I also received final proof, way too dang late, that Shoffru had indeed hosted the coming-out party at Guilbeau’s, a situation I was going to have to remedy. Part of security for the vamps and humans in the Big Easy would mean, in the future, that a social secretary would schedule everything. Not that the vamps had a social sec. That was something they would have to deal with later too. All that took way too long. I was exhausted as the clock neared noon, and was tired of the dried blood crinkling on my skin and the stink of Derek caught in his T-shirt. And just plain tired. Tired to the marrow of my bones.
• • •
When I got home, it was well after noon, but I discovered on my bed a note on a fancy card, in a fancy envelope. Vamp-fancy, which meant calligraphy and high-bond paper and even some gilt. In the note, I was given orders to appear at Katie’s. “Posthaste,” the little note said, which would mean my very first ever meeting with a vamp during the day. That the vamp was Katie was a bit scary. And meant no nap for me.
I took a fast shower, put on clean clothes, so no stench of blood clung to me, and my vamp hunting gear for self-protection. I texted Adelaide Mooney that I had been summoned. She called me back quickly and made some recommendations.
Politely, still digesting Del’s comments, I knocked on Katie’s door.
Troll, trying to look unworried, let me in and secured the door from sunlight. I was about to ask him what the summons meant, but Katie appeared at his shoulder with that little pop of air that meant she had traveled fast from her lair, and since her flesh wasn’t smoking from contact with sunlight, I knew she had been in the lair that I had helped to design and build, in this house, under the stairs. She was dressed in a floor-length brown dress, her blond hair down and catching the lights. She looked human, not vamped-out. I figured that was the best I could hope for.
“Katie,” I said.
“Enforcer,” she said back. Which was not a fortunate start to the interview, centering on my job to protect vamps and follow orders. Which I hadn’t done. “You have news about the ones who took my servants and your friends. News you did not share with me.”
“Yes.” And those ones would be Jack and Cym. I took a steadying breath and drew on Del’s counsel and legalese. “I found them last night. The ones who took your girls and fed them to a newly freed scion are dead. And the girls have become blood-servants of one of Leo’s newest scions, Shiloh Everhart Stone, and they are all well again from the magics that were making them ill. But you know all this. So I’m thinking you really wanted to tell me something else.”
Katie said, “You have done well to find and destroy my enemies. I commend you. I shall provide the standard form of financial remuneration. I approve.”
“Um. Well, actually, Leo killed one of them.”
She smiled and it was a truly terrifying smile. “He did. And he did this for you. Use caution, little cat, that you do not stalk what is mine.”
She meant Leo. And aha. This was what she had been wanting to say. “He’s all yours, Katie. Honest to God. All yours.”
Katie’s fangs snapped down. “Remember that. Leo is mine.” Behind me the outer door opened a crack. Katie threw up an arm against the light and I got out of there fast, through the door that Troll had opened. Sadly, that was the high point of my day.
As I swung over the back fence, the Kid and Tia and the children were heading outside to play—which was grown-up talk for getting out of the line of fire. When I entered my house, it was to walk into the middle of a huge fight between Molly and Big Evan. Evan was standing in the middle of the living room, his hands fisted at his sides, the air swirling around him, lifting his red beard, shuffling through his clothes, his magic activated, but contained, for the moment. Molly, less than a third his size, with her weight loss, was standing at the entrance to the kitchen. Her dress hung perfectly still, her hair a spill of rich color, unmoving. Her hands were relaxed and still, her magic tight against her skin, a dark shadow of potential. Of the two, Molly looked far more dangerous.
“—tell me you were on the pill? How could you not, Mol?”
“Because she was afraid the death magics would interfere with the baby’s development, or with the childbirth, or with something else equally horrible. She was afraid of giving birth to a magical monster or killing the child in her womb. Right, Molly?”
My friend gave her head a tiny nod, one I might have missed had I not been living with Mr. Infinitesimal for the last few months.
“She was also afraid of hurting the children, or draining you in your sleep. She was hoping to find a way out of the problem, but when she heard about Shiloh being alive and in danger, she put her troubles behind her and came to New Orleans. It was stupid, and it was bad timing that she got taken before she could get to me for help. It was also stupid that she didn’t tell us about her magic going bad and let us help her find a treatment or cure, but she wasn’t cheating on you. And stupidity isn’t a crime.”
Molly shot me a glare. Big Evan didn’t take his eyes from his wife, but his face turned even redder. “You talked to her about all this and you couldn’t talk to me?”
“She didn’t tell me anything, you idiot.” I could have been a bit more diplomatic, but I was tired, my house was full of angry witches, and I couldn’t just leave them to it and try for a nap. I might wake up with the house on fire. Or dropped on top of one of them, a pair of ruby slippers sticking out. I grinned, imagining the glittery pumps on Big Evan’s humongous feet. From the look on his face, I probably shouldn’t share the vision with him. “I figured it out. Molly loves you guys with all her heart. She wants her magic back. Or a way to control the death magic. And—” I stopped. It was possible that I had a way, if I could get the familiar back from Gee DiMercy. Or if—
Something launched across the kitchen at Molly. Molly whirled and lifted her arm. Evan raised both of his fists. “No!” I shouted. They both stopped. The kitten landed on Molly’s shoulder. And meowed. A lot of things flitted through my mind, like Aggie’s mother’s prophecy and Molly’s desire to be her old self, and lots of old stories about witches and cats. Puzzle pieces settling into place. “When I was a kid, in the children’s home, before I understood English, I was standing somewhere, maybe in a kitchen, watching some girls put a puzzle together.”
Big Evan looked at me as if I were insane. “What?”
“Yeah, I know. Weird, huh? Anyway, I had no idea what a puzzle was.” The kitten on Molly’s shoulder arched her back and walked around to her other shoulder. Molly held perfectly still. Eyes wide, fingers spread. As if she was afraid to even breathe. “I didn’t understand. Not for, like, two days.” I shoved my hands into my jeans pockets, talking, watching Molly and the kitten. It put its cheek to her and purred long and steadily. “But I knew it was important, it had to be because two of the girls I lived with were so totally focused on it, like, the way a mountain lion focuses on prey when she’s hungry and has kits to feed. Anyway, on the end of the second day, they put the last piece together and they got up and left. They left me alone with the puzzle. So I walked over and looked at it.”
Molly smiled slightly and reached up to touch the kitten. It started to purr and Molly gathered the kitten in her arms. KitKit settled against Molly’s chest, and her purr ratcheted up, echoing, the rumble far too loud for her size, seeming to fill the whole room. Molly took a breath, let it go. And the black cloud of energies wrapped around her began to lighten.
“I knew there was a pattern there,” I went on. “I could almost see it in the greens and reds and yellows. But I didn’t understand humans or two-dimensional pictures. Or most anything at that point. But as I stood there and studied it, I realized what it was. It was a kitten, crouching among some potted flowers, hidden in the board. Trapped there. I didn’t understand about pictures yet. But I did understand about traps. So I started taking the puzzle apart, trying to find a way to free the kitten.”