"Yes," Derrick said tartly, "your house is being ransacked by gay homosexual demons, even as we speak."

I closed me eyes and said nothing. Then an idea came to me.

"There might be a way to tell," I said. "But I'll need your help, Mia."

"Oh, great. Like I haven't been tortured enough tonight. "

"Look, young lady-" I glared at her. "And I realize that I'm turning into my mother as I say this, but I want you to listen to me. These last two days have been terrible for all of us-for you, most of all. I can't imagine what you're feeling right now, and I'm not going to pretend that it's all going to be fine. Because it won't. We both know that-all of our lives have changed tonight, and nothing's ever going to be like it was again."

Mia scowled at me, but said nothing.

"Right now," I continued, "my priority is protecting you. But I need your cooperation for that. I can't look out for you if you keep firing sarcastic remarks back at me. I can't do this without your help. So can we please just try to get through the next couple of hours? Then you can feel however you like-you can even hate me. You probably already do."

She sighed. "I don't hate you, Tess."

"So will you let us help you?"

She nodded. "I'm just-" Her eyes were bright with pain for a moment-then the veil returned. "I'm just really tired," she whispered. "And I want to go home, but-nobody's there anymore."

"We're here," Derrick said. "You've got us."

"Okay." She nodded slowly. "Okay-what do you want me to do?"

"It's called scrying."

"I think I'm a little young for that, Tess. Fifteen will get you twenty, remember?"

I rolled my eyes. "It's a form of long-range vision."

"What, like with a crystal ball?"

"We don't need a crystal ball, or any other Roma stereotype. Just our eyes-and a bit of a materia boost." I looked at her. "Which is where you come in."

"What's materia?"

"Like heroin for mages," Derrick said, not taking his eyes off the road.

"Don't listen to him. Materia is like a natural conductor. And you"-I smiled awkwardly-"well, think of yourself as a big lithium battery-"

"Oh no. I'm not going to be your Energizer Bunny." She frowned. "Okay, that came out wrong. But you know what I mean!"

"It won't hurt, Mia. You have a lot of untapped power, and I just need to borrow some of it for a few seconds."

"Is that wise?" Derrick asked.

"Well, at this point, could it really hurt?"

He shrugged. "I guess not."

"Look," Mia said, "you still haven't explained any of this magic crap to me yet. I don't know what the hell's going on."

"I know this is all confusing, but I promise it will only take a second. Then once we get back home"-I paused-"I mean, once we get back to the lab, I can tell you whatever you want to know. The whole history of magic, with footnotes. Whatever. Your choice."

Of course, I didn't know that for sure. Once we got back to the lab, I might never see Mia again. But I had to at least try to reassure her.

Mia sighed. "Well-I guess. As long as it won't hurt."

"Will it hurt?" Derrick asked.

"No. Of course not."

A little, I mouthed to him.

"I saw that!" Mia glared at me.

"Sorry." I undid my seatbelt. "Derrick, please don't crash the car. I don't want to go flying through the windshield."

"Okay, okay. I'll be careful."

I returned my attention to Mia. "I need you to hold my hand."

"But I'm already going steady with someone else." She grinned.

"Just do it, please."

She took my hand. Her fingers were surprisingly warm.

"Okay-now, just close your eyes, and think about your aunt's house."

"Are we going to teleport there?"

"Sorry, but no. Mages can't teleport. Some demons can, but you don't really want to meet anything that's capable of that."

"Magic seems pretty crappy if you can't teleport."

"Yeah, well, things are tough all over. Can you just close your eyes, please, and concentrate with me?"

"All right. Geez." She closed her eyes. "Do you want me to think about anything specific? Like, the bathroom, or something?"

I sighed. "Just think about the house as a whole. What it looks like, inside and out. Think about the yard, and the street that it's on, and the places around it."

"Sure. Done."

She was so brazenly confident. I wanted to tell her to be more careful, but after the night that she'd been through, she didn't need another lecture. Thirteen years old, both parents dead, and now her legal guardian was dead, too. The past week had just been one nightmare after another for her. And I wasn't even sure how to protect her. I mean, aside from throwing myself into the path of the next demon army, what was I supposed to do? What could I do?

I cleared my mind and tried to think about Mia's house. I'd seen it only once, but many of the details stuck-the drab paint job, the colossal living room window, the nicely manicured lawn. All I had to do was picture my parents' house in reverse, and everything became clear.

Now for the tricky part. Scrying was an acquired skill- some people were fantastic at it, but I wasn't one of them. My abilities in that area had always been passable at best. You've got to have a calm inner eye for this sort of work, and my inner eye has a nervous tic. Or maybe pinkeye.

I could see Mia's house in my mind, and feel her hand. Now it was time to connect the circuit. I only hoped that the result wouldn't be too explosive. I wasn't sure how much power Mia had locked away, or even what type of power it was.

I concentrated on my own power. I could feel it like a glowing core-a kernel of force inside my body. I couldn't draw materia from the earth-we were driving too fast for that-so this was all going to come from me. And the car. Surprisingly, Derrick's Festiva still had a few nonplastic parts that I could siphon organic materia from.

Slowly, carefully, I willed that power to travel up my arm, down my wrist, into my fingers, which were interlaced with Mia's. The sensation was like having pins and needles throughout your body, sharp and intense. But I kept it under control. Focusing it this tightly was always tricky, but the important part was to keep concentrating. If I let the power go now, it would explode in all directions, like an insane fire-cracker.

With the power humming in my fingertips, I squeezed Mia's hand, and pulled with my willpower. I wanted to draw some of her essence up through the connection, like water through a straw-but not too much.

