It took me second to recognize her, because her skin blended in well with the night, giving her a natural camouflage that I really envied right now. But a finger of moonlight gleamed in her eyes and on the expensive brooch she wore. It was the telepath, I realized, still in her stylish houndstooth.

I suddenly wondered if she’d like a change of clothing, too. Then I wondered if that was even possible. I decided to find out.

“Can you do jeans?”

She stared at me some more.

Okay, fair enough. Jeans did exist in her era, but tended to be found more on miners and farm hands, and less in fashionable circles around London. I decided to try again.

“You know, trousers? And maybe a long-sleeved shirt? These brambles are tearing me to—”

I stopped talking, because she wasn’t responding. In fact, she looked almost catatonic. I bent down, intending to wave a hand in front of her face, only to have her scream again and scramble away on hands and knees.

Great.

Just great.

I hiked up my skirts and went after her.

It wasn’t hard to catch up, because part fey or not, she didn’t seem overly familiar with her surroundings. She was weaving wildly, crashing through bushes and bumping into trees, like a human ping pong ball. I felt a little bad, because that was partly my fault. I should have exited one bit of weirdness before getting into another, but all I’d been thinking about was finding Pritkin and maybe getting a few answers for once, assuming that Mircea could jog his memory.

But because I’d gone straight here instead of taking the scenic route through Gertie’s parlor, the telepath had ended up tagging along. It was the Iris situation all over again, only this hitchhiker didn’t seem nearly so enthusiastic. Or, you know, sane.

I finally grabbed her near a massive old oak, mainly because it had grabbed her first. I snapped the spindly branches it was using to drag her toward the churning dirt at the base of its roots, like hungry hands stuffing food into a gaping mouth. And then beat the tree with them until it reared back, like a startled cat getting hit with a newspaper.

Damn, but I loved vampire strength! I was really going to miss it after we broke the spell for good. Assuming that I lived long enough, I thought, because the telepath was screaming again.

“Shut up!” I told her, glancing at the forest. I didn’t think I could be hurt in this form, but then, I shouldn’t have been able to beat up a tree, either. So, I didn’t know.

“Augghhh! Augghhh! Augghhh!”

“Shut up or I’ll slap you!”