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"Don't come near me yet," she said, her voice hoarse. "I'll be back in a moment." She eased out of the room, retreating to the kitchen.
"Is she all right?" Morio whispered.
"She's still in the grips of her bloodlust," I said, wincing as a spasm hit my back. "Cripes, this hurts. Anyway, Menolly will be back when she's regained control. Meanwhile, we might as well have a look at the Psycho Babbler." I stretched, arching my back as I tried to work out the kinks.
"Ready?" Morio asked.
I nodded, and with Morio guarding my back, slowly approached the prone figure, kicking it gently to see if any life remained.
"I think he's dead." Morio knelt beside the creature. He gingerly flipped the Babbler's head to the side. Two fang marks still dribbled a few drops of black blood, but it looked like Menolly had finished him off by breaking his neck. And since he hadn't drunk any of her blood, he wouldn't be coming back. Two down. Bad Ass Luke to go.
"Well, that takes care of one of our remaining problems," I said, dropping onto the bench in the foyer. "Let's get Tom in here and plan how to smuggle him down to the Wayfarer. Luke's still out there, and he's far worse than either the harpy or the Psycho Babbler. My father was almost killed by him, and Luke got away from the entire division unscathed."
A noise startled me, and I jumped, but it was only Menolly, peeking around the corner. "He's dead?" she asked, her voice somber.
"Yes, he is. Are you okay?" She looked even more pale than usual, and I wondered just what drinking demon blood might do to a vampire.
With a shrug, she said, "I suppose. Nasty-tasting creature. I'm rather queasy, actually. I think I'll go get rid of this crap." And with that, she headed back to the basement. I wanted to go after her, but she needed to be alone. Nobody wanted to be seen when they were tossing their cookies, vampire or not.
"Morio, go bring everybody inside. I'll look for Maggie and Iris."
"Iris is safe. She ran out to the car when you told her to get out of the way." He kicked the demon again, just to be sure. The Psycho Babbler didn't move. "Back in a few," he said, heading for the door.
Hoping that nobody would show up to gather the body—meaning Bad Ass Luke—I cautiously approached the kitchen. The secret compartment leading to the basement was open, and I slowly descended the steps. When I entered Menolly's bedroom, I heard retching sounds from the blood room. Great, I thought as my stomach churned. Now I was a bad doughnut away from losing it myself. Even thinking about the taste of demon blood made me queasy, and for some strange reason, I was glad that it disagreed with her. Not that I wanted her to be sick, but…
"Mooph, mooph…"
The sound came from the other side of Menolly's bed, near the wall. I hurried over. There, snug in her box and wide awake, Maggie was playing with a Rubik's Cube. She hadn't solved it, but she was having fun sucking on the corner. She reached for me, and I bundled her into my arms.
"Hey, sweet thing. Did Iris bring you down here?"
"I thought we'd be safe here, when the demon came in." Iris was standing on the bottom stair. She was the only one outside the three of us who knew the secret entrance to Menolly's room, and she was sworn to silence.
"Good thinking," I said. "I'm so grateful neither of you was hurt. What happened?" Before she could speak, I held up one hand. "Wait, you can tell all of us together. Let's go. Menolly will be along in a few minutes."
Making sure the entrance to Menolly's lair was closed, we returned to the living room. Delilah and Chase were sitting on the sofa, Wisteria still bound and gagged on the floor between them. Morio was keeping watch out the windows. Tom sat in the rocking chair, looking confused and a little tired.
As I nestled on the floor in front of Delilah with Maggie in my arms, I gingerly stretched my neck. If I'd been an FBH, I'd probably be sporting at least one broken bone, if not a broken neck. As it was, I was going to need a good masseuse as soon as possible. I leaned back against Delilah's legs, and she began to rub my shoulders. Maggie moophed again and snuggled deeper into my arms. Nobody said anything at first, then everybody started' talking at once.
"Whoa—hold on there, people. One at a time, please. I have the beginnings of a headache, and I hurt like hell from where the Psycho Babbler body-slammed me." I handed Maggie to Delilah as I eased my way to my feet.
Menolly entered the room at that moment, catching my gaze with her own. We didn't speak, but an unspoken understanding passed between us. When things calmed down, we'd have a long talk about the Psycho Babbler's death. Until then, I motioned for her to sit down.
Menolly glanced at Wisteria. "What's she doing here? And why is she tied up?"
I shook my head. "Wait a bit," I said. We needed to discuss what we'd learned, but it occurred to me that doing so in front of Wisteria would be a stupid—and potentially deadly—mistake. We had to store her somewhere while we talked, but I didn't want to leave her where Bad Ass Luke or any of his other cronies might find her.
"We have to do something with Wisteria," I said, pointing at the floraed. Her eyes glowered, and I had the feeling that she'd take the first opportunity that came her way to wipe every one of us out of existence.
"I still say we should just kill her," Morio said impassively. "She's a danger to both our mission and to us. We can't chance her getting free."
While I knew he was right, it was hard for me to face yet more death and destruction. I glanced at Menolly, who stared at the floraed with a puzzled look on her face.
Delilah frowned. She gave him a firm shake of the head. "We can't do that, as logical as it sounds. The best thing to do is turn her over to OIA and let them deal with her. They might be able to dredge up some useful information that will lead them to more spies."
"Spy? That's what this is about?" Menolly asked. She turned on Wisteria. "You've been a spy this whole time you've been at the bar? Jocko trusted you! If you had anything to do with his death—" Her fangs came out as she hissed. "I warn you, even if you don't have warm blood running through your veins, I can as easily kill you as I can kill a fly."
"Hold on!" My headache was full-blown now, and all I wanted to do was crawl under the covers. "Menolly, she had a hand in Jocko's death, yes, but I don't think she knew the demons were planning it. She's more useful to us alive than she is dead. But we need to find a place to stash her while we talk."
