"Well, at least I lost our tail," Wyrdrune replied with a weak grin.

"Well, at least I lost our tail," Wyrdrune replied with a weak grin.

Loomis had immediately rushed down to the hospital, where he found that Paul was driving everybody

crazy and refusing to take a sedative until he could talk to him. As if he needed a sedative, thought

Loomis. The man had been awake for two days straight. Briefly, Paul had filled him in on what had

happened. Loomis had decided not to burden him with the knowledge that his home had been broken

into and ransacked. He had more than enough to worry about as it was and he was out of it now, in any

case.

As soon as he left the hospital, Loomis had called in and ordered a car sent down to watch Paul's house,

at least until he could do something about getting the front door repaired. The man had a lot of valuable

possessions and with all that he'd already been through, one thing he didn't need was to be burglarized on

top of it all. He didn't think that Broom would provide very much security. If Modred and Kira came

back to the house and saw the police car, they could either teleport inside the house directly or simply

stay away. The phone was ringing as he came into his office. He snatched it up.

"Loomis."

"It's Modred, Joe."

"Jesus, am I glad to hear from you!" said Loomis. "Look, I know about what happened. I just left Paul a

little while ago. You haven't been back to the house, have you?"

"No. But I understand we had some visitors."

"How did you know about that?"

"That's not important. What is important is that this will be our last chance to stop the Dark One before

the fiesta starts. Wemust find him before then."

"You think he'll strike again tonight?"

"Without a doubt. He'll want to bring his strength up as much as possible before he attempts a spell

powerful enough to take all those lives. And I'm certain that he'll do that on Friday, when the streets will

be the most crowded. Now we're going to try something rather unorthodox tonight and we'll need your

cooperation, so listen carefully . . . ."

"This is the nuttiest damn thing I've ever heard of," the cop said as he sat astride his horse just beyond

the barricades. "It's crazy, if you ask me."