Chapter 17

Chapter

17

Panic twisted my thoughts as I felt myself yanked into a ley line. Quick from practice, I snapped a protection circle around not just me but Elyse as well. There was a whiff of erratic, confused thought…and then Newt's mind was gone, walled off. She hadn't expected that, and I felt her heavy presence hesitate as we hung in the high-energy haze of a ley line.

Until she shoved us out and the slow rise-and-fall thrum of the universe's energy shifted to a bland, suggestive, rhythmic thumping.

My breath hissed in as I caught my balance. Elyse swung her arms wildly, almost going down. She was terrified, and I tugged at her until she looked at me. "You're okay!" I exclaimed, almost embarrassed by the woman's fear. But then again, she had probably thought we were dropping into Newt's oubliette to be forgotten—or not. And from the scent of cheap alcohol and rude catcalls, I doubted that's where we were.

"Where are we?" Elyse whispered, her eyes wide and scanning.

I let go of her arm. It was a bar, mostly men at small tables all facing the stage. Women and men wearing almost nothing moved between them as servers. Newt stood out amid the black wood and scratched floor in her robe and flat-topped hat, but then again, we all did.

"Dalliance?" I blurted, recognizing the living vampire on the stage, gyrating and playing with the crowd.

Newt's attention flicked from the hidden speakers to me. "Dalliance?" she said, her black eyes blinking in an unusual surprise. "You've given yourself away. If you know Dalliance, you are an escaped familiar."

"Familiars aren't allowed in Dalliance," I said as I figured it out. We weren't in Dalliance. We were in reality. And not just any reality but the strip bar that would eventually become a memory in Dali's jukebox. "Besides, this one isn't in Dali's jukebox yet." I smiled at her, trying to be mysterious and esoteric. "Is it."

I had only the one card. I wasn't sure how many times she'd let me play it. As soon as she thought she had me figured out, the game would be over. If I didn't have what I needed by then, both Elyse and I would be up the proverbial creek without a boat, much less a paddle, and I stood in the strip bar's foyer and tugged the hat off my head, trying to look as if I belonged there.

At least we're back in reality, I thought as we began to get noticed. Chin high, I took off my robe and snapped it out. Dust flew, and I stuffed it into my hat along with my sash. The scent of burnt amber became obvious, and more heads began to turn. Elyse followed suit, though admittedly not as flamboyantly, and I held my bag open for her to drop her robe in as well. Not my slave, my friend, I thought, hoping Newt saw the distinction. The robes had done a great job in keeping the red dust off us, but my boots were caked with it, and Elyse's white tennies were even worse.

"The scent of despair tends to linger, does it not?" Newt eyed my sequins and rhinestones. Sighing, she turned to the patrons, studying them a moment before dissolving into a mist to re-form wearing an upscale black dress suit. Hair grew as she ran a hand over her head, the red curls flowing to match my own unspelled locks. The scent of burnt amber began to ease. "You know of Dalliance, yet claim you're not a familiar. Who are you?" she said as she flicked a pair of sunglasses out and perched them on her nose to hide her black eyes.

"No one." I needed to start watching my mouth. The game was playing out faster than I wanted, giving Newt way too much information to make this last.

"There's a table by the stage," Newt said, and I went the other way to a quiet booth against the wall. It was one of those half-circle things so everyone faced out, but I wanted it because I could see the door.

Elyse hesitated, then lurched to follow. "This is reality?" she whispered, exhaling in relief when I nodded. Chances were good we were not just in reality but somewhere in the city limits, seeing as the walls were covered with Cincinnati Howlers' paraphernalia. "How?" she added. "Demons can't cross the ley lines unless summoned. I didn't summon her. Did you?"

There was a thread of panic in her voice, but I was feeling pretty good. I was in reality. I still had my book. Elyse was at my side and I had a demon in tow. If I had my history right, my other self had made a deal with Minias to come get Newt if she ever showed up this side of the lines again. Two cards to play…

"Newt can." I glanced over my shoulder to see the imperialistic demon garnering stares as she sauntered behind us as if this distant table was her original intent. "The banishment curse didn't work on her. Maybe because she's female. Maybe because spells don't stick to crazy." I slid into the booth and settled my bag beside me. Maybe because she was the one who cast the spell… I wondered silently. "You want the aisle?"

