The Witch With No Name

There was one cot, which Trent was stretched out on with his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling. One gray blanket and a thin, sad excuse for a pillow was all they had given us. I didn’t mind sharing such a tight space with Trent, but I was beginning to have issues with us being down here at all, even if it was nicer than that damp HAPA cell under the museum, or the soft gray nothing of the demon lockup, or even the rat cage Trent had kept me in for a few days.

Frustrated, I looked at him, his green eyes fixed on nothing as he took slow, careful breaths. He was irritatingly relaxed, with his shoes neatly arranged under the cot and his slim feet in their gray socks just begging for me to come over and run my finger up the arch of his foot to make him jump.

His jaw tightened when I sighed impatiently, and I put my ear to the door, listening. It was soundproof, but I tapped it anyway. I still hadn’t seen Jenks. Ivy was down here somewhere, too, and I hit a knuckle again, straining to hear an answering knock.

“What are you doing?”

I couldn’t tell if the irritation in his voice was real or me projecting. “If we’re in a cell block, then maybe Ivy’s next door.”

“Well, could you do it a little quieter?”

Not believing what had just come out of his mouth, I spun slowly on a heel. He was right where I’d left him, eyes closed and his neck muscles tight. “You want me to be quiet?” I said, and he cracked a single eye. “We’re locked in a box and you want me to be quiet?”

Trent’s eyes opened all the way, and he looked at his watch. “Not bad. Most people would be at my throat in forty minutes. It’s been almost three hours.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re impressed!” Hands on my hips, I watched him swing his feet to the floor and stretch. “Landon not only gets control of the dewar but he also gets Lucy. Because of me. Because if not for me, none of this would be happening! Forgive me for being a little upset.”

He eyed me as he finished his stretch, elbows on his knees. “Why do you think everything is your fault?”

“Because it usually is.” Ticked, I gestured wildly. “If not for me you wouldn’t be in danger of losing the girls, the dewar would listen to you, and you wouldn’t be broke. And Tulpa.” My face scrunched up in sudden worry and my anger fell flat. “Trent, what if they kill him?”

“Tulpa will be fine.” He shook his wrist to spin the zip strip to a more comfortable spot. “I’ve had rival stables try to break into the grounds, and you were the only ones to make it.”

“Still, with one Uzi and a parachute—” I started, and he held up a hand.

“Second, I’m not broke.” Trent reached for his shoes, wiggling one on, then the other. “Third, Landon doesn’t understand what makes Lucy important. Having her doesn’t ensure a following. Stealing her does. Landon didn’t steal Lucy, he used the law, and it won’t bring him as much political power as he thinks.” He hesitated, bringing a foot up to retie a shoe. “And last, if it wasn’t for you and Jenks, I never would’ve had Lucy in the first place.”

“Even so.” Somewhat calmer, I came closer, wishing they had a chair in here. “They’d listen to you if it wasn’t for me. Because of who I am and who I protect.” Glum, I sat beside him as he laced up his shoe. Smiling, he put a hand on my knee. Crap on toast, how does he make everything seem so easy?

“Demons?” Trent patted my knee. “It’s admirable. The vampires are simply afraid.”

My breath came faster as I flexed my hand. That hadn’t been ley line energy that had spooled from me to make that circle in Cormel’s office, it had been straight from the mystics I had stolen from the Goddess. “They’re right to be afraid,” I whispered, uneasy. “I don’t know why the demons haven’t started turning the people in front of them at the grocery store inside out. Where do you think they are?”

Head cocked, Trent gazed about our small cell. “I think they’re sitting on a beach terrorizing sand crabs. That’s where I’d be if I’d just escaped from prison.” Rising, he stretched again. His dress shirt had come untucked, and it pegged my attraction meter.

Wrong time, wrong place, I thought glumly. “How long do you think they’re going to make us sit down here?”

Trent’s eyes met mine through the mirror as he finger-combed some continuity into his hair. “Oh, sunrise tomorrow, I think, when every vampire who gets his soul tonight suncides.” He arched his eyebrows at whoever was behind the glass before he turned to me.

