But that wouldn’t have done my people any good.
“Beds,” I said quietly. “They’re sleeping on foam pads and air mattresses. They’re surviving. I want them to live.”
“What else?” she asked.
“A doctor. Antibiotics. A supply of insulin. I’ve got a diabetic who is running low, and there’s none to be found. Some kind of painkiller. There’s not many of those, either, and I’ve got casualties from the battle. They only get enough to get a little sleep and spend their awake time…making do.”
She nodded, and I could see her taking mental notes. “Anything else?”
“More hours in the day,” I said wearily. “I need more time.”
“Oh,” she said gently. “Yes. I know that one. When I have a solution, I’ll let you know.”
I nodded. We both took a sip of coffee, and she studied my features carefully, without speaking. She didn’t seem uncomfortable in the silence. There was an aura of patience around her that I’d only really felt among older, much older, beings.
“I’ve tried to track Justine,” I said finally.
Justine was my brother Thomas’s woman, had been since I’d known him. She was carrying his child and had been possessed by a spiritual entity that had blackmailed him into attempting an assassination on Etri, king of the svartalves. He’d barely survived it, and now he was stuck in stasis out on my spooky island—and Justine was missing.
Lara frowned. “Oh?”
I nodded. “The thing possessing her destroyed anything easy that I might have used to do it. Hair, nail clippings, that kind of thing. It was very thorough.”
“Then how did you manage an attempt?”
“Goodman Grey swiped a lock of her hair just in case. Sent it to me with my invoice.”
Lara smiled faintly. “The man is nefariously professional.”
“I used the lock,” I said. “But she must have shaved her head. I barely latched onto anything, and it was a long way off. I think she’s in Europe.”
“That agrees with what I’ve been able to find out,” Lara agreed. “She’s been sighted in Romania.” She swallowed. “How is Thomas?”
Thomas was her half brother, the same as he was mine, though through different parents. “I went out to the island two days ago. He’s still…asleep. What he went through was bad enough that his mind isn’t ready todeal with it yet. He’s safe, and his body is healing. The island is keeping his Hunger from doing him any further harm.”
Lara exhaled. “Like a medically induced coma.”
I nodded tiredly. “Yeah. Exactly like that. I’ve been doing some research, trying to figure out how to keep his Hunger from starting in on him again. It’s…slow work.”
Lara’s expression looked gently pained. “I believe it.”
I’d spoken more words all at once in the past few moments than I had in the previous week. I felt exhausted. I fell into silence again as we sipped coffee. Again, that patient stillness just radiated out from her. The rest of my dander that had been riled up settled down, and I just felt sad and weary.
“Why?” I asked her, moments later.
“Why help you?” she asked.
I grunted in the affirmative.
She took a moment to consider her answer. “I could tell you it was because I simply want to help you, but you wouldn’t believe that. You’d consider it a manipulation. I could tell you that it was because it would look good for the alliance, and that would be the truth. But it also wouldn’t be the whole truth, and you’d sense that. I could tell you that it’s because the possibility exists that I might be feeding on you in the future, and I don’t want to poison myself with so much pain and despair, and there would be a certain amount of truth in that. I could tell you it was because you are effectively holding my brother prisoner, as well as keeping him from dying, and I want to put you at your ease, and that would be part of the truth as well. And I could tell you that it’s clear that you are recovering from brutal losses in the battle, and that I need you operating to the fullness of your abilities to save my brother, and that also would contain truth.” She shook her head. “There are always dangers to cultivating the kind of reputation I have made for myself. The answer is, ‘it’s complicated,’ Harry. But among all the pressures and crosscurrents of interest, I do want to help you.”
“Yeah. But why?” I asked.
She smiled faintly. “Why doyouwant to help them?”
“Because I can,” I said. “Because it’s right.”
“I would take it as a personal favor if you would consider this possibility,” she said.
