White Witch, Black Curse

The surrounding shops on both levels had their gates down, and employees were clustered behind them, loud with gossip. The lower floor was a mess, with several tables sporting broken legs and everything shoved out of place. A red smear on the floor and pilings gave me pause until I decided the splatter pattern wasn't right for blood. It was ketchup, which might be why the humans had gathered by the ice-cream counter. Young kids wearing too much black mostly, but there were some late shoppers braving the encroaching Inderlander shopping hours, too. They looked scared, but there were no paramedics.

At the other end of the food court were the Inderlanders, and here was where the lawsuits would come from. Most had makeshift bandages pressed against their arms or legs. One was flat out on the floor. Weres and vampires. No witches, who were like humans in that they knew to get out of the way when predators fought. It was quiet over there, and most looked confused, not angry. Clearly the riot had ended as quickly as it had started. So where's the little instigator? I thought, not seeing anyone matching Mia's description among the walking wounded.

Stopping in the middle of the open hall, I dug the locator amulet out of my bag with a faint, foolish sense of optimism. Maybe I'd done it right and didn't know it? But as I held the smooth disk of wood in my hands, it stayed a slightly damp disk of wood. No glow, no tingle. Nothing. Either I'd flubbed the charm, or she wasn't here.

"Damn," I whispered, brow furrowed. It had been a long time since I'd misspelled a charm. Doubt in one's abilities wasn't healthy when you worked with high magic. Self-doubt led to mistakes. Double damn. What if I really messed up one day and blew myself to bits?

The familiar cadence of Ivy's boots pulled me around, and I shoved the amulet back in my bag. I was really glad she was here. Bringing in a banshee, even a cuffed one, was not as easy as it sounded—which was probably why the I.S. was either ignoring or covering up her activities.

"I thought you were working," I called out as she approached, and she shrugged.

"I finished early." I waited for more, disappointed when she shook her head and added, "Nothing. I didn't learn jack."

Jenks was with her, and he lit on my offered fist, looking tired and cold. "You're late," he said. "You missed all the fun."

A passing vampire with his hands cuffed snarled at us, trying to scratch at the new blisters on his neck. "Pull your damned wings off and then see if you can fly," he muttered, lunging, and making the I.S. cop with him jerk him back.

"Shove it up your ass and make a breath mint out of it!" Jenks shouted after him, and I wondered just how much "fun" I had missed, and if it would be showing up on our doorstep in about forty-eight hours, after it posted bail.

"Making friends, I see," I said, gazing at the aftermath.

Ivy took my elbow and began leading me from the Inderlander side of things. The I.S. officers were watching me, and I felt uneasy. "What took you so long?" she asked. "Edden said he called you."

"I was at my mom's. It takes three times as long as it should to leave." I exhaled loudly, not seeing Mia anywhere. "It's over? Where's Mia? Was Remus with her?"

Jenks clattered for my attention, and he pointed to the human side of the food court. My lips parted, and I blinked. The fussing child should have clued me in even if the man standing protectively over the slight, elegant woman hadn't. Damn, she looks midthirties, not three hundred, I thought as I took in her slight, almost fragile-seeming frame next to the average-looking man as he held a baby bundled up in a pink snowsuit. The toddler was probably only hot, and I wondered why he just didn't take the snowsuit off her. Not a scrap of skin was showing apart from her face and her hands, gripping a sticky lollipop. Disappointment that my amulet hadn't worked filled me, then I shoved it aside.

Apart from his ever-moving eyes, Remus looked entirely unremarkable in his jeans and cloth coat. Not ugly, not attractive, maybe a little tall and bulky, but not overly so. That he could have beaten up Glenn looked doubtful, but knowing how to hurt a person and the willingness to use that knowledge, coupled with surprise, could be deadly. To be honest, he looked harmless—until I saw his eyes follow an FIB officer, hatred in the way he clenched his jaw, an almost eagerness to hurt reflected in his gaze. And then he dropped his attention and shuffled his feet, becoming a janitor standing over a woman way out of his league.

"Why are they just sitting there?" I asked, turning away before they felt my eyes on them. "Did the warrant fall through?"

Jenks slowly rose from Ivy's shoulder to see them better. "No, Edden's got it, but both of them are quiet right now, and he doesn't want to do anything until he gets more people out of here. I've been listening, and the I.S. doesn't care that Mia's killing humans."