“I’ll call back from a landline,” I said. “Just give me five min-”

“No, dear. You don’t understand. This is-I really must see you.”

Clay shook his head emphatically.

“Actually, I’m sticking close to the hotel today. Doctor’s orders-”

“Then I’ll come there. Erin ’s gone to my sister’s. Getting her out of the city during all this seemed wise. I’ll close the shop early and head over. Oh, and I can take a look at that letter while I’m there. You still have that, don’t you?”

Clay frowned and shifted closer to hear better.

I told her I had the letter, and she was welcome to examine it.

“Excellent. Now where are you staying?”

I glanced at Clay. “The same hotel we gave you the phone number for.”

“Oh? You’re still there? Yes, of course you are-”

“No, I’m sorry. Completely forgot. We moved last night. We’re at the Marriott over by the Eaton Centre. I’ll meet you in the lobby.”

“The letter’s right there on the table,” I said as we brought Anita into our hotel room. “There are gloves beside it.”

She headed straight for it. I collapsed onto the bed.

“Tired, darling?” Clay asked.

“Too hot,” I said, then looked at the nightstand. “Where’s the bottled water?”

“Finished it. I’ll run down and grab some more.”

“No, get juice. Do they have cranberry?” I pushed up from the bed. “Here, I’ll go with you. Anita-”

“I’m fine, dear,” she said, head still down as she examined the letter.

Two minutes later, Anita Barrington opened our hotel room door, slipped out and nearly barreled into Clay, planted in the hallway. She spun and saw me blocking the other side.

“Oh, you’re back,” she said. “That was quick. I was just-”

“Leaving…” I waved at the tube in her hand. “With our letter.”

A small laugh. “Oh, dear, this doesn’t look good, does it? But I wasn’t leaving. I was coming down to see you, and it didn’t seem safe to leave this in the room.”

As she spoke, Clay opened the room door. I waved Anita in. She hesitated, looking across our faces, then went inside.

“Now,” she said as the door closed. “About that story I brought-”

“Don’t bother unless it’s the real one,” Clay said.

I grasped the end of the letter tube. She clung to it for a second before letting go.

“She’s right, though,” I said to Clay. “We need to be more careful about this. Someone could break in and ransack our room looking for it.”

He nodded. “Someone who knew wherewe were staying.”

“Because that person specifically asked for our hotel phone number. Someone who must have figured out what we are, so she knew she needed a potion to cover her scent when she broke in.”

“Someone who can cast blur spells, knockback spells, probably cover spells too…which is why we didn’t see her in the bathroom.”

Anita looked from Clay to me. “I don’t think I follow. Did someone break in-”

“Earlier, you asked me where we were staying. You knew we had a reason to move last night.”

She laughed. “No, dear, I have a very poor memory. I completely forgot that you told me which hotel-”

She lunged for the letter, slamming Clay with a knockback spell. I dove to cut her off, but her fingers wrapped around the tube as she cast another spell. Her form blurred and, for a second, she seemed to disappear.

“Elena!”

Clay sprang to his feet. A blur appeared at my shoulder. I spun out of the way as fingers grazed my side. The blur faltered, thrown off balance. She hit the nightstand, sending the lamp crashing to the floor. I lashed out, but missed. The blurred form raced for the door. Clay ran at her and threw himself down in her path. Anita tripped over him, reappearing as she struck the floor. I raced past her and grabbed the dropped letter.

“Elena!”

I wheeled as Anita’s hands flew up in a knockback spell. Our eyes met and she faltered, giving Clay time to roll up from the carpet. He charged, grabbed her by the back of her blouse and threw her over his shoulder. She hit the floor lamp, taking it down with her. Clay stalked over. She tried to scramble backward, out of his range, but he kept coming. Finally he was above her. Her lips parted in a spell, but she was shaking too badly to get the words out.

“Clay,” I murmured.

He hesitated, then backed off. I stepped into his place.

“Playing games doesn’t go over well with us,” I said. “We take them seriously.”

I reached down and helped her up.

“Sit there,” I said, gesturing at the chair. “Then tell us the real story behind the letter-the one that has something to do with immortality.”

She still tried to protest and sidetrack us, but finally told us the letter’s history, the one she’d known before she’d approached Shanahan to see it.

The story went that a sorcerer had created the portal. He’d been finishing work on an experiment, one that promised a form of immortality. A common enough type of experimentation, but something about this one made other supernaturals think he may have actually hit on a way to do it. Some wanted to steal his research. Some wanted to stop it. So he created the portal to hide, and put the trigger in the paper used to make the From Hell letter.