“We can,” Yummy interrupted.
FireWind gave his faint frown. “I can’t force you to take her in, Ingram, but if you are in danger, according to PsyLED protocols, I have to put you and your family into protective custody.”
“Dagnabbit,” I said, cussing hard in church-speak. A vampire had put me between a rock and a hard place.
More thoughtfully, FireWind added, “Ming asked a PsyLED agent to kill her enemies. That agent refused. Therefore…” He stared hard at Yummy. “Ming guessed they would attack tonight.”
“Not in such numbers or so early in the evening. Midnight was her guess. PsyLED was still here, and Ming wasn’t anywhere near ready.”
“So Ming had to revise plans,” he said. “And since Nell was here, your impromptu strategy included her.” His voice dropped lower. “One ofmyagents.”
“Everything went sideways. No one expected anyone to make off with Nell.”
“But they did,” FireWind said. “And Ming used that abduction to plant one of her scions—”
“Sort of a former scion,” Yummy interrupted again.
“—with Nell, taking the heat off the Master of the City and directing the violence to PsyLED. Why?”
“Layers and layers in her plans,” Yummy said. “As I said. PsyLED was here, so you three got incorporated in them.”
I said, “If you take me into protective custody, off my land, I’ll be weak.” My boss-boss looked at me, knowing what I meant. On the land, if there were duels, I could take the attackers, blood drop by blood drop. What he didn’t necessarily know was that I might not be able to stop feeding the land. I might not be able to save Yummy from itshunger. The more I fed Soulwood, the more ithungered. Soulwood—which was part of me—had a mind and belly of its own.
“I said no.” I was having to force the words out, and my voice was scratchy. I sipped my water.
“The otherswillattack,” Yummy said. “It might be in groups of four, likely before dawn, looking for you, and for me, and for the Blood Tarot. I won’t be here, and Ming and Cai will destroy any who come here. But they’ll know I’m gone and that you were present when I was elevated in status. The photographs Ming released make it look like you were part of the deal. Theywillcome to your land. It’s unlikely you can kill four alone. Better if we work together.”
Four vampire ninjas,I thought.
“Nell,” she said, dropping all the vampire formality and talking like her regular self. “I’ll follow and hide on your land, no matter if you agree. I’ll keep the life in you safe. I’ve been given this responsibility by Ming of Glass, Master of the City of Knoxville.”
Aya was watching me, his face austere and barren as a desert.
“I can stay on your land when I’m off duty,” Rick said, sounding exhausted from the two shape-changes, his voice flowing to us through the darkness, on the other side of the open window. “I can roam in cat form.” A hint of amusement in his tone, he added, “It isn’t as if I have a social life.”
“You will not be alone at night,” FireWind said. “You have Occam. Margot can roam in cat form, if she’s willing, since she can’t give were-taint to vampires or your sister’s family, and her lack of shifting control won’t be a burden. That would give you enough paranormal protection to deal with an attack.” FireWind looked at his cell and thumbed across the face. “I won’t overrule you on your own home territory, Ingram, but I agree you need more security than you think.”
“Fine.” NotFine, sir. Justfine. And not a happyfine.
I scowled at Yummy and said, “I’ll know where you are on my land. I’ll know if vampires come onto my land.I don’t need you.And the land mighteatyou.” The vampire tree might eat her. It had grown a lot stronger and a lot more possessive than the last time she came onto my land.
“Ming left me no choice. I understand that you’ll eat the undead life within me if I overreach and cause you to face more danger.” Yummy slumped slightly, and her face changed from something stiff and frightened but resolved to something more human and full of emotions I couldn’t read. “I can live with the threat of death, bestie. I can die happy.”
Bestie.Yummy was calling me her best friend.
We were more acquaintances than friends. We had shared tea. Talked about life. If that was a best friend in Yummy’s life, her life was a barren shell.
On the hood of the car, the vampire tree fell over, scattering soil. I popped the trunk and got out, gathered up the tree and its too-small pot, and scraped the soil into it. I stashed the tree in the trunk, my hands brushing across it. Instantly some of thepain in my throat eased. I thought about saying thank you, but I had learned a lot about power struggles tonight and I wasn’t about to thank the Green Knight just now. “Be good or I’ll burn you,” I ordered the tree. I closed the trunk and retook my place.
Yummy had stepped from my car when I did, her bags in her arms, and she had heard me threaten the tree. “What are you again?” she asked me.
“We’ve had this conversation. Not having it again.”
“Debrief at HQ,” Aya said, unfolding his long legs from my driver’s seat. “We’ll talk more there.”
Rick walked away through the fog-laden darkness too. Yummy’s Ferrari LaFerrari pulled into the road. I took my seat and backed into the road in front of Ming’s clan home.
“I’m too tired to debrief,” I said to my empty car. I put it into drive. “And I have a kid I was supposed to pick up and take home. Not that anyone asked me.”
