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Chapter Thirty-five

I gave the blood on lance, then snapped, "Get your things and hold on to Mouse We&039;re going"

"Going?" Butters asked

"It isn&039;t safe for you here now," I said "They know about this place I can&039;t leave you behind"

Butters sed "Where are we going?"

"They tailed ot to ht" I paused, thoughts tearing through ot to find the book"

"The necroot outclue what&039;s supposed to be happening at this Darkhallow The only part that I understood enough to stop was the su, and that&039;s been blown to hell I keep getting burned because I don&039;t know enough about what&039;s going on I&039;ve got to figure out how to throrench into Cowl&039;s gears during the Darkhallow"

"Why?"

"Because the only other thing I can do is try to kick h a crowd of necromancers and undead and try to punch his ticket face-to-face"

"Wouldn&039;t that work?"

"If I could pull it off," I said, and went out into the rain "But I&039;ht division Nose-to-nose, I think Coould probably kick ht sot to knowon For that, I need the book"

Butters hurried after ot into the Beetle and I revved it up "But we still haven&039;t figured out those nue," I said "Now"

"U, "you can say &039;now&039; all you want, but I still don&039;t know"

"Could it be a combination?" I said "Like to a safe?"

"The older safe coht The newer ones ital code, sure, but unless you find a safe with a password sixteen nu, that won&039;t help us much"

"A credit card," I said "That&039;s sixteen digits, right?"

"Can be," Butters said "You think that&039;s what the number was? Maybe a credit card or debit card account that Bony Tony wanted his fee to get paid to?"

I gri like that would be in his pocket Not hidden in a balloon hanging fro down his throat"

"Good point," Butters said

We rode in silence for a while Except for the headlights of other cars, the streets were dark Between the total lack of lighting, the dark, and the heavy rain, it was like driving through a cave Traffic was tight and snarled anywhere near the highways, but it had thinned out considerably since the afternoon The people of Chicago seeht, which was a mercy in more ways than one

Butters looked around nervously a few hborhood"

"I know," I said, and pulled over in front of a hydrant, the only open space in sight

He sed "Why are you stopping the car?"

"I need to check on soht back"

"But- "

"Butters," I said iirl here who helped me out earlier today I have to make sure Cowl and his sidekick haven&039;t harmed her"

"But can&039;t you do this after you stop the bad guys?"

I shookht happen in the next few hours, but daed her into this Cowl and Kuths to destroy every copy of der Erlking that they could find, and if they guessed that I got it froer I need to be sure she&039;s all right"

"Oooooh," Butters said "This is the girl who asked you out, right?"

I blinked "How did you know that?"

"Thorowled under hts out sometime soon"

"Hey," Butters said "At least he didn&039;t let ave Butters a flat look and got out of the car "Stay in the driver&039;s seat," I told him "If there&039;s trouble, run Try to circle back for ht," Butters said "Got it"

I hurried through the rain and the darkness into Shiela&039;s building I drew out ht from it, and went up the stairs to her floor as I had thatThe stairs and the hallway had that illusory unfaive a place you&039;ve seen only once or twice, but I found h

I paused for a moment and tried to sense the wards she&039;d woven, and found that they were still in place That was good If anyone had come in after her for some reason, they&039;d have either torn the ward down or set it off on the way through

Unless, of course, soet invited in first Shiela didn&039;t seeeneral paranoia I knocked several times

There wasn&039;t an answer

She had said she was going out, earlier She was probably at soood food Having fun

Probably

I knocked again and said, "Shiela? It&039;s Harry"

I heard a couple of soft steps, the creak of a floorboard, and then the door opened to the length of its security chain Shiela stood in the opening There was soft candlelight co fro into a s on" She closed the door, the security chain rattled, and then she opened it again "Come in"

"I really can&039;t stick around," I said, but I stepped through the door anyway She had half a dozen candles lit on the end table beside her couch, and there was a mussed blanket on the couch next to a paperback novel

Shiela&039;s long, dark hair was piled up into bun and held in place with a couple of chopsticks, leaving her ears and the s a Bears football jerseyto her knees, and she wore pink slippers on her feet The jersey was loose on her, but she had the curves to ht to be I could see her calves, and they did a wonderful job of blending softness and strength

Shiela saw , and her cheeks turned a little pink "Hi," she said, her voice quiet

"Hi," I said back, and sht?"

