Page 58 of Stalk the Dark
I turned to leave.
“Wait!” Wayne said. “You can’t do this. You can’t just leave him. You took the job. You said?—”
I spun on my heel to face him. “And what vow did you take when you joined the Sangualex, huh?”
He flinched. “Please help him. You can take the Lomax case. I’ll transfer the files. I’ll even help but…please, get Charlie back.”
He looked genuinely upset; the hard-nosed asshole of earlier was gone. “What the fuck is going on, Wayne?”
He shook his head. “Stay out of it. Trust me. It’s safer that way.”
“Is Kaster involved? Atlas?”
“I don’t know. No one knows, and tattlers go missing.” He was warning us, not threatening. “Look, you have your Order offices back. You have a chance to do good. I swear to you, help me now, and I’ll make sure I forward you the urgent cases that we don’t have time to deal with.”
There was something very rotten at the Sangualex, but it couldn’t be my problem to fix it. This, however, right now, I could deal with.
“Fine.” I strode back to the mausoleum where the girl was waiting, book clutched to her chest now, looking less confident and much younger than a moment ago.
“Give the vamp back and the Order will work your case.”
Her gaze flicked between Wayne and me. “How can I trust you?”
I shrugged. “What have you got to lose aside from a chew toy?”
She seemed to consider this for a moment, then gave me a nod. “Okay. Wait here.”
Like I was going to follow her into a creepy-ass mausoleum.
“Two weeks is a long time,” Padma pointed out. “Trail will be cold. Again.” She shot Wayne the side-eye.
He had the grace to look ashamed.
The girl returned dragging a vamp out by the scruff of the neck. He was gagged, hands bound, but seemed otherwise unharmed.
“Here.” She shoved him at us.
Charlie stumbled into Wayne’s arms, and the two vamps hugged before Wayne led him away.
“You’d better keep your part of the deal,” she said to me, lip curling as she tried to look menacing.
“How old are you? I mean you look eighteen, but you might be much older. I don’t know enough about ghouls to tell.”
She crossed her arms. “Seventeen.”
“You mean the body you’re inhabiting is seventeen…or was before she died,” Edwin corrected.
She frowned. “Thisismy body. I was born with it.”
“You’re a born ghoul?” Padma asked. “How is this possible?”
She shrugged. “I dunno. It just is. It’s nothing new. There are quite a few of us actually. Lomax too. He’s my…my boyfriend.” Her bottom lip quivered. “I fancied chicken, and so he went to Blissmore Market to the butchers to get me some, but he never came back.”
“You eat chicken?” Edwin asked.
She made a sound of exasperation. “No one eats people anymore. Gosh, do you not know anything?”
Obviously not. “Do you have a photo of Lomax?”
