“Now that Margot’s gone, yes.”
I glanced at the unit’s witch, curiosity in my expression. “Oh?”
“Yeah. You aren’t the only one with odd feelings about the special agent. Tandy is getting something too. There’s something she hasn’t said. It’s possible that she’s here in order to get info on Unit Eighteen, maybe because we took down the Knoxville FBI director. Or because we discovered the devil dogs that they all missed. All that must have left a bad taste in the mouths of the local feebs.”
“Or we’re all paranoid,” I said. “But I sent you a report on the things she talked about on the drive tonight.”
“I got it. That was screwy,” T. Laine said. “Rick’s problem with his cat is incredibly complicated magic-wise and it started long before he got the were-taint, back when the tattoo spell was first applied. Vampire blood was inserted under his skin as part of the spells. Cat blood too. The torture he experienced then and when he was a prisoner of the werewolf pack and they were trying to gnaw off the tats may have changed them. All the choices he made under duress and undercover may have changed things. Acquiring were-taint affected all the existing magic in his flesh. And then Paka’s magic and the times she tried to force him to shift into his cat. The magic in his flesh is fu—messedup.”
“That makes sense,” I said as I rinsed out my metal cup painted with leaves, ignoring her almost cussing.
“I sent hand drawings of the circles with the runes, the rats, and the black cat in them to three covens right away. They all called me back and told me not to contact them again.”
“That’s... strange?” I asked.
“That’s what has me worried. An hour ago, the local witch coven messengered over a charm they say might help protect Rick, but they refuse other help. They say something evil is brewing in Knoxville and they’re battening down the hatches. They invited me to come hunker down with them.” T. Laine stared across the table at me, her eyes a deeper brown with worry. “When witches run, that’s a very bad sign.”
Mouth dry, I asked, “What do you think they’re running from?” A chill raced through me, dread shaped by a childhood full of dark tales of evil things that attack people.
“I don’t know, but yeah. Something big. I’ve sent word to Soul and FireWind, and LaFleur. For now, they’re using the meetings in town at FBI headquarters as a way to get all the agencies up to speed and ready to lock everything down.”
“Why does magical crazy stuff keep happening here?” Was it my fault? I had changed things, fighting a magic creature who flung energy around and skipped off the magma deep in the earth. Our battle had bounced energy into the ley lines. That easily qualified as a “disturbance in the force.” There had been so much energy pumped through the liminal system it was possible that I had opened a path and made a weak spot for the magma to push up through. The salamanders—who had likely been using hot springs as an entry way—had found an easier way up through the magma, and had used it to their own purposes.
I started to say all this, but T. Laine spoke first.
“Honestly? I’m afraid it’s still all tied into something happening in Secret City. Maybe something else is being tested, something we haven’t found yet. Maybe something that’s a mixture of tech and magic again, or more spells gone bad. LaFleur looked into it. I looked into it. But no one is admitting anything.”
I thought about my land and the church. People I loved. “Is this—?” I stopped.
“Public? No. Not yet. You want to know if you can call your family and warn them that something’s coming. No.”
“Oh.”
T. Laine looked at me hard. “You call them, what are they going to do, Nell? Go hide in the caves on church land? What if something is reaching toward Knoxville and is coming through local cave systems?”
They could pray, I thought.
“So keep the info to yourself.” She looked back at her screens. “The charm for Rick got here just a bit ago. It’s an onyx amulet in the shape of a black cat, spelled for protection. It passed my examination. It’s safe and it might help. Who knows?”
“That’s why you’re working after hours, isn’t it? To make sure Rick gets the amulet.”
“Yeah. And I hope it’s enough.”
SEVEN
An hour later we got a call on the official line, which came over the speakers in the conference room. It was Rick. And he was growling.
“Rick?” T. Laine said, startled.
“Grindy with... In trouble.” His next words were garbled and Tandy appeared in the doorway, his eyes wide and skin too dull, as if all the blood had left his flesh and coagulated in his core.
“... driving. Close now... Null... ,” he growled, the sound less human. “Open... doors...”
“LaFleur,” Lainie demanded.
“Rick’s near here. He’s in trouble,” Tandy whispered.
“‘Open doors,’” I repeated. “He wants us to open the outer doors. The grindy is with him so he’s a danger to humans. His cat’s trying to shift.”
