He set the packages on the table and unwrapped them while she finished clearing the table. When she started to wash the dishes, Gawain said, “Sit down, lass. You’re helping us so much you don’t need to do the washing up too. I’ll do those in a bit.”

“You can’t,” she pointed out. “Not and keep the null spell active.”

By the chagrin that passed over his face, she saw that he had forgotten. Nikolas stood. He told her, “Leave that for now. Come show us how to make the colloidal silver.”

“And that leads us to something we’d been talking about before you came to join us,” Gawain said. “The rent we’ll be paying you is more than fair, but we should be also paying you for your other services—for this and for helping us to explore the possibilities in your witchy house.”

She couldn’t wash dishes and have this conversation with them at the same time. Turning her back to the sink, she wiped her hands on a towel while she shook her head.

“My consulting services cost the LAPD a hundred grand a year,” she said. “But that’s not what we agreed upon. I’m teaching you the colloidal silver and null spell combination, and in return, you’re giving me a handgun with silver bullets and the legal right to use it. As far as exploring the manor house goes, I want to do that anyway. It’s my house. I should know its strengths and pitfalls and if there’s anything of worth inside that I might want to sell. If you want to engage me for anything else, we can talk about a consulting fee at that time. For now, the bargains we’ve struck are more than fair.”

Nikolas said, “Actually, there is something else we would like for you to consider doing. We want you to cast your runes and do a reading for us.”

She raised her eyebrows. “I guess that changes things a bit.” Looking from Nikolas to Gawain, she added, “I’m all about monetizing my skill set, but just doing a reading for you is not that big of a deal.”

Nikolas walked over and took the dish towel out of her hands. “It’s a big deal to us,” he said quietly. “We need to understand how and why I was ambushed, and what other magic had been in play that day and if it might still pose a danger. Also, after the attack on the pub, we need to try to figure out how much the Hounds may know about us, about the puck, and about you.”

Frowning, she looked at him directly for the first time since having breakfast. “Knowing that would be of benefit to me too,” she pointed out.

“Here’s what I propose,” Nikolas said. He laid his hands on her shoulders. “Instead of bargaining piecemeal over every little thing or added service, I want to pay you a blanket amount for a month of your consulting services. If you’re not going to go away, as you should, that’s a fair offer.”

Why did he keep approaching her and touching her? It made her cranky and confused her. She wanted to step forward into his arms. She wanted to slap his hands away.

Most of all, she wanted to get back down to the business they had begun last night before he had so precipitously walked away.

Throwing up her hands, she shrugged out of his hold. She said, “If you want to pay me for a month of consulting work, I’d be happy to take your money, but I don’t have a work visa.”

“I’ll add it to the amount we’re paying you for rent,” Nikolas told her. He turned to watch her with a sharp frown as she sidled away from him. “Fifteen thousand.”

The British pound was worth more than the dollar, and adding ten thousand pounds to cover her consulting fees was more than she would have made in LA. But it wasn’t so much over the top that it caused her conscience to twinge.

From a distance of six feet away, she gave Nikolas a thin, not-altogether-friendly smile. “You want to hand over your money? Fine, I’ll be happy to take it.”

Chapter Thirteen

Having come to that agreement, they got down to business. In short order, they had the table completely cleared and various items unwrapped from the packages Gawain had brought in. Sophie had already brought her vial of colloidal silver out to the kitchen, and she collected the rest of the things she wanted from her bedroom—pieces of magic-sensitive silver, a pen and pad of paper.

“Making your own colloidal silver generator is the easiest thing in the world,” she told the two males who were focused so intently on her. “It’s like learning to park a car. Once you know it, you know it. You need a power source, alligator clips, silver, distilled water, and containers. Silver colloidal enthusiasts who believe in using it for medicinal purposes might also use a regulator diode, because the theory is, as the electrical current grows, it strips larger particles of silver off. That’s not good for their purposes, but that’s great for ours, so we’re not going to use a regulator diode. We want the larger particles because that’s what makes magic-sensitive colloidal silver so viable.”

As she talked, her hands moved over the various items, arranging them to her satisfaction. She connected the batteries to each other, then to the alligator clips, to two of the pieces of the magic-sensitive silver she had brought, set it all in the container, and filled it with distilled water.

“And that’s it,” she said. “We’re done. The solution will be ready in several hours when it has a yellow tint to it. We can check it again this evening, and it will probably be viable then. Like I said before, there’s a way to make a generator without batteries, just by using sunlight, but I’ve never used that method before. If you’re interested, I can dig up some instructions.”