Elfhome

Jewel Tear’s gaze turned cold and hard. “Yes, I am sore and tired and dirty and hungry but there is much I need to explain about the oni force. This one freed me.” She indicated Tommy with a wave of her hand. “While I was being moved from one camp to the whelping pens. We were able to kill all the oni transporting me, but sooner or later, they will realize I’ve slipped through their fingers and they will move. We must act quickly before they can shift again.”

This one? He didn’t even rate a name?

“We cannot attack until the Harbingers have off-loaded all their people and given a chance to organize themselves. Go, see to your health.”

Jewel Tear warned the female Wyvern off with a look. “I should find what is left of my own household and they will attend me.”

Prince True Flame gave her a pitying look. “Many of those that survived the attack have left Pittsburgh.”

Jewel Tear flinched as if struck but still managed, “Please, let me go to what little I have left.”

Tommy watched her walk away, flanked by two Hands of Wyverns. He hated that he wanted to hold and comfort her even as she walked away without a glance toward him or a thank you.

#

The hurt of it was such that he drove the whole way back to the warren before he remembered that he had Bingo move his family. He had known she didn’t love him, that she was just using him, so really, it had all gone the way he’d expected. Somehow, he thought it wouldn’t hurt because he knew how it was going to end.

And the very worst of it — he missed the feel of her pressed against his back.

“Stupid elf bitch,” Tommy growled.

Spot gave him a sad look, reached up and petted Tommy on the head.

Tommy scoffed and took out his phone. Bingo probably texted him where he’d moved the family too. There were a dozen messages on his phone, all from Bingo. The most recent just a desperate “call me.”

His cousin answered his phone with “Shit is flying all over the place; you better have the bitch.”

“I delivered her to True Flame already.” Tommy growled. “What’s happening?”

“Two Stone Clan domana showed up after you left. Forge and Iron Mace. The dumb fucks grabbed Oilcan and disappeared. Tinker’s crazy pissed off; she’s got the tengu tearing the city apart trying to find her cousin. Then, to top it off, she’s taken off without telling anyone where she was going and Windwolf is out trying to find her.”

He felt completely blindsided. Prince True Flame hadn’t even mentioned the two domana. “Why did they take Oilcan?”

Bingo explained what had happened in Pittsburgh since Tommy left; from the discovery that the cousins were descended from Stone Clan domana, to Oilcan being named head of the clan, to the arrival of their great-grandfather who apparently was bent on transforming Oilcan “back” into an elf. “It’s all over the news. Chloe Polanski is having a field day. The humans are pissed to hell at the elves and the elves look like they’re about to start carving each other up.”

No wonder there weren’t any Wind Clan elves in Oakland as the Stone Clan Harbingers offloaded. That Prince True Flame had ignored the question of Windwolf’s whereabouts. Was it really the sekasha’s demands that brought the Harbingers to Pittsburgh, or after egging the Wind Clan into a fight, the Stone Clan had just loaded the deck?

“Stupid ass shits!” This was not the time that the elves should be jerking each other off. He was aware that Bingo was telling him where he’d moved the warren. It was a good safe place as long as the oni weren’t overrunning the city. If the elves went to war with each other, the oni might just do that.

Tommy cursed. He just jumped through hoops, risked his life and Spot’s to get Jewel Tear back to Pittsburgh, and the elves were about to render it all useless. Of all the shit stupid luck…

No, this wasn’t bad luck — this was careful planning. If Earth Son was working with the oni, it wasn’t with Lord Tomtom, it was with Kajo. The damn greater blood was a master of twisting everyone and everything. This had all the hallmark of a Kajo plot.

“Tommy?” Bingo realized that Tommy had gone silent.

“The tengu haven’t found Oilcan yet?”

“Still looking, last I heard. Tinker told them just to find him, not to take him back. Apparently this grandfather of theirs has a lot of clout in the Stone Clan. She doesn’t want to start a war.”

Tinker may not, but Kajo did. If Forge made Oilcan an elf, Tinker would be pissed but she wouldn’t start a war. Not the girl Tommy knew from the racetrack; she was too smart for that. But he was fairly sure that she would deal out a world of pain on anyone that hurt Oilcan. Kajo only needed to make sure that Oilcan died in his grandfather’s care.