“I am not flirting with you. I’m merely sharing my expertise on angels with my friends.”

Harker looked amused. “Expertise?”

“Yes, expertise,” I repeated. “And don’t get your wings in a twist. Nero knows I love only him.” I looked across the room and winked at my angel.

Nero’s lips turned up, ever so slightly.

Marina didn’t meet Harker’s eyes. She looked down at her hands. So the confident witch was shy around angels.

I looked at Harker. “Now see what you’ve done. You’ve scared her.”

“Believe it or not, Leda, I scare off a lot of women nowadays. Apparently, angels are intimidating.”

I snorted. “No kidding. Having regrets that you became an angel, are you?”

“No. The benefits outweigh the costs.”

“It sure would be useful to be able to fly.” If I were an angel, I could have flown away instead of going back to that meeting chamber.

“I can take you flying sometime if you want,” Harker offered.

“Na, you’d probably drop me.”

Harker looked offended. “I would never do such a thing.”

“So, did you come over here for smalltalk, or do you have another reason for gracing us with your angelic presence?” I asked him.

“You know why I’m here, Leda.”

“You want an update on the Council of Unfortunate Supernaturals.”

“Yes.”

“Well, I got them to stop fighting. And then it was lunch time.” I patted him on the shoulder. “Consider yourself updated.”

Harker frowned. “I asked about your progress. Are you telling me you got absolutely nothing accomplished?”

“The supernatural leaders don’t get along.”

“They don’t have to get along. It’s your job to make them obedient. And to see if any of them know anything. I expect a report by the end of the day.”

He rose, then his gaze shifted to Bella. “You are Leda’s sister.”

“I am,” she said coolly.

“Has she always been so frustrating?”

“It depends on who you ask,” Bella replied.

Harker laughed. “I’m asking you.”

“Then you’re out of luck. I don’t tattle on my sister.” She frowned at him. “Not even to angels.”

I’d never seen her so cold with anyone. She was usually so friendly.

“I see.” Harker looked at me. “The report is due at midnight, Pandora. And you’d better have something illuminating to put in it.”

I watched him leave, frustrated.

“He is so hot,” Marina muttered when Harker was sitting back at the head table.

“It doesn’t matter how hot he is. No one treats my sister like that,” Bella said, steel in her voice.

So that was why she’d been so cold to him.

Marina didn’t seem to hear Bella. She was too busy staring at Harker.

The bell chimed, and I stood. “Time to return to the battlefield.”

“You mean the ballroom,” Bella corrected me.

I shook my head. “No. I really mean the battlefield.”

The afternoon session of the Council of Unfortunate Supernaturals didn’t prove any more fruitful than the morning session had. I left the ballroom at the end of the day, my ears still ringing from the hours of insults the supernatural leaders had hurled at each other like children throwing food in a high school cafeteria.

Ivy and Drake were sitting on the sofa in our living room, getting ready to start a movie.

“Leda, you’re just in time,” Ivy said. “You can help us pick the movie. Which should it be: The Witch Covens of Sleepy Hollow, or Vampires vs. Werewolves?”

“I had quite enough of Vampires vs. Werewolves last night.”

Drake looked at Ivy. “I agree.”

“The Witch Covens of Sleepy Hollow, it is.” Ivy turned the disc over in her hand. “I’m not sure if this film is a love story or a horror movie.”

“I think it’s both,” Drake told her.

Ivy grinned at him. “That’s the best kind. Remember back in eighth grade when our parents went out of town and we watched The Vampire Hunter trilogy?”

“Sure I do, but I’m surprised you remember.” Mischief sparked in his eyes. “You spent most of the trilogy hiding your head under the blanket in terror.”

“That was you, genius.”

“No, I distinctly remember it was a girl with red pigtails.”

She tossed a few pieces of popcorn at him. He caught them all in his mouth, one after the other. But he swallowed too fast and choked on a kernel.

Ivy snorted, thumping him on the back. She looked at me. “Come on, join us, Leda. We have popcorn.”

She and Drake were sure sitting close. And the way they were looking at each other made me realize I needed to be somewhere else—anywhere else. Maybe I’d pay Nerissa a visit.

“How is Nerissa doing?” I asked Ivy.

“She got some sleep this morning and now she’s back at work,” Ivy told me. “She looks worlds better. But she kicked me out of her lab so she could concentrate. She kicked out everyone else too. We’re all banned. She promised to give us Dragon Pox if we returned before morning.”

Ok, maybe I wouldn’t pay Nerissa a visit after all. She obviously wasn’t in a talking mood. Dragon Pox weren’t deadly, but they were really itchy.

“I’m going to head to the library,” I decided. “I need a quiet space to write my report for Harker.”

“What you need is your own office.”

“I certainly do.”

They turned on the movie as I walked out. Ivy and Drake seemed to be slowly realizing how they feel about each other. They just needed some time alone so they could take the plunge.

And I needed to find a way to fill several pages with text. I didn’t have anything to tell Harker. I had no clue what Angel Fever was, no clue how it had started, and no clue how it was spreading. On top of all that, I also had no clue how to stop it. How the hell was I going to expand that to five pages? I was definitely going to need a really big font.

One thing I did know was the infection was spreading. And if supernaturals were purposely putting themselves in its path, soon Angel Fever was going to get out of control. If we didn’t have a cure before then, more people were going to die.

19 Angel Fever

I woke up early to run the next morning. Two hours later, I still didn’t have any new ideas. My bug in the Sea King’s office hadn’t yielded anything more interesting than a planning session he’d held late last night to organize New York City’s annual Water and Ice Ball. The meeting had included a whole lot of tabletop decorations and menu options—but no deep, dark secrets. I was this close to bugging the office of every supernatural leader in the city.

I poked my scrambled eggs in frustration. I was eating breakfast alone this morning. The breakfast rush hadn’t yet started.

“Leda.” Harker sat down opposite me.

“Good morning,” I said brightly. My foster mother Calli had always told me to start off each morning with a smile.

Harker wasn’t smiling.

“Well, don’t you look cheerful this morning?” I commented. “What’s wrong? Didn’t you get enough sleep?”

“I read your report before bed.”

“That explains it,” I said seriously. “Did my vivid descriptions of the battles give you nightmares?”

“Your report was colorful.”

“I aim to please.”

“Colorful but without substance,” he continued. “It read like a teenage soap opera.”

“That’s what it was in that meeting hall with those supernatural leaders. It’s like high school. No, that’s too mature for them. It’s like a freaking kindergarten.”

“Fix this,” Harker told me. “Use that creative, out-of-the-box thinking you’re famous for.”

More like infamous. The Legion was very much in the box—in their box.

Harker stood, repeating, “Fix this.”

As he walked away, Ivy and Drake sat down beside me. They weren’t holding hands or kissing. They were acting like they were still in denial—in other words, the new status quo for them. It seemed nothing had happened after I’d left them last night. I was going to have to resort to extreme measures.