Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 125077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
And Olivia.
I wasn’t about to get into a fight with my brothers over staying out of a war I would have to fight. But that didn’t mean I wouldn’t do everything in my power to make sure they were safe. “Let’s worry about that another day. I’ll talk to Donovan. As for the war, well, there’s a lot to do. I have to figure out this whole mystical weapon that can kill Myrddin thing. Which recently got harder since our subject matter expert is…well, he’s all over the place. Where’s Nicole? I thought Eddie was bringing her back?”
“That’s what I’m here for,” Nate said. “I assure you I’ve learned all of Nicole’s ways. She’s on maternity leave.”
“She had David three weeks ago, Kels,” Jamie explained. “She wanted to be here but she’s not allowed to do anything more than feed the baby. It was a rough birth. C-section. She needs her rest, and Nate is nowhere near as good as my wife, but he’s getting there.”
Nate’s eyes rolled. “I’m excellent, and you wouldn’t know what to do without me.”
I never imagined my brothers, who had been raised by an actual hunter, would end up being law enforcement’s liaisons to the supernatural world. “We’re sure I’m not breaking the contract by bringing you in? I don’t want to bring Myrddin down on your head. Trent said this would be an exception.”
“We’re allowed to investigate crimes,” Jamie assured me. “We’ve even worked two jobs at different coven houses. One in Massachusetts and one in Idaho. It’s in our contract that we can investigate. We can protect ourselves if attacked. We can’t interfere beyond that. We’re good. The primals will put in the paperwork, though they’ll leave you out of it, of course.”
At least they were safe. “Well, then we should get to work.”
I stood back and let my brothers do their jobs.
* * * *
“Here’s what I can tell you,” Nate began, looking up from his microscope. My brother had taken business classes in college, but he was all about the science now. “The DNA is definitely from a vamp, and he’s totally dead.”
I rolled my eyes. We were out of Alvis’s murder rooms and into a set of what Rufus described as the laboratories/medical facilities. Not that vamps tended to need doctors, but as he’d explained, there were other creatures in the Under, and the primals attempted to be accommodating. In this case that meant a couple of high-tech, ultra-modern rooms where all the scientific stuff Nate had brought looked at home.
I was rapidly discovering the primals’ nest was an intricate circuit of fantasy rooms. I hadn’t seen a space yet that wasn’t the ultimate expression of what that room should be. Like the “bedroom” we’d been assigned that looked like a suite at the Ritz in Paris. I only knew what that looked like because Marcus had taken me once.
They were almost like Hollywood sets, except these were all functional spaces.
“Tell me something I don’t know, Nathan.”
We’d spent a couple of hours going over every inch of Alvis’s apartment and the hallway outside before surrendering the remains to Rufus and his group of official mourners. The service for Alvis would take place sometime before dawn, though I’d been told the mourning would last several days.
“All right.” Nate turned to the team, clapping his hands together. “I’ll tell you something I find interesting. There’s Atropa belladonna in the toxicology report on the soup.”
I hated the term, but there wasn’t a lot of other words for what a vampire who didn’t turn to dust left behind. Soup. Nate and Jamie had carefully collected as much of Alvis as they could, and they’d processed the remains. Jamie had taken a ton of photographs while Casey followed me and took notes. Trent was still out in the nest tracking scents. Fenrir had followed him while Evan had joined us in the lab, the backpack and book in tow.
“Deadly Nightshade?” Evan’s mahogany-colored hair was in a long braid, and she wore jeans and boots with a dark tunic that she’d belted. There was a knife in a holster around her waist, though I’d learned that wasn’t her preferred weapon. She was a bow and arrow girl. “That’s a poison, but it certainly wouldn’t kill a primal.”
“Belladonna?” I’d heard the term but didn’t know what kind of poison we were talking about.
“It’s a plant mostly grown in Europe,” Evan replied. “Though you can certainly find it in the States. It’s used medicinally to treat any number of human ailments. But it’s also known as a deadly poison if the berries are orally ingested, though you should know the whole plant is considered dangerous. The berries contain atropine, which can stop the heart.”
“Is it possible it’s grown down here?” I asked.
Evan shook her head. “They have gardens in the Under, but I’ve never seen them grow belladonna. The gnomes would know. They pretty much rule the gardens.”