I'd slept to about mid-afternoon. Upon getting dressed, we decided to go wander the streets a bit. There was still a gentle snow falling. I pulled on my new jacket after getting dressed and grabbed the key card. The elevator dinged open and my head automatically turned to look for the girl at the desk. She was gone, having been replaced with a guy somewhere in his thirties.

   "So, what first?" I asked Tate as we stood on the street. "I can see two different cafes, three shops, a few official buildings, a bus station..."

   "Let's just wander," he suggested. "We've got nothing to do for once. When is the next time that that's going to happen?"

   He had a point. I looked up at the snow. It all fell in a mesmerizing dance, swirling towards the ground. Snowflakes had lives that lasted seconds, but I had to admit, they were beautiful. Something about how they drifted down weightlessly was fascinating to watch. It snowed sometimes in Memphis, but not often enough for me to enjoy it.

   "How about a hot drink?" I offered.

~

   We spent the majority of the afternoon wandering the street. I allowed myself to recharge. I'd been using magic extensively, multiple times a day for a long time. My energy levels were low. I couldn't quite relax, but it was the closest I'd come to relaxed in a while. Tate and I ended up wandering into every store, but we only ever bought coffee.

   The snow had continued to fall, leaving a steady three inches on the ground. Tate went off to throw away his empty cup. I looked down at the snow and got an idea. Jogging toward the nearby building, I rounded the corner. Tate would undoubtably follow my footsteps. I buried my hands into the snow and prepared as quickly as possible, knowing he'd be able to hear what I was doing as soon as he got near enough.

   His footsteps soon approached. I hid against the wall of the building, a stupid grin plastered on my face. "Roxie?" He peeked around the corner. His eyes found the army of hovering, red-tainted snowballs too late. He yelped as I clenched my fist and they pelted into him.

   Tate managed to duck and avoid some of them, but another hit his nose and exploded into pieces. I cackled and stepped around the corner. "Oldest trick in the book!"

   He wiped some of the snow off of his face and the expression he was wearing was one that promised consequences. My laugh died immediately. "Oh, shit." Tate was faster, stronger, and could probably pelt my face with a much faster snowball. A grin started to appear on his lips as he slowly dusted his shirt off, never breaking my gaze.

   I barely had time to turn around before a snowball was created and crashed into the back of my head. I shrieked and ducked, arms up around my skull. Another snowball hit my hands. I doubled over to protect myself as two more crashed into my back and sent me stumbling. I flicked my hand and Tate's own snowball flew out of his hand and smashed into his face. 

   "Playing dirty, are we?" He barreled forward. Just as I whipped around, we collided and I fell directly into the snow. Tate grabbed a handful and whacked it into my face. Sitting up, he reached for another handful. I kicked his hand away and my other hand smashed a lump into his eyes. Tate yelled and staggered upright. He wiped his eyes clean and his gaze seared brightly. My legs scrambled forward as I darted for fresh snow.

   Cold seared into my bare hands as I hastily formed a snowball. Jumping to my feet, I cocked my arm back and whipped around with a triumphant, "Ha!"

   Tate had his chin up and his eyes narrowed darkly. A few figure -- some woman -- had appeared behind him. A delicate knife was held in her thin hands and had already dug into Tate's throat enough to make some blood drip. I paused, my eyebrow arching. Tate didn't look worried, but instead annoyed.

   The woman had hair that was as pale as the snow and braided out of her face. Her skin made Tate's tan look pale, her flesh was that golden. Her eyes were molten lava. The woman was maybe my height, so not very tall, but she was much thinner. All she comprised of was bones and thin muscle. She was wearing some sort of black clothes, one that looked as if it could withstand a knife or gunshot. Three purple stars aligned on her front. 

   "If I see so much as a spark, he dies," the woman said lowly. She -- like the fae, elves, and vampires -- had longer and sharper canines. 

   I looked at her incredulously. Did she seriously think that Tate wouldn't be able to stop her? And even if he couldn't, I could knock that knife away faster than she could blink. "Are you serious?" Did this random lady seriously think she could rob us?

   Her eyebrow raised sharply. "Are you sure you want to test me? You didn't even hear me walk up. Why do you think that you could stop me?"

   Demon. She would have to be a demon to sneak past Tate's hearing, right? But demons didn't have those sharp teeth. If she was a demon, then yeah, her threat was valid. I sighed. "What do you want, lady?"

   "Drop your weapon."

   I didn't think I was holding anything . . . I looked down at my hand and started to laugh. Tate's lip quirked up. "A snowball? You want me to drop the snowball?"

