CHAPTER 108

"What happened to Murray?" Cyrus turned his head back and forth, as if trying to figure out where they were standing. "Did you hurt him?"

"Owner of this house? We're not sure." Eulalie looked at Sofia. There were so many lines to pluck at right now, but she didn't know where to proceed.

"Not sure isn't a great answer," Cyrus grumbled.

"Why does it matter?" Sofia asked.

"Because I want to know what kind of people I'm dealing with," he answered.

"We didn't hurt him. Is he a friend of yours?" Sofia asked, the tip of the blade now teasing his nipple. Her lips had parted slightly, and Eulalie wondered if she was getting off on this.

Cyrus paused, then shook his head. "I know everyone who lives on this street."

"Why?" Eulalie asked.

"Nope. My turn." He flinched when Sofia poked his nipple. "Why are you watching the Radley house?"

Eulalie and Sofia looked at each other.

"What makes you think we're--"

"Please, I have to pee. I'm an old man who got knocked out last night." He let out a disgruntled sigh. "I've been watching your drone. Not sure how you got the pet rats to do patrols, but I can also tell that something happened over at the house."

"What makes you such an expert?" Sofia asked. "On the house, I mean."

Cyrus groaned. "Please, I really have to pee."

Eulalie pursed her lips together, and then looked at Sofia.

"I can take him," Sofia said. "If he tries anything, I'll just kill him."

Eulalie wasn't certain how serious Sofia was, but nodded. They untied him and Sofia marched him into the bathroom and pointed him toward the toilet. Once he was done, he was marched back to the bed and then held down while Eulalie retied her webs.

"What kind of rope is this?" he asked. "It feels like silk."

"I pulled it out of my ass. Now spill. Why are you watching the Radley house?"

"It wasn't just me. I was curious about the place for my own reasons, but there was someone else watching it, too. That meant there must be something worth watching." He let out a sigh. "Or there was. It's been a couple of months since I've seen the others. I originally thought that maybe they came back and did something to the house."

"What makes you think something happened?" asked Sofia.

"I am...was considered an expert in extraplanar spellcraft. I can tell that something massive happened right at the edge of the property, either a rift was opened, or something worse. I haven't been around much lately, the weather makes my joints hurt, but I assume it was recent. The only reason I even came last night was that I tracked a gargoyle who tossed a statue off of a church back to the house. Wondered if something had happened, so I've been snooping around a bit more than usual."

Sofia rolled her eye and mouthed the word Abella.

"So a planar disturbance, huh?" Eulalie tapped her fingers on the frame of the bed. "How does one become an expert on such a thing?"

"I was a member of a secret society," he answered. "But I'm retired now."

"So why are you watching our house?" Sofia asked. "You still didn't answer that."

"You live there?" he asked. "Then you must know Lily."

"Lots of people know Lily," Sofia responded. "Bad people."

"What about Dana?"

"Same answer," Eulalie replied.

She could see him swallow hard. When he spoke, his voice croaked a little. "Tick Tock?"

She looked at Sofia, who shrugged.

"We're at an impasse," Eulalie explained. "For all we know, you are pumping us for information about our friends. Give us something better to work with."

"I last saw them in Hawaii," he explained.

A lightbulb went off in Eulalie's head. She remembered where she had heard the name. "Who did you fight there?"

"A dragon-man named Tristan Edge. The fight went poorly for my people." Cyrus let out a sigh. "It's sort of the reason I'm in retirement."

Eulalie had heard this story from Lily and seen bits and pieces of it. Once she and Dana had left Oregon, Eulalie had tracked the two of them by hacking into cameras and then deleting the footage. Once in Hawaii, it had been quite tricky to track down footage from the Black Palace and delete it. She hadn't watched any of it, because it had been far more important to destroy all of the footage so that nobody would know about Dana's existence. There had been an unexpected team-up with the Order to take down a man who had been eating virgins to become a dragon.

"You were a member of the Order." She took a step back, her eyes narrowing. The Order had tried to kill her parents before she was born.

He nodded.

"So then why are you here?"

"Truthfully? I'm not really sure. Things went very bad for us in Hawaii, and I was forced to confront some truths that were difficult to swallow. Lily, against her better judgment, I'm sure, spared me. I was able to track her here but wasn't sure what the next step was. I didn't know if Mike was a threat. It's kind of what I used to do."

Eulalie looked over at Sofia, who had gone red in the face. Her shoulders were tensed up, and when she saw Eulalie looking, she turned to face the wall.

"So you were here to hurt him?" Eulalie asked.

"No. Just to watch. After the things I saw in Hawaii, I don't know that I could do much against him or your friends. Hell, I didn't even know you had a gargoyle until I tracked it here. There are rumors out there about your house, stories that don't quite add up. You have some very powerful enemies."