Not wanting to even go down that path, I shook my head. "Don't talk like that—don't even joke about it. You're coming back, do you understand? If you don't, I'll come find you, no matter where you are."
"No. Your job is here, guarding the portals, stopping the demons. We are at war, Camille, on several fronts. You're the daughter of a Guardsman. You will not shirk your duty." He kissed me lightly on the forehead. "Don't worry about me. I can take care of myself. I'll be back." And then he fastened his lips on mine, and the world ground to a screeching halt as we kissed, long and slow, bathed in fire and frost.
After a moment, he let go and slid his cape over his shoulders. "I'll go via Grandmother Coyote's portal. Trenyth will be waiting for me on the other side. Take care of your sisters. Take care of Iris and Maggie. And most of all, take care of yourself. I need you, Camille. Just as you need me."
Before I could say a word, he turned and slipped out of the room. I hurried to follow him, but he was a dark shadow against the staircase, and before I knew what was happening, he'd opened the door and hurried down the porch steps and vanished into the shadows of the early morning.
I folded my arms over my chest to protect myself from the chill as I gazed toward the eastern sky. The first hints of dawn were vaguely forming, fingers of pale light that penetrated the diminishing veil of night. Not sunrise, not for awhile, but the promise was there. The sky was clear for a change, stars still shimmering in the night. The moon had gone to bed; she was sleeping as she traveled on her journey out of her dark phase. Yet I could feel her pull even now.
The faint chirping of early morning birdsong echoed through the stillness. I turned my attention toward the oak in the yard, beneath which Feddrah-Dahns had settled, sleeping. Even in slumber, he looked regal. As I watched, Delilah and Menolly joined me on the porch. Menolly glanced at the sky, checking her safety zone.
"This is as light as it ever gets in my world," she said offhandedly. "At least, unaided by lanterns or lightbulbs."
I let out a deep sigh. "I wish I could change that for you. I wish I could change a lot of things. Trillian's gone home to OW. He wouldn't tell me why, only that it was of extreme importance. Meaning he'd be dog meat if he refused, considering Tanaquar still holds his contract."
"I wish he could stay," Delilah said. "So much is happening."
"What do you think will happen now that Chase's boss is dead?" I asked.
She shrugged. "I have no idea. I hope he doesn't get fired."
Menolly sat down on the top step and leaned back on her elbows. "You headed out to Smoky's today?"
I nodded. "Later on, though. I have to talk to Morgaine. But first, we'd better check out the leads on that demon." Frustrated, I tripped down the stairs and knelt in the dew-laden grass, plucking at a handful of scant weeds who'd dared to make their home amongst the irises. "There's just too much… too much to do, and all of it too scattered to see how the puzzle fits together. Where do you think the third seal is?"
"It could be anywhere, considering the locations of the first two," Delilah said, joining me, still in her pajamas. We weeded together, the dirt wet and loamy against our hands. The pungent smell filtered up with the faint scent of mildew, rich and sour and promising new growth, "If we only had some other clue…"
Menolly cleared her throat. "Well, I did find out something at work last night, but I don't know how useful it will be." She joined us but merely watched as we yanked out the beginnings of dandelions and clover. Vampires weren't terribly good with growing things, and she'd never taken an interest in gardening like Delilah and I had.
"What?" I glanced up at her. "Any news is welcome right now." I didn't add that I wanted to hear anything that might keep my mind off Trillian returning to OW, but I could see in her eyes that she understood.
She glanced at the sky again. "I've got about an hour left before I have to be inside," she said. "Okay, here's the deal."
She plopped on the ground beside us, crossing her legs and picking a long spray of grass to play with as she spoke.
"While I tended bar last night, Luke was waiting tables because Chrysandra's on vacation. He stopped by a booth, and when he brought me the order, he told me that the customer had been asking questions about me. I asked Luke what she wanted, and he told me that she'd been asking if he knew where I live, and when I got off duty."
