Chapter 17 #3
He let the ball fall dormant and put it back into his bag. “Then we’re done here.” It would’ve been a grand exit if he hadn’t stumbled into Jaks.
Jaks’s hungry leer set the world back on track for Quentin. “Glenn, why don’t you drop Nikko off with the council. We’ll meet you back at the mansion.”
“Uh-huh. Enjoy your victory celebration,” he said dryly.
“I’ll go with you,” his mother announced. “Then I’m going home for a shower. That place is disgusting inside.”
“Hey,” Nikko shouted. “It was better before all the stinky brimstone.”
“So you say.” His mother patted Nikko on the head like a puppy. “Maybe look into hiring a cleaning crew.”
With those words, she strolled off like the badass Quentin always knew she was. The twins followed her with starry-eyed gazes.
“What happened to Braed?” Quentin shouted after her.
“I kicked him in the privates and threw one of your orbs at him.” His mother shouted back as she continued her strut through the forest. “I don’t know where it went. Asshole shouldn’t have kidnapped me and hurt my son.”
As usual, Trina Heart had the last word.
Of course, nothing could be that simple.
“We need to go inside the house and collect evidence,” Quentin commented.
“Why?” Grevin asked.
“Because, somehow, I need to check where Braed might have gone. The magic in the house should lead me there. We still need to take him into custody and find out if he had accomplices, and we only have Nikko’s word that Brenton is all right.”
Grevin sighed. “I just want to go home.”
“Do you want me to send you?” Grevin had earned a free ride home.
“No, I’ll come with you into the house. I need to put everything I rose back into the ground, and I have to tell your bounty hunter friend about the humans. There might be bounties on them that we can collect. I’m willing to split the money.”
“Sounds fair,” Quentin agreed. After all, Grevin still had that steep bill to pay. “Do you think they’ll dismiss your fine over this?”
“Probably not.” Grevin scowled. “It will be a fight I probably won’t win. Once they get their hooks into you for money, they rarely let you free.”
“Hmm.” Quentin didn’t have a counterargument. That had been his experience also whenever he had a fee to pay. “I have a question for you, Grev.”
“What?” His weary tone told Quentin his friend had just about tapped out his social battery.
“How was the demon able to attack Glenn and then jump into the dean?”
“It has to do with the power of the demon. I suspect that one of the reasons he left Hafrey so easily was that he would burn out his host if he remained in their body for too long. Powerful demons can remain outside a host for short periods of time. I suspect he was supposed to kill the first few people who entered the house to whittle down the enemies before jumping back into Dean Mearson’s body. ”
“Possession is so complicated,” Quentin complained.
“Then don’t get possessed,” Jaks drawled.
“He can’t,” Grevin interjected. “Haven’t you seen the anti-possession runes under his arms?”
“How did you see them?” Jaks growled.
“I placed them.” Grevin raised his hands placatingly. “I deal with demons all the time. I didn’t want one to possess Quentin if one ever escaped. His power level would be catnip for them.”
Jaks frowned and turned to Quentin. “Why didn’t you mention this?”
“Because I knew you wouldn’t take it well.”
“I would for your safety,” Jaks argued.
“Really? Is that why you haven’t stopped growling?”
Jaks sniffed. “I don’t like surprises.”
“I’ll keep that in mind next time I want to jump you,” Quentin said.
“No need to be mean.” Jaks wrapped his arms around Quentin. “Do you really have tattoos under your arms?”
“Yes, and they stung like a bitch. I hide them with magic, which is why you’ve never seen them.”
The door to the house creaked open, and a waft of brimstone choked the air. Quentin coughed at the pungent aroma. He didn’t know how necromancers handled the stench while summoning.
One by one, they cautiously entered the manor. The floors were surprisingly polished to a high sheen for a house that looked questionable in the misty light.
“Oh, you made it,” Brenton came through a swinging door with a sandwich in one hand.
Looks like Nikko wasn’t lying about that.
“Are you all right?” Quentin couldn’t resist asking, even though the bounty hunter seemed to be in high spirits.
“Fine. Unfortunately, once I got here, that dean trapped me inside with a spell. They pretty much ignored me after that. I think Nikko was ready to be done with all this. I don’t know why he attacked Glenn, but that doesn’t seem to be his usual behavior. I think it might have been a cry for help.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Nikko. I’ve talked to him while I was stuck here, and I think he was hoping that if he took Quentin, then Jaks would come to fetch him, and Nikko could stop being a lone vampire.
I got the impression he made Glenn for the company, and something scared him into running away before he had a chance to help with his conversion. ”
“Did you ever get an evil feeling from him?” Quentin still remembered his first impression of Nikko and the bad feeling he got from him.
“No, I mostly noticed he came across as lonely. He can be a bit aggressive about getting his way, but other than that, he’s just a regular guy who happens to be a vampire.”
“Hmm.” Deciding to drop that for now, Quentin asked the most critical question. “Is it true that my mother trapped Braed in a spell ball?”
Brenton smirked. “Sure did.”
“How?” Quentin asked..
“She kicked him in the nuts when he got too close, and he didn’t have the sense to take away her bag, which I assume is where she got the ball.”
Quentin couldn’t help it. He laughed and laughed, leaning against Jaks to keep upright. “We should go find him.”
“Can you track the orbs?” Brenton asked.
Quentin nodded. “I can also recall them if necessary.”
“She nailed him in the kitchen.” Brenton waved a hand for them to follow.
It only took a few seconds for Quentin to locate the right spot where he felt the orb’s magic. With a thought, he brought it back, then sent it off again.”
“Where did he go?” Jaks asked.
“I sent him to the bounty hunters. They can probably get more information from him than we can.”
“Not necessarily,” Allea said, popping out from around the corner.
Quentin clutched his chest and ignored the smirking vampires around him who probably heard her yards away.
“Where did you come from?”
Andrea appeared beside her. “We came while you were talking to your bounty hunter. We’d like permission to interrogate Braed.”
I turned back to Brenton. “What do you think?”
Brenton shrugged. “I don’t mind, and if it will help with your case against him, let them have him.”
“Go ahead,” Jaks said, causing the girls to squeal and race off.
“I don’t even want to know why they’re so happy,” Quentin muttered.
Quentin turned his attention back to Brenton as he motioned toward Grevin. “Maybe you can help Grevin find the names of the people he raised.”
“What?” Brenton asked.
Quentin concisely told the bounty hunter about Grevin raising human bodies and the repercussions—their need to identify the bodies that had risen from Grevin’s magic.
Brenton smiled, his eyes lighting with interest. From the way his gaze raked Grevin up and down, it wasn’t entirely professional. “I’d be happy to help,” he offered.
Grevin’s blush showed Quentin that the bounty hunter’s interest might be reciprocated.
“We’ll leave that to you two then,” Jaks said, patting Grevin on the back. “Can you see him home?”
Brenton nodded. “I’ll do that.”
Quentin and Jaks bid goodbye and were outside before they spoke again. Quentin broke the silence. “How much do you want to bet that Grevin might not be going to bed alone for much longer?”
“Sucker‘s bet,” Jaks replied. “Do you have enough energy to get us home, or do you want me to call a car?“
“I’ve got this.” Quentin gathered his power and took them home to his little house with a garden—their oasis against the world.