rule a gorgon hive with Audrey, but they were up to something—and they were willing to kill to accomplish their goals.”
We’d already learned that lesson, and I worried what else we would learn from those who’d been petrified and left to become mysteries.
Fourteen
You want to eat sea bugs?
I learned two important things about Kendra Thames: she trusted nobody, and she hated Audrey with a passion hotter than my flames.
Upon realizing she attempted to keep everyone at a distance, things went smoother. I could only guess the events leading up to her petrification had left scars, and I could only hope the CDC would help her adapt to having her life put on hold.
Of the petrified victims, one needed to go to the hospital for additional treatments. I added the woman’s failing health to the list of Morrison’s crimes. If I got my hands or hoofs on him, he’d come to a quick end—far quicker of an end than he deserved.
My temper frayed, and to keep myself from doing something I would regret, I took my turn keeping our pets company in the rental until the CDC gave us permission to leave. Sunny and Blizzard opted to nap together in the back while Avalanche slept on my foot. With the pets napping off their hard day, I worked at trying to find more information on the rabies outbreak in the CDC’s records.
My effort proved futile, and I figured our next stop would be the address in Maine that Audrey had visited several times before we headed to Long Lake. After having found so much tragedy at the bed and breakfast, I feared what we would learn at our next destination.
I appreciated Kendra’s willingness to confirm some of our suspicions, but those confirmations would dump us straight into a mess. With a police chief being confirmed to have been involved in mass kidnapping and murder, the entire police station in the Hamptons would come under fire.
Nobody believed for an instant that Morrison had participated in such extensive schemes without at least some of his cops being aware of it—like that stupid cadet I’d squished like a grape. Worse, I wondered if that idiot had been planted to hinder the 120 Wall Street efforts. Janet had done a good job of reining him in.
I suspected her ability to rein in Morrison’s puppet had landed her in trouble as much as her relationship with me.
Rather than Morrison taking over Manhattan, I worried we’d be sent to his former turf to clean his operations up. But with my involvement with Morrison, would we be given jurisdiction? I didn’t even know how to find out. A headache brewed behind my forehead, and I contemplated texting my husband and whining until we were set free.
I wanted to get to our hotel and call my mother. What was she like? Had she enjoyed her brief time with my father? How did they schedule their time? Did they keep a calendar of when the sun rose and set and when the moon happened to be around?
Could they possess people outside of their general times of influence?
I had questions, and sometime, after I got to know my parents a little better, I would ask them.
In the meantime, I would wait. The CDC ultimately decided when we got to leave, I vowed to keep from whining to my husband or bothering our pets.
I deserved a cookie or some cake for my good behavior.
When the boredom became unbearable, I leaned the seat back and caught a nap, something I didn’t get often enough. The heat being turned off woke me, and I growled curses at the lost warmth to discover my husband taking the keys out of the ignition. “Hey, that’s rude. I was napping with that on.”
Leaning across the seat, he smiled and kissed my cheek. “We’re getting gassed up so we can get on the road, my beautiful. You slept through the rest of the festivities, and all three busses have left. It’s just us and the CDC reps with the extra gas at this point. I changed our hotel reservation and asked our angelic visitor to teleport one of the vics to the hotel we were going to use. The CDC is picking up that tab, as she’s one of the more delicate of the women. Morrison had gotten ahold of her.”
I cringed. “Poor woman. Will she be okay?”
“She should be. The archangel is staying with her until he’s confident she is in good hands. Right now, she’s a