I led them into the half-painted living room where they both stood off to the side since I'd removed all the furniture.

"Um ... I don't think I have any tea. Would you like some water?"

"Water will do," Jessia said.

"No lemon, though," Lisa quickly added with a stunning smile.

They each sank down onto the covered floor as I went into the kitchen to fill two gla.s.ses with ice cubes and water.

"So what's up?" I asked as I handed the gla.s.ses to the faeries, trying to be calm and casual.

"Well, aren't ya'll business?" Jessica said with a giggle.

I picked up my paintbrush and dipped it into the pan. "Somehow I doubt you're here for a girls' night out."

Lisa's face lit up. "Oh! Wouldn't that bay so much fun?"

"Oh, yeah," Jessica agreed. "Alexis, you should totally go out with us some time."

"Um ..." c.r.a.p. What had I gotten myself into? I couldn't imagine these two in a club full of single men. Utter chaos I didn't want to be a part of. "Maybe sometime. But that's not really why you came, though. Is it?"

"Oh, of course not. We do have a few things to discuss." Lisa looked over at Blossom, who had resumed painting, and back at me.

"Blossom can stay," I said. "She pretty much knows everything. I trust her."

The words came out of my mouth before I realized what I was saying, but I knew they were true. Blossom had proven herself trustworthy time and again.

Jessica c.o.c.ked her head as she studied Blossom. "Huh. Are we seeing the beginnin's of your council, Ms. Alexis?"

My face heated. The idea of needing my own council when I became matriarch seemed so far off that I'd never considered it. Rina's council was largely made up of those she'd known the longest, those she trusted more than anyone. I supposed Blossom was that to me. Maybe she would be part of my council.

"I guess we'll see one of these days," I finally said as I climbed the ladder and looked down on them. "But let's focus on right now. Did you find Owen?"

The faeries exchanged a significant look. Lisa spoke first.

"We did. We tried to distract him, as you requested when we were on the Amadis Island, but he was, well ... we didn't have the same effect on him as we used to," she said cryptically.

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"He wouldn't cooperate," Jessica said. "We tried to have a little fun with him, but in the end, we couldn't get him to return to the Amadis."

"Well, I know that much already because, obviously, he's not here and you are. So where is he?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the faeries exchange another look, then shrug.

"Not our place to get involved anymore," Lisa said. I fought a groan of exasperation.

"Then why are you here?" I demanded, flipping my hand out. Paint spattered off the tip of my brush, and the faeries jumped to their feet and moved backward a few paces, out of harm's way.

Lisa put her fist on her hip. "We're here to collect. You owe us."

I turned on the ladder to stare at them with my mouth hanging open. "But you just said you failed!"

Jessica's pretty lips lifted into an ugly grimace. "We didn't fail. It's not our fault he didn't cooperate. We went out of our way, did everything we could at your request and now you owe us."

"But you didn't deliver!" I protested.

"You dare deny us?" Jessica snarled, and I pulled back, not realizing I'd been leaning halfway off the ladder toward them. "Don't be stupid, young one. You do not want to ignore faeries calling on your debt."

Lisa placed a hand on Jessica's arm. "Relax, little sister. Let's tell her what we want first. She'll come 'round."

I narrowed my eyes. Maybe repaying them wouldn't be so bad. "What do you want?"

"Well," Lisa began, "if ya'll haven't figured it out, Kali the sorceress is still alive and well. Her soul had found its way off the Amadis Island and into a new host. A young, redheaded Daemoni witch."

I shifted on the ladder, mostly to fight the shiver trying to make its way up my back. "And?"

"We want her soul," Jessica said bluntly.

My eyebrows popped up. "Seriously?"

"It's not right, what she can do, moving herself from body to body. It puts everythin' off balance, and we in the spirit realm require balance."

"So you want me to convert her?"

The faeries laughed.

"Oh, no," Lisa said. "There's no hope for her soul! We want her soul in our possession, so we can take it to the Otherworld and leave it there."

"And how would Alexis do that?" Blossom asked.

Out of nowhere, a small, ceramic jar with a tightly sealed lid appeared in Lisa's hand. "Trap it in here. You'll have to kill her physical host-or at least disable it as you did with Martin-and when her spirit rises, trap it inside."

"Wait-disable Martin? Is he still alive? The real Martin?" I asked. Maybe that's what had Owen so preoccupied.

"That is an answer we cannot give. Not part of our problem," Jessica said.

I c.o.c.ked my head. "But Kali is. So you can tell me if she's what Owen's looking for."

Jessica rolled her eyes. "Possibly. At one time anyway."

"So why don't you ask him to do this?" Blossom asked. "I'm sure he'd be more than happy to."

"He does owe us for bringing Bree to the Amadis Island, but we don't trust Owen or his motivations right now," Lisa said, then she turned her gaze on me, to drive home her point. "We don't feel confident that he'd follow through."

I snorted. "Of course, he would. I'm sure there's nothing Owen would love to do more than take that b.i.t.c.h down."

Lisa's eyes remained locked on mine and something sparked in them. "Don't be so sure, Alexis. Arrogance is dangerous."

"What does that mean?"

Jessica grunted her annoyance, and stood. "I'm bored. Let's get out of here, sis."

Lisa nodded. "Ya know how to repay us now. We're not goin' to give ya a deadline. We don' need to. The longer that unnatural thing remains in this realm, the worse it is for the Amadis. So you don' wanna delay too long."

Lisa set the jar down, and the thing was small on the vast floor, but its purpose made it larger than life, consuming the entire s.p.a.ce.

"But don' ignore us either," Jessica warned, her eyes full of menace. "Ya'll don' need the faeries' wrath with everythin' else ya'll got goin' on."

