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be scared. “I left a note in case he woke up. I thought one of those wraparound ice bands you can get at the sports store would help. Why is he in Opti Health?”
    “Because you were gone and he’s got a lump on his head,” Bill said dryly, and Rachel flushed. “He’ll be fine, but I’d feel better if he stays here for observation tonight. You and Jack are my best team. I’m not taking any chances.” He hesitated, then added softly, “I’m looking at a rather interesting video from the mall. Are you compromised, kiddo?”
    Peri’s eyes flashed to Rachel, the woman looking ill in Jack’s coat and her clubbing dress as she sank down into one of the cushy chairs. If Peri said she was green, Bill would have Opti forces in her apartment in five minutes. If she said no, then he’d assume everything was okay. “No,” she said, eyes fixed on Rachel’s. “I’m more worried about Jack than a mall fruitcake. Honest, he was okay when I left. He gave you the accelerator, didn’t he?”
    “Mall fruitcake!” Jenks exclaimed, and Rachel stood, taking him into a distant corner of the living room, whispering for him to be quiet.
    “I’ve got it, yes,” Bill said, and Rachel went white. “Right in my pocket. I’ll deliver it to Event Horizon first thing tomorrow. No need to come in unless you want to check on Jack.”
    “Phew. Good.” Peri waved her hand to try to tell Rachel it was okay. “I’m glad to get that thing out of my responsibility. Event Horizon had it behind six locked doors and a CO 2 detector. Soon as I get this spilled wine cleaned up, I’m coming in. You going to still be there?”
    “I will be if I know you’re coming,” Bill said, but Peri was distracted by the sight of a sexy redhead in a clubbing dress arguing with a flying man shedding green dust. “I’ll have them put a cot in for you.”
    “Thanks, Bill. You’re the best.”
    “See you soon, kiddo.”
    Peri hung up, jerking back when a ball of glowing dust short-stopped two inches in front of her face. “Son of a fairy fart. How are we going to get home now?” Jenks complained, and Peri rocked back, not liking him that close. “I hope that was just nice-nice talk to get us in there.”
    “It was.” Peri glanced at Rachel as she sat on the raised hearth, elbows on her knees, head in her hands. Jack’s coat hung open on her wide shoulders. “It isn’t going to be easy, though. We have to get the accelerator out of his pocket, send you home, then I have to get it back in his pocket without him knowing I had it. He won’t dare put it in his car safe, much less anywhere else off his person.”
    Jenks’s wings clattered, and Rachel’s head snapped up. “Ah, the accelerator comes with us,” Rachel said as Jenks swung a low path back to her. “I thought you knew that.”
    Peri’s lips parted. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. No one said anything about giving it to you. I thought you were just going to use it and I could put it back.”
    “We can make a fake one to switch them out. It’s not a big deal,” Rachel said tiredly. “And before you freak out, I’m not after your precious accelerator. If I was, I wouldn’t have left it here and gone to the mall looking for a ley line. I just want to go home.”
    Peri’s eyes narrowed as she thought about how Rachel had been in their apartment, waiting for them. But then there was Jenks . . . She’d seen him appear from nothing. And that man in the mall with goat-slitted eyes and wearing green velvet. She hadn’t imagined that. And she wasn’t drugged. She’d swear to it.
    “Hey, you owe Rache,” Jenks said, and Peri jerked back, surprised when he darted to her. “You pulled her out of her reality. It’s up to you to get her back. Sorry if it needs a super-special magic ball.”
    “Take it easy, Jenks.” Rachel stood, looking glum in her black sequins. “Peri will do the right thing.”
    The pixy lost altitude, his mood easy to read. But Peri had just spent two weeks