Elyse nodded in unease, and I slid to the middle.

A woman in what might generously be called a bikini top and short shorts followed Newt to the table. Her scars put her as a living vampire, and the elaborate lace collar around her neck invited bites and nips. Actually, now that I took the time to look, most everyone here was a vamp, mostly the living, but there were a few clearly contemporary undead risking the early night and the chance to make a claim before the really old undead showed up. They were getting a lot of attention at the moment, but I knew that would change when someone who died before the Turn arrived.

"I've never been in a vamp strip club," Elyse said as Newt gracefully settled to my right and the server set three tiny black napkins down.

"What can I get for you?" the woman asked, and a flicker of unease crossed Newt. She didn't know.

"I'll have what they're having," the demon said, beaming to show the long canines of the undead. They weren't hers. She was trying to fit in.

"Bloody Mary," Elyse said immediately. "Easy on the Cholula."

I glanced over the clientele. Not everyone was staring at the stage anymore. "Orange juice. No pulp." We needed to settle this and get out of here. The artists onstage were off-limits. We, however, could be considered fair game—which might be why Newt had made a show of fangs. Worldly cosmic powers, and you drop us in a vampire strip joint. Really, Newt?

"One tab," I added, and the living vamp returned to the bar, hips swaying as she took the long way to engage her clientele. I had enough in my wallet for three drinks and a tip. Probably.

My gaze lifted over the tables, and the skimpily clad guy onstage waved to me, gyrating in invitation to come stuff a bill in his thong as our eyes accidentally met. Well, it was an accident for my part of it, and I shook my head no, only to have the man dramatically blow me a kiss.

Grimacing, I dropped my eyes. I'd never been here before—apart from the version in Dali's jukebox—but there were lots of places that catered to vamps that I was oblivious to. It was a quiet venue even with the too-loud bass. The line at the bar seemed a mix of one-night bites and living vamps there to relax without having to be anything other than what they were. Piscary's on a slow day had a higher pheromone level. My scar had been sensitive two years ago, and it was hardly twinging.

"I brought you both, hon," came a high-pitched voice, and I looked up to see the server dropping off the drinks. There were four, since Newt hadn't made it clear exactly what she wanted. "Let me know when you want another."

"Thank you." They'd put mine in a champagne flute to look like a mimosa, and Newt cleared her throat, lifting her orange juice as if to make a toast.

"To elves, eels, and strawberries," Newt said, and Elyse and I stared at her, not daring to clink our glasses. A frown flickered across the demon's brow. "If you don't know why, I'm not going to explain. You can have Elyse or the mirror, but not both."

"I am not for sale," Elyse said hotly, and from a nearby table, a chuckle rose. The man watching turned away, and with that, we were accepted and ignored. Vampire norms sucked, but now, at least, I understood Newt's choice of venue.

I took a slow sip, relishing the tangy juice. "Elyse is not mine to bargain with. She's here to learn something, not serve as collateral. She is her own person."

"Learn? As in how to be a familiar?" Newt offered. "Love, don't befuddle yourself," she added to Elyse as she gulped her Bloody Mary. "I like the screams crisp and nuanced."

"What the…" Elyse set the drink down, angry. "They gave me a virgin!"

I clinked my orange juice against her red. "You look like a kid."

"I am not a kid !"

"Your body is," I said, smiling at Newt. And a little more confusion…

Elyse pushed back into the bench seat with her virgin Bloody Mary—stymied.

"I must have something you want," I said. "Other than Elyse and a book you still have."

"Then produce it," Newt said. "I don't understand your reticence. You're going to give her to me. You need the mirror more than you need her." Newt closed her eyes and breathed deeply. "She has more spells at her fingertips than you. She's stealing from your larder. Is that why you singed her synapses before tricking her to come before me? It makes her almost helpless. So much easier to drag to a line."

Elyse pulled her drink closer. "Touch me, and you'll see how helpless I am."

