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The mother straightened, reached into her sleeve, and extracted a plastic blood collection tube. “This much. Press here and slide up. The needle will pop out. Once you draw blood, the needle will retract.
Put the cap on right here and bring the whole thing back to us.” She sighed. “You must meet him in the mist. In Morrigan’s place. That’s where his blood is most potent. And another thing: the blood can’t be taken or bought with money or traded for favors. It must be freely given or it will lose its magic.”
How in the name of all that’s holy was I going to do that?
I walked to the platform and took the tube from her.
“How do I get into the mist?”
The mother reached to her knitting. “Nettle and Hound’s hair, knitted together. You know how to do a calling, don’t you?”
“Yes.” Where did she get his hair?
“You better,” she said. “Go now. Sienna needs to rest.”
I turned to see the red columns draining, revealing the vampire and the monster that once served as my sidekick. The ward circles shivered and vanished, and Derek padded to me, eyes alight with yellow fire.
CHAPTER 17
“OUTRAGEOUS,” THE VAMPIRE HISSED.
“What would you have me do?” I stepped out onto Centennial Drive, shook twigs out of my hair, and headed across the street to the chicken joint. Normally I kept away from fried food, but today was different. I’d danced in the snow, crawled in tortoise spit, got locked up in glyphs, and I deserved some fried wings, damn it.
The vampire followed. The patrons eyed it with open suspicion but stayed where they were. Atlanteans for you. A walking undead, no big.
And then they saw Derek. Chairs scraped as a few moved out of the way.
“Derek, you want chicken?”
The bastard offspring of Dr. Moreau’s Dog-Man and the Hound of Baskervilles nodded.
“Hey!” A stocky laborer at the nearest table pointed a chicken drumstick at me. “Hey, what the fuck, huh? I can’t eat with them here!”
I gave him my hard stare. “I guess you won’t be needing your food then.”
That shut him up.
I pushed the twenty-dollar bill across the counter and scooped up my change and a basket of fried wings. I was so tired of being broke and hungry. At least for a moment I could be happy and full of chicken. I zeroed in on our horses, tethered back by the tunnel. We could eat on the go.