“True.” I sat back down, enjoying the dim cool of the small room. “But they’re afraid because she’s using their instincts against themselves,” I said, not wanting to bring up Joni. “She intentionally pushes them past their limits. They’re terrified of her.” Except for Pike, I thought, wondering why.
“And you aren’t,” Trent said, a heavy thread of worry in his voice.
I exhaled as the contented sounds and smells from the garden rose up. It was home, and I soaked it in. “No,” I finally said, not sure if that made me brave or stupid. “I totally respect her abilities and what she can do, but I’m not afraid of her. What would be the point?” I hesitated, then added softly, “She abducted Zack this morning.”
“What!” he exclaimed. “Why didn’t you tell me? It’s not on the news!”
I winced and rubbed my forehead. “For which I’m extremely thankful,” I said. “I didn’t tell you because I don’t want you coming back,” I added, liking him two thousand miles away and sort of safe. “Landon let them in.” The bastard.
“Quen?” I heard faintly, and the snapping of Trent’s fingers. “I need a flight out. Now.”
“Hey!” I exclaimed, my face warming. “Did the words ‘come home’ pass my lips? No. David, Jenks, and I will free him soon as the sun comes up. Constance didn’t see fit to release it to the news, and I’d like to keep it that way. She knows the creek she’ll be up if she harms him. We have time. Nash is with him.” I hesitated, Joni’s freakish smile flitting through my memory.
“He’s the leader of the dewar,” Trent said, his voice strained. “I should be there.”
“I know.” I looked at the black window, wondering if I’d seen a hint of pixy dust in the dark. “But you aren’t and we have this. Jenks is out in the streets with Edden and a finder amulet. We go in, get them both, and fall back. I will not let Constance think she can abduct people to piss me off. This is between her and me.”
Trent’s breath shook on the exhale. “How do you figure that? It’s my religious leader who’s been taken.”
“I figure that because I’m the reason she abducted him.” I stood, then got on the box so I could check on Bis. “She threatened you, and David, and even Ivy,” I said as I touched the comatose gargoyle, my heartache swelling. “Zack would have been safe except that Landon gave him up. The kid is refusing to acknowledge her authority over him, and now she knows he’s important to me. He’ll be okay. Nash won’t let anything happen to him,” I added, but it sounded like a hope, not a certainty. Constance’s actions shifted on forces I couldn’t fathom.
“We should have let Landon die on your church floor,” Trent said, and I got off the box.
“That’s what I told him,” I said, remembering Landon hiding behind a bevy of frightened vampires. A quiver rose through me as my thoughts turned to Pike, and I shoved the sensation down to deal with later. Damn vamp pheromones.
“Trent, I’m serious about you staying where you are,” I said when I heard the frustration in his silence. “You’re doing what you need to do. I’m doing what I need to do, and maybe once I get Zack, the enclave might realize I have their interests front and center and ease up on me.” Us. “I’m not going to kill her,” I added, though that would make everything both easier and harder. “Just get her to back off. There’s no reason we can’t both live in Cincy. I don’t want her job, and once she realizes she can’t push me around, she’ll do what everyone else does and ignore me.”
Trent chuckled, and I relaxed at the familiar sound. “It’s very hard to ignore you. You know that, right?” and then, softer to Quen, “No, I’m staying, but keep everything on standby.”
“Trent . . .” I cajoled.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” he said, and I knew by his tone that “standby” was the best I’d get. “The estate is yours to plunder. You know the code to the rare-items vault, right?”
“I do, thanks.” A bead of condensation rolled down the side of my pop, and I moved it before it left a wet ring. Twin feelings of relief and disappointment fought for supremacy. I was glad he was staying, but damn, I missed him. “So far, the church has everything I need.” My lips pressed as “Bury Me Face Down” echoed up. “Except a quiet place to spell.”
“Okay. Keep me in the loop.” His tone had changed. He was working the problem, and I loved him for it. “Call me when you have them. Whatever the time. I don’t think the enclave knows this has happened, and you’re right. Proving your intel is better than theirs might be useful. And don’t take off your ring.”
I looked at it, missing him even more. “I won’t,” I said softly. “I love you.”
“I love you, desperately,” he returned.
I couldn’t end the call, and I sat there with the phone in my hand, becoming more and more miserable.
“Are you going to hang up, Sa’han?” Quen said faintly, and then the connection ended.
I set the phone down. Knees to my chest, I sat in the growing dark and listened to the vampires and Weres at my picnic table eating steak and potatoes. The unexpected camaraderie they’d found was both beautiful and unexpected, hitting me hard. Crap on toast, I miss him. And with that, my throat closed up.
“Rache?”
It was Jenks, and immediately I straightened and wiped my eyes. I wasn’t embarrassed, but I didn’t want him to feel as if he had to cheer me up. “Oh, hey,” I said, seeing him hovering just inside the screenless window. “I didn’t hear you come in.” I flipped open a box as a distraction. It was full of my books, and my gaze went to the empty shelving unit. It had been here since even before Wayde had made the space into a snug attic room. “Did you find Nash and Zack?”
The rasp of the amulet I’d given him was loud as he took it off and set it on a nearby box. It was tiny for an amulet, about as large as his head, and I hadn’t been sure it would work, much less that he’d be able to carry it.
“They’re not at the I.S.,” he said, and my eyes flicked to his. “They’re at Piscary’s. Edden and I got a good triangulation. It’s faint, so I’m guessing they’re downstairs.”
I reached a thought to the nearest ley line and, with a whispered phrase, invoked a small glowing sphere resting on the old floorboards. “That would be my guess, too,” I said as I used the faint light to shelve my library. I’d alphabetize them later. Who am I kidding? My books have never been in order in my entire life.
“Hey,” I said as I arranged the books from tall to short. “There’s a faire of fairies in my room. They want to talk to you about clearing the grubs out of the graveyard. I think it’s a good idea if they can tell the difference between a firefly larva and a June bug. Maybe you can get Baribas to help so they don’t tear everything up getting to them.”