Tired, I slumped back into my chair, feeling the weight of the insane morning hour fall on me. Jenks’s wife, Matalina, had gotten the pixy kids out of the living room, and the sound of them in the garden slipped in with the morning breeze. “Ceri said if Newt doesn’t show up in the next three weeks, she’ll probably forget about us,” I said around a yawn, “but I still want to get the church resanctified.” I looked at my chipped nail polish in dismay. “Minias hit her with a forget charm, but the demon is freaking crazy. And she shows up without being summoned.”

Ivy stopped talking on the phone, and after she and Jenks exchanged a look, she clicked it off without saying good-bye. “Who is Minias?”

“Newt’s familiar.” I gave her a tight-lipped smile to soften the shortness of my answer. Sometimes Ivy was like an ex-boyfriend. Hell, she was like that most times, as her vampire instincts fought with her reasoning. I was not her shadow, aka source of blood, but living with her blurred the lines between what she knew and how her instincts said she should feel.

She remained silent, clearly having heard the lack of completeness. I didn’t want to talk about it, the fear being too damn close to my skin. Literally. I stank like the ever-after, and all I wanted was to clean up and hide under my covers for the next three days. Having had Newt in my head gave me the willies, even if I’d regained control almost immediately.

Ivy took a breath to press for more, dissuaded when Jenks clattered a warning with his wings. I’d tell the whole story. Just not now. My blood pressure dropped at Jenks’s show of support, and, lurching to my feet, I went to the pantry for the mop and bucket. If we were going to have a holy person in our church, I wanted the blood circles gone. I mean, really…

“You’ve been up since noon yesterday. I can do that,” Ivy protested, but lack of sleep had made me bitchy, and I dropped the bucket in the sink, slamming the cupboard door under it when I brought out the disinfectant and tossed the scrub brush in.

“You’ve been up as long as I have,” I said over the rush of water. “And you’re arranging who’s going to bless the grounds. The sooner we get that done, the better I’ll sleep.” Something I was taking care of until you butted in, I thought snarkily as I took off the metallic bracelet Kisten had given me and draped it around the base of Mr. Fish’s bowl. The black gold of the chain and mundane charms glittered, and I wondered if I should take the time to try to put a ley line spell into them, or just leave them as something pretty to wear.