by Sasha White
I reached out and stroked his head. “It’s okay. You saved me, he didn’t get what they wanted. And he never will.”
“I’ll dust before I let him touch you again.”
My throat was tight. “I know. But…Ralph?”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t want you to dust.” I swallowed. “I don’t want you to leave me. Every werewolf I’ve ever cared about has…dusted.” I managed to keep the tears from falling. “Because of me.”
“No. Because of the Prince. Never let someone give you that guilt, Vic, not even me. Especially not me. I swore over two hundred years ago that I’d never let the Prince’s side take you from us, and I meant it.”
I wanted to stop the car and cuddle more than anything else. But we had more than one big SUV following us, we’d given Monty what I hoped was enough time, and we were too near to the Estates to try to confuse our followers any more.
Instead, I focused back on the job. “What did you mean by the statue being the representation of Adlet, heavy emphasis on ‘the’?”
“You think that ring of fire’s real Hellfire this time?” Ralph asked, a little nervously.
“No idea. Into living dangerously right now.”
“I’m not big on going out in a blaze of glory, just for the record. Job description aside, I’m sort of hoping for the vast ancient age, surrounded by sobbing loved ones exit.”
“Noted. Look at this option as wildly romantic and just go with it.” We plowed through, no problems. Nice to know the illusion was still going on. Probably more than one illusion, I reminded myself.
“I don’t find death romantic. Again for the record.”
“Again, it’s noted. My question?”
He sighed. Yeah, I was going to need to get used to hearing that. “Adlet was defeated centuries ago by Black Wolf and some of our more powerful witches and warlocks. Per the legends and Black Wolf himself, he and the others bound Adlet’s spirit and turned it into a totem. It was lost in one of the big battles from centuries ago, before you were born, let alone undied.”
“Well, someone found it.” Interestingly, the SUVs weren’t following us. It looked more like they were creating a road block. To keep what beings out was the question. But not the question of the moment.
“I’d like to know who.”
“Tomio’s the one who pawned it over to Cotton, for whatever that’s worth. I’d like to know why.”
“Oh, I know why.” Again, Ralph was all matter-of-fact. I wondered if what he really wanted to do was lecture at the University and he was just making do by lecturing to me. Probably. My taste in men ran to the intellectual side of the house.
“Want to share?”
“You don’t want to share your plan, I don’t want to share the why. Equality.”
“Let’s try it this way. Until such time as someone higher up the chain of command shares with me that you rank higher, this is your impatient superior officer asking, Lieutenant Rogers.”
“It’s low to pull rank.”
“It’s also effective.”
“Fine. The why is to destroy us, all werewolves, permanently. And this totem’s the most effective way to do it.”
Chapter 66
“Huh.” I didn’t know what else to say. But memory waved a paw. “You know, Cotton had all these things appraised. By Benny the Fence.”
“Who’s nowhere around here,” Ralph mentioned.
Another memory reared its head. “Why was Bill Bennett, our dog-loving realtor, the only human not affected by whatever spell Hitler and the Three A’s had cast over all the Estates?”
Ralph was quiet while I drove through the neighborhood. No one was out and about. It was night, but no lights were on.
“He didn’t smell undead,” Ralph said finally.
“Benny the Fence isn’t an undead. He’s a human who can see into the realms and who’s managed to stay sane.”
“Wouldn’t he have looked and smelled like Benny the Fence to us? If that’s what you’re insinuating, I mean.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. Nero’s got a warlock pal. Who’s to say Benny doesn’t have a lot of them?”
There was one house with lights on. I pulled into the driveway and honked the horn. This was an instinct move and I didn’t argue with it.
“What are you doing?”
“Either asking one of the bad guys to take a drive with us or saving the only sort of good guy still here.”
Bill Bennett came out of his house cautiously. I’d known in my gut it was his but it was always nice to be right. “Yes?”
I rolled the window down a crack. “Hey, we met earlier, Sunday morning. I was in a better car. You petted my dog.”
“Oh, the lady with the Russian wolfhound. Right.” He didn’t get closer.
No time like the present to go for broke. “Benny, you want out of this mess, or at least a ride with the beings likely to protect you?”
He jerked and looked around, but not at me. He stared at the car. “You a cop?”
“Detective Wolfe, Prosaic City P.D. Night Beat.” I paused. “And, to reassure, Agent Wolfe, Major, Necropolis Enforcement.”
He ran for the car and I just managed to unlock the door before he flung it open and himself into the backset. “By all the Gods and Monsters, get us out of here!”
“Benny, welcome to the party, so to speak. Want to fill us in on what’s going on?”
“Yeah. But who’s the dog?”
“Wolf,” Ralph snapped. “I’m a wolf. A werewolf. You work with us all the time and you can’t recognize a werewolf?”
“This is Ralph, he’s with Enforcement, too. Now, happy intros done, what’s going on, from your perspective?” I pulled out and considered. We had the guy who could actually tell us what these things were. Did I want to try to slide to the University, or did I want to go with the more exciting choice?
“Something big. I don’t know what.”
