“Not for Cassandra,” I said. “She’s an old one. Probably less than fifty years left on her quasi-immortality warranty.”

“That doesn’t matter, though, right? If anyone’s waiting for her on the other side, they’ll be disappointed, since vamps don’t go there.”

Both Lucas and I looked up. “They don’t?”

“Hoo-ha, look at that. The necro knows something the whiz kids don’t. Vamps are dead already, remember? So where do the dead go when they die? There’s a stumper. All I know is there are no dead vampires in the ghost world. My opinion? This is their afterlife. When their time card runs out, poof, they’re gone. And that’s your undead lesson for today. Now it’s time to get back to work. Or should I grab take-out first? We missed lunch and it’s almost dinnertime.”

“You have contact calls to make,” I said. “My only contacts are council members, who know next to nothing about Cabal business. So I’ll get dinner. What does everyone want?”

“What I want is for you to take a break,” Lucas said. “You’ve been—”

“I’m fine.”

“When I saw you dashing through the bookstore, Paige, you looked pale enough to be Jaime’s ghost. And, as well as you might think you’re hiding it, don’t think I’ve failed to notice that you wince every time you sit or stand. As for dinner—” He lifted his cell phone. “Room service. Wonderful invention. Go lie down. Please.”

“But I—”

“Paige…”

“The files on Joey and Matthew,” I said. “We still haven’t read them—”

He handed me the files. “Read them in bed, then.”

I hesitated, then took the files and left them to their phone calls.

I fell asleep reading the files and didn’t awake until after nine. Lucas, having suspected I’d drift off, had ordered me a sandwich and salad earlier. He’d also removed my clothing, probably assuming I was down for the night. When I got up, I thought of redressing, but it seemed a waste of effort, so I just pulled on my kimono. Decent enough. It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen Jaime in less.

Jaime had reserved the adjoining room, and was in it finishing her calls, but when I awoke, she came over to fill me in. Both she and Lucas had canvased their contacts and found no one who’d heard so much as the vaguest rumor about a supernatural living in Ohio who’d recently had contact or trouble with the Cabals. Even Raoul hadn’t been able to help. Lucas was disappointed, but not surprised. When you lived so far off the Cabal grid, it was unlikely you’d have any opportunity to clash with them.

Knowing the Cincinnati connection might be a false lead, Lucas and Jaime had broadened their questions toinclude any supernatural targeted by the Cabals in the past two years. That led to a list of twenty names, plus half a dozen promises to call back with more information. Of those names, though, neither of us could see any whose beef against the Cabals was great enough to launch a murderous rampage. The most common complaints were being refused Cabal employment, or being harassed because they refused Cabal employment. No one would ever kill teenagers over something like that. We hoped that when the other contacts called back with their lists, we’d see more likely possibilities.

“And until then?” I said. “I didn’t see much in the crime-scene files, but we should probably go through them together. Let me grab—”

Lucas put a restraining hand on my knee. “Tomorrow. We’ve done enough today, and I believe we’ve earned ourselves an hour or two of respite.”

“We could order in a movie,” Jaime said.

I said nothing, but Lucas caught my underenthused look. He pushed to his feet, crossed the room, and tugged the scroll tube from his suitcase. When he glanced over at me, I grinned.

I turned to Jaime. “Would you mind if we skipped the movie? My brain’s still whirring, and I really need a more active distraction. Lucas and I have this spell we’ve been dying to practice.”

“Spell-casting practice?” she said. “Sounds like work to me.”

I grinned. “Never, especially not when it’s a new spell. You can never have too many spells.”

She laughed. “You kids are such keeners. You’re so cute. So what does your new spell do?”

“Lowers a target’s core body temperature five or six degrees, inducing moderate hypothermia.”

Jaime looked from Lucas to me. “Uh-huh. Okay, I gotta ask: What the hell do you guys need a spell like that for?”

“We both have a limited range of lethal spells.”

“And…that’s a bad thing?”

“It can be. Don’t worry. We’re both very responsible spell-casters. We’d never misuse our power. Oh, hey, if you don’t mind sticking around though, we could use a target.”

“Target?”

“Well, we can’t know for sure whether the spell works without a target.”

Jaime stood. “I hear my television calling. You kids have fun.”

“We will.”

Lucas waited for Jaime to leave, then plunked down beside me.

“Alone at last,” he murmured.

I snatched the scroll from him, unwound and read it. “So how are we doing this? Straight-up spell-casting? Or fun and games?”

“Do you need to ask? The decision, though, should really be yours. If you’re too tired, or too sore—”