It felt like I only just gone back to sleep when someone sat on my bed and started shaking me.

"Wake up, wake up." It was Quinn's voice.

"What's wrong?" I asked wearily.

"I'm sorry I took off like that. I got about 15 minutes down the road before I remembered what I promised you, and what Hunter said would happen if I broke that promise. I don't want you to get hurt, so I guess we'd better figure something out."

I sat up and stretched, trying to force some alertness. "Why did you leave?"

"My mother got out of the place where she lives. I was going to get the next plane to Nevada so I could find her before anything bad happens. Or, I guess, clear up the mess she's made." He sounded resigned to being his mother's clean-up crew again.

"So we need to find out where she is first," I half-asked, half-stated.

He nodded, so I hopped out out of bed and walked out of the room, starting down the hallway. Quinn followed me.

"Where are you going?" he asked, worried I was freaking out and leaving.

"To wake Amelia. We need a locator spell."

"Oh. Good idea." He sounded almost surprised to be saying it.

He moved to follow me up the stairs to her room, but I motioned for him to wait. I didn't think Amelia would want anyone else to see her sleeping; even I was invading her privacy by going up there, but I knew she would understand.

When I got upstairs I knocked on her bedroom door, then opened it slowly. She was fast asleep, oblivious to me. I sat down on her bed and said "Wake up, Amelia" a few times. When that didn't work, I shook her shoulders gently and she slowly woke.

"What do you want?" she sounded really cranky. "It's the middle of the night."

"I'm sorry to wake you," I apologized. "It's an emergency and we need a really powerful witch to help us."

"What sort of help?" she suddenly sounded interested and sat up in bed.

"Locator spell."

"Oooh," she said excitedly. "Who are we locating?"

"Quinn's Mom. She lives in a place for troubled shifters in Nevada, out in the desert, but she's escaped."

"OK, I'll get what I need."

She was out of bed now, looking at her bookshelf. She found two books and handed them to me.

"Will there be much to carry downstairs? Quinn can help if there is," I offered.

"We should be fine, there's really not much."

She handed me a few bottles of herbs and other things. I couldn't identify most of the contents, and I was pretty sure I didn't want to know what some of the squishy things bottled in fluid that she kept on her shelf were.

"Take those down to the kitchen and find me a map of Nevada and a photo of Quinn's mother," she commanded. "Tell him a personal item would be better... ideally hair or nail clippings, or a piece of jewelry she wears a lot. Something she uses every day like her favorite pen or coffee mug would work, too. But I guess he doesn't have any of those here, so a photo will be OK."

I took the things she'd given me and went downstairs. Quinn was waiting for me at the foot of the staircase with a picture of his mother, which was bent around the edges as though it had been in his wallet for months.

"I've got a road atlas of the whole country in my truck. There's a map of Nevada in it. If we need a more detailed one for just part of the state, maybe we can print one off the internet?"

I wasn't even surprised he heard everything Amelia told me upstairs; I was almost used to Supe hearing now.

"Amelia's got a printer upstairs, so that should work," I agreed.

Quinn retrieved his road atlas and put it on the kitchen table. Amelia came into the kitchen a minute later with the rest of her supplies. She got to work immediately, without speaking a word. She wasn't being rude, just concentrating very intensely.

"Hold this," she told Quinn, handing him the photo of his mother, "and think about your Mom. Try to evoke how she feels to you, we're trying to imbue the photo with her essence. You need to tune into her energy in your memories and push that energy onto the photo. It might help to look at the photo, it can make it easier to focus."

He did as she asked and she walked around him three times, waving a burning bunch of dried hands and chanting in a language I didn't understand. When she was done, she took the photo from him and used her hands to sense the energy on it.

"I'm pretty sure it worked. It's impossible to know for sure without a psychometrist here to read it for us, but something changed then. Well, the proof of the pudding and all that."

"Can you do that for anyone?" I asked, curious. "Imbue a photo with their essence, I mean?"

"No, I can only do it because Quinn's her son, he came from her body so he's connected to her."

She was working as she spoke, and her manner told me it was no time for further discussion. She put a thick leather glove on her right hand, mixed a bunch of ingredients together in an ornate metal bowl, then placed it on top of the road atlas, which was open to the map of Nevada. She tucked the photo of Quinn's mother between the bowl and the atlas. She added a jagged green crystal to bowl, then looked at the spell book she was using for a few moments and started chanting in yet another language. She repeated the same four phrases over and over. She set the contents of the bowl on fire and kept chanting as they burned, holding the bowl just above the photo and atlas with her gloved hand. After a couple of minutes, the crystal started glowing brightly. She waited until the fire had gone out, then put the bowl to one side and carefully took the crystal from it and moved the photo.

She held the crystal over the atlas, waiting for something to happen. After about five minutes, she let out a long breath.

"Didn't work," she huffed. "It looked like it did, but it hasn't found her. Now I've got to figure out why."

