Chapter Thirty-Eight
I passed out again, this time from blood loss, or maybe grief. For a woman who’d never fainted in her life, I was making quite a habit of it.
I awoke in the hospital with Diana at my side.
“Since when do stitches warrant a bed?” I asked.
“It wasn’t the stitches that worried them but the fainting.”
“Worried me, too,” I admitted. “I’m going to lose my Jäger-Sucher ass-whupping card.”
“I doubt that.”
Silence settled between us. A silence full of questions, which I couldn’t let continue.
“Sorry I didn’t tell you everything,” I blurted.
“What didn’t you tell me?”
“About Sarah.” I braced to fight the tears, but none came.
“If I’d lost a child,” she said gently, “I wouldn’t want to talk about it, either.”
“You’re very understanding.” I considered her for a minute. “Am I dying?”
“No.” She got up and went to the window.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“Murphy’s gone. The diamond, too.”
And that started the tears when Sarah hadn’t.
“Damn it,” Diana muttered, hurrying back to my side. “I should have kept my yap shut.”
“No.” I scrubbed my face. “I knew he wouldn’t stay. I was surprised he came back in the first place.”
“Elise really wanted to study that diamond.”
“I bet.”
“She took the black diamond knife instead.”
“That might amuse her for a while.” Though I doubted it. The black diamond knife was just pretty unless it was used on a wereleopard, and we appeared to be fresh out.
“Edward’s in a serious snit,” Diana continued. “He hates it when people disappear and he isn’t behind it.”
I had to smile at that.
The door opened. Edward stepped into the room. “Better?” he asked.
I sat up, wincing at the pain in my head and my shoulder. “Yes, sir.”
“Excellent.” That said, he got right back to business. “Renee went to the village—”
“She was able to find it?”
“According to her, the waterfall was just a waterfall, the cave just a cave, and beyond that there was more mountain with no jungle at all.”
I guess that made sense. The waterfall had reappeared when we’d thought Mezareau dead, though he’d only been unconscious. His literal death must have made everything revert to its original state.
“What about the zombies?” I asked.
“The village was empty. Nothing but piles of dust, a few shards of bone.”
“The magic died,” I murmured, “when Mezareau did.”
Which meant the zombies weren’t really alive after all.
“Spells often fail when the spell caster dies,” Edward agreed.
“But not curses,” Diana muttered. “Noooo.”
“If anyone tries to raise another zombie army,” Edward said, “we need do nothing except kill the one who raises them.”
“But that shouldn’t ever happen again,” Diana interj ected. “Mezareau was the only one who knew how to create a wereleopard.”
Edward sighed. “There is always another.”
Diana cast a quick, concerned glance in my direction. She must be worried I’d leap out of bed and immediately try to find another way to become a wereleopard.
Maybe after I got rid of the headache.
“I have set my best trackers on finding Murphy,” Edward said.
“Don’t bother on my account.”
If he didn’t want me, I didn’t want him.
“Your account?” Edward appeared puzzled; then his face cleared. “Oh, the sex.”
Diana rolled her eyes. “Maybe the love?”
“You love him?” Edward asked.
“No.”
Diana snorted and Edward’s lips tightened. “I hate it when my agents fall in love. It’s so messy.”
“It’s not messy,” Diana snapped. “You get two agents where you previously had one. Don’t be an ass.”
Edward ignored her; maybe he was mellowing. Or maybe he just realized he was an ass much of the time.
“I was not looking for Murphy for you,” he said, “but for the diamond.”
“Good luck,” I muttered. Edward wasn’t going to find him.
“My second concern is you.”
“I’m fine,” I said.
“Not your health, but your magic.”
“Sir?”
“You were made a wereleopard because you had power. Even though you are no longer a shape- shifter, you’re still a voodoo priestess. You have raised the dead, which makes you a sorceress.” He lifted his hand, even as I opened my mouth to argue. “I know I ordered you to do it; however, I do not want to be called back here to deal with you if you decide to run amok.”