Brushing at his gray suit jacket, as though his entrance had caused him to be coated in a cloud of pixie dust, Faust smiled. “There seemed little point to it, considering she already knows what I am, and it’s faster this way. Besides, I thought it best I arrive here before-”
A flurry of things happened all at once, almost too fast for me to follow. Portia appeared in the seat across from us-a compact and ancient-looking crossbow clutched in her hands-and she fired a bolt at Harrison. In a blur of motion the vampire pulled me into his lap like a naughty secretary and surrounded us with his shields, so the bolt bounced off the barrier and buried itself in a nearby seat cushion. With a wave of his hand, Faust knocked the weapon out of Portia’s grasp, and she glared at him. The two faeries hissed at each other in their language, looking as though they were two seconds from tearing each other’s throats out.
“Hey! Cut it out!” I shouted, trying to interrupt them.
“You!” She pointed at Harrison. “Unhand her this instant!”
“She’s fine right where she is,” he replied calmly.
“Portia. What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Rescuing you from that vampire.”
Said vampire was still holding me in his lap, using me as a human shield to supplement his magical one. Curious, I reached up and poked the edge of the barrier. The energy swirled like smoke in dark gray whorls around the tip of my finger, which seemed like an odd reaction-but then again I wasn’t familiar with vampire shields, they all might work that way. I wasn’t sure how he’d managed to surround me instead of pushing me away. Vamp shields were probably designed to protect both the vampire and whoever is being snacked on at the moment.
“You don’t need to rescue me, I volunteered to stay with him until the full moon.”
“I know, but you won’t have to stay with him at all after I kill him,” Portia replied, the soul of sensibility.
“You can’t kill him.”
“Why not?”
Yeah, why not? I frowned, trying to think of a reason. Nothing really came to mind. Turning to him, I waited for him to supply a good excuse as to why we should let him continue his existence.
“Because it’s in everyone’s best interests that I not be harmed,” Zach answered.
“Right, what he said. Now put me down.”
“I rather like you where you are.” The vampire smiled. Faust made a coughing sound, like he was swallowing a laugh, and I shot him an unfriendly look. “Besides, I think it’s best that you stay where you are while your cousin is here, in case she loses her temper again.”
“Great.” I rolled my eyes and then turned to Portia. “Look, he says he didn’t have anything to do with the attack on the castle, and I believe him. But if you want to kill Laura, I’m all in favor of that. I can even start making a list of deserving minions for you while I’m stuck in Vampire Central.”
Faust openly snickered this time, and he smiled. “Oh, I like her.”
“You’ll do no such thing,” Harrison ordered me. “But since you’re here, Mistress Silverleaf, you may as well hear what I have to say.”
“I’m really not interested in anything you have to say, vampire.”
“You’ll find this more interesting, I think.”
“I doubt that.” She sniffed.
“We believe we’ve found a cure for the extinction,” Faust commented idly, as though remarking on the weather.
“You? A vampire and a shadowspawn? You expect me to believe that? What sort of fool do you take me for?” Portia eyed them, suspicious.
“Only a fool would ignore a chance like this, Silverleaf,” Faust countered. The temperature inside the limo dropped, and a line of frost spread across the window behind Portia’s head.
Clearing his throat, Harrison interrupted before Portia could do anything violent, like encase the other faerie in a block of ice. “That’s enough. Now, the fact of the matter is this: there is much more that faeries and magicians could be doing to help each other, but aren’t. If we worked together, we could all be in a position of power in this world, and if Faerie was dissolved, your lost fertility would be regained. You would no longer face extinction.”
“Faerie is safe. The elves thought they could survive in this world, and they were wiped out because of it,” she argued, unconvinced.
“They also tried to fight humanity on their own. If we all banded together, and I do mean all varieties of magicians and magical races, then there is nothing that could stop us.”
It was a very militant point of view, which didn’t appeal to me but may have sounded appealing to Portia in her current martial mindset. Raising a thin, pale brow, she eyed the vampire.
As though sensing a weakness, Faust leaned forward. “Think of it. The opportunity to freely walk this world again. No rules, no limitations, no hiding. More importantly, to once again have the chance to hold a babe in your arms and not suffer the knowledge that the child will grow old and be gone in a blink of your eye. Doesn’t it pain you to watch the generations of your bloodline bloom and then wither, like flowers cut before their time?”
Frowning, Portia turned her gaze to me. There was such terrible sadness in her eyes, and I wondered if the faerie blood in my veins was Portia’s. I knew there was a Silverleaf somewhere in my mother’s family tree, but I’d never asked who it was. Should I have been calling Portia grandmother all these years, instead of cousin? Or perhaps I was of Tybalt’s line-a frail, tenuous link to the brother she’d lost. I opened my mouth to ask her, but the car pulled to a stop, and I found myself free of the vampire’s lap as he nudged me back into my seat.
“We’re here. Mistress Silverleaf, you’re welcome to join us, if you’ll attempt to behave yourself and change your attire to something more appropriate. This way, Catherine.”
The door opened and he stepped out into the sunlight. I paused for a moment, glancing at Portia, and watched as the faerie’s features and clothing changed, rippling like melting water and then reforming. With pale blonde hair and fair skin, she looked rather like a Nordic ice princess, which creeped me out as it reminded me a bit too much of Lovely Laura. Portia’s icy wings vanished and her punk princess ensemble changed to a light blue sundress, complete with matching flip-flops. Silently hoping that she’d refrain from slaying anyone, I followed Harrison out of the car.
We were in a residential neighborhood-old Irving Park maybe, from the feel of it, but I didn’t get a good enough look around to orient myself. The limo was parked in the middle of the street, and after Portia and Faust piled out of the car behind me the driver pulled away and left us. Harrison headed toward a nearby house. A small, two-story home, it blended into the row of brick bungalows that lined the street. Wilted flowers and a forlorn garden gnome decorated the front lawn, and the grass was overgrown and in desperate need of mowing. The vampire stopped at the top of the front steps and rang the doorbell, and then was ushered inside by a figure I couldn’t see. Hurrying to catch up, the faeries and I trotted up the stairs and into the house before we ended up locked out on the front porch.
“-that you’re here, Mr. Harrison. We’ve been so grateful for all of your help.” An elderly woman stood in the center of a clean but well-worn living room, one gnarled hand restlessly running through her short silver hair. The musky smell of wet dog permeated the place, and I rubbed at my nose. Glancing around, I expected to find evidence of small, yapping dogs, but there wasn’t a dog hair in sight.
Canine shapeshifters. Fun.
“How bad is this one?” Harrison asked, sounding genuinely concerned.
“Bad. Honestly, we’re not sure he’ll make it.” Picking up a tissue from a box atop an end table, she wiped at her eyes. When she finished she finally looked past the vampire and spotted the rest of us clustered near the door. “Oh, hello again, Mr. Faust. Who are your friends?”