Kim Harrison - The Witch with No Name

Cold, I gripped the back of Trent’s chair. Cormel’s eyes traveled over all of us, and with a little sigh, he pushed into motion. “We can take care of that right now,” he said as he pulled open a drawer and brought out a folder. “Kalamack, where are your daughters?”

“My daughters?” Trent echoed, and my first fear that Cormel was threatening them vanished. They were with Al. Nothing could harm them.

“With a demonic babysitter, I believe?” Cormel drawled. Landon looked awfully smug all of a sudden, and I tensed.

“As a matter of fact, yes,” Trent said, and I snatched the papers that Cormel was extending. Trent reached up and took them from me before I could read them, but then my jaw clenched as I saw the first few lines.

“Child abuse?” I spat. “Are you kidding?”

Cormel leaned back in his chair. “No. Mr. Kalamack is accused of child abuse for putting the girls in the care of a demon.”

“You can’t do that!” I exclaimed, but by Trent’s pale face, I thought they not only could, they had.

“Criminal neglect and endangerment,” Cormel was saying. “He may as well have dangled them from the top of the I.S. tower. Not a good choice, Morgan. Your idea, wasn’t it?”

No, it had been Trent’s, but I’d thought it was a good one. “They aren’t in any danger! Al isn’t going to hurt them!” Trent let the papers fall, and I scooped them up, hands shaking.

“Kalamack’s actions are being seen as a political stunt to show demons in an uncharacteristic and false light. Of course, we can avoid all this . . . if you return our souls yourself?”

I froze, my stomach knotting. Son of a bitch. Ellasbeth was going to have the girls within the hour.

“This is for both girls.” The scent of spoiled wine pushed out the vampiric pheromones. My pulse pounded as Trent stood and took the papers from me. “Ellasbeth can’t claim Ray,” he said, dropping them on the desk. “She’s not her child.”

Landon edged forward as Cormel spun the paperwork to him. “Lucy was the firstborn, was she not?” he said, peering over his glasses as he sat down and fumbled for a pen. “There should be sufficient dewar support with just the one girl.”

“This isn’t about power!” Trent exclaimed, and Cormel looked up from crossing Ray’s name off the paperwork. “Lucy is my child!”

“Not anymore.” Cormel lightly flipped through the pages and initialized the changes.

Horrified, I stood by the chair. This was my fault. They were doing this because of my association with Trent. He was trying to find a way to live with demons because of me, and it was costing him everything. Damn you, Ellasbeth. Do you even know what you’re doing?

Cormel slid the pages back in the folder and closed it, an ageless hand resting atop it protectively. “Produce Lucy, or you will not leave this room.”

My God, he was going to give Lucy to Landon. The girl was a living symbol of the elven future, and whoever raised her held her power until she was old enough to hold it herself. Scared, I sized up the thugs by the door. I’d had worse odds and fewer assets, but one of them was Trent—and I recognized an odd panic. There’d be no ley line this deep underground. I had only one spell’s worth of power spindled, but when Trent reached up and put a hand on mine, I felt a jolting tingle. Lips pressed, he pushed more energy into me, and shocked, I remembered Trent had a familiar. He had access to a line, and through him, I did, too. Not so helpless then . . .

But my fear for him remained. “You’re holding us on what grounds?”

Cormel looked at the ceiling and pushed back from the desk. “Kalamack for refusing a court order, and you . . . I don’t know, but we’ll come up with something.”

I moved back from the chair, pissed as three of his people approached. “This is why you weep when you get your soul, Cormel. I’m almost ready to force it down your throat.”

A flicker of unease passed over Cormel, but it was gone quickly. “Satisfied?” Cormel asked Landon, handing him the folder.

“Your souls will return at sundown,” Landon said shortly, and Cormel’s smile faded. “We have to wait until the lines are flowing in the proper direction,” he added, then paled at Cormel’s sudden snarl. “I will personally fix your soul to your body myself,” he said quickly. “You can’t force the tides, and we must wait until the flow of energy is conducive for the magic required.”

Suspicious, Cormel looked at me, reading the truth of it in my grimace.

“And I need time to sway the dewar,” Landon said with a relieved exhale.

I’d had just about enough. “You mean parade Lucy about like a trophy,” I said as Trent got to his feet, shaking out his coat and stopping the vampires with one hard look. “You haven’t earned your voice, Landon. You’ve not done one thing to prove you’re fit to lead a school outing, much less an entire people.”

“He can’t force the demons into the ever-after,” Trent told Cormel.

“Watch me.” Landon’s face was red as he held his papers like a shield.

“He can’t reinstate the Arizona lines once he destroys the ever-after, either,” Trent continued. “Cormel, you will be known as the man who allowed an elf to kill all magic.”

There were too many people in here, and my back was almost to the wall. My heart pounded. This was easier when I didn’t love anyone.

“The risk is worth it,” Cormel said, motioning to the two guys still standing by the door. Crap on toast, they had guns. “Landon, if it’s not done at sunset, you will die an hour afterward because I will wring the life from you personally. Take your stolen power and go.”

Landon looked frightened as he edged to the door. Damn it, if he left with that folder, Lucy was gone. Frustrated and angry, I paced to Cormel. “He can’t save you!”

The vampire’s eyes were black when they met mine. “And you won’t.” He eyed the short distance between us and waved his men closer. “Take them away.”

Frustrated, energy swirled to my fingertips. I wasn’t going to get Ivy or Nina, and coming here had only lost Lucy.

By the door, Landon hesitated. “You strapped them, didn’t you?” he asked, and I smiled at Cormel. It was wicked and promising pain, but he wasn’t looking at me.

“No,” he said, and I was jerked back as someone pulled me away from the desk. “We’re seven stories down. They can’t reach a ley line from here.”

“Trent can!” Landon exclaimed.

I flung my head back. The sudden crunch of cartilage and the cry of pain raced through me, fueled by adrenaline. My grin widened at the cry, and I yanked my arm free, spinning and jamming my palm into the man’s jaw for good measure. He fell back, but I was already turning. “You will not take Lucy from him . . . ,” I panted, almost crawling over the desk to get at Cormel.

“Down!” someone yelled, and I heard Trent’s voice raised loud in elven chanting.

Ta na shay swirled in my thoughts, making my heart pound and my lips pull back from my teeth. “You!” I snarled, and Cormel dodged out of the way, his eyes black in fear as he saw my desperate confidence.

I feinted, then scrabbled the other way, ducking his reach for me and spinning to slam my foot behind his knee.

He dropped. I could hear crashes behind me and Landon shouting spells. Someone shot one of those stupid guns. “Trent!” I shouted, turning.

Cormel’s fist slammed into my head. Dazed, I did nothing when his meaty hand fastened on my neck, yanking me up with the strength of a wolf with a kitten. “You think you can best me?” he snarled, and I screamed under the pressure. Tears born in pain pricked, and I hung there, seeing Trent struggling under two vampires. I could smell ozone and gunpowder. A woman screamed for help in the hallway.