“Got it last night.”

“What was it?”

“Desandra.”

I blinked at him. “The alpha of Clan Wolf?”

Derek nodded.

“What is she doing in Dunwoody Heights?”

“She tried to enroll her boys in gymnastics class in the city, and one of the other parents threw a giant fit, so they asked her to leave. She’s been rolling in glow-in-the-dark powder and menacing that woman’s house for the last three nights.”

“Did you explain to her that intimidation isn’t in the Pack’s best interests?”

“I did. She told me that she would’ve gotten away with it if it weren’t for me, a meddling kid.”

I stoically kept a straight face. “Good job on closing the case.”

“Sure.”

“So where did you put the Scooby Snacks?”

“Hilarious,” he said dryly.

I pondered the board. A year ago, I would’ve tossed the paint case at Ascanio and forgotten about it. But Ascanio was scarce lately. He barely came in anymore. The last couple of times I had to call him instead of him bugging me for jobs nonstop. School had taken up a lot of his time, but he’d graduated last year.

He was still nominally on the books. I picked up the phone and dialed the Bouda House.

Miranda answered with a breathy “Hello.”

“It’s me.”

The sexy breathiness vanished. “Oh, hi, Kate.”

“Is the evil spawn around?”

“He’s helping Raphael with something.”

That was the answer I’d gotten the last time I’d called, too. “Okay. Would you let him know that I have a job if he’s interested?”

“Sure.”

I was Ascanio’s employer, but Raphael and Andrea were his alphas, and Clan Bouda valued loyalty to the clan above all else. Raphael trumped me. “On second thought, never mind. We’ll handle it.”

“Okay,” Miranda said.

I hung up. With Ascanio MIA and Julie off with Curran on his hunting adventure, we were down to just me and Derek.

“You want me to take it?” he asked.

“No, I need you for Serenbe. We’ll have to pass it on to the Guild.” I hated passing gigs to the Guild. I promised to do the job when I took it, and I took pride in making sure we got it done. Now I would have to explain to the clients that we were too busy. It was bad business and it made me feel lousy. But sometimes I had no choice.

I dialed Barabas at the Guild. I could’ve gone to the Clerk, but since Barabas was the head admin, it would be faster. Besides, the mercs walked into dangerous situations all the time. They needed to know about Serenbe. The more people who knew, the better our chances of figuring this out were.

He picked up on the first ring. “Yes?”

“I have to send you two gigs. One is a nuisance job, but the ghoul extraction will need someone good on it.”

“Is your father invading?”

“No, but something bad happened.” I brought him up to date on Serenbe. “Whoever did this got away clean. I have a feeling it won’t be a onetime thing.”

There was a long tense silence.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“I am. I’m trying to think of a way to notify the mercs that also won’t cause a panic.”

“If you figure that out, call me back.” I could use some pointers in the notifying etiquette department.

“I will. We’ll take care of the gigs.”

“Thanks.”

I hung up, pulled the two files on the ghoul and the paint eater, and put them on my desk. I’d pass them on to Barabas when I got home today. Being neighbors had its advantages.

“You really think this will happen again?” Derek asked.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

I leaned against the table. “They killed the dogs, got two hundred people out, and made them disappear. Nobody escaped. None of the attackers died, or at least we didn’t find any of their bodies or large pools of their blood. Nothing went wrong. They had no screwups. You don’t get that good at controlling large numbers of people unless you practice.”

“You think they’ve done it before.”

“I know they’ve done it before, and more than once. If they’ve done it more than once, it’s likely they need a continuous supply of humans for something, so they’ll do it again. I need to be there to stop them. This city is not going to be their hunting ground if I can help it. So, you and I are going to call the Pack, the People, the Order, and every other person in charge we know and notify them that this happened.” Biohazard would be sending its own notifications, but I wanted to put the net out as wide as I could.

Derek moved to his desk. “Dibs on the Pack.”

“Knock yourself out.”

* * *

• • •

    “KATE?” DEREK’S FACE blocked my view.

I rubbed my forehead. “Yes?”

“Food?” he asked.

Food? I hadn’t eaten at all today. “Food would be amazing.”

He nodded and went out the door.

In the past two hours, I’d talked to the three county sheriff’s offices where people knew me: Douglas, Gwinnett, and Milton. Beau Clayton, the Milton County sheriff, and I went way back. He didn’t like hearing about the disappeared people.

I called the Order and asked to speak to Nick Feldman and was told by Maxine, the Order’s telepathic secretary, that he was in the city but out at the moment, so I had to leave a message with her. I kept it short.

If the Order knew anything, they wouldn’t share it with me, and they didn’t trust my information. In the eight months I’d been back at work, we’d had to cooperate on a few cases, and every time working with Nick Feldman, the current knight-protector, was like pulling teeth. My mother breaking up his parents’ marriage was bad enough, but Nick also spent some time undercover in Hugh d’Ambray’s inner circle, and he got to see firsthand how my father operated. He hated our whole family with the passion of a thousand suns and had made it his life’s mission to make sure we didn’t exist.

Derek had taken the city’s law enforcement, the Pack, and some of the street contacts he’d been building. Between us, we’d pretty much covered it. Only the People were left.

I dialed the number.

“You’ve reached the Casino Help Desk,” a young man said into the phone. “This is Noah. How can we make your day wonderful?”

That would take a miracle. “Put me through to Ghastek or Rowena, please.”

“May I ask who is calling?”

“Kate.”

“Are they expecting your call?”

Great. I’d gotten a new apprentice or journeyman. “No.”

“I’m going to need a last name, ma’am.”

“Lennart.”

“One moment, please.”

There was a beep and Noah spoke to somebody. “Hey, there’s a Kate Lennart calling for the Fearless Leader. She’s not on the list.”

Apparently, Noah hadn’t mastered putting people on hold.

“Kate who?” another male voice asked.

“Kate Lennart?”

“You idiot, that’s the In-Shinar!”

“What?” Noah squeaked.

“You put the In-Shinar on hold, you dumbass! Ghastek’s going to hang you by your balls.”

Ugh.

“What do I do?” Panic spiked in Noah’s voice.

You could connect me to Ghastek. If I said something now, it would only freak them out more.

There was some random beeping. I had a vision of Noah frantically pawing at the phone, smacking keys at random like a toddler. A disconnect signal beeped in my ear.

The last time I attended the induction of candidates to the ranks of journeymen, Ghastek introduced me as “Behold, the Immortal One, the In-Shinar, the Blood Blade of Atlanta.” I spent the whole ceremony trying to kill him with my brain. When I chewed him out afterward, he asked who I would rather risk my life for, the Blood Blade of Atlanta or Kate Lennart, small business owner. I should’ve told him to stuff it. I had only myself to blame.