“The house…” he panted, “…has been…dusted with powdered…bronze.”
“They expected a gwyllgi.” I helped Linus ease Hood down onto the sand. “Don’t move.”
Hood wrapped his palm around my ankle. “Where are you going?”
“To the van.” I rested a hand on his shoulder. “I’m going to get some water out of the fridge so we can flush out your eyes.”
“Stay with him.” Linus cut me a look over Hood’s head. “I’ll fetch the water.”
I mouthed Thank you then knelt beside Hood. With his senses impaired, he was bristling for a fight. As someone he had sworn to protect, that he claimed as pack, he was fighting instincts that must be howling at him to act to keep me safe even though he was the one who had been attacked.
“Do you want me to call Lethe?” I let him keep his grip on my leg. “Do you need a healer?”
“Yes.” He coughed, his breath whistling through his abused lungs. “Both.” His eyes, red-rimmed and puffy, focused on me. “Tell her what happened, but don’t let her get near me until I’m clean.”
Linus returned with a few bottles in hand and passed them to me. “What can I do?”
“Call Lethe.” I cracked open the first lid. “He’s going to need medical attention prior to her arrival.”
“Hopefully,” Linus said, dialing as he walked away, “she’ll take this news better with a full stomach.”
“I’m going to pour this water over your face,” I told Hood. “Hands down. Don’t touch your eyes.”
A growl pumped through his chest, his hand tightening on my ankle, but he held still.
“One bottle down, three more to go.” I watched Linus out of the corner of my eye. “Almost done.”
“We need to sterilize him before he gets around Lethe,” Linus said, rejoining us, “or in the van.”
“I didn’t even think about contamination.” I looked at him. “We’ve been exposed too.”
The van cost too much to risk its functionality. That left us with two options. Neither were great.
“Open your eyes.” I finished with Hood and collected the bottles. “Better?”
“Before it felt like someone had blowtorched my eyeballs.”
“And now?” I prompted him.
“More like someone sandpapered them.”
“Sounds like progress to me.” I passed the empties to Linus, who walked the trash over to the bulky can waiting at the curb for pickup. “Just sit tight, and we’ll figure this out.”
Linus crossed back while pressing buttons on his phone, and I got a bad feeling about his plan of action. Not that I had a better one.
“I called Mother’s driver. The Lyceum is sending someone for Hood. They’ll take him to the Elite barracks on Habersham Street, stick him under a shower, then arrange for a ride to Woolworth House in a different vehicle.” Linus pocketed his phone. “The driver will take Hood to the healer then pick up Lethe and drop her off there.”
“That takes care of them.” I got to my feet and helped Hood to his. “What about us?”
“I made arrangements” was all he said, but he didn’t seem happy about them. That all but guaranteed I wouldn’t be either.
“You searched the house earlier.” I aimed the comment at Linus. “Why didn’t the bronze dust affect Hood when he met us at Woolly?”
“I sent Cletus in to scout,” Linus admitted. “After I tested the door and found it unlocked, I thought it best to leave the house undisturbed. There weren’t enough shadows for a lengthy reconnaissance, since wraiths can’t manifest in daylight, but I did the best I could under the circumstances.”
The force of his meaning struck me, that he was preserving evidence, and I almost wished I had left well enough alone.
This really was a crime scene now, but not for the reason I first imagined. Dusting the house with powdered bronze had been a deliberate act of malice.
“Lethe might have miscarried if she’d breathed in enough of that poison,” Hood said, his voice scratchy.
Thank the goddess for small mercies. Lethe was safe inside Woolly and not mired in the sand with her mate.
“Odette didn’t leave of her own free will.” The confirmation rocked me. “She was taken.”
“You said she was visiting a client.” Linus lifted his head. “Do you have any idea who?”
“Confidentiality agreements tied her hands.” I had no clue who used her, and her clients banked on that anonymity. “All she told me was she made allowances for him that she wouldn’t for anyone else. It made me think they must have become friends over the years. She did say he was one of her first and still one of her best clients.”
“One of her first,” he said, sounding thoughtful. “That might help us narrow the scope of possibilities.”
