Ryder scowled, then cussed softly. “I’m still myself, no matter what job or responsibilities I take on.”
“But...warden?” Jean bit her lip, and looked from Ryder to me then back to Ryder. “Do you understand what that means? What it means between you and Delaney?”
“So,” I said loudly, clapping my hands. “We need to find Ben. Now. Is there anything else we need to know before we pack this up and deal with the reporters and crime scene?”
“One thing,” Myra said quietly.
From her tone of voice I knew I wasn’t going to like it.
“The vampire hunters are dead.”
Chapter 18
Myra gave us the details that had come over the wire. Four men had rented a small boat up in Astoria. One of those men was the guy Ryder had known and spoken to at the bar. The four of them had seemed to think crossing the mouth of the Columbia River in rough swells would be a safe and good idea.
It wasn’t. The mayday was called in, but even though the Coast Guard scrambled, by the time they got there, all they found was a capsized vessel and four dead bodies.
“Could be just an accident,” Jean said.
Yeah, none of us thought that was true.
“Who’s killing them, Rossi?” I asked. “Who has declared war on us?”
Rossi’s eyes were still that terrifying red and black. “A dead man.”
That might have been a threat or might have been the truth. I didn’t have a chance for any follow up questions because the crunch of wheels on wet gravel filled the air, and between one blink and the next, Rossi was gone.
All the other vampires similarly disappeared, fading into mist that was lost to the rain and drizzle.
“He knows who it is, doesn’t he?” Jean asked.
“I think so.”
Myra was watching me. “You have an idea who it is too.”
I nodded.
“How bad?” Jean asked.
“All the bad.”
“Shit,” Myra whispered. “Did you find the god powers?”
Car doors opened and slammed shut. Footsteps coming our way.
“Please tell me we have some kind of win in all this,” she said.
“Yeah, I’ve got them. Jean, do you mind handling Trillium?”
“Sure. Are we going with mugging? Robbery? Drunken brawl?”
“Let’s go with mugging. Nothing Dave would have seen or heard from inside the shop. Oh, and pull the video before she gets hold of it.”
“I’ll get the video,” Ryder said.
I nodded. He might not know about everything that happened in Ordinary, but he knew enough now that I didn’t think he’d do anything to compromise the video.
He jogged to the bait shop, and Myra fell into step next to me as I headed to the Jeep. “Are you okay?”
“Oh, sure. Just another boring day in Ordinary. I need coffee. With a side of coffee with coffee on top.”
Trillium spotted us, but Jean cut her off with a quick greeting. “Trillium, glad you could make it out here. I’d be happy to answer any questions, but can’t let you any closer to the scene of the crime until we’re done gathering evidence. You know the drill....”
Trillium cast one more look over at Myra and me, then focused on Jean.
Myra walked over to my Jeep with me. Her cruiser was parked right next to it, light bar spinning a lazy pattern of reds and blues.
She pressed her hand against my arm, and squeezed tight enough I stopped.
“Why is Ryder the warden? Did Mithra force him to take it? Did he steal it from you? Did you give it to him? Didn’t you warn him what it could do to him? This isn’t good, Delaney. You realize it puts him in a higher position than us.”
Everything—the standoff with Mithra, the deal to get the god powers back, Sven’s death, Jame’s broken body, Ben’s kidnapping—twisted up inside me. I was tired, and tired of not getting ahead of what felt like one disaster after another.
“It doesn’t make him our boss!” That might have come out a little louder than I intended. I toned it down a bit. “Just like none of the gods are our bosses, just like none of the creatures are our bosses. We’re our bosses. We’re still the law here. Both as police officers and as the Reed family. Ryder “the warden”,” and yes, I did the ironic quote fingers, “can just suck it if he thinks he’s going to boss us around.”
“Feel strongly about this do you?”
“Terrifyingly so.” That was so true we both gave each other the “me too” nod.
“So...coffee before the next disaster hits?” she asked.
I shook my head. “Have to get the powers back to the gods.”
“Still haven’t heard the story there.”
“Mithra was just how we expected him to be: annoying and demanding. Made a lot of threats, reminded me who he was and how hard he wanted to tell us all what to do all the time.”
“He threatened you?”
“Naturally. With the warden position. I said no. Ryder said yes.”
“Yeah, I can see that. What I can’t understand is why.”
I shook my head, searching the front of the bait shop for Ryder. He was still inside looking for the video. “I don’t think he understands what he just did. He doesn’t even believe in gods.”
“That doesn’t matter when a god believes in you.”
I sighed. “I tried to stop him.”
She moved her hand to my shoulder and gave me a squeeze. “I know. Do you want me there when you hand back the powers?”
“Yeah, I think that would be good. Could you pick up Crow? We can meet at his shop.”
“They’re not going to let him store the powers.”
“I know. Odin’s up next, right?”
She nodded.
“Okay, so we should all just meet out at Odin’s place.”
“I’ll gather the gods. You get some coffee on the way.”
“That works. I think Piper should be there too.”
“You really want to do that to her?”
“I’d rather she be revealed to all the gods when we’re there to run interference than one-on-one when we’re not.”
“True.”
Ryder strode out of the shop and headed toward us.
“Why don’t you come with me,” Myra said. “We’ll drop the video off at the station and lock it up.”
Ryder looked my way. “Okay with you, boss?”
It was so normal, so not like the last few hours, that I almost smiled with relief. “Yeah. Good. And come along with Myra to Odin’s. You’ll want to see that dog-and-pony show too.”
He hesitated, his body language sort of bent my way as if he wanted to touch me, or hug me, and had decided halfway through that he probably shouldn’t.
“Sure,” he said. “See you there.”
They got into the cruiser and I slipped into the Jeep. It might have been more comfortable to put the water bottle of god powers in the cup holder but I was feeling a little paranoid about letting it even that far out of my sight. So I kept it in the inner pocket of my coat, slid the seatbelt in a mostly-comfortable position over my chest, and headed toward the first drive-thru coffee shop in Ordinary.
~~~
Halfway through a quad-shot latte, I pulled onto Odin’s property.