Page 17 (1/2)

I put on an old fleece-lined deniave me a little trouble, but I eventually browbeat hi the safe in the office to retrieve my envelope from Father Vincent I opened it and found a plastic case the size of a playing card, like the kind coin collectors use to frale, dirty white thread about two inches long The sample from the Shroud

It wasn&039;t much to ith I could use the thread to create a channel to the rest of the Shroud, but nothing was certain The thread had presu on thirty years Not only that, but it had presuy, and it was possible that they had left enough of a psychic residue on the thread to cloud a seeking spell

On top of all that, the thread was tiny I would have to be extre the Shroud, or the forces in it would overload the thread in the sah electrical current will overload the filareat with delicate spell work I&039;ve got plenty of power, but fine control of it could be a probleentle spell, and that would put severe lie of it

The spell would be a metal detector, rather than a radar dish, but it was a whole lot better than nothing I hit the door

Rather than inflicting another Charity encounter upon myself, I pulled the Beetle up to the curb in front of Michael&039;s house and honked the horn A moment later, Shiro appeared The little old man had shaved the white down from his head, and where he didn&039;t have liver spots, the skin shone He wore so black pants that looked a lot like the ones I&039;d seen Murphy wear at one of her aikido tournai jacket with a scarlet cross on either side of his chest A belt of red silk held the jacket closed, and he wore his sword through it, still in its wooden cane-sheath He opened the door, slipped into the Beetle, and held his sword across his lap

I got going, and neither of us said anything for a while My knuckles were getting white again, so I started talking "So you&039;ve done one of these duels before?"

"Hai," he said, nodding "Many tied "Many reasons Protect soht without involving others"

"To the death?"

Shiro nodded "Many tiood at it then," I said

Shiro s even more "Always someone better"

"You ever dueled a vampire?"

"Hai Jade Court Black Court"

"Jade Court?" I said "I&039;ve never heard that there was such a thing"

"Southeast Asia, China, Japan Very secretive But they respect the Accords"

"Have you dueled any of the Denarians?"

He frowned out the ice But they do not honor agreeht that over for a while before I said, "I&039;y If he won&039;t take it, we&039;ll do will"

Shiro glanced aside at me and nodded "But there is a better choice"

"What?"

"Don&039;t fight Can&039;t lose a fight you don&039;t have"

I felt a snort co on but I held it back "I&039;m sort of locked into it now"

"Both parties want to quit, duel over," Shiro said "I will be talking to Ortega&039;s second Ortega will be there Smart for you try to talk him out of it"

"I don&039;t think he&039;ll do it"

"Maybe Maybe not Not fighting always sht of the Cross and his holy blade?"

"I hate fighting"

I glanced at him for a second, then said, "You don&039;t usually hear that fro is never good But sometimes necessary"

I blew out a deep breath "Yeah I guess I knohat you mean"

The rest of the ride to McAnnally&039;s was quiet In the streetlights, my knuckles looked the same color as the rest of my hands

McAnnally&039;s is a tavern Not a bar, not a pub, but an actual, Old World-style tavern When I went in, I stepped down three steps to the hardwood floor and looked around the place The bar has thirteen stools at it There were thirteen colu leaves and is of tale and fantasy Thirteen tables had been spaced out around the rooular pattern, and like the columns and bar stools, they had been intentionally placed that way in order to deflect and scatter randoru their power Several ceiling fans whirled lazily, and were low enough that I always felt a bit nervous about one of the into my eyebrows The place smells of wood s meat I like it

Mac stood behind the bar I didn&039;t know much about Mac He was tall, medium build, bald, and soe and facile hands and thick wrists All I&039;ve ever seen him wear is dark pants with a loose white shirt and an apron that sorease, spilled drinks, and the various other things he prepared for custoht n on the wall said, ACCORDED NEUTRAL GROUND I looked back at Mac He drew a shotgun out from behind the bar so that I could see it and said, "Got it?"

"No problem," I answered

"Good"

The rooh normally there would be a couple of dozen ed wizards or anything, but there were plenty of people with a dab of roups, the occasional changeling, scholars of the arcane, a gang of do-gooder olves, members of secret societies, and who knehat else Machere No one sane wants to be anywhere close to what could be a fight between a White Council member and a Red Court warlord I kneas sane because I didn&039;t want to be there, either

I walked over to the bar and said, "Beer" Mac grunted and plopped down a bottle of brown I pushed some bills at him but he shook his head

Shiro stood at the bar next tothe opposite way Mac put a bottle down beside him Shiro twisted off the cap with one hand, took a lanced at it thoughtfully, picked it up, and took a slower sip "Yosh"

Mac grunted, "Thanks"

Shiro said souessed was Japanese Mac answered monosyllabically A man of many talents and few syllables is Mac

I killed time with a couple more sips and the door opened

Kincaid walked in, in the sa, but without the baseball cap His dark blond hair was instead pulled back into an unruly tail He nodded at Mac and asked, "All set?"

"Ungh," said Mac

Kincaid prowled the roo under tables and behind columns, and checked the rest roo, but I had the impression that he felt the precaution to be useless Kincaid went to a corner table, nudging other tables back froun out of a shoulder rig and set it on the table, then took a seat

"Hi," I said toward him "Nice to see you, too Where&039;s Ivy?"

"Past her bedti "I&039;m her proxy"

"Oh," I said "She has a bedtime?"

Kincaid checked his watch "She believes very strongly in an early bedtime for children"

"Heh, heh, eh-heh" I don&039;t fake aa?"

"Saw hi outside," Kincaid said

The door opened and Ortega entered He wore a casual black blazer withslacks and a shirt of scarlet silk He hadn&039;t worn a coat despite the cold His skin was darker than I remembered it Maybe he&039;d fed recently He carried himself with a relaxed, patient quality as he entered and surveyed the roohtly at the waist toward Mac, who nodded back The vampire&039;s eyes landed on Shiro and narrowed Shiro said nothing and did not arded ht nod It seea did the same to Kincaid, who returned it with a lazy wave of one hand

"Where is your second?" Kincaid asked

Ortega gri"

He hadn&039;t finished the word before a young man slapped the door open and stepped jauntily into the tavern He earing tight, white leather pants, a black fishnet shirt, and a white leather jacket His hair was dark and hung to his shoulders in an unruly rey eyes, and thick, dark eyelashes I knew him Thomas Raith, a White Court va

"Evening, Harry," he answered "What happened to your duster?"

"There was a woman"

"I see," Thoave ht be a feeble flicker of style in you"

"You should talk That outfit you&039;re wearing is treading dangerously close to the Elvis zone"

"Young, sleek Elvis ain&039;t bad," Thomas said