“I also offered to buy her a Birkin and a first-class plane ticket to bring her out here the next time she can swing some time off.”
“Can you even afford all that?”
“Takoma can.”
Wade cackled, slouching in the front passenger seat and scratching between Fatima’s ears from her spot on his lap. “Holy shit, you are so gone on that blood-sucking asshole. I’m telling Patrick.”
“Please don’t.”
“No, no, I’m gonna tell him, but I’ll do it on a video call because hisface. He’s going to make that face, you know the one I’m talking about.”
Spencer rolled his eyes and sent off his text to Nadine. “I wish I didn’t.”
If anything, his sulky tone made Wade laugh harder.
He drove them back to the mansion in Medina, parking in the driveway rather than the street. More vehicles were present than before, and he could see people patrolling the grounds despite the bad weather. Wade and Fatima followed him inside, where Stasya and William met them in the foyer that now smelled like bleach and lacked any bloodstains. The bullet holes weren’t patched yet, but Spencer figured it was only a matter of time.
“Alyonushka wants to speak with you,” Stasya said.
Spencer nodded slowly. “All right.”
He’d left Alyona to process what had happened with her fellow human servants and family, not wanting to immediately pressure her into talking about anything she might have remembered when possessed until she was in a better frame of mind. They still needed to know, but Spencer understood that sometimes the best way to get information was to wait. Since sunset was still some hours away, they had time, just not a lot.
Spencer had a feeling the moment Takoma was awake and was informed of what had happened, the master vampire wasn’t going to want totalk; he’d want to act.
Stasya led them to the living room that overlooked the backyard patio. Alyona was curled up on the couch, a blanket wrapped around her and a mug of tea in her hand. Her face was pinched and pale, gaze distant in a way Spencer recognized.
“Hey,” he said quietly as they approached. “I don’t think you’ve met Wade yet. He’s part of the New York City god pack and an old friend of mine. He’s been helping me coordinate with the Seattle god pack to keep your Night Court safe.”
Wade waved at her but didn’t speak, choosing instead to claim an armchair and let Fatima continue napping on him. Spencer didn’t want to hem Alyona in, so he sat in one of the armchairs across from her, back to the windows. After this morning, he hated not having a clear line of sight of any potential threats, but rationally, he knew the mansion was as protected as it could get right now.
Stasya took a seat right next to her daughter on the couch while William took the armchair next to Spencer. Alyona’s gaze stayed riveted on her tea mug, eyes still red-rimmed and puffy from crying.
“How are you feeling?” Spencer asked gently.
Alyona didn’t speak, not right away. When she finally did, her voice sounded hoarse. “Are you sure it’s gone?”
“Yes. I broke your soul free of the demon and cast it out. Your soul is undamaged to my second sight.”
“You’resure?”
“I am, but I know why you’d think otherwise. Possession is never easy for anyone to go through.”
“I have been in the thrall of a vampire before, but it didn’t feel anything like this.”
“It wouldn’t. Demons do worse damage.”
Alyona took in a shaky breath before ducking her head to sip her tea. Spencer gave her time to sort out her thoughts and emotions. She was Takoma’s favorite human servant, his proxy when it mattered, and he wouldn’t have picked someone who didn’t have a spine of steel.
That didn’t mean recovering from something like possession was easy.
“I remember being shoved through my house by something I couldn’t see. Then people were inside who shouldn’t have been there, and they knocked me out,” Alyona said.
“The poltergeist interfered with your home’s defenses. The more powerful ones can do that.”
Alyona nodded slowly, her grip on the mug becoming white-knuckled. “I didn’t wake up as myself.”
“Sounds like the demon possessed you when you were unconscious.” It wasn’t a kindness either way because she still ended up in a nightmare. “Do you know where you were when you finally became aware?”
