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Chapter Nine

Billy probably could have picked me up and carried me at a flat run if he needed to, but we had to cross only about fifty yards of alley and darkened street before an expensive SUV, its lights out, cut over to the curb and made a swift stop in front of us

"Quick," I said, still panting, "to the Woof mobile"

Billy helped me into the backseat, followed an accelerating smoothly and calmly from the scene The interior smelled like new-car-scented air freshener and fast food

"What happened?" asked the driver She was a y young woe, somewhere around six feet tall Her brown hair was pulled into a severe braid, and she wore jeans and a deniia," I replied, sluht?"

"Nothing a nice long nap won&039;t fix"

"He was attacked," Billy supplied, answering the first question He tugged sweats and a T-shirt out of an open gy and hopped into theain?" Georgia asked She turned on the headlights and joined other traffic Reflected streetlights gleaht the Reds were staying out of town"

"Not va their ue with them "New friends"

"I think theyblack cloaks and hoods I couldn&039;t see their faces"

"What set the police off?" she asked

"Harry flipped a car over on top of one of theh her teeth

"Yeah, and I&039;ht," I e"

"My God," Georgia said "Is everyone all right?"

"Yeah," I replied "The bad guys got away If the Alphas hadn&039;t co when they did, I&039;m not sure I would have"

"Everyone else scattered, and they&039;ll uys?"

"I can&039;t tell you that," I said

There was an empty second, and then Billy&039;s voice turned cautious "Why? Is it so?"

"No I just have no freaking clue who it was"

"Oh What did they want?" Billy asked "I only showed up at the end"

"I picked up a rare book at Bock&039;s Apparently they wanted it"

I could have sworn I heard his brow furrow "Is it valuable?"

"So in it must be," I answered I fumbled at my pocket and drew out the book to make sure it was still there The slender voluh And at least it wouldn&039;t take too long to read through "I appreciate the assist, but I can&039;t stay"

"Sure, sure," Billy said "What can we do to help?"

"Don&039;t take me to your aparto as much"

"Why not?" Billy asked

"Please, man Just do it And let ain I tried to work out how best to keep the Alphas fro body betrayed me I dropped into a sudden darkness too black and silent to allow for any drea fro bent forward,anymore, and I was alone in the SUV The holloeariness had abated significantly, and I didn&039;t feel any tre in , but even a little sleep can do wonders soe big enough to house half a dozen cars, though the SUV and a shiny black Mercury were the only two vehicles in it I recognized the place- Georgia &039;s parents&039; house, an upper-end place on the north side of town The Alphas had brought me here once before, when they helped rescueof psychotic lycanthropes Susan had been with me

I shook my head, took up my staff and the little book, and walked toward the door to the house I paused just before I opened it, and heard voices speaking in quiet tones I closed , head tilted to one side, and the sound of the voices becah for h I couldn&039;t tell you exactly how to do it

There was the sound of a phone being returned to its cradle "They&039;re all fine," Billy said

"Good," Georgia replied "So on Did you see his face?"

"He looked tired," Billy said

"He looked more than just tired He&039;s afraid"

"Maybe," Billy said, after a second of hesitation "So what if he is?"

"So how bad ia asked "And there&039;s more"

Billy exhaled "His hand"

"You saw it then?"

"Yeah After he nodded off"

"He&039;s not supposed to have anyhts He can barely cup his fingers to hold chips I heard the wood of his staff creaking under theht he would crush it"

I blinked at that news and looked down at ers They sort of twitched

"He&039;s been a little different since he got burned," Billy said

"It&039;s been longer than that," Georgia said "It&039;s been since the year before Rees under his sweater? He never would talk about what happened It was a week after thatterrorist scare at the airport It&039;s been since then He&039;s been distant More all the ti to do with that ia said "But I think he otten involved with the victim in some way You kno he is He probably blames himself for her death"

I sed and tried not to think of a pretty, dark-haired wo to death while the hold of her boat slowly filled ater She&039;d et herself into trouble But I hadn&039;t been able to protect her from the creature that had taken her life

"If he&039;s in trouble we&039;re going to help hiia replied "But think about this, Billy Getting involved ht not be the best way to do it"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that he didn&039;t want us to take hiia said "Do you knohy?"

"No, I don&039;t Neither do you"

She usted sound "Billy, he&039;s afraid the apart watched"

"By who?"

"By what" Georgia said "We haven&039;t seen or heard or scented anything If there&039;s ic at work here, it could be more than we kno to handle"

"So what are you saying?" Billy said "That we should just abandon hihed "But, Billy, you sahat he was capable of doing We saw hiround And you tell ht that he flipped a car onto one of these other wizards, and that the man blew it off I don&039;t think we&039;re weak, but running off ghouls and trolls and the occasional va else You&039;ve seen what kind of power they have"

"I&039;m not afraid," Billy said

"Then you&039;re stupid," Georgia replied, her voice blunt but not cruel "Harry isn&039;t what he used to be He&039;s been hurt And I don&039;t care what he says, his injured hand bothers him more than he lets on He doesn&039;t need any more handicaps"

"You want to just leave hih him down You know him He&039;ll protect other people before he takes care of hiht not be anything but a distraction to him We have to understand our li silence

"I don&039;t care," Billy said then "I&039; to stand by if he&039;s in trouble"

"All I want," Georgia said, "is for you to listen to him If he doesn&039;t want our support, or if he thinks it is too dangerous for us to be involved, we have to trust that he knohat he&039;s doing He knows things that we don&039;t He&039;s trusted us before, and he&039;s never led us wrong Just promise me that you&039;ll return the compliment"

"I can&039;t just turn away," Billy said