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My thoughts whirling, I slipped into my Hel o Kitty night-shirt, flipped on the TV in my room, and settled in for an hour or two of late-night TV and junk food. And I realized that even though the other side of the bed was empty, I wasn't lonely. I felt secure and comfortable, and for once I was glad to be alone with my thoughts. It was a soothing end to an otherwise stressful day.
CHAPTER 13
For once, a beam of sunlight broke through my window the next morning. I woke, blinking against the light, and found that I'd buried not only myself but the mostly empty bowl of Cheetos, a half-eaten Snickers bar, and a bottle of water under the brand-new quilt I'd bought a month ago. The Snickers bar was melted to my pil ow. Delightful. The water bottle had come open, and I was lying in a wet spot. Lovely. The Cheetos had stained the sheets, but against the earthen tones of the comforter, the orange wasn't that noticeable. One out of three isn't too bad.
Since I kept a mattress protector beneath the sheets--my hairbal s were a constant threat--only the sheet had gotten wet and stained, and remembering Iris's last reminder when she'd dumped my cat box on top of my bed, I stripped the sheet and put it in the hamper. She didn't mind making the beds, but she and my sisters had pounded through my head just how much of a slob I was and how badly I'd abused her services. I was trying to make sure that I helped out more.
I opened the window and immediately slammed it shut. The sun might be shining, but it couldn't be more than forty degrees outside. Digging through my closet, I came out with a pair of brown cords and a green pul over. I slipped my feet into a pair of cowboy boots, spiked up my hair with a dab of gel, and brushed my teeth. Earthside had it al over Otherworld when it came to dental hygiene technology, that was for sure. And being half-human, our teeth weren't as strong as our father's people.
When I was done, I grabbed my purse and headed downstairs. The smel of bacon and eggs drifted up the stairs, and I inhaled deeply, my stomach rumbling. We had a lot to do today, and in the back of my mind, I couldn't forget the fact that every moment her captors had her, the danger to Amber grew.
Iris and Camil e were at the table, Maggie in her playpen. The kitchen was otherwise empty. I glanced around.
"Wow. Where is everybody?" The breakfast table was usual y jumping. I glanced over to the sink and saw the pile of rinsed dishes. "Looks like everybody's already had a go at the food."
Camil e grinned. She looked better. "Tril ian, Smoky, and Morio have enlisted Roz and Vanzir to expand the studio into a multiroom apartment. It's not the best weather for building, but I think they can get a lot done today if the rain holds off. The guys certainly could use the room, and now and then I real y want my bedroom to myself and the three of them out of the house. Husbands or not, they can be a pain in the ass." She dotted the corners of her lips with her napkin. "When do we head out for Mary Mae's?"
Iris handed me a sandwich of eggs, bacon, and toast. I wolfed it down, feeling oddly energized. My encounter the night before had done more than comfort me. I felt recharged.
"She said to come over around ten A.M."
The phone rang, and she answered. After a moment, she handed it to me.
"Luke here. I just heard from Jason."
"And?"
"Rice has been placed in Arizona. He's not up here. And something else--Jason told me that there's some big to-do going on in the desert down there, among one of the minor Packs."
Damn it, that meant likely Rice had nothing to do with his wife's disappearance, and we were back to square one. "What kind of to-do?"
"A string of deaths occurred in one of the werewolf Packs down there. Five beta males, al turned up dissected, their scent glands and other organs missing. They've cleared al the rival clans in the lycanthrope community. But there's more. The scent of magic was picked up at one of the bodies-
- trickster energy . Dark trickster energy."
Trickster. There were a few clans that fed on trickster energy. Rabbits, jackals, hyenas . . . coyotes. "Coyotes--coyote shifters. From what Wilbur said, the coyote shifters down in the jungle use Wolf Briar to take over territory and kil off their rivals."
"Fuck. Territory wars?" Luke fel silent for a moment, then said, "Coyotes--the good ones--are helpful to no end. But the bad ones . . . they're dangerous and ruthless. They give Demonkin a run for their money."
"We'd better look into the coyote Packs around here. Although what they might want with Amber is anybody's guess. Nothing against your sister, Luke, but she's a solitary pregnant female, and she's not the Alpha's wife."
"Yeah, I hear you. So how's Camil e doing today? The Wolf Briar wear off?"
"She's feeling better. We're going to talk to Paulo's fiancee, and I think we'l also drop in on Marion at the Supe-Urban Cafe and see what she can tel us. Meanwhile, you try to figure out what the hel a group of coyote shifters would want with your sister."
"The question for the win. I have no idea. I haven't talked to her much over the years, until she cal ed saying she needed to move up here. She sounded slightly crazed, but I thought it was the hormones from the pregnancy. Okay, I'l let you get busy." He hung up, and I stared at the phone before handing it back to Iris.
"This is as bad as fighting the werespiders. We didn't know what they wanted, but in the end, it wasn't anything good." I ran down what Luke had told me about the trickster energy and the werewolf deaths in Arizona.
"Somebody in Arizona is producing Wolf Briar then. And so is someone up here. We have to make three stops today--Marion's, Franco's, and Madame Pompey's Magical Emporium. I hate that we aren't closer to finding Amber," Camil e said, carrying her dishes over to the sink and rinsing them off to stack them with the rest. "I keep thinking they're torturing her or that she's already dead. And there's no good way to find out."
"Is there any way you could scry on her? Find out if she's stil alive?"
Camil e frowned, thinking. "I might. My spel of Finding won't do anything more than point the way if she's being held captive. Unless it backfired and dropped us into the captive's lair."
"Hel , I'd almost go for that--but not without backup. One whiff of the Wolf Briar, and we'd both be down for the count."
"Yeah, about that. Sharah cal ed today, told me be careful because I'm sensitized to it now, and subsequent exposures could cause an al ergic reaction-
