The doorway went back to normal, with even the powder dissipated, and when I looked at our hands, the aura was missing. I didn’t feel the warmth anymore.

Owen took several long, deep breaths, then released my hand. “You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, I think so.” Actually, I felt a little shaky and light-headed, but I didn’t think it was because of whatever he’d done magically. It probably had more to do with watching him in action while holding his hand that way. I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to make love with him, if we ever managed to get back together and get our relationship to that point before some disaster hit us, and then I was glad it was so dark out because my face felt as warm as our hands had. “Did it work?” I asked.

“Sam?”

The gargoyle waddled forward and approached the doorway, only to be thrown backward. “Yep, it works, all right.”

“Now what?” I asked.

“Sam starts staking out the bank and lets us know what he sees. And we get to bed before someone notices us missing.”

We crept back across town to the car, then began driving home. We’d only gone a few blocks when Owen said, “Uh-oh.” I turned around and saw flashing blue-and-red lights behind us.

“Uh-oh,” I repeated.

M y heart always pounded whenever I saw a police car on the side of a road and I thought I was doing a mile or two over the speed limit. I’d keep an eye on the rearview mirror for the next several miles until I could convince myself that the officer wasn’t going to come after me. Tonight, seeing the police car flashing its lights behind us when we were out in the middle of the night doing extremely suspicious things while a rare crime wave was going on, I thought I’d have a stroke. Or maybe throw up. Tears stung my eyes in the instinctive female response to being pulled over. I never deliberately tried to cry my way out of a ticket, but I couldn’t seem to help myself.

Owen, on the other hand, looked totally calm. He pulled right over and rolled down the window. Then he reached across the seat and grabbed my hand. “Good evening, officer,” he said, a strange undertone to his voice. “What seems to be the problem here?” I recognized the tingle of magic, and my palm grew warm where Owen held it.

The officer got a glassy look to his eyes. “No problem. Have you seen anything suspicious?”

“Not at all.”

“Thank you, and have a nice day.” The officer turned and walked back to his car, and Owen drove off, not releasing my hand until the police car was completely out of sight.

As soon as the threat appeared to be over, I went giddy with relief. “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for,” I quoted, ruining my Obi-Wan Kenobi impression by interrupting it with giggles.

“What?”

“Oh, come on, you know, Jedi mind tricks. The Force has a powerful effect on the weak-minded.”

“Well, it does. And you’d better be glad I know that trick, or we’d have become the prime suspects.

Do they have dashboard cameras in these police cars?”

“Not in this town, so you don’t have to zap the tape magically. I thought using magic to manipulate others was wrong.”

“It’s a gray area. It depends a lot on motive. In this case, I can get away with it because it was crucial to the success of the mission. If I’d made him fix a ticket I’d earned, then I’d be in trouble.”

“I guess it would have been bad if we became suspects while we were trying to solve the problem,” I admitted. Then I added, “That was really cool how you did that.”

“It’s not something I have a lot of practice with, and as tired as I am, I wasn’t sure it would work.”

“What would you have done if it didn’t?”

“I guess I’d have zapped him to knock him out and then tinkered with his memory so he didn’t recall stopping me.” The matter-of-fact way he said that was a little chilling.

He sat in the car for a while after we got back home. He looked utterly exhausted, like he had to recharge before he could even walk again. “Is setting wards really that draining?” I asked.

“Yeah, because you have to give them enough power to run for a while. It’s the same amount of power as doing a spell constantly for days. In New York, there are stronger power sources naturally that I’m able to tap into, so warding my home only required a long nap and a day without using magic for recovery. The office has enhanced power sources, so warding my office was next to nothing.

Here, though.” He shook his head. “Doing much of anything takes a lot out of me. That’s why I needed to draw on you. What time will we need to get up in the morning?”