* * *
As soon as Harold hit the dirt, the zombies froze with a blank expression of mild confusion on their faces, like they’d all forgotten something. Were they all in each other’s heads, all the time? Had the sudden absence of Harold’s overriding voice left them lost, shocked, confused? Paddington certainly hoped so.
“Norm?” he shouted, pushing through the unresisting horde.
Over here, Jim… Norm said, but he didn’t sound certain of it.
“Get everyone out of here,” Paddington said. “Right now!”
Uh, yeah… Norm shook his head and frowned with hairless eyebrows, then turned to his fellows. Right everyone! Nothing to see here! Back south, you undead gits!
Still confused, the zombies shuffled away from the Team and the Tree. Paddington sidled over to Mitchell as silently as he could, hoping none of the zombies were watching him.
“Detective,” Mitchell said, “I think it’s time you started answering my questions.”
“Get out of here,” Paddington whispered, “before the zombies realise that they’re walking away from a meal.”
Mitchell hesitated, then apparently decided that questions like “How long have you been a werewolf” could wait until Paddington was wearing pants.
He did ask one question, though: “And what are you going to do?”
Paddington glanced over his bare shoulder at the vampires, who stood in a tight group nursing scrapes and bruises, then at the seven wolves who sat nearby, watching them.
“I’m going to finish this,” Paddington said, and strode toward the duke.
Adonis stepped forward to meet him with a smile. Hardly what Paddington had expected from a man whose schemes had been so thoroughly thwarted. Where was the rage? The screams for retribution? “Detective.” Adonis clapped Paddington on the back and led him away like old friends at a chance meeting. “What a terrible night.”
“Did it not go to plan?” Paddington asked.
“We had nothing to do with this tragedy.”
They had drifted a distance from the vampires, the wolves, and the Team. They were, in other words, alone.
“But let us speak of the future,” said Adonis. “You have done very well tonight, detective. You solved the case and saved us all. Clearly you’ve outgrown our little island. After tonight’s events, I shall have no trouble recommending you to join – and perhaps lead – this Supernatural Team. The Mainland is the place for you, detective. You have always known this.” Adonis smiled. “What do you say?”
For Paddington, it’s not even a choice; his past has left him no other path to tread.