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"Me?" It was said with an attempt at innocence and a stifled snicker

I slanted my eyes at him with a look that promised pain, and picked out the splintered thorns as Eli made a three-point turn I reh not the nu into the backseat and changing clothes I was relatively sure he didn’t watch, but I smelled his amusement and practically felt his stifled desire to ht, when he said, oh, so casually, "So, you shifted and went hunting?"

I thought about not answering, but the cat was out of the bag, literally, and there was no point not sharing I climbed back into the front seat, pulled onht fell off erous debris, a ru that I felt from scalp to toes I took a breath and it felt just the opposite, weightless and softly lit, as if by candlelight I blinked into the night, seeing but not seeing old houses and businesses as we motored past All I’d said was Yeah, but it was like I found so that had been buried for eons A sly, and to hide my reaction, which felt deeply private and personal and stupid too, I said, "So Burgers? I solden arches on it and I chowed down, putting away three of the the church remembered froer

"Your hter through ht after I brought it down and ripped out its throat"

Eli laughed withsnicker, soft but explosive "Yeah Okay" He pointed "That the church?"

"Yeah" Eli pulled over and I got out, s my palms on my jeans I wasn’t nervous Not really Or not totally ButEli appeared beside et out or walk tooutside?" I asked

"Youa weapon?" He extended two of my own se Walther PK380s The handguns were lightweight and arips loaded with standard rounds, in the event of a human or blood-servant attack Normally, one went under my arm, its twin at the sht?"

"No Not right now" I wiped h to ht air "That’s for later, if we need theed and locked the guns in the case in the back of the SUV As he came back toward me, I said, "Eli? The church may not really be there Okay?" To his credit, Eli merely wrinkled his forehead I headed up the white walk It started to rain, soft, heavy splats that fell straight down and left marks on the white concrete shaped like the burrs I’d pulled fronificant somehow, that the bloody burrs and the raindrops left similar imprints I reached the church doors, narrow and twelve feet tall, painted the color of old blood Lightning flashed and hit with a sizzling crack that brightened the world, and the door turned color for a reen I pushed both doors open and they felt oily and damp beneath ht behind They stayed canted open as I entered, the night breeze and scent of rain following me inside

The interior of the church had oiled wooden floors composed of boards twelve inches wide, walls painted white, and benches stained a dark brown Lightning flashed again, and the sound of raindrops began on the roof overhead, a ht appeared ahead under the cross at the front of the church, a lantern lit by a woman’s hand with a paper taper, her body oddly obscured by shadows I walked forward,off the walls

The old woloo the blue-and-yelloered dress I sniffed and s lilies, the smoke from the match, and another person--a witch--but the scents were faint, as if left over froh of them Even if the church wasn’t still used for worship, there should have been the scents of huht grew as I approached, and I looked back at the sound of a ringing thud My shadow reached out behindforward The doors had closed behindoff ing to the fine hairs there My breathing went deep as ht and to the old woman from the riverbank

She was Aot closer, and I didn’t kno to approach, exactly, except as a petitioner That hy I’d lefton the se, soft-soled boots barely scraping the floor

"You came," she said, her accent not quite what I had remembered; less Louisianan or Mississippian, ilogi, Panther Clan of the Tsalagi My mother was ani sahoni, Blue Holly Clan" She nodded for me to continue, and I said, "I aadoli, in the tongue of The People"

"Yellow-Eyes Yellowrock A strange name for a child But the people of my mother were always a little pretentious, a little bit touched in the head Not right since the nunna dual tsuny, the time of the Trail of Tears" She must have noticed sohed, not unkindly, and waved the words away, saying, "Don’t take offense It’s just the words of an old wootten how to be careful of her tongue No offense was meant"

One did not take offense at the capriciousness of the very old I tilted

She pursed her"I am half-Cherokee, part Choctaw, a small part Natchez, and some white man, but we all have that" When I didn’t reply, she went on, "Call me Kathyayini It means ‘Goddess of Power’ in Cherokee Like I said, a pretentious people You knohy I called you here Yes?"