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She gave me a quizzical look, but I shook my head. “I know him. He’s safe.” I accepted the cleaning supplies and—while she babysat Martin and Shade watched Jaycee—I cleaned up the disgusting mess Martin had made of the safe room. That was what we got for keeping a ghoul around. Wilbur’s house had been cluttered and dusty, but it hadn’t smelled bad. I wondered just how he kept it clean around Martin. It seemed like a good question to badger him with once he was out of intensive care.
As I was finishing up, Camille, Trillian, and Smoky showed up. She was walking better. “Where did you guys go?”
“We stopped at Tenzos for some ointment for my burn.”
Tenzos was a new chain store that had sprung up—it was geared toward Supes, containing a variety of common herbal remedies for Weres and Fae alike. Branches had been opening throughout the United States in most of the larger cities.
“Good. You don’t want that getting infected. Let’s get this show on the road. We have to interrogate Jaycee.” I had my doubts about how much the sorceress would talk, but we could always let Menolly loose on her if we needed. Menolly had no compunctions about putting the strong arm on someone when we needed information.
Shade carried Jaycee into the safe room, where we cuffed her to the bedpost. Even if she got loose, she might be able to trash the room but she’d never be able to escape. As I removed the gag from her mouth, she let out what sounded like the words to a magical curse, her eyes gleaming. When nothing happened, she looked confused.
“Not gonna happen, Jaycee. Your magic won’t work in here. Face it, we’ve got you, you’re ours, and you might as well answer some questions.” I straddled a chair, leaning my elbows on the back. “Now, tell us where you guys are holed up this time.”
She let out a choked laugh. “You really think I’m going to talk? What are you, a moron in addition to being one of those stinking Weres?” She wrinkled her nose at me. “I smell cat shit.”
I cocked my head. “You know our sister Menolly’s a vampire. Tonight, she’d be more than happy to come question you, and she’s not always a very nice person.” Intimidation, I could do. Or at least a good semblance.
“You really think I’m going to turn in my partner? You’re stupider than I thought. I’m a Tregart. We know the meaning of loyalty.”
Camille joined me. “Loyalty? You’re so loyal you’d spy on Stacia Bonecrusher for Shadow Wing, wouldn’t you? You were so loyal that you set her up because your boss—Mr. Big and Mighty—thought she was a danger to him.”>I ripped her shirt off her and tossed it to Trillian. “Tear it into strips! Now!” He caught it, using his dagger to start the tears.
“Wha—who are…Where…?” Jaycee shook her head.
Trillian handed me the strips of cloth and I stuffed one of them in Jaycee’s mouth, tying it around her head to form a tight gag. As she began to push against me, Trillian caught her hands together. I wrapped a strip of cloth around them and tied them tight as she struggled. He used another strip to bind her ankles, and I rolled off her. There wasn’t much she could do while bound and gagged.
Van had effectively left the building. The Tregarts and zombies were dead. Telazhar was still out there. But…we had an ace in the hole now. I looked around. It was easy to see where they’d gotten the bodies for the zombies from…I could count the six open graves from here, and there were broken shards of caskets scattered around.
“Ouch.” Camille struggled to stand up. Smoky was examining her side.
“You’re hurt. Can you stand?” He held her elbow as she forced herself to stand straight. “We need to get you to medical help.”
“No. Hanna can handle it. The bolt only grazed me. Let’s get Jaycee someplace where we can question her. The safe room at the Wayfarer. That way she can’t throw any magic around.” She winced but forced herself to start walking back to the cars.
“I’ll take you—” Smoky reached to pick her up but she waved him away.
“Will you and Trillian rebury the bodies? They don’t have any headstones, not really; they didn’t have any family, and then Van and Jaycee came along and dug them up and we have no clue why. We can at least say a prayer for the dead over their graves.”
I turned to Shade. “Can you carry Jaycee to the Jeep and wait for us?”
While he hoisted Jaycee—she was struggling like a fish on a line all the way—and carried her to the car, Smoky and Trillian began gathering the remains of the zombies and Tregarts and replacing them in the graves.
I took Camille’s arm and helped her back across the lawn. “Tell me what happened.”
“What’s to tell? Van’s damned good with the lightning bolts. He shot one at me at the same time I was aiming for him.” She winced again.
“He hit you with a lighting bolt? How did you survive that? He’s freaking powerful!” I stared at her. Had Van somehow tripped up? If so, then maybe we had a chance.
She glared at me. “Don’t get cocky. He misaimed and it went awry. He didn’t touch me.”
Confused, I cocked my head. “Then how did you get hurt?”
“Oh fuck, you’re going to make me say it, aren’t you?” She blushed. “My spell backfired and blew up before it left my hands. Somehow I managed to keep my fingers from getting blistered, but the force of the bolt hit my side and scorched me. I kind of…hurt myself.”
I stopped, turning to her. “You toasted yourself?”
She grinned, then. “Yeah. Got butter?”
“No, but we can stop for some on the way.” I laughed and, carefully wrapping my arm around her waist, hurried her to the parking lot.
