His smile widened. "You know what? I changed my mind. Even if you ever want to go into insurance, don't call me."
Jenks dropped to the empty plate so I wouldn't have to keep shifting my head to see both of them. "That will be the day," he snickered. "I can just see Rachel in a gray business suit with a briefcase, her hair in a bun and glasses on her nose."
I laughed, immediately falling into a coughing jag. Arms clasped about me, I hunched into myself, shaking with rough, hacking coughs. My throat felt like it was on fire, but that paled next to the throbbing ache in my head that exploded at the sudden movement. That pain amulet bumping about my neck wasn't doing much good.
David patted my back in concern. The hurt from my shoulder broke through the amulet, and my stomach roiled. Eyes watering, I fended him off. Ceri came in, making soft admonishments as she set a mug of tea down and put a hand on my shoulder. Her touch seemed to calm the spasm, and gasping, I let her ease me back into the pillows she propped up behind me. Finally I stopped and met her gaze.
Her shadowy face was pinched in concern. Behind her, Jenks and David watched. I didn't like David seeing me like this, but it wasn't as if I had much choice. "Drink your tea," she said, holding it up to me and putting my hand around it.
"My head hurts," I complained, taking a sip of the bland brew. It wasn't real tea, but something with flowers and weeds in it. What I wanted was a cup of that coffee, but I didn't want to hurt Ceri's feelings. "I feel like run-over crap," I complained.
"You look like run-over crap," Jenks said. "Drink your tea."
It was tasteless but soothing. I took another swallow, scraping up a smile for Ceri. "Mmmm. Good," I lied.
She straightened, clearly pleased as she picked up the washbasin. "Drink it all. Do you mind if Keasley tacks a blanket over your door to stop the draft?"
"That would be great. Thanks," I said, but she didn't leave until I took another sip.
Her shadow left the hall, and my smile fell into a grimace. "This stuff is tasteless," I whispered. "Why does everything good for me have to be tasteless?"
David glanced at the empty doorway and the light spilling in. Jenks flew to land on his shoulder as the Were unzipped his backpack. "I've got something that might help," David said. "My old partner used to swear by it. Begged me for some when he partied-too-hearty."
"Whoa!" Hand over his nose, Jenks flitted upward. "How much bane you got in there, Johnny Appleseed?"
David's smile grew sly. "What?" he said, his brown eyes innocent. "It's not illegal. And it's organic. No carbs, even."
The familiar spicy scent of bane rose thicker in the small room, and I wasn't surprised when David brought out a cellophane bag with a zippy top. I recognized the name brand: Wolf's Head Organic. "Here," he said as he took the cup out of my hand and set it on my bedside table.
Hiding what he was doing from the hallway, he shook a good tablespoon into my drink. Running his eyes over me, he shook in a little more. "Try it now," he said, handing it to me.
I sighed. Why was everyone giving me stuff? All I wanted was a sleep charm or maybe one of Captain Edden's strange aspirins. But David looked so hopeful, and the smell of bane was more appealing than rosehips, that I stirred it with my pinky. The crushed leaves sank to leave the tea a richer color. "What good will this do?" I asked as I took a sip. "I'm not a Were."
David dropped the bag into his backpack and zipped it shut. "Not much. Your witch metabolism is too slow for it to really work. But my old partner was a witch, and he said it helped with his hangovers. It's got to taste better, if nothing else."
He stood to leave, and I sipped again, agreeing. My jaw relaxed; I hadn't even known I had been clenching it. Warm and smooth, the bane tea slipped down my throat with a mixed taste of ham broth and apples. My muscles seemed to unknot, like taking a shot of tequila. A sigh slipped from me, and the soft weight of Jenks landing on my arm pulled my eyes to his.
"Hey, Rache? You okay?"
I smiled and took another swallow. "Hi, Jenks. You're all sparkly."
Jenks's face blanked, and David looked up from working the buttons closed on his coat. His brown eyes were questioning.
"Thanks, David," I said, hearing my voice slow, precise, and low. "I owe you, okay?"
"Sure." He picked up his backpack. "You take care of yourself."
"I will." I gulped half my tea, and it slid down to make a warm spot in me. "I don't feel too bad right now. Which is good, seeing as I have a date with Trent tomorrow, and if I don't go, his security officer is gonna kill me."
