"Jeez, jeez, JEE%us," Spleen said. "Don't do that-"

"This is a fifty-year-old Nazi tattoo, Spleen," I said, taking the folder from him. "For all we know it was designed to make a werewolf explode on contact with moonlight as a kind of living magic bomb. So no, I'm not going to ink it until someone can vet it."

"Well, tell that someone," Spleen said, shuddering, "'Hello, spooky-eyes.' For me. "

"Spleen!" I said. "Be nice. What if Jinx heard you?"

"You call her that," he protested.

"I've known her forever," I replied. "Now shoo. I have to make some calls."

And I needed to make them quickly. If Wulf s problem was as bad as it sounded, and the tat was as good as he claimed, we needed to move right away. First I called Jinx, who agreed to meet me on my break that afternoon. Then I buzzed our receptionist and asked her to pull the licensing paperwork for some new magical flash.

"Sure," Annesthesia said, sounding irritated. "Spleen left like fifteen minutes ago-why aren't you ready yet?"

"Ready for… what?"

"Don't you check your emails? You have two clients waiting for a consult-"

"I've been with a client," I snapped, "and I don't check emails until-"

"Hell freezes over," Annesthesia replied. "I'm sending them back now-"

"Wait," I said, but the line clicked dead. Really. The waiting room was thirty feet away. She could have knocked or something. But Annesthesia is pretty, coquettish, and beautifully tattooed. Other than me, she's our best advertisement-no, honestly, for straight guys, she is our best ad, since I can scare the little dears-so I put up with her.

I opened the door to the hall, hoping to intercept the visitors and draw them off to our "conference" room before they could see the mess which was my office, but stepped back in shock at the sight of a small but wiry old man with a flaring beard and hair. He was standing so close to the door it seemed like he'd materialized. Behind him, a dark-suited young man with blond hair smiled down at him, eyes lighting when he looked up and saw me. The kindly old man stepped forward, and my jaw dropped in more shock.