“Then you think Landon will get enough support to bring the undead souls back?”

“Fear will push them into it.” He was tucking his shirt in. It looked like he was getting ready for something. “It won’t be long now,” he added as he looked at his watch. “I’d probably feel the charm down here if I wasn’t strapped.”

Frustrated, I got up. “I flinched. I was so worried about you being hurt that I wasn’t paying attention. And then, when I get Cormel where I want him, I chicken out.”

Eyes serious, Trent held both my arms to my sides, making me look at him. “I like you when you’re good.”

I pulled away and flopped down on the bed. “Great, that’s great,” I said sourly.

Trent hesitated for a moment, and then, with an odd, determined pace, he went to the sink. “Why don’t you take a nap. Just lie there and be quiet for a minute.”

My head turned and I stared at him. “Quiet?” I almost snarled. “You want me to take a nap? Ivy is somewhere down here . . .” My words faltered as he ran his fingers across the tiny lip over the mirror. “And you want me to take a nap,” I finished. “What are you doing?”

Trent’s shoulders stiffened. As I watched, he turned the water on full force, and steam billowed up, misting the mirror so I couldn’t see his face. “Washing up. Why don’t you just shut up? Your bitching isn’t helping anything.”

I’m bitching? “Excuse me?” I exclaimed as I sat up. “I seem to remember you in Cormel’s office, too. This was one of the dumbest ideas—” He wasn’t even listening to me, and my eyes narrowed, not in anger, but understanding. He was looking for bugs, the mirror eclipsed by steam. “One of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever let you talk me into!”

He smiled as he shook the water from his hands. “Will you shut up and go to sleep?”

I hesitated, and he made a motion for me to say something. “Go to hell, Trent,” I said, then kind of pushed on the bed to make the springs squeak as if I was rolling over.

Trent gave me a thumbs-up, and I carefully sat on the edge of the bed, not moving when he waved for me to stay. Crouching, he reached under the open sink, wedging out a tiny buttonlike object. Saying nothing, he carefully set it on the sink, next to the running water. There was no stopper, and the water continued to flow, filling it halfway up.

Immediately he crossed the room, fingers on his lips as he went right to the back-left corner of the bed and found another stuck to the frame. This one went next to the sink as well, his eyes full of satisfaction. “That’s the last of them,” he said, his voice hushed.

“How did you know where they were?”

His shoulders rose and fell. “That’s what I’ve been doing for the last three hours.”

I pressed my lips. “You’ve just been lying on the cot for three hours.”

“I’ve been listening, trying to find them.”

I shifted down a smidgen when he came to sit beside me. “You can hear the circuitry? Damn, you’ve got good ears.” I knew that Jenks could hear circuitry, but elves?

“Given enough time.” He looked at his watch, grimacing. “It’s more like feeling the waves coming off them, like reverse sonar. I didn’t want to move until I found them all. Thanks for being so quiet. You really are something, you know? I was serious when I said most people would react badly. Thanks for that.”

“Well, it’s not the first time I’ve been in a cage,” I said saucily. “Got any carrots?”

He chuckled at the reminder of his once keeping me in a ferret cage. “God, I was stupid,” he said, shaking his head, and I touched his face, liking the feel of his bristles.

“We both were.” Grinning, I leaned in for a kiss, jerking back when the lights went out. “Was that you?” I said, my flush of good feeling gone.

“No.” His fingers found mine, and we didn’t move. “I guess they figured it out.” He sighed, and I gave his hand a squeeze.

“They wouldn’t turn off the lights unless they wanted to get back at us, right?”

Trent made a small noise that wasn’t agreement or disagreement, and a thin sliver of doubt wedged itself under my short-lived satisfaction. Maybe they turned the lights off not to disorient us, but so they could burst in and do something nasty.

“Ah, can you make a light?” Trent asked, his voice eerie coming out of the dark.

