Her eyes narrowed.“Why do you care?”
“Is there any reason you shouldn’t tell me?”
“Is there any reason I should?”I took the hint and got out my wallet.Fifty bucks did the trick, mainly because she didn’t know much.“It was weird.Mostly, if someone gets lucky and a big shot wants to set her up on her own,everybodyhears about it.One of the guys got a sweet deal a couple weeks ago, and he went on and on, like the rest of us were complete losers—”
“But these girls didn’t?”
“Nope.One day they’re here, next day they’re gone.”She snapped her fingers.“Like that.”
Just like the high clan girls.I tried to look only mildly interested.“Lone wolves?”
“No.Felan.”It was one of the smaller, lower-ranked clans in the area.That surprised me.Clans are close-knit, with what reflects on one reflecting on all.I had a hard time imagining any clan wolves being allowed to take up a profession that, while legal in the supernatural world, wasn’t likely to improve their clan’s standing.
“Maybe the leaders found out what they were doing and came for them.”
Jezebel rolled her eyes and flopped back onto her messy bed.“Who you think sent ‘em here?”
“What?”I was certain I’d heard wrong.
“The leaders got a percentage of what they made.Mine do it, too.Lots of ‘em do.”
“Wait a minute.You’re telling me that their clans forced the Felani girls to work here?”
Jezebel shrugged.“I don’t know about forced.But you know how it is.Defy the leaders and you pay for it, and keep on paying.So does your family.I figured I’d do my time.Another year and I’m out of here, and nobody else from my family gets tapped.I got two younger sisters, you know?”
I nodded.A pretty little blackmail routine: do as we say or we take your sisters instead.Could that be why Daniela had been kidnapped?By parents outraged over Sebastian’s indifference to the fate of their own daughters?As much as I wanted an answer, it seemed unlikely.A low-ranking family from a minor clan would no more attack Arnou than they would turn vegetarian.Humans might try it, if they were enraged enough, but Weres just didn’t think that way.
“I need to find out where those girls went,” I said after a minute.“Where are the records kept?”
I got a disdainful look.“You want to talk about stuff everybody knows, okay.We talk.But I’m not getting in trouble for—” I waved a hundred in front of her face, and she stopped abruptly, but still looked mutinous.“That won’t cover the beating I’ll get if anyone finds out I helped you.”
I added a second bill and fluttered them in front of her.“I can blank short-term memory.No one has to know.”
“Yeah.I’m sure.”Her eyes tracked the money, but she made no move to take it.
“I’m a war mage,” I added.
The bills were suddenly gone, disappearing somewhere in the short, bright wrapper she wore.“The records are in Yuki’s office,” she told me briskly.
“The woman who checked me in?”
“He ain’t no woman.But yeah, he runs the place.”
“Is there any way to get him away from the desk for a minute?”
Jezebel shook her head.“He wants to make sure we don’t bring any regulars in on our own and stiff the house.He guards that door like a hawk.”
“Is he a mage?”
“No.Tsume.”
“But that’s a clan name.”It meant claw in Japanese.
“Yeah.He’s our last wolf.Acts like one, too.No offense.”
“I’m not a wolf.”
Jezebel wrinkled her forehead.“But you smell like—”
