dressing in the backseat - would never stand by and watch a human get hurt. He was the only werewolf I knew who cared that much about mundane humans, just because they were mundane humans. Most werewolves, even the ones who liked being werewolves, actively resented, if not hated, normal people for being what they could no longer be.
Sylvia was silent. I supposed the information that Gabriel was in trouble was finally catching up to her.
"Gabriel is alive," I told her. "And we've managed to make sure his kidnappers know that his continued health is important to their goals. Police wouldn't help, Sylvia. They just don't have the tools to deal with these people. All that bringing the police into it will do is make things worse and get someone killed." Like Phin. "My werewolf friend is a little better equipped. I promise I'll let you know when I find out something more - or if you or the police can help." And I hung up.
"Wow," said Jesse. "I've never heard anyone hand Sylvia her head like that. Even Gabriel is a little afraid of her, I think." She settled back into her seat. "Good for you. Maybe it'll make her think. I mean, werewolves are scary, they are dangerous - but . . ."
"They're our scary-dangerous werewolves, and they only eat people they don't like."
She flashed a quick smile at me. "I guess that's what I meant. Maybe, when you put it that way, I can understand how she got so upset. But it seems to me that what she was saying when she made Gabriel quit working with you was that she didn't trust Gabriel's judgement. As if he were stupid and would work someplace that was dangerous."
"Someplace he might get kidnapped by a band of nasty fae?" I asked dryly, but then I went on. "As if he were her son whose diapers she'd changed. You have to forgive parents for acting like parents even though their children aren't four years old anymore. As a not-unrelated example, when your dad finds out I took you to meet a strange fae, he's going to have my hide."
She did grin then. "All you have to do is let him yell at you, then sleep with him. Men will forgive you anything for sex."
"Jessica Tamarind Hauptman, who taught you that?" I said in mock horror. Funny how she made me feel better at snapping at a mother whose son had just been kidnapped by a fairy queen . . . It sounded like "The Snow Queen" when I put it that way. I hoped that we didn't find Gabriel like poor Gerda found her Kai in the story - with a shard of ice in his heart.
* * *
ZEE'S TRUCK WAS ALREADY AT THE GARAGE WHEN I got there. The Bug I'd loaned Sylvia was parked where she'd left it, but it was trashed. Someone had pulled the driver's side door off its hinges, the front window was smashed, and there was blood on the seat of the car.
Samuel wasn't through changing.
"Stay here," I told him, and got out of Adam's truck.
"He's not a dog," Jesse said on the way to the shop.
"I know." I sighed. "And he's not going to listen to me anyway. Let's get this done as fast as possible."
Zee had moved the chairs around in the office, pulling them out of their usual line so that three of them were facing one another - all that was missing was a kitchen table. When he saw Jesse with me, he looked a little surprised but pulled out another chair.
"I'm the facilitator," Jesse explained. "She can talk to me instead of you."
I wasn't surprised to see that Zee's companion was the older woman from the bookstore - though I wouldn't have been surprised to see a complete stranger either. She was subtly different from the grandmotherly woman I'd met earlier. The kind of difference that made Little Red Riding Hood say, "What big teeth you have, Grandmother."
"Mercy," Zee said, "you may call this woman Alicia Brewster. Alicia, this is Mercedes Thompson and" - he paused - "Jesse."
He gave me a look. "I hope you know what you're doing," he said.
"Having her here will speed things up," I said. "When we're finished, she's going home."
"All right," he said, and sat down next to Alicia.
"You came to my grandson's store looking for him," the fae woman said to me without acknowledging the introductions. "And to return what you'd borrowed."
I looked