The tension visibly left Vivian. “Better,” she said. “I’ll get a bonus for bringing you in, Bansen. Where have you been the last couple of months?”

Dead, I thought, eyes on my bag as my mind went first to the money, then my splat gun, and finally the scrying mirror I’d brought so I could talk Al into giving me my summoning name back. Might be hard to explain that last one.

“I’m surprised to see you with her,” she continued, almost cocky now that she was the only one who could tap a ley line. “Politics makes strange bedfellows, huh?”

Pierce stayed silent, knowing his speech would give him away, but the leprechaun was eying him as if she knew. Vivian assessed Pierce’s silence, then glanced around the coffeehouse before pulling out the last chair and sitting down.

Behind her, the leprechaun huffed for being ignored. “How about a wee coffee?” she said, standing with my bag tantalizingly close. The charms in my splat gun’s hopper wouldn’t care if I couldn’t tap a line or not.

“I’m not your date,” Vivian said, noting where my eyes were. “Get your own coffee.”

“I dunna carry cash,” she said, her small features bunched up, and she gracefully clambered up onto the nearest chair with a little hop, setting my bag well out of my reach.

“You just love digging holes, don’t you,” Vivian said to me as she leaned back, her hand finally coming out of her pocket to scratch at the welts on her neck. “The first sign of trouble, and you go to another shunned demon summoner. Smart, Rachel. Really smart. You’re lucky he didn’t turn you in himself. Word is, Tom knows your summoning name, too.”

Pierce’s expression didn’t shift as he sat like a stone across from Vivian. “It would be wise for you to walk away, witch,” he said, his words slow as he chose them carefully to try to sound like everyone else. “You will be beaten soundly.”

Vivian looked at him curiously, but seemed utterly unworried. “Not even a circle stops a bullet at this range,” she said confidently as she tugged a slim phone from an inner pocket and flipped it open. God, the thing was as thin as a credit card. “Come quietly, or you’ll be in Alcatraz for so long that you won’t be able to craft a love charm by the time you get out.”

My face burned at what they were doing. They had no right.

Nick was at the counter ordering and flirting with one of the clerks. He was here to help, wasn’t he? The leprechaun was watching me when my eyes came back, and I dropped my gaze, resolving to not look at Nick again.

“Give me my coin,” she said to Vivian, still eying me. “I need it to get paid.”