I was watching Larry grow older before my eyes. Not in age, but in experience. The expression in his eyes was older than it had been a few months ago. Seen too much, done too much. He was still trying to be Sir Galahad, but Galahad had had God on his side. All Larry had was me. It wasn't enough.
"The only way I could get a death warrant is to lie," I said.
"I know," he said.
I stared at him. "Serephina hasn't broken any laws, yet. I won't lie about that."
He smiled. "Good. When do we meet Dorcas Bouvier?"
"Three."
"Have you figured out what you can sacrifice to raise the zombies Stirling wants done?" he asked.
"Nope."
He stared at me. "What are you going to tell Stirling?"
I shook my head. "I don't know yet. I wish I knew why he's so hot and heavy to kill Bouvier."
"He wants the land," Larry said.
"Stirling and Company have been saying the Bouvier family, not Magnus Bouvier. That means he's not the only one suing them. So killing Magnus won't solve their problems."
"So why do it?" Larry asked.
"Exactly," I said.
Larry nodded. "We need to talk to Magnus again."
"Preferably without Serephina around," I said.
"Amen to that," Larry said.
"I'd love to talk to Magnus, but before we tackle Mr. Bouvier again, I'd like to find some fairie ointment."
"Some what?"
"Didn't you take any classes on fairies?"
"It was an elective," he said.
"Fairie ointment makes you proof against glamor. Just in case whatever else Magnus is hiding is nastier than Serephina."
"Nothing's nastier than that," he said.
"True, but just in case, he won't be able to work magic on us. In fact, it's not a bad precaution before we meet Dorrie. She may not be as scary as Magnus, but she shines, and I'd just as soon she didn't shine all over us."
"You think Serephina will find Jeff Quinlan?"
"If anyone can, she can. She seemed pretty confident she could take Xavier, but then Jean-Claude had been pretty confident he could take her last night. He was wrong."
He frowned. "So we're rooting for Serephina?"
It sounded wrong, put that way, but I nodded. "If it's a choice between a vampire that obeys most of the laws, and one that slaughters kids, yeah, we're on her side."
"You were talking about killing her just a little bit ago."
"I can stay out of her way until she saves Jeff, and kills Xavier."