the baku had attacked. Curses before breakfast. I bet that was not how they did things in the dewar. And I wasn’t so innocent as to not suspect that everything we said might land in Landon’s ear along with a description of the casual openness of it all.
But then Trent made a barely perceptible head nod to Zack. He wanted Zack to be included, wanted him to see that our goals were lofty even if our methods involved demons. He wanted Zack to see that you could get more done sharing knowledge than hiding it. Sure, why not?
My tension eased. “Maybe.” I turned to Zack. “What do you think, Zack? You said you could see the baku in Landon’s aura.” Please don’t say it was purple and orange, please.
“Um.” Zack hesitated, clearly thrown by our conversation that up until recently would have gotten you branded a black witch and thrown into Alcatraz. “It’s not what you see in Landon’s aura that indicates the baku is in him. It’s what you don’t.”
Which didn’t make much sense, and I leaned in. “But you can see the difference.”
“Oh, yeah. Big one.” Zack looked at the box of cereal, and Trent pushed it closer to him.
“Then maybe I can quantify it as Trent suggests,” I mused aloud as Zack filled his bowl a third time, this time adding more milk. “If we can find it on the suspects, we can prove they were possessed and not to blame.”
“Perhaps.” Trent sipped his coffee. “The I.S. appears to have turned a blind eye, and the FIB doesn’t have the right tools. If not us, then who?”
“Yea-a-ah,” I said, echoing Trent’s thoughts. The Order had probably threatened the I.S. to back off, and seeing as the I.S. likely didn’t care one way or the other, it was no skin off their nose. That the baku had taken out a living vamp wouldn’t mean much to the old undead. But bringing that up in front of Zack wasn’t a good idea. “It might be worth a try,” I added. “If we can prove they were forced into attacking someone in their sleep, the I.S. would have to let the suspects go.”
Trent smiled. “I’m sure they’d appreciate that. What can we do to help?”
We? I glanced at Zack, wondering if Trent wanted me to entertain/babysit/evaluate. “Ah, I’m not sure. I have to modify the curse to show the inner shells. It’s going to take some time.”
“Why?” Zack asked.
“Because it’s a new curse, and modifying curses can get you killed if you aren’t careful,” I said shortly. My worry came out as anger, and Zack wiped the milk off his chin.
“No,” he said, ears red. “I meant, why do you need to look at the inner shells?”
“Oh.” I hid behind a sip of coffee, embarrassed. “Ah, I think the baku attacked me twice,” I said, more determined than ever to keep this morning’s attack a secret when Trent stiffened. “Once when I nodded off outside my church, and then yesterday morning. If there was anything out of the ordinary in my outer shells, Bis would have said so when Hodin did a spectrograph on it yesterday. Whatever we’re looking for must be in the inner shells. The ones we haven’t seen.” The ones that color our personalities with past experiences and make us truly individuals.
“Rachel . . .”
Guilt pinched my forehead as I hid the truth from him. He’d only tell me to sit this out, and that might prove to be fatal. “I’m okay,” I insisted, but Hodin had said the more you were attacked, the easier it would be to attack you again. “I thought they were just nightmares at the time. Nothing happened. I woke up. It went away.” I smiled thinly, hiding behind a sip of coffee. “I should call Ivy,” I said, ignoring Zack’s wide eyes. “See if she can get me some blood samples from the suspects. There’s probably a way I can store the prep in the collective to make it faster.”
“Mmmm.” Trent eyed me suspiciously, the worry clear in his eyes. “Do you think you could modify the curse to actively seek out the baku’s presence within Landon’s aura?”
“Probably not,” I said. “But if we had a vial of Landon’s blood, we might be able to see if there’s any damage to his inner shells.”
Zack poured the last of his sweet milk into his coffee, turning it even lighter. “I could do that,” he said, and immediately Trent shook his head.