“Whatever.”

“Okay, my clothes are in my room. No shoes, no shirt, no service, and all…”

I blushed even redder and looked down at my own lap—the better to avoid looking at his.

“Um, sure. Right. I’ll be here.”

Anyan rose from the bed next to me and padded away on bare feet. I squeezed my eyes shut, mustering every ounce of self-control I had. Until I heard him pause at the door, opening it slowly to check for safe passage, and I imagined him standing there…

Don’t do it, Jane… Don’t you dare…

Luckily, I’ve never had any willpower. After about one whole second of being good, my eyes were latched onto Anyan’s ass. I sighed contentedly as the barghest flexed his way around the corner and out of sight.

* * *

The girl behind the counter at the local Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shop was your typical slightly overskinny but otherwise adorable skater chick. She had amazing tattooed sleeves peeking out of her uniform, and a cheeky smile I couldn’t help but return.

It helped that she was currently scooping out copious amounts of Mint Chocolate Cookie ice cream into a steel cup to make me a milk shake. I automatically liked pretty much anyone who fed me, and feeding me ice cream bought even strangers pure adoration.

I watched with avid eyes as she finished scooping my choice, then began scooping Chubby Hubby for Anyan. I was so distracted by watching her cut a swath through a particularly thick vein of peanut butter that I barely registered when Anyan excused himself to use the bathroom.

Anyan had just left the room and the pretty, blonde skater girl was just setting both steel cups into their blenders when, all of a sudden, everything went black.

I don’t mean the lights went off, I mean my world went black. And quiet. I couldn’t hear the telltale buzz of power from anywhere, but I still automatically raised my shields as I called forth a swirling, iron-gray orb of energy into my palm.

“Who’s there?” I called into the darkness tremulously.

No answer.

“Come on! Who’s there?”

Around me in the darkness, light flared as patterns began to appear in the black.

Dark purple vines began to snake around me, growing in a random pattern. Turquoise flowers sprouted from the ends of some of the vines, their stamens a lurid, fluorescent pink.

Pouring power into my shields, I searched the darkness for an enemy even as I searched for any ping of power. But I felt and heard nothing.

“Who is out there!” I shouted, my calm cracking underneath the oppressive hush. I made a circle, starting to panic as the vines began to float toward me, closing in on me like Briar Rose in the grip of her curse.

I kept circling till my eyes caught a glimmer of white light that appeared in the purple ivy. The glimmer grew to a crack, which grew into a sliver, which grew into a door large enough for a skinny girl.

And Blondie is exactly who came through, only the Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shop uniform was gone and she was naked. Her lithe frame was entirely tattooed, and hoops gleamed in her nipples. She came toward me, that cheeky grin still cutting across her features.

I raised the hand with the mage ball, only to find it suddenly empty.

“Who the fuck are you?” I shouted, just as she reached up to me.

I flinched back, shielding my face with my arms, but nothing happened. I could hear her chuckling, and I finally peeked around my hands to find her standing there, holding out two milk shakes, with napkins and straws.

I blinked at her, and her smile grew bigger. Eventually I dropped my arms, and she came forward with our ice cream.

The unnatural foliage around us finally began to shake as power—but none I recognized—began to swirl around us. As I raised my own hands to take the milk shakes, she nodded.

Then, with a bawdy wink, everything went black again.

I blinked once… twice…

Then found myself standing in the middle of the Providence, Rhode Island, Scoop Shop, holding two milk shakes while, next to me, Anyan stared at me like I’d lost my marbles.

I looked from him to the girl on the other side of the counter. She was short and chubby, with a bad complexion and lank brown hair.

I looked at her, then at the shakes, then back to Anyan.

“Uhh… weren’t you… blonde?” I asked hesitantly.

“Huh?” she asked, looking at me like I was extra loony.

I sighed, then handed Anyan his milk shake. He raised an eyebrow and twitched his nose at me, hard.

“Here’s your ice cream. And while you were in the bathroom, everything went black, then purple shit grew out of the dark, and then I was approached by a hot, naked, tattoo-advert chick. Who used to be her,” I said, pointing at the brown-haired girl across the counter. “But she was blonde and made us milk shakes. Then she disappeared and changed into that one.”