Newt leaned forward to look at her around me. "I intend to."

I thought of my dwindling cash, then motioned for our server to bring me another orange juice. "Both of you, stop it. Newt, I told you, she's not my familiar. She's here to learn stuff."

"And get a stasis charm," Elyse grumbled.

The demon arched her thin eyebrows. "I enjoy dealing with people who are foolish enough to treat me as an equal. I will tell you what you want to know, and then I will take Elyse, since you won't give her."

"Try it…" Elyse said, glowering.

"It's for her own good," Newt continued. "She needs her reset button pushed. A few hundred years to reassess where she sits in the world order. We can call it a loan. I'll return her when she knows something. You are not going to survive whatever it is you are running from without a mirror to see yourself: what you are, what you were, what you will be."

"For the third time, Elyse is not an option. I have a book—"

"Which is already mine." Newt chuckled, eyeing me over her glasses as I'd seen Al do hundreds of times. "How about this? I will give you a hint, and if you can figure out what it is, the mirror is yours."

My pulse leapt. I couldn't lose, and so I nodded.

"Good." Newt smiled, chilling me. "It will cost you nevertheless."

"Ah, Rachel?" Elyse murmured as Newt leaned over the table and breathed on it. An eerie, icy mist coated the cheap Formica and rolled onto the floor, where it warmed and dissipated. Using a single finger, the demon drew a finger-squeaking circle on the table.

"The Atlanteans were said to have existed but for an instant of time before even the elves," she said as she scribed a neat pentagram within the circle. "A failed trial of glory, of wisdom." Glyphs of memory went at the points, one by one. "They might have been demons, or what demons came from. We don't know, as it was long before my time. It doesn't matter. They don't matter. All that they knew was lost, though it existed. All that they were is gone, though it once was as obvious as the writing on this table."

Silent, she watched her work fade in the heat of the room.

"Transient." Newt touched her chin with the back of her finger in satisfaction. "A fleeting clarity vanished as if it never existed. And yet…" She leaned forward and breathed again, bringing the pentagram back to light for an even shorter moment. "Exist it did."

Elyse frowned, her smooth brow furrowed. "Atlanteans were transient. Okay."

But Newt wasn't talking about a people. She was talking about the mirror. The mirror was named after the people. The mirror itself was transient. Something that comes and goes. Like the moon? The tide? A comet? A puddle of dark water?

Newt eyed me, making me feel not stupid but untutored, and where once it would have left me angry, it now only made me glad that there was more to learn. Thank you, Al.

"If you can find the mirror, you can have it," Newt said.

Find it? I glanced at the pristine table. "How do you find something that is there and isn't?" I said, and Newt smirked.

"That's not my problem," she said. "Now. As we agreed. Your familiar?"

The demon reached across me for Elyse.

"Stop!" My grip on the ley lines sharpened, but I didn't pull anything off them. So far, Newt was being passive, and I didn't want to change that. Sure enough, Newt felt the connection and drew away. "Elyse, maybe you should wait outside."

"I'm not going anywhere," she said, looking young as she shirked away. "Soon as I'm out of your sight, she snags me." Brow furrowed, she stared at Newt. "There are laws."

"There are no laws but that might makes right." Newt sipped her Bloody Mary. Hers probably had vodka in it.

Not to mention the man who would pen them, sponsor them, and lobby for them would, at the moment, like to see me dead.

Newt sighed as if tired. "Tulpas that haven't been made, laws that don't exist, age that hasn't happened. You're from the future. Boring. And there are laws?" Newt drummed her nails once on the table, right where she'd scribed the pentagram, invisible once again. "Human laws. Witch laws. I follow demon law. And only when it makes the game more fun."

"Is this a challenge, Newt? Is this fun?" I said, letting a faint glow of nothing drip from my fingernails and puddle against the table. The Turn take it. She had given me a riddle. Time? Does time come and go?

Newt took a sip of her drink. "It could be."

I shook my head, channeling my inner Al. He could manipulate Newt into anything. "It might be a mistake," I said, letting a hint of warning lighten my voice.

