Alone? Not alone? What was the difference? Thoughts were little jolts of lightning between dead brain cells. But the blood that flowed down? Now that was something real. Something that needed to be addressed, and that right soon. Dragging my fingers along my tongue, I sucked up that errant liquid like it was anything else that would keep me alive. Skills long dead came into play as I held up and leaned back against a wall to collect myself.

The bloodstains on my phone didn't much register to me as I punched the numbers.

"Jezebel? What the hell. I was in the middle of a very complicated summoning."

Baring my teeth in a rage that came unbidden, I heard the phone start to creak with the force that my fingers exerted. Jabbing a fingertip at midair, my voice dropped to a hideous little hiss that I could hear overmodulating the microphone.

"Shut your mouth, boy. I just had my throat cut by something invisible. Make something of it before I forget why I keep you alive. Love you."

Shoving the phone disdainfully back into my bra along with the dirty cash, I wiped again at the slowly healing nicks on my neck and started back off down the street. There were places to get cleaned up and places to hide. Neither of these things much interested me, though. I wanted answers.

And goddamn it if I wouldn't shut Sam up with the business end of a .45 if he didn't quiet down.