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“Secret, be a dear and tell us what’s so important,” Clem urged.
Oh, right. The point.
“Last night a mixed group of vampires and humans tried to open a gate to Hell.”
All three of them sat stock-still and stared at me as if I’d spoken in another language. Unless I had suddenly begun ranting in ancient Enochian, I was pretty sure they should have been able to understand the sentence, so I simply stared back at them and waited.
Eilidh spoke first. “I’m sorry, what are you saying?”
“We have a big fucking problem with the vampires of Los Angeles, is what I’m saying.” I quickly elucidated on what Harold had told me, about certain vampires trying to wipe out humanity.
The three of them exchanged uneasy glances, and I know they were annoyed they couldn’t speak freely in front of me.
“You know I used to be a Tribunal leader, right?” I reminded them. “You don’t have any top-secret Tribunal policies I don’t already know about.”
Galen gave me a gr
im smile. “You were once a Tribunal leader, it’s true, and while I believe you may be the only person to hold the title of Former Tribunal Leader, the former is a very important aspect of it. I’m sure you understand the council can’t openly discuss our business in front of a human.”
Human. Here we go again with the mortality shaming.
“Yeah, what was I thinking, suggesting you might talk to the person who brought the problem to your attention.”
I was wary of putting any trust in the West Coast Tribunal. They’d burned me before. I just had to hope they’d do the right thing here.
They whispered between themselves, and since I only had my sad, limited human hearing, I couldn’t tell what they were saying. After a few moments of them chittering away like birds on a phone line, they turned their focus back to me.
“Ms. McQueen, we appreciate you bringing this to our attention, and we can assure you we take it quite seriously,” Galen said. “We will provide you the assistance of a handful of our best wardens to aid in the recovery of the demon who got away, and we will be launching a full internal investigation into how this could have happened in the first place.”
The three of them nodded as if they were all quite pleased with this decision, and I gave a tight nod in return. “Great.” Wardens. That was totally helpful. “Send them to our FBI office when they’re ready.”
“It was really lovely to see you again, Secret,” Clementine said, her Southern drawl as warm as honey. But there was no doubt this was her way of ending our meeting.
“You too, Clem.”
I showed myself out of the dank subbasement, past a group of vampires working on the never-ending task of reinforcing the wall against earthquake damage.
Back on the main floor I passed the two wardens who had stopped me on the way in, then headed back to the front step where my cell phone got signal again. It beeped with a new message from Holden.
He’d called while I was out dealing with the demon cult but hadn’t left a message.
Maybe I should stop ignoring him.
I played the unheard message, my heart already beating faster because of how strange it was for Holden to leave voicemails in the first place.
His words were enough to make me brace myself for balance against my car.
Holden’s voice was tight and uncharacteristically filled with worry. “Secret, Sig is missing. I need you to come home.”
Chapter Thirteen
If having Holden leave me a voicemail was a surprise, an even bigger shock was waiting for me when I got back to the FBI headquarters about an hour later.
The man himself, in all his GQ-model, perfect good looks, was sitting in my office when I opened the door. Tyler, who had clearly been awaiting my return, blocked me before I could even get to my desk.
I’d been trying repeatedly to call Holden from the car, but now I knew why he wasn’t answering. Our office had a strict phone ban for anyone who didn’t work there, so he wouldn’t have gotten any of my calls.
“Care to tell me what this is all about?” Tyler indicated the office door.
