“And yet you stood by and let an incubus prey on one of your teachers. Your judgment has been rendered invalid, Dean Book. As has Dr. Delmarco’s. You have both been seduced by those creatures from which you are pledged to protect humanity. Why, less than one week ago you, Dean Book, let an undine into this world, which has been rampaging through the woods, preying on young men.”

“That’s wasn’t Dean Book’s fault,” I said, rising to my feet. “I let in the undine – inadvertently – and Dean Book has done everything in her power to apprehend it. In fact, this rogue undine was apprehended last night. The undine’s being held under guard until she can be escorted to the door and brought back to Faerie. It’s that kind of cooperation, between witches and fey, that makes Fairwick work. If we close the door and force part of our population to leave, the town and college will lose its heart. We’ll be diminished.”

“That’s a very heartening sentiment, Dr McFay,” Delbert Winters said, his voice thick with disdain, “but since you are not a member of the governing board of IMP you have no standing in these proceedings.”

“She’s been called in as an expert witness …” Liz began.

“I hardly think that writing a book about the sex lives of vampires makes her an expert in anything but …” Delbert Winters sneered, “… sex. If anything, her proclivities make her a suspect witness. Didn’t she have a relationship with an incubus last year?”

“That was months ago. I banished him …”

“And yet you still wear the marks of your dalliance with him!” Adelaide waved her hand and I felt something rough brush against my cheek. I was reminded of an incident when I was fourteen and Adelaide caught me wearing make-up to school and she’d scrubbed my face with a washcloth. I felt the same shame now, coupled with a tightening of my wards as I realized that Soheila’s protective make-up had been wiped from my face, but I held my head up.

“This was no dalliance,” I said. “It was an attack from a creature I was attempting to unmask.”

“However you acquired the marks, dear, it’s clear you are unable to protect yourself, let alone your friends and neighbors.”

She looked down at the report in front of her. “Since you came to Fairwick you’ve let in a liderc who fed on students and faculty. You let in an incubus who fed on you. And now you’ve let in an undine that has been attacking fishermen.”

Adelaide snapped her fingers and the slide projection of bucolic woods changed to a graphic depiction of a body of a young man, his legs twisted at an unnatural angle, his arms splayed out to either side, lying beside a forest stream. His face and chest were covered with blood and gore. Lydia Markham and Talbot Greeley gasped.