was back at the offices taking clients later that day as if nothing unusual had happened. It seemed like after seeing those hanging bodies I shouldn't have had to do anything else for the day, but life doesn't work like that. Just because you start the day off with nightmares doesn't mean you don't still have to go to work. Sometimes being a responsible grown-up sucked a lot.
Doyle and Frost were standing at my back for the client sessions. I was never allowed to see anyone alone. I'd given up arguing about it. This was one battle I was not going to win, and sometimes wisdom is saving your energy for the battles you can win. Rhys had two hours before he had to be on a stakeout, so he was sitting in a chair in the corner of the room. It was part of our ongoing theory of "more guards were better."
But when I saw who went with the name on my list I was glad they were all there. The client name was John MacDonald, but the man who walked into the room was Donal, who I'd last seen in Fael's Tea Shop the day Bittersweet disappeared and Gilda's wand knocked down a policeman.
He was still tall and overly muscled with long blond hair and a very nice set of ear implants so he had a graceful curve to his ears. They were actually a good match for Doyle's except that his were black and Donal's were human pale.
"The police have been looking for you," I said, my voice calm.
"I heard," he said. "May I sit down?"
Rhys was on his feet. Even though he didn't know who Donal was, he'd picked up on our tension. "After we search you for magic and weapons, yes," Doyle said.
Rhys put the man up against the wall and searched him very thoroughly top to bottom. "He's clean." Rhys sounded like he wished he'd found some excuse to be rough with the man, but he did his job and stepped back.
"Now you can sit down," I said.
"If you keep your hands where we can see them at all times," Doyle added. Rhys followed Donal as he went for the chair and took up a post to his left shoulder.
Donal nodded as if he'd expected that, then sat down in the client chair with his hands spread flat on his thighs.
I studied his face and told my too-fast heartbeat that it was being silly, but one of Donal's friends had almost raped me, and nearly gotten me killed. It had been Doyle's magic that had saved me, but it had been a near thing, not to mention that they'd tried to steal some of my life essence. It had been a nasty spell.
"If you know the police are looking for you, why not just turn yourself in?" I asked.
"You know that I was part of the group that worked with Alistair Norton."
"You were one of the people helping him steal the life essence of women with fey ancestry."
"I didn't know that's what the spell was doing. I know you don't believe me, but the police did. I was stupid, but stupid doesn't make you guilty."
"Since your friend tried to rape me I'm not going to be very sympathetic. I would think the police might like you better than we do."
His eyes flicked to Frost and Doyle at my back - he fought not to glance back at Rhys - then back to me. "You may hate me, but you understand magic better than the police and I need you to help me explain to them about the magic."
"We already know everything about your friend and what he tried to do to me, and did successfully to a lot of other women."
"Liam, my friend, was involved with it, too. The police never found out because he's one of their wizards. If they'd known, he'd have lost his certification with them."
"You mean the Liam that they never found was one of theirs."
He nodded. "But his real name isn't Liam. He always used that when dealing with other sidhe wannabes, because he wanted a name that showed his heritage."
"What heritage?" Doyle asked.
"I don't know if it's true, but his mother always told him that he was from a one-night stand with a sidhe. He's tall enough, and his skin is paler than human normal, like yours," he said, looking at me. "And his," he said, indicating Frost.
"How old is your friend?" I asked.
"He's under thirty, like me."
I