I bent my knees, crouching to come even with him, the focus between us. It didn’t look like the same totem that I had put in Jenks’s suitcase. The closer we had gotten to the full moon, the more it looked like the original statue, until now it was identical except for a quicksilver sheen hovering just above the surface like an aura.

Ivy was wiping her fingers off on her pants, and she quit when she saw my attention on them. I couldn’t blame her. The thing gave me the willies.

Kisten added the last of the meat, pushing the pizza aside and putting his elbows on the counter, an odd look on him as he saw it for the first time. “That has got to be the ugliest thing in creation,” he said, touching his torn earlobe in an unconscious show of unease.

Matalina nodded, a pensive look on her beautiful features. “It’s not coming back in my house,” she said, her clear voice determined. “It’s not. Jenks, I love you, but if it comes back in my house, I’m moving into the desk and you can sleep with your dragonfly!”

Jenks hunched and made noises of placation, and I met the small woman’s eyes with a smile. If all went well, David would be taking it off our hands.

“David,” I said, pulling myself straight.

“Uh-huh …” he murmured, still staring at it.

“Have you ever heard of the focus?”

At that, a fearful expression flashed across his rugged features, worrying me. Taking a step forward, I slid the pizza stone off the counter. “I couldn’t just give it to them,” I said, opening the oven door and squinting in the heat that made my hair drift up. “The vampires would slaughter them. What kind of a runner would I be if I let them get wiped out like that?”

“So you brought it here?” he stammered. “The focus? To Cincinnati?”

I slid the stone into the oven and closed it, leaning back to take advantage of the heat slipping past the shut door. David’s breath was shallow and the scent of musk rose.

“Rachel,” he said, eyes riveted to it. “You know what this is, right? I mean … Oh my God, it’s real.” Tension pulling his small frame tight, he straightened. His attention went to Kisten, solemn behind the counter, to Jenks standing beside Matalina, to Ivy, snapping a fingernail on the rivet on her boot. “You hold it?” he said, looking panicked. “It’s yours?”

Running my fingers through the hair at the back of my head, I nodded. “I, uh, guess.”

Kisten jerked into motion. “Whoops,” he said, reaching. “He’s going down!”

“David!” I exclaimed, shocked when the small man’s knees buckled.