Ever After. Kim Harrison

away lights, but their long-range cameras were reading lips. “Ellasbeth did not arrange this,” Trent said shortly, his back to them. “I stole Lucy with my own efforts under an arranged tradition older than your species, vampire. If Ellasbeth had come here and taken Lucy by herself, then I’d be angry for having allowed it. I wouldn’t deserve her. But this wasn’t Ellasbeth.”

      Nina swung back to me. “Which brings us back to you, Rachel.”

      Exasperated, I dropped back to my car, sneezing and trying not to look pensive. “Just because a demon can’t come to reality doesn’t mean that his influence ends at the ley lines. I saw Nick Sparagmos leaving the hospital in a hurry yesterday amid that media circus you instigated. I did some asking around and found out he belongs to Ku’Sox Sha-Ku’ru. Ku’Sox could have done this through Nick.”

      Not easily, but he could have.

      “And why didn’t you say anything earlier?” Nina almost purred, making me think Felix had known about it all along. Damn it, I hated when I fell into their mind games.

      “Because up until today, Nick was stealing thriving Rosewood syndrome babies, not Trent’s family.”

      Nina squinted, her guile replaced with a frown. “You think the two crimes are linked?”

      I nodded, pulling my jacket tighter around my shoulders to make Jenks take to the air. Just as well since I sneezed again. Both the pixy and Trent eyed me in concern. “There’s no way in the two worlds that you’ll find him. You want his phone number? That’s all I got, and it’s probably not going to work anymore.” I dug in my bag for a tissue. If I didn’t get to my scrying mirror soon, Al was going to be pissed.

      Nina’s eyes narrowed. “I do not like you withholding information, Rachel Morgan.”

      I leaned forward to get into her face, emboldened by the news crews watching. “Then maybe you should stop accusing me of everything. I didn’t have any evidence, and one thing I’ve learned is no one acts on what I believe, only what I can prove.”

      “I would,” Trent said, and I smiled at him with a wash of gratitude. Jenks had moved himself to his shoulder, and he looked different with a baby on one side, a pixy on the other.

      “I’m going to hold you to that,” I said softly, and Nina’s stance became antagonistic.

      “I want a statement,” she insisted.

      “Am I a suspect?”

      Nina sighed dramatically. “No-o-o-o.”

      “A person of interest?” I pushed, and she rolled her head on her shoulders as if stretching into a new skin and finding it unpleasant.

      “No, not really,” she said flatly.

      “Then you can wait until I can come in tomorrow and give you a statement. Right now I have to talk to Al and find out what happened to the ley lines this afternoon. Okay? I’ll even tell you what he said. Deal?”

      Nina glared, brown eyes becoming black. I held her gaze, my heart hammering as I saw past the woman to the ugly old vampire speaking through her. Frightening ideas churned in him, whispers showing and vanishing like bursting bubbles of oil. He was old, maybe too old to adapt to the reality of demons among us and to make decisions to ease the coming chaos. His attention bore into me, and I took it without flinching. Would he accept me and the possible demon baggage I might bring to reality, or forever keep me in the “them” category? The second choice was familiar, comfortable, but it would lead to their damnation. I thought he was smart enough to see it. The question was, could he sell it to those who looked to him?

      “Very well. Tomorrow,” the vampire finally said, and I exhaled as our eye contact broke, trying to make it inaudible but knowing that Nina could sense my relief easier than she could feel the wind in her hair. I hadn’t gotten the full acceptance that I wanted, but rather a cautious maybe. It was enough for now. “Still, it would be easier if you hadn’t obliterated evidence of the attack,” she grumped.

      “I was trying to save Quen’s life,” I said darkly. The news crews were finally going into the gatehouse pressroom. Soon as they left, I’d head home. “You did a moulage, right?” I couldn’t see the imprint left by strong emotions, but vampires, whether they be living or dead, could. If Ivy was here, she could tell me, but she wasn’t. I had an uncomfortable thought that she’d much rather be helping Glenn than our investigative firm.

      Nina sniffed, clearly uncomfortable in the sun, but I leaned back against my car, enjoying the stored heat it was giving off. “Most has already evaporated with the sun,” Nina said. “The evaluation is still being scored, but even though neither I nor Nina is rated for the courts it’s obvious that there was violence, determination, frustration, and panic in large amounts. Mostly violence between two people.”

      “Gee, you think?” Jenks smart-mouthed. “You come up with that all on your own?”

      Quen and Ku’Sox, I thought, seeing frustration cross Trent’s face.

      “It seems,” Nina said, idly looking at her perfect nails, “as if Ceri did nothing. Perhaps she was knocked out or protecting the baby.”

      Trent turned away, the rims of his ears red in the sun. Jenks had taken wing, hovering protectively. Seeing it, Nina smiled like a cat who’d cornered a mouse. “I sensed three, maybe four auras present, but only Quen and one other were active. I’d be comfortable guessing that there was one person who abducted Ceri and Lucy, someone proficient in magic. Quen fought him or her, realized he couldn’t overcome them, and the two females were taken.”

      How can she just stand there and say it? I thought, my frustration bubbling up. Lucy and Ceri were gone! Quen was possibly dying, having tried to save them. Trent . . .

      I glanced at him, wishing he didn’t have to deal with this. Demons sucked.

      Nina was silent, reading the emotions as neither one of us said anything. Ray was slumped against Trent’s shoulder, Jenks a silent presence of support I didn’t understand. It was obvious that Trent had never admitted to himself how much Ceri and Lucy had come to mean to him. He might not even know it now, so wrought with the pressure of dealing with the present that he couldn’t see clearly. He was suffering, though. He had no one. I didn’t think he realized it yet—he wasn’t angry enough. I could feel his realization coming. Maybe in a day. Maybe two.

      Trent had always seemed to be alone, but he’d always had his assistant, Jonathan, as well as Quen. Then Ceri. Even Ellasbeth, though that hadn’t turned out very well apart from Lucy. And now even Lucy was gone. Soon he would understand that the demons had taken everything but a child who would remind him of what he lost. Things would get ugly then as the worst parts of Trent warred with the best.

      A chill went through me, and Nina looked at me in question, her eyes dilating in the strong sun as I shivered. Trent had power on multiple levels and he wasn’t averse to using it. I didn’t know which side of him would win. I’d seen both. There was little I could do. Except perhaps be there so he didn’t feel so alone.

      “Then you have nothing more to add?” Nina asked, her voice oily as she soaked in my sudden fear.

      “No.”

      “I’ll see you tomorrow, Rachel,” she said, and I looked at her outstretched hand, refusing to take it. She might kiss it or something. “Trenton.” Nina hesitated, inclined her head, and then spun slowly. Trent shifted to me slightly, and we watched her walk to the cars. You could tell when Felix left her: her head came up and she breathed as if coming out from a hole. As she paced faster, her heels clicked on the pavement until she got in a car.

      Arms still over my chest, I watched her slowly pivot the big car back onto the road, headed for the gatehouse. I’d stopped sneezing. That was good, right? “She thinks I’m not telling her everything,” I said, and Trent’s shoulders slumped.

      “Are you?”

      I touched Ray’s hair, smiling faintly. She hadn’t let go of that amulet,