He gave her a sheepish grin. "Sorry. But I have news."
We all looked at him, but he just stood there smiling.
Susan rolled her hand in an "on with it" gesture. "Spit it out. What news?"
"Jack's in love with Tess."
The fiery blush that immediately crashed up from my neck to my face didn't help my headache one bit.
Jed turned to me. "By the way, how many children do you plan to have? I think six is a good number."
When I did not, as I was fervently hoping, fall through the sidewalk and disappear, I pointed to Susan's squad car.
"You, Jed, are going with the sheriff. Take the box with you. She may need it as evidence or something."
When Jed started to respond, Jack growled at him. Jed's lips twitched, like he was fighting a smile, but he held up his hands in surrender.
Susan, who also seemed to be trying not to laugh, nodded. "Yes, he can come with me. I'll be interested in learning more about this Fae queen. Always helps to know your enemy. Carlos said the vampire Council will help us if it comes to war."
When Jed and Jack went to the back of the truck to retrieve the box, Susan leaned close to me. "Six might be a few too many. None of my business, but …"
"If I punch you in the arm, you'll feel it," I warned.
"That would be assault on an officer of the law," she said mildly, still grinning. "Nice to know you guys can think oflurvein the middle of a crisis."
I put my hands over my face and groaned. "Okay, okay, come to Friday Bad Movie Night with me and Molly, and we can talk about all of this, if I still have a house—if we still have a town—later this week."
"It's a date. And wewillhave a town." She surprised me with a quick, fierce hug, and then she and Jed drove off.
"I'm not having six children," I warned Jack, my cheeks flaming hot. "Not that we've even talked about this, but I just want you to know. If that's a, I mean, if—"
Jack burst out laughing. "Your face. Oh, Tess, I'm sorry, but the look on your face. It's just like Mike's face when Ruby bullies him into eating Brussels sprouts."
I crossed my arms and tapped my foot while the tiger in my life continued to laugh for what seemed like a very long time, but was probably only thirty seconds.
"Are we still going to drive all over town and try the dowsing rod theory? Or are you going to keep standing on the street laughing like a loon?"
He pulled me close and kissed me. "I'm a tiger, not a loon. But yes, let's go. Dead End is small enough that this shouldn't take all night. Then maybe we can go to your place and you can get some actual rest."
But an hour later, we discovered the second place my dowsing rod of a headache signaled wildly and painfully: Dead End High School.
It wasn't looking good for the missing Mr. Washington.
26
Jack
Deputy Andy brought Jed over to Tess's place at around midnight, and my grandfather and the dagger box went to her guest room to sleep. Lou followed him in there and jumped up on the bed to sleep with him, which he didn't seem to mind, so Tess let her stay there. She gave him a toothbrush and toothpaste from the small stash she kept for guests—luckily, we'd covered toothpaste at my place during the bathroom lesson—pointed him to the bathroom and towels, and collapsed, exhausted, on the couch.
"Aunt Ruby texted me that Uncle Mike planned for Bonnie Jo, the goat, and the rest of the livestock to be trailered out on Thursday morning, if we can't solve this thing by then," she told me. Bonnie Jo was their horse, who may have been the oldest horse I'd ever seen, but was still lively for her age.
And who, apparently, got her teeth rasped. I ran my tongue over my incisors and winced. Luckily, tigers didn't need teeth rasping. I can't imagine the person who'd be brave enough to dothat.
"Go to sleep, Tess. Please. You need some rest. I'm going to do a quick patrol, just for peace of mind, not that I expect anything to be wrong, and then I'll sack out on the couch."
She nodded, weariness plain in the dark circles beneath her eyes and in her slumped shoulders. "Yes. I think I need to sleep. We can go to the high school in the morning to find Mr. Washington."
"If he shows up for work." I had my doubts. Who knew what the dagger had done to him? The magic could have made him unstable. Yelling at students—using a Fae artifact in a high school play—if that's what he was up to, then something was really wrong.
