“Why raisin?”

  Harris leaned his head against the window. “We’re supposed to be looking for CJ.”

  “The charm hasn’t found anything. I don’t feel anything, and I can’t see anything. So, why would someone put raisins in scones?” When he didn’t so much as twitch, I prodded him. “You interrupted a lovely night’s sleep. The least you can do is entertain me.”

  “I gave you too much caffeine, didn’t I?” Harris groaned.

  “Just the right amount to keep me awake.” I pumped my voice full of as much cheer as I could.

  He groaned again.

  I took pity on him. “Thank you for the scones and tea. Well, not the raisin, but the rest.”

  “Welcome. Now can we look for CJ?”

  The charm resting on my leg still wasn’t showing anything. And while peering out the window hadn’t been too bad for the first hour, witches didn’t have fabulous night vision. Unless CJ was right at the window or in front of a light, I wasn’t likely to see him. I had switched from regular vision to magic sight, which told me the bug repellent spells on the strip mall were fading. “I never stopped.”

  For the next excruciatingly slow twenty minutes, I divided my attention between the charm and what little I could see outside the car.

  “Did you see that?” Harris leaned forward and pointed out the windshield.

  “I see darkness.”

  “Three, no, four deer.”

  “Huh. I would’ve thought they’d stay away from where one of their own was killed.” I still couldn’t see the deer, but a flash of color in the woods drew my eyes. Was that a spell?

  “No sign of CJ.”

  The spells reappeared, moving faster than my eyes could track toward something in the field. The charm on my leg flared to life. “He’s here.”

  “I see him.”

  For the first time, I was happy to have the cover of darkness. I didn’t need to see CJ devouring a deer, and what my magic sight showed was far more interesting anyway.

  The blood magic radiating off him came from an intersection of two spells and CJ himself. The original purpose of the stimulant spell was lost, but it continued to force his body to stay in a heightened state. A knot of magic unlike anything I’d ever seen tied the stimulant magic into the blood magic.

  Mixed with those, and threaded through every part of CJ, was another spell. When I tried to get a good look at it, it slid away, but it drew its power directly from the werewolf before mixing with the other spell. That one fed into the knot of magic, supplying it with energy from CJ.

  Werewolves’ bodies had adapted to house both the wolf and human. That gave them better senses and some other advantages over witches, but it didn’t give them the energy-channeling abilities we had.

  “Narzel’s bones.” And that was why all of this was so hard to figure out. CJ had to eat constantly to maintain the energy flow, and even so, it was slowly burning him up. How all of that had been twisted into blood magic was a different question. One that I suspected had something to do with the spell I couldn’t get a good read on.

  “What?” Harris whispered.

  “There’s another spell.”

  “So?”

  “With the way they interact, it’ll take a full ritual to hold and cleanse him.” If that would even work. I chewed on my lip. It should, but blood magic was strange. Almost as strange as my necromancy eating the blood magic. “Or kill him.”

  “Let’s call that Plan B. It’s hard to get answers from dead werewolves.”

  I pressed my lips together to hold back a laugh. Not as hard as he thought.

  CJ moved around, this time slowly enough that my eyes could follow. He stopped, but without better visuals, I couldn’t be sure where.

  Beside me, Harris tensed.

  CJ blurred again, this time coming toward us. The next thing I knew, the glass was falling on me, and claws dug into my shoulder.

  I blasted raw magic in CJ’s face. He jerked back as his body absorbed the power, but he released my shoulder, which was all I needed. “Sowil.” The containment spell would slow him down.

  I looked for Harris. His door was open, but he wasn’t in the car.

  The blood magic started flowing through me again, and I had a split second to decide what to do. “Wunho.” A ball of light appeared over the car.

  CJ shielded his eyes as he growled. The containment spell wouldn’t last if he pushed against it again, and the haze of the blood magic was starting to take over. I couldn’t find Harris to warn him that the corruption might force me to turn on him.

  Or I could fight back.

  “I’m dead either way,” I muttered as I called my necromancy. It flooded through me and started its battle against the blood magic.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  CJ pushed against the containment spell again.

  The deer in the field was truly dead, but dead could work for me. Wand firmly pointed at it, I said. “Eair Deyr.”

  CJ broke out of the spell and turned to come for me.

  The deer lurched to its feet.

  Wind whipped through the parking lot, tearing my hair out of its ponytail.

  CJ’s nostrils flared, and he whirled around, swiping at Harris.

  I screamed. The deer leaped into a full run, aiming for CJ.

  Harris’s form wavered. CJ stumbled, off balance from his strike not connecting. A blast of wind hit CJ’s back, sending him to the ground. Harris had cuffs in his hands and a knee in the center of CJ’s back before the werewolf could react. He got one side secured before the werewolf pushed off the ground, turning in the air to claw Harris.

  This time I had a perfect view of the claws passing through Harris. What in Narzel’s name was going on? Humans were as corporeal as me, and my shoulder was still bleeding.

  The wind gusted. Somehow, Harris rolled with it and ended up ten feet away from CJ. It pushed me into the seat, bits of glass digging into my skin through my clothes.

  The werewolf got to his feet just in time for the deer to trample him. CJ fell back, claws digging into the deer.

  “Can you hold him?” Harris sounded like he was next to me, but I could see him standing nearly twenty feet away.

  “I told you, not without the rituals!” The necromancy froze its way through me, taking the blood magic with it.

  CJ fought his way free of the deer. It tried to get up again, but one of its legs was crooked.

  “Deyr.” The deer collapsed, and with it, part of my soul. That creature deserved better than me using it.

  CJ’s misshapen head pivoted between Harris and me. I must’ve spaced out because Harris was in front of me. I lifted my wand, but couldn’t think of a spell I had the power to do that would help this situation.

