Page 55 of Concluded
“I heard you died,” Achilles said to White.
White rumbled back, “I did.”
He lifted his lips to show an impressive set of fangs.Marek, still grinning, did the same.
Dee’s heart lurched.“Vampires?”he squeaked.Achilles had mentioned their existence, but Dee hadn’t expected to meet any in the undead flesh—let alone be their houseguest.
White nodded, confirming the answer to Dee’s question.Achilles looked neither surprised nor alarmed.Dee realized that White might not be intentionally scowling; in which case, he clearly had the world’s most intense resting bitch face.
“Don’t worry,” White said.“We’ve already eaten.”When Marek laughed, Dee guessed it might have been intended as a joke.Maybe.
But White was giving Dee a quizzical look.“You smell weird.What are you?”
Jackie the coyote chief had mentioned something about that too; apparently he didn’t even smell human.He wondered which creatures could sense that.As far as he knew, the aliens hadn’t caught on to it.Or maybe they simply didn’t care.
Marek gave White a friendly shove.“Please excuse my Clay.He has all the subtlety of a charging rhinoceros.Your scent is actually quite pleasant, Mr.Martell, and?—”
“Dee.”
“Dee.And your identity is none of our business.If you’d like to share, however, I’d be interested.I’m quite old, and I don’t think I’ve met anyone like you.”
Achilles didn’t say a peep, and Dee appreciated having the choice whether to self-disclose.And why not share?“I guess I’m a genie.Um, djinn.Full or half, I’m not sure.”
The response was satisfying in that he’d managed to surprise a pair of vampires, who both looked slightly stunned.They looked at each other and then back at Dee, and they probably would have asked more questions if Achilles hadn’t stood up.“Guys, this is tons of fun and everything, but we have work to do.Maybe we can play Twenty Supernatural Questions after we’ve finished laughing in the face of death?”
“I thought the Bureau frowned on the termsupernatural.” White’s voice was a growl and the corners of his mouth remained turned down, but the spark in his eyes suggested he might have been making a joke of some kind.
Achilles huffed.“Thereisno Bureau anymore.Didn’t Tenrael tell you?”
“Motherfuckers.”
Dee assumed this meant the people in DC who’d made the decision.If so, he was inclined to agree.Everyone he’d met who was associated with the Bureau was odd and dangerous, but none of them had forced him to do anything against his will.And Achilles, at least, was a genuinely good person.Dee was confident about that.
He stood up and moved next to Achilles.Dee felt as if the two of them were partners, and it turned out that it felt really great.“I’m ready.”
After smiling at him, Achilles turned back to the vampires.“Did Tenrael tell you what we are going to do?”
“Risk your fool lives,” answered White.
“Exactly.Dee is going to take us into this… place.We’ve been calling it the black hole.I was there once and it’s not a top vacation destination.But he’ll get us there, we hope.And we’ll find someone who’s being held prisoner there, we hope.And we’ll return here with the prisoner.We hope.”
Dee had the sense that Achilles’ repeated use ofhopedidn’t just represent the uncertainty of their success, but also acted as a sort of prayer.According to Achilles, hope was powerful.And Dee knew the lore about a set of three: third time’s the charm.
But Achilles wasn’t quite done explaining.“I don’t know how long we’ll be gone.It’s impossible to measure time in that place, and I’m not sure whether it runs at the same rate as here.If we do bring this person back, I’m betting they’ll be traumatized.No idea how badly.Oh, and at ourlastsafe house, they sent a quartet of bear shifters after us, so you’ll want to keep an eye out for something like that.”
None of this appeared to rattle their hosts.White cracked his knuckles a few times as if preparing himself for a rousing fistfight, and Marek simply smiled.“Our home will remain a refuge for you as long as you need it.”
“Thanks.”
Then Dee had an idea.“I’d really like to grant you guys a wish, but I can’t right now.I need to conserve my juice.Think about it, though, and after we get back, as soon as I’m able….”
“That is very generous of you,” Marek said solemnly, and he gave a small bow that didn’t seem the least bit ironic.
“Can I ask one more favor?I need a couple of small tokens to turn into charms.It can be anything, really, but they’ll be destroyed when Achilles uses them.”
Marek trotted away immediately.Dee heard him run upstairs and, a moment later, run back down.When he returned to the living room, he held a closed fist toward Dee and passed him the contents.Two small pieces of amber.“They remind me of my homeland,” Marek explained.“I like to keep a few pieces around.”
It felt right to do this with something more valuable than a bit of gravel or a thrift-store trinket.And unlike Ashley’s pearls—objects produced as a result of a creature’s irritation—these pieces of amber were meaningful to the donor.
