Alex turned just his head and looked at me from under his too-long spiraling curls. “Yeah, right? Continuing the timeline, fitting the Firestarter into it.”
He pointed at the final screen and a bit of security footage, froze it, and pointed at the still shot on the screen. I recognized the brick wall at the side of HQ. Once upon a time, there was a not-so-secret access point in the brick that led to Leo’s office. It was now sealed from the inside, but the small group of people shown gathered there hadn’t known that.
“During the attack on HQ, Shaun”—he touched the screen, showing me the vamp—“who is running around not wearing a shirt, presumably to show off the amulet on his arm, was trying to get inside. I’m guessing that this”—he pointed to the other vamps—“is his primo or secondo, and his best fighters. And here”—he pressed a button, and another view took its place—“is where the Firestarter finished her attack in back and joined up with Shaun.”
“The Firestarter hates vamps,” I said, remembering the bound beings in Monique’s soul home. I searched the screen. Ka wasn’t there.
“The enemy of my enemy is my short-term friend?” Alex asked. “They seem to be working together, for now, since she was part of the attack that had been intended to draw off your forces front and back while he gained access from inside.”
“Well, that sucks,” I said.
“Good Lord, woman,” a female voice said from the door. “You look like death warmed over and twice as furry.”
I looked from the screen to the door and smiled, happiness filling me all over. “Jodi.”
“Don’t you go getting all nice-nice on me. I hear you let my wedding site get blown to smithereens.”
“Sorry,” I said, seeing by her expression that she wasn’t really mad at me. Well, she was, but it was a different version of mad from all my male subjects’ mad. “I need to use the ladies,” I said. “All you menfolk, go down to security and update the crews. Jodi, will you stay?”
“Stay and what? Help you pee? God help me, the things I get stuck doing for you. Out,” she said to the vamps and humans and Onorio. “Get out.” When no one moved she said, “I may be wearing exercise clothes, but I am never unarmed. Don’t make me shoot you. The lady needs a little privacy.”
“Thelady,” Tex said, pointedly, “was just shot to hell and back, ma’am. If you spot bleeding, we’d be appreciative of you bringing one of her Mithrans back in to finish up healing her. Koun and I’ll be outside the door.” He wasn’t wearing a hat indoors, but he touched his forehead as if tipping one anyway. I could feel Bruiser’s and Eli’s eyes on me, but I took refuge in Jodi and pretended not to know they were still really peeved.
When it was just Jodi and me and the door was shut on menfolk, she yanked the sheets off of me and shoved me to my feet. Pain shot through me, and I was suddenly too weak to care that I was naked. I nearly fell, and short, rounded Jodi caught me. I was also too exhausted to care that she got dried blood all over her exercise clothes. By the smell: sweaty exercise clothes. She hadn’t been working at the cop shop when she got called in. That was probably my fault. She started me walking toward the en suite.
“You do know that the fire department and the eighth district all got called out because of gunfire and fire-fire tonight, right?”
“I’m not surprised,” I whispered.
“And we’re still all out there, waiting on a stand-down order, which no one will give us because of the political ramifications if this turns out to be important on a State Department level.”
“Sorry,” I breathed, wondering why I could apologize to Jodi and not my people.
“Are you the only one dead?” she asked.
I tried to laugh, but it hurt too much as she eased me down onto the closed toilet lid. “No. We were attacked,and there are a number of attacking humans and vamps dead.”
“Any of your people?”
“I don’t know yet.” Dread drenched me like a cold flood.
“How many attacked?”
“One in back.” I started to tell her about the Firestarter but changed my mind. “With an incendiary device. I think six in front.”
“How many were humans?”
I realized that Jodi had been interrogating me, which made me tired and a little sad. “Stop asking questions, Jodi. Pretty sure this is Dark Queen stuff. If there’s questioning to be done, the State Department can send someone to do it.”
“Are you calling diplomatic immunity on this? ’Cause if you do, that makes it a lot easier on us.”
So maybe she wanted an excuse to not ask me stuff? That hadn’t occurred to me. “They called you in tonight to ask me that?”
“Yes,” she said sourly. “Thanks to you, I’m the official liaison to the fangheads in this city. I got a promotion and a raise and everything.” The last sentence was even more sour, nearly bitter. I figured that was because she had gotten the promotion not by skill but because she knew me. That had to rankle. She turned away and started the shower on hot.
“In you go,” she said, pulling me to my feet. Which hurt alot. But there was a seat in the shower, and I managed to get onto it before I passed out. Leo had a very swanky bathroom with a huge tub in the far corner big enough to fit three or four, which I remember very well from the one time I walked in on Leo, Katie, and Blondie lounging in it.
Jodi placed a bottle of water into my knobby, long-fingered hand, and said, “Drink. I’m getting you something to wear from that enormous closet. Don’t die while I’m not in here babying you.”
