Again Glenn glanced at the captain. “I do,” he said. “But I’m . . . It’s complicated.”
The captain smiled, showing off his beautiful white teeth. I swear, humans were more dangerous than vampires sometimes. “Glenn has been helpful to us in the past. But he hasn’t been with the Order long enough to identify with it yet. Soon.” He grinned, making me distrust him more. “I’m sure.”
Nodding, Trent held out his hand and I wondered if that gleam in his eye was him wanting to sell them some of his toys. “It’s good to see you again, Captain . . .”
“Weast.” The man took Trent’s hand briefly. His gaze lingered on Trent’s pointy ears as if they were wrong, and it irritated me. “You shouldn’t remember seeing me the first time.”
“We know how to keep our mouths shut.” I didn’t offer my hand. No way. Not when that amulet around his neck was cutting off my access to the ley lines and giving me a headache. “Personally, I’ve found the odd well-kept secret or two have extended my life several times over.”
“No doubt,” Weast said, his gaze now on Jenks.
“But I also know how to ask for help.” I leaned back against the wall, coffee in hand and trying to look as if I was in control. “Isn’t that right, Trent?”
“Well, she’s getting better at it,” Jenks said, ruining it.
Grimacing, I pushed forward. “So you’ll understand my curiosity. Did you lose the baku when the lines went down?”
Weast’s small sound told me I was right. As if Glenn’s shocked expression wasn’t enough.
“I told you she could help—,” Glenn said, his words cutting off at Weast’s suddenly pressed lips.
“You will keep your nose out of this, Ms. Morgan,” the man said evenly, but my pulse was racing. We’re right. They lost it. But if they lost it, they probably knew how to catch it again despite Hodin’s belief that it wasn’t possible. Someone had been holding it for the last two thousand years.
“The pixy piss, we will!” Jenks said for all of us. “Whatever this baku is, it’s in our city. That makes it our business.”
“Your city?” Weast smiled at Jenks as if he were a toy.
“The last time I turned a blind eye to a citywide threat, they let Piscary out of prison, so yes, my city,” I said, and Jenks shifted to my shoulder in a righteous huff.
“Glenn, what are you doing with this pixy-dusted excuse of a troll turd?” Jenks said, and Glenn’s eye twitched. “Your dad taught you better than this.”
“Mmmm.” Weast crossed his arms over his chest to make his biceps bulge. “Do we have an issue?”
“There’s no issue,” I said, and Trent smiled and sipped his coffee, more than willing to let me do the talking. “We can work together to bring in the baku. What can you share with us?” By the lack of information coming from Ivy, it was a good bet that the I.S. knew what was going on and was sitting this one out. They knew all the victims had similar auras, but had suppressed the knowledge. Weast had probably chased the I.S. off the task, which made me want to text Ivy right this second to be careful. If anything pissed off the I.S., it was digging into things they wanted buried. Sort of a dead-vamp thing.
Glenn spun his coffee on the table between his thumb and finger. “We haven’t been able to pinpoint who’s hosting the baku. A charm or spell to track it would help.”
Dude. We’re in. A thrill of belonging raced through me as I grinned at Trent and Jenks. That is, until Weast stood in a smooth, unhurried motion.
“Glenn, a word?”
Glenn’s grip on his coffee tightened, and Jenks’s wings rasped in warning. “You’re discounting her ability and desire to help . . . sir. That’s why I’m here, isn’t it?”
“A. Word?” Weast practically bit the sentence in two.
For three heartbeats, Glenn didn’t move, and then he stood, chair scraping. “Yes, sir.”
I exhaled as they moved away, then lifted my chin to tell Jenks to follow them. The pixy rose straight up, not a hint of dust as he hummed just under the ceiling before easing down behind Weast. Glenn knew he was there, but Glenn also knew not to look at him and give him away.
“You think they’re going to let us in on this?” I asked, and Trent, currently topping off his coffee with the cup we’d bought for Glenn, sighed.