Any one of the twenty-five could have been taken over by shadow. Peter’s looked to be attached to his heels, but they were sneaky. Tricky. “Just a little jumpy.”

“Well, don’t be. I get enough overemoting from the actors.” His smile suggested a shared joke. Tony tried to respond and didn’t quite manage. “Anyway, good job on the rat thing. Those little bastards can do more damage than a touring fan club. Which reminds me; there’ll be one through on Monday. One of Mason’s, I think. So, on your way out, tell someone in the office to order some poison.”

“For the fans?”

“Don’t tempt me.”

“Not poison. The rats eat poison, then they die in the walls or under a piece of equipment and the whole place stinks more than it usually does. We need traps. And not the sticky traps either because then you’ve just got a scared, pissed-off rat with his feet stuck to a giant roach motel, I mean it’s got to be embarrassing for them. We need the kind of traps that . . .” Amy brought the side of her right hand down on the palm of her left.

Tony jumped.

“Are you all right? Because you’re looking a little spooked.”

“Rat traps. You know, things dying,” he continued when she frowned. Amy had been in the soundstage for lunch. He leaned around her desk trying to get a look at her shadow.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“I just . . . nothing. I thought I saw something fall. Off your desk.”

Eyes rolled between dark green lashes. “It had better not be the damned highlighter again. I spend half my life crawling around after it.” Holding a fall of cranberry hair back with one hand, she shoved her chair out from the desk and bent down. Her shadow went with her.

Not Amy, then.

Not unless this lot was cleverer than yesterday’s and were lying low until they got away from the people who might identify them. The person. Him. How was he supposed to follow twenty-five people. No, stupid, you don’t need to. You just need to be back here at 11:15 tonight to take them out. One zap of the lamp. A bright idea that’ll shed a little light on the matter. Ha! Take that, Shadowlord. We laugh at your darkness!

“Yo! Earth to Tony! Is there like a laser site aimed at my forehead or something because you’ve been staring at that same spot for a truly uncomfortable amount of time?”

“What?” He blinked and focused on Amy’s face. “Sorry. I was thinking.”

“It looked painful.”

“You’d be surprised.” Oh, man, I’m going to need gallons of that potion.

“What about?”