Black Magic Sanction

'Find a way for your lofty, unrealistic ideals to deal with it.'

'But I'm the one who gets blamed!' I exclaimed, frustrated. I knew Vivian was going to ask me to rescue Brooke or get caught trying to do it herself. Then I'd get blamed for that, too.

'So stay here with me.' He was slicing more cheese, his broad back to me as he worked. I could almost imagine sharp-edged, shiny wings. 'I'm touched that you came to my rescue. And with nothing but a pain amulet. You are either truly overconfident or truly stupid.'

'I didn't rescue you,' I said quickly.

The fire snapped as he wiped his fingers on a white towel, casual and totally out of character. There was enough cheese for two, and I eyed it hungrily. 'Looks to me like you did,' he said. 'It has been untold ages since I worked with anyone like that. I'd quite forgotten. It does give one a thrill, not knowing what might happen.'

My held breath slipped out, and I frowned. 'Okay, maybe I did,' I admitted, 'but I did it because I need you to find Nick, fast. Can you give me a locator curse?' I asked. Crap, this was risky. Asking Al for help was easy, like a wish, and you always paid for those in the ass.

Al tested the toasted bread between a finger and a thumb. 'Rush, rush, rush. You have no need for haste anymore. Tell me your ideas while we eat. There's always time for coffee.'

I grimaced at my cup, and he put the fork back, clearly not happy with the brownness of the bread. I didn't say anything, and he finally rose, standing so the flames warmed him. 'It's been a bitch since Pierce left to watch you. I've had to do my own cooking. I hope you don't mind cheese sandwiches. It's all I know how to make.'

With the toast done on one side, I thought, eying it as my stomach rumbled again, and I sat up to hide the sound. Elbows on my knees, I hung my head, going over my plan and trying to decide how much to tell him. It was Trent's idea, thanks to his Pandora charm. 'I need to be charged with a crime,' I started.

Al laughed as he shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked on his heels. 'I can think of a few. Let's start with uncommon stupidity for jumping the lines untrained.'

My head came up, and I frowned. 'I managed it, though, didn't I? I'm serious. The press is always watching me, so I may as well use that to my advantage. I need to be caught at some crime that is both spectacular and relatively harmless, something that people will fall in love with, maybe see as noble. Nick is the perfect choice.'

'Noble,' Al said, taking up two of the forks. 'Like a new modern-day Robin Hood.'

Yeee-haaaa. 'If the press is paparazzing me, the coven can't tuck me away in Alcatraz.'

Al layered a slice of cheese between two pieces of toast and set it on a black plate that hadn't been there a moment ago. 'Ahhh...,' he said as he quickly made three sandwiches, divvying them up between two plates. 'If they give you a trial, what you are comes out, and where all witches have their beginnings. Or they leave you alone and pray you don't cross them. Or they try to kill you without the press knowing. Double jeopardy?'

I nodded, eying the two sandwiches on that second plate. 'It's worth the risk. Either they let me go when I promise to be good...'

'Or they kill you.'

The cheese smelled all melty as Al slid the plate with one sandwich in front of me beside the nasty coffee. I looked at it. Al made me dinner? 'That's why it has to be spectacular,' I said. 'I want Trent involved. He started it. He's going to have to call them off. He doesn't want me dead. He wants me to work for him.' I thought of that paper he wanted me to sign, wondering whether I'd do it now if given the chance.

Al sat at the far end of the long table, pulling his plate closer and picking his first sandwich up with a napkin that appeared from nowhere. 'I've never agreed with this long leash you're giving your familiar. See what he's done? In a mere six months? Bring him in. I can whip him into shape in half that time. Give him back to you as a present. I'll put a bow on him and everything.' Al quit waving his toasted sandwich and took a bite.

'Trent is not my familiar.' I leaned over the plate and picked up my sandwich with my bare fingers, wondering why Al didn't want to touch his. 'I don't need one, okay? This entire mess is because of him thinking I might use him as a familiar.'

