White Witch, Black Curse

"She's mine!" Mia cried out, distress turning her from a power-crazed banshee to a mother watching her child being taken from her, and the tears pricked again, for Holly this time.

"She's your child," Ford said calmly. "I'm holding her in trust, and I will not turn her against you. She's…my sanity, Mia. She quiets the emotions that hurt me. She will never want for emotion around me, and I will not twist her against you as The Walker would have."

Mia's face was stark with fear, but under it was hope. "She won't have my daughter?"

Ford shifted Holly to a more comfortable position. "Never. The paperwork is being pushed through. Unless Walker can prove that she's related to Holly, she doesn't have a chance, banshee or not. I will have custody of Holly until you're able to become her mother again, and I'll bring her to see you whenever you ask. And Remus, if they will let me. As long as I am alive, that woman will not have her."

"Holly?" Mia said tremulously, her voice holding only love, and the little girl turned, her pale skin red from tears. Ford moved close, and mother and child touched one last time. Tears leaked from Mia, and she brushed them away, shocked to find them wet. "My daughter," she whispered, then pulled her hand back when the two vampires in the lead gave a tug.

Ford backed behind the security of the armed FIB officers. "It's not forever," he said. "You killed people to make your life easier, making your task of finding enough emotion to raise your child simple rather than the chore it rightfully should be. If you live in society, you have to live by its rules. Those same rules will let you go if you're willing to abide by them. Right now, Holly is safe. You won't get her away from me without killing me or those who watch you. Kill me, and The Walker will have Holly when they catch you again—and we will catch you. There are too many of us, and we know what to look for now."

Mia nodded. She looked back only once as she headed up the stairs, the two I.S. agents before and behind her. Her eyes were black with tears that turned silver as she wept for herself.

The tension in the room dropped. I moved to sit against the wall. In an angry motion, I pulled my knees to my chin, and, not caring what anyone thought, I put my head down and cried, the wool of my coat rough against my scraped cheek. Kisten. He had died to save my life. He killed himself to keep me alive.

"Rachel."

There was the rasp of dress shoes. Head down and hair covering my vision, I shoved whoever it was away, but they came right back. Thin, masculine fingers landed on my shoulder, gripping briefly, then falling away. Someone smelling of cookies and aftershave eased himself down to sit beside me with his back to the wall. I could hear Holly's soft fussing, and I figured it was Ford. Wiping my nose on the corner of the blue blanket, I snuck a look. Ford said nothing, gazing over the FIB people as they packed up and started moving out. The show was over, apparently. I'd woken in time for the last act.

Ford sighed when he noticed me looking at him, and making sure Holly couldn't touch me, he reached into a coat pocket and pulled out a package of Handi Wipes. I sniffed loudly as he worked one free and handed it to me. Taking it, I held my breath and leaned my head back against the wall as I washed the dust and tears from my face, the soap stinging against my scraped face and cut finger. I took a breath, and the clean smell went right to my core, pulling some of the pain away. Either that, or just walling it off. The tight band around my chest seemed to ease and I could breathe again.

"You okay?" Ford asked, and I shrugged, feeling as miserable as Holly looked. I'm alive, I thought as I clenched the wipe into a tiny ball.

"I'm okay." I sighed, exhaling as if it were my last breath, but I took another, then another. The thought of Ford's presence with mine as I remembered surfaced, and his promise that I wouldn't have to live through it alone. "Is Ivy here?" I breathed. I had to tell her. I'd tell Edden, too, but not until Ivy and I had a chance to deal with this first.

"Upstairs, talking to the I.S."

My wandering gaze landed on an FIB agent tagging and bagging Pierce's clothes and my nylons. They could have them for all I cared. And Tom's abduction wasn't my fault. "How did they find me?" I asked, tired.

Ford smiled, and Holly leaned against him in exhaustion, quiet at last. "Your locator amulets and footprints in the snow, apparently. Your feet must be freezing."

I nodded, glad I had the blanket to rest them on. My gaze rose from the lumps my feet made to find his eyes, remembering him taking Holly for the first time, tears flowing in relief as she devoured every last emotion he had but his own. "You can hold her," I said, my heart aching that something good might come from this. "Holly, I mean. Even when she's upset." Walker wasn't going to get Holly after all, and wouldn't she be pleased about that?