Davina. It'll weaken her, buy us some more time."
"Cut off? How?"
Cain thought for a moment. "You could take her as a conduit, too. Feed her some potion, take control, maybe siphon off some of Davina's power through her."
"Maybe? You're not sure?"
"It's magic," Tobias said. "You can't ever be sure."
"And would this maybe include hurting Millie?" I asked.
Cain huffed. "It's not like we've been testing this stuff in a lab. It's all maybe."
I looked at Betty. "What about Amber Dorsey? That thing with Frankie Biggs was exactly what Amber would do if she was under Davina's control. I can spare Amber Dorsey. She stuck gum in Millie's hair in the eighth grade."
Betty shook her head. "She went to stay with her sister in Syracuse."
"Then it's gotta be Millie," Cain said.
"No, it doesn't," I said. "Besides, it's not like I could get her to take potion anyway. She's under Davina's control at night. She'd never say yes."
Cain looked at me like I was an idiot. "She doesn't have to say anything. You drop it in her drink when she's not looking, the way Davina did."
"No. Millie's my friend. I'm not dosing her with anything without her knowledge. Jesus. What the hell's wrong with you?"
Cain advanced on me. "Look, you can play nice or you can win. You think Davina had even a second thought about dosing your little friend?"
I took a step forward, getting in his face. "I'm not Davina. I don't work like that."
"You don't have a choice."
Tobias took me gently by the shoulders, pulled me back, and stepped in between me and Cain.
"What other ideas do you have?"
"None that involves getting permission first," Cain spat, eyeing me with disdain.
"Oh, screw you, Dr. Doom," I muttered.
"Enough." Tobias looked at me, and his expression told me he meant business, so I backed off a bit. He turned to Cain. "Is there anything less risky that you can think of?"
Cain eyed him for a moment, then shrugged. "Less powerful."
"What is it?"
"I can put something together that will impede all magical influence," he said. "That'd take a chunk out of Davina, for a little while."
"But she'd still have to sneak it to Millie?" Stacy asked.
I sighed. "If it's returning her free will to her..." My stomach turned at the thought, but then I relented. "I could sneak something like that. I guess. You sure it won't hurt her?"
He met my eyes. "Sure as I can be." Cain looked at the clock. "Okay. We got five hours till sunset. I got work to do."
"Wait, sunset?" I said. "We're going at night?"
He nodded. "The connection to the conduit is only open when she's got power. That's night."
"But won't Davina ... I don't know ... kill us all?"
"Not if you leave me alone, let me get some work done." And with that, he grabbed his backpack off the floor, and headed toward the basement.
Betty, Stacy, Tobias, and I stood in silence, just looking at each other for a while, and then Stacy nudged me and said, "I'm sorry, how can you not think that's totally hot?"
* * *
We went to CCB's a little after closing. The plan was fairly simple. I had called Millie and asked her to meet me there for coffee, and to talk. When Millie wasn't looking, I was supposed to dose her coffee from the small vial Cain had tucked into my pocket.
Simple, as long as I didn't let the idea of dosing my best friend without her consent bother me.
I waited at the counter for Millie, while Cain hid out in the kitchen, and Betty, Tobias, and Stacy sat outside in Stacy's car, ready to charge should it all go to hell. I waited for nearly twenty minutes after our designated time, but finally, the bells on the door jingled, and Millie stepped into CCB's. This time, her dress was black, creating a dramatic contrast with the red shoes, lipstick, and fingernails.
"Hey, there, Elvira," I said.
Millie smirked and headed for the counter. She dumped her purse beside her, and leaned on her elbows, exposing cleavage, which, in the twenty-odd years we'd been friends, I had never seen. Even her bathing suits had been modest.
"Thanks for coming." I went to the carafe of coffee I'd made on the mini-coffeemaker and poured us each a mug. Millie watched me carefully. She was suspicious, which made me feel even worse about dosing her, but I was already here, and it would help her.
Maybe.
I set the cream and sugar on the counter and mixed them into