She tripped over a groaning body, glanced down to see the boom operator as she slammed against the trunk of the car, and saw the shadow slip off his lower legs. No time to recover. One hand bracing herself against the warm metal, she sucked air in and breathed out the incantation. Sucked in air. Breathed out incantation. Her pulse was pounding so hard in her temples she couldn’t even hear her own voice, but it didn’t matter. She could say this particular incantation in her sleep. Had.

Sucked in air. Staggered forward. Finished incantation.

Dropped to her knees, looked up to see Tony staring down at her from the front seat of the car. She blinked and managed to focus. Recoiled a little as the taint rolled over her strong and dark. Relaxed as that was all she felt.

“Arra?”

“I’m fine. You?”

“Fine.”

He looked terrified, but considering the alternative, that was close enough to fine. She dropped to her knees beside Hartley’s writhing body as Tony got out of the car, and worked a thermos out of the backpack. “You need to get some of this down him.”

When he reached for the thermos, she clutched it close and glared. “Get your own, this one’s mine.”

The vodka helped.

“Get as much of it into him as you can, then get him into his car and get the bottle out of the glove compartment and put it in his lap.”

“How do you know he has a bottle in the glove compartment?”

She took another long comforting drink and shrugged, the warm car against the back almost making up for the gravel digging into her butt. “People talk. Next person out will find him, assume he went on a bender, and deal.”

“I never knew.”

“The one thing alcoholics excel at is hiding; hiding what they are, what they do, what it’s doing to them.”

“But right now he’s okay?”

About to snap out something rude, Arra took a closer look at Tony’s face and reconsidered. He honestly cared. “Probably.” It was the closest to reassurance she could manage, but it seemed to be enough. She watched as Tony handed the last cup of potion to Hartley and let him drink it himself, watched him help the boom operator into the front seat, watched him lean in, and saw him emerge a moment later with a set of car keys that he dropped and kicked under the car. She winced as he slammed the door. Everything had gone a little fuzzy and she was beginning to get remarkably cold.

The vodka was good, though.

Tony’s shadow stopped about a quarter inch from her leg. She looked up to see Tony looking down at her.

“We should go.”

She snorted as he took her thermos and screwed the cap back on, his shadow waiting impassively for him to finish. “I should have gone a long time ago.”