The skies cleared until they were a lavender-streaked whitewashed blue and nothing more than a soft breeze stirred the leaves of the trees that shaded part of the balcony.

He turned and strode to the manor, entering the large hall and walking toward the Inner Circle chamber where his advisors should have convened by now. The polished marble floor was smooth and cool beneath his bare feet.

The Sorcerer entered the room and in one glance he saw that eleven of his advisors were there, standing around the large circular table. Only Bryna was missing. That thought alone made his belly boil as though hot oil had been poured into it.

Several of his advisors had already taken over Host forms that controlled important positions in the Earth Otherworld. Amory had arranged this meeting so that he might tell them he was prepared for the next step.

Each one of his advisors remained standing as he entered the room and with a gesture he bade them to sit. The circular table had been in the manor when the Sorcerer Desmond had ruled. When he had exiled Desmond, Amory had found it amusing to refer to his advisors as his "Inner Circle" and began using this as a strategy room.

"We have chosen a venue for our trial takeover en masse." Amory raised his hands and the glow of his magic traveled like mist to the wall behind him.

A picture formed of what humans called a "concert" with hundreds of people gathered around the stage of musicians. Not that Amory considered them true musicians with their version of "music." It was nothing like what the people of Kerra embraced and had brought with them when they fled their dying, murderous world.

"This is a theater known as Town Hall," Amory said and the floor plan of the building floated into existence onto the wall. "It seats eight hundred, and we arranged the purchase of four hundred tickets.

Four hundred humans will be in attendance and four hundred of our own people will go to the theater with stones. We will have our first mass exchange of essences."

"What about sealing their Hosts?" Jalen asked. He was dressed as, and in the body of, the Host he had taken over. A U.S. Army general. "That many people leaving the Earth Otherworld at one time would cast suspicion."

"Suspicion upon whom?" Amory waved the statement away. "They have no way of knowing, no way of even suspecting our infiltration."

"These humans are intelligent." LeeLa, now an Earth Otherworld surgeon, looked thoughtful.

"They will be searching for answers."

"Let them search." Amory continued, "As to the Hosts returning for sealing ... I believe I have perfected a way that the Hosts will not need to return. I will go myself and seal them all at one time.

Thus no one in the Earth Otherworld will know anything has happened at all."

"What about the Shells?" Roan asked. "Will they not wreak havoc? Four hundred is a large number to turn loose on the city."

"I will program the stones to stay with the Shells, and the Shells will bring them back to Doran while their new Hosts stay in the Earth Otherworld," Amory said.

"The Earth Otherworlder paranorms call the Shells 'Zombies,'" Xella said with a smirk.

Amory ignored Xella. "For now the Shell attacks in the Earth Otherworld will be kept to a minimum," Amory said. "Once we have taken this world and control it with all of my people transferred, they will be released to terrorize and destroy those not taken." His advisors nodded their approval.

Amory turned to his image on the wall and pointed out sections of the theater and explained how the plan would work. "I have our teams working with those of our people who will be making the journey and taking the essences. They will know what must be done."

"What if this test fails?" Jalen asked.

Amory scowled at being questioned in any way. "Then I shall work to perfect it. Once I have perfected it, we will then be ready for the humans' 'New Year's Eve' celebration in their Times Square." Amory's scowl slipped into a harsh smile. "And thus it begins."

TWENTY-THREE.

We started out the exit, past the frozen crime scene. "Too bad the Pit doesn't have any Belgian beers," Colin said as we walked down Arthur Avenue. "I have two six-packs of Hoegaarden in my fridge."

"Never had Belgian beer." I frowned at the thought of going to the Pit. It still bothered me that Rodan had refused to look at the first stone and sent me straight to the Magi instead. And now I was carrying a second stone. What would he do? Send me to the Magi again?

I still hadn't quite gotten over him trying to kick me off the case, either. I looked at Colin. "Since you have it and I'd like to try it, why don't we go have one of your, whatever they're called, Belgian beers at your place? If that's okay with you."

