Page 71 of Only Human in Strangeville

“Clare has him blocked.”

“She can do that?”

Oliver smiled. “She has herbs that we made him drink. He can’t escape or use his powers right now.”

I turned back toward the living room. “You’re sure?”

“I’ve tested them. They work.” The look of distaste on my shade’s face was convincing.

“Okay.” I let Oliver draw me into the living room.

Drake’s gaze flicked between me and Nimbus. The cloud puppy glared at the shade, lips wrinkled as he growled softly.

“I see you managed to convince the creature to stick around,” Drake said with a sneer.

“A little kindness goes a long way,” I shot back.

Nimbus’s growl deepened. A few of the werewolves, though in human form, echoed him.

I hadn’t noticed that Drake was bound, his hands in front of him and his feet hobbled. He stood, but there was a chair placed for him.

“So, you’ve captured me. Well done. What are you going to do now? Torture me? You know I can’t betray the bloodline.”

“Bad luck for you, your bloodline turned out to be real shits,” Oliver said, his normally soothing voice sharp with disgust.

“At least I still have my bloodline.”

Oliver stiffened.

What on earth were they talking about? I realized I knew next to nothing about shades. Considering everything that had happened since I’d discovered their existence, I didn’t feel too bad not knowing. I probably should find out, though. I was sleeping with one, and I was sure there were plenty of things I needed to figure out about vampires and werewolves that lore got wrong, but before meeting Drake and Oliver I’d never even heard of a shade.

“True. Though I’d rather be aimless than beholden to evil.”

“I’d rather not have failed in my entire purpose in life,” Drake snarled.

Before Oliver could reply, Davin interrupted. “Perhaps you should reconsider your allegiance.”

Drake simply sneered.

“He can’t,” Oliver said.

“Well, we have some questions.” Davin turned his full attention to the shade.

Unfortunately, Drake was unwilling to talk. It wasn’t until Katsuro brought his mind control powers to use that we got any answers from the shade, and it took a great deal of work on Katsuro’s part.

I almost felt sorry for Drake as the wolves took him away. He was shaking and sweating, and barely able to walk on his own. No one had touched him, but whatever Katsuro had done to get him to talk hadn’t been pleasant.

The vampire didn’t look a lot better, and he gave me a grateful smile when I sat next to him and took his hand.

Oliver sat on the other side of me, and I pressed my knee against his. He didn’t look happy either, though there were many reasons why that could be.

Clare and Bridger had sat off to the side during the questioning.

“Okay, so, mostly we just confirmed our suspicions. Vito was working with that human trafficking group Hannah helped put away.” Davin gave me a warm smile. “They were getting their humans from it and making a blood bank of sorts. He got to your DC contact, and we’ll need to address that at some point, but it’s not our immediate concern. They had hoped to use Nimbus to help their operation after you shut down their main source of blood. I am concerned that Drake thinks they can acquire another nimbus, but that is probably also not our immediate problem.”

Nimbus grumbled unhappily. He’d been particularly upset at that revelation.

“What does it mean, though?” I asked. “They’re rare, right?”

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