'Someone needs to touch her,' Minias said dryly. 'She hasn't been touched in twelve years.'
'She doesn't need to be touched by you.' I leaned back with my arms crossed over my middle. My gaze went to my mother, who was flirting in an old-lady way with the counter kid, and I paused. She hadn't remarried when Dad died, hadn't even dated. I knew she intentionally dressed herself to look older than she was to keep men at a distance. With the right haircut and dress, we could pass as big sister, little sister. As a witch, her life span was a good hundred and sixty years, and while most witches waited until they were sixty before starting a family, she had had Robbie and me very early in her life, giving up a promising career to raise us first. Maybe we were accidents. Passion babies.
That brought a smile to my face, and I forced it away when I noticed Minias watching me. I straightened as my mom approached with a canister of cinnamon and her plate of cheesecake; the kid behind the counter was following with the rest. 'Thank you, Mark,' she said as he placed everything on the table and backed up a step. 'You're a sweet boy.'
I smiled at Mark's sigh. Clearly he wasn't happy with the title. He glanced at me, then Jenks, his eyes brightening. 'Hey,' he said as he tucked the tray under his arm. 'I think I've seen you somewhere….'
I cringed. Most times people recognized me, it was from the news clip of me being dragged on my ass down the street by a demon. The local news had incorporated it into their front credits. Sort of like that guy on skis pinwheeling over the finish line in the agony of defeat.
'No,' I said, unable to look at him as I pulled the lid off my cup of coffee. Ah, coffee.
'Yes,' he insisted, weight on one foot. 'You've got that escort service. In the Hollows?'
I didn't know if that was better or not, and I looked tiredly up at him. I'd done escort service before, not that kind of escort service, but real stuff, dangerous stuff. I had a boat blow up around me once. 'Yeah, that's me.'
Minias looked up from shaking cinnamon on his coffee. Jenks snickered, and I bumped my knee on the underside of the table to make his espresso slop over. 'Hey!' he shouted, rising up a few inches, then settled back down, still laughing.
The front door jingled, and the kid shot off his glad-to-have-you-here spiel and left. Minias was the only one listening.
My coffee was steaming, and I hunched over it while I watched the demon. His long fingers were interlaced about the white soup-bowl mug as if relishing its warmth, and though I couldn't tell for sure because of the sunglasses, I think his eyes closed as he took the first sip. A look of bliss so deep it couldn't have been faked slipped over him, easing his features and turning him into a vision of relaxed pleasure.
'I'm listening,' I said, and a mask of nothing fell between us.
My mother quietly ate her cheesecake, her eyes flicking uneasily between us. I had the distinct impression she thought I was being rude.
'And I'm not happy,' I added, making her lips press tightly. 'You told me Al was contained.' I lifted my coffee and blew across the top. 'What are you going to do about him breaking his word and coming after me? What do you think will happen when this gets out?' I took a sip, forgetting for a moment where I was when it slipped down, easing my slight headache and relaxing my muscles. Jenks cleared his throat, bringing me back.
'You won't have a chance of luring anyone into any agreements again,' I said as my focus cleared. 'No more familiars. Won't that be nice?' I finished with a simpering smile.
His eyes on the delights of that fruit-baby picture, Minias sipped his drink with his elbows on the table and his mug propped up at mouth height. 'This is much better this side of the lines,' he said softly.
'Yeah,' Jenks said. His espresso cup came up to his waist. 'That burnt amber really sticks in your throat, doesn't it?'
A flicker of annoyance flashed across Minias, and a thread of tension entered his stance of relaxed idleness. I took a deep breath, smelling only coffee, cheesecake, and the characteristic redwood scent of a witch. I was sure my mom had slipped him a charm, and I wasn't looking forward to finding the cost of such an expensive amulet tacked on to the losses from the store. But if it kept him from smelling like a demon and causing a panic, I couldn't complain.
'Well, what do you want?' I said, setting my cup down. 'I don't have all night.'
