Angel frowned, thinking for a moment before she said, “Maybe, but if the Fae are as chaotic as Herne says, will they really care? Though I still see the potential for an interspecies war looming large.”
“If that happens, I think I’m going to give up the city and move out to the country and start a pig farm and find Mr. Rumblebutt a buddy.” I stopped as the door opened and the pizza delivery man entered. He was carrying a stack of five pizzas, and Angel opened her desk, pulling out an envelope. She paid him out of it, and asked him to take the pizzas into the break room. After he left, she locked the front door, and motioned for me to go let the others know that food was in the building.
I glanced into the room used as an armory.
“Come on, guys, food’s on.”
Sticking my head into Yutani and Talia’s office, I told them as well, then went on back to the break room, my stomach rumbling. Angel had opened all the pizza boxes and brought six plates over from the cupboard. I rummaged through the refrigerator and found two large bottles of sparkling water, carrying them to the table.
“Somehow, getting coffee for the guys doesn’t seem like such a big deal here like in my last job,” Angel said with a grin. “At least they don’t take me for granted.”
“Nor will we ever,” Herne said as he entered the room. “Pardon me for eavesdropping, but I couldn’t help hear your comment. I value every single employee of this agency. We all have our duties and we all add into making it a success. And that success is integral to keeping peace. So thank you both for doing your best to fit in.” He paused at the table and rubbed his hands together. “Ooo, pepperoni.” He looked up, a gleeful expression on his face. At that moment, his gaze landed on me, and once again, I felt a ripple through my body as his gleeful look turned to desire, and he blew me a silent kiss.
“I saw that,” Angel said. She glanced at me, then at Herne. “Just be careful, you two. I can see the connection between you two. I could from the beginning. Just do me a favor and if you have a fight, leave me out of it.”
Chastised, both Herne and I stared at the food, making no comment. The next moment, Yutani and Talia entered the room and we all set to eating, Yutani still tapping away on his laptop.
“So, do we know any more than we did before?” Herne began passing around plates. Given there were six of us and five pizzas, I piled my plate high. I liked to eat, and there were very few things that I wasn’t willing to try.
Yutani hit enter, and set his laptop down, letting whatever program he was working on compile while he got himself some food. After a moment, a map popped up on the screen. Leaning forward, he studied it as he bit into a slice of pepperoni and sausage pizza.
Talia accepted a cup of tea from Angel. “I’ve found out something else about Kuveo. If you can get a silver collar on him, it’s like bottling the genie. He has to obey, regardless of his prior commitments. Trouble is, getting close enough to fasten a collar around his neck isn’t easy. And it has to be silver”
“If somebody can hold him down, then we should cut off his tails and destroy him for good,” I said.
“Agreed.” Viktor flexed his bicep. “I have muscles.”
“I have the feeling Kuveo is pretty strong, too,” Talia said with a smirk.
“I agree with Ember. This is one creature we don’t want to leave alive. He’s only bent for destruction, and as soon as he got free of that collar, he’d return to the hunt.” Herne shook his head. “Sometimes total destruction is best. You can’t give a second chance to something that won’t respect it.”
“Given that he’s made a deal, and he has to follow through, we wouldn’t dare send him back to his realm. He would just return to target Névé again.” I took a bite of my pizza, my stomach rumbling. The molten cheese and the tang of the pineapple and the savory flavor of the sausage all went into making me close my eyes and focus solely on the food. Sometimes you had to pay homage to a good meal. When I opened my eyes again, after swallowing, everybody was watching me. I realized I had let out a groan of delight while eating. Maybe a mumbled groan, but a groan, nonetheless.
“Enjoying that pizza, are we?” Viktor said with a laugh. “Don’t be embarrassed. I’m that way about sloppy joes. Give me a good sloppy joe and I’m in heaven.”
Angel piped up. “Give Ember anything from a fast food joint and she’s in heaven. I’m actually glad we’re living together because that’s the only way she’ll get a decent meal.”
“Hey, if I learned to cook then you’d stop cooking and that would be a damn shame. Besides, I live on fast food, and it hasn’t hurt me yet.”
“That’s because you’re Fae. If you were human, you’d be piling on the pounds and greasing up that cholesterol.” She twitched her nose at me, smiling. “You know I’m kidding. Except not so much. I still think you’re better off with me cooking, even though I do love pizza.”
“Everybody’s better off with you cooking. I never understood why you didn’t go into the diner business with Mama J. You cook just as well as she did.”
“Heresy, she’s probably rolling over in her grave at that. But yeah, I learned from the best. I just never had the calling for it. I love to cook for friends, but if I had to do it for a living, I wouldn’t love that anymore.”
I glanced around. The others were watching us.
There was almost a wistful smile on Herne’s face, but he said nothing, just returned to his food. I gave him a sideways glance, wondering how many friends Herne actually had. It couldn’t be easy, being the son of a god. Deciding to get back to the matter at hand, I turned to Yutani.
“What’s the map on your laptop?”
He blinked. “Oh, it’s done? So, I think I figured out the exact location of where they summoned Kuveo. Luckily, there were enough markers in the video that Kevin shot that I was able to get a bead on it. It appears there’s an underground chamber about twenty yards from the Castle Hall ruins. My guess is that we’ll find an entrance in the basement. And I also suspect that it ties in with the underground tunnels that riddle the area.”
“It’s a long series of tunnels if it runs all the way down the Eastside.” It was hard for me to imagine.
“Well, as we discussed before, there were a lot of miners around here, so there are tunnels all over the place. There were mines all the way from Renton up to Bellevue, even over to North Bend. It wouldn’t take much to connect them together into a system like the catacombs.”
Yutani turned the laptop so we could all see it. “Here’s the UnderLake District and UnderLake Park, and here’s the Castle Hall residence. And about twenty yards south is where I pinpoint the underground chamber. It’s possible I’m off by a few yards either way, but this is my best estimate.”
“How do we know that Kuveo is going to be there? Isn’t it likely that they moved him?”
“Well, he’s not going to be found aboveground, at least not between the attacks. There’s no way that creature could walk around in public and not be noticed. And since they think they killed the only person who knew about their chamber, it seems likely that belowground would be the most logical place to stash him.”
“Only, since his sacrifices have been made, he’ll start on the attack for Névé.” Talia polished off her food and pushed back her plate.
“Then we better over there as soon as we finish eating. Ember, what about your ability to talk with the water elementals? How far does that extend?” Herne asked. “For instance, if we find a puddle, could you sense anything from it?”
“That depends first on whether there are any elementals in the area. And second, if they’ve seen anything. Unfortunately, it may be far enough away from the water that I won’t be able to pick up anything. But very strong emotions can be imprinted in the water as well as into buildings and the air, so there’s always a chance.” I finished off the five slices of pizza on my plate and looked around. There were still at least two pizzas left. “Anybody mind if I have some more?”