"It's for everyone's good," Lisa said. "Just as much yours as it is ours. Say? We're really not so bad now, are way?"

I didn't answer, but simply stared at the two at a loss for words. They wanted me to capture Kali's soul. Capture a soul! How on earth or any other realm would I do that?

Jessica's expression changed completely to her friendly, shiny self. "Let's do that girls' night out sometime. You pick the date and place and give us a call."

Lisa made a face. "But not South Beach. That place has gone to h.e.l.l. Literally."

"What do you mean?" Blossom asked. "It's been a while, but I go there all the time."

As usual, the faeries didn't give us a straight answer.

"Ask your new vampire friend," Lisa said to me. Then both faeries disappeared without so much as a pop.

Chapter 9.

"What is it about South Beach?" Sheree asked when Tristan and I arrived at the safe house one morning the following week. When we both served up a bewildered expression, she continued. "You two and Blossom have said something about it lately, and now Sonya's been talking in her sleep about South Beach. It's like the topic of some mysterious conversation, and I feel left out."

I looked up at Tristan. "Oh, that reminds me. The faeries hinted that Sonya knows something about South Beach that we might find interesting."

"Well, she keeps saying Vanessa's there," Sheree said, making a disgusted face as if the vampire's name tasted bad on her tongue. "At least, that's what it sounds like."

Tristan shrugged it off. "She must still be a little delusional. Not quite right yet."

Sheree shook her head. "Oh, no. Actually, she's been pretty lucid. But I haven't asked her about it myself-I didn't think it my place to. She's awake, though. Go see for yourself."

I needed to sit with the vampire anyway and feed her my power, so Tristan followed me to her room. Sonya sat in bed, watching one of the Twilight movies on TV. She picked up the remote and muted the sound when she saw us.

"Ridiculous," she said with an eye-roll. "But, I guess it would suck to look like a drug addict who rolled around in bat s.h.i.t every time you stepped into the sun. Becoming a little weaker than normal doesn't seem so bad in comparison."

"Um ... what?" I asked, bewildered. I took her hand, ignoring her usual flinch. That lingering bit of Daemoni power still made her scared of me.

"Bat s.h.i.t sparkles," she explained. "And their make-up is so bad, they could be poster children for a rehab center. Especially that one." She pointed at the screen. "After all those shots of ripped wolf-boy, he looks sickly. Makes even this vampire swing for the other team."

I stared at her for a long moment, surprised at how lucid she was. Only days ago she'd been little more than a zombie, and now she ranted and cracked jokes. Inappropriate ones, perhaps, but jokes nonetheless.

"Well, at least you don't fry in an inferno, either," I managed to say, trying to keep her talking.

"True," she admitted. "Funny how all the books and movies get some things right, but can be way off base with others." She squinted her eyes at me. "Except yours."

"Yeah, well, I had help by someone close to the source, my mom. She slipped me suggestions when she read, correcting the few things I had wrong, making them sound like really good ideas to me. All those other writers were only given bits and pieces, or went off others' canon."

"Funny how the truth makes your stories so much more believable. You seriously didn't know you were practically writing non-fiction?"

"The stories are still fiction," I corrected her. "Just the characters were truer-to-life than I knew at the time."

"Well, I love your books," Sonya said. She looked over my shoulder, as if noticing Tristan for the first time, and if vampires could blush, I'd swear she did. When she didn't look away for a long moment, Tristan cleared his throat, breaking the silence.

"We have a question for you," he said, "if you're up to it."

Her mouth tugged as if she fought a smile, though nothing funny had been said. I knew how she felt-the man had that effect on everyone of the female persuasion. Thankfully, he still had that effect on me.

"About Vanessa," Sonya said, and she smiled for real now. "My physical strength may be weak, but I still hear extraordinarily well."

"Do you know where she is?" I asked.

She finally tore her blue eyes away from Tristan and looked back at me. "South Beach, as Sheree said. I've overheard you talking about her, so I guess it's been on my mind. I've always had a problem talking in my sleep. Anyway, last I heard, Vanessa was in South Beach."

Tristan shook his head, doubt filling his eyes. "That was a few months ago, though."

"The day you confronted me," Sonya said, "and brought me here. She'd been at our nest the night before, and our leader-that guy in the parking lot?-he said she wanted some of us to go to South Beach to serve her."

"That doesn't make sense," Tristan said. "Vanessa seeks the limelight. She'd never purposely go to a place filled with models and celebrities. The same reason she avoids New York and Hollywood."

"Unless she was put in charge of a new nest," Sonya said.

Tristan stroked his chin as he peered at the vamp. "That would feed her ego. But why another nest? There are several already in Miami."

"Lucas wanted to grow the Daemoni presence over there. It's part of his big plan. Miami, especially South Beach, has lots of prime candidates for turning, and with all that gourmet food there, they taste extra special," Sonya added with longing. As soon as she realized what she'd said, she covered her face with her free hand. "I'm not supposed to think that way anymore, am I?"

"It takes time," I said, pushing more power into her.

The vamp clenched her jaw-I'd never realized she'd still be in such pain from the goodness-and breathed through it until she could speak again.

"So Vanessa actually wanted to be the one to start this nest?" Tristan asked.

"She has clout in the Daemoni for some reason, and she probably wanted South Beach because it's close to you guys."

"So why doesn't anyone claim to have seen her?" I asked.

Sonya sighed, our questions wearing on her limited patience. "Look, I'm just telling you what I knew three months ago. But if one of your most wanted was scheming something, would you have her in the open all the time or kept hidden? I don't see you out there fighting."