Black Magic Sanction

I glanced at Ivy, who wouldn't look at me, eyes fixed on the dark night. "I've got two good friends," I whispered, and Jenks's wings clattered.

I didn't want to hear any more. Nick... Well, what had I expected? At least now I could write him off. I mean, I had, but now there were no lingering doubts that he was only doing what he had to in order to survive. He'd lied about my stealing the statue. But as I looked at the erotic thing in the faint light, I decided that nothing had changed. Nick might have been working both sides to get us in there, but I was the one who walked through the wall. It wasn't all fake. We could still do the sting, and the pornographic statue would be a better attention getter than a doctored picture. Trent seemed desperate to get it back. And I started to smile.

"Sir," Quen said as the office chatter grew loud again. "He's bugged."

"Shut the door!" Trent said, and the sound of steps rang out and then the thump of a door.

"Shit," Nick exclaimed. "Rachel, this isn't what it looks like!" he cried, but it was far too late to lie to me again.

There was a tussle, and a loud scraping. From a distance now, I heard Nick take a rasping breath and his soft swearing. "I think this is exactly what it looks like," Trent said, his voice very clear. "Rachel, if you're listening, think about who you're playing with. Return that statue or I will kill you. Not your mother, not your friends. You."

There was a crunch, and the high-pitched, bone-vibrating sound exploded into existence. From the back, the pixies all squealed, and Jenks stomped on the off button, his hands over his ears and his wings flat against his back.

"Return it is exactly what I intend to do, Mr. Kalamack," I whispered, dropping the radio in Ivy's bag and hefting the statue instead. It wasn't very big, but it was heavy.

Ivy slowed and took a quick right into a pull-off, and I put a hand to the dash. "We're at the river," she said, and I felt a sliver of fear. Why are we stopping?

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I said as she put it in park. "We are not going to abandon my mother's car and run out of here, Ivy."

Dogs. Trent had dogs. I'd stolen something from him before, and he'd ridden after me. The moon was new. It was the Hunt. But no one was listening. And as I sat, terrified, Ivy got out, quickly followed by Pierce on my other side.

"I'm not getting out of this car!" I shouted, my grip tightening on the statue. "Ivy, he's got dogs! I'm not going to be torn apart by a damn hound!"

Pierce leaned in, taking my hand to draw me into the night, where I stood and listened to the wind, searching for the singing of dogs in the rustling leaves. Not good. So not good.

Grit scraped under Ivy's heel as she slammed her door shut and turned to the distant glow of the city. "What are we doing?" she asked as she put her belt pack back on.

"We're getting in the car and driving out of here!"

Ivy shook her head. "The road is blocked already. Are we finishing this job or not?" she prompted, and I calmed myself, looking down at the ugly statue in my hand.

The thought of the dogs made me shiver in the cool night, but even so, there was a sliver of strength growing in me. I would forever have the refuge of the ever-after, especially now. All I had to do was find a line. And better yet, I knew my gut instinct about Nick had been right. It had only been my heart that had gotten in the way. I didn't have to feel guilty about hating him. And that... felt kind of good.

"Rache? We doing this?" Jenks asked as his kids chased the bats over the river.

I smiled up at him, pocketing the statue in my belt pack and zipping it up. "Yes," I said, and both he and Ivy relaxed. "We got what we needed," I said, following it up with a quick "True, it didn't go off like I had intended, but we got something better, I think. I say we forget about crap-for-brains and just run the job as pla

"Yes!" Jenks shouted, a burst of light coming from him.

Still listening for dogs, I turned to Ivy. "Can you take care of getting the paperwork from David to claim FIB jurisdiction?" I asked. "I know I was going to, but I can't go back into the city until we're ready to give the statue back."

"Got it," she said as she turned to the distant glow of Cincy. "Where are you going?"

I exhaled, knowing they weren't going to like this. "The ever-after," I said softly, and Jenks darted to me, getting in my face and half blinding me.

"No!" he shouted, and his kids paused in their play before going back to tormenting a bat they'd caught. "Rache, no!"

"Where else can I go?" I said, dropping back a step to see them ringing me in the faint light reflecting off the river. "Not the church. Not anywhere in Cinci

Looking calm, Pierce cleared his throat. "I know of a place this side of the lines."

Ivy gave him the once-over, her hip cocked. "You know of a place. Why didn't you mention this before?"

"Because it was abundantly clear that you didn't want my help," he said dryly, hands clasped behind his back and coat shifting in the wind off the water.

"You're not going to take Rachel alone to your place," Jenks threatened.

I shifted nervously, thinking that standing on a riverbank with dogs coming for me wasn't the best time to be eating crow, but I would. "Pierce, you're my freaking hero for driving out here and saving my ass, but this is Trent we're talking about. The ever-after is the only place I'll be safe. If I run, his dogs will find me." I stifled a shiver, but he saw, and I crossed my arms over my chest, pretending to be cold. I hated Trent's dogs. I really did.

Pierce raised his hand in disagreement even as he pulled a pair of heavy-duty clippers from a back pocket and cut the zip strip off me. "I'm not an i

No black magic. Again I shivered as I remembered the awful sound of animals singing for my blood. We had left Trent's woods, but he'd ride for me anyway. He was probably saddling Tulpa right now, cleaning his hooves with his daddy's hoof pick.

Pierce took my hands. Ivy cleared her throat and Jenks clattered his wings. "I can offer you nothing but a hole in the ground," he said. "But it is a hole never found by dogs or men with rifles. It was used to hide men and women on their way to freedom and is deeply spelled for safety." He looked over the river as if looking into the past. "I used to be a conductor on the underground railroad, or did that not find its way into Ivy's computer?" he said dryly.

I bit my lip, and Jenks's sour look eased. "It's better than the ever-after and Al," he said to Ivy, and the vampire grimaced.

Go with Pierce? Alone? Was he kidding? Ivy clearly wasn't happy with this either, but she finally nodded. "I'd rather have you on this side of the lines," she said sourly.

Pierce frowned at her mistrust as Jenks dusted a bright silver. Standing beside the river, the witch seemed to change. His mood darkened, and his gaze lingered on the moving water as if testing it. Hands in the pockets of his coat, he asked me, "Can you swim?"

Suddenly the ever-after was looking a whole lot better. "You want me to get in the water?" I asked. "It's freezing!"

Ivy's steps were loud on the gravel as she came up to us, but any hope that she was going to side with me died when she took my elbow and started walking to the river. "Rachel, Pierce is right this time," she said, and I made a noise of disbelief. "Trent owns Cinci