"Perhaps." Newt eased back and watched the server approach. "This is too easy. But I did give you the mirror. There will be an accounting."

"The deal was the mirror for a girls' night out. And we are out." But the server stood before us, and I daren't say anything more at the moment.

"Is it National Orange Juice Day?" the woman said as she hesitated, waiting to see if we wanted anything else. "There's a guy at the bar who ordered the exact same thing."

"What?" I stiffened, leaning to look past her.

Newt beamed, drink in hand as she saluted the bar. "You aren't the only one who can see the future," she said cryptically, and then I froze at a familiar pained cough.

Kisten?

My heart hammered and I flushed, even as my knees went watery and my gut flip-flopped. I stood, recognizing the hunch to his shoulders, the way he sat at the bar with his back to the stage, his foot on the rest. His hair was damp from a shower, and he was in a faded pair of sweats from Nick's closet. I had left him at Nick's place to go make a deal with Piscary, only to wake up in the church thinking Kisten was still there.

I couldn't move. It was Kisten. He was there. Alive. Hurting. Beaten bad.

But it would be worse tonight.

"I left him…" I whispered, unable to look away. I couldn't breathe. I wanted to go to him. I knew better, but he was right there. I wouldn't warn him. Just say good-bye. I could not sit down and pretend I hadn't seen him.

"Don't leave me. Don't leave me with her!" Elyse begged, one of my hands in her grip.

The server had walked away. It was all I could do to stand there. "He's supposed to be at Nick's apartment," I whispered, numb with indecision.

Newt sipped her drink. "If you look forward far enough, you can see the past. But you seem to have learned that lesson already."

"Excuse me." My words were breathy. He was there. He was hurting. Sometimes, it was that simple.

"Don't." Elyse yanked on my wrist. "You'll screw up the timeline."

I pulled from her, angry. What if I did? What did anyone care? "You're only worried about yourself." There was a small bag at his feet. Was he running?

"Rachel, no!" Elyse whispered, her eyes haunted as they fixed on me. "You walk away, and she takes me! You know it. You promised."

It was as if someone had hit me in the gut. Breath held, I turned to Newt, reading the surety of that in her smug confidence. "You knew he'd be here," I said, voice shaky, and she shrugged, content to wait and see.

And though it hurt like a thousand knives, I sat down. I had loved Kisten, but Elyse needed me right now. Here. And I had promised.

It felt as if my heart was breaking all over again.

"Thank you," Elyse said, voice ragged, and then Kisten lifted his head.

I stared, my heart hammering as he turned on the barstool, following the server's pointing finger to me. I couldn't seem to get any air.

"Rachel, please," Elyse begged. "Don't change anything. Just pretend you're you."

"It's too late," I whispered when Kisten got to his feet, clearly in pain as he picked up Nick's borrowed overnight bag and came over. An unsure smile was on his freshly shaved face, as if we had been caught playing out "The Pi?a Colada Song."

"How did you know?" he said, and I blinked fast, trying not to cry as his voice rumbled through me, sparking memories. Lacerations decorated his arms and face, and his cheek was still swollen from the beating he'd taken this morning, but it was him. "I wanted to be sure I had a safe way out of here before I called you. Everyone knows your little red convertible."

He thought I was me, and I stood, shoving past Elyse to give him a hug. I can do this, I thought. I can pretend to be me. Nothing has to change. I just want to hold him. Say good-bye.

My God. It hurt.

"Kisten," I whispered, and then I had him, hands trembling as I pulled him tight enough to make him grunt in surprise. Vampire incense puffed up between us, and I almost lost it. It was him. He was alive, and I couldn't let him go. "You were supposed to wait for me at Nick's apartment," I choked out.

"You were right," he said, low voice pulling through me, and I closed my eyes, breath held until I knew I wasn't going to cry. "I called my cousin. He's going to meet me here. Let me borrow his car."

He pushed me back, and I gazed at him, soaking him in as I carefully touched his bruised face, remembering him, remembering every little thing. "I missed you," I said, voice soft so I wouldn't cry. "I missed you so much."

My heart was aching. I didn't care what was going on behind me at the table. All that mattered was this moment. This now.

