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Jill leaned her elbows on the table and propped her chin in her hands. “You suspect that the victims were given something that gave ’em temporary magic? Or whatever the fuck it is you do,” she added with a wink at me.
Grimacing, I rubbed my temples. “I think their sensitivity is being increased, and somehow they’re drawn to the resonance these portals have.”
“And then when they actually find one it overloads their brains?” she asked.
“That’s the working hypothesis,” I said. “As far as I know, none of those people had any sort of arcane skill, or if so, only a trickle.”
“Is there a drug that can do that?” Ryan asked. To my surprise he looked over to Eilahn for an answer.
The demon pursed her lips, frowning. “I have heard of such—compounds that can open the channels used for manipulating and detecting power flows.”
Zack tensed, and alarm flashed quickly across his face. He quickly schooled his features, but his eyes flicked toward Ryan then away. I had the impression he had something to say but didn’t dare.
Ryan doesn’t know Zack is a demon, I reminded myself. If Zack revealed knowledge of that world it would give him away. In other words, I needed to find a way to get him to spill what he knew. Not an easy task since Zack was oathbound against talking about much demon stuff.
“Use of these compounds is generally proscribed,” Eilahn continued, “due to the unpredictable and dangerous side effects.”
“Would stuff like that show up on a tox screen?” Jill asked.
“Doubtful,” Eilahn said, forehead puckering. “Most of the ingredients used can only be found in the demon realm.”
“Yeah, Doc’s in a tizzy,” I said. “He can’t figure out what’s causing these strokes.”
“Poor guy.” Jill grimaced. “It’s not like you can clue him in that it’s something out of this world.”
“No kidding!” I said. “He already thinks I’m weird enough.”
“Is Kara in danger of having a stroke?” Ryan asked Eilahn, face dark and serious.
“It is my suspicion that Kara is being affected by a different substance than the others,” Eilahn stated. “She already has extensive arcane skills.”
I noticed that Eilahn didn’t answer Ryan’s question. “Well, that’s cheery,” I said. “But if the others were used to find portals, that means I was tagged to find something as well. Plus,” I lifted my arm and shoved my sleeve back, “I’m only experiencing side effects when I’m not wearing this thing.”
Jill leaned forward to snag the maple syrup. “And you think this graa attacked these other victims as well? Wouldn’t they have freaked the hell out?”
“Demons are fast,” Eilahn answered. “All it had to do was scratch them. It’s quite possible they never saw it, especially if it was dark.”
“Hang on.” I yanked my phone out of my bag, then thumbed in a text to my aunt. Can you pls ask Carl if stroke vics had any weird scratches on bodies?
“Let’s make sure there’s really a connection before we get too confused,” I explained to the others. “If the graa is the common vector, then we know our main focus is finding the summoner who called it.” A few seconds later my phone dinged. Yes.
Frowning, I texted a reply: is that yes they had scratches or yes you can ask him?
I scowled at the phone as I waited.
yes to both. Vics had deep scratches. I’ll have Carl let me into morgue so I can check if from demon.
I related the exchange to the others.
“Your aunt rocks,” Jill said. “She’s weird and scary, but she rocks.” She tilted her head. “Kinda like you.”
“Thanks,” I said drily.
Jill grinned then tapped the table. “But I don’t understand something. Why would someone set Kara up to make her look like a possible killer and then also drug or poison her?”
I sat back. “Right. That doesn’t make sense to me either.”>“Something like that,” he replied. “I’m part owner of an industrial park on the northeast side of town, and I’m trying to see if anything can be done with it that’ll allow us to turn a profit.” His eyes shadowed. “I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I’m not with ESPN anymore.”
I winced. “No, I hadn’t heard. Um, was this your decision?”
