a8eb54fe2a7e7ca192cef2761fb9d6c0

Diana straightened her pack straps, then bent down and scooped Sam off the floor.“Look, it’s after hours, you’re with a teenager and a cat, and we’ve got a mirror we definitely didn’t pay for—it’s covered.”

Shunk kree. Shunk kree.

“That certainly sounds like it’s covered,” Claire admitted. She closed her good hand around the edge of Jack’s frame. “Jack, are you sure?”

“I just want out of the mall. The guesthouse sounds fabulous and…Hello! Fingerprints on my glass!”

“Sorry.”

Shunk kree. Shunk kree.

Sam tucked his head up under Diana’s chin. “What’s taking him so long?”

They were alone on the lower concourse, Arthur and the elves back in the department store in an effort to minimize time distortions. Good-byes had been perfunctory at best.

“I’ll be back with Kris as soon as I find her. Now go away, or this will never work!”

Claire thought she could smell the fire, could definitely hear the music. Actually, now that the mall was nothing more than a place on the Otherside, they could probably hear the music at the Girl Guide camp. The mall elves were great kids, but she could see why Jack didn’t want to stay.

Shunk kree. Shunk kree.

The circle of light swept across the concourse.

Swept back.

*

His eyes widened as he stared at the two girls and the cat. Twenty-one years he’d been patrolling this darkness, finding the hidden ones, dragging them out to face the consequences. Girls. Boys. Young bodies. Lithe bodies. Hard bodies. All their possibilities caught and held.

They thought they were better than him. They laughed. Here, in the darkness, he made sure they stopped laughing.

Not the first time he’d caught two at once.

Not even the first cat.

The first pair with a cat. And a mirror?

Caught himself, he stared at his reflection and almost saw something stare back.

*

“That was unpleasant.” Although she hadn’t actually touched the old man, Claire wiped her fingers against her thigh as they hurried toward the nearest exit, Jack riding the possibilities behind them.

“Yeah, lots of waxy build up in there. How much did you wipe?”

“His memory of us.”

“And that whole ‘geeks that hunt the night’ thing?”

“Couldn’t touch it. It was tracked in too deep.”

“That’s almost…sad.”

“Might be for the best, though; Arthur will have an easier time with the elves if they continue to face a common enemy.”

“That’s an interesting definition of ‘for the best.’”

“Remind me to check at Children’s Aid tomorrow and find out where they’re holding Stewart.”

“You’ll send him back?”

“Of course I will. If he wants to go.”

“Can’t see why he would,” Diana snorted. “I mean, reality’s just so much more meaningful than a life you’ve made for yourself.” Barely slowing, she popped the lock on the exit’s inside door and held it open. “How’s your finger,” she asked as Sam raced through their legs and off the concourse.

Claire flicked it at her sister.“Good as new.”

Grinning, Diana flipped a finger back as Claire dealt with the outside door.“Sam, she’d be a little faster if you weren’t quite so underfoot.”

“I just want to get out of here.”

“I hear you.” Bending, she picked him up again and rested her chin between his ears. “I’m totally web shopping from now on.”

Jack glanced up at the security mirror as he passed between the doors.“Is that what I looked like on this side?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

He frowned.“Did that curvature make me look fat?”

The heat outside the mall hit them like a wet sponge.

“Oh, man, I so didn’t miss this.” Diana waved the hand not holding Sam between their black-on-black outfits. “And we’re so not dressed for it.”

“Not a problem. First, it’s the middle of the night. Second, if anyone does say anything, we’ll tell them we’re from Toronto.”

“Works. Now…” Deep in Diana’s pack, her cell phone began to ring, the sound remarkably loud in the empty parking lot. She touched the possibilities. “That’s Mom.”

Claire winced. When Rules were broken, there were consequences.“I don’t suppose…”

The ringing stopped.“Battery must’ve gone dead.”

“Thanks.”

“De nada.”

“It’ll be something when your mother catches up to you,” Sam muttered.

Diana ignored him.“So, like I was saying; now what?”

“Home.”

“The guest house?”

“Yes, because…”

“Because the residual power signature in the furnace room will lead us right to Kris! And you have to check on Dean and Austin,” she added hurriedly as Claire’s brows drew in. “I understand. But you know; two birds, one stone. Let’s move!”

Claire reached into the possibilities and called a cab.

*

Chin resting on one hand, Dean covered a yawn with the other and watched Austin eat a sausage he wasn’t supposed to have. After everything they’d been through, it was reassuringly norm…“Austin?”

Both ears were up. His head turned suddenly toward the front door. A heartbeat later the rest of his body followed.

With a shriek of wood against wood and a crash as his chair hit the floor and bounced, Dean followed.

*