Oblivious, Kisten wiped my eyes. "Love, it's only been half an hour. It's going to be okay. You're right. Even an hour is better than nothing, and maybe they won't find us. Maybe."

My shaking hand fell from him, tightening into a fist. He was running. How did he end up on his boat?

"Rachel?" Kisten tilted his head, trying to catch my eyes. I couldn't speak, confused. This was not what I remembered. This is not what happened. What have I done?

"Rachel."

It was firmer this time, and I looked up to see him studying me. Slowly he rocked back, one bruised hand falling from my shoulder, the other still clinging to my waist.

"You are not my Rachel," he said, and I tensed, feeling as if I'd been socked in the gut.

"I am," I said, voice shaking as I glanced at Elyse's muttered curse and Newt's satisfied smirk. "We need to go. Now. My friend will help us get out of Cincinnati."

"I will not," Elyse said sharply, but Kisten had reached out and I couldn't move as his swollen and cut fingers gently went through my hair, arranging it.

"You love someone else," he said as if mystified. "How can that be? How could you fall in love with someone in half an hour?"

Panic iced through me. "I love you," I asserted, and he cocked his head, confused.

"No," he said slowly, then, "Yes. You do. But you are in love, and not with me." He turned to the bar as if in thought, then back again. "You are my Rachel, but not. Have I slept?" Horror crossed him, and he let go of me. "Am I undead?"

I reached for him. "No, you're living," I said, blinking fast to keep the tears at bay as I fiddled with the collar to his sweat suit, touching his neck, his chin, his face. "And we're going to keep it that way," I finished, voice warbling.

"Rachel, you can't change this," Elyse said, and my throat closed.

"She isn't changing anything," Newt said, an ugly, knowing expression tightening her face. "This is her answer. This is her truth. And truth pays all bills."

Truth, perhaps, but I couldn't tell him anything. "You're alive," I said, hands gently cupping his face, and he blinked at me, still trying to figure it out.

"I'm alive," he agreed. "I have not slept. But you are not you." He glanced at Elyse and Newt. "I'm going to die. You are…you are from the future?" he guessed, and my eyes shut, unable to look at him anymore. "Is Ivy okay? Does she live?"

Speak truth only to the dead. That's what Al had said. Maybe…maybe he was right.

My eyes opened and I sniffed back the tears as I wiped my face. "She is okay," I said, and Elyse groaned as if pained. "Piscary can't hurt her anymore. She's found love. She's happy."

Relief eased the band about my chest, and I met his smile with my damp eyes. Kisten would still die, but he would die knowing Ivy was okay. Maybe it was enough.

"And you have found love, too," he said, head down as he studied our twined fingers, his strong and scared, mine pale and shaking. "Deep, abiding." He drew the air deep into his lungs. "True," he added, his blue eyes dark with unshed tears as he beamed at me. "Look at you. Look at how strong you are, sitting with the coven and a demon both. You are my Rachel of the future. Look what you have become without me."

"I never said…"

He put a gentle hand on my face, stopping my words. "I am gone. I see it in your every breath. And if I had been there, if I had survived, you'd be smaller. I know it."

I'd wanted to give him comfort, not this, and my agonized smile faded. "No. That's not why I'm here."

"You would be smaller," he said softly, and then my heartache redoubled as he pulled me into a hug, his body relaxing as he sighed against me. "You would be smaller, my love…"

"You don't know that," I sniffed into his collar, and we parted.

Eyebrows high, Kisten ran a finger down my neck. Only a faint hint of passion rebounded under his touch—and he knew it.

"I do," he whispered. "And I'm proud of you," he added, pulling me into a crushing embrace again. "I want you to go back. Become the mortar between the coven and the demons." He shifted against me as he considered my scent. "And the elves?" he added, surprised.

I pushed away, blinking fast and biting my lower lip between my teeth.

"Kalamack?" he guessed, and I couldn't speak.

Kisten sighed as he drew away. He had ferreted it out of me, and now I was someone else's love…not his.

"Kisten," I started, and he shook his head, letting go of me and picking up his bag. "Kisten, we can run," I said. "I don't need to go back."

