Terric didn’t argue. Not with so many police here, not with the ambulance and EMTs pushing the gurney and body bag.
Jesus.
Terric shoved me firmly toward the passenger seat and Dessa got in the back. Eleanor clung to the corner by the window.
Terric drove. I didn’t know where. Probably his house in case any of the police had a Hound on us. I was out of cigarettes, and in no place to be carefully siphoning the heat off the engine. I crossed my arms and tried to push the world away, tried to push Terric away, Dessa away. Tried to push the whole damn living city of Portland over the edge of my awareness. But there was too much within my reach to consume, to hurt, to kill.
Far too much to ignore.
Terric’s hand landed on my upper arm, squeezed. He fed Life magic into me in a steady stream. I didn’t want it, didn’t want the edge of my anger to dull. Thought about doing the same to him. Let him try to keep up with the death I poured into him.
I glanced at his face. Stone cold, flat, and expressionless as he drove. The single tear track he hadn’t wiped away was the only thing that betrayed his grief.
So I kept my hands to myself, let him pour Life magic to sate the hunger in me, and the hunger in him.
By the time we got to his house, I was no less angry, but I was a hell of a lot more in control.
I pulled my arm out of his grasp, and he put his hand back on the wheel, saying nothing.
“Are we going in?” I asked.
“Yes.” Terric got out. I followed, Dessa next to me.
Up the steps to his door, then in his house.
Jeremy was not here. I could tell because I didn’t sense his heartbeat.
Once I was inside, I paused at the door, tipped my head down with my hand still on the doorknob, and listened to the world outside.
Not for the sound of cars. For the beat of a heart.
I wanted to know if Stotts or Clyde had put a Hound on us, and I wanted to know where that Hound might be.
It took about five minutes. Then I felt it. A heartbeat about two houses down. Close enough, probably in a car where, she, I guessed, could watch us. And farther off, a second beat.
Hounds never traveled alone. Sure, only one of them would work a job, but there was always a shadow, always another Hound watching after the first.
“Two,” I said as I walked into Terric’s living room.
“Two what?” Dessa asked.
I looked at Terric. Didn’t have to explain. “Allie said Sunny is running things since Davy is AWOL.”
“She’s looking for Davy,” he said. “I’ll call Dash.”
Terric got busy doing that, telling Dash that he needed to call off the Hounds. We’d done this just a few other times when we had first taken over the Authority. While I liked the eyes and ears of a Hound, there were times when we didn’t want even our closest allies knowing what we were doing.
Times like tonight.
So we’d set up an agreement with the Hounds. We’d only call them off if it was of utmost importance. The respite lasted exactly twenty-four hours, and we’d never hunt one of their own.
Yes, we had a list of who the Hounds considered part of the pack. Allie and Zay fell on that list. So did my mum, and ironically, both Terric and I.
Eli was nowhere on that list.
Terric hung up. I paced, waiting for the heartbeats to go away.
Took less than a minute. Both Hounds cleared out.
“Tell me why she’s with us, Shame,” Terric said. Not angry, no, not at all. He had become very precise, as if all his thoughts and movements were razor sharp, heartlessly cold, deadly. Man was in a killing mood.
“She knows where Eli is.”
“I think I know,” she corrected.
“And we’re lovers,” I added.
Dessa raised her eyebrows and stared at me. Terric took a moment to study her. She might not think it was important that Terric know what I felt for her, things I knew he was getting right now through our connection, but if she was going into a fight with us, I wanted Terric to know that she was important to me, and was to be protected.
“Understood,” he said. “Show me what you have in the duffel.”
Now she stared at him. “Why?”
“I’m not going to take anything. I just want you to have enough of the right things with you to make a difference. Sooner would be better. We need to be moving.”
She looked back at me.
“If we know what you have, we know how to cover you. Simple as that.”
She lifted the duffel, put it on top of his coffee table, and pulled it open.
Terric looked into the bag and so did I.
Quick inventory: two Glocks, a couple throwing knives, a hunting knife, the rifle, and a sawed-off shotgun.
“Looks like you’ve got it covered,” he said. “Might want to put the Void stone on, in case there’s magic.”
She reached in, pulled out a beaded necklace with a silver-dollar-sized Void stone hanging in the center of it, and drew it over her head.
“So, where is he?” I asked her.
“I said I might know,” she said. “There’s a warehouse down on Macadam.”
“Why do you think he’s there?” Terric asked.
“I got a tip from a friend.”
“Who?” Terric asked.
“A Hound. She can be trusted.”
“How long ago did you get this tip?”
“Yesterday morning.”
“It’s a start,” I said.
Terric nodded. “I found this in Victor’s hand.” He reached in his pocket and handed me an unused hypodermic needle. There was a label on it with a glyph for Clarity crossed out by a glyph for Chaos.
I held it up to the light. Looked like the liquid had flecks of dust in it. Whatever was in that needle was what had sent me barefoot across Portland, mindlessly destroying things. Victor had just put one of Eli’s weapons into our hands.
“Are we taking the time to analyze it now?” I asked.
“No,” Terric said. “But we will.”
I handed it back to him. “And not with the police?”
“We don’t need the police,” Terric said. Then, “I’m going to get into something clean. You two need anything?”
“We’re good,” I said.
He left the room and I turned to Dessa. “I’m suddenly wanting to talk you out of this. Any chance you’ll listen?”
She had pulled a footstool up to the coffee table and was going over her weapons.
“You know how you said Terric is like a brother to you?” she said.
I waited.
“Well, my brother
“Right,” I said slowly. “Something I’ve been meaning to ask you. Why did you come back to me after you had the lead?”
“Because I knew you’d killed other powerful men.” She looked up at me, snapping the last piece of the rifle in place. “With magic.”