David jerked to a stop in the threshold. From beyond him came the tap-tap-tap of Keasley hammering a blanket over the door. "Trent Kalamack?" the Were questioned.
"Yeah." I took another drink, swirling the tea with my pinky until the bane made a whirlpool and shifted the brew even darker. "He's going to talk to Saladan. His security officer is making me go with him." I squinted up at David, the light from the hallway seeming bright but not painful. I wondered where David's tattoos were. Weres always had tattoos, don't ask me why.
"Have you ever met Trent?" I asked.
"Mr. Kalamack?" David rocked back into the room. "No."
I squirmed under my afghan and focused on my cup. David's partner was right. This stuff was great. I didn't hurt anywhere. "Trent is a prick," I said, remembering what we were talking about. "I've got the goods on him, and he's got the goods on me. But I don't have anything on his security officer, and if I don't do this, he's going to tell."
Jenks hovered, making an uncertain swoop from David to the door and back to me. David eyed him, then asked, "Tell what?"
I leaned closer, my eyes widening as my tea threatened to slop when I moved faster than I thought I should. Frowning, I finished it off, not minding the bits of leaves that came with it. Smiling, I leaned close, enjoying the smell of musk and bane. "My secret," I whispered, wondering if David would let me hunt for his tattoos if I asked. He looked great for an older guy. "I've got a secret, but I'm not going to tell you."
"I'll be back," Jenks said, swooping close. "I want to know what she put in that tea."
He zipped out, and I blinked, watching the sparkles of his pixy dust settle. I'd never seen so many before, and they were the colors of the rainbow. Jenks must have been worried.
"Secret?" David prompted, but I shook my head and the light seemed to brighten.
"I'm not going to tell. I don't like the cold."
David put his hands on my shoulders and eased me into the pillows. I smiled up at him, happy when Jenks flew in. "Jenks," David said softly. "Has she been bitten by a Were?"
"No!" he protested. "Unless it was before I met her."
My eyes had slid shut, and they opened when David shook me. "What?" I protested, pushing at him when he peered at me, his liquid brown eyes too close to mine. Now he reminded me of my dad, and I smiled at him.
"Rachel, honey," he said. "You been bitten by a Were?"
A sigh came from me. "Nope. Never you and never Ivy. No one bites me but mosquitoes, and I squish them. Little bastards."
Jenks hovered backward and David drew away. I closed my eyes, listening to them breathe. It seemed awfully loud. "Shhhh," I said. "Quiet."
"Maybe I gave her too much," David said.
Ceri's soft padding of feet seemed loud. "What...What did you do to her?" she asked, her voice sharp, pulling my eyes open.
"Nothing!" David protested, his shoulders hunched. "I gave her some bane. It shouldn't have done this. I've never seen it do this to a witch before!"
"Ceri," I said, "I'm sleepy. Can I go to sleep?"
Her lips pursed, but I could tell she wasn't angry with me. "Yes." She tugged the coverlet to my chin. "Go to sleep."
I slumped back, not caring that I was still wearing wet clothes. I was really, really tired. And I was warm. And my skin was tingling. And I felt like I could sleep for a week.
"Why didn't you ask me before you gave her bane?" Ceri asked sharply, her words a whisper but very clear. "She's already on Brimstone. It's in the cookies!"
I knew it! I thought, trying to open my eyes. Boy, I was going to let Ivy have it when she got home. But she wasn't, and I was tired, so I did nothing. I'd had it with people getting me drunk. I swear, I wasn't going to eat anything I didn't make myself ever again.
The sound of David's chuckle seemed to set my skin to tingle where the coverlet didn't come between him and me. "I got it now," he said. "The Brimstone upped her metabolism to where the bane is going to do some real good. She's going to sleep for three days. I gave her enough to knock a Were out for a full moon."
A jerk of alarm went through me. My eyes flashed open. "No!" I said, trying to sit up as Ceri pushed me into the pillows. "I have to go to that party. If I don't, Quen will tell!"
David helped her, and together they kept my head on the pillow and my feet under the afghan. "Take it easy, Rachel," he soothed, and I hated that he was stronger than I. "Don't fight it, or it's going to come back up on you. Be a good little witch and let it work itself out."
"If I don't go, he'll tell!" I said, hearing my blood race through my ears. "The only thing I have on Trent is that I know what he is, and if I tell, Quen will freaking kill me!"
"What!" Jenks shrieked, his wings clattering as he rose.
