Her eyes ticked away, then back, a human gesture for trying to remember. “There are lots of them.” Her eyelids began to sink down.
I dropped into my mindset to check the yellow life force. There was so little left. “Kelly! Which entrance is the closest?” I burst out.
The eyes didn’t open any farther. “Central and Lincolnway.”
I was already losing her. Nellie had said I’d have a few minutes, but maybe it worked differently if the sacrifice was sedated, or maybe I was just too new at this. I could feel the gossamer sliding away from me and I wished I’d prioritized my questions. There was so much I still didn’t understand.
“Why were you helping Morgan?” I asked, desperate.
“Money,” Kelly’s voice was still mechanical, but very quiet now. “Our pack needed money.”
Simon’s voice rang out from behind Nellie. “Ask her where Morgan got the money!”
He’d startled me; I almost lost it, struggled, got control again. “Where did Morgan get the money?” I demanded.
“He gave it to her.”
“Who did?”
The last of the life bled out through my hands, but I was so focused on my question that I barely noticed. Then something very small gave way to my right, collapsing. Then another. And another. I dropped into my mindset and saw small drifts of yellow worming through the walls toward me.
I’d killed something.
“Let go, you damn fool!” Nellie hissed. She must have been able to see it too.
I wasn’t sure how to disconnect, so I threw myself sideways, ripping my tattoos and my focus away from Kelly. When I looked back, her body seemed to have hardened into wax.
Nellie disappeared for a moment, then blinked back. “You killed rats,” she announced. “Four of them.”
Relief flooded me, but I could only nod. Then I turned my head sideways, away from the body, and puked. A lot.
Nellie began to curse, using words I’d never heard—or at least never considered as fuel for expletives. It would have been impressive if I weren’t busy dry-heaving. I caught the words, “This is my son-of-a-bitchin’ home!”
There was nothing else in my body to come up, but I didn’t respond. I could feel a bit of the boundary magic still inside me—I’d stolen more life from the rats than I’d pushed into Kelly. I had to do something with it, or I would get magic-drunk.
So I put both hands on the floor and whispered the cleaning spell Simon had taught me. It did come in handy. The vomit disappeared—along with all the dirt, cobwebs, dust bunnies, and blood spatters from the chicken. The room was still old and shabby, but it was spotless.
Nellie’s mouth fell open in shock, and for the first time since I’d met her, she was rendered speechless.
“Time to disappear, Nellie,” I said, wishing my voice were stronger. “I’m calling an ambulance. You will allow them to come take my friend away without interference.”
Her face tightened as she finally remembered herself. “The deal was to help you raise the dead, and I did that. You never said nothin’ about allowing humans in here.”
“I have no. Fucking. Time for this,” I snapped. “I will come back and talk to you this week, but right now, get the hell out of my face.”
Whatever she saw in my eyes convinced her, because Nellie blinked away immediately. I turned and crawled over to Simon. He had gotten paler, his olive skin an unnerving shade of green, and sweat had broken out over his face. The pain had to be pretty serious. I checked his forehead—not feverish, but clammy.
“Are you okay?” he asked me.
I had to smile. “I’ll be fine. Just a little nausea. Did your cell phone survive the fall?”
“No idea.”
I stood up and shone the flashlight around until I found Simon’s phone, which had tumbled down the stairs with him. There was a shallow crack on the screen, but the heavy-duty case seemed to have protected it from serious damage. I handed it to Simon, who unlocked it and handed it back.
I went to his contacts and called Quinn.
“Simon?” he answered, sounding worried. “What’s going on now?”
“It’s me,” I began, but he broke in before I could go on.
“Lex! Where are you? What the hell is—”
“Quinn, listen: I’m going to call an ambulance to come to Nellie’s brothel and pick up Simon. I need you to get a vampire here to press the EMTs.” I glanced down at the floor. “Oh, and get rid of a werewolf body.”
There was a pause of one heartbeat, and then my boyfriend exploded with questions. I had to practically shout him down. “There’s no time! Did you check on Charlie?”
“Yes—Maven got Clara back on her feet; she’s outside Elise’s house. And Sashi called your cell. She’s in Boulder on her way to the hospital to help John.” He recited this quickly, sounding pissed. “Now, what happened to Simon?”
“He fell down the stairs. Broken wrist, and I think a bad ankle sprain.” I thought of John’s injuries. “Possible internal damage. Go see him at the hospital; he can explain. I love you.”
I hung up the phone. Simon opened his mouth, but I held up a finger, dialing 911. I gave the dispatcher the address and told her to send the paramedics around the back. Then I hung up on her, too, and handed the phone back to Simon.
