Claimed by Shadow Page 0,72
otherwise, it was like nothing had ever happened.
"What was that?!”
"See for yourself." Mac waved a hand at the front of the shop, and after regaining my rubbery legs, I walked into the front room. Instead of the asphalt street and busy hamburger restaurant that had constituted the view out of the front window, there was only a bare expanse of desert, without so much as a cactus to break up the monotony.
"I think she needs a backup," Mac was saying as he came through the curtain.
"She has those damn knives.”
"They're unreliable-they came off a dark mage and their loyalty is in question. They serve her now because it suits their purpose, but later?" Mac shook his head. "I don't like it. Not to mention that we don't even know if they'll work there.”
"You reactivated her ward; that should be sufficient,” Pritkin replied, dragging his sack out of the back room and starting to unload it on the counter. "She is more than strong enough already.”
Mac didn't say anything, but he quietly reached up to his left shoulder and grabbed something that had been concealed by the gently waving leaves. He put a finger to his lips and glanced at Pritkin, who was lining up a collection of weapons on the counter. If he thought we were going to carry all of those, I hoped he'd brought a cart.
Mac reached for my arm and I looked down to see a gleaming gold charm in the shape of a cat being held to my elbow. As soon as it touched bare skin, it morphed into a sleek black panther with narrowed orange eyes. I recognized them as the ones that had been peering at me malignantly earlier, and they didn't look much happier now. The kitty didn't seem pleased to have lost Mac's generous camouflage, and after a brief glance around, it ran up my arm and disappeared beneath my shirt.
I could feel it almost like it was a real cat, with warm fur and little claws that pricked my skin. It was weird and it tickled and I didn't like it one bit. "What the-”
"Come on, Cassie, you need to finish lunch," Mac said, pushing me ahead of him through the curtain.
"What the hell is going on?" I hissed once we were in the back. Mac shushed me and made a weird gesture in the air.
"Silence shield," he explained. "John has better hearing without enhancements than most do with them.”
"Mac, if you don't explain what-”
"I just gave you that other ward you wanted. Sheba will take good care of you. Top of the line, she is.”
Ms. Top of the Line was crawling around on my stomach, occasionally stopping to lick me, and it was creeping me out. "Mac! Get this thing off me!”
He chuckled. "Can't. That kind can only be transferred once a day. Sorry.”
He didn't look sorry, and I had no way of knowing whether he was telling the truth. I frankly doubted it. "Mac!”
"You may need her, Cassie," he said more soberly. "You let me reactivate your ward, but it's like John said: your power may not work in Faerie, and if it does it could be sporadic. If the energy isn't flowing to fuel it, your ward won't function. Sheba 's going to tag along to make sure you have some protection even if your main ward fails-think of her as a slightly temperamental backup. There aren't many wards that'll work in Faerie, but that one will. I bought it off the Fey who enchanted it. And I wouldn't be much of a gentleman to let you go off defenseless, now, would I?”
"But I'm not going alone." Sheba had now climbed around to my back and was doing something with her claws that was less than pleasant. I reached around to get her to stop and got swatted at by a small paw for my trouble. Fortunately, the next minute she curled up in a warm ball at the base of my spine and went to sleep. If I concentrated, I could hear her purr contentedly.
"You're assuming we'll all get past the guards. But it won't be as simple as just walking in tonight.”
"You said you know them.”
"I do, but they know me, too. I used to be John's partner before I retired. He's a wanted man now, after that exhibition you two put on this morning, so my walking in there out of the blue and making small talk is going to look strange. The idea is