Minutes to Midnight by Phaedra Weldon

you live dangerously. Contact
with anything inside of the Peripheral is forbidden, and deadly.
What's in there should stay there. Forever."
    I considered this new Revenant, so different
from the ones I'd met. Taking in her fighting skill and her
determination to cold-cock me back to the Peripheral, I took a shot
in the dark at why she was here. Why not? I felt like a mac truck
had plowed into my chest. "That's your job, isn't it? The part of
you that's still God Mother. You make sure the things exiled to the
Peripheral stay there."
    She blinked. "Yes. I'm still God Mother's
child. I maintain all borders. How recently were you there?"
    "Six days ago," Mike spoke up. "He came out
of it four days after he went in, then two days in bed."
    Raven stared at me. "You had the sickness
then, when you returned. It's not uncommon. It was woven into the
border of that world to prevent things from coming out."
    "You mean like the way a Faerie turns to
ash?" I said.
    "Yes. Did you cross over using a Cairn?"
    A Cairn was a Faerie created place between
their world and ours. "I have before, but not this time. Didn't you
see my past in my blood?"
    "No. I only looked for the Djin. I don't pry
into others' personal lives, Mr. McConnell."
    "You got my name."
    "No, I told her your name." Mike leaned
against the opposite wall on the other side of me. "And she already
refreshed me on how the whole vampire slash First Born slash
Revenant thing works. Oh, and Raven is the new Shi-han here. She'd
actually closed up the dojo for the afternoon."
    "But we have keys and let ourselves in." I
looked at Raven. She was certainly an attractive woman. Not too
thin, and well-muscled. Her hair was dark auburn, a much deeper
shade than Stella's, though I was sure Raven's wasn't a natural
color. Her eyes were more of a light brown and her facial features
spoke of distant Middle Eastern ancestry. "So, where's Shi-han
Shu?"
    "Flew back home to Okinawa." Raven said. "I
felt he deserved a break. I was in the meditation room getting my
thoughts in order when I heard you two come in. I waited and
listened, and when I smelled the 'Pheral on you, I suspected you
were the power I sensed six days ago."
    "You sensed a power or a Power?" I
emphasized the last power since I didn't know if she was speaking
of power in the culmination of strength or one of those Ethereal
zombie fighters.
    She looked serious. "Not an Angelic slave.
Power—a way to say it would be a disturbance in the natural flow of
energies between the planes."
    "That might have been when the Djin you're
looking for, Rippin' Ja—, pulled me in."
    "Where in the 'Pheral did he take you?"
    "It looked like a battlefield."
    Raven stopped talking and looked away. Mike
and I exchanged looks, and I decided not to press it because I
didn't know if her reaction was an emotional one or not. So I gave
her a very quick recap of what'd happened with Officer Jones,
Rippin' Ja—, and Stella. "I didn't know I was in the Peripheral.
And I didn't know what was overshadowing him, just that something
was. And it was powerful." I omitted any mention of Gabriel again,
and if Raven didn't look into my personal thoughts, then the
Cherubim's meddling in my life was safe.
    Not that I really cared about Gabriel's
welfare. I just didn't want her messing with mine.
    Raven didn't say anything for a few minutes.
Then, "Ms. Rosenberg is still there?"
    "I think so. I wasn't able to get to
her."
    "Physical beings can exist in the 'Pheral
for a time, but the essence of the place will leach their humanity
from them."
    Mike leaned forward. "Leach their
humanity?"
    "They'll go crazy. Mad."
    "How fast?" I asked. The thought of that
happening to Stella turned my stomach.
    "Depends if they eat or drink something
grown or created there. Everything's made of the dust. And since
she's not in a Cairn, ten days on this side is the longest anyone
should be in the 'Pheral."
    It was mine and Mike's turn to exchange
glances. My first trip into the Cairn had