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"Don't underestimate him," he said softly. "He's serious. You can't win. He'll tear you to shreds."
"Who the hell are you? And why are you on his side?" He traveled with the demon so he couldn't be any good, but I had an odd feeling about the man.
Vanzir looked like he wanted to say more, but then he suddenly broke off eye contact and turned abruptly, sprinting back to Karvanak's side.
Morio grabbed my wrist, and we took off across the street. "We need to get out of here and go have our wounds examined."
I was silent as we crossed the street and climbed in the car. I started the engine. The Raksasa had just threatened every friend we had. When Dredge, Menolly's sire, had arrived in town and targeted our friends a few months ago, I'd been terrified. Collateral damage was such an ugly term. But now I realized that we needed our allies—every one of them.
The demons wouldn't spare anyone when they invaded, regardless of how much distance we put between our friends and us. Even if we did as they asked and helped them, the creatures were born liars and would have no compunction offing us as soon as they had what they wanted.
"That was her, the djinn," Delilah said. "And… was that…"
"Yeah, that was the Raksasa. His name is Karvanak. And his buddy's name is Vanzir. I'm not sure what kind of demon Vanzir is, but there's something weird going on there. Karvanak is trying to blackmail us by threatening our friends if we don't give him what he wants."
"What does he want?" Chase asked.
I sighed. "He seems to think we have—or know the whereabouts of—the third spirit seal. And he wants it. He offered to make it worth our while if we turn sides and join him. Of course, that translates to, I'll kill you later instead of now. We're going to have to be very careful. He's strong. Very strong. I can sense it, and he scares the crap out of me. This is one fight we can't win straight out—he'll eat us alive.">Delilah thought for a long moment, then shook her head. "They won't want to take orders from half-breeds, Camille. I can't see how it will be any different than when we were children in Y'Elestrial. We'll be the outsiders forever, no matter where we are. They'll try to take control of our operations, and they won't know what they're doing. The Queens of Fae care far more for their own prestige than they ever will about humans. How long before you think they'll try to forge a truce with the demons? At least, the Queen of Dark?"
"It won't happen," I said stubbornly. "Earth is the first stop for Shadow Wing, and both Morgaine—and now Titania—know it. They can't betray us without betraying themselves."
But Delilah's uncertainty had set up questions in my own mind. How much could we really trust Titania? And Morgaine? Grandmother Coyote had already warned us that Morgaine's thirst for power was one of her weaknesses. What if Shadow Wing promised her dominion over the Earthside Fae? Would she take the bait, betray both her mother and father races?
Iris wandered over to join us. She looked tired, and her spotless white robe was spattered with flecks of blood. The Talon-haltija had more courage than a good share of full-size Fae I'd met. I gave her a grateful smile.
"We couldn't have done it without you. Thank you." I stared at the street. Without our friends, we'd have been dead long before this. And if it took Smoky to help us put an end to a small group of goblins, then what the hell were we going to do when Shadow Wing sent in more than a few demons at a time?
Delilah shoved herself to her feet and reached for my hand. I gave it to her, allowing her to pull me up. "Okay, let's go find out what happened to Chase's men," she said.
I wanted nothing more than to go home and drop into bed and sleep for a week, but I followed her over to where Chase was supervising as two of the fallen officers were loaded into ambulances. The coroner was there for the third.
"One's hanging on by a thread," he said before we could ask. "I don't know if he'll even make it to the hospital. I thought he was already dead, but he's still clinging to life. The other is seriously wounded, but he should survive and possibly recover fully if everything goes all right. But his vitals are all messed up, and we're not sure what's going on with that."
"The poison!" Delilah shivered. "Chase, chances are both men were poisoned. Get an OIA medic over to the hospital now, and tell them to check for tetsa poison. Your blood tests won't pick it up, but our healers will know what to look for. Tetsa can be applied to blades as well as the darts."
"And while you're at it, have them check that wound of yours for poison." I pointed to the laceration on the side of his face. It had stopped bleeding, but his face was covered with blood. Heads and hands always bled more. Though the wound looked nasty, it wasn't life-threatening, unless it became septic. "I'm afraid you're going to end up with a scar from that one."
He shrugged. "Had to happen sometime, in my line of work."
"It'll just make you all the more rugged," Delilah said, clinging to his arm.
"Oh yeah… as long as you like it, babe," he said. "What about you? Any of you hurt?"
Delilah held out her left arm. The jacket she wore had been sliced, and as I helped her slide out of it, she winced. The goblin's blade had gone through the material of both jacket and shirt, gashing into her arm. The blade had missed any major arteries, but she was going to be damned sore for awhile.
"You'd better get that checked out. We have some immunity to certain poisons, but that doesn't mean you won't be affected. Ah hell, we'd all better go in and have Sharah take a good look at us naked. I'm so numb I can't tell where I was hit and where I wasn't." I wearily headed back toward the car.
Morio wrapped his arm around my waist, and I leaned on his shoulder. "Do you need help? I can carry you," he said. "I'm not too tired."
"Liar." I grinned at him. "You look just as beat as the rest of us. I'm not ready for a walker yet." I glanced back at the bodies. "Who's going to clean up that mess?"
"I called a couple units in. All the bodies will be taken to the FH-CSI morgue. At least we don't have to worry about them rising like vampires." Chase shook his head. "Speaking of, we haven't heard hide nor hair of the rogue vamps that got away a few months ago. I don't like it."
"Don't borrow trouble," Delilah said. "Face what's in front of us first. We'll deal with them when and if they become a problem." But she flashed me a worried look, and I returned it. A rash of killings a couple months back had left several rogue vampires running through the town and, try as they might, Menolly and Wade—the vampire who ran Vampires Anonymous—hadn't been able to track them down.
We passed a truck containing the Channel 11 News team. Great. They'd manage to get a good shot of the goblin bodies before they were all cleaned up. No matter how hard we tried, it seemed the media were able to get in everyplace we wanted to keep them out of. It wasn't that I didn't appreciate freedom of speech, but responsible journalists seemed a rare breed, and we'd seen the pages of far too many tabloids and exploitation-TV shows over the past year.
I heard Chase swear under his breath.
