PICTURE IMPERFECT

Wolfie growled, narrowing his eyes. "You know, the best way to get a predator to chase you is to run."

I snorted. "Oh my gosh, did you practice that line in front of a mirror or something?"

He lunged and I dodged to the side, but the hallway was too narrow to maneuver much. I had to keep him away from Lend. I turned to sprint in the opposite direction but was jerked back, my feet nearly slipping out from under me. Wolfie had my collar in his huge hand. I undid the buttons, reached into my suit jacket, and pulled out Tasey. He tried to yank me backward, pulling off my jacket with the effort. Tasey on, I twirled to jab it into his stomach, but he was too fast.

Bleep, I hadn't fought a werewolf ever, and had never had to tase one who was actually expecting it. He grinned maliciously as we circled each other, each looking for an opening.

"I can smell your fear."

"Again with the lines! What do you think this is, a B movie? News flash: you are not a tortured hero and we're not going to have a hot make out scene after we fight." I feinted forward, but he twirled to the left and slammed his fist into the side of my head. My vision exploded into stars, everything narrowing and closing off as my brain tried to process the pain.

Taser, Taser, Taser, I thought, desperately trying to claw my instincts out of the blow-to-the-head stupor, but before I managed to, he had grabbed my hand and smashed it down onto his knee. Tasey clattered uselessly to the floor as he twisted my arm behind my back, forcing me to bend over in pain.

"Whose movie is it now?" he hissed in my ear, pushing me to my knees.

"That's quite enough of that," Reth said, and I'd never been so glad in my entire life to hear his smooth, golden voice. Wolfie abruptly let go of my arm. I jumped to my feet and backed up.

Reth had a finger underneath Wolfie's chin-the werewolf security guard's face was blank bordering on slaphappy as he stared at Reth. Judging by the look on Reth's face, though, Wolfie was going to meet a very bad end. Immediately.

"Wait!"

"Hmmm?" Reth didn't look up at me.

"Don't kill him."

"May I remind you that you can no longer control me? This thing was going to hurt you."

"It's not his fault. I mean, he's a jerk, sure, but he didn't ask to be here." And it was a little bit because of me. Dang guilt. I picked up my jacket and Tasey. "Can you just make him go to sleep or something so he can't sound an alarm?"

Reth finally looked at me, his eyes narrowing. "You are far too attached to the transient lives of this realm, Evelyn. If you opened up your vision like you should, you'd realize that none of this matters."

"Matters to me. So please. Put him to sleep. Temporary sleep, not euphemistic sleep."

Finally, Reth's eyes relaxed and he turned back to Wolfie, tracing his fingers across the guard's forehead. Wolfie's eyes rolled back in his head and he dropped, none too softly.

I didn't feel bad about that. "Thanks. Where were you?"

"I had some business to attend to."

"What, like, forgot to fill out your last IPCA time card? Pick up your personal effects? Clean out your old cubby?"

He actually smiled, the corners of his perfect, straight lips pulling up. "Something like that."

Positive he wasn't going to give me a real answer, I turned and walked the length of the hall to where Lend was still lying, peacefully asleep and, ah bleep, totally naked. Hadn't expected that one. I mean, it made sense that he'd come without real clothes so he could imitate anyone regardless of what they were wearing, but still. Not really the time or place for boyfriend nudity.

But I couldn't very well leave him here to wake up alone. Where was Jack? If he'd ditched out on Lend, he was so going to pay.

Raquel's old office door slid open, and the little demon himself poked his head out. "There you are. Had to use the Faerie Paths to get in and open it from the inside. Took a couple of wrong turns to get there." He looked down and saw Lend. "He's a terrible sentry. I would never fall asleep on the job."

"Shut up and help me get him inside." We each grabbed an arm and pulled Lend into the room. Reth sauntered in behind us, carrying Wolfie. "Can't you dump him somewhere else?"

"Would you rather I leave him unconscious in the hall for anyone to stumble upon?" Reth walked to the corner and dropped him on the floor.

I set Lend's head down gently, then sat in the white chair at Raquel's desk. The whole place was as pristine as it always had been when she was here, but it felt wrong to be behind the desk in her place.

Jack sat in one of the extra chairs, draping a leg over the side. "We got nothing. Any luck?"

"None. An old friend says that IPCA's into some bad stuff, but he couldn't or wouldn't say what. It doesn't give us anything to go on." I opened the nearest drawer and my heart jumped painfully in my chest. At the top of the pile of papers was a photo of me. I was probably thirteen, on one of our field trips to the Museum of Natural History in New York City, posing like the huge T. rex. I reached out and trailed my fingers along the edge of the photo, touched that Raquel had printed and kept it.

Also, wow, braces and bangs were so not my friends.

Pulling out the photo and setting it gently on the desk, I rifled through the rest of the papers, but they were the usual government bureaucracy nonsense-forms and forms and more forms.

"I doubt you're going to find anything useful there," Jack said. "If you knew you were in trouble with IPCA, would you leave incriminating evidence in the unlocked drawers of your desk? It's probably between her mattresses or something."

"Yeah! That's where I keep my secret stuff."

Jack rolled his eyes. "I know. It's not very creative."

Resisting the urge to punch him again, I nodded. "Okay. Reth, how soon is Wolfie going to wake up?"

Reth didn't bother responding, simply glaring at me like he couldn't believe I would question his efficiency in rendering werewolves harmless. He looked uncomfortable standing in the room. It wasn't that he was too big for it, because he was very lean and narrow although quite tall, but somehow it felt like he took up more space than the room could afford. Like it couldn't contain him. No wonder faeries never hung around inside if they didn't have to.

"Jack, have you ever been to Raquel's room? Could you open a door there?"

"Raquel and I didn't see each other socially much. I kept waiting for a dinner invitation, but alas."

I looked at Reth hopefully. "You?"

"Must we really waste more time? Not all of us here are immortal, and I'd think you and Jack would more carefully guard what little you have. We should go immediately to my queen."

"Can you get us in or not?"

He looked at the ceiling, his features dripping with disdain for the entire operation. "I suppose if you were to stand immediately outside her door I could use my sense of where you are to navigate into her room and open the door from inside."

"That's my pretty faerie boy!"

"If you ever address me like that again, I will make that abomination on your head permanent."

I put my fingers up to the brunette wig, horrified. "You wouldn't."

"I suggest you do not attempt to find out."

Swallowing hard, I pointed to Lend. "Can you take him with you so Jack and I don't have to carry him?"

Not taking his eyes off me, Reth picked up Lend, letting his head loll uncomfortably to the side, then walked through a faerie door and out of the room.

"That guy is scary," Jack said.

"Tell me about it." We left Raquel's office, checking both ways, then walking as calmly and quickly as we could. We were halfway to Raquel's room when I froze in terror at the sound of Anne-Whatever Whatever's voice.