“Talk.”

   “Maybe there’s a way to use magic to slow down or even contain the supernatural beings.”

   “You mean casting spells?” I asked.

   He smiled. “Something like that, yes.”

   “The witches I know in the United States might be able to do something to help strengthen the door, and I guess you could work a containment spell on vampires not being able to cross the threshold, but it wouldn’t help you against lycanthropes,” I said.

   “The more powerful the vampire, the fewer spells that will contain them,” Magda said.

   “True,” I said.

   “I would like to sit down with all of you who know magic and discuss possibilities,” Flannery said.

   “Are you a witch?”

   “No.”

   “Are you a practitioner of the occult arts?” Edward asked.

   Flannery looked at him and smiled. “Yes.”

   I looked at Edward. “I’ve never heard anyone call it that outside of books.”

   “You haven’t traveled in Europe as much as I have.”

   I nodded. “Okay, Flannery, if you aren’t a witch, but you are a practitioner, then what kind of practitioner are you?”

   “Here they would call me a Fairy Doctor.”

   “You get your power from the Fey, the little people,” I said.

   He nodded, smiling wider. “I’m impressed, Marshal. Outside of Ireland, most people don’t know the term.”

   “Someone who visited your country explained it to me.”

   “Would I recognize the name?”

   “I don’t think so.”

   “Outside of Ireland, what would they call you?” Socrates asked. It was a good question.

   “Not much. My powers are tied to the gentle folk of this land, literally this soil. I have to be in a country long enough to persuade what few Fey remain there to help me. All the local nature spirits are very leery of strangers and strange magic.”

   “Have you ever persuaded foreign . . . gentle folk to work with you?” I asked.

   “I have, but even with them it didn’t work as well as it does here with my more familiar friends.”

   Edward said, “Let’s discuss ways to contain the vampires before they wake up for the night.”

   “Good idea,” Nolan said, “though I think, Mort, you should report to medical, too, just in case some of those bruises and scrapes are more serious than you think.”

   “I’m fine, sir.”

   Nolan just looked at him. Mort grinned. “Yes, sir.”

   “The gentle folk may be able to help us contain the vampires,” Flannery said.

   “They haven’t helped much up to this point,” Nolan said.

   Flannery smiled. “I hadn’t met Marshal Blake and her people. I’ve told my friends enough that they would like to meet face-to-face.”

   “What does meeting us have to do with the . . . gentle folk helping with the vampire problem?” I asked.

   “If the Fey like you, they may agree to helping more,” Flannery said.

   “Do you mean they could have been helping this whole time and have refused?” Edward asked.

   “Don’t judge them by human motives. It will just frustrate you,” Nolan said.

   Edward frowned. “I think Marshal Forrester should not come to the meeting,” Flannery said.

   “Where Anita goes, I go.”

   “You’re not magical enough, Forrester. I’m sorry, but the wee folk prefer different energy.”

   “If they don’t like you, they won’t meet with you,” Nolan said.

   “I don’t want Anita going alone,” Edward said.

   “You and I can wait in the car, but we can’t go in if the Fey say no. If we try to crash the meeting, they won’t help us.”

   “Anita is not going alone,” Edward repeated.

   “Oh, she won’t be alone. They want to meet some of the people she brought to our shores,” Flannery said.

   “Like who?” I asked.

   Flannery flashed me a bright smile. “I’ll give you a list.”

   “Jake needs to be on that list,” Edward said.

   That surprised me. I’d have thought he’d say Nicky.

   We finally got to leave the hallway. Mort went to medical, though I was pretty sure he was fine. It wasn’t until Edward wanted to include Jake in our meeting that I began to think we were going to talk about more than just containing the prisoners. I was pretty sure I knew why he wanted to include the only werewolf we had brought with us. Edward had noticed Nolan losing control for that moment in the hallway. If anyone in the group knew Nolan’s secret, I was betting it was Flannery. When you work with what amounts to nature spirits, it’s hard to miss a werewolf. If he had missed it, then my opinion of Flannery’s magical abilities was going to be low before we ever started comparing notes.

47

   WE SETTLED IN the back of the truck, which was beginning to feel like our home away from home, for privacy, and I put Domino up front with the driver. Flannery told me that not everyone could go in to meet and greet, but I was free to bring more people, so I did.

   “Safety tip: Don’t admit to being able to see the gentle folk unless Flannery asks a direct question,” Nolan said.

   “Why not?” Nicky asked.

   “Because not all of them like being spied on, and back in the old days, they’d ask which eye you could see them with and blind you in that eye.”

   “I’m already down an eye,” he said.

   “We’ll talk about what we saw and didn’t see when we’re all alone and inside somewhere in the city,” I said.

   “That would be best,” Nolan said. We’d already asked Nolan, and Flannery was the only one of his people who knew his secret, so we could talk freely about that, at least.

   I wasn’t sure how to start the talk, but Flannery was. “Before we talk other magic, we should discuss what happened with Captain Nolan in the hallway.”

   Nolan startled badly enough I could tell from the back. “I don’t know what you mean, Flannery.”

   “Captain, please, I felt your wolf stronger than I’ve felt it in months.”

   “No one else noticed.”

   “I did,” I said.