Page 43 of Stalk the Dark
I took the envelope from Matthew and passed it to Agatha. “It’s all right, I’ll be there. You’ll be fine. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Agatha sighed and took it.
“You can go now,” Merry said to Renfield.
He hesitated for a beat, shuffling from foot to foot. He obviously had something more he wanted to say.
I exhaled heavily. “What? Just spit it out.”
“Master has never taken a companion to the Exciatio before.”
“So?”
“He doesn’t like to share.” He swallowed hard. “Unless it is on his terms and there are certain rules…etiquette to the event.” He looked nervously at the door. “I shouldn’t…If he finds out.”
I took a step closer to him. “He won’t. Just tell me what to expect.”
“The nobles will bring veins with them. Veins to be shared with their peers…”
“Like a fucking bottle of wine,” Merry said bitterly.
“And you’ll be Tepes’s escort,” Agatha said, putting two and two together.
“I’m no vein.”
Matthew nodded. “Of course not, but…be wary.” Hehurried out of the store, leaving me with the fresh weight of another problem to solve.
“No one is getting their fangs in me.”
“We’re Order,” Merry said. “We’re off-limits.”
She was right. Of course she was right. But what if there was a loophole I didn’t know about? Either way, I needed to be prepared. “Agatha, do you think you can add a couple of hidden pockets to that dress?”
She smirked confidently. “You bet your ass I can.”
We walked out into the sunlight fifteen minutes later to find Padma waiting outside, leaning casually against a lamppost, while Edwin tended to the horses.
“All done?” She pushed off the lamppost as a dark shape dropped out of the sky to land at her feet with a heartycaw.
The Raven was huge, its head almost at her knee. It waited patiently for her to retrieve the message hidden in the capsule around its neck.
Padma’s mouth turned down, chest rising and falling in a sigh.
“What is it?” Edwin asked.
“A case. Missing persons. Looks like we’re headed to New Town.”
Chapter 16
Raffleton Street was a narrow affair with a road barely wide enough for two vehicles to pass each other. Turned out that the Order had a van they kept at the carriage stables—a green and yellow contraption with weapons and a cage in the back. It took up more than half of the road as we made our way down, and Edwin was forced to park partially on the sidewalk to leave enough room for any other vehicles to pass.
The note simply said,Raffleton, number 11, missing persons case. And it wasn’t until we were climbing out of the van that it occurred to me that the Sangualex were allowing us to deal with a human problem. “I thought the Sangualex didn’t let us work on human cases.”
“They don’t,” Padma said. “Raffleton is home to the tulpa.”
I had no idea what that was, and my expression must have shown it.
Padma shook her head as if in despair. “Your brief of this territory was seriously lacking.”
