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Dahlia saw the crowd begin to shift as the dissenters chose this moment to leave, so she decided to add her own bit of bad news to all of this.
"Vivian and those who chose to ignore our rules are why these priests are here! Grace paid the price. The rest of us almost did, but here's the one thing none of you have realized yet." She looked at Nikki. "Go make sure Joshua's ok with the priest." Then back to the crowd, walking towards them. "There isn't a Church in Iowa, but the Inquisition is like a swarm of locusts. Now that they know something is happening here - and when these priests don't report back, they will know - theywillcome."
Eidolon began murmuring, and fear was mixed with the sound. Cain turned back to look at her, but she just gestured for him to go help Nikki as well, slowly making her way towards where Thane stood over a splash of dust.
"That," she said, pointing to Vivian's remains, "is what will happen to all of us if we can't get our shit together. The Inquisition is coming now. They will want to blame someone for this, and if anyone is here, who do you think it will be? This was supposed to be my home, and now it's useless! We have to leave. Come with us if you want to fight back. Run if you think it will be easier. I don't honestly care."
"But the Church is breeding more of us," Thane added. "They don't want to let us go. They would rather kill us, so we have a reason to fight back too. I was taught that you are all demons, the minions of the Devil, here to destroy the Earth. But if we want to stop the Church of the Holy Inquisition, it's not going to be easy. It will mean work. It will mean touching the cross, being close to this ward on my arm, and fighting inquisitors. It may mean dying - both kinds."
"So think, but think fast," Dahlia told them. "And let's get out of sight so we can clean this mess up!"
People began to move, but not all of them headed for their homes. Some headed to the mess of bodies. Dahlia didn't honestly care. She was still trying to come to terms with her revelation about Thane. She was falling for this man, and he wasn't weak. Oh, she'd told him he wasn't, but it seemed that she'd been just as scared about that as he was - and now sheknewbetter.
"Hey," she said softly as she reached his side. "Are you ok?"
"I promise that ghost didn't hit as hard as you," he said, a little smile twisting his lips. "Why, were you worried about me?"
"Worried I might lose you," she said, unable to meet his eyes.
Thane hooked her chin and made her look up at his face. "I was terrified that someone might get a clavum into you. I like having a badass wife, though."
"I'm still trying to get used to the idea that I don't have to keep you safe," she admitted.
His hand moved to the back of her head, and Thane stepped closer so he could press his brow against hers. "I'm supposed to protect you, Dahlia. Believe it or not, I'm going to take care of you in my own way, even if I'm fumbling through how to do that. But - and this is a big 'but' - we have a problem."
"I know," she promised. "They'll come."
"And since Iowa doesn't have anyone assigned to it, they will ask all branches to offer someone up," he added. "That means Dallas. That means that right now, Laird and Brice might be in a lot more danger than they know, and my brother isn't replying to my texts."
"Shit," she huffed out. "Ok, and since we can't stay here, if they make a run for it, they won't know where we go."
"Right," he agreed. "There's also the chance that they'll ditch their phones. They may not have time to keep their contacts. Never mind that if someone traces me..."
"Ok, this is bad," she realized.
He nodded slowly as he pulled back to look at her. "I was a fucking idiot. I should've given you a prepaid card. I should've used a burner phone. So many things, and I thought I was fucking ahead of them. Instead, Vivian may end up right. I could be the thing that gets all of us caught, but I can't just leave Laird high and dry."
"I wouldn't ask that," she promised. "Have you tried Brice?"
He held up a cracked phone. "I was working on it, and now my screen won't send texts. Fucking crack right across the keyboard."
"Ok..." She pulled in a breath as she wracked her brain for a few ideas. "Use mine to call Brice?"
"And if he doesn't answer?" Thane asked.
"It's worth trying at least," she pointed out, daring to glance back to see what was happening with the bodies. "Are you holding the bubble?"
"Yeah, and I think I need to keep an eye on things, but I can do that from the third floor."
So she pulled him towards the stairwell. "Have a Word to dispose of the mess?"
Thane just passed over the book. "To keep this in place, I have to think about it. With Laird not responding, I'm not sure I have the brain space for looking up Words too. Do you mind?"
She took the book as they climbed the stairs, and flipped through the pages. Thankfully, it was broken up into general types of use. She found an entry for "removal" and flipped to that page, glad the priests believed in indexing. There, she found a few options that might work. One would burn the remains. Another would dissolve them - and the ground beneath them. There was another for making a large hole, with a counterpart to fill it back in. The easiest answer, however, would probably be the least appealing.
"Cain?" she yelled when they reached the third-floor balcony. "Put the mess into the dumpster?" Because there was a word to speed up decay.
"I'll get garbage bags," Nikki offered, raising her voice enough to be heard.
