“I only helped.”
“And you say you date Mr. Saber?”
“Yes, ma’am. We met on that case.”
She cracked open the bottle top and took three healthy swallows, then nearly choked when Lynn cried out.
“Cesca,” Saber called. “Come here a minute.”
Eyes flooding with renewed panic, Kate started to rise, too, but I held up my hand. “It might be better if you stay here, Mrs. Tidwell. I promise Lynn is safe with us.”
The angst melted from Kate’s face in seconds, and she nodded. “Go on.”
I eased into the bedroom so as not to spook Lynn any further. Saber hunkered at her feet, crooning softly and reassuringly.
“Shhh. It’s okay. We’ll take care of you.” He glanced at me over his shoulder then patted Lynn’s knee. “I’ll be right back.”
Lynn fixed her gaze on the sea-colored striped bedspread, picked at it with stiff fingers. Saber motioned me farther down the hall.
“She has the rancid breath of Void infection, and she’s in a lot of pain. We need Cosmil to see her.”
“I’ll call and tell him we’re bringing in another patient.”
“The key is getting her there. She’s so traumatized with the illness, she’s scared to go with us.”
“Then what do we do?”
“Can you enthrall her? Make her feel safe enough to get her out of here?”
“I don’t know. Lia tried to teach me, but—”
Lightbulbs suddenly flashed in my head with 3-D pictures. I’d becalmed a raccoon with Lia. I’d becalmed Kate Tidwell just minutes ago. I’d enthralled Kate without intending to, but I’d done it all the same.
Okay, calming two agitated mothers was vastly different than enthralling a half-crazed-with-pain shifter, but I could try.
I refocused on Saber. “If we can get her to look at me, we have a shot.”
“Good girl. Let’s go.”
So that she wouldn’t feel crowded, I moved Lynn’s desk chair near the bed. Saber stood behind me.
“Lynn? I need to tell you some things, and I hope you’ll listen. I don’t hate you. I’m an old friend of Triton’s, and I want to see him happy. He’ll be devastated you’re sick, so we need to make you well.”
Lynn cautiously lifted her gaze. “Triton said you’d be jealous of me.”
I tried not to grimace at the smell of her breath, but it reminded me all too vividly of Tower’s breath when he’d attacked me last week. That alone scared me to my core.
“I’ll let you in on something,” I told her, smiling my most friendly, unthreatening smile. “Triton can be a big pain in the arse.”
Her eyes widened.
“It’s true that I love him, but only like a very bothersome brother. I’m glad he found you. In fact when you’re better, we’ll, um—” I did a mad mental search for inspiration. “Go on a double date. You and Triton, me and Saber.”
Lynn suddenly clutched her stomach and moaned. “I feel like dying.”
“I know, but Saber and I know a fabulous doctor. The guy is practically a magician at curing people.”
“A regular doctor won’t help me. I have something awful.”
“What kind of doctor is this?”
I turned to find Kate framed in the doorway. She wasn’t wringing her hands, but concern etched her forehead. “Lynn doesn’t have insurance and isn’t covered on mine.”
“Dr. Cosby is an alternative medicine specialist,” Saber answered without missing a beat.
Kate titled her head. “Like an acupuncturist?”
“And an herbalist. He’s a personal friend who only takes referrals to his clinic, but he’s willing to see Lynn right now.”
I took Lynn’s limp hand and fixed my gaze on her with a little push of will. “I promise you both. Lynn will be safe with Dr. Cosby.”
A spark in the back of Lynn’s eyes flickered, and I held my breath, hoping the tiny push had been enough.
“It’s okay, Mom,” Lynn said in a stronger, more determined tone. “I feel too sick to wait, and I can call you from the doctor’s office.”
“I’ll keep you updated, too, Mrs. Tidwell,” Saber added. “I’ll phone as soon as we get Lynn to the clinic.”
Kate chewed on her lip then nodded. “She is of age, so it’s her decision. But, please, don’t forget to call me. Either of you.”
Saber used his emergency lights sans siren, and we made it to Cosmil’s compound in warp-speed time. I’d phoned the wizard twice, once when we left Ormond to let him know he had a patient incoming, and again five minutes out so he’d smooth and straighten the road for us.