“Why were you jogging on Sunday when everyone else was mind-controlled to stay at home?”
“I have a spell blocker, pretty powerful one. Good friend cast it on me. I didn’t even realize there was something going on until I got back and saw what had happened to the Little Church.”
“Is your good friend’s name Hitler?”
“No!” Benny sounded shocked and outraged. “I may be a fence, but I don’t consort with the major minions! Sure, I have to take merchandise from lesser minions, but they’re just regular folks trying to make a living.”
“Nice cover you have,” Ralph snapped.
“I’m a realtor by day, fence by night. If you two are looking for a cozy love nest, I can fix you up, special deal for my friends in Necropolis Enforcement.”
“Uh huh, I’m sure.”
“No, really. You drove past it on the way up to my place. It’s on the market, cheap.”
Ralph and I exchanged a look, I turned the car around, and drove to Nero’s place. “This it?”
“Yeah.”
“No ‘for sale’ sign.”
“This is the Estates. We don’t do ‘for sale’ signs. That’s what realtors are for.”
“Who’s living in it right now?”
Benny sighed. “Nero. I know, I know, he’s bad news. But houses without tenants don’t sell. Even if said tenants decorate hideously.”
“What about Ishtrallum?”
“Oh, he doesn’t know. His house is higher up on the hill. Besides, he’s not home a lot. His business keeps him busy twenty-four-seven sometimes. And he’d be unhappy if he knew I’d let Nero stay in the house. You know how it is, the boss doesn’t like the employee to look like he’s doing as well or better.”
“Currently I like Ishtrallum a lot more than Nero.”
Benny snorted. “Who doesn’t? But Nero had the money and all beings need shelter and the chance to earn a living.”
“Nice,” Ralph said with a growl. “But that doesn’t tell us who cast that spell on you.”
“Or why you faked us out
the other day.”
“I didn’t. I don’t spend my time looking at the Enforcement duty rosters. You were a hot babe with a great-looking dog and an expensive car. Pardon me for giving it a shot on the personal and professional level.”
“I knew you were petting me to butter her up,” Ralph muttered.
“Actually, no. I really love dogs.” I looked at him in the rearview mirror. He shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a normal guy with abnormal vision. It’s a tough life sometimes, but it’s never boring. Terrifying, yes, but not boring.”
I sniffed. No lying. Fear, but he was right to be afraid, and I didn’t pick up that the fear was directed towards us. One last question. “Why don’t I recognize you? And why didn’t you recognize me? I’ve been in your place before, the fence side of your house, I mean.”
Benny leaned forward and examined me. “Years ago, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. Well, for me, I also have a spell that alters how I look when I’m fencing. It keeps me safer that way, and also means no human clientele will realize I’m also their realtor. For your part, it was at least a decade ago and you weren’t the officer in charge. This Sunday you weren’t in a place I’d ever associate with Enforcement, and you weren’t talking about police business.”
It made sense. I looked at Ralph out of the corner of my eye. “What do you think?”
Ralph sighed. “He’s telling the truth.”
“Of course I am!”
“Benny, that’s a rarity for us right now. But, since you seem to be on the side of right, we have some things in the bag on the front seat that Cotton Mather said you appraised.”
“Probably. I’m considered the top appraiser on at least three planes of existence.”
“Super duper. Take a look-see and tell us what, exactly and in specific detail, we’re carrying.”
We were still in front of Nero’s house. Well, the house Nero was claiming was his. I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel.
“Vic, why are we still here, burning time and gas, but not road?”
“I’m not sure where to go now.”
“I thought you wanted to get to the University.”
“I might.” I looked over my shoulder at Benny who was rummaging through the bag, grunting, whistling, and muttering. “But if we have a reliable source – and we think that we do – we don’t really need to go.”
“What about getting these items into some sort of safe place?” Ralph asked. “I don’t want them falling back into minion hands.”
“You got that right,” Benny said. “Good lord, and I mean that to cover all the options, but there’s a lot of Armageddon in here.” He looked at both of us. “And some nasty things for werewolves, too. You two are at risk just being in the same vicinity as this idol.”
“Idol, totem, statue – no matter what you call it, it’s still worse than butt-ugly.”
“It’s also incredibly dangerous,” Benny said. He shook his head. “I told Cotton to lock this away.”
“Shocker alert, he didn’t. However, at least it’s in our possession now.”
“It needs to be destroyed,” Ralph snapped.
“No, no, no!” Benny seemed freaked by the idea. “You want to destroy all your race?”
“No, but you yourself said that thing could do it.” Ralph growled. “What do you suggest we do with it?”
“It needs to be contained,” Benny said, with forced patience clearly showing. “If you destroy it, it’ll pull out all the were in the wolf, so to speak. You’ll all lose your abilities to switch forms and be stuck in whatever form you happen to be in when the idol is destroyed.”
Ralph and I exchanged another look. “You always stay in wolf, I’m usually in human.”
He nodded. “No way to mate, ever.” He growled again. “I loathe these beings.”
