“Good. There’s probably a hunting rifle with a scope in the SUV. Let’s roll.”

“One little problem,” Shiloh said. “What do we do with the dead Mithran in Katie’s living room? We can’t decapitate her. It wouldn’t be right.”

Why not? But I didn’t say it. Shiloh was still human enough to have morals, not a trait common to most vamps, and a quality I wouldn’t harm.

I looked at Katie, who said, “Such is not my responsibility. It belongs to the Mercy Blade.”

I flipped open my burner cell again and dialed Leo’s new primo. When Adelaide answered I gave her an update and said, “Adrianna is close to being true-dead, but still has her head. Would you be so kind as to send the Mercy Blade to Katie’s to, uh, pick her up? You can have the Council accountant deposit my fee electronically.” I could almost feel Del’s single elegant eyebrow rise. “Just tell Gee DiMercy. He’ll explain it all.”

I closed the cell and looked over my small band of warriors, finding a smile somewhere inside and plastering it on my face. “Let’s go.” I grabbed up my weapons and headed for the car, not arguing when Big Evan shoved the driver’s seat back as far as it would go and turned the key. Not arguing when Shiloh and her vamp blood-servants piled in back. Not arguing about anything, as Big Evan and my coterie of fighters drove out of the city.

We were still on the east side of the river when Shiloh’s cell warbled a punk rock tune from the ’nineties. She looked at the screen, but rather than answer, she held out her phone to me. It was purple and studded with bling. A teenage vamp from the ’nineties. Go figure. I looked at the number on the screen. It was Reach’s number. I didn’t let my face change. I couldn’t. If I did, Evan would rip the phone out of my hand and crash the SUV.

“Hello?”

“Jane?” Molly. The connection was awful, but her tone came through anyway, sounding disbelieving, as if she didn’t really believe it was me. Sounding guarded as if she was expecting me to lash out at her. “How . . . ? Really you?”

“Yeah. It’s me.”

Molly laughed softly, sounding broken, even over the static. “Your voice is coming out of the intercom. I’m either crazy or . . . dreaming.”

“Neither. I have a tech genius who made it work.” I blinked back tears. “We don’t have long, so just listen and let me recap. I have the diamond,” I said. “Everyone wants it, including Jack Shoffru, who used to hang out with the diamond’s owners, the Damours. He scammed you, thinking you had it, and got you here. Then, when you didn’t come straight to me for help, he kidnapped you, found you didn’t have it, so then he took Shiloh, one of the Damours’ scions, thinking she could tell him where it was now that she was sane.” Or maybe vice versa. Whatever.

Big Evan’s face went tight as he realized I was talking to Molly. But he didn’t backhand me or accidentally drive off the bridge into the Mississippi, so that was good. Molly said softly, “How could he know I was in town? I didn’t call anyone. I thought I had time to put my head on a pillow for just a short rest before coming to you. And he was there before I even closed my eyes. I’m so stupid.”

“No. Not stupid. Someone was tailing your cell’s GPS, overriding it. And that same someone is letting you talk to me now.” I went on, outlining Shoffru’s actions. “Jack sent some of his people to look for the diamond at Leo’s the night of the gather.”

“I don’t know,” Molly said. “I’m handcuffed in a room in a house with steel shutters on the walls. And he keeps me . . . he keeps me blood-drunk,” she finished, and I understood. It felt good, so good, when a vamp drank, the lure of seduction, the chemicals in a vamp’s blood making it seem right and good to give everything he wanted. I didn’t know how far the seduction had gone, but I could hear the shame in her voice as she said, “Every time I try to get away, he comes in and he . . . he drinks from me.”

Another burner cell rang and Bliss opened it. “We have an address,” she said softly. “A house on that golf course. And according to Alex, the car with Shoffru is still en route.”

“He isn’t there now, Molly,” I said. “He’s in a car and he’s close. Can you get away?”

“I can’t.” Suddenly she sobbed, speaking through the tears. “I can’t break through the shackles without draining someone. I can’t. I can’t . . .” She stopped, her breath ragged. “I can’t kill—” Her voice stopped and I knew she was about to finish with “anyone else.” I figured it was the first time Molly had admitted to anyone, except Bliss, that her magic had gone bad, and she didn’t want to be talking to me now. She was drunk and ashamed and wanted to hide away until things miraculously fixed themselves or she found a way out of her troubles. Bad thing about that was, troubles didn’t just go away or get all better. They took work and effort and maybe some danger. And unfortunately she didn’t have some sweet, kind, gentle person on the line. She had me. And I didn’t have time to be figure out how to be nice.

