Black Magic Sanction

send him into hibernation and possible death. The tight black silk, red bandanna, and wooden-handled sword about his middle made the four-inch man look like a mix of theater and inner-city gang member.

In a smooth motion, Trent swooped forward to pick up the paper from under my chair. I stepped back out of his reach, my instinct to keep space between us kicking in. Refolding the contract, he tucked it away in his jacket. 'Let my office know when you change your mind,' he said, then headed for the door, jerking to a stop when Ivy didn't get out of his way.

'Let us know when cherry lollypops come out your ass,' Jenks said, and I leaned back against the tall file cabinet, arms crossed over my middle.

Glenn cleared his throat, and Ivy slowly moved out of Trent's way.

'Your team is as professional as always, Morgan,' Trent said lightly. Nodding at Glenn, he turned and walked out. A buzz of conversation rose behind him from the open offices.

I exhaled, shaking. 'I hate him,' I said, moving to my chair and plopping into it, making Jenks fly up. 'I really do.'

A glitter of silver sparkles hit my hand an instant before Jenks did. 'Did he wave money at you again?' he asked, telling me he hadn't been eavesdropping. 'I told you I've got this, Rache. I don't even want you to pay me back.'

I winced. If only it were that simple.

Ivy turned from watching Trent make his way to the elevators. 'How much was it?' she asked, staying where she was so the accumulated emotion of the room wouldn't hit her as hard. Her eyes were dilated more than the electric lights warranted, but she looked okay, especially if I'd interrupted her plans this weekend and she was hungry. Glenn, I noticed, wasn't fazed at all by her state, almost nonchalant as he moved behind his desk. Yeah, they had definitely been spending time together. His cologne smelled kind of citrusy, too.

'He tried to buy her,' Glenn said for me. 'In exchange for getting the coven of moral and ethical standards off her back.'

'How did he know it was the coven?' Ivy wanted to know, and I stared at Glenn.

'How do you know what Trent wanted?' I asked him, my foot twitching.

Smiling grimly, Glenn punched a button on his phone and a light went out. 'How else would I win the office pool?' he said, leaning back in his chair. 'Rachel, you are in deep doo-doo.'

'Yeah, tell me about it.'

'Doo-doo? Call it what it is,' Jenks smart-mouthed. 'She's so far up shit creek, she could float down with the rest of the turds.' I sighed my agreement as he settled himself on the warmth of my hand. 'What does the coven want?' he asked. 'They already shunned you.'

'Someone—Trent probably—told them what I was,' I said softly, depressed. Glenn already knew. He'd been there the day I'd figured it out. 'They want to put me in a cage and dissect me.'

Ivy stiffened, and Jenks's tiny features bunched up. 'You're a witch,' he said vehemently, and I felt a sense of peace at his loyalty.

'Thanks, Jenks,' I said, though I didn't know if I believed it anymore. 'Trent fed them some line about how his father made me so he can control me. Destroy me, even. They'll let me roam free and in the wild if he takes legal responsibility for me.'

'That's a lie,' Ivy said from the doorway. 'He can't control you. And he didn't make you. His father simply found a way to keep you alive.'

I lifted a shoulder and let it fall. 'Looks to me like he's doing a damn fine job of controlling me right now.' Stupid-ass businessman. I still didn't believe him. No one else knew what I was capable of except my friends—and Newt, on a good day. Sighing, I thought back to who'd been there the evening Trent told Minias what I was: Marshal, Ceri, and Keasley—but they wouldn't say anything; neither would Quen, but if Quen knew, then so did Jonathan, the prick who organized Trent's life. Lee seemed the most likely candidate for playing let's make a deal with the coven, trading information about me to erase his own questionable dealings in black magic—if he cared to risk their finding out he was just like me. It had to be Trent.

Ivy's expression became pensive. Having born the brunt of a master vampire's attentions, she knew how easy it was to control someone through their emotions. She was still trapped in her own personal hell even though the lock had been broken and the door was wide open.

Behind his desk, Glenn looked unsure. 'They can't do this. Even the coven of moral and ethical standards has to work within the law. Can't you file an appeal or something?'

At that, I smiled and Ivy slumped against the door frame. 'Sure, but if I disappear, who's to say different? Ever wonder why witches generally don't make much trouble? We police ourselves, just like Weres and vamps. We have a long history of hiding, Glenn. The I.S. just picks up the ones who are stupid enough to be caught.' Caught committing benign crimes like theft, larceny, murder—stuff humans were conditioned to deal with. It seemed ironic that bringing in the stupid ones was what I used to do for a living.

I was totally depressed now, and Jenks rose, his dragonflylike wings clattering for attention. 'Rache, we've done kidnap prevention before. The weather is warm enough to string pixy lines in the garden, and we've got Bis now. They want you alive, right?'

'To start with, yeah,' I said, not feeling any better. Ever since quitting the I.S., it seemed as if all I'd done was run. I was tired of it. But Jenks was right. We'd find a way around this. We always did.

Looking up, I met Glenn's eyes, then Ivy's. Taking a slow breath, I stood. 'I'll call David when I get home,' I said, dropping another bit of strawberry off me and into Glenn's trash. 'He's great with paperwork. If you can't overpower them, you drown them in red tape.' I managed a smile. 'Thanks, guys. I don't know what I'd do without you.'

'Die, probably,' Jenks said with a laugh as we headed out.

But the thing was, he was right.

Four

Traffic among Cincy's tight buildings was clogged, the night gloom making the oncoming car lights all the brighter. It was going to be stop-and-go all the way to the interstate, and I almost wished I'd taken the longer way through Old Newport, but the FIB building was right in downtown Cincy, and the Hollows were just over the bridge. Once I got on the expressway, I'd be home in ten minutes.

'Accident?' I guessed, glancing across the narrow front seat of my convertible to Ivy, chilling as she watched nothing, her expression blank as she dwelled on who knew what. Her long fingers spun a world-weary, holed coin laced on a faded purple ribbon around her neck like it was a rosary. She kept it as a reminder that she couldn't love without hurt, and it worried me.

Jenks buzzed his wings to warm himself as he sat on the rearview mirror and looked backward. 'You want me to go look?'

I flicked my attention to the heater controls, cranked to warm the already hot car. If he'd offered, it wasn't too cold for him outside, but for him to risk his core temp dropping to satisfy my curiosity was not what our partnership was about. 'Nahh. It's probably nightwalkers.'

Jenks's heels drummed against the mirror. 'Sun's been down for over two hours.'

I nodded, inching forward another three car lengths and just missing the light. Sighing, I cracked the window. It smelled like hot strawberries in here.

It had been forty years since the Turn and all the various Inderland species had come out of hiding to save humanity from extinction. Night and graveyard shifts had taken on entirely new meanings. What I was stuck in now was the dark-loving parts of Inderland trying to get to work and the late-working humans trying to get home. Rush hour shifted with the sun, two hours before sunrise and two hours after sunset being the worst. We were at the tail end of it.

My elbow went onto the tiny lip of the closed window and my fist propped up my head. Between Trent's offer and the coven wanting my head, I wasn't in the best of moods. A sigh slipped from me as I counted the people passing with cell phones against their ears.

'I told you not to worry about it, Rache,' Jenks said, mistaking my worry. 'I owe you lots more than lousy bail