Kitty Rocks the House - By Carrie Vaughn Page 0,82
idea to me.
We ended up at a twenty-four-hour diner a few blocks away, on Colfax. The waitstaff recognized Hardin and sat us in a booth in back, in relative quiet and privacy.
I called Ben.
“Hey,” he said. “I was just going to call you. Shaun and I tracked Darren. He’s out of here. Loaded up his car and drove. I don’t think we have to worry.”
“Okay,” I said, my voice flat. “Good.”
“Kitty—what’s wrong?”
My breath shuddered out of me. I didn’t know where to start. “We had a bit of a showdown at the church. It … didn’t go well.”
“Are you okay? Where are you? I’ll come get you—”
“I’m fine, I’m with Detective Hardin.”
“You’re not under arrest, are you?” He didn’t sound like he’d be surprised if I were, which made me smile.
“No. We’re having coffee and talking. I’ll come home straight after, probably in an hour or so.”
“You’re sure?”
“It makes me really happy that you’d rush over here to get me, you know that?” Even after a thirty-second conversation with him, I felt better.
“Good, I guess. But I don’t think I’ll be happy until you get home. So hurry.”
“I will.” I clicked off the phone.
The coffee arrived, and Hardin looked at me. “I don’t want to hold you up too long, but I really need to know what happened, and what I’m supposed to tell my Interpol guy about Columban.”
I took a long drink. What was it about hot caffeine that made everything better? Even Wolf settled. My skin stopped itching with prickling fur.
“I don’t have all the answers. I can only tell you my side of it.”
“Well then, why don’t you get started?”
I told her about the Long Game, or what I knew of it. That there were networks of vampires, some of who were gathering power, others who opposed them. Roman, his followers, the coins they possessed. They were trying to take our cities from us, and we had to try to hold the line. No matter how much I learned, there was always more I didn’t know. I peeled back layers of the onion, and I always found more underneath. But this was all coming to a head. The two sides would clash. We had to be ready.
“What?” Hardin said, staring at me like I was crazy; or worse, worried that I was right. “Like a literal war? Some kind of battle?”
“I don’t know. Something. Roman’s gathering allies, and they’re everywhere. We’ve been trying to collect allies of our own, but it all seems to go wrong. Columban was supposed to be an ally.” My lips turned in a wince.
“He was wanted for murder.”
“Or was he defending himself against that demon? Did he start the fire, or did that demon, when she tried to attack him?”
Turning thoughtful, she looked away. “I thought I was starting to get a handle on this shit.”
“I don’t think it’s possible.” You thought you knew, and then the universe opened a vortex and dropped a bounty-hunting demon in your lap. What a world. “I wouldn’t be surprised if your Interpol contact has some wind of the Long Game. Maybe even of Roman or some of his allies. Maybe they have some mashed-up coins in evidence.”
She ran a hand through her hair, which was coming loose from its ponytail. “I’ve got enough to worry about just looking after Denver. I don’t know if I can take on any more.”
I said, “If there’s any way you guys can pool information, set up some kind of database, compare cases—”
“You think we’ll find patterns.”
“Yeah, I think you will. I don’t know if it’ll help, but it couldn’t hurt.”
After a moment of thought, she gave a fatalistic nod. “All right. I’m in.”
* * *
I HAD to see Rick. Somehow. The next night, I went to Obsidian and knocked on the basement door. I brought him a present, wrapped in a brown paper bag.
Angelo answered. Instead of his usual smirk and put-down, he stared at me with stark desperation, silently, as if he couldn’t find words. He smelled frightened, sweaty. What had happened to him? The hairs on my neck stood up, but I tried to act neutral. Normal.
“Is he in?” I asked, gesturing hopefully to the back hallway. “In and willing to talk to me, I mean?”
Gripping the door frame, he glanced over his shoulder, turned an anxious gaze back to me. “You have to talk some sense into him, please. He won’t listen to any of us.”