Mumbles grunted. “That was strange.”
There were still three others on the sofa, and I motioned to them. “Send them back.”
Lilah grinned at me. “Once you get through this, then maybe we can go out.”
“I’m not really in the going out mood,” I said.
“Really? I would’ve expected that by now, you’d want to party a bit more. Especially now that you’re with Pan.”
“Just because I’m with Pan doesn’t mean I’m like Arlo.”
Lilah’s brow darkened for a moment. “No. I don’t think I want you to be like him. I’m not sure I could handle it.”
I chuckled. “I don’t know that I could, either.” I looked at Mumbles. “Are you just sitting here tonight?”
“I’ve already done what I could,” Mumbles said.
“Any news on the Thelemic Guild?”
He grunted. “No. And no sign of her or Saxon, but there has been something.”
I glanced at my patients waiting on the sofa, but my curiosity got the better of me. “What was that?”
“Well, I saw that one wizard. The one we dealt with at the Black Market?”
“Michael,” I said.
“Right. He’s been ducking in and out of antique stores and museums lately. Someone even some in the Black Market. Seems like he’s looking for something, but he isn’t buying anything, as far as I can tell. At least not anything large enough that he can be seen carrying it out.”
“Maybe you could go to Grim to see if he knows what Michael is looking for.”
It would have to be something that the Guild could use in another ritual. Whatever that item might be, and where this ritual was going to take place, I needed to find out.
I headed to the office, but while I waited for Lilah to send the next patient back, the door to the apartment slammed open. When I ran out to investigate, I saw that another pixie had come in, one that I knew all too well. “Glimmer?” I asked.
She was dressed more provocatively than usual, her thin white blouse revealing more cleavage than I would have expected from her, and there was a strange confidence in the way that she strode toward me.
“Do you need anything?”
She fluttered her eyelashes at me. “Yes, Leo. I need you.”
2
Glimmer lunged forward and wrapped her arms around me. I stumbled back into my exam room as I tried to pry her away. What was going on here?
“Leo,” she purred, “I’ve been waiting to see you again. I love you, and I know that the two of us can be happy together. All we need to do is run away and leave this awful city, and then we can be together for good. Don’t you want that?”
I forced her off of me and backed away until I could put the massage table between us. Glimmer darted into the room, and she practically stumbled. Her translucent wings were buzzing excitedly, fluttering behind her almost too quickly for me to see them.
I studied Glimmer. I remembered the first time I’d seen her, captured with the other pixies in Grim’s stall, and then the second time, when I’d helped heal her wings after she was burned at the Witching Hour. Neither time had stuck out at me all that much as making an impression on her, certainly nothing like this. Gratitude I’d expect, maybe, but lust?
I had enough trouble with Callie and my burgeoning feelings for Bells. I didn’t need a pixie added into the mix.
Lilah stood in the doorway, frowning at me. “Can I do anything?” she asked.
“Just be ready to help.”
“What kind of help do you think you’re going to need?”
I shook my head. “I don’t really know, but I might need something.”
Glimmer darted toward me, and I shifted off to the side, positioning the table in front of me. It felt like I was playing hide and seek with her, though out in the open.
A floral perfume wafted off of her as strongly as if she’d dipped herself in it. It seemed to intensify the more that she fluttered her wings.
“Should I get Mumbles?” Lilah asked.
“Only if you want to give him something to laugh at,” I said.
She grinned at me. “Maybe I should get him, then. Mumbles has been suffering lately, Leo. He needs to have a good time, too.”
“A good time?”
Glimmer tried to reach for me, and I shoved the table away from me, pushing her back. “Listen, Glimmer, I don’t know what’s going on, but this isn’t like you.”
Her wings fluttered, a faint shimmer behind her. I remembered how much power I’d needed to pour into her in order to restore those wings. Some of her luck had been taken from her at that time, but certainly not enough to have impacted her like this…right?
“The two of us could be so happy together,” said Glimmer. “All you have to do is just come with me. Wouldn’t that make you happy? We could leave this place. We wouldn’t even have to stay in this apartment.” She looked at the wall. “I know you want to be somewhere else. I know that I could make you happy.”
“Another one?” Mumbles said, standing next to Lilah.
“It’s not my fault,” I muttered.
He shook his head.
Glimmer threw herself across the table, and I held my hands out, blocking her. She scrambled, trying to grab at my arm, and I glanced at the cabinet for a solution. I wanted a sedative, and I started thinking through the various spells that I knew, anything that might slow her down, if only for a little bit.
She smiled at me. “Leo?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know what’s going on, but this isn’t like you.”
She started around the table again, and I made a circle, feeling like I was chasing a child. She ran her hands along the front of her chest, eyeing me seductively. “Wouldn’t you want to be with me?”
I shook my head. “I’m sorry, Glimmer, I’m just not into—”
She jumped, and fluttered her wings, she cleared the table and wrapped her arms around me. She pressed her lips against mine, and started kissing me.
I tried to pull her off, but she was stronger than she looked.
“Stop,” I said. I put my hand up against her chest and sent a surge of magic out, and—
Shit.
I knew exactly what was going on.
“Leo?” Lilah said.
“Remember that possession spell that we broke Nick out of?” I asked.
Lilah nodded as I tried to pry Glimmer away from me. I was having a harder time than I should have—I couldn’t believe how strong she was. It probably wasn’t just pixie power, but rather the possession demon at work.
“Well,” I grunted, shoving at her arms, “I think it found its host.”
“What does that mean?”
“We have to drive it out of her.”
And though I knew how to draw the possession demon out, I wasn’t exactly sure how to contain it. In my mind, that was what mattered the most: not just pulling the demon out, but also making sure that it didn’t find a new host, especially given what we had gone through already. I knew how hard it had been for me to remove the one from Nick, and if I had to go through the same thing with Glimmer, I would be magically depleted.