A flicker of annoyance flashed across Minias, and a thread of tension entered his stance of relaxed idleness. I took a deep breath, smelling only coffee, cheesecake, and the characteristic redwood scent of a witch. I was sure my mom had slipped him a charm, and I wasn't looking forward to finding the cost of such an expensive amulet tacked on to the losses from the store. But if it kept him from smelling like a demon and causing a panic, I couldn't complain.
"Well, what do you want?" I said, setting my cup down. "I don't have all night."
My mom frowned, but Minias took it in stride, easing back in his stiff chair and setting his giant mug aside. "Al is being summoned out of confinement - "
"We figured that part out," Jenks said snottily.
"Jenks...," I murmured, and the pixy walked across the table with his makeshift sword to the cheesecake.
"We've never run into this before," Minias said, hesitating as he took in Jenks's "whatever" attitude. "Because of his extraordinary amount of contact with this side of the lines, Al has arranged for someone to summon him every sundown. They get what they want, then release him without the compulsion to return to the ever-after. It's a win-win situation for both of them."
And a lose-lose for me. My thoughts flashed to my old boyfriend, Nick. Jenks eyed me over a chunk of cheesecake as big as his head, clearly thinking the same thing. Nick was a thief who habitually used demons as a source of information. Thanks to Glenn at the FIB, I had a copy of his file in my dresser's bottom drawer. It was so thick a monster rubber band barely kept it shut. I didn't like thinking about it.
"Someone's freeing a demon without compulsion to return to the ever-after?" I managed, my eyes lowered. "That's not very responsible."
"It's extremely clever. For Al." Minias's one elbow found the table as he took a draught.
I cringed, fully conscious of my mom listening quietly. "You think someone's doing this to kill me?" I finally asked.
Minias shrugged. "I don't know. Nor do I care, really. I simply want it to stop."
A reproachful huff came from my mother, and Minias pulled his elbow from the table. "We can regain control of him after sunup," the demon said, his eyes hidden behind his glasses. "When the lines close to cross-traffic, he's snapped back to our side. Finding him then is just a matter of using his demon marks."
I pulled my hands from atop the table, my fingers pushing aside Kisten's bracelet to feel the raised scar. The demon mark had flared into pain just before Al showed up, and a new worry settled in beside the old ones. That's how Al had found me. Crap. I didn't like feeling like a tagged antelope.
"Al doesn't have access to a lab while in custody," Minias said, drawing my attention back. "So he only has simple, easily performed curses, but he's exceptionally adept at line jumping."
"Well, he's been in someone's kitchen. He looks like he always does, and I know that's not his natural form." I don't want to know what he looks like. I really don't.
Minias's head moved up and down once, and he swallowed his coffee. "Yes," he said softly as he leaned back. "Someone has been helping him. That he tried to take you tonight went a long way toward convincing me it wasn't you."
"Me?" I blurted. "You really think I'd work with him?" Then my fingers, gripping my coffee, went weak. Appearance charms didn't just happen in one night. That meant that Al...My eyes rose, and I wished Minias would take off his glasses. "How long has Al been slipping your containment?"
Minias's lips twitched. "This is the third night in a row."
Fear jolted me, and Jenks rose from the table, red dust slipping from him.
"And you didn't think I might want to know that?" I exclaimed.
In a smooth motion, Minias took off his glasses. His arm flat on the table, he leaned in to me. "How much effort do you expect me to exert?" he said tightly, and I blinked at the irate emotion reflected in his goat-slitted eyes. "We don't care if he kills you or not. I have no reason to help you."
"But you did," I said belligerently, thinking anger seemed better than fear. "Why?" Immediately Minias backed down, and seeing there was something here he didn't want to talk about, I decided I did.
"I was tracking Al," the demon said. "That you were there was merely helpful."
Jenks began laughing, and all eyes turned to him as he rose several inches. "You got sacked, didn't you," he said, and Minias stiffened.
My first impulse to protest died at Minias's stoic face. "You got fired?" The demon's reach for his oversize mug almost smacked Jenks in its quickness.
"Why else would he be tracking Al instead of watching TV with Newt?" Jenks said, flitting to the safety of my shoulder. "You got canned. Outsourced. Pink-slipped. Handed your walking papers. Given the go light. Slipped on the banana. Served the dead slug."
