“You can’t forget anything,” I said, watching the words vanish into nothing. “And even if you do, it always comes back to bitch-slap you in the morning.”

The cool mist of the coming day was damp and pleasant, and I closed my eyes against the brightening sky. I’d been up way too long.

Turning where I sat, I looked behind me over the narrow parking strip to the two man-made ponds and the wide footbridge spanning them. Past the bridge was a ragged ley line, unnoticeable unless you were really looking. I’d found it while helping Kisten fight off a foreign camarilla trying to kidnap his nephew Audric last year, and I’d forgotten all about it until feeling its discordant resonance through Bis. Though weak, it would be enough.

Wondering how little Audric was, I wobbled off the bench, slapped the cold from my jeans, and headed across the lot. I ran a hand over the red paint of my convertible in passing. I loved my car, and if I did this right, I’d be back to get it before they towed it away.

I took the bridge with slow steps, looking down for the telltale ripple of Sharps, the park’s bridge troll, but he was either hiding in the deeper water or they had chased him out again. To the left was a wide expanse of concrete tucked in the curve of the upper pond. Two statues were cemented into the ground, and hemmed in between them ran the ley line. The faint red visible to my mind’s eye was growing weaker as the sun neared rising, but it was still possible to see where it ran, bound by a wolf on one side and a funny-looking guy with a cauldron on the other, both holding the midpoint of the line stretching from one end of the park to the other. It ran over the shallow water, which was why the line was so pathetically weak here. If the pond had been any deeper, the line wouldn’t have been able to survive. As it was, it was leaking enough power to make my skin prickle as I found a fairly clean patch of concrete and sat down just outside it.

Taking a rock, I leaned to scratch a sloppy circle right in the line. Even if the sun rose and broke my summons, I could still talk to Al if I stepped into the line, though he’d be under no obligation to stay and listen. I really didn’t think getting Al to stay would be a problem.

My heart pounded, and with sweat breaking out to make me cold, I whispered, “Jariathjackjunisjumoke, I summon you.” I didn’t need the trappings to force his appearance, I only needed to open a channel. And he came—using the name I had chosen for myself.