Shaun said, “How did you know we’ve been talking?”

“Female intuition,” I said. “I have to go meet with some paranormal investigators about this whole brouhaha. Will you guys be okay if I leave you alone?”

“Paranormal investigators?” Shaun said. Finally, he was smiling, at least a little. “So you really are working on this.”

“Yeah, I am.”

“We’ll be fine,” Ben said. I was confident he was right.

Ben walked me to my car.

“You okay?” I asked. I didn’t know how close we’d come to a fight back there. I didn’t really want to know. Ben was still tense.

“Yeah. It just came out of nowhere. I just couldn’t let them talk anymore. Or the wolf side couldn’t. Hard to explain.”

“Well, thanks,” I said. “I’m sure they’ll go back and tell everyone you’re way tougher than you look. They’ll be absolutely cringing around you from now on.”

“Funny. I’ve come to rely on your fast-talking us out of these situations. Talk faster next time, okay?”

I grinned. “Sure.”

We exchanged a kiss—a warm, comfortable, all’s-well-with-the-world kiss—before I zoomed off to my next appointment.

As I was getting in my car, the grumble of a motorcycle engine revving caught my attention. The bike was at the end of the block. The rider looked around quickly, then set off with enough speed that his tires squealed. He took the corner at a steep angle and was gone. I caught only a glimpse; the rider wore a helmet, but I recognized the canvas army jacket.

Peter Gurney was tracking me.

After a moment of thought, I decided that didn’t bother me. Maybe this was something he had to do, to feel he was learning as much about T.J. as he could. He could learn from me—I didn’t have anything to hide. He was quite a ways down on the list of things I was worried about at the moment.

I called the Paradox crew to tell them I’d be late. Arriving at last, I found Jules and Tina waiting for me in the hospital cafeteria, sparsely populated after the lunchtime rush. They sat around a table, slumped forward, gazes vacant—still looking shell-shocked. Tina had a smoky cough. We’d been so worried about Gary, the rest of us had only sat still for cursory examinations by the paramedics. Smoke inhalation, minor burns. Get some rest was what we were told.

I felt fine, but I was a werewolf with super healing. I ought to tell them to get to bed to rest and heal. But I kept thinking, what if this happened again, and again? And now I’d dragged them into it.

“How’s everyone this morning?” I greeted them, and they all grumbled. “How’s Gary?”

When they didn’t answer right away, I assumed the worst. I was all ready to run up to his room and check on him myself—assuming he was still there, but Tina said, “He’s awake. He’s okay. He’s still a little groggy, but he’ll be okay.”

Relieved, I sank into a free chair and blew out a sigh. “That’s really good to hear. Have you told him about your, um, talent yet?” I kind of wanted to be there for that conversation.

“Uh, no,” Tina said. “I figured I’d wait until he was back on his feet.”

I was going to say something about whether they’d be interested in doing the big reveal on my show, but Tina wrinkled her nose and peered hard at me. “What’s wrong?” I said, wary.

“Are you okay? You’ve got something weird going on. This smell.”

I wondered... I was carrying a jar of the blood-and-ruin potion in my bag, for the Paradox crew to use.

“Er,” I said, chagrined. “I didn’t think nonlycanthropes could smell it.”

“Smell what?” Jules said.

“You can’t smell that?” Tina said. “Oh, God, don’t tell me—”

Tina didn’t really smell it—she sensed it. Which gave me hope, because that meant there was something weird and magical about it. Maybe it would work.

I revealed the jar, half filled with viscous black goo. They twisted their faces up in expressions of disgust. “It’s supposed to be a protection spell.”

“What is it?” Jules said, already repulsed, though I hadn’t even told him.

“Blood mixed with dust from a ruin.”

They both went Eww .

“Got that out of a book, didn’t you?” Jules said, cutting. “Something by Crowley, maybe?”

“As a matter of fact, no,” I said. “I happen to have a consultant on the case. Like you guys. Have your contacts been able to turn up anything? Any ideas what we do next to track this thing down?”

Again, they answered with a long, hard silence. I blinked at them. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s really hard saying this, Kitty,” Jules said.

“Because you’re a coward,” Tina muttered. Jules glared at him.

“What?” I said. “What’s hard?”

They exchanged glances, frowning, slouching. If anything, they looked even more glum than they had when I arrived.

Cm" g, “We’re leaving Denver,” Jules said finally. “The producers yanked the plug when they found out what happened. What you’ve uncovered here, it’s simply too dangerous.”

“ I think we should stay,” Tina said, angry. This argument might have been going on all morning. “Gary wants to stay.”

“Gary’s in no state to be making these decisions,” Jules said. “Besides, it’s the producers’ call, and they want out. It’s back to ordinary haunted houses for us.”

Looked like the werewolf pack wasn’t the only group facing mutiny today.

Tina glared. “I’d rather listen to concussed Gary than the producers.”

“Tina, it’s too much. Voices in the attic are one thing. But this—we can’t handle it.”

The thing was, I couldn’t blame them. Not even a little bit. This was my problem, not theirs. One of their people had been hurt, tens of thousands of dollars of equipment destroyed. Getting the hell out of town was the smartest thing to do.

I nodded, understanding. But I couldn’t let them off that easy. “I thought you were investigators. I thought you wanted to study this sort of thing. Now you’re telling me if it’s not clean and pretty enough for TV you don’t want anything to do with it?”