As I noted earlier, the station house was on a regional highway surrounded by swampy fields. So no easy escape. If a vehicle went missing from a house near the massacre scene, the cops wouldn’t rest until they found it.

That meant heading back toward New Orleans on foot, through marshy fields of thigh-high grass, our shoes squishing in the mud. The sun beat down and humidity rose from the moist ground like a steam bath. When we made it to a strip of moss-laden cypress, I called Adam.

“Are you okay?” he said in lieu of a greeting.

“I’m fine. How’s Bryce?”

“Holding up. The jet’s almost here. He’s going to Miami—at least temporarily. But about you … ?”

“Yeah, sorry for the cryptic text, but we wanted to make sure Jeremy didn’t try to track Jaime down.”

“He hasn’t yet. Lucas called and said you two had been arrested and that he didn’t want us going after you. He was very calm about the whole thing.”

“Lucas is very calm about everything.”

Adam chuckled. “Yeah, well I wasn’t. Even Jeremy was getting antsy. But Lucas insisted we hang tight until there was a cause for panic. So everything’s okay now? You guys are out?”

“We are. As for okay …”

I stumbled over a vine. Mom caught my arm and whispered, “Watch your step, Savannah.”

“Who’s that?” Adam said.

“Uh …” I looked at my mother. “Long story. Anyway, um, yeah, about the jail …”

“You broke out?”

“Er, not exactly. The officer who arrested us said we were free to go. After the rampaging werewolf episode.”

“Rampaging werewolf?”

“He was drugged.”

“Which explains everything.” Adam took a deep breath. “Okay, full story later. Short version: rampaging werewolf and impromptu jail release. Which will take some council work to fix, but the main point is that you’re out and—”

“There’s … more.”

A pause. “Do I want to know?”

“Probably not. The werewolf wasn’t the only one snacking on cops. There was this hell-beast …”

I didn’t get much farther into my story before Adam had me on speaker phone, so Jeremy could listen, with Lucas conferenced in from Miami. I put Jaime’s phone on speaker, too.

When I got to the part about the pile of corpses and the hell-beast slavering at the door, Lucas said, “That’s …”

“Did I just lose the connection or are you actually speechless?” I said.

“I think he’s trying to figure out if you got some of those drugs,” Adam said.

“I didn’t.”

“Jaime?” Jeremy said. “You’re all right? Are there lingering effects from the injection? I presume it was an injection.”

“I’m fine,” Jaime said. “But really, under the circumstances, that’s not our first priority.”

It was his, though, closely followed by the dead werewolf. As for the rest, that ball was in Lucas’s court.

“Can the Cortezes clean this up?” I asked.

“Hold on,” Adam said. “I’m still stuck on the part about a demonic entity manifesting in our world. That’s next to impossible. There are accounts of it, but none less than two hundred years old, meaning none that have been verified. Are you sure—?”

“That the creature with bat wings, a beak, and butcher-knife talons wasn’t just a really ugly police dog?”

“No, I just mean … You said it was a spell. Maybe an illusion. Like a sorcerer’s trip wire. Those things are enough to scare the shit out of anyone.”

“But they don’t rip the shit out of anyone. It tore a guy apart, Adam. Right in front of Jaime and me. Ripped him limb from limb—”

Jaime looked ready to be sick again, so I stopped.

“I’m sorry,” Adam said. “That wasn’t clear and I—”

“Had to be clear. You’re the research guy. I know.”

Lucas cut in. “Right now, I need to mobilize forces. Give me all the details you can. Did you notice the station number or address?”

My mom whispered it, which I repeated. When I’d finished, Lucas stayed silent.

“There’s someone with us,” I said.

“Yes, I noticed. For a moment, it sounded like …” A long pause. “Never mind. That address again … ?”

“The person with us,” I said. “You were going to say she sounds just like my mother.”

Silence.

“It is,” I said.

Silence.

“It’s my mom. That hell-beast the sorcerer brought over? It was a test run for what he really wanted to do—which was summon my mother.”

“You means she’s … ?” Adam began.

“Right here. In the flesh.”

More silence. At last Jeremy broke it, saying, “Hello, Eve.”

“Hey, Jeremy,” Mom said with a smile. “Long time no see. Well, I’ve seen you plenty of times, but maybe we’ll finally get a chance for a face-to-face now.”

“I …” Adam began. “I don’t understand. How … ?”

“We aren’t sure on the how,” Mom said. “But we have a pretty good idea why I was brought over. I’m not your average ghost.” She paused. “Jeremy, can you explain it after we sign off?”

I glanced over at Jaime.

“She didn’t tell him,” my mother murmured to me. “He figured it out.” She raised her voice. “Jeremy will tell you why I’m such a valuable commodity. Now, we really should let you guys get to work on cleanup duty. Savannah is …” She glanced at my bandaged throat. “She really shouldn’t be talking so much.”

“What?” Adam said. “I thought she was okay. Savannah?”

Mom winced. “She’s fine, Adam. Just a … blow to the throat. It’ll be sore for a few days.”

“Blow?” He swore under his breath. “Okay, tell us where you are. We’ll be right there.”

“We … can’t do that,” I said. “We need to lie low until we’re sure no one links us to this thing.”