A sleek car painted the exact shade of wet blood pulled into the driveway, and a man in a suit stepped out wearing the blank expression of someone who did as his employer required without asking questions. He got within several feet of us before Hood caught his scent and started growling.
“It’s your ride,” I murmured, soothing his overprotective instincts. “No worries.”
His grumble implied he wasn’t thrilled to be crammed into a car with a stranger but would cooperate.
“We got this,” I called to the driver. “Can you open the door?”
“Yes, Dame Woolworth.”
With help from Linus, I wedged my shoulder under Hood’s armpit, and we lifted him together.
“Do you want me to ride with you?” A cold sweat broke along my skin. “You don’t have to go alone.”
“I can’t afford to show more weakness,” he panted. “Not after the challenge to Lethe. The pack will have eyes everywhere, and I can’t let them see me like this.”
“We’ll send Cletus with you.” I made it an order. “He’s inconspicuous.”
A weak growl rattled up the back of his throat, but he didn’t press the issue as we stuffed him in.
“Cletus.” I waited for him to join us. “Can you escort Hood on his errands?”
The wraith fluttered overhead, his attention fixed on the bungalow.
“What is it?” I touched the wispy edge of his tattered cloak. “What do you see?”
Unable to voice an answer, he drifted lower, until he stared at me from his empty hood and extended a bony arm toward me. I reached out, and he dropped a white ark shell on my palm.
“Ah, thanks.” I turned it over in my hand. “Linus, any idea what this means?”
The bleached shell could fit on my fingertip, and it was perfect except for a tiny dot near the hinge made when a moon snail drilled a hole through the shell with the sharp teeth on its tonguelike radula.
A frown knitted his brow. “He’s not projecting to me.”
That probably wasn’t a great sign, but there was nothing to be done about it right this second.
Having given me his gift, the wraith took position over the car, ready to do his duty.
The driver gave us a polite nod then pulled away.
Once they were out of sight, I got antsy about this latest kink in Cletus’s wiring.
“Can you pick up on Cletus now?” I searched Linus’s face. “Can you see Hood?”
Black swallowed his eyes as he stared down the single lane. “Yes.”
Before I could summon relief, a familiar van streaked with dirt and finger-written obscenities rolled up to the curb. The window lowered to reveal our old pal Tony, dressed in a stained tee and pajama bottoms, who toasted us with the last swallow of his energy drink.
“It’s been a while.” He tossed the can onto the growing pile in the front passenger floorboard. “You two go on vacation or something?”
“Bermuda.” I smiled brightly. “The triangle is awesome this time of year.”
Tony stroked the few scraggly hairs protruding from his chin. “Where are you headed?”
“Johnson Square.” Linus held the door for me then joined me on the bench seat. “Near the Nathanael Greene Monument.”
I shot him a look, but he wore the mask of Scion Lawson, and there was no prying up the edges for a peek underneath while in mixed company.
We rode in silence, minus the boisterous slurps from the front scent as another energy drink met its untimely death.
Ah, the fragrant scents of pepperoni, unwashed feet, and armpit funk.
I must be feeling nostalgic.
My eyes were certainly watering.
Linus slipped Tony his requisite fifty-dollar bill when the van slowed, and he had a grip on the handle before it came to a full stop. He got out, helped me onto the sidewalk, and we left our former driver before he finished swallowing.
After a few laps around the monument, I got curious about our destination. “Feel like going for a walk?”
“I wanted to make sure he was forced back into traffic. I don’t want him to see where we go next.”
I wanted to see where we went next. “Do you think the Marchands are still bankrolling him?”
“No.” He sounded certain of the fact. “Heloise is the one who struck the bargain. Eloise cut ties with him after he demanded payment for services rendered. She knew we were aware of his betrayal and that he was compromised. He is no longer of any use to her. She squared her sister’s account with him after using the app to book a ride across town, but she told him not to bother contacting her again.”
A coil of Spanish moss hit my shoe, and I scanned the old oaks overhead until I spotted the chittering squirrel responsible. “How do you know all this?”
“I planted a bug the last time we rode in his van.” Linus made no apologies for that fact. “My team has been monitoring him for weeks. The transmissions cut out a few days ago. We had the confirmation we needed, but I prefer to keep tabs on my enemies.”