Spring Court at Caer Leon (mansion outside the village of Lyonsville). Interruption: battered, charred fae crashes through window, pursued by two bulbous-eyed monstrosities. Which he sets on fire. They don't notice. Prince Llew commands attention long enough for them to burn to death; sprinklers put out the fire. Window Lad is a sidhe in his mid-teens, not wise in the ways of alcohol. Blue spiraling tattoos. Wants to find his sister. ("I have to find my sister!" "You have to find your shirt...") Eavan O'Connell. Grandfather's mansion - George O'Connell. Sister, Sorcha O'Connell: redhead like Eavan, both 16. Sister left behind in mansion. Brother a new Chrysalis.

O'Connell Mansion. There are corpses. Not good. There's also a kid in a kilt, in a tree. Name of Finn. He knows where Sorcha is. In fact, she's in the station wagon that just pulled out with four or five other people and some axes. One of those people is Steve the techie. The others call themselves "the Pack," and one talks to trees. Sorcha and Steve get escorted by yours truly back to Caer Leon.

At the Baronial Seat, cleanup is going on. Sorcha and Eavan are reunited, hurray. Cute scribe boy, Julien Montgomery, seems to have a thing for our Window Lad. Steve is amazingly protective of Sorcha, won't leave the room. Sorcha is talking about werewolves and monsters. Eavan isn't keeping his mouth shut, either. Weird night all around. Apparently S & E think their grandfather is trying to kill them. "Weird glowy silvery thing on the floor," Sorcha said. Uncles and aunts were weird, deformed - freakshow. Eavan thinks they're dead. Julien's offering his and Gordon's place for safekeeping - ah, young lust. They live in Villa Domina - brilliantly, I offer to put Sorcha up, since I'm close by.

(Villa Domina used to be the church and school of St. Ginevra's parish, now converted to apartments. I live on the second floor of the church - floor-to-ceiling stained glass makes everything worthwhile.)

Steve, with stunning alacrity, is taking apartment 30 in the old school. Three bedrooms.

Helped Steve move in. He knows about Gunthar being a troll. Now he knows what I look like, too. We're agreed on the basics: keep Sorcha and Eavan safe, keep bystanders out, and keep other people from finding out any more than we can help.

The question is, can we trust him? He's part hacker, and hackers like to have reputations. But they also like to have secrets. Gamble: he's good enough to know the right times for each.

Second gamble: that Julien will get his tongue back in his mouth long enough to explain to Window Lad why to keep quiet....