CB's forehead creased. "Constable Elson had best watch himself," he growled. Shoving the bat onto the shelf, he headed up the stairs. "The constable isn't the only one who can speak to people."

"Have fun."

His response was wordless but explicit.

As the door closed, Arra slumped. "All right, Tony. Tell me. Tell me that I've crossed a line. That I'm abusing my power; making arrogant and unilateral decisions. That ability doesn't give me the right to run the lives of others. That small abuses lead to larger ones, and that all power corrupts and that I'm already on the slippery slope to the decision the Shadowlord made-that my desires are the only ones that matter. That just because I can, is reason enough."

Shrugging free of the blanket, he stood, too angry to remain still. "I was going to say you can't G.o.dd.a.m.ned well rip out chunks of people's lives, but that's good, too."

"I know how CB thinks. He would have solved the problem in the simplest way possible by dragging out that old chestnut about the good of the many outweighing the good of the one-regardless of whether or not the one agrees with the sentiment-and tossed me back through the gate.""You're a wizard! You don't have to let him toss you anywhere!"

A sardonic eyebrow lifted. "I didn't."

"Don't let him doesn't mean my way or the highway! It means you bring him around to your way of thinking!"

"How do you suggest I convince him?"

He had no idea, but he knew one thing for certain. "Not by running away. Again! You didn't even try!"

"Because trying makes it so? Do your best and happy endings are inevitable?" Her lip curled. "You're living in a fantasy world."

"h.e.l.lo!" Tony jabbed a finger toward her. "Wizard!" Held up his hand to show her the small scars on his wrist. "Vampire!" A larger gesture to take in the entire studio.

"Television! Fantasy's seeming pretty d.a.m.ned real to me right about now. You're just too G.o.dd.a.m.ned scared!"

"You would be, too, if you knew what I know!"

"So what don't I know?"

She was on her feet now, facing him, her hands curled into fists by her sides. "The Shadowlord destroyed my entire order!"

"Yeah? Well he didn't get the last two until after you b.u.g.g.e.red off on them!"

It probably wasn't a lightning bolt because a lightning bolt would have killed him. It was probably just the biggest static shock in history. It slammed into Tony's chest and threw him backward against a set of shelves. They rocked, but held and he slid down them to the floor, pain sizzling along each individual nerve ending. Tony had no idea there were so many of them. He could have stood not knowing.

"Get out!"

Blinking away afterimages, he dragged himself to his feet. Besides pain, he was feeling remarkably calm. "I think we've pretty much established that the Shadowlord will kill us looking for you." He held up a hand as Arra raised her palm toward him again. "I'm going." Half a dozen steps down from the door, most of his weight on the banister, he turned. "This is your mess. Take some responsibility and clean it up."

"Responsibility!" She spat the word back at him.

"Maybe you've heard of it; it's the flip side of power."

Her angle was bad and she missed him with the second shot.

Zev was standing just inside the production office, balancing a pile of CDs in one hand and dangling a set of small computer speakers from the other. He looked up as Tony came out of the bas.e.m.e.nt, his nose wrinkling at the distinct smell of char cut off by the closing door. "What's burning?"

"Rome." Tony touched a fingertip to his eyebrow piercing. The skin felt puffy and the slightest pressure hurt like h.e.l.l- not surprising, he supposed, gold was a good conductor. "And I was just speaking to Nero."

"Ah." The musical director frowned. "Did you and Arra have a fight?"

"A disagreement."

"Ah, again. I never knew you were that interested in special effects. You didn't mention it on Friday."

"Slipped my mind. We, uh . . ." he began, just as Zev said, "If we, uh . . ."

A moment's silence.

"Go ahead." A simultaneous polite injunction which, after another moment's silence, degenerated into two thirds of a Three Stooges routine as the stack of CDs started to slide. Zev shifted his grip, Tony reached out a hand to help, and the spark was clearly visible even under the fluorescent lights.

The clatter of the CD cases. .h.i.tting the floor almost drowned out Zev's reaction.

"b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l!"

Almost.

"Man, Zev, I'm sorry." Tony dropped to his knees and began gathering up the spilled music. "It's that thing that Arra and I were working on. I guess it got me all charged up."

"You guess?" Clutching his right hand with his left, Zev sucked air through his teeth.

"What did she have you doing down there; rubbing cats with gla.s.s rods?"

"What?"

"High school physics experiment. Never mind." He worked his fingers and, satisfied they were still functional, reached down to take back the stack of CDs. "I guess if it got you on your knees, I can suffer the pain." As Tony grinned in surprise, his eyes widened. "I said that out loud?"

Tony nodded.

The skin between the top edge of his beard and the bottom edge of his gla.s.ses flushed red. "Great. I'll just . . ." Speakers banging against his legs, he backed up. "Look, I've got a ton of... um." Somehow, although Tony wasn't sure how, he got the door to post open with his elbow. "Later." And vanished.

"Do we have to have another conversation about Zev being a nice guy?" Amy demanded from her desk.

"I didn't do anything!" Tony protested as he stood.

"Please. I could see the sparkage from here."

"There's nothing going on. He's a friend!"

"No, literally, I could see the sparkage." She spread her hands, miming explosions.