"That doesn't sound good." I tugged at one particularly stubborn thistle root, and it came sliding out of the ground. I tossed it on the pile. "What did he say?"
"Well, of course, he didn't tell her anything, but I did a little bit of snooping. Genehsys was there. You know, the folk singer who occasionally performs at the Wayfarer? Anyway, she's Fae and gifted with the ability to divine magical beings. I asked her to scope out the woman."
"What did she find out?" Delilah stopped to pick up a branch covered in lady bugs. She carried them over to one of the nearby rosebushes and gently shook them onto the leaves. "We've got aphids," she said. "They'll help control the pests."
Menolly raised her eyebrow. "Go, lady bugs. Anyway, Genehsys said that the woman appears to be a djinn."
"Djinn? Shit." Delilah whirled around. "We don't need to tangle with a djinn."
I frowned. "Do djinns and Raksasas hang around together?"
Menolly shrugged. "I don't know, but you might want to find out. I followed her after she left. I asked Luke to mind the bar. She entered a door next to a Persian rug shop. There are apartments above the shop. Want to bet she lives there?"
"Persian rug shop? Some Raksasas are Persian." I frowned. "If she is working with the demon, he probably knows about us, considering he's been around Seattle for awhile. If not… then who is she, and what does she want?"
Just then a whinny interrupted us. Feddrah-Dahns had woken and was standing near enough for me to feel his breath on my shoulder. "You three are awake early," he said. "Are we ready to go in search of Mistletoe?"
Delilah shook her head. "Not quite. Menolly, did you find out anything about pixies running wild before your shift was over?"
She grinned and pulled out a slip of paper. "That's the best part. I was going to leave this for you to find at breakfast. A couple of elves at the bar were griping about a wayward pixie who doesn't belong around the area. He seems to have made himself at home in their garden. I got their address and promised that we'd have a look. They said fine, as long as we convince him to move on."
Elves and pixies were often at odds, more so than the Sidhe and pixies. Nobody really knew why, but the schism had been around since before the Great Divide.
I wiped my hands on the grass and stood. "Then I suppose we should get busy. We've got to check out both the pixie sighting and the djinn. Menolly, you won't be able to help us. You should be getting into your lair shortly."
"Not so fast," came a voice from the top of the porch steps. Iris was standing there, holding Maggie, who yawned sleepily. "What are you all doing out here this time of morning?"
As Delilah hurried up the stairs to explain, I took Maggie and carried her down to the ground. The gargoyle would remain in babyhood for a long, long time yet. I set her down, and she teetered around, trying desperately to balance using her tail. She couldn't fly yet—her wings were far too small still and far too weak—but she had managed to get the hang of walking without always falling over on her nose.
Now she toddled to a patch of dirt that we kept especially for her and gave me a look as if to say, "Are you really going to watch?"
I grinned at her. "Sorry, Maggie. I'll turn around."
"Mooph," came the soft reply as she squatted to piddle and poop.
I turned away, giving her privacy. Maggie was an integral part of our family now. We'd saved her from a demon, a harpy to be precise, and Maggie had become both our pet and our littlest sister. Menolly spent a lot of time with her, helping her learn to crawl and walk, showing infinite patience that she never showed with anybody else except, perhaps, Delilah—her Kitten.
Maggie let out another mooph to let me know she was done. I turned back and checked under her tail to make sure nothing untoward had stuck to her wispy, silken fur. She reached up, and I hoisted her back into my arms, bracing her against my hip as she clasped her hands around my arm, resting her head on my shoulder.
As I stroked her downy fur and kissed her gently on the head, Iris clattered down the steps and eyed the weeding we'd done. "Good start. I'll finish it this afternoon. Now come in for breakfast and tell me what's going on."
As we all followed her inside, including Feddrah-Dahns, I took one last look at the boundary lines of our land. The woods beyond led to Grandmother Coyote's forest, where her portal awaited. Thoughts of Trillian raced through my mind. Why had he been called back to OW? Would he be safe? My heart skipped a beat. He'd better be. And speaking of men, where the hell was Morio? He hadn't called yet.
