Yeah. I was awake. Stretching, I ignored them as I got up, tugged my nightgown in place, and looked at David smiling wolfishly at me. “You didn’t have to stay the night. Especially not on my bed.”
David yawned to show me his teeth as if to say nothing was going to harm me when he was around. Either that, or he wasn’t about to sleep on the floor. Hopping down, he padded to my door. I knew he could handle the doorknob himself, but why get his slobber all over it? “Go on. Get out,” I said as I opened it. “I want to talk to you when you can answer me back.”
Nails clicking, he trotted out. “David!” Jenks said, and I reached for my robe. “ ’Bout time you got the princess of perpetuity up.”
My hair looked like an eighties music video, and wincing, I caught it back in a scrunchie. When I’d gone to bed, new waves of mystics had been flooding Cincinnati almost hourly, and by the faint sound of emergency sirens, they still were. None were apparently making it across the river, Ayer probably soaking them up as fast as they came. Either he was calling them out or the Goddess was out of control, looking for her missing thoughts. I wasn’t sure which would be worse, and the effect was probably the same.
Not wanting to talk to anyone yet, I hustled to the bathroom. Most of the mystics were still ranging about, making me feel almost normal, and I carefully tapped a line.
Mistake.
In a terrified flood, they raced back. I staggered as the twin sensation of the line and the wild magic they brought with them raced through my synapses, tainting the clean energy with thoughts of fear, danger, and alarm. Visions of Cincinnati bombarded me in no order. Groaning, I collapsed.
“Rache!” Jenks shrilled, his dust suddenly blinding me.
Reeling, I dropped the line. It did no good. Wild magic took its place, and I cowered, hands over my head as I sat on the floor and tried to control the terrified mystics.
“I’m okay!” I moaned, talking to all of them, but their combined voices were too much, and they refused to listen to me. You’re okay! Back off! I shouted into my thoughts. I was just tapping a freaking line for the hell of it!
“David!” Ivy shouted, and I felt her cool arms enfold me, pulling me from the hard floor. “Rachel just collapsed.” My head lolled as she sat me up. “Jenks, what happened?”
Vampire incense poured over me and I breathed it in to pull memories of Ivy to the surface. It worked. Distracted, the mystics’ fear and alarm damped like water turning a towel darker.
“I don’t know!” Jenks was upset, and his dust warmed my face. “One minute she’s trying to get to the bathroom without anyone seeing her, and then she falls down!” I cracked open my eyelids to see a worried dust slipping from him. “Tink’s a Disney whore, her aura is white again,” Jenks said as he dropped to within inches of me, hands on his hips as he hovered. “Jeez, Rache. How many you got in there?”
“Go calculate the rate of your dust falling,” I said, dizzy, and Jenks darted back in alarm.
“You were supposed to watch her!” Ivy accused him. My fingers were tingling, and slowly the wild magic began to abate.
“I did! I watched her fall down! Tink’s tampons. What do you want me to do? Catch her?”
It was better now, and Ivy’s eyes met mine. Damn it, I was cowering on the floor like a victim. “Okay,” I breathed, finding my voice. “I’m okay. Better now.” I looked at the ceiling, feeling the mystics there, hovering. “Get out! Go learn something!” I shouted, and Ivy gave Jenks a worried look.
Jenks, though, was hovering backward, clearly pleased. “That’s better,” he said, his dust shifting to a bright silver. “There she is. Damn mystics. Get the hell out of my church!”
Exhaling, I looked up as David walked into the hallway, an afghan about his hips. “I’m fine,” I said, trying to sit up. Ivy reluctantly let me go, worry clouding her black eyes. I didn’t wonder why. This was a structured possession, pure and simple.
“Is she okay?” David asked, and I did a double take. Damn, the man had a nice set of abs. And pecs. I bet he had nice everything.
“Yes, I’m okay,” I said sourly. “I tried to tap a line, is all.”
Ivy stood, hand extended to help me up. “It hurt?”
I wavered, hand on the wall. “Uh, no, it kind of felt good,” I admitted. “But the mystics thought it was an attack and came back.” I glanced at Jenks. “I think they brought friends.”
He nodded, and I grimaced, finally letting go of the wall. It seemed to be getting better, but the reality was I was balancing on a fine line of control. The more mystics there were, the faster they were. What was saving my ass was that they seemed to be learning how to teach one another. The Goddess wasn’t going to thank me, but maybe she shouldn’t have left them in me to begin with.
“Ah, I’m okay. You mind if I . . .” I looked at the bathroom door, and they began to drift away, Ivy to the sanctuary and David back to the far living room and presumably a set of clothes. Clearly distracted, Ivy changed her mind, brushing past me in a wave of vampire incense to go to the kitchen instead. She didn’t give David a second look, which I thought telling. She’d had a crush on him last year.
I hesitated, waiting for Jenks to back off. “David, thanks again,” I said, and he inclined his head. A long slice of sun coming through the back door glowed on him.
“It was my pleasure. Everyone has been itching to do something, and it was a good outlet for the more aggressive packs. Got them away from the city center. By the way, you have twenty minutes until Edden gets here. Vivian couldn’t get a flight in time, but she doesn’t have anything to add, just demand, so we’ll do this without her.”
He vanished into the back living room. Suddenly my need to use the can took a backseat. Vivian? The head of the witch council, Vivian? “This? Do this what?”
David poked his head out. “Talk over the state of the city, of course.”
My shoulders slumped, and Jenks darted off as Ivy shouted for him. Ah. Another one of those. The last time I had been to one of those, Al had shown up and Ivy’s ex-girlfriend had killed Piscary. At least this time the city’s problems weren’t my fault. “Shouldn’t Trent be here?”
David hesitated as if he wanted to say something, finally shrugging before he ducked into the back room and presumably a set of clothes.
A surprising spike of disappointment hit me. I ignored it along with the questions the mystics were raising over it. How could I explain when I didn’t have an answer?