It was Cody’s turn to sigh. “Yeah, it does. But we can’t bring him in for questioning on the basis of your mom’s reading a deck of lotería cards any more than we can a ghoul’s say-so. Understand?”

“I guess.”

“Have you looked into other possible interpretations?” he asked.

“I meant to,” I admitted. “No time.”

“I know.” Cody lowered his voice. “As long as we’re being honest, you didn’t mean me, did you? In the parking lot?” he added when I looked at him with confusion. “When you said you weren’t entirely without defenses?”

“No.”

“Didn’t think so.” From his mild tone, he took no offense. “What, then?”

Opening my satchel, I showed him the gleaming, rune-etched length of dauda-dagr, its keen edges already fraying the satin lining. “Hel gave me a weapon last night,” I said. “Its name means ‘death day.’ It can kill the undead. She thought I should have it.”

Cody sucked in his breath, phosphorescent green flashing behind his eyes. “Because you’ll need it?”

I shrugged. “Maybe.”

He stared at it. “Daisy, do you have the first idea how to handle an edged weapon?”

My tail twitched with indignation. “I have a general idea. After all, it’s pointy, right?”

He exhaled hard. “Okay. Later this evening, we’re going to have a little lesson.” His tone turned firm. “No arguments, all right?”

“All right,” I agreed.

Chapter Nineteen

Nineteen

I spent the afternoon catching up on a backlog of filing, skimming the reports for any telltale signs of eldritch involvement. As far as I could tell, all was quiet on that front. The community was lying low.

A little after three o’clock, there was a commotion on the block outside the station, a flurry of excited shrieks and gasps.

“What the hell’s going on out there?” the chief called from his office.

Patty and I exchanged a glance. “I’ll go take a look,” I volunteered, jumping at the chance to take a break from filing.

The source of the commotion turned out to be none other than the head ghoul himself. Stefan and two other members of the Outcasts had parked their motorcycles halfway down the block, and were approaching the station on foot.

That was why the tourists were shrieking. I couldn’t blame them. There was no mistaking the trio for human. It was a bona fide eldritch sighting. In broad daylight, the underlying ghoul pallor was more pronounced, and an otherworldly aura that even an untrained mundane could recognize surrounded them.

Especially Stefan. And I realized, watching him walk down the sidewalk like a victorious warrior returning from battle, that I didn’t respond differently to him just because he was gorgeous.