He gave me another wobbly smile. “What are you going to do?”
“As soon as your ambulance gets here, I’m going to go up to Cheyenne to get Katia.” Morgan had said my aunt would be waiting at the Depot, but I knew she wouldn’t risk that I’d show up without Charlie. One of her employees was probably stationed there as a trap.
“Oh.” Simon’s eyes widened with understanding. “I’m an idiot. That’s why you quit Maven’s service.”
I nodded. “If I don’t work for her, she’s not liable for my actions, in Wyoming or anywhere else.”
He looked at me silently for a long moment. “You’re going to kill Morgan, aren’t you?”
I didn’t answer. Morgan was expecting me to go along with her plan, so she would likely still be in Cheyenne when I got there. The odds that she’d let Katia go without a fight seemed pretty much nonexistent.
My plan had been to send Simon to the meeting point at the Depot as a diversion, while I approached Morgan wherever she was hiding. But I was on my own now, and I wasn’t playing around.
Simon saw most of this in my face. “I’m coming with you,” he said, struggling to sit up.
“Whoa, hey.” He got even paler when he was sitting, but I helped him scoot back to the wall, stretching his legs out in front of him. “You can’t come with me, Si. You can barely sit up.”
“She’s my sister,” he insisted.
“She’s killing people, Si,” I said heavily. “Or sending them to be killed.”
I glanced back at the dead werewolf. Why doesn’t it hurt? I didn’t know anything about Kelly, and I wasn’t sorry that Clara had killed her to protect Charlie. But somewhere along the line, Kelly had been a victim too.
“You think I don’t know that?” Simon released my hand so he could swipe at his eyes. “But she wasn’t always like this. She taught me how to swim . . .”
“Oh, Simon.” I couldn’t hug him without hurting him, so I scooted to sit next to him and rested my head on his shoulder. He and Lily had been through a lot in the last few days, and so much of it had been for me. None of this was fair to them.
“Wait, listen,” he said, his voice suddenly hopeful, “maybe we can convince the witches at the congress to bind her magic. Like Morgan’s been trying to do to all of us.”
I lifted my head to look at him, considering it. “Is that possible?”
“It’s expensive, and it will probably take a couple of days. They’ll have to find someone from out of state who can perform the ritual, and get at least a full coven to back them up, but . . . yeah, it’s possible.”
I bit my lip, thinking. “Okay,” I said at last. “If you and Hazel can work on Maven, I will try to capture her instead of killing her.”
He tilted his head back so he could study my face. “Promise me.”
My heart sank. What were the chances that I could free Katia, capture Morgan without one of us dying, and get her all the way back to Boulder alive?
Even if I managed it, I sort of doubted that Maven would let Morgan live a second time. She would have to face the consequences of her actions, and by bringing her to Maven in Colorado, I would more or less be delivering her to her executioner.
But I wouldn’t be the executioner. Maybe that was cowardly, or splitting hairs, but I did not want to kill my friends’ sister. I was still messed up about werewolves because one werewolf had killed Sam.
I took a deep breath. “You have my word that I will do everything in my power to bring your sister back alive.”
“Thank you.” I’d rarely heard him sound this intense.
“If I can, you’ll need to talk your mother into dropping the ward, so I can bring her back to Maven,” I pointed out.
“I can do that,” he said fiercely. “But I’ll wait for your call.” Then: “What time is it?”
I checked my watch. “Four twenty-five.”
“Lex, you gotta go,” he said. “I’ll be fine. I’ve got my phone.”
I wanted to argue, but he was right. Even if I got on the road right now, I’d need to drive like a bat out of hell to get there in time.
“Okay. Do me a favor? See what you can find online about tunnels in Cheyenne?” I asked, standing up. “Maps or blueprints or whatever?”
I felt bad about giving him work while he was hurt, but if anything, he looked relieved to have something to do. “You got it.”
“There’s some extra burner phones in the back of the Jeep. I’ll call you from the road.”
I was nearly to the door when Simon called after me. I turned around. “Tunnels,” he said, his forehead wrinkled. “You’re claustrophobic.”
I sighed. “I know.”
Chapter 39
The last time I’d been to Cheyenne was about a year and a half earlier, when Charlie had become obsessed with a television show called Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.
The program was about a young tiger who rides around on a trolley visiting his friends, learning lessons about friendship, and being neighborly. I had watched many hours of it with Charlie, and for a few months it was the only thing she wanted to play, watch, or talk about.
That spring my parents had gone on a vacation, and I’d taken care of Charlie for a week while John was at work. After a few days of visiting our favorite Boulder spots, I started casting about for something new to do—and discovered that Cheyenne has a trolley tour.