“Simplified: the speech was infused with magic aimed at whoever he was hoping to catch. Anyone who wasn’t his target, wasn’t going to understand what he was saying.” She paused as the waitress carried over our orders.
I dug into the chowder, closing my eyes as the warm, creamy broth trickled down my throat. “I have to admit, this whole mess has left me unnerved. Or maybe it’s the mess with my father. I know I’m changing the subject, but be honest with me. Do you think I’m being stupid, trusting him? I want your opinion.”
“Honestly?” She cut her burger in half and added ketchup. “No, I don’t. But only because I did a tarot reading on it. I think you’re right. Your father’s no peach, and I wouldn’t ever want to buddy up to him—he is a demon and he’s probably pulled some nasty atrocities—but in this? The cards said he’s telling the truth.”
Relieved, I let out a long sigh. “Okay. I trust your cards. Meanwhile, what the hell do we do about Erik and Analee? Their temple’s pretty much a two person affair, though they seem to have a few bodyguards.”
“That much I gathered. How much money do you think they’ve amassed? If they’re getting twenty-five grand per initiate, even just a few a year would provide a nice nest.”
“Can we find out where they live?” I asked. “We could check out their place when they’re not home.”
“Let’s look,” Penn said. She opened her phone and brought up a browser. A few moments later, she turned it around for me to see the screen. “You can almost always find out someone’s address if they bought a house, and they do own one. And what do you know, they’re married. To each other.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. I imagine they kept it quiet in the meeting because the women were charmed by him.” I glanced at the address. They lived near Lake Sammamish, on the outskirts of the Hans Jensen State Park. “Pricey area. And right near the water. That feels right, to me.”
“It does to me, too. I keep thinking about what you told me about Mark’s body, and the snaky-feel I got from them. You know…there’s an entire conspiracy theory surrounding reptilians who hide among humans.” She paused, tilting her head. “I’m thinking maybe they’re a distant relative of the Fae.”
“Or they could be in the Draco family. We know dragons are real, and we know there are snake-shifters. Why wouldn’t there be lizard-shifters…or whatever you might want to call them?” We seldom encountered reptilian creatures, but there was always a first time.
“Good point,” she said. “All right, we need to scope out their house. We’re not going to get anywhere by going back to their meetings. They can pick us out easily, and they’ll be on the lookout. The good thing, is they don’t know our names or why we were there.”
“We need to move in before they get rid of any evidence, though.”
She nodded. “Tonight. We have to move in tonight or we’ll lose our chance before anybody else goes missing.”
“You want to scope it out tonight?” That felt dangerous, but she was right.
“We have to,” she said. “The feeling in my stomach tells me that if we don’t, they’ll have time to either go underground or vanish to another city.”
“Okay, then. I’ll text the others,” I said, sending the address to Dante and all the others with a note.
hey, we may have found an answer to mark’s disappearance. we need to move on this as soon as possible. i know its late but we need a couple of you to go with us to check out a house. sophia, can you run a background check on erik stengale and analee thomas.
I waited for a moment before they answered.
on it, Sophia texted. i’ll send over my info as soon as i find anything.
i can be there in twenty. where do you want us? Dante answered.
are you well enough? what about the injuries on your hindquarters? I asked.
mostly healed up. i’m good.
Orik texted next. i’m in. hilda and the babies are sleeping.
i can’t come tonight unless it’s absolutely necessary. grandpa needs a ride to and from the senior center. he’s volunteering to help plan a harvest feast for the neighborhood’s needy. Carson’s text came in.
I texted back: carson, tell gramps hello, and don’t worry about it. orik, dante and i can deal with this.
At that moment, Lazenti texted. I can show up.
I sent back: meet us at the lake sammamish park boat launch in an hour. traffic should be fine. we’ll sneak in on foot. when we meet at the boat launch, penn and i’ll fill you in on what went down. bring whatever weapons you have with you, as long as you can use them.
I glanced at Penn. “I gave them time to gather their things. It also gives us time enough to finish our food.”
“What’s our plan?” Penn said. “We don’t have time to refine anything, but what do we do first?
“I don’t know, but I hope they don’t go directly home,” I said. “Is there any way if you can tell how long the meeting’s going to be?”
