Alex answered the call, which was a wonder. Getting people to pick up our calls was increasingly difficult. “Hey, Rick. What’s up, my brother?”
Rick’s face froze with shock.My brother.Alex Younger, Jane’s adopted brother, had just used a New Orleans phrase of welcoming to Jane’s old boyfriend. Rick blinked and breathed slowly. “You know. Same ol’. Vamps and blood and shit. You?”
“Same but weirder. What can I do you for?”
Rick smiled at the phrasing. “Appreciate you taking the call,” he said. “PsyLED Eighteen is in conference with this call. We’ve some strange vamp activities here. The local Mithrans say they have their souls back. Several have walked into the sun while happy. The Master of the City is blaming Nell Ingram, the queen’s friend, for making them feel different. There’s also an underlying threat from a master vamp called Tomás de Torquemada, who wants a magical item from Ming of Glass.”
“I thought he’d been beheaded or was still in prison,” Alex said.
“We don’t have independent verification of his presence in Knoxville, but our team was present during a confrontation between his scions and the scions of Ming of Glass at her clan home. One of our agents was injured, but is recovering. Ming appeared quite unstable.”
“Looking.” We could hear keys clacking in the background. “But while I’m running him, related to that instability, just before Thanksgiving, Janie—sorry, the Dark Queen—freed a partially bound angel and sent a demon back to wherever he came from. In thanks, the angel gave vamps back their souls and lifted most of the curses on all the paras. Don’t go biting anyone, dude, but it might mean were-creatures are altered too.”
Rick’s head came up fast, his nostrils quivering.
Margot’s reaction was more subtle, a faint tremor in her fingers. She was new at being a were-creature and she hated everything about it. Rick and Margot had been an item. Now they weren’t. Margot had been very quiet and very solitary since.
Aya pulled his tablet to his side and began typing.
My land seemed to sense the change in their emotions, like a sleeping cat who opens one eye. After having my feet in the dirt, I could feel all the varied emotions in the room: loneliness, hope, fear. Lots of fear. It was chaotic and a little sad.
“No one said anything about this at the coronation,” Rick said.
“FireWind here. We were at the coronation in an official capacity. The possibility of a change in all paranormals was information we should have been made aware of at that time. As a basiccourtesy, we should have been told that.”
“I disagree, dude, and here’s why. One, Jane informed her sworn vampires, which was her job. Two, you guys share diddly. Now, if you want to go into a more formal information-sharing agreement, then we can schedule a summit between PsyLED and the Dark Queen’s legal team. Till then you can stuff it.”
The lines around FireWind’s mouth tightened. “We are aware that the Dark Queen owes us nothing about internal Mithran politics.”
It wasn’t as if any law enforcement agency had a CI in any vampire headquarters. Confidential informants don’t remain confidential long when they are some vamp’s dinner to bleed and read and bind.
“There was no grindylow at Ming’s,” I said. “Cai is human, or human-ish, and Rick shifted.” A grindy usually appeared when a human could possibly be turned. One should have appeared in the fight.
“You said an angel?” Yummy was standing at the door. No one had seen her move, but she was there, and had clearly been listening to everything. “Anangeldid this to us?”
At the wordus, all the happy-happy drained from Alex’s voice, replaced by an austere formality. “Identify yourself.”
“I’m Yvonne Colstrip, known as Yummy, turned by Grégoire, Blood Master of Clan Arceneau and the Dark Queen’s Warlord, former scion of Ming of Glass, free agent in Knoxville, currently in temporary agreement with Ming of Glass to do her will, but not bound by her.”
“I am Alex Younger, the Dark Queen’s adopted brother and her IT specialist. The Masters of the City Ming of Glass and Lincoln Shaddock, and by extension all the Mithrans in their combined territory, were notified about the regained souls,”Alex said. “I made Ming’s notification, speaking with the Master of the City herself. If she didn’t tell you, you might direct your attention to the previously mentioned instability and potential sedition against the Dark Queen.”
Yummy’s face was a wide-eyed study in confused humanity. She pulled her cell and dialed a number as she wandered back to her assigned location. I figured she was calling Ming to ask for clarification. Or maybe someone else at Ming’s to report in. Ming had known about the angel. Ming hadn’t told her people. That sounded bad.
Margot leaned forward. “Margot Racer here, Alex Younger. As I’m sure youknow,” she said, a wry tone in her voice, “I’m a truth-sayer of sorts. One of Ming’s Mithrans was in the room when you said all that. I felt nothing at all from her. Either my truth sense is inactive on her, or she was speaking the truth, or she doesn’t know what the truth is.”
Alex said, “Acknowledged, Racer. FireWind, I wish I could say I had more info on your fanghead Torquemada. Last I have for certain, he was in a prison under the Vatican. No confirmation on that since 2023. I have a text from Janie that says Leo talked about him being demon possessed, but no confirmation on that either. I’ll do a little digging.”
“Is there anything else you can tell us about Ming of Glass?” I asked.
“Is the suckhead still there?”
“No,” FireWind said.
“Good. Ming sent Janie a blood-servant who might have been a troublemaker in Ming’s clan, or one in need of training, or might have been sent to try to assassinate the Dark Queen, since he was killed trying. Both Ming twins are under suspicion by the Dark Queen for possible sedition. That and having a soul might make a difference in her mental stability.”
“Thank you, Alex Younger,” FireWind said.
“Later, FireWind. Hey, Ricky-Bo. Next time you’re in town, Café du Monde. Your treat.”
