Fairy Bad Day(69)
“Great.” Loni reached for a burger. “But of course you know that if you ever call us ladies again, you will have to be disposed of in a most despicable manner.”
“I did figure it was a long shot,” Tyler admitted as he sat down on the corner of Emma’s bed and waved a piece of paper in the air. “Anyway, I also have a list. There are thirty-five males who are in the system as having B-negative blood.”
“Thirty-five?” Emma wasn’t a math genius but even she knew that she and Curtis would be stretched trying to keep an eye on them all until tomorrow when the darkhel was banished for good.
She ignored the food and immediately grabbed the paper and started to study the names of the people who were unlucky enough to have the wrong blood. Curtis leaned his crutches against the wall and limped over to join her. Being so close to him made her skin tingle and she shot him a shy smile.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey,” he replied in a murmur as he leaned over her shoulder and studied the list she was holding, his breath tickling her neck. “So who do we have here?”
“Too many people,” Emma retorted while only just resisting the urge to lean back into his chest. “Oh, but we can take Professor Luton off the list because he died the Christmas before last,” she said as she started to look through the names. “And didn’t James Anderson move to England six months ago to work in the London office of the Department? The darkhel definitely said that the Pure One was close by.”
“Well, that’s two less people to worry about,” Curtis said as he drew two neat lines through the names and Loni and Tyler joined them to examine the list. “And that means we need to go through this list and take off anyone who isn’t at Burtonwood anymore or who wasn’t here at least five years ago.”
“I see Chris Tripper,” Tyler said as he joined them. “And I’m sure he’s salamander slaying in Australia right. Seriously, you should see the size of them. I think it’s the heat but they’re twice as large as the North American salamanders.”
“Okay, he’s gone too,” Curtis said as they went through the list one by one. Then he frowned and turned to Emma. “William Jones? Emma, what’s your dad’s name doing on the list?”
“Is it?” Tyler looked alarmed, but Emma just shook her head.
“He used to do some contract work for the IT department but he gave up the contract when my mom died. I guess that’s why he got included.” She shrugged. Tyler obviously hadn’t been joking about how thorough Burtonwood was with physicals.
“Aren’t you worried?” Loni looked at her.
“Of course not. Besides, he’s in New York. The darkhel could never get him. You can take him and Ryan Gibson, his business partner, off the list. Now, who is . . . oh my God. I can’t believe this.” Emma suddenly yelped as she caught sight of two names farther down the page. Then she let out a groan as she realized how obvious it was. How could she have not figured it out sooner?
“Emma? What’s wrong?” Loni demanded as she started to glance around the room. “The darkhel isn’t here, is it?”
“What?” Emma looked at Loni blankly for a moment before suddenly shaking her head. “Oh, no, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you, it’s just I’ve figured out who the Pure One is.”
“Who?” Loni, Tyler, and Curtis all asked at once.
“Well,” she amended. “I should say that I’ve narrowed it down to two people. It’s either Garry or Glen Lewis. It’s just so obvious.”
“It is?” Tyler looked at her blankly. “What makes them more likely than anyone else on this list?”
“The fact that when I saw the darkhel on Friday afternoon on the playing fields, it was heading directly to where Glen and Garry were playing Frisbee. Anyway, the darkhel was really pissed at me for getting in the way. It even said that I couldn’t protect ‘him’ forever. Don’t you see? It could tell the Pure One was close by, but I stopped it from getting to him.”
“Who stopped it?” Tyler coughed.
“Okay, fine, it was Tyler and his completely brilliant bet that saved either Garry or Glen from having their throat slit and their blood dripped over the Gate of Linaria in a grizzly ritual. Happy?” Emma corrected.
Tyler grinned and nodded. “Very, and can I just say that you have a very nice way with words. And you know, it does make sense. The Lewis twins have been at Burtonwood for seven years, so that fits in with when Emma’s mom was still alive.”
“But what if you’re wrong?” Curtis didn’t look convinced. “If we do a twenty-four-hour bodyguard on Garry and Glen, then we’re leaving a lot of other people unprotected.”
“Actually, not that many,” Loni said as she looked up from Emma’s laptop, where she had been Googling. “I’ve got four more deaths, five relocations, and three other people who I’ve never heard of, which leaves us with eighteen possibilities besides the Lewis twins. Ten students, seven teachers, and one support staff.”
“So we protect them all but we keep an extra eye on Garry and Glen as well,” Tyler reasoned.
“Yes, but how?” Curtis tightened his jaw.
“Don’t forget that we’ve got wards up,” Loni reminded them. “So there’s a good chance that we won’t even be seeing Mr. Ultimate Elemental Evil again. But as an extra precaution, I do happen to have these as well. Ta-da.”