Minias put his glasses back on. "I've been reassigned," he said tightly.
Suddenly I was afraid. Really afraid. "You aren't watching Newt?" I whispered, and Minias looked surprised by my fear.
"Who is Newt?" my mother asked, dabbing a napkin at her lips and sliding the last half of the cheesecake to me.
"She's just the most powerful demon they got over there," Jenks boasted as if he had something to do with it. "Minias was her babysitter. She's more dangerous than a militant fairy on Brimstone, and she's the one who cursed the church last year before I bought it. Didn't twitch a wing. She's got a major burr up her ass about Rachel."
Minias bit back a snort, and I wished Jenks would shut up. My mother hadn't known about the "blasphemy incident."
"There are no female demons," my mother said, fumbling in her purse to bring out a compact and her lipstick. "Your father was very clear on that."
"Apparently he was mistaken." I picked up a fork but immediately set it down. I'd lost my desire for cheesecake about five surprises ago. Gut clenching, I turned to Minias. "So who's watching Newt?"
The demon's face lost all its amusement. "Some young punk," he said sullenly, surprising me with the modern phrase.
Jenks, though, was delighted. "You lost Newt one too many times, and they replaced you with a younger demon. Oh, that's beautiful!"
Minias's hand quivered, his fingers abruptly loosening on his mug when a soft crack rang out from the porcelain.
"Stop it, Jenks," I said, wondering how much of Minias losing his job was due to Newt slipping away on his watch, and how much was from the demon's inability to make impartial decisions regarding her security. I'd seen them together, and Minias clearly cared for her. Too much to lock her up when she needed it, probably.
"How do they expect me to seduce her and maintain her adherence to the law simultaneously?" he snarled. "It can't be done. Damned fool bureaucrats don't know the first thing about love and dominance."
Seduce her? I arched my eyebrows, but an icy sensation rippled through me at the glimpse of his anger and frustration. Silence, thick and uncomfortable, took over, making the surrounding conversation seem louder. Seeing us staring, Minias forced his tension from him. His sigh was so soft, I wasn't sure I hadn't imagined it.
"Al can't be allowed to flaunt the rules," he said, as if he hadn't just shown us the pain in his soul. "If I can contain him, I can return to supervising Newt."
"Rachel!" my mother exclaimed, and I turned to see a familiar mask of lighthearted ignorance on her. "He's a runner, just like you! You should go out to a movie or something."
"Mom, he's a - " I hesitated. "He's not a runner," I said, stopping just short of saying he was a demon. "And he certainly isn't date material." Guilt hit me. I'd pushed her, and she was slipping into old patterns. Cursing myself, I pulled my attention to Minias, just wanting to wrap this up and get out of here. "Sorry," I said to apologize for my mother.
Minias's face was still empty. "I don't do witches."
I had a hard time not finding offense in that, but Jenks saved me from making a total ass out of myself by buzzing his wings to gain everyone's attention.
"So let me get this straight," he said, hovering a breath above the sticky table with one hand on his hip, the other pointing that plastic-coated paper clip at Minias. "You lost your cushy babysitting job and are now trying to gain control of a demon who has limited power and resources. And you can't do it?"
"It's not a matter of gaining control over him," Minias protested indignantly. "We can catch him. We simply can't contain him after sunset. As I told you, someone is summoning him out of confinement."
"And you can't stop them?" I questioned, thinking of the charmed zip-strips that the I.S. used to keep ley line practitioners from jumping out of custody via a ley line.
Minias shook his head and his glasses caught the light. "No. We catch him, confine him, and when the sun goes down, he pops out, rested and fed. He's laughing at us. Me."
I disguised my shiver by taking a sip of my coffee. "Any idea who's doing it?" My thoughts went to Nick, and the coffee turned to acid in my stomach.
"Not anymore." His boots scraped against the gritty floor. "Soon as I find out, they die."
Nice. Fumbling for my mom's hand under the table, I gave it a squeeze.
"Do you have any idea as to who might be helping him?" Minias asked next, and I forced myself to keep breathing.
Nick, I thought, but I wouldn't say it aloud. Not even if he was sending Al to hurt me - because if it was Nick, I'd take care of him myself. I could feel Jenks's eyes on me, wanting me to say it, but I wouldn't. "Why don't you just get rid of his summoning name?" I said, looking for other options. "You do that, and he can't be summoned out."