  While I debated, CJ turned and ran into the woods.

  Harris darted after him, moving faster than humanly possible but stopping at the edge of the light. CJ was already inside the tree line, where he had places to hide, and we were at even more of a disadvantage.

  The wind died down to the light breeze it had been before, and I pushed away from the car. Glass fell off my jacket and crunched underfoot. As stakeouts went, this was a failure of epic proportions.

  Harris walked back, pausing to look at the original place CJ attacked the deer as well as its path to the car.

  Nothing I could think of would explain this. Narzel, that wretched trickster, was having too much fun with my life.

  Harris stopped in front of me. “Before we call this in, we should talk.”

  It was a golden opportunity I couldn’t pass up. “We should. You’re not human, not with that speed, so what are you?”

  He took my measure. “A sylph and disciple of Kaikias.”

  “Wind nymph?” I squawked.

  “No, a sylph.” He raked a hand through his hair. “Nymphs are water.”

  “Same type of creature, different element.” I countered. “I read about you in history class, but no one had ever met one, I mean, a sylph.”

  “We don’t get out much,” he said dryly. “And we blend in with the human population rather well.”

  “Uh, huh.” Blend? If he hadn’t gone all wind-child, I never would’ve known. “And what was it you were saying about being good in the field? Would that have something to do with being a disciple of Kakso?”

  “Kaikias, and no.”

  I folded my arms across my chest and stared at him while my heart raced. If I could keep him defensive about his abilities, maybe he wouldn’t notice the weirdness I’d caused. And maybe a flying pig would fly by.

  He spun around and paced a tight circle before coming back to me. “We don’t have time for me to explain everything now. If we don’t call this in soon, someone else will, and that would be bad.”

  “That much I agree with.” I eyed the mess. Would they be able to tell the deer had been dead before it charged CJ?

  “Then, if I could suggest, we call in a stakeout that went wrong. While attacking the deer, the suspect realized we were here and attacked. The deer then attacked CJ and was killed in the scuffle, right?”

  Not willing to trust my voice, I nodded. Maybe he suspected, or maybe he couldn’t believe the deer had been dead or the rest of this wouldn’t make sense.

  He opened his mouth and then closed it and shook his head. “I’ll call it in, but after this is cleaned up, we need to talk.”

  Just what I wanted to hear.

  ***

  Crime scenes didn’t clean up quickly. Which was why the sun was up and my stomach was growling by the time we settled into a booth in the back of a Denny’s and ordered breakfast.

  From the look the waitress had given us, we were a mess. I hadn’t been brave enough to face my reflection, but my shirt was torn, and a bandage poked through from the medic’s attention. I couldn’t use a healing charm for a few more days. Given how much my shoulder ached, as soon as that time limit was up, I’d hit the charm cabinet.

  Harris was more presentable, though that could’ve been because his jacket covered the mussed shirt and his hair was too short to show the wind damage like mine.

  “You promised answers.” Decaf tea was almost as good as the real stuff, and after what I’d had this morning, better for the nerves.

  “That I did.” He sipped his coffee. “There are more of us than people think. We have a few communities, both in this country and others. Since we blend, most people don’t realize what we are, and we like it that way.”

  Given my situation, a little anonymity would’ve been great. Too bad witches didn’t work that way.

  “I didn’t lie when I told you I was good in the field, but I was trying to... find a different path.” He paused while the waitress delivered two giant omelets. “I’m good at ballistics, but there are other people with those skills.”

  “Got it, but what about being a disciple of what’s his name?” I dug into my food, sure an omelet had never tasted so good.

  Harris ate a few bites before answering. “It means I’m good in a fight.”

  “I saw that much.” No matter what he said, I was sure it was more than that. Not that I had room to judge, considering my secrets.

  “How are we going to stop CJ? I’d like to do it without killing him, but that’s beginning to look like our only option.” Harris tapped his fork on the edge of his plate. “Yesterday’s report was odd. Is it true the bullets wouldn’t hit him?”

  “It’s the magic,” I said. “It’s protecting itself. Blood magic wants to live and spread. It can’t do that if the host is dead.”

  The words sank into my ears. Blood magic couldn’t live in a dead host.

  Sure, it could contaminate items or even dead creatures, as long as enough energy remained to power it, but it couldn’t live in a dead host. My necromancy came from the small death in my leg. When it filled me, it brought that death with it. That was how it freed me of the blood corruption.

  “Pine? Kelsey? Are you okay?”

  Refocusing on the here and now, I bobbed my head. “Sorry, got lost in thought.”

  “Right.” The look of concern stayed.

  “With proper preparation, I can construct a spell that will hold him. Removing all the magic on him is a different issue.” I poked at the omelet. “With enough research, I could make a nullifying spell, but I don’t think we have that kind of time.”

  “How much time would you need?” Harris’s voice sharpened.

  “If I could find the supplies and had a full tank of magic…” Two big ifs. No one liked spells that could eat magic. They were hard to craft without triggering them and having them try to suck you dry.

  “How long?”

  “Never mind, it’s a bad idea,” I mumbled.

  He pushed his plate to the side. “If you can trap CJ, what do you need to remove the magic?”

  Reluctantly, I looked at him. “More information. Until I know what the other spell is and why it’s drawing energy from him, it’ll be risky to attempt to remove the magic.”

  “So we need to talk to someone who knows about that spell.” He made it sound so easy.

  “Who? They’re all dead.” I said it without thinking.

  “True.” His gray eyes locked with mine, and he half-smiled. “But that shouldn’t be a problem, necromancer.”

  I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t look away, couldn’t do anything but feel the fear crawling up my spine.