Hexed

feet and hobbled gingerly down the steps to the lawn, where I could kick off my sandals and draw power from the earth. I bent over and rested my hands on my knees, intending to let the amulet dangle from my neck away from my skin, but it remained where it was—fused to my flesh. Not good.
    » I would agree that you are a victim of witchcraft, but I sense no one nearby but the usual residents, « Leif said as he continued to search for trouble. » However, now that you have delicately broached the subject— «
    » Is that what I just did? « I said, tension straining my voice. » Delicately broach the subject of witches? Because I thought I was doing something else entirely, like getting my ass flame-broiled by witches. «
    » I beg your pardon. I was flailing about for a segue and utterly failed to find a facile one. My professional reason for visiting you tonight was to tell you that Malina Sokolowski has agreed to your latest terms without revisions or amendments. She’s ready to sign the nonaggression treaty as soon as you are. «
    » Yes, well. « I winced as I pulled on the amulet’s silver chain, peeling it off my chest and taking some blackened skin with it. » This kind of puts her nonaggression to the lie, doesn’t it? «
    » No. « Leif shook his head. » She would not do this so close to settling a peace between you. «
    » Maybe it’s the perfect time to take a shot at me. We haven’t signed anything yet, so that puts her high on my list of suspects. « Malina was the new leader of a coven of Polish witches who called themselves the Sisters of the Three Auroras, and they had claimed the East Valley—the local sobriquet for the cities of Tempe, Mesa, Scottsdale, Chandler, and Gilbert—as their territory since the eighties, long before I arrived. When I rolled into town in the late nineties, they pretty much ignored me; I was only one guy, after all, and I displayed zero aggression and not much in the way of power beyond a talent for herbal remedies. We’d been content to live and let live until our interests diverged: They were interested in helping out a god who wanted to kill me (in exchange for what I originally thought was passage through Tír na nÓg, but turned out to be an estate in Mag Mell), and I was interested in staying alive. That was the point where they discovered they had epically underestimated me. There used to be thirteen of them, but six of them died while trying to kill me, and despite all Malina’s noises about doves and olive branches, I still believed she would take any chance she got to avenge them.
    » I do hope you will not suggest that I pay her a visit, « Leif said in a stuffy voice.
    » No, no, I’ll call on her myself. «
    » You relieve me excessively. Your inquisitive neighbor, by the way, is taking an interest in us. «
    » You mean Mr. Semerdjian? «
    » That’s the one. « I cast my eyes sideways across the street, moving my head only a smidge. I could see one pair of blinds in the house opposite mine parted fractionally wider than the rest, and in the dark space between them no doubt lurked the darker eyes of my poisonous neighbor.
    » You don’t, uh, smell anything different about him, do you? « I asked Leif.
    » Different in what way? « my attorney asked.
    » No whiff of the Fae about him? No whiff of demons? «
    Leif chuckled wryly and shook his head. » The world will never plumb the depths of your paranoia. «
    » I hope not, because then it might catch me unprepared for something. What does he smell like? «
    Leif wrinkled his nose in disgust. » Like a chili dog with mustard and cheap light beer. His blood courses with grease and alcohol. «
    › Wow. I didn’t think he would smell that good, ‹ Oberon said.
    » All this sniffing of blood reminds me that I have yet to drink tonight, « Leif said, » so I think I will leave you to your healing and your own personal witch hunt, now that my duty is done. But, ere I go, will you at least consider joining me and others in an alliance against Thor? Dwell on its benefits for a time, as a personal favor to me. «
    » All right, as a favor to you, « I said, » I will consider it. But, honestly, Leif, I do not wish to give you any false hope here. Killing Thor is an honor I dream not of. «
    Icy glares from vampires are far icier than icy glares from people. And when the vampire giving you an icy glare is originally from Iceland , you are confronted with the archetypal origin of the term, and you