Sizzle and Burn

next and managed, just barely, to evade the lunge.
    He reeled back behind the end of the steel container marked GLASS , reached inside and grabbed the first empty bottle he touched. Then he crouched low.
    The fake Raine rounded the corner, black clutch purse extended. Too late the apparition realized that his target was no longer on his feet. He tried to adjust, slashing downward with the purse. The clutch purse changed into a knife in mid-thrust. Ski Mask was back but the transformation disturbed his balance for a second or two.
    Zack seized the opening, going in low. He slashed the bottle against a black-clad leg. The blow shattered the glass. He was already rolling out of range. He didn’t have a chance to see if he had drawn blood because Ski Mask abruptly danced back out of reach. He was switching back and forth between the fake Raine and his ski mask persona so quickly now that Zack couldn’t focus long enough to get a clean shot.
    It was obvious that the attacker had completely lost control.
    “ No ,” Ski Mask/Raine wailed in a high, keening shriek of panic and rage.
    He whirled. Still clutching his knife/purse, he fled toward the mouth of the alley.
    Zack pounded after him, going straight past a stricken Raine. But it was hopeless. There was no way he could catch the fleeing man. Ski Mask might have lost control of the psychically induced illusion, but he still had a hunter’s speed.
    The running figure raced out of the alley and onto the sidewalk. He turned left and vanished from sight, footsteps echoing in the night.
    A heavy engine roared. Tires shrieked.
    The getaway car was waiting for him.
    But this time there was a sickening thud and then the sound of a highly revved engine.
    Zack hesitated a few seconds at the mouth of the alley. There was no point running straight into an ambush. But when he risked a quick look around the building, there was no sign of the getaway car.
    All he could see was the body sprawled on the pavement in the intersection.

Thirty-five
    “T he cops are calling it hit-and-run,” Zack said into the phone. “He was dead when I got to him. No ID. No one saw the car.”
    “What about you?” Fallon asked.
    “I didn’t see it, either.” He paced Raine’s serene living room, trying to work off some of the excess energy that was still pumping through him. Batman and Robin trotted at his heels, trying to figure out if this was a new game. “But it sounded like the same SUV that was waiting for him in the motel parking lot last night.”
    “Are the police paying any attention to you and Raine?”
    “Not at this stage. They read it as an attempted robbery gone bad. I told them I went to the restroom and then stepped outside to get some fresh air. The guy surprised me. Had a knife. He took off running when Raine came outside to see what was going on.”
    “All true,” Fallon said.
    He sounded satisfied. Everyone knew the Number One Rule. Stick to the truth as much as possible but don’t try to explain the Arcane Society and its problems with Nightshade to the authorities.
    On the whole, it was a good rule, Zack thought. There was just no way a conversation about the Society and Nightshade would go well with a cop. See, Officer, I work for a psychic detective agency that’s on retainer to an organization devoted to paranormal research, and there’s this other crowd that stole a secret alchemical formula that can enhance a person’s psychic powers…
    Yeah, right.
    Once in a while the Arcane Society found itself in the pages of the tabloids right next to breaking news about new appearances by Elvis and innocent women getting impregnated by strange creatures from other planets. That was bad enough, as far as Fallon was concerned. He had no intention of compounding the problem by allowing J&J to become a joke among law enforcement agencies.
    “The cops are, of course, very interested in the car that hit the robber,” Zack said.
    “Even if they find it, I doubt it will lead them anywhere. Whoever took out Ski Mask will make sure of that. The way I see this, his handler inside Nightshade gave him one more chance to remove you from the equation. When he failed, they had a Plan B ready, just for him.”
    “Any theories on what was going on with all that morphing?”
    “Looks like he may have possessed two high-grade talents,” Fallon said. “But he couldn’t control them both.”
    Raine walked in from the kitchen, carrying a bamboo tray that held a delicate pot and