Part 27 (1/2)

Still suitably serious, Arthur nodded. ”Then, as you request, Kris will accompany you. She has been into enemy territory many times and is therefore your best chance to not only get in but get out again.”

”Out again, that's the tricky part,” Kris muttered.

”When should this . . .” He stumbled a bit over the shortened word. ”. . . recon mission take place?”

Claire held out her good arm. The hands of her watch continued to spin wildly. ”As soon as possible.”

Kris rose fluidly to her feet. ”I'm good.” She raked a critical gaze over Diana's clothes as the younger Keeper stood. ”You'll have to change. Dark colors, nothing to catch the light.”

”I brought jeans.”

She gestured back into the store, her rings glittering in the firelight. ”We'll find you something better.”

”You should have been there last night, Austin, those guys kicked tall a.s.s!” Dean stepped back from hanging a signed picture of the team on the wall of the office and turned to grin at the cat. ”You missed a great game.”

”I also missed being smuggled into the arena in a gym bag,” Austin muttered without lifting his head from his front paws. ”Pa.s.s.”

Before Dean could answer, the phone rang.

”If it's three bears,” the cat announced as Dean's hand closed around the receiver, ”tell them we're full. That one only ever ends well for the bears.”

Black leggings, black tank, black zip-up sweats.h.i.+rt, black socks, black canvas f.a.n.n.y pack, black leather driving gloves, Diana wore her own hightops and drew the line at using a black lipstick as camouflage paint. The line stayed drawn for about fifteen seconds.

”So you're not as pale as your sister . . .” Finished wrapping the last of her dreadlocks up into one long tail, Kris reached for the tube. ”. . . you'll still show up in the shadows.”

”I'm a Keeper . . .”

”And I know what I'm doing. Hold still.”

”I'm sorry, Sam, but you can't come.”

His eyes narrowed, flaying Diana with amber scythes. ”You're ditching me so you can be alone with your new friend, aren't you?”

”No!” She dropped to one knee and beckoned him closer. ”Look, I'm really worried about Claire. She's not used to being without Austin. I mean, one of those meat-minds actually hit her with his little concrete bag thing. How weird is that? Claire never gets hurt. I'm afraid of what might happen to her if there's no cat around at all.”

Sam snorted. ”What a load of c.r.a.p.”

”Fine; I need someone here who can remind Claire that she's not always right, that this was my Summoning. I'd rather you were with me, but I don't want her s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g things up from this end.”

He thought about it for a moment. ”Okay, that one I'll buy. Be careful.”

”You, too. Remember, she gets cranky when she's crossed.”

”Please, if Austin can handle her, how hard can it be?”

They took the first set of stairs down to the lower level, past a pair of elves standing guard who might have been fifteen in the outside world but here were becoming ageless.

”It's sort of neutral territory between these stairs and the next ones,” Kris murmured as they descended toward the lower concourse. ”The meat-minds never go much farther than the stairs they chased you and your sister up, but that doesn't mean there isn't some nasty s.h.i.+t hanging around. There're a few storefronts you don't want to get too close to.”

”In a way that's a good thing.”