Chad was starting to move, and Lee nudged him in the ribs. “Get up,” he said. “The Were has a paper in his jacket. Get it.”

Stomach churning, I backed up as Chad staggered to his feet, blood dripping on his cheap suit. “Just give it to him,” I warned when David tensed. “I’ll get it back.”

“No, I don’t think you will,” Lee said as David handed it to Chad and the vamp passed the now blood-smeared paper to Lee. White teeth gleaming, he tossed his hair and smiled. “Sorry to hear about your accident.”

I glanced at David, hearing our coming death in his words.

Lee wiped the blood off on Chad’s coat. Folding it twice, he tucked it in a jacket pocket. Headed for the door, he said casually, “Shoot them. Take out the bullets, then dump them under the ice downriver from the dock. Clean up the room. I’m going out for an early dinner. I’ll be back in two hours. Chad, come with me. We need to talk.”

My heart pounded and I could smell David’s rising tension. His hands were opening and closing as if they hurt. Maybe they did. I gasped at the sound of safeties going off.

“Rhombus!” I shouted, my word lost in the thunder of weapons discharging.

I staggered as my thoughts tapped the nearest line. It was the university’s, and it was huge. I smelled gunpowder. Straightening, I patted at myself frantically. Nothing hurt but my ears. David’s face was white but there was no pain in his eyes. A shimmer of molecule-thin ever-after shone around us. The four men were straightening from their own crouches. I had gotten the circle up in time and their bullets had ricocheted right back at them.

“What do we do now?” one asked.

“Hell if I know,” the tallest said.

From the floor of the vestibule came Lee’s shout, “Just fix it.”

“You!” came Ivy’s faint demand. “Where’s Rachel!”

Ivy! Frantic, I looked at my circle. It was a trap. “Can you take two of them?” I asked.

“Give me five minutes to Were, and I can take them all,” David all but growled.

The noise of fighting drifted up. It sounded like there were a dozen people down there, and one angry vampire. One of the men looked at the others and ran out. Three left. The pop of a gun downstairs brought me straight. “We don’t have five minutes. Ready?”

He nodded.

Face twisting, I broke my link to the line and the circle fell. “Go!” I exclaimed.