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I felt my eyebrow arch "Why?"

She snickered "Let’s just say there’s probably a tie hanging froht now"

"Oh," I said, dragging out the vowel "I wonder how he handles Bella without supernatural strength"

Elyssa shuddered "Gross, Justin! TMI"

I laughed, left the rooet so inas if he wanteddead and furry in the hallway It looked like a rat My hellhound barked and sat next to it, tail wagging

"Great job," I told hi us all safe, big fella"

He growled, prodding it with his nose

I really didn’t want to touch the nasty thing "Uh, why don’t you take it outside," I said

Cutsauce pushed the rat over with his nose so I could see how the skull was crushed

"Jeez, did you do that?" Apparently, the little hellhound was stronger than I thought I considered going to the kitchen and finding a stick to pick it up hen I realized soe about the corpse The floor around it was unstained by blood The fur was clean With a crushed skull, there should have been brains and gunk all over the place

Overco my distaste, I knelt down and looked at the skull It wasn’t e, like polyester or so similar The flesh beneath the fur was actually rubber or foa looked exactly like a rat On closer inspection, I realized it was a golem

Chapter 32

I picked up the fake rat by the tail and took it back inside the war roo it unceremoniously on the table Elyssa shrieked and leapt several feet into the air

"Why the hell are you putting a dead rat on the table?" she asked, her surprise turning to anger

"It’s not a dead rat," I said, and explained the fake corpse

"You think Lornicus has these things spying on us?" she asked

"Most likely"

Elyssa turned it over in her hands "What crushed its skull?"

"I think ht be cute and tiny, but he is a hellhound" I wondered if Lornicus had sent these inside the house as part of the bargain for keeping me safe froer It also explained how he sees before I told him If so, why did he deal with me at all? The only reason I could think of was his desire for a cupid

I called Stacey She and Ryland were staying in the e it saved ti a tie on their doorknob

"Yes, darling?" she purred

"We have a rat probleave her the details

"How very fortunate I ah "I’ll take care of it"

"I don’t think your friends will like the way these taste"

"It is of no matter," she said "The hunt is the fun part"

I dropped into a seat at the table "I hope the s fro our conversations"

"We’ll just have to assu around the roo but the table, which would make it difficult for a rat to have slipped in unnoticed I had to adenious I wondered if they were in the walls, too A place like this had to be riddled with secret passages even if the walls seeole intel because of li"

"I haven’t seen olem butler cleaned it up" I picked up Cutsauce and scratched behind his ears "You’re awesome," I said "You’re the bestest little hellhound in the whole world"

He growled, probably at the terue His sulfurous breath didn’t sh I had to wonder if that had so to do with my infernal nature Icoffee and some snacks, and went back to the war room where Elyssa and I pored over docu conversation li notes to each other instead of saying anything important in case rat spies hid in the walls

We discovered more transport jobs to the warehouse Darkwater had been planning to keep my mom in, and dozens of transports out to Kobol Prison Howup?

We can’t let this stand, Elyssa wrote on an arctablet,another notation about a transportation route to the prison We have to find out who they’re keeping there and save them

Yes, but first Mom, I wrote back

She sram had downloaded a lot of other infor other business dealings the organization had They ran all sorts of dirty little rackets, including quite a nu clubs, strip clubs, and a variety of other rackets involving organized cri the equivalent of the Overworld mafia We found personnel files It seemed the vast majority of Darkwater employees were also with the brotherhood, aside from clerical workers Nearly every Arcane had notations which indicated whether they’d be a good prospect for brotherhood membership or not

On the other hand, they still e about the true nature of the business They tended to be less skilled battle es and were sent to do simple security jobs for clients

It was on one of the personnel dossiers I finally found the infor for "Eureka!" I shouted

Elyssa shot me a dirty look "If you startle ht--"