She shook her head "I alking I didn&039;t want to walk in the rain, and I couldn&039;t call anyone to get me a ride, so I&039;m home" She tilted her head to one side and frowned at ry"

"Both," I said "There are so"

She nodded, her dark eyes serious "I&039;ve heard that there&039;s so on, isn&039;t it?"

"Yes"

She fretted at her lower lip "Then why are you here?"

She looked beautiful like that, in a sleepshirt in the candlelight She wasn&039;t wearing any ht about kissing her again, just to make sure that the first one hadn&039;t been some sort of anoht was about business "I just needed to ht"

Her eyes widened "Aer?"

I lifted ly "I don&039;t think you are now But I was followed today I had to be sure that you were safe Have you seen anyone? Maybe felt nervous or anxious for no reason?"

"No more than any other day," she said Thunder ru on her s "Honestly"

I let out ood I&039;ain and we both just stood there, staring at each other Both of us glanced, just for a second, at the other&039;s eyes, then pulled away before anything could happen

"Harry," she said quietly "Is there anything I can do to help you?"

"You already have," I said

She took a step closer, and her dark eyes looked huge "Are you sure?"

My heart sped up again, but I took a little step back from her "Yeah Shiela, I kneouldn&039;t be able to focus on the rest of tonight if I didn&039;t look in on you first"

She nodded then, and folded her arht But when you&039;re finished with this, there&039;s so I&039;d like to talk to you about"

"What?" I asked

She shook her head and put her hand on my arm "It would take some tiht, I don&039;t want to distract you with anything"

I looked at her, and then deliberately down her, and said, "That&039;s probably best I&039;ht now"

She flushed brighter "No That&039;s just you reacting to being in danger You&039;re afraid that you&039;re going to die, and sex is very life affir"

"Is that what it is?" I drawled

"As," she said

For a few secondsdistraction by ht: I was in pain and in fear and in danger, and those kinds of circumstances have a tendency to s- the soft shine of candlelight on Shiela&039;s hair, for example, or the soft scent of rose oil and flowered soap on her skin-and Shiela had been in danger for part of that tie of that And I didn&039;t want to start anything with her that I wasn&039;t going to be able to finish For all I knew I&039;d be dead before another day was out, and it wouldn&039;t be right to allow things to go any further just because I was afraid

On the other hand, though, there was nothing wrong with savoring life while you still had it

I leaned down to her, lifted her chin gently with ain She quivered and returned it with a slow, hesitant shyness I stayed like that for a ht on her chin, and then straightened, breaking it off very slowly

She opened her eyes aa little fast

I touched her cheek with ertips and smiled at her "I&039;ll call you soon"

She nodded, her eyes clouding with concern "Be careful"

"Harry?" called a voice

I blinked and looked around

"Harry!" he called again, and I recognized Butters&039;s voice There was a curious quality to the acoustics of his voice-as if he were standing in an e to absorb any sound

Shiela froze, looking toward her door, and then said, "Dammit"

I blinked at her "What?"

"I didn&039;t want this to distract you," she said, and her tone was enigmatic

I frowned at her for a moment and then opened the door to the apartment Butters stood in the hall He&039;d improvised a lead for Mouse out of what looked like the torn he headed forthe way Butters, for his part, stu uncertainly, as if he&039;d had a little too et his balance

"Butters?" I said "What&039;s up?"

"The car died," he said "And there were souys who looked like they didn&039;t like me on the street, so I came to find you"

Butters stopped, or tried to Mouse chuffed out a breath in greeting and headed straight for me I leaned down to scratch at Mouse&039;s ears "Hey, Mouse Shiela, this is , Mouse And this is Waldo Butters He&039;s a friend of mine"

Shiela blinked her eyes closed slowly and looked away

Butters peered and squinted, looking around him "What?"

I frowned at him and touched his arm "Are you okay?"

He flinched a little when I touched hi it to orient on ht?"

I lifted ht "Here," I said "Shiela, I hope you don&039;t mind if they come in?"

Butters peered up at me and then around him

"Harry?" he asked

"Yeah?"