Trapped

it.
    » Thanks, sensei. « She smiled and touched my arm briefly. I got one of those little sensations where you feel like you need to shiver but in truth you’re flushing and damn it why had the Diamondbacks’ catchers been so abysmal at the plate last year? Oh, yeah. I had it bad.
    Granuaile returned to browsing Niko’s wares, and I resumed my attitude of watchfulness. A flash of white near the entrance drew my eye. It was a white flag—depending on the situation, a symbol of peace, parley, or surrender. My eyes trailed down from the flag to a pale hand and from thence to a black sports coat and a pale face framed by straight blond hair, so blond that it was nearly white.
    It was Leif Helgarson, hale and whole and healthy as ever a dead guy could be.
    I immediately became a twitching bundle of WTF and drew Fragarach right there in the store, dispelling the camouflage on it so that my erstwhile attorney could see it. Granuaile heard this and whirled, staff in her left and a knife in her right.
    » Atticus, what—oh, shit . «
    Shit, indeed. Niko had keenly observed that our body language had abruptly switched from customers to combatants, and he squalled for help. I felt a tiny draw on the magic in my bear charm as Granuaile spoke the words for magical sight.
    The last time I’d laid eyes on the vampire Leif Helgarson, he was looking smug because he’d just forced me to kill his creator, Zdenik, allowing Leif to retake the territory he’d temporarily lost. He’d very nearly gotten Oberon—not to mention me—killed in the process, and we’d carefully stayed out of each other’s way since then. That was because I’d informed Leif through Hal Hauk, my attorney, that I’d unbind him on sight the next time I saw him.
    So here he was, in my sight. Twelve years later. Waving a white flag in a sporting goods store in Thessalonika. How the fuck did he know I was here, and what did he want? I answered the first question on my own: He’d drunk an awful lot of my blood before we had our falling out. He could probably find me anywhere now. I began to speak the words of unbinding. He saw my lips move and knew what it meant.
    » Atticus, please. I am not here by my own will. « He stopped twenty feet away, in the middle of an aisle, plainly in sight, both arms raised. His right hand still held the flag. He had a cell phone in his left hand.
    A security guard appeared to my left and began shouting at me in Greek to lower my weapon. I didn’t take my eyes off Leif. Leif, however, took his off me and addressed the guard in Greek.
    » Sir? Sir. Look at me, sir. « Eventually the guard looked, and, when he did, Leif charmed him. » You will walk to the farthest corner of the store, face the wall, and piss yourself. You will remain there for one hour before moving. «
    The guard slunk away. Niko was taking small, panicky breaths behind me, but he’d stopped calling for help. Nearby customers were concluding that this tableau really wasn’t their business and remembering that they had moussaka in the oven at home.
    Having secured some time to converse without interruption, Leif said, » I have been forced into the service of the vampire Theophilus. «
    » Since when? « I said.
    » Since you made your presence known in Greece by unbinding a vampire in Litochoro. « He waggled the cell phone. » This is a single-use phone. He wishes to speak with you. «
    He began to squat, slowly, and continued to speak. » Do not believe anything he says about me. I am very unwilling. He will call momentarily. Be on your guard, Atticus. You are marked for assassination, because you are the only thing he fears. «
    Leif scooted the phone across the hard linoleum floor to me. It stopped against the toe of my sandals. I didn’t bend down to pick it up.
    » I will try to warn you as I can with Shakespeare. Perhaps I can make amends for the past. I must go now, because I’m being watched. «
    » Watched? By whom? From where? «
    He didn’t answer. He rose and backed away, his hands up. I watched him go. When he was at the door, the phone at my feet began to ring.
    » Granuaile, get behind the counter. All the knives are yours, understand? «
    Behind me, I heard my apprentice growl, » All your base are belong to us, Niko. « She said this in English, but Niko didn’t have any trouble inferring her general meaning.
    » Yes! Yes! They are yours! « he cried, apparently somewhat fluent in English. Poor guy. He sounded terrified of the