"What's Arra been doing to you?"

Frowning hurt. "Nothing I shouldn't have expected."

"Well. Aren't we obscu . . . CB Productions, how may I help you?" Her expression clearly stated they weren't done.

They were as far as Tony was concerned. He'd have been gone, except that every step brushed a tiny buzz off the carpet and he had a horrible vision of what would happened to some very expensive equipment if he touched it in this state. He had to bleed the residual juice off.

Metal. He needed metal but not something he'd destroy. An old dented filing cabinet just outside the door to the bull pen caught his eye. That should do. A quick laying on of hands and with any luck he and the filing cabinet would survive the experience.Standing with his back to the cabinet, hoping it looked as though he was waiting for Amy to finish giving directions back to the studio from Centennial Pier; he reached back and touched the metal with both hands. Go on, take it all. Someone around here must know CPR.

The hollow boom wasn't entirely unexpected although the volume was impressive.

Dropping the phone to her shoulder, Amy glared past him to the bull pen. "What the h.e.l.l are they up to now?"

"Beats me." Tony shrugged. His palms were sizzling, but he didn't seem to have done himself any damage. "You know; writers. Listen, Amy, I've got to get back to work."

About to step away, he paused. "Who's out at Centennial Pier?"

"Kernel, the new office PA."

"What happened to Veronica?"

"She quit."

"And why's the new guy out at the pier?"

"Rachel got a call from the location scout and sent him out with the digital to get some pictures of North Vancouver Cemetery."

Tony ran over the geography in his head. "Which is nowhere near Centennial Pier."

"He's lost."

"No s.h.i.t."

"We'll talk about you and Zev later."

"Right." Or we'll all die by smoke and shadows. Can't think of which I'm looking forward to more.

He'd never noticed how many shadows filled the hall to the soundstage. No wonder he'd felt safe walking it earlier; his. .h.i.tchhiker had felt safe. When he realized he was trying to outrun his shadow, he forced himself to slow down.

"Hey, Tony!" Everett's door was open and Lee was in the chair having his cowlick dealt with yet again. "You okay?"

He'd just been nearly electrocuted by a wizard who seemed more than willing to deal with a disaster she'd set in motion by running away. Everyone in the immediate area was about to become painfully dead and he was the last best and only line of defense.

Well, him and Henry. And two thermoses still full of vodka-catnip c.o.c.ktails.

Green eyes narrowed and Tony wondered just how much of that had shown on his face.

"I'm fine."

"Henry, I told you, I'm fine."

"She attacked you."

Subtext: She attacked something of mine.

Tony rolled his eyes. Jesus, Henry, get an afterlife. "I provoked her. I said some stuff that really p.i.s.sed her off."

"But you said it in order that she reconsider her position."

"Bonus if she does it, but no." As he remembered it, he'd been so angry, he'd been hitting out at the only thing available. "I said it pretty much just to p.i.s.s her off."

"Because you have a death wish?"

He elbowed the vampire lightly in the side. "Duh. I'm here, aren't I?" He didn't want to be there. He wanted to be safe at home, safely oblivious, eating nachos in bed and watching one of Lee's old movies. He wanted his biggest concern to be about his pointless attraction to a straight boy. He didn't want to be in charge of saving, if not the world, the immediate area and anyone who might have ever had anything to do with Arra Pelindrake. No one seemed to care what he wanted. "What time is it?"

They were standing so close, he felt Henry lift his arm to check his watch. Standing in the soundstage with just the emergency lights on, he couldn't even see his wrist, but Henry had an advantage in the dark. "It's just turned 11:00."

"Do you hear anything? I mean anyone? Here."

"Only you. Your heart is racing."

No s.h.i.t. "Just revving up for the fight."

"Of course."

They had the lamp, and the leftover potion, and a baseball bat picked up on the way home from work, and a certain small amount of experience in kicking metaphysical a.s.s.

They didn't have a wizard-she wasn't answering her phone or her buzzer-but they were as ready as they'd ever be. If that last shadow made a break for home, they'd stop it and if the Shadowlord sent new minions through the gate, solid minions, impervious to the light, they'd be facing . . .

c.r.a.p.

They knew they'd be facing a vampire. They knew what he knew. "They'll come through prepared. Ready to take you out."

"I am not so easy to kill."

Prince of Darkness voice. Yeah, that'll impress them. "But you can be killed."

"Not easily."

"But..."

"You'll have my back."

"Right." Like that made it better. Tony shifted the bat to his other hand and wiped his sweaty palm against his jeans. "You know, this morning Arra was all ready to rush in and take her bat to the shadow-held. I wonder how she would have explained it, you know, after, while she was standing over the body. I mean, you can't call smacking a coworker with a Louisville Slugger a special effect."

"She probably didn't even consider that." He could hear the smile in Henry's observation.

"She thought you were in danger and she rushed in."

"Using up her entire stock of helping out." Tony, on the other hand, wasn't smiling.

"Did she tell you she wasn't going to stand against the Shadowlord?""Well, yeah. Right from the start she said she wouldn't face him."

"And in the beginning she said she wouldn't help, but she has."

"As long as it was at no risk to her; she's always planned to run."