Bursting into her suite she ran into the bedroom and pulled the sock drawer open, slipping the photo into her pocket. She nearly tripped on her way down the stairs, she was going so fast. Somehow it felt like Natasha might be gone when she got back. Like the woman might change her mind and make a break for it. The computer hacker was so twitchy that Alice wouldn’t be surprised…

But no, she was still there, blinking around nervously.

Alice sat down and slid the photograph onto the table between the two of them, watching Natasha’s face as she examined the photo.

“Do you recognize any of these women as being Monica Dobek?”

Natasha frowned, narrowing her eyes as she scanned the photo. Alice inched her chair closer, glancing down at the photo herself. It had been awhile since she’d bothered looking at the picture. She’d looked at it a lot at first, mostly at her Aunt Ruby. She wished she knew what her aunt had been like. She only had vague, fuzzy memories of her.

Natasha suddenly sat up straight in her chair. “Hang on. Yes, I think that’s her.” She jabbed a finger at the picture, at one of the taller ladies standing at the back of the group. The woman had sharp, angular features and silvery hair. Small spectacles perched on the end of her nose, and her smile was a little bit wry looking. As if she hadn’t really wanted to pose for the picture and was humouring her friends.

Alice leaned over, squinting, trying to see the woman’s face better. She had looked at this photo so many times when she’d first got it, but she’d never really concentrated on one person. There was nothing remarkable looking about her. Only…

A stab of shock as she realized what was bothering her. The woman was familiar. When she really concentrated on her face, she could have sworn there was something she recognized about her. That distinctive smile. Who had looked at her like that?

It hadn’t been recently. Alice sat back in her chair, frustrated. She looked up to see Natasha studying her face.

“Your expression changed just now,” the woman said accusingly. “You know who she is, don’t you? Tell me.”

Alice bit her fingernail and shifted her gaze back down to the photo. “I think—I don’t know. I think I recognize her from somewhere. But it isn’t coming to me. It’s not her face as much, it’s her smile….” She blinked, looking back up at Natasha. “I know that sounds mental—”

“No, no. Facial recognition is stronger when it’s associated with something like that. Maybe it’s someone you met a long time ago.” Natasha leaned forward eagerly. “Can you remember the conditions you met her in? Maybe the emotions you felt?”

Alice shook her head. “I think maybe there were other people with me, but that’s all I can remember.”

“Your friends at the book signing.”

How did Natasha know about that? She’d tried to make it look as if she’d come alone. Had it been very obvious the others were with her? “Did you…how do you know?”
                The computer hacker smiled, a lopsided expression. She was obviously proud of herself. “I have very honed powers of perception. Well, that and the fact that I’ve read articles about you in Witches Weekly and stuff. Everyone knows you have an entourage.”

“They’re not an entourage,” Alice said crossly. “They’re employees, they run the shop with me.”

Natasha shrugged. “Same difference.”

Alice was about to argue, but the bell over the door jangled, and she stood up, heart racing. She relaxed a little when Azura’s voice called out,

“We’re back. We all got books signed.”

“Yeah, he signed mine with a heart.” Altair said, coming around the corner. “I nearly swooned.” Upon seeing Natasha, he stopped and gave her a wide grin. “Well hey there, you must be the computer whiz. We thought you were a man.”

Trust Altair to state it so openly. Alice almost groaned.  Natasha gave him a narrow look, but she didn’t say anything. Gabriel came around the corner, followed by Maya. Soon everyone was crowded in the doorway, and Alice got the impression that Natasha was starting to get uncomfortable.

To get the spotlight off the other woman, Alice cleared her throat and announced, “I think I recognize who this woman is, and Natasha gave me a name. Do any of you remember who this is? She’s the third woman from the left in the back row.”

They passed the photo around. When it reached Azura, the older woman blinked, bringing the picture closer. “I think….I think this is a much younger version of Ruby’s friend Peggy.”

Alice’s mouth dropped. “Peggy! The woman we met when we went to Prague.” It came back in a rush. The necklace Peggy had given her, how she’d talked about Aunt Ruby with a hint of nostalgia. Alice had thought they’d just been old friends. “Let me see again.”

