that some sense of reality would return in which I would not be forced to discuss my stalker and social networking while I tried to save the man I loved in the middle of goddamn Marrakech! I took a deep breath. It didn’t help. So I went to a fresh juice stal . Bought five oranges. Took them to the nearest open trash can and hurled them into it as hard as I could. By the time I got to number four I felt my balance begin to return. So the last one felt like a bonus squishy. While I was gazing into the garbage, pondering the dead fruits and ignoring the fact that people had begun to give me extra space when they passed by, Cole spoke again.
“Um, Madame B.? Are you stil there? You know we were only kidding around, right? Just trying to lighten the mood a little since it now looks like we’re about to go against some badass Weres who might just tear us al into tiny pieces considering we probably have an ounce of silver between the five of us. That is, unless they feel their pack is too smal . In which case, I don’t real y wanna become a part-time wolf.”
“The moon is barely a fingernail tonight. Maybe they won’t be able to transform,” came the voice of Kyphas.
Such a strange, positive note among al the gloom and doom of the past few minutes that I felt my focus begin to fragment again.
Then Sterling said, “Not likely. They’re guarding a mage, after al . You can bet the day he found out they were coming he dusted, washed the sheets, and cooked up a potion that would force their change.”
I rol ed the kinks out of my neck. Sighed. “Which just reinforces Cole’s point that silver would come in handy right about now. Anybody?”
Cole said, “My ammo wil take them down, even tear pieces off them, but it won’t kil them.” Kyphas said, “My blade contains silver,” just as Bergman noted, “There’s some silver in your bolo, Jaz. I don’t know if it’s enough to fatal y poison a Were, but I’d bet it’l make them sick for a while.”
And if we could count on his rockets taking a head or two, that would even up our odds a lot more, but that invention of his was notoriously unreliable. At kil ing, anyway.
“Al right, then, here’s the plan,” I said. “I’m betting Vayl took off because he suspected Ahmed had more than two Weres guarding his back. I do too. So, since Cole and I are Sensitives, we’l each have to take a search party around this square so we can find the rest of the guard detail and either take them out or disable them. Hopeful y we’l also cross Vayl’s trail.”
Sterling said, “I’m carrying a supply of the Shining Shadows.”
“Wel , we may survive this night after al ,” I said.
“What’s Shining Shadows?” asked Kyphas.
Sterling said, “It’s a powder that glows in the dark. Not only that, once the lights have been kil ed, whatever it’s touched wil freeze for approximately five seconds.” I could hear the hunger in her voice as she said, “You’re good.”
He drawled, “I’m also saved.”
“Kyphas!” I snapped. “Quit being such a soul whore and get with the gang! Okay, slight change of plan now that we can light up the Weres. Cole, I’m going to want you to pick them off, though the rest of you need to understand he’l just be slowing them down. Only a dose of silver or decapitation wil kil them. And even Cole’s not gonna be successful if we can’t figure out how to cut the electricity, so Bergman, total darkness is your job. Cole, can you make your part of the plan work?”
He said, “If I can find a rooftop that isn’t teeming with people.” I looked around. He had a point. A distressing number of those surrounding the square were covered with outdoor restaurants.
I said, “Make that your priority. Everybody else meet up here. I’m standing near the southeast corner of the square.
You’l know the place because the dancers are dressed in blue satin tunics and red caps.” While I watched the men whirl in circles so fast it was a wonder they didn’t stagger off into the crowd, I kept up a running commentary. It helped keep me from entertaining the slimy suspicion that when we found Vayl, the Weres would’ve already shredded him to the bone.