"But I do." He leaned down and kissed my forehead. "Good-bye, my love."

"Wait." I gave Newt a look to behave herself, but she was clearly content to watch my life fall apart in a cruddy little bar in the Hollows. "If you return to the boat, you will die twice."

"I was twice dead the moment Piscary got out of jail," he said. "Running will only make it worse. I have to go. You're better without me. The world is better without me in it." He took a steadying breath. "Thank you for this. Now I know I'm making the right decision."

I caught his hand and stopped him. "That's not true."

He ran a thumb across my jawline. "My death makes you stronger. The person you are now is sitting between a demon and a witch."

Which was sort of where I'd always been—sort of. "No." I shook my head, not believing this. He had been ready to run. With me. And now he was going back?

Newt sighed, and suddenly I understood. He'd been ready to run until he saw me, knew that Ivy had found love, that we both had. He thought his death made both of us stronger. So he went back to die. Because of me. I had been here. I. Had. Been. Here.

"Kisten." I wouldn't let go of his hand, and he reluctantly halted. "The world needs you. Ivy needs you. I need you. I need you to run Cincy."

"Rachel, shut up!" Elyse exclaimed, then yelped when Newt slammed her fist on the table.

"I won't warn you again," the demon intoned. "Let this play."

Kisten's gaze softened as he ran a hand through my hair. "Go home. Be strong and beautiful in your choices. The world is safer with you free to act within it, and I am proud that I had a hand in helping you find your potential."

"You dying does not make me better. Kisten, please," I begged, and he pushed my hand from his wrist. "I know where you are going," I said, frantic. "I'm going to stop Art. You don't deserve to die for saying no to Piscary!"

He scuffed to a halt, uncaring that the nearest tables were listening. "Take care of her so she can take care of everyone else," he said to Newt and Elyse, and Elyse made a sad huff.

"Good-bye, my love," he whispered. "I will always love you."

"Let him leave," Newt said, and I froze, not because of her words but because my heart was breaking all over again.

"Kisten?" I called as he headed for the door, bag in hand, his head down when he threw a bill on the bar and walked out. "The world is not better without you. Kisten!"

But he was gone, and I didn't know how to breathe anymore.

"I can't…" I whispered as I turned to the table. "He was ready to run and I ruined it."

Elyse shook her head. "They would have caught him. Killed both of you."

"But he thinks he's worthless!" I shouted, hating that the music had started up again. Everyone was going back to their lives, oblivious or uncaring that mine had ended again.

"Not worthless." Newt stared at nothing, focus lost behind her black glasses. "He deems that leaving helped make you. And now I know who you are. I wasn't sure before."

I looked at the door one last time, then sat down, sick to my stomach. This was intolerable. I couldn't stop Kisten from dying, but I'd be damned if I let him go to his final rest thinking that he was worthless, that he was nothing more than a foil to make me stronger. I needed him. I had always needed him. The world needed him. And I was going to get his body and raise his ghost and tell him so. Every night if I had to.

My head came up, and I pulled my bag closer, ready to walk out the door. "We're done here," I said, and Newt smiled.

"Give me Elyse, and I will give you what you need to save your vampire."

"What?" I stammered, shocked, and Elyse went still, suddenly afraid.

"He doesn't have to die twice tonight," Newt mocked. "Just once. He could take the long way home. What's two years to the undead?"

"You need to shut up," I said, feeling as if she'd socked me in the gut.

Newt sniffed, peering over her dark glasses at me. "Stand and do nothing as I take Elyse, and I will jump you to him. You could get him underground before the sun comes up. Who knows how long he will linger fighting Art's virus."

"You are a true demon," I whispered, knowing I couldn't. I saw him die. There was nothing to change. But what if he hadn't been truly dead when I left him, a flicker of life still there…Had I left him to die when the sun rose? Heartache tore at me as I stifled a groan.

"You can't…" Elyse whispered, her expression pinched.

"Be silent!" Newt shouted, and we both jumped. "She can. I think she will. What does she owe you anyway? All you've given her is misfortune and distrust."