I froze, my thoughts zinging back to the mystics. He knew I had no contact with the lines down here. It was impossible for me to make a light. “No,” I said quickly, my fear finding a closer home than vampires possibly attacking us.

“Rachel, please,” he said, his arm slipping around my back as we sat on the edge of the bed in the dark. “I saw what happened upstairs. I know you’re not happy about it, but this isn’t a bad thing, especially if Landon breaks the lines.”

“No, I can’t!” I exclaimed, but he knew I was lying, and he pulled me into him.

“Can you hear them?” he whispered.

“No.”

He was silent, then, “Are you lying to me?”

“Can’t you tell?” I said bitterly.

“Not in the dark,” he said, a hint of a laugh in his voice. “Make a light, and I’ll let you know.” His arm slowly fell from me, and I felt a moment of loss until he found my hands and cupped them in his. I felt our balance equalize, and then my breath caught when a faint glimmer within our cupped hands grew and blossomed.

“Ta na shay, su meera,” Trent whispered, and I shivered as I felt him siphon energy from me to him, and then into the charm, using me like a ley line.

“How . . . ?,” I whispered, and the light became brighter, bright enough to see his expression pinched with worry and pride.

Damn it, I didn’t have time to be fighting the Goddess, the demons, and the vampires, not to mention the court battle convincing twelve prejudiced elves that leaving your children in the care of a demon was not child abuse. But what pained me the most was that this—the mystics making our hands glow—was why Al wouldn’t talk to me.

“Don’t let go,” Trent said, his fingers tightening on me so the charm wouldn’t break. “Oh, Rachel, it’s going to be okay,” he said, pulling me into a one-armed hug. “I promise.”

My eyes closed. The energy flowing through us somehow felt transparent without the usual taint of ever-after. It occurred to me that if we just left and went to that island in the Pacific no one would care if I had mystics in me or not.

“Are they speaking to you?” Trent asked, the thread of fear he tried to hide sparking through me, crushing the want for sand and sun and solitude.

I pulled back, feeling his absence keenly. My fear was reflected in his eyes, strengthened by love. “No, but they can hear me.”

He blinked fast, his hold on my hands tightening. “It’s okay,” he started, and all the fear and anger I’d shoved down boiled up.

“It’s not okay!” I shouted, and the light redoubled, making shadows in the small room. “Did you see Al’s face when he saw me? Saw the mystics?” I took my hands from his, and the light continued to glow within them. I didn’t know what spell it was since it wasn’t aura based. I guess when you’re line energy, it doesn’t matter. “They’re going to kill me.”

“No one is going to kill you,” he insisted. “Besides, I like the way your aura looks.” I tried to smile as he gave me a kiss, his lips finding mine with determination. “And the way you smell with them in your hair,” he whispered, fingers firmly at the back of my neck. “Why do you even care what they think about you anyway?”

My eyes closed, and I breathed him in, wondering how it could be so good and so bad at the same time. “Because they’re the only group of people who aren’t afraid of me.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” a low voice growled.

My eyes shot to the closed door, then the sink. “Al!” Shit, how long had he been there? I panicked, the light glowing like a neon sign of guilt.

Trent stood, tension pulling him ramrod straight. “Where are my girls?”

Al’s features creased as he scowled at Trent. “You are late. I told you I had to leave at six P.M. exactly, and it’s after that now.”

Trent took a step forward. “Where are Lucy and Ray?” he asked again, and Al finally took his eyes off me.

“In their beds,” he said, thumbnail running under the nail of his index finger.

“You left them alone?” I blurted out, and Al rolled his eyes.

“Nothing will happen in the time it takes to tell you to find someone else to watch them.”

I stood, setting the ball of light on the bed. “It’s not like you went to the bathroom, Al, you’re across the city. You can’t leave them like that! Even if they are sleeping!”

Al’s face was ugly when he pulled his eyes from the ball of light. “I’m three seconds away from them,” he said with a sneer. “It would take me longer to take a piss than to jump back to them. My God, you’re covered with elf shit. How can you stand yourself?”