“Keep her there,” Nikolas barked. “I’ll take care of it. Damn it I knew this place wasn’t safe.”

“Take care of what?” I cried, afraid for my friends. With a mighty shove I squeezed out from behind Roland to face the new threat.

It stood in the hallway outside the kitchen, teeth bared menacingly and glaring between Nikolas and Roland, ready to pounce at the slightest provocation. A more frightening snarl I had never seen.

Nikolas reached inside his jacket and pulled out a long gleaming blade.

“No!” I screamed and ran to throw myself in front of the creature that could rip everyone in the room to shreds.

Chapter 17

“Sara, are you insane? Do you know what that is?” Roland yelled, running toward me.

“He’s my friend!” I shouted at them. I threw up my hands to let Roland and Nikolas know I was okay. “His name is Remy.”

Roland skidded to a stop and stared at me in stunned silence. His eyes moved warily from me to Remy and back again as if he could not believe his eyes. “That is Remy?”

“Yes, now back off, both of you.” I turned to Remy and took his hand in mine. “Are you okay?” Something really bad must have happened to make him come here and reveal himself to other people. I’d never seen him look this distraught.

“Is he okay?” Roland asked in disbelief. “I nearly had a heart attack and she’s worried about a troll. A goddamn troll!”

“Roland, shut up,” I said more harshly than I’d ever spoken to him. “Remy, what’s wrong? Please tell me.”

Remy’s large eyes finally met mine and I saw something I’d never expected to see in a troll’s eyes: fear.

“Minka gone. Creah and Sinah too.”

“Gone? What do you mean gone?”

He gripped my hand painfully but I didn’t cry out. “Humans take them,” he said, bringing one of my worst fears to life. Ever since we’d sold that troll bile I’d worried that someone might track it back to my friends. The thought sweet of little Minka in the hands of someone like that made my blood run cold.

“We’ll find them,” I promised him fiercely. “We’ll get them back.”

Nikolas spoke for the first time. “Does your uncle have any alcohol here?”

I shot him a puzzled look. “How will that help us?”

“It won’t. I need a drink.”

“I’ll help you look,” Roland added weakly.

“You guys are not helping the situation,” I told them irritably. “Remy’s little cousins are in a lot of danger and we have to find them.”

Nikolas leaned against a wall, looking at a loss for the first time since I met him. “We have enough problems to deal with without going out looking for missing trolls. Have you forgotten your own considerable troubles?”

“But this is my fault,” I said. “I have to help them.”

“Is our fault,” Remy corrected me. “Sara warn me it dangerous but I not believe it. I need medicine for boggie.”

“What on earth is he talking about?” Roland asked me.

I bit my lip as I gathered my courage.  “Remy has this boggie friend who was sick and they needed a special medicine that you can’t get here. It only comes from Africa and it’s very hard to find – and really expensive. I found someone to get it for us but we needed it as soon as possible so Remy gave me something to trade for it… something very hard to find.”

Nikolas straightened and his eyes widened in disbelief. “Please tell me you are joking.”

I shook my head slowly and he let out a string of Russian curses that made my ears burn even though I could not understand them.

“What? What am I missing?” Roland asked, looking between us.

“Iisus Khristos!” Nikolas began pacing in the hallway. “You used troll bile to buy the medicine? What the hell were you thinking?”

Roland shot me a horrified look. “Oh, Sara, you didn’t?”

“I was careful,” I protested. “I went through a guy I used a few times before for other things and he’s always careful. He said he went through a middle man with an overseas buyer and there was no way to trace it back to me. He is really careful about this stuff. But a few weeks later I found out that someone was posting on some of the message boards, asking about troll bile, and I got worried.” I rubbed my eyes miserably. “I never believed they would find us, let alone be brave enough to do something like this.”

“Not brave, incredibly stupid,” Nikolas said wearily. He looked at Remy. “How long do we have?”

“Elders meet now. I come find Sara to see if we find little ones before.”

“Before what?” Roland asked just as it dawned on me what Nikolas and Remy were talking about. I gasped as the full seriousness of the situation hit me.

“A rampage,” I whispered. “The elders are going to rampage.”

“That does not sound good,” Roland said weakly.

There was no humor in Nikolas’s laugh. “There is a reason why no one – not even vampires – tangles with trolls. If you mess with one troll, you get the whole clan and if you harm one of their young, you die. And if a young troll goes missing, the clan rises up to find them – or who took them. Trolls are even better trackers than crocotta and once they are worked up into a rage, they will kill anyone who has come into contact with their missing children. And during a rampage trolls do not distinguish between the innocent and the guilty.”