It grinned, and I looked away. Piscary stood and listened, clearly thinking.

“Can you get me out of here?” I asked, thinking of escape.

“Through a ley line, yes. But this time, it will cost you your soul.” It licked its lips. “And then, you’re mine.”

Happy, happy choices. “Can you give me something to protect myself from him?” I pleaded, getting desperate.

“Just as expensive …” It tugged its gloves tighter to its fingers. “And you already have what you need. Tick-tock, Rachel Mariana Morgan. Anything that will save your life will require your soul.”

Piscary was grinning, and my stomach turned as he came to a standstill eight feet away. My eyes darted to my bag with the vial Kist had given me. It was out of reach on the wrong side of the barrier. “What should I ask for?” I cried desperately.

“If I answer that, you won’t have enough left to pay for it, love,” it breathed, bending close and sending my curls drifting. I jerked back as I smelled Brimstone. “And you’re a resourceful witch,” it added. “Anyone who can ring the city’s bells can survive a vampire. Even one as old as Ptah Ammon Fineas Horton Madison Parker Piscary.”

“But I’m three stories down!” I protested. “I can’t reach a ley line through that.”

Leather creaked as it circled me, hands laced behind its back. “What will you do?”

I swore under my breath. Past our circle, Piscary waited. Even if I managed to escape, Piscary would walk. It wasn’t as if I could ask Algaliarept to testify.

Eyes widening, I looked up. “Time?” I asked.

The vision of Kist looked at its wrist, and a watch twin to the one I had smashed with my meat tenderizer appeared about it. “One minute, thirty.”

My face went cold. “What do you want for you to testify in an I.S. or FIB courtroom that Piscary is the witch serial killer?”

Algaliarept grinned. “I like the way you think, Rachel Mariana Morgan.”

“How much?” I shouted, looking at the sun creeping down the side of the buildings.

“My price hasn’t changed. I need a new familiar, and it’s taking too long to get Nicholas Gregory Sparagmos’s soul.”

My soul. I couldn’t do it, even if it would satisfy Algaliarept and ultimately save Nick from losing his soul and being pulled into the ever-after to be the demon’s familiar. My face went slack and I stared at Algaliarept so intently that it blinked in surprise. I had an idea. It was foolish and risky, but maybe it was crazy enough to work.

“I’ll voluntarily be your familiar,” I whispered, not knowing if I could survive the energy it might pull through me or force me to hold for it. “I’ll freely be your familiar, but I get to keep my soul.” Maybe if I retained my soul, it couldn’t pull me into the ever-after. I could stay on this side of the ley lines. It could use me only when the sun was down. Maybe. The question was, would Algaliarept take the time to think it through? “And I want you to testify before my end of the agreement becomes enforceable,” I added in case I managed to survive.