The girl behind the counter backed away slowly as Anyan sucked on his straw, staring at me curiously.

Finally, he shrugged and held out his milk shake toward me, straw first, so I could taste.

“Well, it seems simple enough. Either someone is fucking with you, or you’re having a nervous breakdown. Want a sip?”

I blinked at him. The joy of comforting words. Barghest-style.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

So everything went black, purple ivy grew, and then she gave you a milk shake?” came Ryu’s dry voice from the backseat, where he sat beside Caleb. Daoud and Julian were wedged into the very small seats in the very, very back of the enormous gas-guzzler we’d rented.

My former lover made what I’d said sound even crazier, and it already sounded pretty batpants. Ryu had talents, after all.

“Yup,” I replied from the front seat, watching Anyan’s hands on the steering wheel of our rented SUV.

“And there was no power signature?” Ryu prodded.

“Nope, nothing. Only at the very end did I feel… something.”

“But not elemental magics?”

“No.”

“First Magics?”

“If First Magic feels like what Terk does, then no. It didn’t feel like that at all.”

I could see, in my side mirror, Ryu frowning, his handsome features scrunching up as he sucked on his bottom lip. My libido, ever clueless, made a hesitant suggestion, which I immediately and firmly quashed.

“Anyan?” the baobhan sith asked, after a few seconds more of petulant lip-sucking.

“No clue,” the barghest grunted from beside me, his nose twitching.

We were driving to the safe house right outside Providence where the local Powers That Be had stashed the females rescued from the laboratory. In the wee hours of the morning, Ryu, Caleb, Daoud, and Julian had arrived to begin officially questioning the freed hostages. I had been very happy to see everyone from Boston again, although I did miss Julian’s baobhan-sith mother, Camille. She was serving as Ryu’s replacement while he traveled.

“Could it have been a really powerful glamour?” Caleb rumbled forth.

“Anyan would have felt the magic,” Daoud replied. “Unless the person was so powerful they could mask all trace of their power.”

“And there hasn’t been anyone, even Alfar, that strong since before the Third Great War,” Ryu cut in, clearly frustrated.

“Was that a long time ago?” I queried the barghest sotto voce.

“Yup. About eight hundred years.”

“What was that?” Ryu’s voice cut in from behind us.

“Nothing!” Anyan and I both responded, too quickly and as one.

The car went silent. Ryu’s irritation was palpable.

Caleb, bless him, was the first to stick his neck out. “I think the obvious question, Jane, is whether you think this could have been some sort of… episode.”

I couldn’t help but smile.

“Like a nervous breakdown?”

“Well… yes.”

“I have been rather stressed,” I said, wryly. “But you’re right, Caleb. I think it’s a distinct possibility. After all, I saw Blondie, when Anyan saw only the dark-haired girl. And neither of us felt any magic, except for that one moment, but it wasn’t… normal magic.”

“Could it have been drugs?” called out Julian from the very back of the SUV. “When, exactly, were you given the milk shakes?”

“We don’t use drugs,” Ryu broke in snippily.

Caleb’s calm voice overrode Ryu’s, to my surprise. “True, it is not our nature to use science or its by-products, but these are not normal times. Perhaps Daoud has a point. Jane?”

“Sorry,” I said. “I wasn’t given my ice cream until after my psychic break from reality.”

Anyan shook his head once sharply. “Jane, you didn’t have a psychic break. You were fine. Something’s going on; we just have to figure out what it is.”

“And pray that whoever has that kind of power, to make you see shit that’s not there without exposing themselves at all, isn’t working for the bad guys,” said Daoud, his voice grim.

We all processed that information in silence, the only sound the computer-calm voice of our GPS telling us where to turn on our way to our destination. When we finally arrived at the safe house, it revealed itself to be a large, very baronial mansion in a wealthy suburb. Gathering our things we headed inside, pushing through various layers of magical shieldings as Ryu “knocked” with his own power and was allowed through.