“Which Benders were involved?” Evee asked, worry suddenly flooding over her. She thought of Lucien.
“What does it matter which? They’re all nosy busybodies who have no business here.”
“Which ones?” She all but yelled the question this time.
Hoot screeched loudly. “How the hell do I know? The one with the short black hair. The quiet one. And the one you were playing house with earlier.”
Ronan, Lucien, Evee thought, grateful they were safe, but still feeling like she needed to throw up.
She felt her brow knit and glared at her familiar. “If you knew...saw all this going on, why didn’t you summon me?”
Hoot screeched loudly. “Summon you? I tried when I saw what was happening in Chalmette! But you were obviously too busy playing hussy with one of the Benders to hear me. That’s why I had to come back here, hoping to find you!”
Evee rubbed her forehead, left the foyer and went into the kitchen. Feeling lost, she shrugged off her jacket and tossed it over a kitchen chair. She grabbed the kettle from the stove and without thinking brought it over to the sink and filled it with water. She placed the kettle on the counter, not bothering to bring it back to the stove for heating. Instead, she sat at the kitchen table and placed her hands over her face. Shook her head. Her world had become an impossible place in which to function, to live, to think.
“Evette, you have to listen to me,” Hoot said.
Evee lowered her hands and looked up. Saw her familiar perched on top of the kitchen chair opposite her.
“I think I’ve heard enough from you for one day,” Evee said, forcing back tears, fury and uncertainty.
“Too bad,” Hoot said. “You’re going to listen.”
“I don’t have to listen to shit. You’re not my boss or my father.” Evee scowled.
“No, but I am your familiar. Same thing. And you’re going to listen.” Not waiting for Evee to respond, Hoot hurried through his words. “You’re heading off a cliff with that Bender. And it has little to do with sex and you know it. What you have to guard is your heart. You have Nosferatu missing, others killed, and the rest locked in the catacombs. You keep hunting for your missing Nosferatu, just like your sisters are looking for their Originals, and none of you are being successful at it. I don’t know why you can’t hone in on your brood like you usually do.”
Evee swiped a strand of hair out of her eyes. “You think I don’t know that? I feel like I’ve been running in circles and don’t know how to straighten any of this out. And for your information, you horny-eared copperhead, don’t you think if I could hone in on my brood I’d have done it days ago?”
“Okay, given, but you have to admit, this has gotten way out of hand. Much bigger than anyone suspected.” The bird blinked and bobbed his head. “You’re going to have to devise some other system to feed your brood.”
“Another system?” Evee looked at her familiar with incredulity. “It took years to set up the one we have now.”
“Maybe so, but how are you going to get the Nosferatu out of the catacombs and safely to the North Compound with so much going awry? They’ll be out in the open. Have you forgotten about the Cartesians? And now humans are being killed. Police are going to get involved soon. You and your sisters could be found out.”
“No shit.”
“Just saying.”
“So what’s the answer?” Evee asked, feeling her cheeks heat with anger. “You’re sitting on top of that chair spouting all that verbiage like you’re high and mighty. Do you have an answer for these problems?”
Hoot turned his head until he nearly faced backward, then turned back to Evee and blinked without saying a word.
“I didn’t think so.” Evee scowled. “Don’t you think that if I knew how to stop all this crap, how to get my Nosferatu back and turn things back to normal, I wouldn’t have done it by now? And as far as the Benders are concerned, forget it. We’ve got to worry about humans now. Dead humans.”
“Have you considered that what you’re doing with that Bender might have something to do with what’s happening?” Hoot asked.
“I didn’t do anything with the Bender,” Evee said, knowing she was bordering on a technicality. “Look, give me time to think, will you? Go. Leave me.”
Hoot squawked, and without another word, left his perch on the kitchen chair and flew out of the room.
Evee dropped her head back into her hands. She felt guilty about having been here, in this house with Lucien, experiencing his touch, her explosive orgasm. All the while humans died by the Originals, and one of her Nosferatu had to be taken down.
Wearily, she got out of her chair and was about to head to the bathroom to wash her face when the back kitchen door opened with a bang.
Elvis, Gilly’s ferret familiar, scurried into the house followed by Socrates, Viv’s Bombay cat and familiar. Both ran around the kitchen table, claws clicking on the wooden floor. As they skittered to a stop near Evee, Hoot evidently decided to join the party because he swooped into the kitchen from wherever he’d been roosting moments earlier. He settled onto the kitchen counter and eyed the other two familiars. Within seconds, Hoot started shrieking and squawking at the top of his lungs. Elvis responded with loud chitters and chirps, and Socrates began to caterwaul so loudly it hurt Evee’s ears.
No sooner had Evee put her hands over her ears than Gilly and Viv hurried into the house behind their familiars. Viv closed the door behind them, and both turned to Evee wide-eyed.
Evee felt her heart skip a beat, fearing by the look on her sisters’ faces that something more had come to torture them.
Dropping her hands from her ears, Evee yelled over the brash symphony of animals, “What’s wrong?”
“What?” Gilly shouted, obviously having a difficult time hearing over the noise.
“What’s wrong?” Evee asked again over the cacophony of animal noises.
Gilly looked over at Viv questioningly.
Frustrated, Evee held both hands out, glared at the familiars and shouted, “Y’all shut the hell up now!”
Elvis gave one last titter, Hoot a short squawk, and Socrates let out one innocent meow.
When all was quiet, Evee asked once more, “What’s wrong?” She swiped a strand of wet hair out of her face. She hadn’t had time to dry it after her shower.
“You haven’t heard?” Viv asked.
Evee frowned.
“About the humans,” Gilly said, then stomped a foot. “The dead ones, Evee.”
“Yeah,” Evee said, looking away. “Hoot filled me in a few minutes ago. He saw the whole thing.”
Viv did a double take. “What? He saw it? What about Pierre and Chank?”
Evee nodded. “That, too.”
“You mean your familiar saw all this going on and didn’t summon you?” Gilly asked, putting a hand on her hip.
“He claims he tried, but I didn’t hear him, didn’t feel