I shook my head. “Has to be during the day. Tomorrow night’s the full moon, remember?”
“Damn it. Right. Well, I can’t do anything about that.” She grabbed her jacket and waved as she exited the kitchen.
I considered everybody’s strengths. We really hadn’t had much time in the water, considering all the battles we had waged. “I can swim, but I can’t breathe underwater. I’ll need magical help for that.”
Vanzir raised his hand. “I can swim pretty damned good. I do need to breathe, but I can hold my breath for five minutes without a strain.”
“Smoky’s not here, or he’d be good to go with us. I can go, and in my dragon form, I don’t need to breathe since I’m skeletal.” Shade winked at Delilah. “So I’ll go for both of us.”
Trillian wasn’t much of a swimmer, unfortunately. Iris was, but she couldn’t risk it, given the twins. But Rozurial raised his hand.
“I’m in, too. I can swim. But I need to breathe, as well. I’ll need whatever sort of magical scroll or spell you can scrape up.” He paused, then hesitantly asked, “You aren’t going to try to cast it yourself, are you?”
“I’d resent that, if I had a leg to stand on.” I stuck my tongue out at him. “No, don’t worry. I’m not that stupid. Morio, you coming with us?”
“Yeah, but like everybody else, I need magical help.”
Delilah shrugged. “Tell you what, I’ll research who can help us since I’m not going to be any good under the water. Meanwhile, Trillian, why don’t you take on K’thbar—see what references you can find about him.” She paused as my phone rang.
I glanced at the Caller ID. It was Menolly. “Hello? Anything wrong?”
“No, I’m at the Fly by Night Agency, and I just talked to Shimmer.”
I didn’t ask how she’d gotten there so quickly. Ever since my sister had been re-sired by Roman, the prince of the Vampire Nation, her abilities as a vampire had greatly increased. Her ability to take the form of a bat had gone from graceless to graceful—she could do more than hover a few feet off the ground and then flop around helplessly. And her speed had increased. Vampires could blur their speed to levels that put everybody else to shame. Menolly’s skills had picked up significantly, even over the past few weeks.
“What did she say?”
“She’s happy to help. She said just let her know when.”
I decided the sooner the better. “Tell her tomorrow at noon, if she could meet us here. We’ll have to find some way for us all to breathe underwater—except for her and Shade—but there has to be some witch around who can work a spell for us.”
“I’ll tell her. I’m going down to the Wayfarer for a little while. I’m feeling the need to touch base with Digger and Derrick.” A tinge of sadness echoed in her voice and I realized that I wasn’t the only one pining for the way things had been.
Our jobs had, at first, been smokescreens to hide behind. The OIA had wanted us to remain covert. After a while, Menolly had grown to love the bar she first tended, and now owned. And I had fallen in love with the Indigo Crescent, my bookstore. But more and more we had to leave them in the hands of others as we faced the demons down. Now, with Menolly a princess in Blood Wyne’s court, and me taking on the role of the Queen of Dusk and Twilight, maybe it was time for us both to face the truth and let go.
I slid my phone back in my pocket and turned to the others. “Shimmer’s in. She’ll be here tomorrow around noon. That should give us time enough to get up to Camano Island and take care of this before night and the full moon. But Delilah’s right. We need sleep. Tomorrow morning, we have to find a way for us to breathe underwater. But for now, let’s just get some rest.”
As Morio, Trillian, and I slowly headed up to the second floor—where my suite of rooms was—I realized that, for once, all I wanted to do was get into bed and curl into a ball and pretend everything was just business as usual.
Chapter 4
I WOKE TO someone licking my face. And my ear.
“Stop it, you two. At least until I manage to open my eyes.” I tried to push them away, expecting to find two naked men, but instead, I felt two squirming balls of fluff. “Huh?” I squinted, opening one eye to find a fuzzy black face staring down at me.
I turned my head to see who was licking my ear. One of the calicoes. Laughing, I slowly rolled up, scooting back to rest against the headboard. All four kittens were on the bed, and one of them was batting at Trillian’s nose. The white kitten was kneading Morio on the shoulder, making biscuits for all she—or he—was worth. I pulled the two who had attacked me into my arms and nuzzled them, waiting for the inevitable explosions.