want to help women, and God knows you're pretty enough that he wanted to show off. I just...nudged him a bit. It's not like telling him we aren't the droids he's looking for."
I laughed, relief giving the sound a warmth I was surprised to feel. Her smile was less wintry.
"I don't think I've said thank you," I said. "For coming. For helping me with this. For helping Aubrey."
Her expression went thin and brittle. It would have been as if the moment's vulnerability in the elevator had never happened, except that I saw something softer in her eyes.
"If we survive all this, I'm going to kill Aubrey myself," she said. "Or at least wound him seriously."
"Fair enough," I said. "Of course, we're not out of here yet. The helicopter could still get shot down by the Invisible College."
"Cheerful thought," Kim said, and the pilot waved us over.
They strapped me in first, wide canvas bands with industrial steel buckles cinching me in against the aluminum frame. A fiberglass pod closed over me like a coffin; a small clear space let me look out and up at the swimming stars overhead. The pilot climbed into the cockpit and started up the engines. I could feel it through the frame of the helicopter when his companion closed the pod on Kim's side. The engine whined, and the rotors began to turn. The noise was so overwhelming it was like silence.
Like a balloon with its string cut, we rose into the sky.
Chapter 19
Nineteen
Where's the minivan?" Midian said.
"We lost it," I said.
"You lost it?"
The taxi was pulling away from the curb. I closed the door and put my backpack on the coat hanger. The house smelled like old laundry and popcorn. Kim stared at Midian and then, shaking her head, excused herself and headed down the hall toward the bathroom.
"How do you lose a minivan?" Midian said as I walked into the living room.
"There we were running down the highway, and I said 'Holy shit, Kim, I think I know why we're getting so tired.' Look, if it's important, I'll buy us another one."
Chogyi Jake emerged from the back. It might only have been that I'd been out in the world or that I was still coming off the adrenaline overload of my time in the hospital, but I thought he looked worse than when I'd left. The strain of holding up Eric's protections was showing in his face. I remembered a news program I'd seen when I was a kid with men in yellow rain slickers piling sandbags against a flood. They'd had the same exhausted eyes.
"I was starting to get worried," he said.
"Yeah," I said. "So was I. It's okay, though. We're here."
"What happened?"
It was easier for me to retell the story to Chogyi Jake than to Midian. He listened intently and without comment. I left out how Kim had insisted on going and that I'd caved, making it sound instead like it had been a mutual lousy decision. I also skipped the part where she told me she was still in love with Aubrey. Kim came back into the room about the time I got to the part where the helicopter landed at the airport and the two of us went to look for a taxi. I saw her glance at Midian, her face perfect for the poker table.
"You don't get to go out without a chaperone anymore," Midian said.
"Bite me," I said, and he grinned as if it was a joke. I only figured out what was funny about it after the fact.
"Kim," Chogyi Jake said. "I'm glad to meet you. I think we all owe you a debt."
"Kind of you to say so," Kim said.
"You know about riders?" Midian asked.
"I'm not an expert, but yes," she said. "I worked with Eric and Aubrey when I was still living in Denver."
For a minute or two, they compared their relative expertise on things occult. I couldn't follow much of it, but I had the impression they were each favorably impressed by the other.
"Any ideas how to beat the Invisible College?" Midian asked. Kim hesitated.
"No," she said.
"Well, welcome to the club," he said. "You want anything to eat? We're pretty much down to leftovers, but I think I can make a decent omelet with what I've got."
Kim considered the vampire without speaking.
"He's really good," I said. "Seriously."
"Then yes," Kim said. "That's kind of you."
Midian shrugged and limped back to the kitchen. I retrieved the report from my lawyer and gave it to Kim. She