Trent to know what’s going on.” Not to mention Quen would have reacted badly to an unknown elf coming over the grass. My glaze slid to Al. Even a cute one.
“Good idea,” Al said, his voice giving him away. “No wonder it has become so difficult to snag a familiar,” he said, one arm casually on the open window as he waved to the woman in the honkin’ big-ass SUV and smoothly accelerated. “You all have magic with no cost.”
“You mean, no smut?” I said as I typed and hit send. “There’s a cost. You just don’t see it.”
“I’m not talking about your wallet,” Al said dryly.
“Neither am I.” I took in Al’s attitude, casual and in control, seeing a problem. “He’s sixteen and flighty, Al, not a former ruler of China.”
He beamed across the car, and a vague memory rose of seeing Trent like this, gawky and awkward, at camp. “You know that was never official, love,” Al leered, and the memory was gone.
“It won’t work if you strut over the grass as if you own it,” I complained, and he sighed, slumping in the seat and pulling his arm back in to carefully set his hands at ten and two.
But my phone dinged. Trent had sent me a happy face. “Okay, we’re good.”
“Mmmm, what was this mystery elf wearing on his feet, itchy witch?” Al asked as we stopped at a four way.
“White sneakers?” I said, thinking they’d looked rather institutional for the rest of him.
From the radio, the commercial finally cut out and the radio host’s professional patter flowed into a background nothing until Landon’s name cut through like a bright light. “Welcome, Sa’han Landon,” the host almost gushed. “We appreciate you talking to our listeners today.”
“Rache, turn that slug snot off,” Jenks said, his wings an irritating hum beside my ear.
“It’s the third show he’s done today,” Al said, his proper British-lord accent sounding wrong coming from such a young-looking body.
“Don’t touch it!” I said, and Al changed his reach to close his window instead.
“It’s only going to get you mad,” Jenks said.
“It’s good to know your enemy’s weaknesses,” Al countered, and I turned up the volume. I didn’t agree with Trent that you only had to convince the people in power of the truth. Truth belonged to the masses, or the masses made bad choices that the people in power couldn’t stop.
“I think the question on everyone’s mind is why the ley lines went down,” the host said, clearly following a preset list of questions. They’d been the same for every interview. “I know I’ll never forget where I was when suddenly nothing worked. That you brought the ley lines back to life will put your time as the dewar’s high priest in the history books even if you do nothing else.”
“Thank you.” Landon’s modesty was irksome as he took credit for something he hadn’t done, and I bristled.
“Ass,” Jenks said shortly, and Al growled, his now-thin hands on the wheel clenching. The look of anger the demon was wearing was alarming on such a young face.
“I regretted the need to break the lines, but it was necessary to prevent Mr. Kalamack from sending the souls of the undead back to the ever-after a second time. That someone would work to rip them away again after having rejoined their bodies . . . Well, that’s almost inhuman.”
I clenched my jaw. “Sure,” I said bitterly. “End their curse by causing them to commit suncide. Real nice.” The guilt for the atrocities the undead had to perpetrate upon those who loved them had been predictably too much to take. Everyone in the vampire community understood that, but the old undead had wanted their souls, nevertheless.
“It was a gesture of goodwill that I’d hoped would usher in a new understanding between all species,” Landon said, and I swear I heard the steering wheel crack again under Al’s pressure. “That Kalamack chose to work against it speaks more clearly to his true agenda. His magic is untouched, while everyone else in the elven community is having problems. Why? His increasingly close relationship with demons, perhaps?”
Close relationship? He meant me. My foot thumped against the car.
“Perhaps he’s just better at it than you, Sa’han Landon,” the host said, and Jenks snickered.
“That’s it!” I exclaimed, and the red dust of surprise sifted down my front. “Al, make a U-turn.”
His youthful body leaning forward, Al checked behind us before spinning my little car into a tight turn that left me reaching for