She held out her hand for the photo, and Altair took one last look at it before passing it over. “Yeah, it’s that sarcastic smile. I recognize it. Swear, you wouldn’t want to get on that woman’s bad side. I had a feeling about her.”

“You did not.” Gabriel snorted. “You’re just saying that now.”

Alice ignored the two of them, staring down at the woman in the picture again. She still wouldn’t have been sure if Azura hadn’t said it, but now that she knew…it did look like her, albeit ten or fifteen years younger.

“So, her real name is Monica Dobek?” Alice looked at Natasha. “What else?”

The woman shrugged. “That’s mostly all I know. Just that she’s likely associated with the Half Moon order. She mentioned it a couple times before she vanished from the forums.”

“Well, let’s go talk to her.” Alice stood up, pocketing the photo. Everyone just stood in the doorway staring at her. “What?”

                “What if it’s a trap?” Maya frowned, glancing over at Gabriel. “What if they want us to go back there?”

“Well we can’t just leave it,” Alice insisted. “I have to figure out what’s going on here. If Peggy—Monica, whatever her name is, if she knows something about the Half Moon Order, I want to know. Trap or not, I need whatever information I can get if I want to keep surviving.” She threw up her hands, feeling frustrated when nobody moved. “It’s obvious that for some reason, gods are just going to keep coming after me. Once or twice could have been some crazy coincidence. But I’m not stupid. Apparently I have some kind of big shiny target on my forehead that only the gods can see. I’m a magnet for trouble at this point. I need to find out why. The order obviously knows something.”

Natasha cleared her throat, flushing slightly when everyone looked over at her. She tapped one finger on the top of the Eric Revol book that was lying on the table in front of her. “You might be able to ask him. Apparently you have one of them on your side.” She shrugged when the others looked at her. “He wrote her a note warning her that someone was there.”

“What?” Altair strode over and snatched up the book. “That Revol tool wrote you a note? Did he dot everything with little hearts too?”

“He warned me about Adam,” Alice said grimly.

Altair flipped to the last page, glaring at Gabriel as he did so. “I told you I didn’t like that guy.”

“So…he’s a god?” Gabriel snatched the book from Altair and squinted at the messy writing. “I mean, Adam is?”

“Looks that way.” Alice looked over at Azura. “I need to find out what Peggy knows.”

“I’ll go,” Azura said. “I can travel there on my own. Peggy knows me, and I’m afraid that Maya might be right. This could very well be a trap.”

“Staying here isn’t any better,” Alice argued. “Adam is out there someone. I saw him at the book signing, he knows where the shop is—”

“Well go as soon as I get back.” Azura reached up for a handful of threads. “And whatever you do, Alice…don’t fall asleep in the meantime.”

Then she was gone, vanishing as soon as she’d touched the magic, blurring out with a sharp cracking sound that make them all jump.

“I forgot she could do that…” Alice trailed off when she looked at the others. They were all staring at her. Shakra looked guilty. Altair cleared his throat. “What does she mean, don’t fall asleep?”

So Shakra had obviously told Azura. No big surprise. Her cheeks felt hot. Alice hoped she wasn’t actually blushing. “It’s not confirmed yet, but…” But it was obvious. Of course the man in her dreams had been him. What was even more alarming was that it seemed the god had a way of accesing her unconscious mind. Azura was right, there was no way she could sleep until she knew it wouldn’t happen again. Maybe if they got far enough away from him…

If only they knew how he was doing it.

“I’ve been having dreams….” She cleared her throat, shifting her gaze to her shoes. This was highly embarrassing. “They were weirdly…vivid. They all had the same guy in them, only he was always wearing a mask. I told Shakra I suspected it might be Adam.”

Altair’s eyes were glittering when she looked up at him, and Alice felt her stomach drop. “Well, we all know that dreams can be shared. What was it about?”

She hesitated, knowing full well he was thinking about the dream he’d had with her when they’d first met. That had been a shared dream. No doubt he was wondering what she’d dreamed about Adam. There was no way she was telling anyone.

“He just keeps telling me they want me on their side. I don’t know what it means. He’s always annoyingly cryptic in them.”

“I don’t like that.” Gabriel was frowning. “That means they can get into her head now?”

