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"Yeah, by your description, I figure it's probably your babe. Anyway, that boy from the other night?"
"You mean the teenager?" Camille let out a long sigh.
"Yeah. He wandered into the thicket with a girl on his arm who couldn't have been more than sixteen. I don't think she knew what he was, but the minute she saw Wisteria and the other chick, she turned to run. Wisteria grabbed her and held her down so teen-boy could make a meal off of her right there."
"Did he succeed?" I gave him a hard look.
Roz cocked his head to the side. "You think I'm an amateur? I decided to break up their little party. The girl escaped with little more than a scare. The boy's toast, as is the other vamp. But Wisteria went crazy. That bitch caught me a good one with her nails." He jerked. "Ouch! What the hell are you doing?"
"Sit still," Camille said as she deftly slathered both an antibacterial ointment and a fungicide on his neck. "If you aren't careful, attacks from dryads can lead to a nasty fungal infection. Two more minutes and I'm done. One of these gashes is bad enough that I'm going to have to stitch it."
"Gross," Chase said, grimacing as he turned away. "You're going to sew the man's neck up? Here? I still can't believe the crap you girls expose me to. Next thing, you'll be introducing me to Frankenstein or… well, damn it, Dracula's real." He sighed so loudly that I snorted.
Shamas laughed. "They too much for you, man?"
"They're too much for any man," Chase said, flashing him a smile. "But I wouldn't change things. I guess."
Delilah wandered over to watch as Camille deftly wove the needle through the opposing sides of flesh, stitching up the worst of the gashes. "Boy, she got you worse than she got me," Delilah said, showing him the scar on her throat. "It seems Wisteria has a thing for throats. Maybe she wants to be a vampire?"
"I think it's more likely she's just lost every stitch of common sense she ever had. She's a scroo-loose, as bad as a rabid dog." Roz shivered as Camille leaned near his neck to bite through the thread. "Baby, you smell like sex," he whispered, wrapping one arm around her waist and speaking loud enough for the room to hear.
"What did I tell you—" I started to say, but Camille flicked him on the forehead with her thumb and index finger and sauntered away.
"And you smell like trouble." She grinned at him. "Hands off. I'm spoken for. Three times over."
"Touché." Roz looked around. "Okay, slap a bandage on this puppy and I'm ready to roll. I take it you were just heading out?"
"We know where Dredge is—"
"And I know where your friend is," Roz broke in. "That's the main reason I came—other than needing some TLC and a throat full of cat gut. No offense, Delilah."
"None taken," she said.
"You know where Erin is?" Camille leapt to her feet and shrugged on her capelet. "Why didn't you say so first thing?"
"Because I needed medical attention, wench. Anyway, yes, I smelled Erin. The newborns have her in their private little nest. I don't know where that is, exactly, but I'm pretty sure we'll find it in the general vicinity of Veggie-Girl."
"Then she's not with Dredge?" I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. If he didn't have her, she might not have been put through the wringer yet. On the other hand, that meant we still had to find her.
Camille broke in. "Dredge will keep for a few hours, but Erin might not. Especially if Wisteria's pissed. Look what she did to Delilah, to Roz… think what she could do to an FBH, Menolly. And you know how she feels about humans."
I stared at her. "You're right. Erin's in a nest of newborns, along with a wacked out floraed who has a bone to pick with humanity. Yeah, we have to go after her first. Roz, show us where you found them. Their nest has to be nearby."
He shrugged back into his duster. "Not a problem. Who's going besides you and me?"
"Delilah, Camille, Chase, and Morio." I glanced around. "Shamas, stay with Iris."
"I'll make sure he behaves," Iris said. "He can help Anna-Linda and me make cookies." And with that, she hustled our cousin out of the room before he had a chance to say a word.
I motioned to the door. "Let's roll." I wasn't sure how he'd gotten out to our house, but Roz hadn't come by car. "Roz, you come with me."
Delilah rode with Chase, of course, and Morio and Camille headed out in her Lexus. One thing for sure, I thought. We'd need a vacation by the time this was all over, because the playground we were headed for sure wasn't on the Travel Channel's top-ten list of destinations to see before we died.
CHAPTER 17
On the drive there, Roz unbuckled the belt of his duster and opened it, checking out his supplies. The clatter of metal was enough to tell me he was well armed. "Spikes, check. Nunchakus, check. Blow gun and darts, check. Micro Uzi, check. Daggers, check—"
"Slow down there, tiger. Did you say Uzi?" I glanced at him and sure enough, he was holding up what looked like a miniature machine gun. What the hell was an incubus doing with an automatic weapon? A nasty automatic weapon? "Where the hell did you get that?"