Too late, I realized what I had said. Shit.
I stared at Jenks, feeling my face go white. The room went deathly still. Ceri's eyes were round with question, and David stared in disbelief. I couldn't take it back.
"You know!" Jenks shouted. "You know what he is, and you didn't tell me? You witch! You knew? You knew! Rachel! You...you..."
Disapproval was thick in David's eyes, and Ceri looked frightened. Pixy children peeked around the doorframe. "You knew!" Jenks yelled, pixy dust sifting from him in a golden sunbeam. His kids scattered in a frightened tinkling sound.
I lurched upright. "Jenks - " I said, hunching into myself as my stomach clenched.
"Shut up!" he shouted. "Just shut the hell up! We're supposed to be partners!"
"Jenks..." I reached out. I wasn't sleepy anymore, and my gut twisted.
"No!" he said, a burst of pixy dust lighting my dim room. "You don't trust me? Fine. I'm outta here. I gotta make a call. David, can I and my family bum a ride from you?"
"Jenks!" I tossed the covers from me. "I'm sorry! I couldn't tell you." Oh God, I should have trusted Jenks.
"Shut the hell up!" he exclaimed, then flew out, pixy dust flaming red in his path.
I stood to follow. I took a step, then reached for the door-frame, my head swinging to look at the floor. My vision wavered and my balance left me. I put a hand to my stomach. "I'm going to be sick," I breathed. "Oh God, I'm going to be sick."
David's hand was heavy on my shoulder. Motions firm and deliberate, he pulled me into the hall. "I told you it was going to come back up on you," he muttered while he pushed me into the bathroom and elbowed the light on. "You shouldn't have sat up. What is it with you witches? Think you know everything and never listen to a damn thing."
Needless to say, he was right. Hand over my mouth, I just made it to the toilet. Everything came up: the cookies, the tea, dinner from two weeks ago. David left after my first retch, leaving me alone to hack and cough my way into the dry heaves.
Finally I got control over myself. Knees shaking, I rose and flushed the toilet. Unable to look at the mirror, I rinsed my mouth out, gulping water right from the tap. I had thrown up all over my amulet, and I took it off, rinsing it under a steady stream of water before setting it beside the sink. All my hurts came flowing back, and I felt like I deserved them.
Heart pounding and feeling weak, I splashed water off my face and looked up. Past my raggedy looking reflection, Ceri stood in the doorway, her arms clasped about her. The church was eerily silent. "Where's Jenks?" I rasped.
Her eyes fell from mine, and I turned around. "I'm sorry, Rachel. He left with David."
He left? He couldn't leave. It was freaking twenty out.
There was a soft scuff, and Keasley shuffled to stand beside her.
"Where did he go?" I asked, shivering as the lingering bane and Brimstone churned inside.
Ceri's head drooped. "He asked David to take him to a friend's house, and the entire s??dh left in a box. He said he couldn't risk his family anymore, and..." Her gaze went to Keasley, her green eyes catching the fluorescent light. "He said he quit."
He left? I lurched into motion, headed for the phone. Didn't want to risk his family, my ass. He had killed two fairy assassins this spring, letting the third live as a warning to the rest. And it wasn't the cold. The door was going to be fixed, and they could always stay in Ivy's or my room until it was. He left because I had lied to him. And as I saw Keasley's wrinkled grim face behind Ceri's, I knew I was right. Words had been said that I hadn't heard.
Stumbling into the living room, I looked for the phone. There was only one place he'd go: the Were who had despelled my stuff last fall. I had to talk to Jenks. I had to tell him I was sorry. That I had been an ass. That I should have trusted him. That he was right to be angry with me and that I was sorry.
But Keasley intercepted my reach, and I drew back at his old hand. I stared at him, cold in the thin protection the blanket had put between me and the night. "Rachel..." he said as Ceri drifted to a melancholy stop in the hall. "I think...I think you should give him a day at least."
Ceri jerked, and she looked down the hallway. Faint on the air I heard the front door open, and the blanket moved in the shifting air currents.
"Rachel?" came Ivy's voice. "Where's Jenks? And why is there a Home Depot truck unloading sheet plywood in our drive?"
I sank down onto a chair before I fell over. My elbows went on my knees, and my head dropped into my hands. The Brimstone and bane still warred within me, making me shaky and weak. Damn. What was I going to tell Ivy?