Shakra shrugged, her expression helpless. “We could try a dream catcher, but if it’s a god doing it, I doubt it will help. I don’t know much about how this god’s power works. I don’t know how he’s doing that.”

“So, until we get of here, I’ll just have to drink lots of coffee.” Alice glanced over at the door, wondering how long Azura would take talking to Peggy. She hoped she’d be back soon.

To her surprise, Natasha asked to stay with them for a while.  Alice agreed to put her up in the spare bedroom, since the computer hacker claimed that she hadn’t had time to get a hotel. It was strange, but Alice supposed she owed that much to the woman. After all, her lead had turned out to be good. Now, whether Azura could actually get any information out of Peggy was another thing altogether.

Altair pulled her aside later that evening, and they went into the bedroom, leaving Natasha watching TV on the couch beside Emmy. The little house cat appeared to be irritated when the woman ignored her demands to be petted. Instead, the computer hacker produced a lap top from the bag she’d had slung over her shoulder and half watched “Top Witch” while she typed furiously away at something. Alice hoped she wasn’t spilling all their secrets on her blog.

The bedroom door shut behind them, and Altair turned to her. “Tell me about the dreams.”

She couldn’t remember seeing him so serious. It made her feel sick with guilt. But why should she be feeling so bad? It wasn’t like she could control the dreams. She was being stalked by some kind of deranged god, it wasn’t her fault. “They’re just dreams…” Alice sighed. “I mean, they’re dangerous, but not a lot that makes sense happens in them. Every time I have one I try to get him to tell me who he is and what he wants. The latest one I almost got something out of him. He said he wanted me on their side, but I woke up before he said anything else.”

Altair frowned. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

He was acting so serious that she thought he was probably angry, though he didn’t raise his voice, or show it in any way.

She glanced away, face growing hot. “They were weird. I felt guilty about having them, since he’s usually….um…”

His eyebrows shot up. “He’s what….naked?”

“No!” Alice blinked. “God, no. He’s just…he has pants on.” When he pressed his lips together and raised his brows at her she felt a flash of annoyance. “It’s not like I can control the dreams!”

“It’s fine.” Altair held up his hands. “Woah, I wasn’t saying you could. I’m just worried about you, that’s all. I wish you’d said something.”

She crossed her arms over her chest, turning away from him. “You’ve been preoccupied lately, I didn’t want to bother you with it.”

                She felt his hand on her arm, and then he tugged her around to face him. Altair grabbed both her arms so she couldn’t pull back and she found herself unable to look away from his eyes. Electric blue. Part of what had made him so attractive to her in the first place. It was so much more than that now, of course.

She loved every little thing about him, but still…sometimes she wanted to shake him.

“You keep going out to see your friend…I figured you were back to doing…whatever it was you did before.”

Altair shook his head. “I don’t like it when you don’t tell me stuff like this. I’m completely serious, you need to tell me if you ever feel threatened by anything like that. Anything slightly weird. I need to know. Got it?”

Alice repressed a smile. She was tempted to ask what exactly he was going to do to challenge a god. Pick their pockets? But she didn’t. “Okay, I got it.”

He grinned down at her and then pulled her in, wrapping his arms around her. For a moment, Alice let herself lean into him, relaxing. She could feel his chin on the top of her head, feel his chest rise and fall with each breath. The familiar smell of his shampoo and cologne surrounded her. It was comforting, in spite of everything.

When he spoke again his voice was muffled, since he had his head ducked down and his face in her hair. “Why don’t you go back down there and bring your computer hacker chick? I’ll be right down. I just have to call my friend and tell him….well, tell him I won’t be seeing him again for a while.”

Alice pulled back and eyed him sternly. “Whatever you do, don’t tell him where we’re going. I don’t trust anyone who used to be your buddy back in the day.”

Altair rolled his eyes. “I’m not a moron, sweetheart. Neither do I.” He flicked both hands at her in a shooing motion. “Go on down, I promise I won’t breath a word. In fact, you haven’t told me where we’re going anyways.”

“Probably for the best.” Alice shot him a grin over her shoulder and turned and made her way out. In truth, she wasn’t sure where they were going either. Somewhere far away from here. Where could she go that wouldn’t have any gods? Was there a place they really hated? She’d have to ask Auzra and Shakra what they though. That is, when Azura got back.