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“No!” I was overexcited and yelled at her. “No, Marion. You stay there. We can’t chance you being out in sight. We caught Jaycee, and the Tregarts killed her before we could get anything out of her. Put on Roz, please.”
Marion protested, but I convinced her that she needed to leave the job to us. Roz came on.
“Listen, you and Vanzir tell the guards around the house to beef up security until we catch Van. Things are reaching an explosive level. Once they have more guards come in, get all our weapons ready for tonight. And if we’re not home when Menolly wakes up, tell her we’re going hunting tonight.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Yeah, I think it will be. We’re going to have ourselves a party at the Energy Exchange and it’s likely to get bloody. Ask Morio to prepare whatever spell concoctions he and Camille are likely to need. And make sure you don’t forget to grab my dagger. I don’t know if we’ll have a chance to make it home first.”
“Gotcha. Okay, we’ll get everything together and I’ll restock my armory.” By his armory, Roz meant the coat full of weapons he routinely wore. He challenged Neo in the Matrix for most dangerous duster of the year. “So, you’re expecting this to be big?”
“Yeah, we are. Van, Telazhar, Newkirk—”
“Who’s Newkirk?”
“Our bald-headed man. He’s a Koyanni with a spirit seal. Van and Jaycee have been posing as Trytian’s lackeys while they’ve been double-timing first Stacia and then him. They work for Shadow Wing. Things have just gotten incredibly chaotic, and we have to take them down before they go on a spree. Right now they’re targeting specific organizations and people, but that could snap at any time.”
Spree killers didn’t care what or who they hurt, and while—in the long run—that was essentially the nature of the demons, right now our singular focus was preventing a wider massacre.
“We’ll get everything together and meet you…where do you want us to meet you?” I could hear Roz scribbling notes on a pad.
“Meet us at the Energy Exchange. I’ll call you with a time.” Flipping my phone shut, I slid into the car. Camille and the guys had already taken off.
Shade gave me a long look and I leaned my head back against the seat. “This sucks. Just a couple days ago we were having fun, preparing for Iris’s wedding. Now we’re running around like maniacs trying to stop a group of trigger-happy Tregarts. At least Iris and Bruce are having a better time than we are.”
“Yeah, but look at it this way: We’re not bored.” And with that, he pulled me in for a kiss, then snapped his seat belt shut. I started the ignition, pulled out of the parking lot, and headed for the Supe-Urban Café.
Chapter 20
Marion’s café was smoking. The front windows were busted out, but the building was still in one piece. Flames licked the timbers, but the fire department had managed to catch it before it engulfed the whole place, and the fire appeared to be normal, not magical. Maybe they’d run out of canya. We could only hope.
Two fire trucks were there, with firemen pouring water on the structure. Three ambulances were parked by the curb, treating customers who’d been overcome by smoke and light burns.
Chase and Shamas were there, running operations. Camille was searching through Jaycee’s phone while Smoky, Shade, and Trillian talked to the customers milling around on the sidewalk.
I folded my arms against the rain. The pouring skies were helping put out the flames. As the scent of ash and smoldering wood filled the gloomy afternoon, I felt rage rise up. Marion didn’t deserve to lose her house and her business. Alfina hadn’t deserved to be raped. The Supes didn’t deserve to lose five members and their meeting hall. The demons were running rings around us.
Camille edged over to me. “I found several text messages on Jaycee’s phone. And she has a calendar. Tonight she was supposed to meet ‘N’ at the Energy Exchange and the notation reads: Bring payment.”
“Payment? For what?” I ran through everything that we knew about the Koyanni. “Remember what Van and Jaycee were making for the Koyanni?”
Understanding lit up her face. “Wolf Briar. If they’re to bring payment…then maybe the Koyanni are back to snatching werewolves. Or maybe they were about to be paid for the drug. Have there been any more reports of missing male beta lycanthropes?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t keep track after we shut them down the first time. Damn it!”
Wolf Briar was a dangerous drug, made from various glands of beta werewolf males who’d been caged and hyped up on steroids. The werewolves were terrified, angered, and at the height of their rage, they were flayed alive and dissected. When mixed with various herbs, this created a drug that would subdue most werewolves when inhaled. It also played havoc with some witches. Camille had been knocked unconscious when she triggered off a trap. Another exposure could possibly kill her.
“They’re back at it. I know it. They’re back at making that fucking drug!” I slammed my hand against a telephone pole.
“That’s got to be it. That’s why Newkirk and the Koyanni have targeted Marion. She gave us information about them. The Koyanni found out, and they consider her a traitor. She’s friends with the Weres—werewolves and all. So they’re systematically destroying her life. They killed her sister. They burned down her house and tried to kill her husband.” Camille pressed her hand to her stomach. “What if they’ve already gone after her kids? She has three.”
“I hesitate to have her call them—if there’s trouble, there’s no way in hell we’ll be able to stop her from going to help them, and that could get her killed. We can’t go along to protect her.” We were stretched too thin as it was.
Camille pressed her lips together. “We don’t have a choice. These are her kids. She has to know they’re in danger, and she’d better call to make certain everyone’s okay. And she has to warn them to be cautious.”
As much as I didn’t want to, I called Marion again and told her to check on her kids, make sure they were safe, tell them to be careful, and then call me back. As the smoke poured out of the now-smoldering but no longer flaming restaurant, I paced, wondering how much it would take to refurbish the café.
“We’re not doing any good here. What next?” Camille leaned against her Lexus, watching the crowd that had gathered. She stiffened, nodding to a group that were just arriving. “Oh, hell—look at the slime that creeped out from under a rock.”