She studied her spell book carefully for a few minutes, while Quinn and I waited silently. Eventually, she sighed loudly.

"I did the spell correctly and it sure looked like it worked, right up to the part where it didn't find her. Even if she was dead, that spell should tell me where she is. I'm going to try something else. I'll go get some supplies."

She walked back upstairs and Quinn gave me a worried look.

"Are you sure she can do this?" he asked.

"I'm sure. Amelia's great. This isn't a difficult spell for her, there must be some reason why it couldn't find your Mom."

He just nodded and sat in silence.

Amelia was back in less than two minutes and went right back to work, setting up a different spell.

"Quinn, can you show me the exact spot where your mother lives?" she asked, handing him the road atlas.

He handed it back to her a moment later, pointing at a spot in the south of the state.

"Whispering Palms is north-east of Tonopah, about an inch away on that map. Really isolated."

Amelia nodded. "We'll probably need a more detailed map of that area."

"If you've got a printer, I can find one on the internet."

"Good idea. Sookie can show you where my laptop and my printer are while I finish setting up."

I took him upstairs and showed him. Ten minutes later, we were downstairs with a more detailed map. Amelia was waiting for us, ready to start. James was in the kitchen too, and I saw in Amelia's head that he'd come in to offer his help; she was trying to figure out whether there was anything he could do.

"What time did your mother leave?" she asked as we walked in, her attention turning back to the spell.

"They think she got out at about 10pm their time, which was midnight here. They called me at 2am."

She nodded and made the last of her preparations, then cast the spell.

This time, a pottery bowl was used, and it was filled with a mix of different-colored powders. She began chanting from her other spell book, and the chant was much more complex than the last one. She added a few drops of something to the powder and it fizzed loudly as it all turned white. She lifted up the bowl and I saw that the photo of Mrs Quinn was under it.

She poured the sand onto the map we had printed, and the sand glowed. She poured it where Quinn said the facility was, and the sand moved onto that spot. She kept pouring and the sand stacked itself into a square tower, right on the spot where Mrs. Quinn had been.

"Wow," I whispered.

"Impressive," Quinn agreed.

James stayed silent, but the look he was giving Amelia made it clear that he liked what he saw.

Amelia shot us a smile. "Your Mom was definitely there at nine o'clock. As the sand changes color, it'll show us where she went from there, hour by hour."

A small amount of the sand snaked out of the bottom of the tower, heading south in a not-quite-straight line and turning yellow as it went.

"That looks like the road back to Tonopah," Quinn said. "I'm pretty sure that's the exact path it takes. She must've got a lift from someone, it looks like she moved pretty fast."

The sand reached its destination and pooled on a second spot.

"That's where the airport is," he told us. "It's out of town and there's not much else around it, so she must've gone to the airport."

"That's why the other spell didn't work; she's on a plane. It only works for people who are on the ground," Amelia explained. "I should've realized!"

Then some of the sand jumped to the road atlas, which was next to the printed map, still open to Nevada. It landed on Las Vegas and turned orange.

"She flew to Vegas," Quinn concluded.

"I don't think she's still there, since the other spell didn't work," Amelia said. "She must've changed planes."

Quinn looked at her in disbelief. "Where on earth would she go?"

"I know someone who might be able to tell us," I suggested.

"Hunter?" Amelia asked.

I nodded and left with a pop, taking Mrs. Quinn's photo with me.

A second later, I was in Hunter's room. He was fast asleep on his stomach and I felt bad about waking him, especially after what he'd been through that afternoon, but I really needed his help. I shook him gently.

Hi Hunter, it's me. Talk in our heads, OK? I asked him.

He fluttered his eyes and propped himself up on his elbows. He gave me a funny look, then figured out what was happening.

Hi Aunt Sookie. Quinn trusted you, right? He came back for your help?

I nodded. His mother escaped from the place where she lives and caught a plane somewhere. We need to know where she's going and when she'll get there. I brought her photo in case that helps you?

He took the photo from my hand and concentrated. She gets to Shreveport at 6:30 this morning. She's on a plane to New Orleans now, then she changes planes. Quinn can meet her at Shreveport and explain things to her. Then she'll go back.

Thanks Hunter, you're a life-saver.

Maybe. She might've only hurt you. It wasn't certain she'd kill you.

I smiled. It's an expression, it means you really helped me. Is that why she's coming here? To hurt me?

He nodded. Someone told her that Quinn's your prisoner. She's coming to save him from you.

I almost laughed out loud at the idea of me keeping Quinn prisoner. OK, I'll tell him that. Anything else I should know?

Someone's supposed to meet her at the airport. They'll be really hard to find. If you do see them, you'll need lots of people to catch them. Really strong people like Weres. But you still probably won't get them.

Thanks Hunter, I'll tell Quinn. You go back to sleep now, we'll be fine.

I gave him another dose of Tylenol before I left.