   Her look was deadpan. I snorted and made a point of dropping the snowball. It sank into the snow. She shifted her wrist, the knife running across Tate's neck. His shoulders tensed. "I have a message for you, Roxie Reilly. From Dani herself."

   This just got a lot more interesting. I crossed my arms. "Yeah?" So she worked with Dani, then. Another person. How many people did Dani get to order around? At least, I was assuming she was the leader behind this.

   "She has an offer," said the woman. "You can leave Anchorage now. Come back with me. If you decide to come with me, then Dani will spare this man." Her knife shifted again. "She will spare your father, and your cousin, Mark Clarence. She will also spare Simone."

   My lip curled automatically and my fists clenched. "How the hell do you know Simone?" Crimson began to wrap up my arms in my anger.

   The knife dug into Tate's throat and more blood fell. "Not a spark, Reilly," hissed the woman. Tate grimaced, turning his head to lessen the blood-flow. I growled between my teeth and forced my hands to unclench. The magic slowly dissolved. "If you touch Simone--"

   "We won't," she said. "If you come with me."

   "And do what?"

   Her lip quirked. "And give yourself up to Dani, of course."

   "I'll give up when hell freezes over," I snarled. "You're lucky that I don't kill you right now."

   "And then your cousin Mark dies. The spy in Death Valley will murder your father. Someone will head right over to Memphis to visit Simone. And Dani will see personally to Tate, here." Her lip quirked into a smirk.

   They know where Dad is, they know about Mark, and they have a spy in Death Valley? My eyes snapped to Tate's. His had narrowed dangerously. My jaw clenched tightly. "So if I don't go with you, what happens?"

   She shrugged slyly. "You'll lose everyone you love. And then Dani will take your magic, anyway." A smile curled her lip up to expose her sharp teeth. "You haven't been clever, Roxie. You can't escape us. You know about your father. We know about your meeting with your cousin. And we know that you are trying to join the Council's team that is attempting to follow Dani." She snorted. "Go with them, and you'll lead us directly to them. It'll be a massacre."

   There has to be a way out of this. She's lying. That team would already be dead if Dani knew where they were. She's depending on me saying no to this deal to lead them to the team. The realization hit me. I had no idea how these people were following me, but it was obvious that they hadn't been able to follow the Council's team.

   Tate suddenly started to smile. The woman sensed it because she turned her head. "What's so amusing, Leon?"

   "You can't kill me. We're in Anchorage. There's Enforcers on every block. I'd be healed before you even got close to killing me. And once that happened, you'll be caught. This threat," he lifted a finger to the knife, "is completely empty. Good try, though. Thanks for monologuing. It was pretty helpful."

   Tate casually pushed the knife away. I realized he was right when the woman snarled and jumped backwards. She dropped into a crouch with her back angled a little upwards and flipped the knife facedown in her hand. Another knife was drawn from her boot. 

   "I heard you following us an hour ago," chuckled Tate. "You weren't as sneaky as you thought. You've actually never tried to stalk a shapeshifter, have you? You made some amateur mistakes, like staying close enough that I could hear your heartbeat. It was way too fast, too."

   Her lip pulled back to flash her teeth. "Oh, shut up, you smug prick."

   "So you are new." Tate wiped some blood away from his neck. "Especially since you were a good inch away from my jugular. You wouldn't even have killed me if you slashed my throat. Shifters don't die as easily as humans. A cut won't kill me."

   I started to laugh. The woman seemed infuriated and her wrists flexed. "No wonder Dani hates you so much. You're insufferable."

   "You can't even hurt us," I snorted. "And you're still talking trash. Just go away, already. You were sent to scare me and you failed."

   She growled at the insult. I snapped my fingers and crimson popped into existence as a warning. The woman flashed her teeth before taking a step back. Her muscles tensed before she jumped, soaring ten feet above our heads. She used the wall to ricochet to the other building and back, soaring over the roof and out of sight.

   "Well, that was handy," commented Tate. He snagged to snow to numb his neck. "So someone's been tailing us."

   "And they don't know where Simone is." I blew out a breath. "She hasn't lived in Memphis is years. That woman still thinks she lives there." I looked at him, a little accusing. "You knew she was following us for an hour?"

   He nodded and pulled back the scarlet snow to examine it. "Sorry, I didn't want to tip her off that we knew. Telling you would have changed your behavior. She would have been able to tell."

   "Well, we made the right choice, going to that team." I grinned darkly. "Dani has been able to have me followed, but she still hasn't been able to find them. I'm positive I can ditch any tail in the nex lines. So, that team is actually pretty damn good if Dani hasn't been able to locate and kill them yet."