Leo’s head went to the side. “Really?” He drew out the word into multiple syllables. He hadn’t known, which gave me all sorts of relief. “The enemies of my Enforcer sew dissidence in my ranks. I will deal with this.” He nodded at Adelaide. An electronic tablet appeared from a pocket as if she were some kind of prestidigitator, and she made notes.
“My friend Molly Everhart is in town and is missing,” I said. “I left you a voice mail. You didn’t answer. Do you know where she is?”
“The witch,” Leo said, sounding bored.
“Molly was taken from her hotel room by three vamps I didn’t recognize.”
“You saw these Mithrans?” He looked interested.
“No,” I said flatly. “I smelled them.”
Leo nodded. “Scent is much more difficult to distort and hide. The witch is of no concern to me unless she encroaches upon what is mine. And no. I do not know where she is.” Since Molly couldn’t do anything to Leo, that seemed to eliminate her from the MOC’s threat list, but I had hoped for a proactive approach. On to other topics while I had the MOC’s attention. “Adrianna attacked my house. And two of Katie’s girls are missing—Bliss and Rachael. They disappeared after a vamp party at Guilbeau’s, on their way to a party at Arceneau Clan Home. Did you know all that?” Leo’s head lifted, his eyes intent on me. I had a feeling I had surprised him again. “They left with two others, in a chartered black cab limo, and one was a redheaded female. Behind them, tailing them, was a personal limo, with a male in back. He had a narrow beard.” I drew it again on my jaw. “And what might be a gold earring.”
Leo’s eyes went unfocused, but I had a feeling a lot was going on behind them. “Shoffru,” he said.
“Could be, yeah. Jack Shoffru.”
Suddenly I was in Leo’s sights. It was a little like having a couple of blazing torches pointed at my eyeballs. Not comfy. “What do you know of Jack Shoffru?” he asked, his voice curious, silky with threat.
“Not much.” I filled him in on the little I knew, and ended with “He knew Lafitte. And since he hung out in New Orleans in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds, you probably knew him.”
Leo’s face took on an expression of mild disdain. “We did not travel in the same social circles.”
A pirate was beneath the Pellissiers. Got it. “So far as I know, his sire and original clan are unknown.”
“Few mongrels know their sires.”
I grinned, but before I could say anything snarky back, Leo said, “Research his ships. As I remember it, Shoffru and his partner captained two of Lafitte’s fleet, the Ring Leader and the Lady’s Virtue.”
Oddly enough, something about the names of the ships were familiar, but I couldn’t place them.
Leo nodded slowly, thinking, his face creased in concern, an expression he seldom showed to the world. “It is difficult to know how to treat with Adrianna. When I first knew her, she was a vivacious beauty.”
“When I first knew her, she had been working black magic with the Damours,” I said.
Leo didn’t flinch, nothing so human, but something crossed his face. Maybe longing, maybe remorse. He said, “I was powerless to stop them, the Damours. My uncle had signed a . . . a treaty of sorts with them, to leave them alone as long as they left him and his alone. After he found true-death, I was still bound by that contract. Until you came and freed us of it.”
I sat back. Thinking. Blinking in the light that suddenly felt too bright. “So you didn’t go after the Damours because you couldn’t—” I stopped. Leo had used me to break the treaty with the Damours and kill them for their crimes. I hadn’t been his Enforcer back then, which had given me opportunity he hadn’t had. “You sneaky bastard,” I muttered.
Leo inclined his head, a small smile easing the pain on his face. He looked, in that moment, nearly human. “I have been called that. And worse. Though I assure you, I was legitimately conceived and born.”
I waved away the comment. “Okay,” I said, knowing I’d need time to digest all the knowledge he had just given me—freely—which meant there was a hidden cost somewhere, because vamps did nothing without a price tag attached. There was a lot of info I didn’t have yet, but I decided to address this again later when I had my questions in line, and changed the subject from the past to the present. “And the girls missing? And Adrianna?”
Leo shook his head slowly, but I could tell he wasn’t happy with the conclusions he was drawing. “Adrianna is declared outlaw. None may assist her, none may shelter her. Her blood-master has agreed that she is to stand trial when she is located, and will be given to the sun should she be found guilty.”