“What happened?” Diesel asked Wulf.
“Apparently, the ridiculous rumor that we should not have relations with our own kind is true. I met a woman who neglected to mention her special abilities to me. And now as time goes on she becomes more and more powerful, assuming my skills, and I’m left with very little. Obviously, I was the loser in this latest attempt to stop her.”
“Anarchy,” Diesel said.
“Yes. Also known as Deirdre Early. She’s the heiress to the Early candy fortune. She has all the power and no ability to control it,” Wulf said. “She was a monster in her own right, and I’ve created an even more powerful monster.”
“Is there a way to uncreate her?” I asked him.
“Not easily,” Wulf said.
“Sire,” Hatchet said to Wulf, “perhaps if we had relations, I could obtain some of your skills and I could take over the business.”
Wulf gave Hatchet a smack to the back of his head that knocked him to his knees. “I still have the strength to kill you,” Wulf said.
We were almost back to Marblehead, and I was struggling to keep my eyes open.
“Crawling around in dirt tunnels and swimming in grottoes is exhausting,” I said to Diesel. “I’m going to bed early.”
“And I’m sleeping on the couch,” Diesel said. “That was a freaking sobering experience. It’s not bad enough that Wulf is losing his power . . . the recipient went batshit.”
“What are you going to do about her?”
“I’m going to try to locate her through the Early family. If no one’s heard from her I’ll go back into the tunnels to see if I can find her.”
“She has the tablet.”
“True,” Diesel said, “but we have the stone.”
“Omigosh!”
Diesel turned onto Washington Street. “I don’t like the way that sounded. Should I be worried?”
“I don’t have the stone.”
“You lost the stone?”
“It was in my purse.”
“And?”
“I don’t have it. I think I left my purse in Hanover. I dropped it when the Sphinx exploded. And I sort of remember Hatchet picking it up, but then I turned my attention to Wulf.”
Diesel gave a bark of laughter.
I rolled my eyes at him. “It’s not funny!”
“I was thinking about Wulf going back to his car and discovering he had the Luxuria Stone. Here he is having a truly bad day. He’s been chained to a bomb and left to die. Then he’s rescued by a cupcake baker. And worst of all, he has to admit to us that he’s lost his power. And just when he’s thinking he’s at the bottom, the Luxuria Stone drops into his lap.”
“Life is strange,” I said.
Diesel pulled into the parking area in front of my house, and we got out and stretched. Carl was sitting in the window, looking out at us, his face pressed to the glass.
> “I must have been really terrible in a previous life to deserve Carl in this one,” Diesel said.
“You like him.”
“He’s family,” Diesel said. “He even looks like family. You should see my cousin Ralph.”