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He chuckled, shrugged "Do you bla, "I had a cat when I was a little girl, but when I asked Tessa if we could have one she said she was allergic And then after she introducedshe explained that cats didn’t like the sotten about that"

Eilahn rubbed her nose against the cat’s "She loves the shed "Clearly so I doubt Tessa ever conducted this sort of experiment But either way, it’s nice to knoe have a summoner-detector"

"Tiht," I replied, then I glanced at , that is And with any luck he’ll also be violently allergic to cats"

Chapter 18

After the others departed, I headed down to the baseh I’d semi-promisedall signs of s between rituals,when I’d only been su sodohen I’d only need to redraw it the next day or so Plus, the power storage diagrah I dug through e The "traditional" way to get the blood necessary for the creation of a diagram involved a sharp knife and any of the veins in the forearm Screw that This summer I’d trained myself to use the sa blood Helluva lot easier, hurt less, and I didn’t end up with scars all up and down e-fulls to mix with the chalk It took nearly an hour, but by the end of it I had both ram rebuilt--and even had a bit of power channeled into the latter

Then I went upstairs and slept like the dead

The nextin as ht back into the storage diagram Since it was only a few days after the full h hiccups and unsteadiness to reram I could feed potency in as unevenly as I wanted, but when it came time to use that stored power, I’d be able to draw it out in a s a suh threats to my person as it was No need to take any unnecessary risks

I eating with the effort after about thirty minutes, but it pleasedenough for a su, I was ready to go meet the rest of our fine posse at Grounds For Arrest for a discussion of strategy

Despite estion to testthethe cat in there with hiht be more prudent to simply approach him with cat in hand and watch Fuzzykins’s reaction It was also decided that it’d be best if I wasn’t anywhere around, and that Eilahn should be the one to approach him, since, as far as we knew, he’d never encountered her

Fine But I still intended to watch from a distance With binoculars If there was any chance that I’d get to see the et clawed off, I didn’t want to miss it

The plan was simple Eilahn would have Fuzzykins in her arms and would wait for theShe would "accidentally" walk into hi cat worked Hopefully, with lots of blood Then, once we confiruy summoner, Eilahn could somehow subdue hi out every detail of this arcane-enhancing,down the portals

Really, it was a perfectly sensible plan

Ryan and I were in his car, parked just down the street fro Zack had already done some recon and assured us that the lanced at ainst a bench with the cat draped over her shoulders like a stole The cat didn’t seem to mind the position one bit The demon scratched her under the chin while the cat kneaded her upper chest in ecstasy "When the hell is he going to co hi a call from an ‘informant’ with information about the murders and my supposed part in the lot of the coffee shop I didn’t think he’d be able to resist that

"There he is," Ryan said, unnecessarily since I had my binoculars locked onto the front door I watched as the ed his coat around him and looked up and down the street, a cautious sht with a sh the binoculars He started walking down the street towards the coffee shop, and a few seconds later Eilahn stepped out from between two cars and bumped into him I smiled as I watched It was beautifully done, and the demon shifted the cat to her arave her a winning sive Fuzzykins a scratch behind the ears…

…and Fuzzykins acted like a completely ordinary cat and calmly accepted the proffered affection

"Fuck," I

"Either he’s not the summoner," Ryan said, "or the cat has completely mellowed"