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him."
    She clenched her jaw on a few choice names. She'd let him know what she thought of him after Windwolf was patched up. "What do you want?"
    "Your name appears on a very short list of women who have never put out."
    She clenched her fists. "So, what of it?"
    "Well, there's money riding on who gets the first dip in your pool."
    "I can pay you anything that's riding on the bet." She sneered.
    "Oh, the prestige is more important than the money, although the money has a good bit to do with it. And then there's the thrill of conquest, going where no man has gone before."
    "Yeah, right, with Nathan Czernowski poking around outside, and Windwolf bleeding to death in here, you think I'm going to let you do me?"
    "Your word is good for me. I do the elf, and later I come back, and do you."
    Some sounds, she decided, are fated to be huge no matter how quiet they are. The sound of Windwolf's knife coming out of its sheath was only a whisper of silver on leather, and yet it rang out in the room like a shout. She supposed Jonnie's eyes bugging wide and his sudden frozen attention to the blade pressed to his groin helped to make the noise seem louder.
    "You do her," Windwolf whispered, "and you will never do another woman."
    "It was a joke." Jonnie swallowed hard.
    "Get out," Windwolf commanded.
    Tinker glared at Windwolf as Jonnie scuttled out. Why did Windwolf have to wake up now? "Great. That was the only man in the tristate area who could help you."
    "I would rather die than stain my honor in that way."
    "Your honor? What the hell does it have to do with your honor? It was my decision to make, not yours. I would have been the one to screw him."
    "And you think this would not reflect on my honor?"
    "Look, I didn't really even have to sleep with him. I could have lied to him, got him to treat you, and then backed out later. No one would blame me. He's a complete slimewad."
    "Would you really break your word of honor?"
    "We'll never know."
    He caught her hand. "Would you?"
    How could he be so close to death and still be so strong? She finally gave up trying to get free and answered him, anger making her truthful. She considered her honor much more valuable than her virginity, which was a temporary thing to start with. "No." But that didn't mean she couldn't think rings around Jonnie Be Good any day; tricking him without lying would have been easy, probably would even have been fun.
    Nathan returned from checking the scrap yard, his head tilted as he listened intently to his headset. "I hate Shutdown Day. People just turn into raging idiots on the road. They've got like twenty cars piled up on the Veterans Bridge. There's possible deaths involved, and apparently a fight has broken out. I've got to go. I've checked around. There's no wargs skulking around." He frowned, noticing the lack of the third person. "What happened to Jonnie?"
    "Oh, he opened his mouth, the normal sewage came out, and Windwolf pulled a knife on him. Says his honor would be damaged."
    Nathan's eyes narrowed, and he muttered darkly, "I'm going to bust Jonnie's ass if he can't keep his mouth shut and his hands to himself."
    "I can handle him myself." Men. All their posturing, yet she was going to have to pick up the pieces anyhow. She guessed it didn't hurt to ask. "What am I supposed to do with Windwolf?"
    Nathan gazed at the battered elf bleakly. "I don't know, Tink. Just ride it out, if you can. I don't know anyone more qualified to take care of him than you."
    "Damn it, Nathan." She followed him out to the front door. "I don't know anything about healing an elf."
    "Nobody does. Take care of yourself, Tink!"
    "Yeah!" She watched him get into his squad car and pull away. "Nobody else is going to do it."
    She bolted the front door and glanced at the office clock: 1:20. Only a little more than an hour since Windwolf came over the fence, and another twenty-three before Pittsburgh returned to Elfhome and its magic.
    Already there was a tiny slice off the top of the