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“Come on, Camille, spill. What’s going on?” Shamas had a worried look on his face and I realized that over the past months, he really had been working on making himself part of the family, though he still held himself somewhat aloof and his darker nature seemed to be taking over.
“Fuck and double fuck. Here’s what she says.” I held the letter up and began to read:
Camille, et al:
Consider this renovation a precursor of things to come. You have many friends, and we know who they are and where they live. One by one, we’ll destroy everyone and everything you love. You have two choices: Return to Otherworld. Or you can fight for us. This is the fork in the road.
S.B.
Delilah let out a long breath. “Shit.”
“I don’t know. There’s something not right here.” Morio pinched the bridge of his nose, looking like he’d developed a headache. “Give me a minute.”
I looked at him expectantly. “What is it?”
“Just . . . it’s this. Think about it. Why not just blow us all up at the house if they wanted to get rid of us? Karvanak could have, but he chose to kidnap Chase and try to use him for ransom. He could have quietly gotten together enough cohorts to just come out and stage a private little war. So why did he—and now Stacia Bonecrusher—try so hard to get us to join them? Remember, Karvanak offered a couple times for you to switch sides and the question is, why do they want you three so badly? What piece are we missing?”
He presented a good question, actually, one none of us had really thought about. If Shadow Wing wanted us dead, why didn’t he just order a mass attack on our house and blow us all to smithereens? Why go around and around, sending demon generals who, while terribly powerful, weren’t using their full arsenals?
“You’re right. Something’s going on. But how the hell do we find out what? And meanwhile, how do we protect our friends, because I know that she means it when she says they’ll start taking them out. This letter is essentially a blackmail threat.”
Chase’s phone rang again and he moved to the side to answer it.
“We have to see Grandmother Coyote. We need her advice,” Morio said.
I nodded. “We’ll head out to her woods now.”>Delilah and Iris stared at me.
I grabbed my purse and keys. “Something’s going on at the shop. I heard something that sounded like an explosion and the line went dead. Henry already called Chase—but, Iris, you get him on the phone and tell him what I said and to hurry the hell up. Let’s get our asses down there now.”
Iris snatched up the phone. “You want me to come with you? I can put Maggie in Menolly’s lair.”
“Yeah, but we’re heading out now. Have Morio drive you down after you’ve taken care of Maggie. And tell Vanzir, if he’s still here, to come with you. I have a feeling we’re going to need everybody we can get. Leave a note for Roz, and Trillian, too, and tell them to stay put in the house, and watch over things.” I paused. “On second thought, call them and tell them to get back home. Now.”
As Delilah and I raced for my car, I wondered what the hell had happened. Mostly, though, I worried about Henry. Because whatever that noise was, I knew in my gut that it wasn’t going to end well.
As we headed down the street toward the Indigo Crescent, my bookstore, I saw the rising smoke pluming from a half-block away. Fire engines crowded the street, and barricades stopped traffic. I screeched to a halt right behind the barricades and Delilah and I jumped out of the car, heading for the store at a dead run.
As we got within the sight line, a police officer stopped us. The rest of the street was roped off with crime tape and uniformed FH-CSI officers. Shamas was there, and he gave me a brusque nod. He was all-duty when he was working, a fact that had endeared him to Chase.
“I own that shop,” I told the officer trying to keep us out. “My friend was in there working behind the counter and I’m worried about him. I was on the phone with him when I heard an explosion and the line went dead.”
Just then, Chase came jogging over, the look on his face grim.
“What happened? Is Henry okay?” I took another look at his face and my heart sank. Whatever it was, was bad.
Chase put his finger to his lips and nodded us through the barricade. “They’re with me, Glass.” The officer nodded and waved us on.
“Henry’s been taken to the hospital with third-degree burns over sixty percent of his body. It doesn’t look good,” Chase said, his voice soft. He put his hand on my arm. “Camille, he may not make it.”
He might as well have hit me in the gut. Delilah let out a small mew, but thank the gods, she didn’t transform.
“What happened?” The smoke around us was so thick it was making me sick. Of course, Delilah and I were more sensitive to smoke than most FBHs, but by Chase’s expression I could tell it was bad even for them. Firemen were running in and out of the shop, their masks on, and I smelled something besides the smoke in the air. Not gunpowder, but some residue that I knew I’d smelled before.
“Someone exploded some sort of device in your shop. We aren’t sure what. I’ve got my men working on it with the firemen, because I have a feeling the bomb may not have been of human manufacture.”
My thoughts were on Henry, but I had to ask. “How much of the shop was affected?”
“The explosion was relatively localized—about a third of the shop is in ruins. The flames weren’t actually the problem. It’s whatever crap the bomb was made out of. Henry’s burns are chemical in nature.” He paused to answer his cell phone. “Hey, what have you got for me? . . . Really? . . . Okay, they’re here right now. You want me to put Camille on?” He handed me the phone.