"Sure." Colin scooped up his shredded jacket. "I'm not much in the mood for socializing and the Pit is still going strong this time of night."

I smiled. "Maybe you should turn down that Dragon charm of yours."

"I only use it on stage." He gave a wicked grin. "It's part of the fun of the act."

"What do you call it when you're off the stage?" I asked.

Colin winked at me. "Natural-born sex appeal."

I laughed. "And you have it in spades."

He shrugged, suddenly looking a little embarrassed, which completely surprised me.

"Hey." I squeezed his arm and he glanced at me. His skin was warm beneath my palm. "Best three out of five."

"You are persistent," he said. "I like that."

"You have no idea," I said. "Where do you live?"

He gave me the address of a coop on Sixty-sixth Road in Queens. As soon as he finished giving me his address, I was gone.

The door was open when I arrived. Colin already had two bottles of chilled beer out and sitting on the counter.

"I give up." I raised my hands. "For tonight, anyway." Colin handed me my bottle and grinned. "You can never beat a Dragon, Nyx."

"Ha." I took a drink of the pale beer. "Not bad," I said. "Although an elderflower Tom Collins has it beat."

I grinned at the Dragon's sheepish expression at the barkeeper having to give all of the women shots of elderflower to counteract the Dragon-thrall.

"I don't think Hector is going to forgive me for a long time," Colin said.

"He does tend to hold a grudge," I said.

"I need to get cleaned up." Colin looked down at his torn T-shirt and smears of something on his arms. Zombie blood and soot, I thought.

"Allow me." I gave a little bow and almost laughed as Colin cocked an eyebrow.

"Avanna." I spoke the Elvin word for "clean." The tears in his T-shirt vanished and his skin and hair were cleansed of soot and Zombie goo and sweat. I did the same for myself, feeling refreshed at once.

I smiled as I took a look around. "Nice. Did you do the decorating?"

"A little. Haven't been here long enough to do much." Still holding his beer, he indicated I should follow him with a crook of his finger of his free hand. "I'll show you the place." It had one bedroom, but all of the rooms were exceptionally large, which included the kitchen and dining room, and the bathroom.

"That has to be the biggest bed I have ever seen," I said when he showed me the bedroom.

"And I'm the daughter of a king."

Colin took a swig of his beer. "They call this the emperor-sized bed."

"I guess Dragons need plenty of room to lie around," I said. "Does it wear you out? Shifting, that is."

"That's where the beer comes in," he said as we walked back into the kitchen. "Great for recovery time." Colin tossed his empty beer bottle into a wastebasket and grabbed four more Hoegaarden from the huge fridge.

I downed the rest of mine and threw away the bottle, and he handed me two of the ones he was holding. I took them but said, "I don't know if I should drink that much." I thought about the stones in the pouch on my belt, then decided I might have three beers tonight after all. I still needed to talk with Colin about the second stone.

Colin set his bottles on the spacious counter and ducked down so that he was looking into his fridge again. "Are you hungry? I'm ready to eat a cow. Whole." I grimaced. "Don't tell me you really do..."

He brought out what looked like an entire roast. "Never ask questions you don't want to hear the answers to."

"You're right." I set one of the two full bottles down, opened the other, and started drinking.

Colin grabbed mustard, mayo, thick slices of wheat bread, and three kinds of cheese.

He made us sandwiches and carried the plate to the living room. Instead of sitting on the couch, we sat side-by-side on the floor at the coffee table where we placed our food and beers, and we ate.

And talked.

Even though it seemed we had exhausted going over the details of the Zombie attack tonight, we still found ourselves talking about it until my head ached.

One thing about Colin was that he could mix humor in with the bad, and he did it in a way that didn't negate the horror or severity of what had happened.

After we finished talking about the attack, again, we started in on other subjects.

I had to admit Colin was a lot of fun to be around. He made me laugh as he told me about some of his experiences living in New York so far, and how he'd set his first bed on fire and chewed up his pillow when he'd dreamed he was burning down a village and eating peasants.

