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Morio said nothing but looped his arm through mine as we approached the entrance to the Mountain Aspen Retreat. We were almost to the door when an attendant opened it for us, flourishing his arm as he motioned us in.
The entrance reminded me of a grand foyer to some luxurious hotel. With faux marble floors polished to a high shine and an antique gold and green color combination, it was hard to believe we were walking into a what was, essentially, an institution.
I leaned over to whisper in Morio's ear. "They have to have some high-end fees to pay for this layout."
He gave me an imperceptible nod. "From what I could tell on my visit last time, most of the patients come from extremely well-off families. This is old money territory, and the families who drop their problem children off pay well to keep it quiet. This is a good place to deposit a wayward child or aunt who's developed a reputation for being a social embarrassment.">"I hate to interrupt," Chase said, "but I'm feeling woozy all of a sudden."
Delilah felt his forehead. "He's starting a fever. Let's head for the FH-CSI offices. We can't do anything about Karvanak right now, so let's focus on what we can take care of."
I fell silent and drove, but my mind was racing a million miles an hour. We needed to talk strategy. We needed to bring somebody else in to help us. We needed… so many things, and we weren't likely to get any of them.
The Faerie-Human Crime Scene Investigations offices were in a building specially built just for the purpose of dealing with Otherworlders. Damaged in the rogue vampire onslaught a couple of months ago, the broken doors had been fixed, and the magical security system had been reinforced, changed just enough to prevent the same disruption from happening again. No doubt somebody would come along in the future who could beat it, but as with hackers, each time it was defeated, we'd rebuild it stronger and more secure.
The morgue was in the basement, three stories down, while the medical facilities were on the first floor. We burst through the doors, and I waved hello to Yugi. The Swedish empath had recently been promoted to lieutenant, and he ran the ship when Chase and Tylanda weren't around, Tylanda being a full-blooded Fae and Chase's ex-assistant. She'd returned to Otherworld as ordered by the OIA, but we hoped to fill her spot soon.
Sharah drew samples of all of our blood. If we had any cut on us that had been touched by the tetsa poison, it would show as she added the reagent. The toxin entered the bloodstream quickly.
She shook out several grains of a blue powder into a small vial and added a quarter cup of water, swirling it until it dissolved. Then she lined up the blood samples and, using an eyedropper, squirted three drops of the bluish liquid on each sample. Morio's blood just sat there, as did mine. Delilah's sizzled a little, and Chase's let out a loud hiss as it bubbled up.
"Chase, Delilah, you show signs of tetsa in your blood. You'll both have to take the antidote."
Chase jumped. "What? Are we going to die? What about my men?"
"Calm down. Chief," she said, digging through a cupboard. "I've tested your men already and administered the antidote. Both are alive, but I'm not hopeful about Trent—he fell to the poison awfully fast. But Mallen is taking care of them, and if he can't pull them through, nobody can. You, on the other hand, are still walking, and that's good news," she said absently. After a moment she turned, a tall vial in her hand. The liquid inside was brown and frothy.
Delilah wrinkled her nose. "Ugh. I know what's coming."
"Do we have to drink that?" Chase asked, swallowing and looking a little green. "That looks vile—oh God, it smells vile, too!"
Sharah had popped open the bottle, and a pungent odor filled the room, like acrid vinegar mixed with sulfur. "Quit being a baby. Yes, you have to drink it. Lucky for you, I have to dilute it first." She poured two tablespoons into a glass, two into a second glass, then added tap water, stirring it until it stopped fizzing. Handing them each a glass, she added, "Bottoms up. Now."
Delilah took a deep breath and chugged hers down, wincing as the flavor hit her tongue. Chase was a little slower, but finally held his nose and swallowed the drink, gagging a little as he did so. But the glasses were empty, and Sharah looked pleased with herself.
"You should live, but I want the both of you to stay for observation for the next few hours. Camille, you and Morio can go." She waved us away.
"But Camille needs me—" Delilah started to say.
I cut her off. "Hush. You stay here, make sure the antidote took. My cell is out, and so is Morio's, so you won't be able to contact us until we get home—"
"Take mine," Iris said, handing me her cell phone. "Are you heading home first?"
I nodded. "I can't very well drive up to the Mountain Aspen Retreat covered in blood and all bruised up. I need to change clothes and put on some makeup and try to make myself look a little less beat up. I suppose I can always claim a recent accident."
"I'll ride with you, then, and make sure Maggie's all right. I'll give Henry a call, too, and see how he's doing at the shop." She bustled toward the door. "What are you waiting for? Let's get a move on."
I kissed Delilah on the cheek and patted Chase's shoulder. "Be careful. I'll have Iris's cell phone. Call me if anything happens."
As we headed out the door, I turned to Morio. "If one more thing goes wrong today, I swear, I'm going to scream so loud that I break the windows."
He laughed. "Don't make that a promise, okay? It's barely noon."
I grimaced. Barely noon! And all I could think about was: what was going to go wrong next?
The Mountain Aspen Retreat was south of the city, a little ways past Normandy Park, sitting on twenty-five tree-lined acres. We drove south on Marine View Drive, and it took us two wrong turns and stopping by a small convenience store for directions to find the place.
As I turned onto 206th Street, the houses thinned. We were in an area that, while developed, still had some leeway when it came to strip malls and so forth. After a couple blocks, I took another right, then hung a left onto a maple-shaded lane—or it would be maple-shaded once the leaves opened out in full force. The area reminded me a little of the road leading to our house, only it looked like there was more upkeep here; these were grounds, rather than a lawn.
"How should I approach him, do you think? Will he rat me out, I wonder?" Just because Benjamin was nonresponsive didn't mean he couldn't talk and respond, as Morio had found out in fox form.
