Cold Days

Thomas sat down next to me, and the Hummer settled a little more. "Well?"

"Well, what?"

"He going to back off?"

"Doesn't matter," I said.

"Sure it does."

I shook my head. "It doesn't matter because he's a decent guy, and I'm not going to hurt him."

"He might not give you much choice."

"There's always a choice," I said. "That's the thing, man. There's always, always a choice. My options might really, truly suck, but that doesn't mean there isn't a choice."

"You'd let him kill you?" Thomas asked.

I looked up at him. "No. But I won't hurt him."

My brother gave me a tight-lipped look and then got up and walked away.

There was a shimmer in the air, and Molly appeared, standing about ten feet behind what had been Fix's position during our conversation. She watched Thomas go with an unhappy expression.

I blinked at her. "How long have you been standing there?"

"I got out of your side of the car when Thomas got in," she said. "You know. Just in case something happened. It seemed like a good idea to make sure he went down quick if a fight broke out, so you wouldn't have to kill him."

I smiled at her. "Totally unfair."

"I had this teacher who kept telling me that if I was ever in a fair fight, someone had made a mistake," she said.

"Sounds like a jerk."

"He has his moments," she said. She squinted after Thomas and said, "He's just afraid, you know. He doesn't want to lose his brother twice."

"I know," I said.

"But I'm really proud of you, boss," she said, her voice quieter. "I mean . . . I know you've had some hard calls to make lately. But my dad would say that you were right about this one. There's always a choice."

I grunted. "If I get into it with Fix," I said, "I don't want you to get involved."

"Why not?"

"Because faeries keep score," I said. "And they'll never leave a score unsettled."

"If I told you that, you'd tell me that wasn't my choice to make."

"And I'd be right," I said, and sighed. "But I have enough worries already, grasshopper. Leave it alone. For me."

She looked like I'd just asked her to swallow a bug. "I'll try," she said.

"Thanks," I said, and extended my hand.

She helped me up. "What's next?"

"A phone call. Let's go."

Chapter Twenty

"I don't care how busy he is," I said into the phone. "I need to talk with him. Period."

We were in Thomas's living room. Thomas was sprawled on a recliner. The hideous high-tech brushed-steel look that had been the place's trademark had been softened with window dressings and various bits of decoration-Justine's touch. Thomas, like most men, regarded a throw pillow as something to throw.

One bounced off of my chest. "Way to turn on the charm, Harry," he murmured.

I covered the phone's receiver with one hand. "Polite gets you nowhere with these people. Trust me." I turned back to the phone. "No," I said. "Not over this line. It's bugged. Just tell him that Doughnut Boy needs to speak to him or an informed high-level operative in person, within the hour."

Thomas mouthed the word operative at me, his fingers spread in a gesture meant to convey spooky importance. I kicked the pillow back at him.

"Don't give me excuses," I said. "He can get here if he damned well wants to and we both know it. Call me back at this number." I thunked the phone down.

"Earlier today," Molly said, from where she sat on the floor, "someone said something to me about not burning my bridges. Let me think. Who was that?"

"Ixnay," I growled. "I know what I'm doing." I turned to Thomas. "How many bugs does Lara have on this place?"

"Harry," Thomas said in a scandalized tone-one that was just a little bit too well projected to be meant for me. "I'm her brother. She would never behave that way toward her own flesh and blood, her own kin, her own dear sibling."

I growled. "How many?"

He shrugged. "It changes. New ones come in sometimes when I'm not home."

I grunted. I put the phone on the counter, unplugged it, and grabbed a pepper shaker. I put a circle of pepper around the phone, and sealed it with a gentle effort of will. "You're set for money, right?"

"With Lara's money, yes."

"Good," I said, and then I unleashed a burst of will with a mutter of, "Hexus," that burned out every bit of electronics within fifty feet. The apartment's lightbulbs all winked out at the same instant.

Thomas groaned, but he didn't otherwise complain.

"Grasshopper," I said.

"On it," Molly said. She rose to her feet, frowning, her eyes mostly closed, and began walking slowly around the apartment.

While she did that, I broke the circle of pepper with a brush of my hand and plugged the phone back in.

"If you were going to do that," Thomas asked, "why not do it before you made the phone call that absolutely did set off every flag Lara's security teams have to wave?"

I held up a hand for silence, until Molly had wandered down the hall and back. "Nothing," she said.

"No spells?" Thomas asked.

"Right," I said. "Anyone who came in uninvited wouldn't be able to make that kind of spell stick. And no one you've invited in has . . ." I frowned. "Molly?"

"I didn't," she said quickly.

". . . has planted a spell to listen in on you," I finished. "And I wanted Lara's people to know who I contacted. When they try to follow up on it, they'll betray their presence and he'll be alerted to how they operate."

"It was a payment," Thomas said.

I shrugged. "Call it a friendly gesture."

"At my sister's expense," Thomas said.

"Lara's a big girl. She'll understand." I considered things for a moment and then said, "Everyone be cool. Something might happen."

Thomas frowned. "Like what?"

"Cat Sith!" I called in a firm voice. "I need you, if you please!"

There was a rushing sound, like a heavy curtain stirred by a strong wind, and then, from the fresh, dark shadows beneath Thomas's dining table, the malk's alien voice said, "I am here, Sir Knight."

Thomas jerked in reaction, despite my warning, and produced a tiny semiautomatic pistol from I knew not where. Molly drew in a sharp, harsh breath, and backed directly away from the source of the voice until her shoulder blades hit a wall.