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"Crow, raven, something along that line." Iris folded the dish towel. "I'll go get my wand."
As she disappeared into the room off the back of the kitchen, I looked at Camille. "Iris is coming in more and more handy. I'm glad she's here."
"Me, too," Camille said grimly. "I wonder how many of those things are in my car. I'm not too sure that I want to drive all the way out to Smoky's in it. Who knows what else they have hidden in there?"
"The Hunters Moon Clan must have spies planted all over the Puma Pride compound, and I'll bet they wanted to find out what was going on with us being there, so they planted the bug last night while we were searching the land. Thank the gods we kept our mouths shut on our way home."
I frowned, looking at the ceiling. My skin crawled, and even though I knew it was psychosomatic, I scratched my arm, thinking about the eight-legged creeps. "And you have to wonder, if they've traced us back here, are they planting spies in our house right now? I'm getting the heebie-jeebies big time, Camille."
She wrapped her arm around me. "It's okay. Everything will be okay," she whispered. "The wards haven't been set off." She paused. "That's odd. The wards didn't trip when we came onto the land last night, and those spiders are enemy enough to set them off. I wonder what happened?"
"I dunno, but I'm liking the Hunters Moon Clan less and less the more we find out about them."
"When Trillian gets back, we'll ask his advice," Camille said. "He's good with dark magic. I have a feeling that the werespiders are into some pretty nasty stuff." With a sigh, she let her arm drop and picked up the phone. "I'll call Morio and ask him to bring his SUV. Chances are it's clean, but leave me the crystal so I can check it out. Meanwhile, why don't you go run it around your Jeep and Menolly's Jag? Safe is better than sorry. I'll go get the feather and spiderweb for Iris."
Once again, I clattered down the porch steps, and this time went through the routine again with the crystal and my Jeep, and then Menolly's Jaguar. So far, so good. Nothing. I glanced back at the house just in time to see Camille and Iris appear. Iris was wearing a thin green robe that showed off her curves. She might be old enough to be our aunt and a good deal shorter than we were, but she was still as sexy as a maid on a summer morning.
As they headed down the porch steps, I tossed Iris the keys. She caught them and quickly unlocked the trunk, then lobbed them back to me. Camille handed Iris the spiderweb, which the house sprite immediately ate, and then the feather, which she held up to the winds. Without fanfare or pomp, it vanished as Iris mumbled something I couldn't catch.
And then she leaned forward and blew into the trunk in the direction of the spiders and the bug. A shower of frost shot forth with her breath, freezing everything in sight and startling me so much that I almost fell on my butt. The inside of the trunk looked like it had been through an ice storm. The spiders were frozen in place. Iris held out a quart jar and, using the end of her wand, tapped them into it and shut the lid.
She walked over to where Camille and I were watching, both of us thoroughly impressed, and held up the jar. The spiders were frozen, but I had the feeling they weren't dead. "Got them! Now, take care of that bug while I give these fellows a one-way trip to the Underworld. Then I'll just tidy up and dress for our shopping trip."
As she climbed the porch steps, I shook my head. "She's a wonder. What did we ever do without her? I bet the OIA is paying her substandard wages, too. They always shortchange the sprites and their kin."
Camille frowned. "Yeah, and I know that she's absolutely refused to go to Otherworld to stay. Of course, she's a member of the Earthside Fae. She loves it here." She kissed me on the cheek. "Thanks for finding that bug."
I gave her a quick hug and walked over to my Jeep, where I swung into the driver's seat and stared at the dashboard.
Camille followed me and climbed in the passenger side to wait. "What's going on? You have something on your mind?"
"No, not really," I said, staring through the windshield. "I guess this whole mess just has me shook up. I'm worried about Father and Aunt Rythwar. And I'm attracted to Zach, yet he makes me nervous. The whole Puma Pride makes me nervous. They're hiding something, Camille, but I can't put my finger on what it is. It's something big, though."
Even as I spoke, I knew that's what had been nagging at me since we first set foot on their land. The Puma Pride was hiding a secret buried so deep that it would take a bulldozer to unearth it. A secret they were dying for.
"Do you think the Puma Pride's in league with the demons? With Shadow Wing?" Camille asked.
I thought about it for a moment. "No, it doesn't track. I don't think they're the bad guys. That shield wasn't from their clan. I think it's from the Hunters Moon Clan. And I think that they're after the Puma Pride, and we'd better find out why before the werespiders have killed everybody there." Trying to shake off my fear, I shook my head.
"The Were clans and tribes over here Earthside are a lot more territorial than the clans back home in Otherworld," Camille said. "Maybe this is all about revenge. Maybe this has nothing to do with our Degath Squad. Maybe the Degath Squad has nothing to do with us. Could the Hunters Moon Clan have summoned them to help them wage war against the Puma Pride for their own twisted reasons?"
I hadn't thought of that. "It's a possibility, I suppose. The clans at home seem to get along better. They can be dicey around the full moon, but they aren't so tightly wrapped up in their own little worlds as they are over here, Earthside. Of course, in OW they're accepted as normal members of society, so maybe they don't have to be so clannish."
Iris reappeared at the top of the stairs, dressed in a skirt and sweater set. She was carrying a velvet blazer and slipped it on as she hurried down to my Jeep.
"I dispatched the spiders. They weren't Weres, but they were magically enhanced hobo spiders. They're pretty much toast, so don't worry about them."
I had a sudden flash and glanced at her. "Uh, you didn't put them in the oven, did you?"
"I wouldn't do that," she said, shocked. "That would be cruel and unusual punishment. I nuked them."
Blinking, I stared at her. Camille opened her mouth to say something, then shut it again.
Iris shrugged. "What? Squashing won't work very well; they might be able to be reanimated later. I wanted them out of our way for good. Microwaves and magic don't mix all that well, so it seemed the perfect solution. I made sure they were in a bag first, though, so they didn't mess up the inside of the oven."
I admit that I ate the occasional mouse or rat or butterfly, but suddenly breakfast seemed a little too close to the surface. Camille had a look on her face that told me she felt the same way I did.
"Yes, well… thank you." Camille hopped out of the Jeep. "I'll make sure Maggie's downstairs with Menolly before Morio and I leave, if you're not back by then," she said, heading for the house.
