As much as Tony hated to admit it, at least where Lee was concerned . . . “She’s got a point, Henry. You don’t have to come either,” he added as Henry’s attention switched over to him. “I appreciate your help, I really do, but you’ve got me what I need; I’ll take care of Lee, then meet you at the condo.”

“The condo?”

“Yeah, you know. I don’t want you to think I’ve forgotten about . . . uh . . .” He tapped the inside of his left wrist with the first two fingers of his right hand.

Arra rolled her eyes. “He . . .” She nodded toward Tony. “. . . hasn’t forgotten the offer he made you . . .” An identical nod in Henry’s direction. “. . . earlier. You feed. He bleeds. As long as I’m not on the menu, feel free to discuss it. I’m not squeamish.”

“No, you’re terrified.” Henry was using his Prince of Man voice, as commanding of attention as his Prince of Darkness although in a different way. Slightly different. Death wasn’t quite so imminent. “You hide it well, but I saw it on your face two nights ago when the stunt went wrong, and I can smell it on you now. It clings like the smoke from a crematorium.”

Nice image. Tony leaned a little forward and sniffed.

They both ignored him.

“We’re all going out to the soundstage,” Henry continued, “because any information that shadow takes back is too much. We have no defenses here against wizardry and, unless we want to see this land destroyed, he can’t know that. Evil is never content with what it has. It has to keep moving, keep acquiring. That shadow must be stopped before the Shadowlord is convinced we’re ripe for conquering.”

“Too late.” Her smile held no humor. “Not the first shadow, remember?”

“But one of the first. Perhaps it took time for us to muster our defenses; he can still be convinced.”

“We’re not defenseless,” Tony broke in. He jabbed a finger toward Arra. “She can defend us.”

“She is the cat’s mother.”

“What?”

Arra draped the cloth over the oven door handle, carefully spreading it flat. “Just something my gran used to say. If you know a person’s name, use it.”

“Fine. You can defend us.” Another jab for emphasis. “If you destroy the shadow, he’ll know we’re not helpless.”

“If I destroy that shadow, he’ll send more.” Her lip curled as she straightened and turned. Under lowered brows, her pale eyes were hard. “Do you think we didn’t destroy them the last time? That we sat around with our thumbs up our collective asses? We fought back. And we lost.”

Tony could hear that loss in her voice. The anger. The pain. The screaming.

“Then close the gate. You opened it originally,” Henry reminded her. “Surely you can close it.”

“I’ve been over this with him.” She jerked her head at Tony, who muttered, “He is the cat’s father.” Wizard and vampire ignored him. “I can’t affect the gate from this side. Only from the world of origin.”