"No," I forced out through my clenched teeth. "Kisten dies. He dies on that boat. I saw it. I can't change that. Elyse wins. You lose, Newt." It hurt. I knew better, though. Newt wouldn't offer unless it was possible, but something would intervene and I'd be bereft of everything. Demons were like a wish, and wishes always bit me on the ass in the end.

"As you say. But if you change your mind, come see me. That is, if you survive the next five minutes."

My head snapped up. "Survive what?" I said, then followed her gaze to the door.

It was Scott, a crow on his shoulder. The bird saw Elyse and began bobbing his head. It was her familiar. Son of a troll turd's moss wipe. He tracked Elyse down through her familiar.

"Rachel is right," Newt said casually. "You have far too much to learn to survive a night alone in the Hollows. What are your other names, Elyse?"

Newt moved liquidly fast, snaking a thin arm around Elyse's neck and yanking her close.

"Hey!" I shouted as Elyse shrieked. "Hands off!"

Newt's eyes glinted behind her glasses, knocked askew by Elyse's struggles. "Don't ruin my new view of you, Rachel," she said as I tapped a line and energy roared in. "Us girls have to stick together," she whispered into Elyse's ear. "You can't help it if you are ignorant, unless you fail to learn when given the opportunity."

"She is not for sale!" I shouted, angry at my own naivety. I had trusted Newt to play by the rules, and Elyse was going to pay the cost. Not happening, I thought, ready to rip the bar apart to keep Elyse this side of the lines.

"Lucky for you I just found someone better," Newt whispered as she shoved Elyse out of the booth and onto the floor. "Be smarter," she added as she stood up and stepped over her, an odd glow with gold flickering with black sparks at Newt's hands.

Elyse rolled under the nearest table, her bruised wrist held tight to her chest. Her synapses were burned. She couldn't tap a line, helpless.

But she's free, I thought, wondering. "You let her go? You agree she is not for sale?" I said, and Newt stood amid the tables, her robes misting into existence as everyone scattered, stampeding to the doors at the sudden scent of burnt amber.

"No," she said as I felt her tap into a ley line. She ran a hand over her hair, and it vanished. "I don't want her now. He knows more."

I tensed as I realized she was looking at Scott. Aw, for ever-loving pixy piss…

Teeth clenched, I yanked on the ley line, understanding why Newt was bald half the time as my hair sparked and haloed. "Everyone down!" I shouted, and then, "Corrumpo!"

A pulse of air slammed into the four walls and ceiling, knocking everyone standing to the floor. From the ceiling, an ominous crack sounded, and dust sifted from the old beams. Oh, no. Not again, I thought as Newt got to her feet, her black eyes wrathful. I hadn't attacked her directly, which was probably why she was staring at me instead of slinging spells.

"Run!" I shouted at Scott, waving violently at him. "Get out of here!"

"Implicare!" Newt exclaimed, and Scott backpedaled, his aura fizzing as he failed to evade the black field settling over him. Newt made a fist, and it tightened. Gasping, the coven member dropped, a hand to his chest.

"Honna tara surrundus!" I countered, throwing the break spell at Scott, not Newt. It was elven, but it worked, and the man got in a gasp of air.

"Hinc et inde," the man croaked to join his will to mine, and Newt shrieked in anger as our combined strength broke hers and the curse fractured.

"Who the hell are you?" Scott got to his feet, white-faced as Newt shoved a table out of the way to make more room. "A demon summoner?" he added, and then his gaze flicked behind me as Elyse scuffed to a halt at my shoulder. "You can't be Elyse. I just talked to her."

That bird of hers was on her shoulder, bobbing and cawing. That, I decided, was how he had found us, and I frowned as she put up a hand to soothe him.

"You are Elyse. You traffic with demons?" Scott added, and Elyse's soft words to her bird faltered. "That's the only way you could have gotten here this fast. What have you done?"

Elyse sidled closer. "There goes my career. Thanks a hell of a lot, Rachel."

"It's not over yet." I fingered the forget potion in my pocket. I was going to need two, and I flicked a glance at my shoulder bag. "Think you can distract him for a second?"

"Are you serious?"

