Page 4 of Insidious Monsters
I flipped the pages of my notebook until I came to the copy I’d made of the symbols on the gravestone in the eldritch realm. “Do you think he could help me with this?”
Jinx looked to Devyn, who shrugged.
Jinx snapped a picture of the page. “I’ll send it to him with your details. What’s your number?”
I rattled off the digits.
“Done. Now if you don’t mind, I have a body to examine.” She backed up, giving us a mock salute before turning on her heel and striding for the van.
Devyn looked over at Toby’s vehicle, which was being combed for forensic evidence. “I should get to work. Go home. Stay safe.” She pinned her gaze on Nandi. “I’ll call when I have more information.”
She walked off toward the car, which still had its trunk open.
I suppressed a shiver. “He was going to shove you in there.”
Nandi shuddered. “I can’t believe I fell for his sweet-guy act. If you guys hadn’t come along…” She frowned. “Wait…whatwereyou guys doing in this part of town.”
Eeek. I slung an arm around her shoulder and steered her away from the crime scene. “That is a tale best told at home, with a nice hot cup of tea in hand.”
“Wait, were you watching me? You were watching me, weren’t you? Oh my God, are those binoculars?”
two
“What happened to taking a night off?” Quentin asked.
Archie, Nandi, and I sat at the kitchen table facing him, mugs of tea in front of us—it was, after all, the cure-all beverage.
After six weeks of tracking and catching eldritch monsters, not to mention doing jobs to keep Real Deal in the black, Quentin had insisted we take a weekend off to recharge. Nandi had chosen to go on a date, and Archie and I had chosen to stalk her.
“It’s lucky we didn’t take the night off,” Archie said.
“I can’t even be mad.” Nandi sipped her tea. “Thanks for going with your gut and stalking me.” She smiled my way as if it had been my idea.
I held up my hands. “Don’t thank me, thank Archie. I was all for letting you do your thing, but Archie had a bad feeling and wouldn’t shut up about it.”
She looked to Archie, who sniffed and shrugged. “Yeah, well, I have great intuition. Like right now, I can tell Quentin here’s about to chew us out.”
Quentin sighed. “Always be prepared, have you not learned that by now?” He fixed a glare on me. “You went out without your pack.” He fixed another glare on Nandi. “And you went out without your daggers. You were lucky to be able to disarm your attacker and use his weapon against him.”
Luck had nothing to do with it; Nandi was an excellent fighter. I looked to Nandi, expecting her to tell him so, but she simply pressed her lips together and took the admonishment.
That wasn’t like her. This attack had obviously shaken her confidence.
“And you.” Quentin fixed his azure gaze on Archie. “You did good.”
Archie blinked up at him in surprise. “I did?”
“You listened to your gut, you followed its warning, and because of that, Nandi is safe at home with us. You did real good, Archie.”
Archie blinked some more and cleared his throat. “Yeah, well, I’m hungry, anyone else hungry?” He pushed his chair back and stood. “I’m ordering in.”
He left the room.
Quentin frowned. “Did I say something to upset him?”
“No.” Nandi smiled fondly at the door. “Archie doesn’t take compliments well.”
Quentin topped up his mug. “It was well-deserved. I spoke to the Order, and they’re as stumped as the Night Guild over what this Toby creature is. They’ll be liaising with the Night Guild on this one. Psychics and mystics fall under their jurisdiction.” He glanced at Nandi. “Necromystics are a gray area.”
