14. CHAPTER #3
“He got himself a dragon scale and he’s very, very much alive.
” Nyp chuckled. “Humans are so funny, aren’t they?
Sneaky little rascals! See, I know they were trying to create some kind of drug epidemic to bring police down on the family because they’re not big fans of the Mostros.
But someone, a monster, probably from the mostri persuasion, had decided to give ol’ Liam another chance. ”
“Gave him what he needed to get back in business.” Mr. Heiss glanced over the tables warily.
“And new product.” Nyp waved at the trays.
“This isn’t about targeting humans and pissing off the cops anymore,” Mr. Heiss said thoughtfully. “They want to target monsters. If this drug gets out—”
“Monsters will be fuckin’ exposed all over the city.” Indy gasped. “Holy shit. Okay, that’s bad. That’s really, really bad.”
“Looks like it already has.” Azazel had been looking over some clipboards, and he grimaced. “If these orders are right, there’s already been multiple shipments sent out.”
“How many?” Mr. Heiss demanded.
“Ah, so, if there’s ten thousand pills per pack… and a thousand packs per crate…” Azazel pulled out his phone, no doubt to use the calculator. “Ten million pills.”
“Take the information from the orders and try to track down what you can.” Mr. Heiss glanced around the room. “I want everyone on this. Right fucking now. We have to contain this.”
“Boss, some of these orders went out weeks ago. We can’t—”
Mr. Heiss growled, and his horns popped through, the crown of flames between them growing brightly.
“On it. Going. Going, yup, now.” Azazel scrambled away to bark out assignments to the other demons and send them off to check the various addresses from the paperwork.
He went to Tanze and Underwood first, and they took their assignment and then vanished.
Before they were out of sight, Underwood kissed the top of Tanze’s head.
Aw, how nice.
Demon serial killers didn’t mind PDA.
“I’d love to help too,” Nyp gushed, strolling right up to Mr. Heiss and Indy with a big smile. “Come on. We’re friends, right? We should really be friends! Friends help friends!”
Mr. Heiss narrowed his eyes. “What the fuck do you want, Nyp? What is it really?”
“I can’t be helpful?” Nyp looked offended. “After everything we’ve been through?”
“My fist is about to go through your head. You’ve never wanted to help. Not without wanting something in return.”
“That is simply not true.”
“My fist going through your head is about to be.”
Seeing Mr. Heiss and Nyp fight didn’t have quite the same appeal for entertainment as last time because now all Indy could picture was Mr. Heiss blowing Nyp’s brains out like that damn imp, and Indy found himself wandering around the end of the table.
He only made it a few feet before Mr. Heiss grabbed his shoulder to keep him from going any farther, and Indy sighed in annoyance.
The tight leash was getting old.
Still, Indy could look around and see the crates stashed at the end of the table.
One had a smear of blood across the top.
Lovely.
But the other, curiously, had a bunch of small white flowers.
Indy picked one up to give it a sniff. Only after he did that did he realize that was probably stupid, but nothing happened other than getting a sweet and oddly familiar scent.
Another look at the tables revealed that the same flowers were being dried and crushed into a powder. For what purpose, Indy had no idea, but it seemed obvious they were being used to do something with the pills.
Mr. Heiss glanced at the flowers, his brow pinched.
Indy wiggled the blossoms. “These are sampaguita.”
Mr. Heiss stared blankly, but it was enough to distract him from bickering with Nyp. “What?”
“Oh my God. Sampaguita. It was this challenge on RuPaul’s Drag Race Philippines.”
“I love RuPaul!” Nyp practically squealed. “Haven’t seen the Philippines one yet. Jiggly was a host, right?”
“Yes, may she rest in power.”
Mr. Heiss sighed haggardly.
“Rude.” Indy rolled his eyes. “Anyway, they had to do a whole Flores de Mayo thing in, like, the first episode. Which was super gorgeous, although technically they kinda already did a flower challenge in—”
“Indy.”
“God, no appreciation for culture. Not surprising considering your decor, ew. Anyway. I got curious about it and looked the festival up, ’cause hey, we can do that now because we have the technology, and I learned that the sampaguita is the national flower of the Philippines.
” Indy shrugged. “They’re, like, a symbol of eternal love ’cause one grew from the grave of some heartbroken princess and blah blah blah, you’re not listening to me. ”
“No, I am not.” Mr. Heiss frowned. “I am thinking.”
“You know there’s literally a flower shop right here in Somerstown that has these.”
Mr. Heiss made a face. He was definitely listening now.
“Gammy wanted to see about getting one because they’re super pretty, and you can grow them indoors. So, we looked up this place—”
Mr. Heiss sighed again.
“—and boom, they had one in stock! How crazy is that?” Indy hummed. “The name of it was, like—”
“Uranian Flora.”
“Yeah, that’s the one! How did you know?”
“Trust me. I wish I didn’t.”