He paused. He certainly had a measured, careful approach to conversation.

Finally he asked, “Has Mrs. McCallister received any premonitions regarding Mrs. Ryder’s status or location?”

Mrs. McCallister? That was news to me.

“Not that she’s mentioned. Do you want to speak to her?”

“I do not believe that would be productive. Should her ability shed additional light on the situation, however, I would appreciate a call.”

“Okay,” I said, already feeling like an informant.

“Your team may retire and rest. I will be in touch soon with further instructions. Before we disconnect, however, I must speak with Mr. Ryzik once more.”

“Okay. Here he is.”

“Thank you, Miss Ryder.”

I passed the phone to Graham, who paled noticeably. He said, “Yes, Lord Cordus?” then held the phone to his ear for about thirty seconds, just listening. At last he said, “Yes, I do,” then closed the phone and sat there staring out into the darkness and shaking. I was really glad not to have been privy to whatever Cordus had said. I had a feeling it would’ve made “threatening” sound like a day at the beach.

Once we’d recovered a little longer, Williams drove the damaged van into the brush at the edge of the parking lot and set a barrier around it that, according to Callie, would keep it invisible to regular people for at least a few days.

“How’re we going to get home?” I asked.

“There’s a working over there,” Callie said, pointing to the other side of lot. “It’s probably a barrier hiding Graham’s car.”

She glanced at Graham, who nodded, looking a little confused. He must’ve been wondering why I hadn’t noticed it myself.

Williams picked up Kara, and we all walked to the other side of the lot. As we approached the edge, my car appeared right in front of us.

We got in and headed back to Callie’s.

When we arrived, Callie had Williams put Kara in the center of her king-sized bed. Then she and I crawled in on either side of her and slept like stones until morning.

Chapter 11

Unfortunately, by “morning” I mean “very early morning.” That’s when Kara woke up, lunged over me, and vomited. She got most of it on the floor. Then she flopped back with a groan.

“Fucking Williams. Goddamn fucking Williams fucking asshole …” She drifted back to sleep.

From the other side of her, Callie propped herself up and frowned at me. “I wish Kara didn’t use language like that. Taking the Lord’s name in vain is wrong.”

I nodded, filing away for future reference that blasphemy was a no-no around Callie. Then I wormed my way out of bed, trying not to touch anything Kara might’ve hit.

I ended up touching it anyway when I cleaned it up a few minutes later. Whatever. Kara’d probably cleaned up what I left in the hallway a few days back.