Occam said nothing.
“The vampires?” I asked.
“Two got away. The others are in custody and will be taken to HQ’s null room in silver cuffs. The Dark Queen’s security team have arranged to pick them up. They’ll bleed and read them and put them in her jail if they’re guilty of hurting and killing the Lost Boys, which they are.”
The Dark Queen. The person who put my life on a new track, into law enforcement, into the world outside the church. I looked out the windows. “The moon is up. Do you need to shift?”
“Yes. The cats have left already to go back to Soulwood. They will shift and run and hunt and study your tree. I’ll shift and join them as soon as we arrive.”
“You’re upset.”
His breath was a rasp of anger. “I’m going to lose you, Nell. You’re going to go too deep, too long, into the land, into thatdamnedtree, and you won’t come back.” The words sounded as if they had been wrenched from him. “And I can’t bear it.I can’t.”
Tears gathered in my eyes.
Occam sucked in another breath. “But I have you today,” he said, “and today is all I’m promised. We’ll go to your land. You will be inside your house and safe with your sister. You and Mud will be safe,” he insisted. “FireWind and T. Laine will stay here and make sure the devil dog children and young men are taken to the Montana pack.”
“Zebulun?”
“Landed in Montana. Your parents signed the papers to send him. Your daddy talked to the pack leader, which was no small honor for him. Money for Zeb’s upkeep was wired over, like sending him to camp for the year. He’s safe.” Occam paused and I could hear him breathing. “Your father spoke to Zeb. He’s settling in well.”
He stopped talking, but I could tell he wasn’t finished. “Zeb confirmed that Tomás is possessed with a demon. The demon talks to people. It revealed itself to the boys.”
“That can’t be any kind of good.”
“No. The pack alpha says he’s getting a medicine man or woman to come read the boys and make sure there’s no demon taint in them. If there is, they’ll handle it.”
I sighed softly. My half brother was a Dog of War, a teenager, and might be possessed. How could a kid grow up healthy with all that? “Okay.”
The words sounded as if they ached to speak. “I love you, Nell, sugar, to the full moon and back.”
“I love you, cat-man, to the heights of the branches and the depths of the roots.”
TWENTY
T. Laine drove Occam and me down to his fancy car and she returned to the top of the hill to help FireWind—who was back in human form, exhausted and too lean, too skinny, and with only a handful of protein bars to eat—deal with the caged devil dogs. Occam and I were silent as he drove to Soulwood, picked up Mud from Esther’s, and parked near the others’ cars. My car was in the yard, having been brought home by someone at some point.
Rick and Rettell were already roaming, making a mating ruckus that I hoped wouldn’t keep the neighbors on nearby farms up all night. The cries and screams carried, echoing everywhere.
The land told me that Margot was trotting into the dark, alone. I didn’t want to think about that too much.
Occam made sure that Mud, Cherry, and I were safely inside and slipped back out to strip and shift. Full moon wasn’t far away. There was an old were-creature saying: “The urge to shift and to hunt waxes strong three days out, abides the three days of, and wanes three days after. Nine nights of pleasure and nine days of hell.” Occam needed the release after the cave and the situation there.
There were a lot of things I needed to do, like read the after-action reports by the others to learn what had happened down in the cave, and find out where Soul was and where the other arcenciels were, and what Lainie might be doing about the ley line in the springhead cave. But none of that mattered. I was too tired. I kicked off my boots, turned on the Christmas tree lights, and plopped onto the sofa. Mud fed the critters and started banging around in the kitchen, full of teenaged energy and irritation and maybe some angst.
“I’ll fix dinner in a bit. Don’t you have homework?” I asked.
“This was the last day before winter break. No homework for weeks!”
She threw a fist into the air, a gesture no church girl would ever make. It brought tears to my eyes, which I quickly hid.
“You want mac and cheese and tuna salad?” she asked. “I’m fixing supper tonight.”
I almost said “That sounds awful” but changed it to “I’ll eat anything you want to fix.”
“Mac and cheese and cat food it is.”
I chuckled. Minutes later, I fell asleep.
