“But I really enjoy it."

To her immense surprise, Sarah laughed.

“You're terrible," she said, and gathered her in a fond hug.

For Yasna, a scalpel, drawn from her medical bag. Althea whistled respectfully as she looked at it.

“You're going to have to make some sort of sheath for this. Otherwise you'll slice yourself to ribbons if you ever have to carry it around."

"I can take care of that," Josh said.

“I've got bits of leftover leather all over the place. It won't be any trouble at all."

“Do it for all of us," Rachel said. Althea Looked at her. "Everyone but me and Maria, at Least. Our weapons aren't very stabby. But if we need these to go out in public safely, we should have a way to get to them quickly." She shrugged. "No matter how effective they are, it won't do us any good if we have to dig through our purses to get them. If Josh can make sheaths we can hang from our belts, all the better."

Alex was fingering the dull edge of his prop dagger.

“How does it work?

No one is going to be scared of this. It's not even sharp."

“Not to your eyes, maybe. But to someone like Kincaid, it's scary.

"Understand," she said, glancing around at the crowded workroom.

“Beings like Kincaid and myself exist in both the material and the spirit world at the same time. What I have done to these objects is similar to what I did last night, when I warded the house. But it is much more concentrated. Using your love for what these things represent, I have made them physically and spiritually repellent to a being Like the demon-spawn. If he had to, he could still approach you and hurt you, but it would come at the cost of great pain."

“What if we used them to attack him?" Alex asked eagerly, and Althea heard Rachel suck in her breath in horror.

Althea shook her head.

“Only as a last resort, dear one. If you are trapped, they will be a final means of defense. But the demon-spawn is still far, far stronger than you." She fixed him with a stern eye. "So don't go a-hunting, do you hear me?"

"Yes," he said, abashed, and she smiled at him.

"Althea?" Maria asked.

“Yes, love?"

“I've been meaning to ask. Where did you get...where did you get your name?" she asked, blushing over her beautiful dark face.

She Looked at her quizzically.

“From my parents, of course. ‘Althea means ‘to heal.‘ My mother Lilith claimed that learning of her pregnancy cured her of her anger against God, after he cast her out of the garden."

“No, not that!" Maria said hurriedly, blushing even more, if it were possible. By the Almighty, what ailed the girl? “I meant your last name. I mean," she said hurriedly, “you probably didn't have Last names back when you were born, right? So how did you choose one?"

"Oh." She smiled. "Althea Carpenter. Well, Maria, as the years went by and our kind grew fewer, we tried to blend in with humans, who were growing more and more numerous. But I never tired of thumbing my nose at human folly when I could. So I took my last name from the Carpenter of Nazareth."