snapped open a moist towelette and wiped my forehead.
“How did you find me?” I asked. Croaked was more accurate. My mouth and throat were almost completely dry.
“I received a message from Eleri,” she replied. “You met her briefly this afternoon.”
My mind reeled. “You’ve got a spy?”
“Of course. She was also told to kill the human by her side.” So he’d been human after all. Interesting. “Eleri had no choice if she was to continue her assignment. Once she was able, she communicated your whereabouts. She told me you both were dead.”
“I probably should be.” Was that concern in her voice? Nah. “I guess Phin knew right where to stab me, so he missed vital organs.”
“Apparently so. Do you trust the Therian?”
Geez, did everyone know what they were really called?
“If you mean Phin, then …” I wanted to say yes. Something stopped me. He could have easily stabbed me in the chest, the heart, any number of places more immediately life-threatening. Instead, he’d chosen a place that wasn’t, probably banking on my being able to heal from the wound. Burying me that deep in a trash bin wasn’t nice, but that could have been Black Hat’s idea.
At the end of it, though, I was alive.
Isleen sighed. “Humans always have difficulty expressing trust for us nonhumans, I have noticed. He could have killed you, but he did not.”
“I know.” Didn’t mean I’d readily turn my back on him again. “Why are you investigating this?”
“As I have said in the past, we have no issue with the status quo. We do, however, have issue with those who seek to change it. Humans may not be our friends, but you are our allies. I do not wish to see anyone else— Therian, goblin, or Fey—come to power in your stead.”
“Me, either. That mean we’re stuck working together again?”
She smiled. “It would seem so. After you receive medical treatment.”
“Don’t need it.”
“Evangeline—”
“It’ll heal, trust me. Faster than you think. But I won’t say no to a shower and clean clothes.”
“Good, then I will not have to insist.”
Deadpan delivery, no hint of her previous smile. Good Lord, that might have been a joke. A vampire telling an actual joke. One more entry on today’s list of Things I Never Thought I’d Do or See.
She took me to a small motel in the northernmost neighborhood of Mercy’s Lot. A single-level, white-walled place with twelve rooms and twice as many parking spaces. I showered in a cramped, stained tub with generic white soap and those tiny bottles of shampoo that barely create a lather. It got rid of the stink and sweat and blood.
Clean clothes and a first-aid kit had been left on the toilet seat. Black jeans, red tank top, sneakers—almost identical to the outfit I’d worn the first time I met Isleen. It made me smile. I also realized, as I dressed, that my ankle sheath was gone. Probably taken off me before I was dumped into the garbage.
My elbow was already starting to scab over, so I left it alone. The wound in my stomach was less than an inch long, the edges already come together. It had stopped bleeding a while ago, leaving only a dull ache behind. It hurt to bend over, but I wasn’t vomiting blood or pissing red. Luck seemed to be on my side.
Isleen was waiting in the outer room, perched regally on one of the double beds. I smelled the pizza before I located the box on the room’s outdated wooden table, cozied up to a chilled six-pack of cola. Beyond it, a five-dollar electric clock announced the turn of the hour: seven P.M. I was in the trash longer than I’d thought.
“I was uncertain what you would want to eat,” Isleen said.
“Well, beer would have completed the stereotype.”
“What?”
“Never mind. Thank you.”
I dug in without waiting for permission and burned my tongue on a slice of steaming pepperoni. It didn’t matter that I hated black olives and green peppers on my pie; I just ate. Isleen wrinkled her nose in my general direction, and I realized how kind it was of her to order the pizza. Bloods are violently allergic to plants in the
“I need to talk to Wyatt,” I said between bites. “It’s been hours since we last spoke.”
“He has already received word of your safety.”
“Oh.” I still wanted to talk to him, almost as badly as I wanted to talk to Phin. Things were happening outside of my periphery, and I hated it. Someone had to bounce the ball back into my court, and soon. “What did you tell him about Phin?”
“He did not ask.”
“You didn’t tell him Phin stabbed me?”
She inclined her head. “Passing along such information might have biased Truman against Phineas and prevented their working together in the future. Unless you prefer their antagonism?”
A lot of words to basically say, “I didn’t want them pissed at each other.”
I snapped open a cola, gulped some, and then started on my second slice of pizza. “So what do you know about this group meeting? I didn’t even get names before lights-out.”
“The leader is a man named Leonard Call.”
“Is he the one with the black fedora?”
She shook her head. “I am uncertain of that man’s identity. According to Eleri’s intelligence, Call has been organizing this militia for the better part of a month. Feeling out interest among the various communities, testing the actual bloodlust of those who would join him in battle against humans and their allies.”
“That sounds a lot like what Tovin was doing, getting the Halfies and goblins on his side.”
“Yes, but I can draw no clear line between Tovin and Call, nor find any reason why a human would—”
“Wait, what?”
Isleen’s sharp features seemed to soften. “Leonard Call is human.”
My mind reeled. The spicy pizza in my hand was no longer tempting. I tossed the half slice back into the box and wiped my hands on a paper napkin. Even the soda tasted flat. I missed the trash, and my empty can rattled to the floor. Balling my fists to keep them from shaking, I sat on the bed opposite Isleen.
“Who is this asshole in real life?” I asked.
“No one, it seems.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that no records for a man named Leonard Call exist. It is possible the name is an alias.”
“Or the gremlins erased his info.” Just like they’d done for Chalice Frost, removing all computer and paper evidence of her existence. Wiping her off the face of the world, so I could move more freely within it.
“A possibility, of course.” One she didn’t seem to believe.
“How long has Eleri been in his good graces?”
“About a day.”
“A day? You’ve been investigating this for a month but just now got someone inside?”
“No, Eleri has been with them for a day.” Isleen stiffened, pale hands clasping in her lap. Her body seemed to vibrate from the inside out. “Our first spy was not completely trusted. As you know, my people are very loyal to their Families. Betrayal is a grave sin, often unforgivable. Udell was unable to convince Call of his loyalty, and he was being left out of their plans.”
“So you had Eleri kill him?”
“Yes.” She had always hidden her emotions well, but at that moment, a brief wave of sadness crashed over her. It was gone quickly, just a rogue wave, but it had left its mark. “She revealed him as one of my spies and killed him on the spot. Her place in the Family is much lower than that of Udell, which was my mistake. Discord in the lower ranks is easier to accept than in those above.”
My heart went out to her with as much sympathy as I could generate for a vampire. “Udell was family?”
