. I don’t want to think about it. But all three of us had an almost identical nightmare. It was the worst for Georgia. She was . . .” She looked at Will. “It was as if she hadn’t quite woken up out of the dream. She kept jerking and twitching.” She gave me a weak smile. “Took two cups of cocoa to snap her out of it.”
I kept my face neutral and gave her nothing. “Go on.”
“Me and Andi talked about it and decided that one of us should stay with her. We were going to trade off, like, until Will came home.”
“The first night was Andi, I take it?”
Marcy nodded, biting her lip. “Yes.”
“Sounds reasonable,” I said. Reasonable, logical—and impossible to verify.
And the kid was shaking.
Jesus Christ, Karrin, said a gentler voice inside me. What are you doing? She’s scared to death.
I tried to make my tone a little warmer. “What do you know about their abduction, specifically, Marcy? Can you tell me anything at all that might point toward the identity of the kidnappers?”
She shook her head. “I can’t think of anything that I picked up beforehand. But I’m certain it was Andi and Georgia who were taken.”
“How can you be sure?” I asked.
Will cleared his throat and spoke quietly. “Marcy’s got a nose. She’s better with scents than any of the rest of us.”
I eyed Marcy. “Could you pick up their trail?”
“They were taken downstairs and loaded into the back of a car,” Marcy said promptly. “An older model, burning too much oil. But I couldn’t follow them after that. I think I’ll be able to recognize the scent of their captors, though, if I run into it.”
I nodded. She’d gotten a ton more out of the scene than Will had. Such a talent could be damn useful.
All the same, I wasn’t sure. She sounded sincere to me, and I’m pretty good at knowing when someone isn’t. But there’s always a better liar out there. I just wasn’t sure.
But . . . you have to trust someone, sometime. Even when it seems risky, when lives are on the line.
Maybe even especially then.
“Okay,” I said calmly, and took a seat in another chair. “Will,” I asked, “what did you find out?”
“There are half a dozen other folks who have gone missing in the past day and a half,” Will said. “At least, that’s how many Bock and McAnally know about. Word about the kidnappings is out on the Paranet, and has been spreading since yesterday morning. People are moving places in groups of three and four, at least. McAnally’s is packed. The community knows something is up. They’re scared.”
Marcy nodded. “It isn’t just Chicago. It’s happening all over the country. Group leaders are keeping everyone informed, asking after their people, reporting them missing to the local cops, for whatever good that might do. . . .” Her voice trailed off into a little squeak as she looked at me. “Um. Sorry.”
I ignored her. Martian for This is easier for all of us if we just pretend I didn’t hear it. “Will, did you turn up anything we can use?”
He shook his head. “No one has seen or heard anything at any of the disappearances. But there are rumors that someone found a gang of Red Court vampires torn apart in a basement across town. Maybe that has something to do with what’s going on.”
“It doesn’t,” I said, firmly. “Not directly, at least. Dresden killed the Red Court.”
Will blinked. “You mean . . . those vampires in the basement?”
“I mean the Red Court,” I said. “All of them.”
Will let out a quiet whistle. “Uh. Wow. That’s pretty big magic, I guess.”
“Yeah,” I said.
Marcy’s face was twisted up in a frown of concentration. “Was . . . was this the night before last, by any chance?”
I glanced aside at her and nodded once.
“If there was a really big surge of magic . . . maybe that explains the dreams,” she said. “It wasn’t just the three of us. The night before last, a lot of people—Paranet people, I mean—had nightmares, too. Some of them were bad enough that people haven’t slept since. A couple of folks wound up in the hospital.” She blinked at Will. “That’s what happened with you, Will.”
“What do you mean?” Will said.
“When Georgia called you. She’d had the nightmare twice, during the day, when she tried to sleep. She must have had it again and tried to call you.”
“There’s no point in speculation for now.”