I considered what I was about to do, and stared at Evan, telling him with my eyes to keep driving and stay back. “I know about the dead plants and the danger to your family,” I said. She took a harsh breath over the connection. It was a sound one might make while peeling back a bandage to see the wound beneath. “I have a feeling that Jack Shoffru has convinced you that the blood magic contained in the diamond might be strong enough to help you control your own magic. Might keep you from killing your husband and your children.”

I saw comprehension and horror settle into Evan’s eyes. He hadn’t known. Softer, I said, “Tell me, Mol. Are you aware that you killed two vamps true-dead this week with your death magic?”

Her only answer was a sob so heart-wrenching that tears filled my eyes, and I couldn’t say anything for several heartbeats. I blinked away my misery, waiting for her to find some control. Molly exhaled, and it sounded as if she was being tortured. Evan took the exit off the bridge and onto the west side of the Mississippi. We didn’t have long, but I needed Molly, if the stupid plan I had in the back of my idiotic brain had a snowball’s chance in Hades of succeeding. I shoved down my nerves and fear and talked.

“You put a protection around your magic and around your niece and it probably protected her blood-servants through her blood,” I said, “but your magic is too strong for it. I’m thinking that it leaked out and attached itself to other vamps in the city, the youngest and weakest vamps. Your magic likes vamps because it’s death magic and they’re undead. But it’s spreading to humans too. Humans are getting sick.”

That made no sense at first, but then I got it. Somewhere in his plan, Shoffru found Adrianna, and learned about me, but Adrianna already had plans in place to kill me. Plans she couldn’t call off. It was the only reason that made sense for Hawk Head to attack me once Adrianna was with Shoffru. Molly’s magic going wild and Adrianna joining up with Jack made everything that didn’t match up, come together.

Molly was half sobbing, half choking. Her voice was muffled as if she had stuffed something against her mouth, but I heard “Yes. And I can’t live with this.”

“Shoffru’s getting close to the house,” Bliss whispered.

To Evan, I asked, “Can you break Molly’s shackles? Over a cell phone?” And the connection from electronic hell.

As answer, Evan yanked the car off the road, braked to a hard stop, and pulled out his flute. And I realized he had tears running down his face. “Molly, love. Get out. Now!” He placed his lips to the flute and blew.

The note was high pitched. Piercing. My eardrums vibrated. A headache stabbed through me. The girls in back screamed. I dropped the cell. Fell out of the SUV, I unbuckled and opened the door so fast. Landed with a rolling thud on my bad shoulder. And lay there sobbing, cursing, covering my ears against the horrible spearing notes that sounded from the vehicle. Beast screamed and disappeared from my mind. When the notes ended, I heard muffled words, Evan’s voice. And then the big guy had me in his arms, shoving me back into the SUV. He gunned the motor as I buckled in and wiped my face. “Well, that sucked,” I managed.

Evan grinned at me, and I saw the face of some ancient Viking warrior, all teeth and fury. “She’s free,” he growled, me mostly lip-reading around his beard. “Heading out a window that appears to be on the side of the house. But she sees headlights in the front.”

“Run, Molly,” I shouted. And I thumbed off the cell. Molly was free. Not safe yet. But free. I closed my eyes, feeling the tears gather and forcing them back. No time for girly crap, I told myself. Not now.

“You’re going to use her, aren’t you?” Evan asked when I could hear again.

“Molly needs direction,” I said. “She needs to accept that she killed someone. And she needs to use the gifts God and genetics and bad luck gave her to do some good, so she can get her self-worth back. She doesn’t need to be coddled or pampered or indulged. She needs to get up off her ass and use what she is and fix this situation.” And I knew, somehow, that without Molly I couldn’t do what needed to be done. I massaged my injured shoulder through the healing purple tee. I felt blood, and now that I felt it, I could smell it. I’d broken the skin again when I landed on the ground. Gravel, I thought, but the kind Louisiana uses, mostly shells, brittle and sharp. Pretty sure that was what I landed on.

“And you know that how?” he growled.

Well. This was the last secret. Once I spoke in this car, it was out there for good. But maybe secrets are evil things. And maybe once the secrets were revealed, I’d be free of their weight and their remembered pain. Maybe. Still rubbing my shoulder, I said, “I know that because when I was five years old, my grandmother put a knife in my hand and made me help her kill a man.”

Big Evan blinked. Bliss drew back into the shadows of the backseat. Rachael leaned forward with interest. Shiloh just stared, her eyes bleeding red. Or maybe she just smelled my blood. Whatever. I kept an eye on her as I continued and Evan drove.