Metal pans swathed in a dish towel, I turned. "Me? Why?" He made an exasperated gesture that encompassed my spelling, and I huffed. "You want Al popping over anytime with the excuse of checking on me and then snagging whoever he wants? Can you imagine the trouble I'd be in if Al showed up and took, say, Trent, when I'm telling the little shoemaker to get lost?"
Jenks's small angular features pulled into a tight grimace. "Al is going to be more pissed than a fairy who finds acorns in his spider sack."
That was a new one, and I frowned as I replaced the pans and weighed out the dust, carefully tapping the envelope until the delicate balance started to shift. "He left a loophole, and I'm going to use it," I said as the instrument leveled. "Al's not taking my calls, and this is the only way I can think of to get his attention. Not to mention, this will save Pierce, too. Two birds with one stone. He'll probably treat me to dinner for outsmarting him." After he smacks me around. I looked up, seeing an unsure look on his tiny features. "What's the worst he's going to do to me? Ground me? Cancel our weekly sessions?" A private smile curved across my face and I tapped the dust from the pan into the wine medium. "Bully for him."
"Rachel, he's a demon. He might just pull you into the ever-after and not let you back."
The fear in Jenks's voice broke through my nonchalance, and I turned to him. "Which is why I told you and Ivy my summoning name," I said, surprised that this was bothering him so much. "He can't hold me even with charmed silver, and he knows it. Jenks, what's the matter? You're acting like there is more to this than there is."
"Nothing."
But he was lying, and I knew it.
The dust turned black when it hit the wine and sank. Jenks flew to the sill and looked out into the snowy garden, only a small patch lit by the back-porch light. All that was left besides invoking the charm was adding the identifying agent-in this case, metal shavings from the back of my dad's watch.
I drew the old pocket watch from my back jeans pocket, hefting the weight and feeling the warmth of my body in the metal. It had belonged to my dad, but it had been Pierce's before that, hence his being pulled from purgatory the night I had tried to make contact with my dad. I turned the watch over to find that the scratches I'd made eight years ago were now tarnished. I tried to remember what I had used to scrape the tiny bits into the spell pot the last time, guessing it had been my mom's scissors.
"It's the thought that counts," I said as I reached for Ivy's pair, jammed into her pencil cup, and scraped a new three marks into the old silver. The almost-unseen shavings made dimples on the wine half of the brew, and I stirred it until they settled. Almost done, and I pulled a warm, and now dry, bottle from the oven and dumped in both the lemon-yew mix and the wine, dust, roots, and holly.
Jenks hovered over it, his expression blank. "It didn't work," he said, and I waved him off before his dust could get in it.
"It's not done yet. I have to add my blood to invoke it, and I can't do that until tomorrow night," I said as I wedged a glass stopper into it and set it aside. Fortunately it was an earth charm and I could do it without tapping a line. He was frowning, and tired of his mood, I asked, "What's your problem, Jenks?"
His face tightened, and he flew to land on the book. Standing sideways to me, he crossed his arms and fumed, wings drooping. Silently I waited. "This isn't going to work," Jenks finally said.
My breath slipped from me, and I turned away, brow furrowed. "Gee, thanks, Jenks."
"I meant with Pierce."
Understanding him now, I straightened after carefully pouring a second portion of wine into the graduated cylinder. "You think I'm cooking up a boyfriend in my kitchen? Grow up."
"You grow up!" Jenks said. "Let's just say he's a nice ghost who needs a little help and is not spying on us for some demon. I know you, Rache. He is a ghost. You're a witch. He needs help, and I'd be willing to bet the first time you met him, he did something strong and powerful. And now he needs help, which turns him into freaking Rachel candy."
I couldn't help a flush from creeping up my face. Okay, maybe once, but I was smarter now. But seeing it, Jenks rose an inch.
"He's Rachel candy. And I don't want to see you hurt when you realize you can't have him."
"You think I'm doing this because I like him?" I said, mentally backpedaling. "It's not always about sex!"
"Then it's a good thing you didn't sleep with Marshal, isn't it."
Silently I reddened, eyes fixed on the wine level. Damn it!
"Tink's titties, Rache!" he exclaimed. "You slept with the guy? When?"
"I didn't sleep with him," I protested, but I couldn't look at him as I sipped the wine to the right amount. "It was just a really involved kiss." In a broad sort of way. Crap, Ford had said Pierce spent a lot of time in the belfry. I sure hoped he hadn't been up there when Marshal and I had-No, Al had abducted him before that.
Jenks landed on the bottle I'd just capped, and with his hands on his hips, he stared disapprovingly at me. "I thought you were going to leave it at friends," he said, then he slumped. "Crap, Rache, can't you just have a guy friend?"
"I did have a guy friend," I snapped, my hair swinging as I dropped the ivy roots and a holly leaf into the mortar and started grinding. "I spent two months doing friend stuff because I thought my life was too dangerous, and I found out that yeah, I can keep it friendly, but I also found out he was a really nice person. Maybe someone I might want to spend my life with. Maybe not. I didn't know I was going to get shunned. Excuse me if I thought I might finally have my freaking life together enough that I could share it with someone other than just you and Ivy!"
