Page 20 of Just Dare Me
All of her men raise their hands. “We volunteer for the task force.”
“Now wait a second!” Nick huffs. “Nora, you’remypartner!”
“But my task force is saving the world,” I remind him. “I think that takes priority.”
Elle raises her hand. “I volunteer for the task force.”
Hillerman raises her hand. “As newly-reinstated Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Underworld Task Force, I volunteer our full cooperation.”
I rub my hands together. “Okay, yeah. Hillerman, you bring the mix tapes, Elle will coordinate our outfits, and Nora will bring the treats. Is that how this works?”
Nick is fuming now, and all the rest of the crowd is still stuck atUhhh…what?
“We can sort out the details later,” Madison West says. “For now, Shayne, why don’t you lead us through the remainder of this briefing?”
“But I’m not prepared. I don’t know what to say.”
“You can start by telling us who this is.” She clicks the remote, moving to the next slide on the TV—a mugshot of Arael Moaz. His eyes burn beneath his wrinkled brow and crazy, wiry hair. A demonic Albert Einstein.
“Oh, him. That’s Arael Moaz, East Side horde master, and the penis wrinkle behind this whole mess. I have to say, this photo is a little out of date. These days he looks a lot moredead, since we killed him.”
“Who killed him, specifically?” Madison clicks to a slide of a devastatingly handsome young police officer in full uniform with tattoos of chemical symbols around his neck.
My heart does a flip. “Detective Jay Brenner, Detroit PD. He’s the one who pulled the trigger.”
“And where is Detective Brenner now?”
“All we know is they’ve got him, the East Side horde. Not sure where, but we’re getting closer.”
“If I may pose the obvious but indelicate question, why are they keeping him alive? Brenner killed their horde master. Why not take their revenge?”
“Probably because they know what I would do to their faces.”
Hillerman pipes up with the real answer. “They can’t kill Brenner because he’s now their only link to Arael Moaz. Since Brenner’s the one who killed him, Arael’s vengeful spirit now haunts him. Arael’s ghost will creep constantly at the edge of Brenner’s vision, seen only out of the corner of his eye, heard only as dark thoughts whispered from just behind his ear, felt only as a persistent, oppressive heaviness in his mind.”
A shiver rattles my spine. “Yes, thank youso muchfor that overly-detailed description of what’s currently torturing my boyfriend.”
“Fiancé,” Elle corrects.
Hillerman goes on. “The point is, if they kill Brenner, the spirit of Arael Moaz will be released from this world. He’ll return to the Deep, out of reach for even the most powerful conjurers. It would take centuries for him to regain the strength to return. Obviously, they don’t want that.”
The sorcerer politician steps forward. “But we do! Centuries without that warmonger? It sounds too good to be true. We should find this Detective Brenner and kill him ourselves.”
“That isnotan option,” I snap.
“What’s one human in exchange for ridding the world of a horde master?”
I raise both my hands high. “Listen up, everybody. Eyes and ears on me, please. I’ve recently come into some dominance, which means I’m supposed to say what I mean, and mean what I say. I have to admit, being a straight shooter is a bit new to me, so let me get some practice on you all. Here’s the thing. As the SAC of this task force, I strictly forbid, by punishment of death—”
Madison West interrupts with a polite smile. “Notby death. That’s against Agency policy.”
“Fine. I strictly forbid, by punishment of you’llwishyou were dead, any action that directly or indirectly leads to an outcome in which I don’t marry this man and have his babies. Any questions?”
Elle has one. “How many babies?”
“Seventeen. Next question.”
A deep, gruff voice booms from behind me. “Who’s the other necromancer?” A mountain of a man ducks below the door frame to exit Madison’s office. He’s bald, but makes up for the lack of hair with a truly impressive beard, cut flat across the bottom, so that his jaw is perfectly square. By the looks of it, he must be U.S. military special forces, wearing camouflage pants and an army green T-shirt stretched across the thickest chest and widest shoulders I’ve ever seen.
