I walked him to the front door, opened it, and followed him downstairs to do the same for the external doors. We emerged into the cold on the front porch.
It had snowed again in the last couple of days. The streets were unplowed, the sidewalks unshoveled. Jude nudged the palm of my hand with his nose.
I looked down at him steadily. “You come back in one piece, you understand?”
Jude barked once. He took off running. A moment later all that was left of him was fresh paw prints in the snow. I stayed there for a minute, shivering in the cold. Then I went back upstairs, now wondering whether I would lose two friends to this folly.
Beezle and Chloe had demolished pretty much every morsel on the table, and my plate was missing.
He rose, clearing the empty plates away. Nathaniel helped Samiel carry the empty dishes, and I realized that Nathaniel really had changed. The old Nathaniel would never have done “the work of a servant.”
Had he been changing all along, or was this another side effect of the spell? Or—and this was much more disturbing—was he just trying to be what he thought I wanted?
Samiel returned with my plate, the food covered by another dish so it would stay warm. Chloe looked expectantly at me as I uncovered the meal.
“Forget it,” I said.
She looked slightly disappointed, but not surprised.
Beezle had already retired to his favorite pillow on the couch. He sprawled on his back in a sunbeam, his belly at least two times its normal size. His eyes were closed.
“You look like you swallowed a basketball,” I said.
Beezle belched in response.
There was nothing to do except wait. And wonder.
So that was what we did. Chloe convinced me to play UNO with her, and Beezle and Samiel joined in. Nathaniel watched us like he was observing alien life on another planet.
Chloe and Beezle were both loud, demonstrative players. More than once the play of a certain card was punctuated by a noisy “Ha!” or “Beat that!”
I tried to keep my mind on the game, to not mentally follow Jude through the streets of Chicago. I tried not to think about what the Agents might have suffered already in Therion’s tender care.
Most of all, I tried not to think about J.B. standing on a street corner telling me he loved me.
After a while, Chloe and Beezle needed more food to fuel their antics, and Samiel produced another feast. We turned on the news for a bit but they had nothing new to say, and the sight of Therion’s face made me want to smash things, so we shut it off.
Beezle popped
We had just gotten to the point where Quint was telling the story of the U.S.S.
“Jude,” I said, and bolted for the door. Samiel beat me there, clattering down the steps to let Jude in. I stood at the top of the stairs, my heart in my mouth.
Jude sprinted inside. J.B. was not with him.
“Oh, god,” I said, covering my face. Therion had him.
Nathaniel put his arm around me and drew me inside. Jude had already changed back into a man.
“It’s not what you think,” Jude said as soon as he saw me. “Therion doesn’t have him. Titania does.”
9
“TITANIA?” I SAID. “WHY?”
“It took me a little time to put the pieces together; otherwise I would have been back sooner,” Jude said, pulling on his clothes as he spoke. “But I managed to eavesdrop on that little shit Sokolov.”
“How did you get inside the Agency?” I asked. “J.B. told me three days ago that the place was on lockdown. Shouldn’t the wards have kept you out?”
“The wards recognized me as a friend. I was cleared when the cubs were there, remember?” Jude said. “And I know how to keep to the shadows. Those security guards in the lobby never even saw me run past.”
“So what did Sokolov say?”
“He was complaining that Titania had overreached her authority by taking J.B. from the Agency, even if he was a king of a faerie court. And the person he was talking to asked why it was so damned important for Titania to take J.B. when there was a crisis going on. Sokolov said it was to punish you.”
My heart stilled. “She’s going to use J.B. against me in repayment for Oberon.”
Jude nodded. “They came for J.B. just after the vampire invasion started.”
“She’s had him for three days? For the love of the Morningstar. He could be dead by now.”
“No,” Beezle said. “She wants to hurt you. If she’s going to kill him, then you can bet she wants to make you watch. But I bet he wishes he was dead.”
Nathaniel nodded. “Faeries are well versed in methods of torture.”
“Not helping,” I said shortly.
“You’re not going to like this, either,” Jude said. “There was blood all over J.B.’s office. He put up a fight.”
“How much of the blood was his?” I whispered.
“Enough.” Jude’s face was grim.
“Well. I’m not going to wait for an invitation from Titania. We’ve got to go and get J.B. out of there now.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Chloe said. “What about the vampires, and Therion’s threat? You’ve only got two more days to solve that problem or else the vampires are going to invade the rest of the country. Are you really going to let hundreds of innocent people die so you can rescue one man?”
“Who says I’m going to let them die?” I said. “First I get J.B. Then Therion will pay.”
“And how are you going to defeat the vampires?” Chloe said.
“I don’t know yet,” I said. “But once I know J.B. is safe, then I can figure something out.”
“What—once all the Avengers are assembled, a solution will magically appear?”
“I will not leave J.B. in the hands of that bitch,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Watch out. She’s using the B-word.”
“Keep arguing with me and I’ll be using the C-word. I thought you were on my side.”
“I am,” Chloe said. “But you’re following your heart again instead of your brain. The bigger problem here is the vampire invasion, not Titania’s gripe with you.”
“She never uses her brain,” Beezle said.
“Oh, great, another country heard from,” I said. “I’m doing things the way I’ve always done them.”
“Well, the way you do things is inefficient and illogical,” Chloe said.
“It works for me,” I said.
“Fine, fine,” Chloe said, throwing up her hands. “Let’s break out J.B. I have nothing better to do. How do you propose we get there?”
Nathaniel looked at me. “Lord Lucifer brought you there the last time, through the old ways.”
“And Lucifer is out of touch. But I know someone else who will take us there. For a price.”
“Madeline, no. You cannot possibly indebt yourself to Puck any further. It is too dangerous. We are not even certain what kind of creature he is, nor what he will ask of you in return. You already owe him a debt for helping us escape Titania’s court the first time.”
“I don’t see any other way,” I said. “And I won’t leave J.B.”