My mom frowned, but Minias took it in stride, easing back in his stiff chair and setting his giant mug aside. 'Al is being summoned out of confinement—'
'We figured that part out,' Jenks said snottily.
'Jenks…,' I murmured, and the pixy walked across the table with his makeshift sword to the cheesecake.
'We've never run into this before,' Minias said, hesitating as he took in Jenks's 'whatever' attitude. 'Because of his extraordinary amount of contact with this side of the lines, Al has arranged for someone to summon him every sundown. They get what they want, then release him without the compulsion to return to the ever-after. It's a win-win situation for both of them.'
And a lose-lose for me. My thoughts flashed to my old boyfriend, Nick. Jenks eyed me over a chunk of cheesecake as big as his head, clearly thinking the same thing. Nick was a thief who habitually used demons as a source of information. Thanks to Glenn at the FIB, I had a copy of his file in my dresser's bottom drawer. It was so thick a monster rubber band barely kept it shut. I didn't like thinking about it.
'Someone's freeing a demon without compulsion to return to the ever-after?' I managed, my eyes lowered. 'That's not very responsible.'
'It's extremely clever. For Al.' Minias's one elbow found the table as he took a draught.
I cringed, fully conscious of my mom listening quietly. 'You think someone's doing this to kill me?' I finally asked.
Minias shrugged. 'I don't know. Nor do I care, really. I simply want it to stop.'
A reproachful huff came from my mother, and Minias pulled his elbow from the table. 'We can regain control of him after sunup,' the demon said, his eyes hidden behind his glasses. 'When the lines close to cross-traffic, he's snapped back to our side. Finding him then is just a matter of using his demon marks.'
I pulled my hands from atop the table, my fingers pushing aside Kisten's bracelet to feel the raised scar. The demon mark had flared into pain just before Al showed up, and a new worry settled in beside the old ones. That's how Al had found me. Crap. I didn't like feeling like a tagged antelope.
'Al doesn't have access to a lab while in custody,' Minias said, drawing my attention back. 'So he only has simple, easily performed curses, but he's exceptionally adept at line jumping.'
'Well, he's been in someone's kitchen. He looks like he always does, and I know that's not his natural form.' I don't want to know what he looks like. I really don't.
Minias's head moved up and down once, and he swallowed his coffee. 'Yes,' he said softly as he leaned back. 'Someone has been helping him. That he tried to take you tonight went a long way toward convincing me it wasn't you.'
'Me?' I blurted. 'You really think I'd work with him?' Then my fingers, gripping my coffee, went weak. Appearance charms didn't just happen in one night. That meant that Al…My eyes rose, and I wished Minias would take off his glasses. 'How long has Al been slipping your containment?'
Minias's lips twitched. 'This is the third night in a row.'
Fear jolted me, and Jenks rose from the table, red dust slipping from him.
'And you didn't think I might want to know that?' I exclaimed.
In a smooth motion, Minias took off his glasses. His arm flat on the table, he leaned in to me. 'How much effort do you expect me to exert?' he said tightly, and I blinked at the irate emotion reflected in his goat-slitted eyes. 'We don't care if he kills you or not. I have no reason to help you.'
'But you did,' I said belligerently, thinking anger seemed better than fear. 'Why?' Immediately Minias backed down, and seeing there was something here he didn't want to talk about, I decided I did.
'I was tracking Al,' the demon said. 'That you were there was merely helpful.'
Jenks began laughing, and all eyes turned to him as he rose several inches. 'You got sacked, didn't you,' he said, and Minias stiffened.
My first impulse to protest died at Minias's stoic face. 'You got fired?' The demon's reach for his oversize mug almost smacked Jenks in its quickness.
'Why else would he be tracking Al instead of watching TV with Newt?' Jenks said, flitting to the safety of my shoulder. 'You got canned. Outsourced. Pink-slipped. Handed your walking papers. Given the go light. Slipped on the
