Soul Taken (Mercy Thompson #13)(37)

I cleared the doorway and flew forward another three feet before my paws touched the ground. I almost skittered into the viscous body of the first spider-thing, which looked as if it was halfway to turning into a gooey puddle, but I caught myself with an additional insult to the once-polished wooden floor.

I looked around at the remains of Stefan’s house. If there was an unbroken stick of furniture in the living room, it was buried somewhere under all the rest. There were holes in the walls, and the window Larry had jumped through was not the only one that was going to need repair.

A noise behind me made me turn to see Adam finish pulling himself over the threshold. As soon as he rolled clear, Larry leapt through as well, landing lightly on his feet. Goblins were agile creatures.

I changed back to human so I could speak. The added weight made my feet hurt more, but it was bearable.

“Do you know who these fae were? Is this an attack aimed at Stefan? Or is it an attempt to bring down our treaty with the fae?” I asked Larry.

“We need to talk,” he said. “But somewhere else, please. Your house?”

“We need to go to the seethe now,” I told him.

Stefan was alive. I’d know if he were dead. But vampires were as territorial in their own way as the werewolves. He would not have willingly allowed fae to take over his home. Something had happened to him—just as something had obviously happened to Marsilia. And maybe it was the same thing that had happened to Wulfe. But if that were true, why hadn’t Marsilia just sent us after Stefan? In any case, the seethe was the obvious place to go next, and it was roughly four in the morning so someone would be up.

Adam didn’t argue. He just handed me my clothes. It had been my panties I’d caught with a claw; the shirt was okay. I pulled on my jeans and stuffed the torn cloth in my pocket. Then put on my bra, various weapons harnesses, shirt, socks, and shoes. Adam handed over my gun.

“This isn’t going to be fixable,” he said, showing me the cutlass. It was bent. The tip was broken off. Blackened holes pockmarked the blade as if someone had sprayed it with acid.

I glanced at the dead fae, less substantial now than it had been a few minutes ago. “It did its job,” I said. “But I think I’ll get another one. Maybe this time without the silver cross guard.”

“It isn’t a cross guard,” said Adam. He snorted afterward because I had said the words with him.

Larry said quietly, “We do need to talk tonight. There are things you should know.”

Adam said, “You can come with us. Or I could call you while we drive there or while we are driving home afterward.”

Larry frowned, looked at the floor, then at the puddle of dead spider-thing. “Don’t go to the seethe.”

“What do you know?” I asked.

“At your house?” Larry suggested, pointedly walking to the front door as he spoke. He was still barefoot, and he still didn’t pay any attention to the glass crunching under his feet.

My own feet, punctured by the spines on the fae’s back, were oddly numb. That should have been a good thing, because they’d hurt like the dickens when I’d first regained my human shape. But I lived in the land of cheatgrass, where the arrowhead-like seedpods could burrow into paws and fester out months later. I hadn’t had it happen, but my cat had. I needed to remember to look at them—or have someone else look at them.

I’d wait until tomorrow, I thought, shivering a little as the autumn air blew in through the broken window. I looked at Adam—who was watching me.

I shrugged and followed Larry out of the house. Adam shut the door. It looked as though a good wind would make it pop open again, but if someone wanted to get into the house, there was a gaping hole where the window used to be.

All three of us walked to the SUV.

“You have reason to warn us away from the seethe?” Adam asked.

“Not warning you away,” Larry disagreed. “But I have some things you need to know. I’m not willing to talk where I can be overheard. Not on the phone.”

Adam looked at me.

I needed to find Stefan. Horrible, horrible things could be done to people who are as tough as vampires were. I recalled his voice, “Hic sunt wolves.” The edge of fear in it made me think that finding him was urgent.

I rubbed my forehead and realized that my hand was a little sore, too. Had I really heard Stefan? It didn’t matter. We still needed to find him.

I looked back at Stefan’s house with the broken door and broken front window.

“Larry?” I asked. “Why didn’t you just come through the door?”

“The window was easy,” he said. “And people expect you to come through doors. I don’t much like doing things people expect me to do. That trait contributes to my long life.”

I thought of Marsilia in her black smoke gown, and of Stefan’s house being emptied and invaded. All the questions and none of the answers. Perhaps I should make a decision that would contribute to my chance of living a long life.

“Maybe invading the seethe should be done in daylight hours,” I said. “And probably we should bring some backup.”

Adam raised an eyebrow. “Invasion? My intention was to knock on the door. Just like we did here.” He looked at Stefan’s broken front door and made a thoughtful noise. “There is a very good chance it might end up the same way this one did.”