Tina and I run out into the stage area.
It’s utter insanity.
Griff is completely naked. He’s torn off his clothes and is trying to beat out the flames that engulf White Tail, but it’s useless. Not only because his clothes are no match for the fire, but also because anybody not blinded by emotion can see that she’s already dead.
Spinning abruptly, I dash back into Hermes’ office.
He’s not laughing anymore. Yeah, he got his revenge, hurting himself to hurt White Tail. But he didn’t think it through. She died quickly. But Hermes is a god. He could burn forever and never die.
“Help me, someone help me!” he screams.
I grab the rest of the lighter fluid before the thought has even finished forming. Pointing it at Hermes, I squeeze.
The flames that had been dying flare up once more.
He pinwheels and screams, arms flailing as he busts through the wall with his god-strength. He disappears into the Florida night, just as a nasty smell floats through the air.
Singed hair. Burnt flesh.
I hope he burns forever. Dropping the lighter fluid, I go back out into the main room.
A couple of strippers are hugging each other, crying, and the bartender is holding Cassie as she quivers and screams into his shoulder.
“I told Griff to get her into the van!” I yell at no one in particular, but Trevor appears by my side.
“I’m on it,” he says, and glides over to where Cassie is crying behind the bar. But she shakes her head and leans into the bartender, clearly not willing to go anywhere with Trevor.
“Tina,” I say, “get Griff under control.”
“Me?” she asks. “So the choices are the naked, screaming, bear shifter or the crying trashed seer and you’re having me—oh, okay. Never mind. I get it. Cassie will need someone with like, empathy.”
“Right,” I say, and then realize she means that this job falls to me. The girl who just set her father on fire. Or more on fire. The girl who right now feels a little dead inside, because everything is just too surreal and awful right now.
I head over to the bar. Alarms are going off and the laser lights from the stage flash while the fire alarms spin red. Half the stage has caught by now and we’ve got to move— fast.
The fire will bring police, and since ChiXXX and DiXXX is a known gathering place for supes, the First Brood won’t be far behind them. I’m not going to wind up back at UWR…if I ever do go back, I expect I’ll be the one behind bars.
“Cassie,” I say, holding out my hand to her. “It’s me, Mavis.”
“Mavish?” She hiccups, glancing up from the bartender’s shoulder. “What are you doing here? Wait, weren’t you just here, like…I don’t know? An hour or so ago?”
“A few days, yeah,” I nod. “I tried to get you to come with me, but you wouldn’t. We were worried about you, so we came back.”
“And set the place on fire?” she asks, looking around, bewildered.
“That was unintentional,” I say, just trying to keep things agreeable. “The important thing is, Hermes is gone now, and all of his employees are free.”
“Except White Tail,” a tiny voice says in my ear, and I see Shauna in pixie form, zipping back and forth. “Or I guess it could be argued that she’s more free than any of us now. Ahhhhhh….death.” She flips over and does a backstroke in midair, settling onto my shoulder, a small, warm weight.
“Are you high again?” I ask her.
“Actually no,” she snaps back into her regular size. “I couldn’t find the drugs. And I can’t get a bead on BJ. I think the bitch might’ve actually figured out a way to block me.”
“If he keeps them here, they’re well hidden,” Trevor agrees.
The bartender leans in. “You saved us, so you should know. Cassie’s not on anything special, just booze and barbiturates. She’s going to be hurting for the next few days, but after that she should be fine.”
Behind me, Griff lets out a roar of grief and pain. It’s quickly followed by the sound of a smack, and Tina telling him to get his shit together.
“Go to the van,” I tell Shauna and Trevor, who surprisingly quickly turn and do as they’re told. Tamika looks to me and I pull her toward me, whispering in her ear. “Do you think you can get close enough to Griff to draw blood?”
Her eyes narrow. “You want me to walk him to the van?”
“Yes,” I say. “He’s not going to calm down, and we’ve got to get out of here.”
“Sure thing,” she says, showing no hesitancy whatsoever about using her blood magic against a fellow teammate. I’ll have to remember that.
“Except,” she adds, “once the blood dries if he tries to kill me, that’s on you.”
I sigh, eyeing a tear-faced Cassie as she looks hesitantly between me and this strange witch she doesn’t know. “I think it’s all on me, Tamika,” I say.
She nods and spins on her heel. A moment later I hear Griff cry out and then go silent, except for the sound of his heavy tread as he obediently follows Tamika’s movements out the door and to the van. Tina steps over the smoldering remnants of White Tail.
“Cassie,” she says, folding her arms. “Here’s the deal. You’re going to come with us. You’re going to go through withdrawal, and it’s really going to suck. But you’re going to be okay with that, and you know why?”
Cassie shakes her head.
“Because a shifter died here tonight, and we didn’t accomplish a damn thing,” Tina snaps. “Hermes will heal himself and recover. We don’t know where Pandora’s Box is, and we’re no closer to saving my brother and Edie. So get your ditzy ass in the van, and at least then we can say we saved it.”
“That’s mean,” Cassie tells Tina. “You’re still mean.”
“What happened to empathy?” I ask.
“That didn’t seem to be working, so I decided to try some tough love instead,” Tina says, just as the first sirens pierce the night.
“Time to move,” I agree, and grab Cassie’s hand. “Look,” I tell her. “Either you get into the van and come with us, or Tina makes you get into the van and come with us.”
It’s not an empty threat. Tina’s freakish vampire strength is not something to mess with. And while Cassie and Tina were never friends, at least a familiar threat gets the seer moving. We pile into the van and I toss the keys to Tina.
“Get us to the portal,” I tell her. I’ve got a bigger job to do than driving.
I climb into the backseat where Griff is sitting with Tamika. She’s thrown a blanket across his lap so at least he’s not completely naked. He’s sitting stock still, his back rigid.
“You can let him go,” I say to Tamika as I activate his collar again.
“I’m not holding him.” She shakes her head. “His blood got rubbed off when I climbed over the seat. I think he’s in shock.”
I put Griff’s collar on a setting that delivers a constant low dose of relaxant. It glows blue, and his eyelids slip a little.
“Not shock,” he mutters, followed by something else.
“What?” I ask leaning in more closely as his chin dips toward his chest. “What did you say, Griff?”
His eyelids flicker, and he keeps them open long enough to hold my gaze. “When I wake up,” he says, “going to kill you.”
“Rah, rah, go team,” Tina mutters, just as Cassie breaks into uncontrollable sobs.
The police and fire sirens flicker as they fly past us in the other lane, and my squad ducks in their seats as a fleet of harpies follows close behind. They pass right by us, intent on the strip club and the smoke still billowing from it.
“Okay so…a success?” Trevor asks.
I glance from rigid Griff, to sobbing Cassie, to Shauna, now climbing over us into the very back of the van, transfixed by the flashing lights from the emergency vehicles.
“Yep,” I say. “Success.”
Except it smells like smoke and singed hair.