Elbow on his knee, Al leaned forward, chewing. 'So I gathered.'

I watched him for a moment, then looked at the sandwich. It smelled wonderful. 'Thank you,' I said, then took a bite. Oh God, it tasted wonderful.

Al seemed pleased when I followed my first bite with another. 'Why do you want Nick?' he asked. 'Not that I'm agreeing to help you... yet.'

I looked for a napkin, hesitating when one misted into existence under my fingers. 'I know him,' I said, dabbing my lips. This was really weird. Dinner with Al? Kind of like tea in the Sahara. 'He's a thief, and a damn good one. Mmmm, this is tasty.' Flattery is always good.

The demon's smile widened. 'Trading him in for space would get a fine room for you.'

My chewing slowed. ' 'Scuse me?'

'Your pet rat. I can get you a good price for Nicky. Trade him for a very nice starter room connected to my space. Unless you really like sleeping in the workroom? Let's bend that request you made of no snag-and-drags of people with you. I pop in on the excuse of checking on you, then trade him in for a space of your very own. What do you owe him anyway? He told me secrets about you. Good ones. Things that only a lover would know. How do you think I got Brooke to let me out?'

I sucked my teeth to get the cheese out of them. Interesting. Twice now he'd asked me to stay, first in his rooms and now in my own. I set the crust down, and Al eyed it. 'I'm asking Nick for his help, not his soul. I don't belong here. I like the sun.'

'So do I, itchy witch, but here I am.'

He leaned back, and I fingered the crust, thinking about living your life underground.

'Be honest, dove,' he coaxed, an ankle dropping onto a raised knee. 'You don't have it in you to make your sewer rat do what you want. You're not nearly pissed enough at the world.'

'I'm going to ask,' I countered. 'Persuasively.'

'He hates you,' Al said, his tone returning to his usual pomp and extravagance.

A smile lifted the corners of my mouth as I thought of Treble. 'He'll help me. He won't be able to resist. The guy has an ego the size of Montana.'

'Well, if you're going to stroke his ego,' Al grumbled. 'Honestly, this preoccupation you have with nasty little men is going to get you killed.'

I eyed the second, untouched sandwich on Al's plate. 'That's why I've got you, Al, to keep me alive.' I licked my fingers. 'Are you going to eat that?'

Motions slow, he carefully slid his plate to me, the china scraping loudly on the wood. This was kind of nice, and I looked around as I filled my stomach, enjoying the crisp bread and the cheese. I couldn't place what kind it was, and frankly, I didn't want to know. 'Thank you,' I said, lifting the sandwich so he knew what I was talking about. 'I like your library.'

Al had pushed himself into the corner of his massive chair, scowling, though I think he was secretly pleased that I liked his cooking. 'Don't become comfortable in it. I'm not granting you any private peek into my existence. The workroom is messy is all.'

I swallowed, washing it down with a gulp of that awful coffee. Memories of my dad's fairy tales lifted through me, but the caution there had been don't eat food with the sidhe or elves, not demons, and I'd already had breakfast with Trent. 'Pierce made a mess, eh?'

'Mmmm,' was his only answer, but his eyes held amusement when they met mine. 'You should have seen his face. I'll beat him soundly when you finally come home for good, no question about it. Maybe I'll let you help. Sell him, and you could buy your own address.'

Third offer, a place of my own. Better and better. 'Al, don't start,' I said with a sigh, and he laughed. The sound shocked through me, and he quickly sobered when I stared at him. 'So... are you going to help me?' I asked.

His eyes shifted everywhere, and I felt like I was on trial. 'Perhaps,' he drawled. 'I want to know why the change of heart. You told the coven you're not a witch. You asked for my help right in front of them. You told them that you shunned them?

My eyebrows rose. I shunned them? I'd never thought of it that way. It sort of put