Page 50 of Insidious Monsters
“You know the protocol, Dev,” the man said to her.
“Yeah, I do, and this is firmly in the Night Guild camp.”
“Not if these cult members are human, it isn’t.”
“The victims are non-human, as is the leader of the cult. Look, I promise you no harm will come to the humans.”
They broke off their conversation as I approached.
“August, glad you made it,” Devyn said.
“So you’re the rift walker who gave Dev the lead?” The man raked me over.
My senses said he was human. “That’s me.”
“Backup’s available with one call,” Devyn said. “Go do your thing.”
“Devyn, you need to—”
“Enough, Jack. This is my call. Not yours. And if there’s a blowback, I’ll take it, okay? You can say you had no idea there were humans involved.” Her violet gaze hardened. “And if you’d stayed off my computer, that would be true.”
“I was ordering pizza.”
She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “We’ll talk about this tonight. You need to go. You can’t be here.” She dismissed him with a look and focused on me. “Go get us that address.”
I gave her a mock salute and headed across the street to Roll With It, Archie in tow.
The bell tinkled as we entered.
The morning rush was ending, and I could see from Bertie’s face that he was looking forward to the pre-lunch lull. He glanced up with a smile as we approached the counter and continued to bag the order for the guy in front of us.
The guy looked over his shoulder with a smile that dipped at the sight of us.
It was a typical human response to non-humans. It was weird how they could tell we were different, like a predator/prey response where we were the predators, when in truth we had very little power. The government had taken it all.
I stared back at him with a deadpan expression as he grabbed his bag of goodies and hurried out of the sandwich shop.
Bertie turned his attention to me. “What can I get you, August.”
“I’m actually hoping you can help me with something other than a delicious roll today, Bertie.”
“Of course.” He wiped his hands on his apron. “Whatever you need.”
“Remember that woman, Margie with the non-profit?”
He nodded. “Sure.”
“I need her address.”
He winced. “August, you know I’m not supposed to give that information out. Customers trust me.”
“I know, Bertie, but this is a matter of life and death.”
His eyes went round. “Is she in danger?”
She totally was. From me. But he didn’t have to know that. I nodded solemnly. “So much danger.”
He looked torn.
