“I will not allow this insolence to continue!” Meaty’s voice didn’t sound like Meaty—it resonated with something older and more wild.
Meaty reached down and snatched a piece of the shadow of the tree we were near, as though pulling fabric free, and cast it up into the sky above us, saying, “The only magic mine.” We would have all been in the dark had not Meaty began to cast an eerie light. Gina and Rachel stepped away quickly. “No moon now. Time to answer for your crimes.” Meaty pointed at Helen, and her wolf form slipped away, shedding off her, leaving her naked. Jorgen’s form changed too, lessening, the beast flowing out of him, leaving only human behind. “But before that—”
“Who are you?” Anna asked.
“This body is quite old. It suits me well.” Meaty inspected both thick arms, as if seeing them for the first time. It didn’t look like Meaty anymore. The physical space my charge nurse held was overlapped with light, and that light had a slightly different shape. It was like a sheet of disembodied power draped down, turning Meaty into a glowing Halloween ghost. “In answer to your question, bloodslave—I am an avatar of the Consortium. This body was the only thing nearby large enough to hold me that wasn’t wearing fur.” Meaty cast about on the ground. I wasn’t about to ask what they were looking for.
“You. There.” Meaty turned over a rock with a toe. “Get up here and explain yourselves.”
Had I seen anyone else talk to the ground, I’d have deemed them profoundly insane. But I had a hunch who we were ringing up now.
More shadows oozed away from the base of the tree, thickening like oil, folding in on themselves till they made a creature waist-high.
“Your Grace, honorable Dr. Swieten—” the tar-like creature said. Despite the fact that the Shadows were amorphous, I got the feeling they were groveling.
“Do not say my name like you know me, dark things.” The phosphorescence around Meaty glowed brighter.
“Never again, Doctor, never again. Please, take pity on us.” The Shadows thinned, dropping lower into the ground in the face of this brightness.
“You know how valuable this territory is. What possible reason could you have for leaving your post?”
“Santa Muerte escaped. We had to go and find her.”
One of Meaty’s eyebrows rose, both the glowing and nonglowing one. “And did you?”
“No!” A hundred different tones of wailing combined in that one word. “Should she gather—”
Meaty’s avatar cut a glowing hand down. “Your foolishness is no excuse for this. Abort your search, and fix this mess you’ve made.”
I was pleased to see there was something in this world that the Shadows were frightened of—and then realized that if they were frightened, than I almost certainly should be too. The howling behind us had ended, and the surrounding weres were still. I didn’t think they were waiting—it was like they’d been frozen in time. I scanned for Jake in vain.
Meaty gestured behind our group, toward the hospital. “Those poisoned people were not meant to become were, Shadows. Heal them or kill them off.” The glowing began to fade, and the sense of having another presence there receded.
“Wait!” I called out. Gideon put a hand on my arm to stop me. “What about everything else?”
The light returned, and the Consortium’s avatar looked at me through Meaty’s face, condescendingly. “Several unexplained fires have been set in the city, to help explain the chaos. The rest, I’m sure you’ll deal with.” Meaty looked from Anna to Helen. And then the light drained away—although the shadow overhead remained. Abandoned, Meaty stumbled, and Gina caught our head nurse.
Anna walked over to Helen. Her bestial half was gone now, but Sike’s blood was still on her hands. Jorgen clutched her to him.
“She fought well, but—” Helen said, the words apologetic, the tone not.
“I loved her.”
“Then you are broken. Vampires do not love,” Jorgen said. Muscles rippled under Jorgen’s skin—furless or not, he was a force to be reckoned with. He held Helen protectively.
Ominous howls began again.
“What did her blood buy?” I asked aloud, because I needed to know that I hadn’t sold it too cheaply.
“House Grey said that if we stole the blood from here for them, they would give us their blood in return. As they had once given it to Winter, prolonging his life.” Helen’s eyes looked over to the emissary from House Grey. “Their devil’s pact with my father cost me my husband’s life. How I loved my husband and hated my father for killing him.” She freed herself from Jorgen’s arms and threw herself at Anna’s feet. “Show us mercy. We repent.”