“I’m not,” I shot back, glancing at the witch with the long blond hair listening to the oldest man whispering in her ear. “Trent’s a big drama queen.”

Damn it, I was going to smack Trent. I was going to smack him good. I was not a demon to be pulled around like a pull toy.

Peeved, Brooke turned to the whispering behind her. “Will you do that later?” she griped, and I tested the barrier to find it still strong. The line I was connected to surged, and I scrambled to handle it. Earthquake, maybe?

The oldest man, the one with the useless amulet, gestured mockingly to Brooke to get on with it, and she gave him an equally sour look. Is there a schism? Can I use that?

The sun-bleached tips of Brooke’s short hair swung as she focused on me. “What an elf thinks is of no concern. Your actions are. You have undergone the sentence of shunning but have not changed your ways. You leave us little choice, Rachel Morgan, and are hereby formally charged with willfully allowing a witch to be taken by a demon.”

This was so full of crap, I almost laughed. I’d been cleared of this by the I.S. months ago. “Which one?” I shot out. I was being railroaded. This was so unfair.

Brooke looked annoyed by the interruption, but it was the oldest man who said, “You call him Al, I believe.”

I grimaced. “Not the demon. Which witch?”

The gawky young man with the off-the-rack suit stammered, “There’s been more than one?”

There had, but if they didn’t know about Tom’s dying and Pierce’s taking his body, then I wasn’t going to tell them. I pressed into the barrier, finding it wasn’t humming anymore, but I jerked back as if it was. “I don’t want to be blamed for someone else’s stupidity. If we’re talking about Lee, then yes. He dragged me into the ever-after and tried to give me to Al. I fought Lee, and lost. Al took Lee instead.”

Brooke’s smile was a bare hint of one, but it was ugly and I felt a shiver. “The better witch,” she said, and I nodded, realizing she was not an honest, upright woman. I didn’t care if her aura was a clean, almost clear blue; her morals were gray.

“Bet that didn’t end up in your report,” I said bitterly. “I saved the witch who tried to give me to a demon. Is that why you’re doing this without a jury?”

The witches behind Brooke looked discomfited, but she simply glanced at the screen. “You are accused of calling a demon into a court of human law,” she continued.

“To put a murdering vampire behind bars, yup. I did.” No jury on earth would convict me for that. “What else you got?” My foot was shaking, and I pressed down on it to get it to stop. Brooke was starting to sweat, but it wasn’t fear. It was excitement. She liked something.