could always make room on my necklace for more charms.
“How much is all this going to cost me?”
“Oh, a great deal.” Zoltan beamed a smile at me. “These ingredients do not come cheaply, nor is my exceedingly valuable time inexpensive.”
“How much does odor of weasel go for?” Dimitri asked. “And how do you bottle it?”
“You bottle the whole weasel,” Zoltan said, “and open the jar to let out the odor as needed.”
“Ew.”
“Did you think a horrific mustard gas could be made from something appealingly fragrant?” I asked him.
“I guess not.”
“Send me the invoice, Zoltan,” I said. “And keep in mind that I am a lowly servant of the government employed only on a part-time basis.”
“Don’t you also freelance?” Zoltan asked.
“I’m freelancing right now. Pro bono.”
“Pro bono! That’s horrific. What kind of entrepreneur are you?”
I squinted at the phone. “Are you Slytherin, Zoltan?”
“What?”
“Google it. Send me the invoice.” I waved for Dimitri to close the line.
Nin stood up and hugged me. “You must let me pay you for this, Val. How much will all this cost you?”
“You’re going to make me some snazzy magical armor, right? That’ll make us even.”
She twisted her lips dubiously, as if she didn’t believe that would be sufficient to make us even. I disagreed.
“Val, I would like to pay you.”
“Nope.” I patted her on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. If you want, you can throw in a few free lunches. And some nice magical grenades for my incursion.”
“Grenades are free of charge for my best customers.”
“Nin, you have to count some of this stuff toward what you think you need to pay me.”
“I will. The lunches.” She nodded firmly. “Free lunches for the rest of the year. At an average of ten dollars a meal, if you come every day, that would be just under two thousand dollars in lunches.”
“That sounds good.” I traveled far too frequently to take advantage of that many days, and the armor and grenades would be a lot more valuable to me, but if it would make her feel better… “Is it a deal?”
Nin stuck her hand out. “Deal.”
“Val?” Dimitri sounded concerned.
“You’re not going to ask me about mating with dragons, are you? Because I’m not doing that, I have no plans to do that, and I wouldn’t know the first thing about it.” I already wondered how I would keep from flushing in embarrassment every time Zav came around in his human form. Was it wrong to be relieved that he’d had to leave Earth instead of awkwardly riding back to town in the Jeep with me?
“No, I was wondering what you should do when you’re ready to get up but there’s a tiger sitting on your foot.”
26
The next night, as the last of the long June daylight faded from the western sky, I crouched in the reeds by the river, looking toward the back door of the Pardus brothers’ manufactured home. By now, the police should have knocked at the door of the Northern Pride’s warehouse a few miles to the northeast, but it hadn’t drawn away any of the magical beings inside yet.
I sensed ten shifters and the same magical being with an unidentifiable aura that had been in the basement on my previous visits. Presumably the person Inga had said was making enchanted weapons and bullets for the brothers—for less than the awful pay they’d been giving her.
“I want to find that basement before I confront them,” I murmured.
Sindari crouched at my side. We were both in stealth mode, mine delivered by my charm, and his a natural part of his magic. So far, the only being I’d encountered who could see through my charm was Dob. I was crossing my fingers that he was still wounded and holed up in a cave somewhere—maybe the one Zav had laid a trap in. Even if he wasn’t, he shouldn’t be able to detect me anymore now that Zav had ripped that onyx stone out of his chest.
Dimitri was in his van at the entrance to the mobile-home park, lined up on the side of the road with two white vans, each with four werewolf shifters inside, all armed with Nin’s magical weapons. Dimitri was acting as my liaison. I would text him to send them in, and the werewolves would come raise a ruckus for an hour, and then receive the second half of their payment. The wolves didn’t know I was the one footing the bill.
I will circumnavigate the premises and look for an outside entrance