As I turned back to the house, a raven flew overhead, cawing loudly. Startled, I glanced over my shoulder as it landed in the oak. The bird gazed at me, eyes glittering, and I had the distinct feeling it was a message from Morgaine.
Too much, I thought as I turned my back on it and entered the house. It was all too much to deal with. At least until we'd eaten breakfast.
Chapter Nine
While Menolly kept watch on the clock—she still had a good thirty minutes before she had to be in her nest—Iris fixed breakfast.
The phone rang. Thinking it might be Morio, I grabbed the receiver, but it was Chase's voice on the other end.
"Hey, Camille. Listen, can you put me on speaker?"
"Sure," I said, hoping he wasn't in trouble. After the troll debacle, with Devins so much dead meat, who knew what was going to happen?
"It's Chase," I mouthed as I punched the button and motioned for Delilah, Menolly, and Iris to move closer. Feddrah-Dahns was in the living room, drinking fresh spring water and munching on a bundle of sweetgrass that Iris had somehow managed to get hold of.
"I have news for you—it's good, but it also means I'm not going to be of much use for awhile."
"They didn't fire your ass because the trolls killed your boss, did they?" Menolly asked.
Delilah swatted at her, and Menolly waved her away, grinning.
He snorted. "Leave it to you to think of that first. No, I wasn't fired, though I thought I might be. After all, the FH-CSI is my baby, and we're supposed to take care of things like this before somebody gets hurt. But a lot of people around here didn't like Devins, and I don't think anybody cried over the loss. He forged a lot of enemies in his time."
"Sounds like you took care of the problem, all right," Iris muttered, heading back to her skillet and pancake batter.
Delilah sniffed at her. "Oh hush. Tell us what happened, love?"
"Well, the fact is that I've been promoted to Devin's position. And I'm still in charge of the FH-CSI. There's so much to sort out here that I'm going to be swamped for weeks." He let out a long sigh. "Which means I won't be much good to you girls, because I'll be working eighteen-hour days just to make sense of the mess in which Devins left his records."
"Congratulations!" Delilah clapped her hands, then frowned. "That means you won't be able to help us track down the demon—"
"Yeah, I know." Chase cleared his throat. We heard the sound of shuffling papers. "I'll do what I can, but for the most part, I'm only good on the information side of things this go-round. I can't afford to mess this up, or it will hurt all of us. I have to make this promotion work in order to keep the FH-CSI in action, not to mention, keep my career on track. There's the chance that if I do a good enough job, I might be able to wrangle us more funds."
"What are people saying about the trolls? That little incident can't have gone unnoticed." Delilah glanced over at me.
"With our luck, it made headline news," I said. My guess wasn't far off.
He gave a soft laugh. "Which do you want first? The ridiculous, the sublime, or the frightening?"
Uh-oh. The latter sounded bad. Real bad. "Start us in easy," I said.
"Okay, ridiculous it is. Unfortunately, Camille, you're the recipient of this lovely little piece of news."
"Uh-oh. Why am I always the butt of the joke?" If he was starting with ridiculous, and it involved me, whatever it was couldn't be good for my ego.
Chase laughed and took a deep breath. "Okay, ready?"
"As I'll ever be."
"It seems that one of the local tabloids managed to capture pictures of the fight on film. I guess they had a police scanner and heard about the ruckus. I saw the early A.M. edition. The shots are pretty clear. Camille, one of them is of you. You were casting a spell. They not only got a good shot of your boobs, but they also captured a swirl of light surrounding you. Looked like something right out of Harry Potter."
That wasn't so bad. "Well, that doesn't sound so horrible. If they had to capture me on film, at least it sounds like they caught a good shot."
"Wait till you hear what the headlines had to say."
Uh-oh. "Spill it."
"The Seattle Tattler captioned the picture, 'Alien Seductress Seeks Tryst with Trolls Via Fiery Lust Spell.' He knew enough to wait for my reaction, which wasn't long in coming.