Not that they can put you in the slumber at all, he told himself. The witch, Sabine, had obviously needed to be nearby . . . right?

What if she’d taken a lock of his hair or something and could now use it to fuck with Jesse anytime she wanted?

He worried over this for a long time, and even went into the bathroom to check his hair in the mirror, feeling silly. He climbed back into the bed. He didn’t want to touch Scarlett without her permission, but he found himself scooting closer and closer in the king-size bed, until he could just feel her back against his arm. His behavior reminded him of his parents’ dog, Max, who preferred to sleep so he was just touching someone, to reassure himself that they were still there.

Only then was Jesse able to sleep.

Chapter 23

The next thing I knew, Jesse was nudging me awake. “Scarlett. Scar.”

I grunted at him and cracked an eyelid. I’d rolled over in the night and was facing him; his brown eyes seemed to shine in the dim light from the bathroom. “Hngh,” I said eloquently. “Time’s it?”

“Just after four a.m. We’re supposed to be at Dashiell’s in an hour.”

“What day is it?”

“Sunday.”

“Traffic won’t be bad. Sleep more,” I mumbled. But then I remembered the night before and abruptly sat up in bed. “Wyatt?”

Jesse was already checking his phone. “Hayne texted. He said Wyatt is alive, but it’s touch and go. They’re feeding him blood as fast as they can.”

I thought about that for a moment, then reached out my hand. “Gimme.”

Jesse handed over the phone, and I scrolled through the contacts and called Lex, who sounded awake, thank God. The moment she answered, I said, “It’s Scarlett. Your blood’s, like, special, right?”

There was a pause, and then she said dryly, “I take it Jesse’s alive?”

Oops. I had forgotten to update her the day before. “I’m sorry,” I said, meaning it. “Yes, he’s okay. Here, I’ll put you on speaker.”

I hit the right button, and Jesse said, “Hey, Lex.”

“Hey. You okay?”

“More or less.”

“Good.” She cleared her throat. “Yes, Scarlett, boundary witch blood is unique in some ways. Why?”

“Could I . . . um . . . have some?”

Before she could answer, I explained about Wyatt getting shot and then getting a leg blown off.

“Someone blew up your van?” Lex said in disbelief. “What the hell are you into now?”

I couldn’t really take offense at that. “Something big, I think. We don’t know a lot yet, but we’re working on it. Can you come donate blood to Wyatt?” I wasn’t sure it would be enough to help him, but if Wyatt died and there was something I hadn’t tried . . .

“I have my own life here, Scarlett, remember?” she said, clearly losing patience with me. “There are people who are under my protection, too. I can’t just fly to LA at the drop of a hat.”

“But then you must understand what I’m going through,” I pushed. “Wyatt took a hit that was meant for me . . . right after taking bullets that were meant for me. Please?”

There was another moment of silence, and I started to think I’d gone too far. But then Lex sighed and said, “I could send Katia.”

Jesse and I exchanged a surprised look. Lex’s biological aunt, Katia, had come to LA a few months earlier as a sort of involuntary henchman for a man named Oskar, who had been seeking revenge against Molly. Oskar was dead now, and as part of a deal with Lex’s boss, Maven, we’d sent Katia to Colorado. I hadn’t thought to ask what had happened to her afterward, even when I was right there in Boulder. Stupid Scarlett.

But Katia did have boundary witch blood, like Lex. “What’s she up to these days?” I said. Best to be cautious.

“Right now, Maven has her traveling around Colorado as a sort of vampire ambassador, checking in with various communities. She’s in . . .” There was a pause, like Lex was checking a calendar. “Grand Junction today. But I could probably get her on a flight this afternoon.”

I forced myself not to jump up and down quite yet. “Will that be okay? Will you get in trouble?”

There was a pause, and Lex cleared her throat. “Actually, Katia is—understandably—hesitant to swear an oath of loyalty to Maven, given what happened with Oskar. She helps with things on a freelance basis, but it can get . . . tense. It might be good for everyone if she takes a short trip to LA. Maybe she can clear the air there, too.”

Oh. Right. Katia had kind of terrorized the city a little bit. I took about two seconds to ponder whether I’d get in trouble with Dashiell for bringing her back to town without consulting him, but decided I didn’t care. If Lex trusted Katia, I did too, and if she could help Wyatt, it was worth the trouble.

“That would be amazing, thank you.” I gave her Hayne’s phone number and asked her to have Katia call him as soon as she arrived. I didn’t know where they were keeping Wyatt, but Hayne could arrange the blood donation. Before we hung up, Lex said, “Listen, I was going to call you today anyway. Maven remembered something else last night, about the little girl in Azad.”

“Okay . . .” Jesse gave me a curious look, and I mouthed, Tell you later.

“She and her grandmother both had specialties.”

It took me a moment to parse that one out. Most witches were trades witches, meaning they could work with just about any kind of magic, but a small percentage had a specialty. Lex, for example, could only work boundary magic.

But if the female null in Azad came from a line of specialty magic, and she’d passed it on to her witchling baby . . . that meant that I needed to figure out whether or not my own mother’s witchblood had been specialized or not. “Okay,” I said at last. “I’ll put it on my to-do list. Thanks, Lex.”

As soon as I hung up, I threw back the covers. Jesse obviously wanted to ask about Lex’s information, but I said, “I’ll tell you about it in the car. We need to stop back at the cottage before Dashiell’s.”

Jesse looked at the clock on the bedside table. “We don’t have time. And it’s not safe.”

“I know. But I need more knives. And my bulletproof vest.”

As I’d figured, that made Jesse waver, but he shook his head. “We can buy you a new one. We’ve got the credit card.”

“But it’s a lot harder to replace my knives and my knife belt,” I argued. My voice sounded firm, for maybe the first time in the past three days. “Look, if we’re late, I can keep Dashiell awake past dawn, but who knows where he’s going to send us today. I’m not going to feel safe unless I have my knife belt.”

He sighed. “Fine. In and out, though, okay?”

I nodded. “Promise.”

Half an hour later, we were heading into Marina del Rey. I had filled Jesse in on most of the trip to Boulder, including what Maven had said about the baby.

“Did she give you any advice?” Jesse asked when I’d finished. We were nearly at the exit to get to the cottage.

“No, that’s when Kirsten called me to come rescue you from certain death,” I said solemnly. Jesse rolled his eyes but didn’t take the bait.

I had texted Dashiell to explain why we’d be late, and he had very succinctly texted back, “The Lexus has bulletproof windows.” Which was so comforting.

Okay, fine, Jesse found it comforting. Personally, I thought the Lexus was a very nice car, but its plush seats made me feel like I was lying on my back, which made me feel exposed, which made me want my knives even more . . . not to mention my van.

My van. It was stupid to be so sad about a vehicle that was replaceable, but goddammit, I had loved the van.

Jesse made us cruise past the cottage a couple of times to check it out, but nothing seemed to have changed from the day before, and I didn’t feel anyone with magic even when I extended my radius as far as it would go. Jesse still insisted on checking the house, gun in hand, before waving me inside.

I went straight to the bedroom closet and got out the bulletproof vest and my knife belt. My ex-boyfriend, Eli, had had it made for me by one of those companies that sells stuff at Renaissance festivals and comic-book conventions and stuff. It was sized perfectly for my upper waist, so I could still move and sit down and everything without knives stabbing into my abdomen.