Bone Crossed

I didn't know much about what he could and couldn't do—outside of fixing cars and playing with metal, he didn't use magic much in front of me. But I'd seen his real face once, so I knew his personal glamour was good. If he could mask his face, surely he could hide a bunch of green and red paint.

He frowned at me in deep displeasure. You didn't ask for favors from the fae—not only was it dangerous, but they tended to take offense. Zee might love me, might owe me for freeing him from a tight spot, but that would only take me so far.

"My mother is coming," I told him. "The vampires are after me, and I have to get her to leave. She won't do it if she knows I'm in danger." Then, because I was desperate, I played dirty. "Not after what happened with Tim."

His face stilled. Then he grabbed my wrist and pulled me with him so we were both standing closer to the garage.

He put his hand on the wall next to the door. "If it works, I won't be able to remove my hand without breaking the spell."

When Mom turned the corner, the graffiti was gone.

"You're the best," I told him.

"Make her leave soon," he said with a grimace. "This is not my sort of magic."

I nodded and had started to walk to where Mom was parking her car when I saw the door clearly.

Covered by red and green paint, it hadn't been as noticeable. Someone with some artistic skill had painted an X on the door. In case I didn't get the right idea, instead of two mere lines, the shape was formed by two bones. They were ivory with grayish shadows and just a faint blush of pink—not painted by a couple of self-righteous and irate kids with spray paint. All it was missing to keep it from Jolly Rogerhood was a skull.

"You'd better hide that," Zee said. "Magic won't."

I put my back against the door and folded my arms.

"So why don't you think it's ru

"Because it is old," Zee told me, taking the cue I had given him. "Because it was not well designed in the first place. Because air-cooled engines need constant tinkering."

"I was—Hey, Mom."

"Margaret," Zee said coolly.

"Mr. Adelbertsmiter." My mom didn't like Zee. She blamed him for my decision to stay in the Tri-Cities and fix cars instead of finding a teaching job, something much more in line with the kind of work she thought I should be doing. Politeness done, she turned back to me. "I thought I'd stop by before heading home." She couldn't get too close though, because as soon as he caught my scent, Hotep growled and lowered his head aggressively: protecting my mom from the bad coyote.

"I'll be fine," I told her, curling my lip at the Doberman. I actually like dogs, but not this one. "Give my love to Curt and the girls."

"Don't forget to work things out so you can come to Nan's wedding." Nan was my younger half sister, and she was getting married in six weeks. Luckily, I wasn't part of the wedding party, so all I had to do was sit and watch.

"I have it on the calendar," I promised. "Zee's going to take care of the shop for me."

She glanced at him, then back at me. "Fine, then." She started to give me a hug, then gave Hotep a rueful look. "You need to teach him to behave like you did Ringo."

"Ringo was a poodle, Mom. A fight between Hotep and me wouldn't end well for either of us. It's all right. Not his fault."

She sighed. "All right. You take care of yourself."

"Love you. Drive carefully," I told her.

"I always do. Love you."

Zee was sweating by the time the car was out of sight. He took his hand off the building and the paint returned. "I didn't do it for you," he grouched. "I just didn't want her hanging around longer than necessary."

We both stepped away from the door to look at the painting that was now mostly covered by a big, fat-lettered red "LIAR." The paint of the crossed bones was thicker than the spray paint, so even though I couldn't see most of the color, I could see the outline of it.

"The vampires dropped Stefan in my living room last night," I told him. "He was in pretty rough shape.

Peter… one of Adam's wolves, thinks whoever did it was hoping Stefan would attack me and we'd both be out of the way. Stefan wasn't in any shape to talk much, but what he did manage to convey was that Marsilia found out I killed Andre."

Zee traced his fingers over the bones and shook his head. "This might be vampire work. But, Mercy, you've been putting your little nose so many places it doesn't belong; it could almost be anyone. I'll talk to Uncle Mike—but I expect your best bet for information about it is Stefan, because it doesn't feel like fae magic. How badly is Stefan hurt?"

"If he were a werewolf, I think he'd be dead. You think this is magic?" It felt like that to me, but I was hoping I was wrong.

Zee frowned. "For an evil bloodsucker, he's not a bad sort." High praise from Zee. "And yes, there is magic here, but nothing I'm familiar with."

"Samuel thinks Stefan will be all right."

Tony turned the corner in his unmarked car, which was discreetly police modified with extra mirrors, a few extra ante

"You decorating for Christmas early, Mercy?" Tony could blend in even better than I did. Today he looked like a Hispanic cop… like the poster child for Hispanic cops, handsome and clean-cut. When he was playing drug dealer, he did it better than the real thing. I'd first met him playing a homeless man.

There was nothing magic or supernatural about him, but the man was a chameleon.

I glanced at the building again. He was right. If you didn't pay any attention to the words, it had a sort of Christmasy look to it. The green paint tended to be short top to bottom but long front side to side. The red paint was fat and closed up. It looked sort of like garlands with red balls hanging down.

There was even "Ho, ho, ho," if you skipped around a little and deleted an «e» on the last "ho." Our green painter had a limited vocabulary and occasionally mixed up a professional working woman with a garden implement.

"Not really Christmasy thoughts," I told Tony. "But the colors are right. Actually, if the white wasn't so dingy, it would almost look festive—like that little Mexican restaurant in Pasco—the one with the really hot salsa." The fresh colors made the original paint job look tired.

"Your boyfriend still got surveillance video going?"

"Yes, but I don't know how to run it."

"I do," said Zee. "Let's go take a look."

I glanced at him. Vampires, remember? We don't want the nice human cops to see the vampires.

He gave me a bland look that clearly said, If the vampires were clumsy enough to get caught by thecameras, that was their problem. I couldn't object out loud, but if the vampires made themselves obvious, it would be Tony who was in danger.

Well, I thought as I led the way into the office, at least vampires looked like everyone else. As long as they didn't display their fangs for the camera—or throw a car around—it was unlikely they'd be spotted for what they were. And if it was obvious… Tony wasn't stupid. He knew a lot about how the fae and the werewolves worked, and I knew he suspected that there were a lot more nasties still keeping quiet about themselves.

While Zee played with the electronics, Tony looked at me.

"How are you?" He smelled of worry, with a little of the metallic scent of protective anger.

"Really tired of answering that question," I replied blandly. "How about you?"

He flashed his pearly whites at me. "Good for you. Do you think Bright Future did this?"

If our minds kept working this much in sync, I'd pity poor Tony.