Cosmil and Lia hurried to the car, but I noticed Triton on the porch gripping a support pole. Since Cosmil barked questions at Saber about Lynn’s symptoms, I approached Triton.
“She’s going to be okay,” I told him.
“She’s infected with the Void?”
“We think so. She has foul-smelling breath, and that worries me.”
“Triton, Francesca,” Cosmil called.
I turned to see the wizard sweeping toward us. Behind him, Saber carried Lynn, but not to the shack. He headed toward the circle where Lia walked clockwise, lighting candles.
“Triton, I realize you are concerned, but I do not want you exposed again if Lynn is indeed Void infected. I do not have room here for two patients.”
“So you’re kicking me out? Cos, let me stay. Lynn will appreciate a familiar face when she comes around.”
“No, I must be firm on this point and on my conditions. First, I want you to leave your pickup truck here. I may need to use it.”
“You can drive?” I blurted the question without thinking.
Cosmil pulled himself taller. “Of course. You saw me once. Driving a tourist tram.”
“Oh, yeah, I did.”
“Back to my conditions. Triton, here is the second. I do not want you to be alone, so you and Saber will spend the night in his home. Francesca will watch over you. Then tomorrow, you will open your shop and go about your normal life.”
Triton would’ve argued further, but Cosmil laid a hand on his arm.
“Attend me well. It is vital to be visible in your world. Starrack’s alleged hirelings failed to get the amulets, and now he has failed to make you critically ill so you could be bent to his will. When he sees his failures, he may become frustrated.”
“So, if he has to work harder to get at us,” I said, “he might get reckless. Do something to expose his hiding place.”
“Exactly, Francesca.”
“But being visible will make me a target he can’t miss next time,” Triton argued.
Cosmil shook his head. “Though Lia and I have not located Starrack yet, we have cast protection spells, which we reinforce several times a day.”
“Your spells didn’t help Lynn,” Triton shot back.
“Ah, but we did not know about Lynn,” Cosmil countered. “Now we will extend protection to her as well.”
Triton’s shoulders slumped. “All right, Cos. I suppose your plan makes sense.”
“ ’Course it does,” I quipped. “It works on TV all the time.”
Triton rolled his baby browns at me. He didn’t add a crack, but the eye roll was an encouraging sign that he was getting back to his normal self.
“Cos, one question. Saber’s been in physical contact with Lynn. If he’s been reexposed, is it wise to put us together?”
“Precisely why I will scan him. Francesca, I shall check you now. Stand over here. Arms at your sides. Breathe normally.”
I obeyed his instructions, breathing my normal ten times a minute. After one exhalation, Cosmil held his palms six inches from my body and moved them over me from head to fang to toe.
“Remarkable. You emit no signs of the illness whatsoever.”
I silently sighed my relief then asked a question that had been nagging me. “Cosmil, why can’t Saber and Triton ground out all the Void gunk like I did. After all, Saber’s the one who taught me the trick.”
“That puzzles me as well, Francesca. I can only surmise that when you drained the blackness from the vampires at the comedy club, you gained immunity against reinfection. The men did not absorb as much of the Void as you did, and may not have effectively shed it.”
“So sucking the gunk acted like a mega flu shot?”
Cosmil merely nodded as Saber joined us. Cosmil began scanning my honey, palms hovering over Saber’s chest longer than I wanted to see, but the wizard finally nodded his satisfaction.
“No change in your energy, Saber. Be off with you, then.”
Triton’s brooding gaze followed Cosmil to the circle.
“Hey,” I said. “The sooner we leave, the better they’ll focus.”
He straightened his shoulders. “Right.”
Once in the SUV, Saber kept his promise to call Mrs. Tidwell, and we were on the main road before I twisted in my seat to catch Triton’s attention.
“Hey, I’m sorry. Last night when I voiced my concerns—”
“Suspicions.”
“—about Lynn, I could’ve been less—”
“Bitchy?”
“Forceful,” I corrected firmly. “I’m apologizing, moron. You could be a little more gracious.”
“Nah, it’s too easy to get a rise out of you.”
I narrowed my eyes. “It’s a good thing you’re out of punching range.”
He looked out the window and back again. “About that. Cosmil told me I nearly slugged you. I’m sorry I lost it.”
