I stuck a hand into my pocket and the evidence bags there. I hadn’t turned them in or admitted to having them. I had Loriann’s blood. I had shot Jason. I had a handful of tissues still damp with his blood. There had been enough for the crime scene techs, but I had collected my own too. For some reason I hadn’t told my team I had any of it. What could I do to a blood witch when I had his blood?
Could I feed him to Soulwood long-distance? Death was a judgment and sentence that belonged to the witch council of the United States. They governed all witches accused of capital crimes. If I drained him for the land, it would be murder.But... My land hungered. I could feel the desire like an ache in my belly, crushed down but painful and demanding.
“Loriann was still keeping secrets,” Rick said. “But at last, finally, she knows her brother has taken up with evil.” He had dressed and helped with the aftermath, but he couldn’t look at Margot. Hadn’t looked at her even once. Guilt was a nasty emotion. It changed relationships and made things that used to work no longer work.
My cell dinged with a text from Yummy, or someone using her cell, and I tapped it open. It said,Our people’s amulets have taken us to a bend of the Tennessee River. We know where Godfrey lairs.I read the text aloud and though it was nothing to go on, the entire team turned to their laptops and tablets and started tapping away. The cell dinged again.Our team will go in at half an hour before dusk to rescue our people. We will behead the daywalker who wishes to rule Ming’s lands, and stake his scions. I’ll text you the address ten minutes before we penetrate. Be ready with ambulances to come where we request.
“Ming is giving us the minimum legally required heads-up,” JoJo said. “At least we can put EMS and the local LEOs on alert. You really gotta get that chick’s real name.”
“Last time I asked, Yummy told me no. I ain’t magic.”
“That was an order,” JoJo said, her tone laughing.
“No. I kinda like ‘Yummy,’” I joked, sending my vampire friend back aK.
Too softly, the words breathy and sere, FireWind said, “You tell your superiors no with regularity, don’t you? That’s insubordination and grounds for censure or dismissal.” The team went silent and still. The words carried enough of an edge and threat to make me put down the cell and focus on the special agent in charge of the eastern seaboard. FireWind was an unknown. An unknown with power over us all, and power over our jobs. That made him scary. And... his inscrutable expression was no longer in place. It was... maybe cracked wasn’t the right word, but it was different. The banter between JoJo and me was just that. Banter. FireWind had to know that, so something else was going on here.
I considered all that had happened in the last hours. FireWind had made the decision to let the blood witch insidehis unit’s headquarters. He had promised he’d fight off Jason and had failed. His team had then been attacked. The FBI liaison was possibly turned into a black wereleopard. His probie was the only team member to get off a defensive shot. The grindys had killed no one so far as we knew. Yet. But Rick might be in their sights. Ayatas and Rick had some sort of conflict going on so he probably felt guilty about maybe getting his SAC grindy-killed. Also, FireWind was going to take some heat for a failure in protocol and building security. Worse, his upline boss, Soul, was here, watching. He was visibly upset.
I looked to Soul but her chair was empty. I hadn’t seen the boss-lady leave. But that was a problem for later.
The mamas had always said to start out like you intend to proceed. I needed to address this.
JoJo started, “I was just—”
I held up a hand to stop her and said, “Would you folks give me a minute with the boss man?” The cats reacted and I thought they were about to disagree, or worse, try to protect me. I shook my head at both of them and stood, pointing to the null room. FireWind followed me in. The door shut behind us. The cold that had nothing to do with temperature and everything to do with antimagic instantly started seeping into my bones. Into Ayatas too, if his face was anything to go by.
“You have my undivided attention,” FireWind said, the words pointed and stiff, like a stick to the eye.
I sat on the edge of the table, laced my fingers in my lap so I’d present the most nonthreatening image possible. I looked up at him and turned on church-speak because it was disarming. And a disarmed enemy was the best kind. “See, Ayatas FireWind, it’s like this. I like being a cop. I like solving crimes and helping people. I like my job. I like this team and they are dang good at what they do. I consider them friends.” I leaned in to make sure he was listening to what I was saying. “You’un come in here and take over because you’un consider yourself the peacock with the biggest tail. The best of the best. And things didn’t go like you’un planned and now you’un’re scrambling in the aftermath of unexpected disaster. And you’un, right now, are trying to take it out on me because you need a release valve and I’m handy.”
FireWind’s eyebrows went up in surprise. “Please continue,” he said, “and address why a probationary employee should not be released for insubordination.”
“Last part first, then. This team’s got no one who can read the land.No one.” I let a little more church into my voice. “‘Acause whatever I am, I’m whatchu call a one-off. A one-of-a-kind.”
“Your sister scents ofyinehi,” Ayatas said, eyes shrewd.
“My sister don’t grow leaves. She can’t read the land. She can’t do what what I do.” All true. Sorta. I mentally promised myself to keep my other siblings away from Ayatas’yinehisniffer and continued on my attack. “In fact, PsyLED can’t do its job thoroughly without me. PsyLED needs me more than I need it. Also”—I dropped a fraction of my church-speak and let my tone go hard—“I was the only special agent to get off a shot at Jason Ethier whenyoulet him inside and he attacked HQ. So you don’t scare me when you huff and puff and blow the walls down by threatening my job. I got a job offer outside of law enforcement anytime I want, so I wouldn’t suffer financially if we parted ways. I ain’t insubordinate. None of this unit is. Jo and me was making a joke.”
“Job offer?” he asked.
The angst had begun to clear from his eyes as I talked. Start as you intend to go forward. Challenging him seemed to be effective. I said, “With Clan Yellowrock.”
There was no way to miss the shock that jolted through him.
“Yeah. Your sister’s... court, I guess you call it. As part of the Dark Queen’s retinue. I know my value. I ain’t got the big head, but I know who I am and what I got to offer. So don’t threaten me. You can ask nicely or you can fire me. Until such firing, PsyLED has my total, undivided loyalty. We’uns clear?”
“Perfectly. As clear as when you kicked Rick LaFleur in the crotch.”
“He had it coming,” I said, unrepentant. That had been early in our acquaintance, before I joined PsyLED.
“Hmmm.”
Thathmmmwas pretty good, but I’d beenhmmmedby churchmen. FireWind was an amateur compared to that kind of censure. I leaned in even farther and smiled my sweetest churchwoman smile. “I done been threatened by burningat the stake since I was five years old. Being fired from a job ain’t nothing.” A small expression of surprise flashed across FireWind’s face. He hadn’t known that part of my history, which meant he hadn’t spent much time looking over my personnel papers. That was interesting. I eased back, resettling my weight on the table. “Now. You got a plan of action or you gonna waste our time testing us to see what we’re all made of, ’cause frankly I think you’d do better to wait till all this is settled.”
With a bite to his words, FireWind said, “PSY CSI is delayed. Before you stop for the morning, I’d like you and Kent to go back to the stockyard and see what you can find out by daylight. Wear Tyvek uniforms.”
“Good by me. I gotta drop my sister and her dog off at home first.” I stood and walked to the door. Put my hand on the handle and stopped. “I ain’t hard to work with. I’ll support you and your decisions to my last breath, even when you get your butt kicked. But”—I looked over my shoulder at him—“you and me got off on the wrong foot. In fact, you and the rest of the unit got off on the wrong foot. I’m betting you’re used to working with white male human teams. Unit Eighteen is composed predominantly of paras, not humans, a mixed male-female team, too. You can’t treat this team the way you treat others and still have a fully functioning unit. This team has a lateral organizational structure, not an old-timey vertical one. Going forward, I’d like to be polite and respectful. I’d like the same from you.” I started to open the door.
