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someone,” I said, and he threw his hands up. Behind me, a bell dinged, and I spun around at lightning speed. Orin stood in the doorway. He was dressed in a business suit, and he smiled when his gaze met mine. No recognition lit there at all. He moved to the counter and stood beside me.
    “I’m so glad I caught you open,” he said to Stanley.
    “I’m shutting down in twenty minutes. Make it fast.”
    I stared at Orin. “Don’t you know me, Orin?”
    He leaned one elbow on the counter. “I should, beautiful lady like yourself. Can I buy you a drink, Miss…?”
    Taking in his pressed suit and tie, shined shoes, and neatly cut hair, I might have mistaken him for a businessman. Perhaps I wasn’t mistaken at all. “Rue Darrow. You don’t remember me? Where’s Pammie? Is she free from Almonester as well?”
    His eyebrows creased. “I’m not sure how you know me, but I’ve never seen you before. I don’t know a Pammie or an Almonester. Sorry.”
    A thrill raced through me. “Then it worked! You’re free.”
    I zipped out of the store, leaving a very confused Orin and an irritated Stanley. To make sure Pammie was also fine, I opened my senses to pick up her scent. After a couple hours, I believed I got a bite in the Garden District. While I stood in the shadows under a tree, I watched Pammie leave a mansion-sized house on the arm of a man. She appeared painfully thin, and my hopes were dashed. Had she gotten rid of one master for another?
    The man started in alarm when I appeared in front of the two of them. Pammie, who had been smiling up into the man’s face and teetering a little on high heels, pushed him behind her and raised a hand to me.
    “Try something, and you will have a fight on your hands.” Pammie’s face had gone stark cold as she stared at me, and I felt the energy building in her palm. She was going to zap me! Me, who had freed her. Of course, by now I realized she didn’t know me. Not with the changes I had caused. None of us had met Almonester or worked together.
    “What are you doing, Pammie?” the man said. “Move aside. If this person is trying to rob us, I’ll protect you.”
    “Don’t be silly.” Her words were scathing where they had been aimed to charm him before. The man seemed just as confused as I was by her attitude. My guess was, she was always sugarplums and kittens with him, poor deceived fellow.
    “Pammie, just tell me one thing,” I said, hoping she wouldn’t let go of a ball of magic on me. “Are you enslaved to him? You’re so thin. Is he starving you?”
    She snorted. “Enslaved. Why would I ever?”
    The man harrumphed. “My Pammie is perfect and beautiful. She is on her way to being a sought after model by the biggest—”
    “A model,” I interrupted. “So that’s why she’s thin. Whew, what a relief. Okay, my dears. Carry on.”
    “What is this about?” Pammie frowned at me, but I left them standing there. Time to get home, shower, change, and visit Nathan. No, wait. My little apartment. I lived with Nathan now. Did Almonester not own the apartment building where I stayed above him, and he lived on the first floor? Better to check it out.
    Ten minutes later I arrived in front of my apartment building. Everything appeared the same, except someone had chained a bike at the top of the stairs, right outside my door. Flowers hung in a couple window boxes on the first floor. I didn’t ride a bike, and Almonester probably wouldn’t be caught dead with flowers. That answered my question. My tiny little apartment was lost to me, and I didn’t have a job. A lot could change in a few hours or two hundred years.
     

Chapter Five
     
    I arrived at Nathan’s to find him standing before his closet. As long as I’ve known Nathan, he hasn’t been the type to get too involved mentally in choosing what he wore. You could say he resembled the stereotype of his kind like an identical twin.
    I walked up behind him and wrapped my arms around his waist. For a moment