He was teasing, of course.

I think.

Colin's sense of humor and the easy camaraderie we had together made me feel warm inside.

Instinctively I knew he'd make a great friend, someone who'd have my back. Always.

He winked at me and I felt a flutter in my belly that caught me off guard. The time I'd spent with him had just been as friendship with a fellow Tracker, even with the teasing in the cafe.

But that wink, and the feeling in my abdomen had me looking at him differently.

It shouldn't have. I had Adam and I wasn't interested in a relationship with anyone but him.

Adam was my knight in shining armor.

Thoughts sped through my head, though. Like the fact that Colin was from my world, Otherworld. Despite the fact they'd be Dragons, if I met his parents-if they were still alive-I knew I wouldn't feel as out of place as I had with Adam's family. Colin was a paranorm. We understood each other on an entirely different level than Adam could.

I could imagine Colin sitting around with my father and his men, drinking ale and telling stories of battle and women. Adam just didn't fit the picture in the same way.

Guilt ended the tingling in my belly. I shouldn't be having thoughts or feelings like this.

Colin pushed his plate away. He'd eaten most of the entire beef roast. I'd put away my share. It had been delicious.

"Thank you." I shifted on the floor, stretched my legs out under the coffee table, and relaxed my back against the couch, my hand on my stomach. "That was awesome."

"Something's bothering you, Nyx." Colin caught me off guard like he had earlier in the night.

"Want to tell me about it?"

The tingling I'd been feeling at my hip where the two stones were seemed stronger now. Kerri's warning about not showing the stone weighed heavy on my mind.

But she'd been talking about the stone I brought back from Otherworld, not the one I found tonight. I'd been waiting for the right time to tell Colin. Now seemed to be it.

"One of the Sentients was carrying a stone." I reached for my pouch and grasped the stone on the left which was where I'd put the one I'd found tonight. "He lost it and then that woman dove after it before she was hit by the truck." My arm prickled as I drew the cloth-wrapped item out and set it on the coffee table. "I picked up the stone."

I met Colin's gaze which held a hint of surprise as I spoke. "I think Olivia and I need to take it, along with the other stone, to that Sorcerer whenever we meet with him."

"May I look at it?" Colin didn't reach for the stone, simply waited for my permission.

"Whatever you do, don't touch it." I leaned forward as he left the stone on the coffee table and pulled an edge of the cloth aside. "When I showed her the other one, the Seer said, 'Every time you touch the stone it becomes a beacon and will draw the enemy.'" I tapped my chin with my forefinger.

"As far as I know, even just having the stone might draw the enemy. I think that's what happened at the cafe."

Colin paused and looked at me. "You didn't visit a Seer, did you," he stated. "You had an audience with a Magi."

Shock made me catch my breath. "How did you know?" Had I given it away somehow?

Colin drew away another edge of the cloth very slowly. "I know Seers, Nyx," he said. "I also know of Magi." He paused in moving the cloth. "One of my gifts is being able to read beings and situations and see through what is being said."

My eyes narrowed. I wasn't too sure I liked the sound of this. "You can read minds?"

"No." He pulled aside another section of the cloth. "I can just tell the difference between truths, untruths, and skirting the subject."

"Okay." I supposed I could live with that. Our gazes met. "Now for this." He nodded and finished unwrapping the stone.

My heart thudded. The dryness in my mouth made me feel like I wouldn't be able to speak if I had to. Goose bumps prickled my skin and I rubbed my arms to try to chase them away.

The stone looked gray, plain, and unmarked when he unwrapped it. "It seems like a regular rock," he said as he glanced at me.

I tried to swallow but my throat was too dry now, too. "Move the cloth so that we can see the opposite side of the stone."

Colin eased it around so that a flat, shiny side faced it. For a moment the glare from his track lighting made it look like a blank TV screen, like the other one had.

A woman's face appeared and I reeled backward. It was the woman who was hit by the truck tonight.