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a still a scruffy mess. “Dress up pretty. Please.”
    “If we’re going back to Manassah,” Alex cleared his throat. “What are we going to tell the police and everyone else?”
    Jen looked up.
    “You were kidnapped Friday night, people were killed, police were all over your house,” Alex said. “Then we’re going to return you unharmed on Monday. Meanwhile a whole factory has exploded and there are bodies all over it.”
    Bian nodded to acknowledge his point. “The cleanup team was at work on the factory site almost as soon as we left. The bodies outside were cleared away. They had to leave the ones inside, but the explosion and fire were…thorough.” Her eyes passed over me. Tullah, my assistant and an emerging Adept, and her dragon spirit Kaothos had been responsible for the explosion. Mostly Kaothos. Bian had to suspect Tullah was a very powerful Adept, and she’d made her thoughts on the matter plain: either I took Tullah into House Farrell, or Bian would be after her for House Altau.
    Best of luck getting past her mother. Mary was not a woman to cross, even discounting her Adept powers, and she thought Athanate and Adepts should stay far away from one another.
    “It’s not ideal,” Bian continued, “but we can get away with another gangland battle. The last members of ZK kidnap Jennifer, a group from a Mexican drug cartel try and snatch her. In the confusion, Amber gets Jennifer out of the building. The explosion is caused by a stockpile of weapons that ZK had.”
    Alex scratched his head. “Jen got knocked on the head, suffered a concussion, which is why she can’t give much detail. She didn’t want to go to a hospital, but I insisted she stay in bed before letting her return home. We decided not to talk to anyone until she was well enough to answer questions.”
    Jen looked coolly at him.
    “Are we saying I did it alone,” I said, “or should we keep closer to the truth and say Alex helped?”
    I wanted Jen to understand that Alex had been there to rescue her as well as treat her afterwards.
    “We could say Alex drove the car you used,” Bian suggested. “Not quite the same image as him shape-shifting on the stairs and biting people’s heads off, but it’ll have to do.” A smile lurked at the edges of Bian’s mouth, as if she knew what I was doing.
    Jen nodded, hiding a shudder and looking around her. She was surrounded by monsters.
    Bian pulled a comms device out and spoke rapidly in Athanate.
    “You’re being brought another change of clothes and a scrub to remove any gunshot residue or other evidence. After you’ve all cleaned up, you can head off. I’ll communicate back to Larimer and explain the delay. He’ll understand.” She got up. “Amber, I need a word with you separately.”
    She led me out, ignoring my protest. Outside, she waved all the others into the room to join Jen and Alex, and closed the door behind them.
    “I’m sorry,” she said immediately, taking the wind out of my sails. “I didn’t handle that well. It’s a serious matter to have issues between your kin.”
    “Alex knew, Jen didn’t,” I said. “That probably makes it even worse for her.”
    “I know. But it’ll work out,” Bian said. “She is kin. Adept Emerson confirmed it, and even I can tell.”
    I shook my head, that wasn’t the point.
    “You didn’t want to talk to me about that,” I said.
    “Well, not that alone. First off, I’ll need you to report back tomorrow on how it goes with our furry friend Larimer.”
    “I can predict that right now. Not well.”
    “Then it’s going to be up to you to do something to change that, Amber. You’re going to be in a unique position here. You’ll have to take over the role of being a liaison with the Were. And this hunting down their rogue is a godsend. Skylur wants them obligated.”
    “I’ll be a liaison, fine. But I won’t try and force them to do things. And since I’m not hunting down the rogue for them on behalf of the Athanate,