Patricia Briggs - Silver Borne

To Long-Suffering Editors who never lose their cool, Husbands who feed horses, Children who drive themselves and fix their own meals, to Vets who take panicked phone calls at all hours, and to all of you who give of your time, talents, and energy to help others and to be there when you are needed. My thanks.

There are many people who helped with this book. Thank you to Michael and Susann Boch, my friends in Germany who fix my German and provided Zee with his magic. Thank you to the two women who work at KGH and helped me find a safe space for Samuel. My apologies for losing the scrap of paper I wrote your names down on. If you catch me again, I will include your names in the next book. Thank you to Sylvia Cornish and the ladies of the book club who answered my questions about warrants. My thanks also go to Sgt. Kim Lattin of the Kennewick Police Department, who answered a number of urgent questions for me. To my awe-some husband, who choreographed many of the fight scenes (in this and other books). To Tom Lentz, who has a Kel-Tec and with Kaye and Kyle Roberson gave me excellent gun advice. As always, a very grateful author acknowledges the editing talents of the people who read, critiqued, commented, and argued along the way: Mike Briggs, Collin Briggs, Michael Enzweiler, Debbie Lentz, Ann Peters, Kaye and Kyle Roberson, Sara and Bob Schwager, and Anne Sowards.

As always, any and all errors in this book are the responsibility of the author.

THE STARTER COMPLAINED AS IT TURNED OVER THE old Buicks heavy engine. I felt a lot of sympathy for it since fighting outside my weight class was something I was intimately familiar with. Im a coyote shapeshifter playing in a world of werewolves and vampiresoutmatched is an understatement.

One more time, I told Gabriel, my seventeen-year-old office manager, who was sitting in the drivers seat of his mothers Buick. I sniffed and dried my nose on the shoulder of my work overalls. Runny noses are part and parcel of working in the winter.

I love being a mechanic, runny nose, greasy hands, and all.

Its a life full of frustration and barked knuckles, followed by brief moments of triumph that make all the rest worthwhile. I find it a refuge from the chaos my life has been lately: no one is likely to die if I cant fix his car.

Not even if it is his mothers car. It had been a short day at school, and Gabriel had used his free time to try to fix his mothers car. Hed taken it from running badly to not at all, then had a friend tow it to the shop to see if I could fix it.

The Buick made a few more unhealthy noises. I stepped back from the open engine compartment. Fuel, fire, and air make the engine runproviding that the engine in question isnt toast.

Its not catching, Mercy, said Gabriel, as if I hadnt noticed.

He gripped the steering wheel with elegant but work-roughened hands. There was a smear of grease on his cheekbone, and one eye was red because he hadnt put on safety glasses when hed crawled under the car. Hed been rewarded with a big chunk of crudrusty metal and greasein his eye.

Even though my big heaters were keeping the edge off the cold, we both wore jackets. There is no way to keep a shop truly warm when you are running garage doors up and down all day.

Mercy, my mam has to be at work in an hour.

The good news is that I dont think its anything you did. I stepped away from the engine compartment and met his frantic eyes. The bad news is that its not going to be running in an hour. Jurys out on whether it will be back on the road at all.

He slid out of the car and leaned under the hood to stare at the Little Engine That Couldnt as if he might find some wire I hadnt noticed that would miraculously make it run. I left him to his brooding and went through the hall to my office.

Behind the counter was a grubby, used-to-be-white board with hooks where I put the keys of cars I was working onand a half dozen mystery keys that predated my tenure. I pulled a set of keys attached to a rainbow peace-sign keychain, then trotted back to the garage. Gabriel was back to sitting behind the wheel of his mothers Buick and looking sick. I handed him the keys through the open window.

Take the Bug, I told him. Tell your mom that the turn signals dont blink, so shell have to use hand signals. And tell her not to pull back on the steering wheel too hard or it will come off.

His face got stubborn.

Look, I said before he could refuse, its not going to cost me anything. It wont hold all the kidsnot that the Buick did; there were a lot of kidsand it doesnt have much of a heater. But it runs, and Im not using it. Well work on the Buick after hours until its done, and you can owe me that many hours.

I was pretty sure the engine had gone to the great junkyard in the skyand I knew that Sylvia, Gabriels mother, couldnt afford to buy a new engine, any more than she could buy a newer car. So Id call upon Zee, my old mentor, to work his magic on it. Literal magicthere was not much figurative about Zee. He was a fae, a gremlin whose natural element was metal.

The Bugs your project car, Mercy. Gabriels protest was weak.

My last project car, a Karmann Ghia, had sold. My take of the profits, shared with a terrific bodyman and an upholsterer, had purchased a 71 Beetle and a 65 VW Bus with a little left over. The Bus was beautiful and didnt run; the Bug had the opposite problem.

Ill work on the Bus first. Take the keys.

The expression on his face was older than it should have been. Only if youll let the girls come over and clean on Saturdays until we get the Bug back to you.

Im not dumb. His little sisters knew how to workI was getting the better of the bargain.

Deal, I said before he could take it back. I shoved the keys into his hand. Go take the car to Sylvia before shes late.

Ill come back afterward.

Its late. Im going home. Just come at the usual time tomorrow.

Tomorrow was Saturday. Officially, I was closed on the weekends, but recent excursions to fight vampires had cut into my bottom line. So Id been staying open later and working on the weekend to make a little extra money.

There is no cash in battling evil: just the opposite in my experience. Hopefully, I was done with vampiresthe last incident had nearly gotten me killed, and my luck was due to run out; a woman whose best talent was changing into a coyote had no business in the big leagues.

I sent Gabriel on his way and started the process of closing up. Garage doors down, heat turned to sixty, lights off. Till drawer in the safe, my purse out. Just as I reached for the final light switch, my cell phone rang.

Mercy? It was Zees son, Tad, who was going to an Ivy League college back East on full scholarship. The fae were considered a minority, so his official status as half-fae and his grades had gotten him inhard work was keeping him there.

Hey, Tad. Whats up?

I got an odd message on my cell phone last night. Did Phin give you something?

Phin?

Phineas Brewster, the guy I sent you to when the police had Dad up on murder charges and you needed some information about the fae to find out who really killed that man.

It took me a second. The bookstore guy? He loaned me a book. Id been meaning to return it for a while. Just how often do you get a chance to read a book about the mysterious fae, written by the fae? It was handwritten and tough to decipher, slow goingand Phin hadnt seemed anxious to get it back when hed loaned it to me. Tell him Im sorry, and Ill return it to him tonight. I have a date later on, but I can get it to him before that.