“So far as Eli knows, there are no witches among Torquemada’s group, and certainly no females of any species, so he doesn’t think Cai’s death was a blood-magic sacrifice. It was a message to Soul to shift forms so he could capture her. It might also have been a message to Ming to turn over the Blood Tarot.”
“Then why burn down Ming’s clan home?” I asked. “Torquemada had to know she kept the deck of cards there.”
“Could be that Cai told them it was missing and they think Soul removed it,” T. Laine said, her tone considering. “Or we removed it. If so, it may have atrackerworking on it.” She tapped her comms and said, “Jo. Put the deck in the null room until I get back. Affirmative.” She tapped out and said, “She and Tandy are alone at HQ and Torquemada and his people would know we’re here.”
“The building and electronics are thoroughly battened down,” FireWind said. “Even if he sends his humans there he can’t get in.”
“That’s what we thought last time,” T. Laine said grimly. “That’s what we thought about Soul’s apartment.”
His face tense, FireWind tapped his comms. “Jones. Keep a tight watch on all exterior cams. I’m sending a request for two marked units to park in view of the building until we get back.”
“Confirm two marked units,” Jo said. “Appreciate that.”
I asked, “Could the Blood Tarot, with its magical signature, combined with the vampires getting back their souls, haveaffected their cognition? We took the Blood Tarot, and then Ming looked more like herself at the fire.”
FireWind turned his yellow eyes to me in surprise. “You are suggesting that perhaps the presence of the Blood Tarot at the clan home caused them to be especially or more harmfully affected by the return of their souls. That might explain why Lincoln Shaddock seemed like himself when fighting off the attack in Asheville.”
“And Lincoln has a family now,” Occam said. “Constancy and love can make a big difference to mental stability.”
T. Laine said, “That makes sense. I’ll do some more testing on the cards when we get back to HQ.”
FireWind tapped his mic and said, “Affirmative. Send them in.” To us he said, “SWAT has relinquished the site to us. Knoxville Crime Scene is on-site. PsyCSI is on the way to liaise with them here. Let’s take this back to HQ.”
* * *
The debrief was completed.
I was finally warm, sitting in the conference room at HQ. I had a belly full of pizza FireWind had picked up on the way here. He had also brought in five paper bags of groceries in case we got stranded. He was turning into a decent boss.
And because Mud was with family, I wasn’t worried about her safety and security as much as I might have been.
All the people who were supposed to be off shift were ready to try and make it home to sleep, or else had decided to bunk down in HQ, which had a small room in back where cots could be erected for just such an emergency.
Margot lived close and was packing her gear to head out, and Aya should have been doing the same, but he seemed to be in no hurry.
I ended a call to Mud. My fearless and intrepid sister had prepped and secured the house and pipes for freezing weather and, during a break in the snow, she had trekked through the drifts to Esther’s. She and the puppy were safe and I didn’t have to worry about the house pipes freezing. Only that Torquemada might find a way there through the storm and try to harm them.
I stuck my fingers into the pot of Soulwood soil holding the twig of vampire tree. Silently I sent a message to my land toprotect the Tulip Tree House. All I felt in return was something like a cat rolling over in sleep and flexing its claws. I had to believe that was enough. I flicked my fingers free of the dirt.
T. Laine was wearing sweats and reading reports, and was steadfastly not returning Gonzales’ repeated calls.
JoJo was stretched out in her desk chair next to Tandy with her feet propped up. She was dressed in warm velour sweats and she had a blanket beside her.
Tandy was wearing fuzzy rainbow-striped socks and gray sweats.
I had changed, wearing two pairs of wool socks and adding two underlayers of T-shirts.
FireWind was wearing black jeans and a black dress shirt with boots. And a black vest that hung open in front. I had never seen him wear it and wanted to get a good look, but that seemed kinda nosy.
The werecats all wore the same clothes they had at the house where we had discovered Cai. Werecats had a higher than human body temperature and rewarmed fast. Unless they had to get naked in a sleet storm, cold didn’t bother them much.
Even with Knoxville Utility Board’s massive and redundant power grid, there were still outages from tree fall and ice buildup; we were prepared for loss of power. If it went out, we had a backup generator and fuel to run essential systems for a few hours. If the power wasn’t restored by then, comms had battery backup power. The building was on the KUB’s list of most important power needs, just below hospitals, city law enforcement, and a few of Oak Ridge’s more secret research projects.
But I’d rather have been on Soulwood, with nothing but firewood to warm me. There I had water, a windmill to pump it (unless its workings froze), my stove, a year’s worth of stored food, and all the amenities. If we did happen to lose power here, HQ would quickly become stinky, messy, and miserable.
“We have company,” JoJo said.
I looked at the screen displaying the camera view of the front entrance. Walking through the snow, wearing jeans and a tailored coat, was Lieutenant Colonel Rettell.
