“Mmmm, probably gotten blood angsty,” Pike said distantly. “Threaten to drain those who oppose her. Cause a bloodbath.” He noisily ate another chip. “Pick out another doll. You saw her. That was her SOP. You did pretty good, if somewhat soft-gloved.” His eyes came to mine. “No one died. Yet.”
“Yay me,” I muttered, foot bobbing. Failure to halt and malicious destruction?
My focus sharpened when Pike stood, that plate of chips still in his hand. “I’m not surprised the FIB and gargoyles stood by you,” he said, looking at Edden. “Maybe most of the elves. A half-assed commitment by the witches balanced out by an unexpected small but militant faction of the Weres.” His eyes went to the three men by the piano. “The way you got out of the I.S. surprised me. It never occurred to me that I.S. employees would help you.”
“Yeah, well, we all make mistakes,” I said.
“But the takeaway for me from this is that Mrs. Sarong felt the need to threaten you,” he said, finger raised as if in lecture. “She could’ve simply sent someone to kill you. That tells me something.”
Maybe he had a point, but I failed to see it.
“You still want to meet with Constance?”
My bobbing foot stilled. Across the sanctuary, the low murmur of David’s and Trent’s voices stopped. “You mean outside of the I.S.? Not through that warrant?”
He nodded, a faint smile quirking his lips. “The warrant was Doyle’s idea. She’d rather take care of you herself. You really put a chip in her fang.”
My head began to hurt. Yes, it was what I wanted, but any meeting was going to be her trying to kill me as I tried to convince her to cut her losses and go back to DC. How am I going to do that? And yet, it was my car keys left on my visor that my thoughts kept returning to, the look Joni had given Pike before she left the room. “Why are you helping me?”
“I’m not helping you. I’m giving Constance a chance to rethink her dispute with you.”
I arched my eyebrows, and Pike shrugged. “Constance needs to know you have an in with the coven of moral and ethical standards, enough that you can drop in at Alcatraz and leave unscathed. That you make demands of demons, even if they do fling you across the continent. That you host city-powers meetings in your church with elves, gargoyles, Weres, and witches—all at the same time.” He shook his head ruefully. “And that you are confident enough to kick them out and disregard their advice.”
“Yeah, well, Mrs. Sarong’s advice sucks.”
Chuckling, Pike picked through his chips. “That you have the ear, the bed, and the heart of the man who farms her Brimstone. She needs to be reminded that though the I.S. has an official, long-running stance of antagonism toward you, you have enough pull to move seamlessly within both the I.S. and FIB to get what you want, when you need it, be it information or simply someone to look the other way. Why is that, I wonder. None of them like you much.”
I squinted at him, wondering at his distant expression. Does he think I could handle Cincinnati?
“She needs to know that your church is being rebuilt by the people she displaced, that threatening Zack only pissed you off,” he continued. “That she should avoid underestimating you and work something out that is beneficial to both of you and won’t end up with her dead twice.”
My eyebrows rose. “You think she might agree to run the vampire affairs under me?” I said, and Pike’s focus sharpened.
“I doubt it, but she might allow you to function as an enforcer under her. You have clout, Ms. Morgan. And she needs to respect that. Understand that. Work within it, maybe, or risk being driven back to DC and that floor of rented rooms they gave her under the Smithsonian.” He hesitated. “You say you want to live here. Be careful, she might let you.” He ate a chip and looked at Etude sleeping by the door. “Does tonight work?”
Tonight? I glanced at Trent clustered with David and Edden. Jenks had returned and was watching me, clearly hearing everything we were saying though he was across the room. Yes, I wanted this, but I wanted to know something else first.
“You left the keys in my car for me,” I said suddenly. “Why?”
Pike’s head went down, his smoke-grimed hair hiding his eyes. “No, I didn’t.”
He had, and I leaned forward, my elbows on my knees. “You trying to catch me wasn’t fake,” I added, remembering the hatred in his eyes as he tried to down me in the tower. “What gives?”
His shoulders shifted as he set the empty plate on the table. “I gave you,” he said, his eyes losing their rim of brown behind the rising black, “an eleven percent chance of making it out of the tower. But if you did?” His head tilted. “If you managed to evade Constance and me both, I figured you shouldn’t have to take the bus home.”
He believed in the eleven percent, and I eyed him speculatively. “I don’t get you, Pike.”
“That makes two of us,” he muttered. “Do you want me to arrange something with Constance tonight or not? Mrs. Sarong is right. You need to castrate the calf, or let it grow into a bull.”
Tired, I sent my gaze across the church to see what everyone thought about it. Hodin chortled softly, which could mean anything. Jenks rose up and down, his sparkles meaning a solid “yes.” Edden, Trent, and David were silent, varying degrees of dismay and worry on their faces.
“Sure,” I said slowly, and Trent’s jaw tightened as he reached for his phone. “Tonight. Midnight. The Turn memorial down by the waterfront.” I stood fast, and Pike took a step back, grimacing as if he hadn’t meant to. “Tell her she can bring one. Her best,” I added. “I am.”
CHAPTER
26
A loud thump jolted through me, and I jerked. The fast movement tore the splat ball I was filling, rendering it useless. “Damn it to the Turn and back,” I muttered as I tossed the pellet into the trash and shook a new one from the box. Careful to keep the tip of the syringe from touching me and knocking me out, I filled it with sleepy-time potion. The thumping continued, getting louder when my door squeaked open. Surprised, I looked up, but it was only Rex, the orange cat appearing a mite peeved. “Come on in,” I said as I went back to my work. “It’s the only room with less than thirty people.”
I was exaggerating, but the church had gotten noisy, driving me into the belfry to prep for my meeting with Constance. Pike was gone, but I could still smell vampire incense lingering on the fainting couch. David’s car and Edden’s cruiser hadn’t moved from the curb, meaning they were still arguing over where to put everyone so they were both useful and not in the way. It was flattering that so many wanted to help, but I was beginning to worry about the fallout.