“Now that you two are playing nice again, Triton, do you want to hear what we learned about Lynn?”
“Am I going to like the information?”
“Well, it doesn’t look like Lynn is in cahoots with Starrack. That should cheer you up.”
“Okay, what did you find out?”
“Saber found and talked with her foster mother,” I said, then related Saber’s ruse as an investigator for Lynn’s distant relatives. “So, when Lynn showed up at Mrs. Tidwell’s house sick tonight, her foster mom called Saber.”
“Did Lynn say how she hooked up with me?”
“Not exactly,” Saber said. “You have to understand that she was in a bad way when we got to the house. I talked with her alone for a few minutes and only got something about an online network with an entry stating there was a human-dolphin shifter in St. Augustine.”
“What network?” Triton and I demanded in tandem as Saber braked at the US 1 intersection.
In the streetlights, I saw his hands tighten on the steering wheel. “That’s what I intend to find out. The only other thing she said was that she first began to feel ill when she shifted back and that she felt progressively sicker.”
“So if Starrack is using Lynn,” Triton mused, “he’s doing it indirectly.”
“Right,” Saber said. “In addition, Mrs. Tidwell has been Lynn’s foster mother since she was four. Now that we know more about her, Cesca and I have a hard time believing that Starrack pulled off some spell twenty years ago just to use Lynn against you now.”
“Us. Use Lynn against us.”
Saber inclined his head. “The upshot is that, at worst, she appears to be Starrack’s unwitting pawn, not an active weapon. He may just have wanted to distract you, and Lynn served as a diversion.”
“Divide and conquer?” Triton asked.
“Why not? It’s a time-honored tactic.”
As Saber took the left turn on US 1, I twisted in my seat so I could see both him and Triton. “You know, guys, if Lynn is the innocent we think she is, we might need to stash her someplace safe. Just in case Starrack does have designs on her, or she has a relapse.”
“I’ll watch over her.”
“Not gonna work, Triton,” I said. “We’ve assumed Starrack sent those thugs, so he already knows where you live, and I’m in the freaking phone book.”
“What about Cos’s protection spells?”
“The spells are great, but if Starrack or his minions come to your door with a gun, I wouldn’t count on magick. saving the day. Do you want Lynn smack in the line of fire?”
“Point taken. Okay, I agree she can’t stay with us, but where can we put her?”
We halfheartedly debated safe house possibilities for the rest of the drive to Saber’s house, but they were all academic until we got an update on Lynn’s condition.
The guys went to bed at one o’clock. I spent the night flipping between TV Land and the movie channels, and checking on Saber and Triton. I didn’t think Triton would make a break for Cosmil’s to see Lynn because Saber’s security system covered every door, window, nook, and cranny. Besides, from the way Triton sprawled all over the bed, he looked down for the count. I grinned as I quietly closed the guest-room door. If things worked out for him and Lynn, he’d have to learn to share the mattress.
Saber was conked for the night, too. I feared his nightmare might return, so I looked in on him more often after three, the real witching hour. His soft snore reassured me.
I itched to have my laptop so I could search for the networking site Lynn had mentioned to Saber, but that task would keep. With luck, Lynn would be well enough to give us the URL later in the day, even walk us through the site.
The guys were up at seven thirty. Saber fixed breakfast while Triton and I changed the guest-room sheets. Poor Lia. I don’t know where she was sleeping, but she had to be missing her privacy. And clothing. Last night she’d worn the same light blue scrub-type outfit from our first training session. I made a mental note to call and ask her if she wanted fresh clothes.
After breakfast, Saber ran Triton up the road a mile or so to his shop then returned to take me home.
“You don’t think Triton will bolt out to Cosmil’s?”
“Not without his truck. Besides, he respects the wizard. He may not like waiting, but he’ll stay away from the cabin until Cosmil gives the all clear. You have an early ghost tour tonight, right?”
“At eight. I guess we’ll find out if training is on hold again.”
Saber grinned at me. “In which case, I’m sure we can find something to entertain us.”
“Like those energy exercises?”
“We did miss practice last night.”
I laughed. “You’re insatiable, you know that?”
He captured my hand. “Only with you.”