Jenks's wings buzzed, then went guiltily silent. Feeling bad for yelling at him, I set the pestle down and crouched to put us on the same level. "I thought I had my life together," I whispered. "I really liked him, Jenks."
"Me, too." In a soft hum, he landed by my hand. "Don't put him in the past tense."
My focus sharpened on him and I stood. "He is," I whispered. "Ever since I became shunned." Depressed, I straightened and looked to the holy dust. Ashes and dust. It sort of fit.
Jenks watched as I shook the envelope over the weighing pan, then rose up on a column of amber-tinted sparkles. "The phone is going to ring. You want to get it before it wakes up my kids?"
I looked up, not sure I believed him. The trill of the phone broke the silence, and I reached for the receiver, adrenaline jumping through me. Cormel? "God, I hate it when you do that," I said, as I hit the button to open the line.
"Hello, yes?" I blurted as Jenks darted from the kitchen to check on his kids. Then remembering we were a business, I cleared my throat. "Vampiric Charms," I said politely. "This is Rachel. We can help, dead or alive."
"Alive would be better," came Edden's voice, and disappointment that it wasn't Cormel slumped my shoulders. Tucking the phone between my shoulder and my ear, I went back to my set of scales.
"Hi, Edden. How is Glenn doing?" I asked, trying not to breathe on the scales as I tapped a little more dust out.
"Great. They released him this afternoon. The massage worked, though it raised a few eyebrows. It's going into the SOP for aura trauma."
"That's fantastic!" I said as I stood and dumped the dust in with the wine mix. Wine to give life, dust to give substance, ivy to bind, and holly to be sure nothing bad came in on the souls of the dead. "Thanks for calling me." I looked at the clock, wanting to keep the line open, but clearly Edden didn't get the hint.
"It was only right, seeing as you helped get him out." He hesitated, and when I didn't say anything, he added, "I'm sorry about Ivy. Is she okay?"
My motions to scrape the metal shavings into the mix were harsher than I had intended, and I warmed, gaze flicking to Jenks as he flew in. Oh yeah. He would have heard about that. "Ah, she's okay." I winced, adjusting the phone and remembering to grind a strand of my hair in with everything. "Um, how much trouble am I in over that?"
He laughed. "Just come in tomorrow and fill out a statement. I told them you were working for me, and they cut you a lot of slack."
I sighed in relief. "Thanks, Edden. I owe you."
"Yeah, you do...," he said, and my tension ratcheted up again at his sly tone.
"What," I said flatly. My eyes flicked to Jenks, listening to the entire conversation from across the room, and the pixy shrugged.
"I'd like your help on the next step in bringing Mia in," he said. "We can go over it tomorrow. See you at my office at eight."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Edden," I said, holding the phone tight to my ear. "There is no next step. Until my entire team is functioning, none of us is going after her."
"Our three best profilers say Ms. Harbor will be at a party tomorrow," Edden said as if not having heard me. "I want you there."
Jiggling the phone, I pulled a bottle from the oven and turned it off. Jenks's wings had hit a high pitch, and I tried to tell him with my eyes that this was not going to happen. "On New Year's Eve?" I quipped. "How much are you paying these guys? Half of Cincinnati is going to be at a party."
"I want you to come with me to one in particular," he continued, his voice tired.
"Golly, Edden. I don't date people I work with."
I could hear him puff his breath out in annoyance. "Morgan, stop messing with me. There's an eighty-three percent chance Mia will show up at this one."
The bottle was warm in my hands as I filled it, and I gave the mix a good shake before setting it beside the first with a sharp tap. "I've got spelling to do tomorrow. Personal spelling."
"I'll give you time and a half," he coaxed.
I crossed one arm over my middle. He wasn't getting it. "That woman's baby almost killed me," I said, trying the direct approach. "She tried to finish the job last night in front of a freaking jail, damaging my new aura and pretty much stripping Ivy's down to nothing. Do you know how hard it would be to live with Ivy if she were dead? I'm not going to risk us on some lame attempt to tag her and her psychotic boyfriend. Did you know I can't tap a line without convulsing if I don't have a good aura? I'm helpless, Edden. Not going to happen."
"Make some charms. I'll double your rate," he said, and I heard a burst of muffled noise when someone came into his office.
Make some charms. Stupid human. "No," I said, eyeing my potions. "Maybe when it gets warmer and all three of us can work."
"Rachel...People are dying. Don't you want to get even with this piece of work for what she did to your roommate?"
I got mad at that. "Don't you guilt me, Edden," I said, hearing Jenks's wings clatter. "There's a reason the I.S. is ignoring her. She's a freaking apex predator, and we are zebras at the watering hole to her. Trying to goad me into it by waving the flag of revenge is low. You can just take your guilt and your manipulation and shove it!"
Jenks looked pained, and I lowered my voice so I wouldn't wake up his kids. From the phone came Edden's cajoling voice saying, "Okay, okay, that was unfair. I'm sorry. Can I come over and talk to you about it? Bring you flowers? Candy? Does bribery work with you?"
"No. And you can't come over. I'm in my pajamas," I lied. God, I couldn't believe he had tried to use revenge to get me to do what he wanted. Thing was, last year, it might have worked.
"You are not. It's only midnight."