The Dire King (Jackaby #4)(43)

Pavel’s nostrils twitched and his lip quivered. “Detective?” he said. “Is that what I think it is?”

“You get one.” Jackaby held up three vials filled with a deep red liquid. “You will receive the next one only after you’ve shown us how to reach the rend and the council’s stronghold. You’ll get the last when I’m certain you haven’t betrayed us.”

“You’ve bled yourself?” Jenny exclaimed. “Oh, that’s brilliant. Because you’re sure to be at your sharpest right after a bloodletting.”

“Pavel will need his strength.”

“Of course he will.” Jenny rolled her eyes. “If there’s anything we should be doing, it’s making the vampire you invited inside our house stronger. Nothing could possibly go wrong.”

“Time is of the essence, Miss Cavanaugh,” Jackaby said. “Pavel’s vitality is fading. Pig’s blood has done little more than stave off death. I cannot afford to have him collapsing on us, or shambling along until the sun comes up and it becomes too late.”

He passed the first vial to Pavel. “I did not ask you for this,” Pavel said.

“I would not have offered it to you if you had,” said Jackaby. “As for the rest of you . . .” He shifted the bundle in his hands, and I saw that it was not firewood but sharpened stakes. He passed them out, one to each of us, and tucked the last one into a long, slim pocket in the lining of his coat. “These have been treated with garlic and silver dust for good measure. Add them to your traveling supplies. If Pavel gives you the faintest indication of duplicity, aim for his heart.”

Jenny leveled her stake directly at Pavel. “The faintest,” she repeated pointedly.

“Aww. It feels nice to be a part of the team, doesn’t it?” Pavel said. He popped the wax stopper out of the vial with his thumb and clinked the glass against her wooden stake. “Cheers,” he said, and downed it in an eager gulp.





Chapter Eighteen

I am going with you.” Alina was adamant. She stood in the middle of the hallway, blocking Charlie’s way.

“You need to stay here,” Charlie insisted. “I can’t take you where we’re going. It’s too dangerous.”

“Oh, but the haunted house where people get stabbed and kidnapped is safe?” she said.

“Technically, it won’t be haunted while we’re away,” Charlie tried. “Because Jenny will be with us.”

“Mr. Barker, may I have a moment?” Jackaby asked. He was tucking a slim hourglass into his coat pocket.

Charlie nodded, gave his sister one more pleading look, and then padded off up the hall after Jackaby.

“He cares about you,” I said. Alina looked at me with contempt. “He only wants you to be safe.”

“You have no idea what it’s like,” she said, “being told to wait day after day, year after year, while your big brother goes halfway across the world and leaves you behind.”

“No,” I said. “Not exactly. For me it was my father.” Alina closed her mouth and cocked her head at me.

“He was a paleontologist,” I said. “Discovered amazing things all over the world. I was supposed to stay at home and learn the piano.”

“And did you stay at home and learn it like a good girl?”

“I learned to hate it,” I said. “I understand how you feel, I really do. But this is different.”

“How is this different?”

“Because this isn’t a dinosaur dig or a fancy conference you’re missing. We’re not searching for the bones of some long-dead monster—we’re walking into a nest full of live ones.”

“I don’t see you practicing your arpeggios.”

“What?”

“You’re not waiting at home right now. Did your parents tell you to run off and fight magical beasts? Or did you finally decide to just stop listening when people told you to sit and stay?”

I considered her words. “Fair enough,” I said. “I guess you’re coming with us, then?”

“She’s not coming,” said Jackaby, swinging around the corner.

“I am not going to wait here while Kazimir goes and—”

“Yes,” said Jackaby. “You are going to wait here. But so is he. Charlie will be staying.”

“What?” Alina and I said together.

“Sir,” I added, “we need Charlie.”

“We do. We need him here. I have given the matter some thought. We do not need numbers for the mission in which we are currently engaged. We need stealth and subterfuge. You and I can manage that on our own. Jenny will come as well. An agent who can become literally invisible and physically intangible is an asset, but the more bodies we bring behind enemy lines, the greater our risk of detection.”

“You can’t seriously expect the three of us to defeat the Dire King all by ourselves?”

“No,” he said. “Our role is not to defeat the Dire King, but to make defeating the Dire King possible. If we can undermine their defenses, we will leave the Dire King’s forces vulnerable. I need leadership here. Charlie is my strongest general. Chief Nudd and Mr. Hudson should be back by daybreak to assist him, and the rest of our allies will be arriving throughout the day.”