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Helcyon replied smoothly, evading another piercing tentacle.
    “Gate?” Book threw the question out there with another shot as tentacles tried to slip past Helcyon’s guard.
    “Yes.”
    Cassie blinked at the rapid exchange, swallowing another yelp as she was yanked back into the doorway. Suddenly Helcyon was there, his back pressed against her, sandwiching her effectively between the two men.
    “Lose the gun!” Helcyon ordered.
    “Dammit.”
    “Now.”
    Book fingered his weapon, emptying the clip, and then flung the gun away from them. The world tipped sideways. Cassie recovered her voice, shrieking as they fell. Her head slammed into cotton-sheathed muscle, cutting off her cries. She felt another body pin hers before Helcyon bounced to his feet.
    Helcyon hauled her to her feet and thrust her behind him. Raising his sword, he faced Book with the same cool expression he’d worn dancing with the black tentacle thing.
    The agent bounced to a crouch, eyeing Helcyon with wariness. Aggression thickened the air between the two men. Cassie put a hand on Helcyon’s arm, but the steel muscles beneath her fingers locked to push her back another step. He kept his gaze firmly on the agent.
    The coppery scent of blood marred the night air flavored with jasmine and orchids. Cassie sucked in a deep breath. Her head was spinning. Looking around, she recognized the garden from her earlier visit, but it seemed darker, more sinister. The stars above shocked the senses as the Milky Way spiraled across the velvety darkness.
    “What was that thing?” she asked, trying to get a grip on her equilibrium. Park. Explosion. Hospital. Underhill. Hospital. Special agent. Attack. Underhill again. Her head swam from the possibilities. So many questions.
    No answers.
    When neither man answered, Cassie focused on their antagonistic stances. Helcyon’s sword reflected the pale light of the crescent moon. Black blood marred the surface. Book stood a few feet away, hands spread, but not in supplication. Instead, his hands were actually glowing.
    “Helcyon? Special Agent Book?”
    The men ignored her, focused on each other. Cassie sucked in the perfumed air and stumbled forward, only to be pushed back. Helcyon shifted so that he remained between her and Book.
    “Why are you two fighting?” Her heart raced, her head spun, and she thought she might throw up at any moment.
    “He sees through the glamour, and he has magic,” Helcyon replied, silken steel in his voice.
    “He’s a fucking Elf, and he just took us Underhill.” Raw fury lined the special agent’s face.
    “So?” Cassie blinked, digesting their nuggets of information and feeling a little belligerent. Her leg was on fire and she wanted desperately to sit down and not worry that the Homeland Security agent and her Elven bodyguard were about to tear each other into pieces.
    “That thing we were fighting came from here.” Book said the last between his teeth. Sweat beaded along his forehead as though whatever he was doing took actual effort.
    “Okay.” Cassie hated the weakened note in her voice, but the spinning in her head grew too intense to ignore. She sank to her knees. The edges of her vision went fuzzy. She touched a hand to the bloody welt on her leg. The leg felt on fire, but the skin was icy. Odd. “You two go ahead and kill each other. I’m going to pass out. Whoever wins should wake me up.”
    “Cassandra?”
    “Ms. Belle?”
    Cassie faded away from the conversation, divorced from her own body. It was better to not feel the icy burn crawling through her veins. She floated between one moment and the next.
    Appropriate, since she was Underhill.
    “Truce?” Helcyon’s voice whispered along her consciousness like the gentlest of caresses.
    “Peace.” The agent’s voice moved closer. “Did it mark her?”
    “I see blood. I thought we moved her away before it could.”
    “It was there for her.”
    “I agree.”
    “Why were you there, Elf?”
    “Why were you