Still, the result was intense. Mia gasped, and I felt a jolt of electricity pass through my arm.

My own power flared up in a starburst. It was like someone had thrown a pile of kindling onto a bonfire, and now it was blazing up, wild and almost out of control. I struggled to keep a rein on it, pushing in mentally from all sides, focusing my concentration into a vessel that could contain the energy. It continued to smolder, but it was safe. For the next minute or so, maybe. I didn't want to gamble on my ability to control it for any longer than that. So I'd have to make this quick.

I let all of my senses fall over the image of Mia's house like a blanket. My consciousness permeated every atom in the walls, every drop of water sitting in the sink, every mote of dust and flicker of light against the windows. I smelled the grass, the dirt, the flecks of paint peeling from the front door. I heard the low whine of the fridge, the hum of the nearby computer. I smelled the years of accumulated detritus in the carpets, and over that, the tang of air freshener, clean laundry, and disinfectant.

With my heightened senses, I swept through every room in the house. My mind was a camera, and I was drifting through the building, searching. The feeling brought vertigo with it, but I kept that at bay. I needed to concentrate on genetic signatures of any kind-life signs, human or demon.

I didn't sense anything. I went over the house once again, but there didn't seem to be anyone there. Maybe the demons had come and gone, but if that was the case, I would have picked up on their residual traces. Everyone leaves a psychic footprint, and demons have a much bigger shoe size. I didn't feel anything like that. Either they were completely cloaked, or we might actually have beaten them to the house. I was really praying for the latter.

"Tess?"

I snapped back into focus, and the connection between Mia and me vanished. The air between our fingertips crackled momentarily with lost energy, then it was gone. Mia was staring at me like I'd just grown a second head.

"What was that?" she whispered.

"Like I said." I tried to keep my breathing under control, although it was very tempting to start hyperventilating right now. "It was scrying. I might be wrong, but it looks like the house is empty."

"I felt something-" Mia was looking uncertainly at me. "I think I saw what you saw. The house-everything floating. And I could feel-you. Or something like you, connected to me."

"I was borrowing your power. You must have felt the connection between us. That's normal, though."

She shook her head. "Nothing about that was normal."

"Okay, kids." Derrick was slowing down. "I'm getting off at this exit. We should be at Mia's house in a few minutes."

We drove through the familiar streets until we came to Mia's block. It was eerily quiet, just as it had been when we first visited. The house was still there, intact, and I gave silent thanks for that. The windows were dark.

We walked up to the front door-it was just the same as I remembered it, with the big brass knocker. Mia took out her key.

"So should we just-go in?"

I nodded. "I'll go first."

I pushed open the door. The house was warm inside, and smelled faintly of vanilla. Must be the air freshener.

"Our bedrooms are upstairs," Mia said.

We walked through the foyer and into the living room. Everything seemed fine. There was a large flat-screen television against one wall, a computer desk in the corner, and a comfy-looking sofa with matching throw pillows. Cassandra may have been some kind of higher demon, but she was no slouch in the home furnishing department. This place was actually cozy. It made my apartment look like a skanky hotel room.

"Whoa," Derrick said suddenly. "Do you feel that?"

I stayed very still, trying to listen to my senses. Just barely, like a twinge of something almost imperceptible, I could feel something hanging in the air-something dark and powerful. An echo of a past event.

"Someone died here," Derrick said.

I looked at him sharply. "Are you certain?"

"No, but it sure feels like it."

"Someone died in my house?" Mia demanded. "When?"

"I'm not sure." Derrick walked slowly around the living room, idly touching things as he passed. "Give me a few minutes here."

"Is he feeling the force or something?" Mia asked.

"Shh." I gestured for her to take a step back. "Just let Derrick do his thing. Sometimes he can get a glimpse of things that have happened in the past. Certain events, like violent deaths, leave a kind of psychic residue-it's like throwing a rock into a pond. There are always ripples left behind. Derrick can pick up on them."

"She was here," he said suddenly.

I looked up. He was pointing at a space directly in front of the couch.

"Who was here?"

"Cassandra." Derrick's eyes were open, but unfocused. His pupils were dilated-like they'd been when he was trying to paralyze the Vailoid demon. Wherever his gift came from, he was drawing on it full-force right now.

"Of course she was here," Mia said. "It's her house."

"She was standing right here," Derrick continued. "And he was standing on the other side of the coffee table-facing her."

"He?"

Derrick walked over to the spot on the floor. "It's cold here," he said. "Like ice. Something happened. A violent power was unleashed-right here, in this spot."

He always sounded cryptic when he was profiling. "What kind of power?" I asked. "Are you talking about magic? Did Cassandra use some type of magic to stop an intruder- someone trying to kill her?"

"No." Derrick's voice had gotten soft. "He was only a boy." His eyes widened. "He was so frightened. He didn't know what to do. Didn't realize how powerful she was- what she was capable of. He only wanted to warn her-"

Only a boy.

The vampire's face flashed before me-the blond hair, the manic grin. The golden invincibility of youth. Even the undead could be children at heart.

"Sebastian," I said. "He was here. In Cassandra's house."

"Who's Sebastian?" Mia asked.

"The vampire who was looking for you-the one with your address. He must have come here-to what . . . ?" I frowned. "Derrick, you said that he only wanted to warn her. But what was he warning her about? Did he know that Mia was in danger? Was he trying to explain that to Cassandra?"

But Derrick was already staring at me, looking confused. The power had passed through him, like electricity through a lightning rod. He was tapped out.

"Here, hon." I guided him to an overstuffed chair by the couch. "Sit down. I know that profiling always takes a lot out of you."