“It gets better,” Benny said. “Without the power from this idol, werewolves as a race would start weakening. Oh, not immediately, but over time.”
“I thought it was evil.”
“It is.” Benny sighed. “Think about it.”
“I mean, I thought whatshisname was contained and all that, and that he was the evil one.”
“Adlet,” Ralph said shortly. “I told you, what, five minutes ago?”
“Longer than that, but whatever.”
“He is contained,” Benny said. “However, this was a being who wanted all the werewolves under his control or dead. Legend has it that as he was overthrown he passed a curse, that if he was fully destroyed, he’d take the rest of the werewolves with him.”
“That must be why Black Wolf chose a totem instead of complete annihilation.”
“Most likely.” Benny sighed. “We need to get this thing locked away where no minion can ever touch it. Same with most of these items. Singly they’re horrific enough. Put together they could end everything tonight.”
“What’s with the bag of marbles?”
“Representation of every inhabited world in the known planes of existence. Destroy the marble –”
“Destroy the world. Got it.”
“Right. Miss Wolfe, we need to get to someplace safe.”
“There is no place safe, really. And call me Victoria or whatever nickname from that you like.” I thought about this. There really wasn’t a safe haven. It was going to come down to us protecting a big bag full of life-as-we-know-it ending items in whatever way we could. “They blocked us in here, but didn’t follow. Why?”
“Who?” Benny asked.
“The minions trailing us,” Ralph answered. “And I’d guess because they either knew where we were going and planned to meet us there, or there’s something worse up here waiting for us.”
I hit my wrist-com. “Monty, where’s Dirt Corps, exactly?”
“Waiting for your signal to attack. No idea what they should be attacking, by the way.”
“Me either. Makes it more fun. I’d like Dirt Corps to swarm randomly all over the Estates, then head to the convergence chasm, preferably leading as many minions away from the Estates as possible.”
“Why?” This was asked by all three males within my hearing.
“Because I’d like us to be as alone as possible for a while.”
“Is now really the time for you and Ralph to make that relationship commitment?”
“I hope not,” Benny interjected. “Because I’m not in the mood to watch and I don’t know who could be in the mood to actively participate at this precise time.”
“You have company?” Monty asked.
“Benny the Fence. You okay with that?”
“Yes, always checked out as clean.”
“I should hope so!” Benny sounded offended.
“Benny, I think we mentioned that we’ve had an eventful few days, filled with chaos, complicity, and betrayal?”
“Fine, fine,” he huffed. “But I still want to know why you’re trying to send what sounded like protection and backup away from us.”
“Because I want to get up close and personal with my God. Or at least, some of his representatives.”
Chapter 67
Dirt Corps did as requested. As a variety of undeads swarmed all over the Estates, I had Benny open Nero’s garage door so I could store our car. Then the three of us and our bag of evil goodies went into the house.
Ralph and I did a fast check for Nero or any other unsavory beings. We found nothing, literally.
“I think you’re going to have to find another transient tenant,” I said to Benny as we looked at the last room, a room as devoid of Nero’s trappings as all the others were. He’d cleaned out his stuff and he’d done it fast.
“He must have come back here, after the incident at the Little Church,” Ralph suggested.
“Maybe. Maybe he came here during the incident. He’s a being big on creating havoc but he’s also good at getting out of his own messes relatively unscathed.”
“He must have used one big truck,” Benny said. “He had a ton of
junk last time I was here to check on things.”
“It was all here the other day.” Whenever that was. Oh, right. “Sunday.”
“It’s Tuesday night now. Plenty of time. Unless you all were watching the house.”
I sighed. “No. We were watching other things.”
Ralph leaned against me. “Stop it.”
I stroked his head. “Okay. I’ll try, anyway.”
“You two actually want to be alone?” Benny asked. “I was serious, I’m not in the mood to watch.”
“Yes, we’d love to be alone. Sadly, we’ve got that whole trying to avoid Armageddon thing going, so we’ll hold it.” Nero had left the larger furniture, so I could sit down on a couch. Ralph hopped up next to me and I leaned against him.
“I can’t speak for your partner, but I’d like to have some idea of if I’m going to survive the night or not.” Benny didn’t sound like he was joking.
Neither Ralph nor I corrected Benny on the partner statement. “Okay, first, I need to call a couple of beings.” And I needed to come up with a full plan. I had a sorta plan, but not a real one. Something was missing. I knew what was going on and roughly how it had been done, I was sure of it, but I needed one more piece of information – I just didn’t know what it was or how to find it.
Ralph groaned. “You do this all the time. You hate sharing.”
“True.” My wrist-com went live. “Merc, you there?”
“Right here, darling. What’s shaking?”
“The worlds. Did Freddy ever get time to tell you and L.K. what the Estates advertising slogans were?”
“He did, and we’ve gone over them. You were right, they’re a spell for sure. We aren’t positive, but the goal seems to be to lull the human residents into a sort of stupor.”
“That makes sense. Any analysis of who created it?”
“P.T.’s working on it. His first guess is Hitler, but he stressed that he wasn’t sure by any means. Could just be someone imitating his style.”