Karen Chance - Claimed by Shadow

"I almost didn't come back this time, Cass," he said weakly. "It's not automatic, you know.”

"What isn't?”

"Becoming a ghost. Nobody keeps stats, or if they do, they're not telling me, but it's pretty damn rare! And I almost… I got lost… I wasn't here, I wasn't there and I couldn't see anything. All I could feel was a pull, trying to wash me away, and the only thing holding me was the sound of your voice. And then you started talking about leaving, and then I found out-" He broke off with a strangled gasp.

"Billy… I'm sorry." It seemed really inadequate, but what do you say to someone who has just died for the second time? Even Eugenie's upbringing fell short.

He grabbed hold of me, and I hadn't known my arms were that strong. "Never. Leave. Again.”

I nodded, but inwardly I was having a crisis only slightly less intense than Billy Joe's. I couldn't let go of Augusta unless I wanted a very pissed-off master vampire gunning for me, but I couldn't babysit a traumatized Billy all night while Myra ran loose. Something had to give.

I started to get up, hauling Billy with me, when someone grabbed me by the hair and put a knife to my throat. It really annoyed me. Augusta 's ears could pick up the sound of rats scurrying in the theatre walls, the fact that its roof had a leak and the argument a cabbie was having several streets over with a drunken customer. So why hadn't I heard anyone sneaking up on me?

"Try anything, and I kill you," Pritkin said. I rolled my eyes. Of course.

"What do they teach you in mage school?" I demanded. "To kill a master vamp, you'd need to stake her-with wood, not metal-hack her head completely off, reduce the body to ashes and sprinkle them over a stream of moving water. Cutting her throat would only piss her off.”

Pritkin ignored me. "You will have to find somewhere else to feed tonight. The girl goes with me.”

"What girl?”

Billy was sitting with his back to the ticket booth, knees drawn up, red dress so big that it almost swallowed him. He looked up at me and his mouth gave a slight quirk. "He means me, Cass.”

Then I understood. "I don't know if the geis works when I'm in this form or not," I told Pritkin. "But I'd rather you let go before we find out the hard way.”

He released me so fast I stumbled. "I won't let you do it," he said, leveling a shotgun at me.

"That won't kill me, either," I informed him before snatching the gun away and breaking it in two. "But it would leave a nasty hole." Pritkin frowned at his ruined weapon, and I could almost see him reassessing matters. I decided to help him out. "Look, I'm Pythia now, whether either of us likes it or not. And FYI, whatever my faults, at least I'm sane. Which is a hell of a lot more than I can say for your precious Myra.”

Pritkin seemed confused, and I had to hand it to him-it looked real. "What are you talking about?”

I couldn't believe he was trying that. "You want her as Pythia. I've known about your agenda all along, so you can drop the incredulous look.”

"I would prefer to see neither of you in the position. Lady Phemonoe must have been senile to have anything to do with either of you!”

"So Marlowe was right! You are working with the Circle!" All that stuff at Dante's had been a blind after all. I shook my head at him, half in disbelief, half in admiration. "You know, it takes a real lunatic to risk bleeding to death just so I'd believe you.”

Pritkin ran his hands through his hair with the air of a man trying not to wrap mem around my neck. "I am not working with the Circle," he said slowly, as if talking to a four-year-old. "And I have only one agenda, as you call it.”

I eyed him suspiciously. "And that would be?”

"That whoever holds the position be someone with intelligence, ability and experience!" he replied savagely. " Myra is obviously mad and, based upon what I saw in Faerie, I have my doubts about you!”

"And exactly what is it you think you saw?”

He frowned. "You made a deal with the Fey king to retrieve the Codex.”

"So what? You said it yourself: most of the counterspells have already been discovered.”

"But not all of them.”

"What, there's some mystery spell you don't want found?" All I got was stony silence. I sighed. "Let me guess. You aren't going to tell me.”

"You don't need to know. You will not give that book to the king. We will find another way to get to your vampire.”

"Yeah, because we did so great last time." Our brief visit had made one thing very clear: I'd never survive the beautiful hell known as Faerie long enough to find Tony without Fey help. And there was only one way to get it. I decided to try to reason with the lunatic, as the only alternative was force-something that scared me with Augusta 's strength. "Don't you think that trying to kill me to keep me away from a book was a bit extreme?”

Pritkin looked disgusted. "If I had wanted you dead, you would be dead," he said flatly. "I simply want to talk sense into you. That book is dangerous. It must not be found!”

"It will be found-I don't have another choice." Prifkin's eyes, usually a pale, icy green, went almost emerald in fury. "But if you help me," I hastened to add, "I'll let you have first crack at it. You can take out whatever you feel is so dangerous, give me the counterspell for the geis and then we turn the rest over to the king.”

He looked at me as if I were speaking Martian. "Do you not realize what you did? You gave the Fey your word-they will hold you to it.”

"I said I'd give them the book. I didn't make any promises about the contents.”

"And you think that specious argument will hold up?”

"Yeah." I really wondered what world Pritkin had been living in, because it sure wasn't the supernatural one. "Anything not specifically spelled out in a contract is open to interpretation. If the king didn't want me gutting the book, he should have said so.”

Pritkin looked at me for a long minute. "One of the functions of the war mages is to protect the Pythia at all costs," he finally said. "Mac believed in you, or he wouldn't have died for you. But you were brought up by a vampire, by a creature with no moral compass at all, and have received no training. Why should I fight for you? What kind of Pythia will you be?”

It was the big question, the same one I'd been asking myself. I'd taken the power hoping to break the geis, or at least give me an edge over Myra. So far, it had done neither. The truth was, I didn't know what kind of Pythia I'd be. But I did know one thing without any doubt at all. "A better one than Myra.”

"So I am being given the choice of the lesser of two evils? You do not make much of a case for yourself.”

"Maybe I'm not trying too hard," I said truthfully. I needed Pritkin. I knew next to nothing about magic on the grand scale, and had no idea where to even start looking for the book. But I didn't think I could stand another Mac on my conscience. "If you're smart, you'll lay low until this is over. Let me fight my own battles. You might get lucky and Myra and I will kill each other off.”

"And why should I not kill both of you myself, and hope the next in line will be better?”

Billy's eyes got big, and I realized that while I was relatively safe in Augusta 's body, he was still vulnerable in mine. I stepped in front of him. "There is no next in line," I told Pritkin flatly. "If there were another contender who could do a decent job, I'd have given her the damn power already! But the initiates are all under the control of your Circle, who I don't trust any more than the Black. I'm not going to hand world-shattering power to someone who can be manipulated, controlled or corrupted!”

Pritkin regarded me narrowly. "You expect me to believe you would give up the power, just like that, if there was a fit receptacle to receive it? You dragged us into Faerie to complete the ritual. Of course you want it.”