"When we need to know things that only an air witch can discover, our Marcus helps us out.”

He nodded again.

Now they were getting somewhere. "If you want to keep your sizable ass out of that circle, Marcus, if you value your pathetic life in any way, you'll tell me what you heard right now. Otherwise, I'll substitute you for her and hope you have enough juice to close the circle. After your magick is bled out, I'll just find myself another weak air witch to mold to my pleasing.”

He whimpered and a tear slid out of his eye, but Crane kept his tight grip on Marcus's hair. "Okay.”

Crane released him.

He sniveled again and snot trailed out of his left nostril. Marcus wiped it away with his bound hands. "I heard a telephone conversation. It woke me up. I think there was a chink in the warding and some of it slipped out. I was so tuned on the apartment that I caught it on the air when it passed. The air witch is in Jack McAllister's apartment, but they're planning to move her to the Coven tomorrow morning.”

Crane smiled coldly at Marcus, and then turned to David, who stood near the door. "I don't care how you do it, you get those wardbreakers to find us a way in before dawn." He paused. "Tell them their lives depend on breaking that warding. If they fail, they'll die slowly and painfully. Got it?”

David nodded.

With the proper motivation anything could be accomplished. They had to get in now, because once she was at the Coven, she'd be nearly impossible to take. They could try to snatch her en route to the airport, but that was a last resort because it meant a public magickal showdown.

And that would just be crass.

Sometime during the night, Mira found her way into his arms.

Jack buried his nose in her hair and inhaled, letting the faint fragrance of her perfume infuse his senses. Her breathing sounded deep and heavy and her body felt warm against him. Jack closed his eyes and wallowed in it.

But this couldn't happen. Whatever this was that he felt for Mira, it had to end. Once she found out who he was, it would be all over. She'd hate him. How could she do anything else?

The last thing he wanted to see in her pretty eyes was fear or revulsion when she looked at him.

While he didn't regret sleeping with Mira, it had been a huge mistake. He'd started out meaning to resist her and had failed. That lapse in his willpower would hurt both of them in the end, but especially Mira. As much as it pained him, all this had to be nipped in the bud. It would make things easier later on.