Trevor stood watching the tableau like it was something out of a movie, the one where the kidnapping victim is saved from her attackers,long-separated family members are reunited, and everything is wonderful with the world again.
Hannah turned to the ghouls and made several sounds that seemed closer to barks and grunts than words. One of the ghouls replied in the same language, then as one, the creatures faded back into the shadows and disappeared around the corner again.
“Were you just talking with those things?” Connor asked, clearly as confused as Trevor.
Connor’s sister turned back to them, studying him for a moment, and Trevor thought she was going to hug her brother. But instead, Hannah walked past them, heading in the direction he and everyone else had just come from.
“I’ll explain everything later,” she said. “Right now, Jenna is in trouble.”
CHAPTER 19
“It says in here that ghouls have a problem with sand from their ancestral homeland,” Jenna murmured, slowly working through the ancient tome Davina had given her, forced to use Google Translate to figure out what each of the Latin words in the book meant. It was a terribly slow process. “Of course, it would help if we knew where their ancestral homeland was before we go running down to the beach to scoop up some.”
“Well, your discovery is about as confusing as ours,” Esme said from the far side of the office where she sat with her brother, staring down at the pages of a thick leather-bound book that probably weighed as much as she did. “It says here—I think—that certain religious icons can damage their otherwise impervious skin. Unfortunately, it doesn’t say which religion or which icon.”
“I know it’s frustrating,” Davina said from behind the laptop on her desk. “But we all need to keep looking. These ghouls have a weakness. We just have to find it.”
Jenna sighed but kept translating. She had doubts that they’d be able to find any weaknesses, but at least focusing on this Latin stuff distractedher from thinking about Trevor, Connor, and the others. And the fact that they’d gone down in those tunnels again—without her.
It made complete sense that she stay topside and help Davina with the research. After all, Trevor and the others were merely planning to do some recon and look for a clue on where they might go next. There should be absolutely no chance of them running into the ghouls again. No reason to think Trevor would be in any danger. Although she was a little concerned that he and Connor might get into a fight again.
Still, even as remote as that possibility might be and as terrified as Jenna was of tight, dark spaces—and ghouls—she was still worried about Trevor being down there without her. She was absolutely head over heels into him.
“So you’re dating a werewolf?” Esme asked casually, not looking up from the big book on the table in front of her and Isaac. “Something tells me that the sex must be absolutely wild, huh?”
Isaac choked on the iced tea he was drinking, his face and ears turning a vivid red even as Davina laughed. Esme glanced up, brow lifted as she waited for Jenna to answer.
Jenna was rescued from having to answer Esme’s question by the office door opening. A second later, Madeleine walked in carrying a handful of takeout bags from the club’s kitchen, the thumpingtechno beat being pumped out of the club’s speakers somewhere below them following her inside. Even though the door to Davina’s office didn’t look that thick, it was remarkably good at keeping sound out of the office. Jenna hadn’t even realized the club was open already.
Madeleine closed the door with her hip, then came over to set the food bags onto one of the tables off to the side of the room, well away from any books.
Her friend had been waiting in the hallway outside Jenna’s apartment when she and Trevor had come out, wanting to make sure everything was okay. When Jenna had explained that everything had been worked out and they were going to Davina’s club to figure out their next move, Madeleine had insisted on coming to help. Neither Jenna nor Trevor had been able to convince her otherwise.
“Davina, I hope this doesn’t come as a surprise to you, but there’s a guy in your kitchen working the skillet who’s covered from head to toe in fur,” Madeleine said as she pulled foil-wrapped bundles out of the biggest bag. “I’m not normally such a stickler for the rules, but that’s got to be some kind of health code violation. I mean, shouldn’t the guy have to wear some kind of allover body hairnet to keep him from shedding in the food?”
“First off, Kia is a woman,” Davina said withoutlooking up from her laptop. “Next, she’s an alemis, a South American version of the yeti, and they don’t shed their fur—ever. Third, I would suggest you never let her hear you say otherwise or you’re in for a stern lecture.”
Madeleine turned and gave Jenna a look, lifting a brow. Jenna only shrugged as she joined Esme and Isaac around the table with the food. Jenna unwrapped the foil to reveal a delicious-looking wrap filled with roasted turkey and cheese, along with tomato, arugula, and some kind of spicy mayo.
“Have you heard anything from Trevor or anyone else yet?” Madeleine asked.
Jenna shook her head. “Nothing yet.”
“I’m sure they’re fine,” her friend murmured, her words of encouragement immediately echoed by Isaac and Esme, who added that they’d only been down in the tunnels for thirty minutes or so.
Jenna nodded and nibbled on her wrap. It tasted as delicious as it looked, but it was difficult to eat when all she could think about was Trevor possibly being in trouble.
“I finally got the full report from that STAT mission where the guy claims to have killed the ghoul,” Davina said. “Unfortunately, I’m not sure if it’s going to be much help. The guy swears he killed the creature with an old steel pipe, but from what you’ve told me of your adventures with the aluminum softball bats, that doesn’t work.”
Jenna was thinking about what it had been like to whack those creatures with the aluminum bat and decided it was probably a lot like hitting a boulder when the overhead office lights started to flicker and went out, plunging the room into darkness. A few seconds later, the reddish glow from an emergency light mounted over by the door popped on, dimly illuminating the office.
“That’s weird.” Frowning, Davina pushed back her chair and got to her feet, then headed for the door. “We lose power occasionally, but the club has a completely independent and automated backup power supply that should have already kicked on by now.”
The moment Davina opened the door, Jenna noticed how eerily quiet it was. Well, maybe not exactly quiet, but instead of loud music coming from below, all she could hear was the low murmur of a few hundred nervous people down on the dance floor. It might have been her overactive imagination, but she swore she could feel the fear growing all the way from here.
“You four should stay up here,” Davina said, the emergency light directly over her head emphasizing her high cheekbones and making her vibrant blue hair appear almost purple. “Just until I find out what’s going on.”
Jenna started to protest, but before she could say anything, Davina was out the door, disappearingdown the barely illuminated stairs outside her office.
