Mercy Thompson 01-05 - THE MERCY THOMPSON COLLECTION

Littleton,” I told him. “Did he call them and get them to come to him?”
    He moved his head just enough for an affirmative.
    â€œDid you hear where?” He lay unmoving. “Warren, I won’t let any of the wolves go near him. Neither Kyle nor I will tell the pack where they are, not until Bran gets here. I’ll just tell the vampires—it’s their problem in the first place.”
    He tried but neither Kyle nor I could tell what he said. Finally Kyle said, “Look, it’s obviously not a yes or a no. Warren, my dear, did you hear part of it?”
    Clearly exhausted by his efforts, Warren nodded. He relaxed and said one thing more.
    â€œChurch?” I said and saw by Warren’s face I’d gotten it right. “That’s all?” I touched his face as he relaxed. “Go back to sleep, Warren. We’ll make sure Bran knows everything.”
    He gave a shuddering sigh and relaxed fully into unconsciousness.
    â€œKyle, would you make sure to tell Bran this much when he gets here? He should be here late tonight or early tomorrow morning.” I got out of Warren’s bed as carefully as I could.
    â€œAll right. What are you going to be doing?”
    I rubbed my face. It had taken a lot of willpower to crawl out of that bed when my whole body wanted to curl up with Warren and sleep. “If I can find out where Littleton is before nightfall, I might be able to kill him.” With the handy-dandy vampire-killing kit in the trunk of my car.
    â€œCan I help?”
    â€œOnly by staying here with Warren. See if you can get him to eat when he stirs again.”
    Kyle looked at Warren and his face held none of its usual sardonic humor when he said, “When you find the bastard who did this, kill him and make it hurt.”
    I made him get up and come out of the cell with me. I didn’t think Warren would hurt him, but I wasn’t willing to take the chance.
    My cell phone rang. It was Tony.
    â€œYou won’t believe this,” he said. “And I don’t know if it helps.”
    â€œWhat?” I asked.
    â€œThe daytime incidents—with a few outliers—are in Kennewick. There’s a broad pattern that seems to be centered around the KPD.”
    â€œThe police station?” I asked.
    â€œThat’s right. Although I suppose it could just as easily be centered around Kennewick High or your place, for that matter. But the police station’s right in the middle.”
    â€œHow broad’s the pattern?” I asked.
    â€œAbout three, three and a half miles. Some of the incidents are across the river in Pasco. There are outliers—our specialist tells me that there are enough to be significant. A few in Richland, Benton City and Burbank. Does this help?”
    â€œI don’t know,” I told him. “Maybe. Thanks, Tony. I owe you a few favors for this.”
    â€œJust stop this thing.”
    â€œI’ll do my best.”
    Â 
    I met Darryl at the top of the stairs.
    â€œYou were right,” he told me. “Food helped.”
    â€œMmm,” I said. “Samuel got a call last night. Warren doesn’t know where they went, though.”
    â€œWarren’s awake and talking?”
    I shook my head. “I wouldn’t call it talking, and he’s asleep again. It was Kyle who heard the phone call. As he apparently tried to tell you.” I watched it sink in. “You might think about listening to Kyle,” I told him gently, then to let him off the hook, I asked, “Do you know why my being able to talk to ghosts would scare the vampires?”
    He grunted a negative. “I don’t see how that would help. Last I heard, ghosts avoid evil.” He walked past me without touching me.
    I don’t think he even realized what he’d given me.
    Ghosts are not people. No matter how well Mrs. Hanna conversed, she was still just a memory of the person she had been.
    I was so stupid.
    She’d told me that she changed her routine and all I’d thought was how sad it was, because without her usual habits she’d probably fade quickly. I hadn’t wondered why she’d changed her routine. Ghosts, pattern ghosts, just don’t do that. Someone had told her to, she’d said—I couldn’t remember who, just that it was a man’s name. Her route wandered all over Kennewick. If the sorcerer was in Kennewick, she might have run into him.
    Jesse looked up from