Page 144 of Love & Heart Braking

“Okay, here’s a loaf of bread,” I said.

Devereaux broke it open, inhaling deeply. “Nothing I can smell in there.”

I picked up a packet of chocolate-covered coasters, handing one of the squiggling doughnut-like loops to him.

He sniffed again. “Nothing.”

My heart thumped. Our entire plan of attack kind of hinged on finding traces of Shade in food. I hopped up and grabbed a can opener.

When I returned, Devereaux had punctured the top of a can of beetroot with a black claw. He drew his finger around in a circle and popped the jagged circle up.

“Ha,” I grunted.

“That’s just one perk if you keep me around,” he said, winking.

I sat back down. “A clock that shows midnight and a can opener. You are useful, Detective Vincori.”

“Anything?” Maligni asked.

Devereaux sniffed. He tilted his head, then sniffed again. “It’s in here.”

The three of us exchanged an excited look.

“Another can,” I said, grabbing some corn.

Devereaux punctured it with a claw, and I got to work opening the other cans. Rodney would be here soon.

“Yep, Shade,” he muttered. “They’re fucking sick.”

He didn’t often swear, but what the twelve were doing made me want to curse as soundly and creatively as Soleil. “What are we going to do? I got the cans from the very back, but people will eat this.”

“And react to it. Shade has high addictiveness and some nasty side effects,” Maligni said. “I was researching it today.”

“We have to say something.”

The daemon pressed his lips together. “If we do, that’s our plan gone. The twelve will shut up shop. It’s all twelve or none of them.”

Yes, but I also had to do what I could live with.

“At these traces, the effects will be far less,” Devereaux said. “Even so, I’m assuming their master plan is to build an addictiveness in the wider population. That does give us time, but like Cerys said, I’m not comfortable leaving this for too long. What if we reassess our position each week? If we don’t make inroads, then we release the information we have.”

And lose everything, including Soleil, Austin, and Lerome’s chance to get out. Still, that was the best compromise in this shituation. “Deal.”

“Deal,” Maligni echoed. “I’m guessing they’ve started with items that have a longer shelf life.”

Ah, that made total sense. “What will we eat in the meantime?”

“Lasagna,” they grunted, then shared a grin.

I smiled too. Mrs. Vincori to the rescue. “We can stick to perishable items as well. Devereaux can check them.”

Another knock.

“That’ll be Rodney.” I peeked to confirm the poltergeist was outside. Though a floating body of semi-translucent white, poltergeists possessed all the abilities required to haunt their location of choice—knocking, shoving things over, slamming doors, howling, whistling wind, hurling weapons, ringing, you name it.

I gestured him inside. “Rodney, so nice to see you. Keeping well?”

“Spit. Sizzle. Cook. Char.”

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