Dallas smiled back at her. “Good,” she said thickly. “Because if Darien ever tries to keep you from me, I’ll chop off his balls.”
Laughter burst through Loren’s lips. “You’re hilarious, Dal.”
A knock came at the open door. Loren turned to see Darien and Max strolling in.
“What was that I heard about chopping off my balls?” Darien wore a poker face, though the tone he used was colored with amusement.
“Oh, nothing,” Dallas said sweetly.
“Took a million years to find this asshole,” Darien said of Maximus, who strode up to Dallas’s bedside and gave her a peck on the forehead. “Now that he’s here, we’re all ears, Dal.”
Dallas pushed herself up higher on the pillows, her jaw clenching with pain. “I overheard what Arthur told you about my mother, Darien,” she began. “About the blueprints with her signature of approval. When I went for training at Fleet Headquarters, I couldn’t stop myself. I broke into her office after hours…and I did some snooping.”
Loren swore everyone was holding their breath.
“I found evidence on who’s responsible for receiving shipments of chemicals and potions.” Dallas’s voice was a hoarse whisper. “The same kind the Dominus…,” she struggled to remember the full name but opted with, “the Master Scroll talks about.” Dallas’s throat bobbed as she swallowed. “Itwasher. Taega was the one who organized a receiving party for the latest shipment through the Blood Potions Syndicate. It wasn’t the Butcher for this one—it was someone else who was dealing.”
Darien and Max swore.
Taega hadn’t just been purchasing Nacht Essentia, hadn’t just had her name on the blueprints of the Well replica—she was purchasing chemicals and Blood Potions.
It was enough. Ithadto be enough.
But—
“You didn’t happen to take that evidence, did you?” Max said, voicing the thought that sliced through Loren’s mind.
Dallas shook her head. “I didn’t see who attacked me in the office, but I know it was one of my mother’s men. Who else would it have been? I found evidence that can lock her up for the rest of her immortal life; I needed to be done away with.” Loren shuddered at those last words. They must’ve hoped the demons would’ve finished the job for them, would’ve dragged Dallas into their dens beneath the city.
“We need to get into the penthouse, Dallas,” Darien said. “We need to find something the Magical Protections Unit can work with—something concrete, like what you saw at Fleet Headquarters.”
While the signature Arthur had found on the Well blueprints had been enough to convince Loren and the others that she was behind the troubles that had befallen them, the MPU would need more—something to show that Taega’s intentions had been anything but good when she’d set about to rebuild the Arcanum Well. Something to fully explain what was happening with the artefact and the missing people. “It’s either that or we kill her.”
“As much as I despise my mother at times,” Dallas said with a wobbling sigh. “I’d rather see her behind bars.”
“When is she usually at Headquarters?” Max asked.
Dallas glanced at the clock on the nightstand. “She’s there now. For about another hour.”
Darien pushed away from the bedframe and made for the door. “Let’s go.”
Sheets rustled as Dallas tried sitting up, kicking Loren in the hip in the process. “Like hell you’re going without me!”
“Dal—” Loren tried, shuffling out of her way as she continued kicking the sheets off.
“You’re not coming,” Max said. He placed a restraining hand on her shoulder, but Dallas shook him off with a baring of teeth.
It was to Darien, who was lingering in the doorframe, that Dallas barked, “Drug me.” Her chest was heaving with wild breaths, her eyes alit with a frenzy of determination. “I know you’ve got something for the pain.”
Loren looked to Darien in confusion, but no one explained a damn thing to her. In fact, for a long time, no one said anything as Darien and Max stared each other down, the latter with an expression that could rival a stone statue.
And then Max began shaking his head.
“Max,” Darien beseeched softly.
Max’s jaw was set, eyes blazing. Whole minutes ticked by before he finally snapped, “Fine.” He wouldn’t look at anyone as he added, “I’m going to wait outside.”
He swept out of the room, his overcoat rustling behind him. Darien left as well, and when he returned a moment later, he had a narcotic he said would ease Dallas’s pain.
