Page 91 of Midnight Auto Parts

“Yes.” Kierce rubbed a leaf between his fingers. “I am.”

“They have Ankou’s tree.” I was certain of it. “Who’s to say this wasn’t all his idea?”

“He shouldn’t be strong enough to appear to them yet, but the tree is a powerful conduit.”

Mention of the Morgans reminded me. “What time is it?”

“You slept for ninety minutes.”

“That sounds weirdly precise.”

“Vi told me you would return to the commune in two hours, so I asked Badb to wake you at a certain time by matching the number I wrote on a pad of paper to the stopwatch app I left running on my phone.”

“Smart.” I grinned. “Youandher.”

“Thank you,” he said dryly, his gaze lifting to spot her in the night sky.

Now that I was running on all cylinders again, I had to check on how well Tameka had done her job convincing the older women to return what they had stolen before more was taken from them.

“Let’s hope the Morgans are more forthcoming after Tameka offers them a solution.”

“Frankie.” He still hadn’t looked at me. “This situation is spiraling beyond our ability to contain it.”

“The thing about the modern age that old gods might not appreciate is the transfer of information is instant. Proof is a snapshot and text message away. Evidence is a video on your phone you email a colleague. It’s not like the olden days when you could smite a whole village and be done with it. There are digital trails, ones a technomancer can’t fully erase. There are eyewitnesses to the scene and the crimes. How is a god like Dis Pater—who’s always typing away on his laptop—not aware of this?”

“There are lines the gods honor and lines the gods cross. Their logic is unfathomable.”

“You’re saying they do what they want and justify it any way they want, and no one can fight back.”

“Yes,” he said softly. “Some are too weary to even try.”

“Good thing you’re not one of them.” I wouldn’t let him be. “We have a deal. We’re going to handle this. I’m not one hundred percent sure how yet, but one problem at a time. First we have to find out if the Morgans want to do this the easy way or the hard way.”

The grit in my tone, or maybe his inclusion in my plans, brought his attention swinging to me and affixed it onto my face. “I admire the fight in you.”

A flush threatened me, but I did my best to play it cool when he looked at me in something like awe.

“Yes, well, blame it on having siblings. You can’t spend your whole life knocking heads together at home, hoping it smacks some sense into them, but not apply it to the outside world as well.”

That wasn’t entirely true, but standing between Matty and Josie—my two extremists—had made me an unwitting middle ground that refused to be tread on. The habit of mediation did work small miracles in a customer service industry like ours, but I hadn’t inflicted the talent on anyone else without invitation.

The good people of Commune Doom were about to count themselves among the first.

“You remind me of…” his brow furrowed, “…I’m not quite sure.”

A smidgen of jealousy threatened to stain his earlier compliment, but the persistent ring of my phone forced me to check the ID, which told me it was Carter. “Hey.”

“We found our missing officers.”

“You didn’t say alive, so is it safe to assume they’re dead?”

“Kim was eaten by your creature, probably the same day she went missing. Her remains were found in a tree, as if cached there. Tate died the night before last, after emptying her service weapon. We found holes in tree trunks from the bullets, but there were no signs of blood. Either she didn’t hit the target or…”

“She hit the target, but it didn’t matter.” Anunit could be as substantial or insubstantial as she chose. Her paw prints, or lack thereof, proved she could materialize at will or slink about immaterial and invisible to the eyes of anyone who lacked the ability to perceive the dead. “I’m sorry, Carter.”

Anunit likely gave precedence to victims caught in the act over those already in the commune. Those were trapped like fishin an aquarium she could scoop out as necessary to meet her quota.

“Me too,” she said gruffly. “We have to stop this thing before it takes more lives.”

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