The pixies scattered. The statue wrapped in the black silk fell into her hand.

“These are mine!” she said again, red with anger and embarrassment as she pulled them off the statue and shoved them in her pocket. “Damn it, Jenks! Stay out of my room!”

Jenks flew in just under the ceiling. Rex padded in under him, her steps light and her eyes bright. “Holy crap!” he exclaimed, making circles around Ivy, wreathing her in a glittering band of gold. “How did your panties end up in my living room?”

Matalina zipped in, her green silk dress furling and her eyes apologetic. Immediately, Jenks joined her. I don’t know if it was his joy of reuniting with Matalina or his stint at being human-sized, but he was a lot faster. With her was Jhan, a solemn, serious-minded pixy who had recently been excused from sentry duties in order to learn how to read. I didn’t want to think about why.

Ivy dropped the new focus onto the counter beside the pizza, clearly in a huff as she backed away and sat sullenly in her chair, her boots on the table and her ankles crossed. David came closer, and this time I couldn’t stop my shudder. Jenks was right. It had shifted again.

“Good God,” David said, hunched to put it at eye level. “What is it?”

I bent my knees, crouching to come even with him, the focus between us. It didn’t look like the same totem that I had put in Jenks’s suitcase. The closer we had gotten to the full moon, the more it looked like the original statue, until now it was identical except for a quicksilver sheen hovering just above the surface like an aura.

Ivy was wiping her fingers off on her pants, and she quit when she saw my attention on them. I couldn’t blame her. The thing gave me the willies.

Kisten added the last of the meat, pushing the pizza aside and putting his elbows on the counter, an odd look on him as he saw it for the first time. “That has got to be the ugliest thing in creation,” he said, touching his torn earlobe in an unconscious show of unease.

Matalina nodded, a pensive look on her beautiful features. “It’s not coming back in my house,” she said, her clear voice determined. “It’s not. Jenks, I love you, but if it comes back in my house, I’m moving into the desk and you can sleep with your dragonfly!”

Jenks hunched and made noises of placation, and I met the small woman’s eyes with a smile. If all went well, David would be taking it off our hands.

“David,” I said, pulling myself straight.

“Uh-huh…” he murmured, still staring at it.

“Have you ever heard of the focus?”

At that, a fearful expression flashed across his rugged features, worrying me. Taking a step forward, I slid the pizza stone off the counter. “I couldn’t just give it to them,” I said, opening the oven door and squinting in the heat that made my hair drift up. “The vampires would slaughter them. What kind of a runner would I be if I let them get wiped out like that?”