"Would you rather fight Newt?" I said, yanking her closer as Newt made another play for the man and Scott snapped a protection circle about himself. Exuberant, Newt stomped forward to hammer on it in delight.

"She'll never break Scott's circle. We need to get out of here," Elyse said.

But I knew Newt would, and I yanked my bag from the bench seat, digging through it to find another forget charm. The two vials felt small as I turned to Newt pushing a fist into Scott's circle, plumes of energy rising from her hand like solar flares, black and gold and Scott's own purple and red. The strip club had emptied, but someone would have called the I.S. We had to be done by the time they arrived.

"Do it!" Elyse shouted, and I shook my head as I inched closer. Timing was everything, and why should I singe my synapses when Newt could bring Scott's circle down for me?

"Mine!" Newt cried out in excitement as Scott's circle pulled over him like a shirt…and was gone. Shocked, Scott stood there, white-faced with nothing between him and Newt but a slowly dying sparkle. "It's been ages since I've had a coven member to bring me my morning tea," she added, one hand reaching.

"Newt! Look out!" I shouted as I popped the lid to the first forget charm and threw it into her startled face.

Newt gasped, backpedaling as she pushed ineffectively at the spell soaking in. "Why?" she exclaimed, but it was her last lucid thought, and I grasped her arm, wanting to be the first person she remembered when her thoughts realigned.

"We girls have to stick together," I said. "Run!"

Hesitating, Newt scanned the nearly empty bar, taking in the stage, the low lights, everything. A flicker of fear was a bare hint in her black eyes…and then she vanished, leaving only the scent of burnt amber.

"My God, thank you," Scott said, ragged as the glow about his hand flickered and went out. "Elyse…"

"Is at coven camp," I said, and flung the second vial at him.

"Hey!" he yelped, struggling to get it off him, but it was too late, and I snatched up my bag, grabbed Elyse's hand, and pulled her to the door. Her crow took to the air, beating about our heads until it landed in the rafters.

"Slick!" she called, and I pushed her out the door.

"Your bird is giving us away. Run. Don't let Scott see you," I said, glancing back once at Scott, who was still wiping the potion from himself. Crap on toast, I'd used a memory charm on a coven member.

But Elyse had fled, and I raced to catch up and yank her behind a nearby dumpster.

"I thought you said—" she started, and I inched forward to peer around the cold, stinking metal bin. I could hear sirens, but we had a moment.

"I want to make sure Scott gets out okay," I said, and she sort of slumped where she stood, shaking from the close call. I knew how she felt, and I held a hand to my middle as the I.S. roared up and sent three witches into the building. I had a riddle instead of a mirror. Worse, I couldn't stop what was going to happen tonight and it was my fault. Kisten had been ready to run, and seeing me convinced him that the world was better without him in it.

I couldn't let that stick.

Elyse was trembling when she came up beside me and looked past the edge of the dumpster. "I can't believe we got out of there," she said as Scott was helped into the back of a squad car. They left the door open; he wasn't being detained, only given a place to recover. "You got your mirror. All we need now is a stasis spell."

Kisten… "I do not have a mirror, I have a riddle." I took a slow breath, hoisted my bag higher up my shoulder, and then slipped out into the night, head down, heart aching.

"Rachel, you can't." Elyse followed, her steps quickening as she glanced over her shoulder at the amber and blue lights playing against the bar's facade. "You have to let him go."

"You're right. I'm letting him go." Jaw clenched, I studied Cincy's skyline across the river to place myself. "But the world isn't better without Kisten, and if there is the chance that he survives the night as an undead, I'm not going to let him die twice thinking it is."

Elyse's steps hesitated, then she hustled to catch up.

I had come to the past with one goal. Now I had two. Three if you counted Elyse's ancient stasis spell. Once an undead, Kisten could not survive biting another undead—the two virus strains would battle each other, and no undead vampire survived longer than three days without feeding. No soul meant no aura, and if he didn't take in blood and the aura it carried to replace it, he'd starve. But if Kisten was undead, even for an hour, I would not let the sun burn him.

Coffee first, though. It was almost midnight, and I had a long night ahead.