While Frankie made sure Kiara and Leontes were physically unharmed, Jaeger caught everyone up to speed. As he regaled, it became apparent that Kiara remembered nothing after they had landed in Jaeger's room at the werewolf den.
" … so the gist is, I woke up, called Frankie to fly us in the helicopter to the house using the tracker, and when the fog was too thick to land, I rappelled down, took out Fauxleander, and saved you and Kiara. You're welcome."
"How did you get back here?" Leontes asked.
Jaeger snapped his fingers and pointed at Leontes. "That's still a little fuzzy."
The words fuzzy, hazy, and blacked out were used far too frequently for Leontes' liking, but seeing Kiara's lips tremble, tears welling in her eyes upon hearing actions she could not remember, he did not press.
"So, gramps," Jaeger said, strutting an avalanche of cocky, "I just, you know, took a bullet for you. No big deal. Think nothing of it, other than you owe me your life. And don't forget it."
"Indeed," Leontes said.
"Kiara," Frankie said, "Why don't you go tend to Jaeger's wound in my lab. Mabel can help. We cannot very well let the royal prince bleed out."
All somber uncertainty disappeared from Kiara's face. She grinned and wrapped Leontes in another hug. "Then we can celebrate!"
"That is quite enough of that." Leontes pried her off, and after she left with Jaeger through the shattered hatch, he turned troubled eyes on Frankie. "There is an abundance of holes in that narrative."
"Ya think?" Frankie plopped down on the bed next to him and released an exasperated sigh. "I really don't think the puppy remembers putting the tracker on her. Or much of anything else. And between the damn forest being so dense and the fog thick as muck, I couldn't get near this supposed house, let alone see it from the helicopter. Then it blew up. Nothing but rubble once the fog cleared. Thought you were all dead." She punched his shoulder.
Leontes winced and rocked gently from the hit. "You think the puppy is covering for Kiara?"
"I'm not sure about anything anymore," Frankie groaned. "Things were much simpler when Kiara would just kill all our problems."
Leontes smiled. "But since that is not a current option, we must handle things by our own means, starting with the first and most important item of business."
"Which is?" Frankie asked.
"For you to get rid of the puppy, of course."
"Get rid of Jaeger?" she said. "Why?"
"It is obvious." Leontes rose stiffly and limped for the hole in the floor. "Because he is the root of all our misfortunes."
Frankie stared at Leontes for a long moment. Then she broke into peals of laughter. So overcome with hilarity, she fell back onto the bed and held her stomach, trying to catch her breath.
"Gadzooks!" she managed to say. "You're serious?" More laughter spewed from her lips. "You think, oh God, you think Jaeger is the problem? Because things were going so smoothly before he showed up? Oh, oh. And people say you don't have a sense of humor."
Leontes puffed up with indignation. "Who says that?"
"Who says-?" Frankie dropped back on the bed, grasping her stomach, overcome with hysterics once again. "Thank you. After the day I've had, I needed that. But okay, sure. Let's say I deal with the puppy, the real problem, what are you going to do?"
CHAPTER 114
Leontes squealed into Nightmare Mansion's garage, still feeling satisfied over the meeting with King Oberon. The ambassador had been away for several days brokering a deal with the summer fairy king. Mab had obliterated enough protocols that she was honor-bound to accept punishment.
Summer was coming into full power in less than a month. The winter queen would be nearly dormant soon. Oberon had agreed to keep her and the entire winter court imprisoned in her castle without access to leave the fairy realm from now through the duration of summer's reign. That bought Leontes some time to determine how best to deal with the threat of the Ice Queen and the dangerous woman in the mist, whoever she may be.
As for Fauxleander, there were no new killings, sightings, or messages of any kind. Everyone was on high alert, but the assassin seemed to have gone to ground as fast as he had appeared. All in all, the threats to Kiara were currently not imminent, and Leontes could breathe a little easier.
As he approached his assigned parking space, driving the latest Aston Martin, a prototype which was not even available to the public yet, a motorcycle raced past and zipped into the spot, blocking Leontes from entering.