Igor did not take kindly to strangers in her home. Even if they weren't technically strangers. And in Jorge's case, especially if they weren't technically strangers. She inflated herself up into ten pounds of menacing fluff and scars, stood about three feet inside the doorway and hissed. Any time he tried to make a move around her she swatted at his foot or bit his ankle (whichever in the moment was closer and likely to draw a louder yelp). Jali laughed, arms now full of two liters of soda and a bottle of wine, but even she passed them one by one to the sheriff and went flat against the door in order to scoot around the cat, until it was just Jorge and Igor.

And then Jorge and Igor and Caelan, who'd scooped the cat by her mangy belly and carried her pointy bits faced out into the living room. He dropped her onto the arm rest, heard the sound of the door click shut and then saw the flash of Jorge sprinting past into the kitchen shouting, "Where do you keep your oven mitts?"

"Top drawer to the left of the oven."

Igor stayed on the couch for all of two seconds, and then tore off after Jorge (quite literally; Caelan didn't want to spend any more money on this animal by purchasing a couch cover, but it was beginning to look like a necessary investment, especially since Marcy would dump him before she'd dump the cat). From his spot in the living room Caelan heard Jorge slid across the tile, the drawer squeal open. He saw the cat's inky shape whip around the corner. Jorge shrieked. Jali cackled. The sheriff walked in to Igor with her sharp little claws hugging Jorge's leg as he, wearing oven mitts, tried to wedge a wooden spoon against her arms to loosen her grip.

"Why's Marcy love this thing?" he groaned.

"Beats me," Caelan said, shrugging. But watching how unsettled Jorge was made him grin just a bit. It was kind of fun, watching folks squirm. Marcy wouldn't ever admit to enjoying watching her darling babies act less than angelic, but he rather thought she might. Especially Igor, as she was none too subtle when it came to who she tolerated and whose guts she despised. Not to mention, Igor played more nicely with him when she found what she perceived as weaker prey.

"Obviously Marcy likes things mean and lean," Jali said with a gesture to the sheriff.

"Can we at least lock her in a spare bedroom or something?"

"She's the most harmless of all the cats you'll be meeting soon," he said. "Learn to live with her." He pointed to the cabinet above the stove. Most of the cabinets, at least the more important ones housing that which he didn't want broken or chewed, had been childproof'd shut. "There's some peace offerings in there. Give her a little touch of catnip and at the very least she'll detached long enough for you to escape into the family room."

"Can she still get me there?"

"Pick a seat where you can't get surprised and you'll be much better off. You wanna call the pizza in?"

"I'll pick it up," the young man offered.

"Delivery is fine," Caelan said. "There's a lot of documents to read through. The sooner we start, the sooner we find something. Meanwhile, Jali and I are going to find whatever disgusting trinket the necromancer shoved somewhere in my home and destroy it."

With Jali's nose it didn't take long to find fresh disturbances and sour smells. A few more disturbances than the sheriff would've liked (he had mice in the attic and basement; the two areas Igor wasn't allowed, not to mention the opossum moving in under the shed). Given the sheriff was a private creature he didn't like Jali seeing every nook and cranny of the home, but they needed to be thorough. It took about an hour and a half to search, eat, search some more and finally pinpoint location. The necromancer had with presumably Zakar's help, broken in and laid not one but two small jute bags of ground bones, a blend of herbs and a snake skull dipped in what discolored similarly to tar and blood. The first had been tucked into a beam in the attic; relatively easy, not difficult to spot considering Caelan didn't use his attic. The next had been a bit trickier, stashed away between coils on his garden hose, which had been brought into the shed for the winter. Still, Tali had sniffed them out, they burned them, and in the mean time Jorge had organized the books and retreated to his car temporarily to break out a stash of sticky notes and notebooks. 

"Old school," he said, but pointed to a little square of code on the bottom of every page. "With this I scan it it in and convert right onto my laptop. Neat, huh?" 

Jali and Caelan mildly agreed. It was useful just not the sort of thing they got excited about. As they started to get settled in for the night, Caelan sent Jorge out to bring the pizza box to the trash. Jali started to follow.

"Jali," Caelan said, grabbing her wrist to let Jorge venture to the garbage can alone. "You don't have to help if you don't want to. You don't have any kind of personal connection to this case."

"Like he does?" she whispered, pointing toward the closing door. "I'm a lot more useful than him and you know it."

"A lot more useful in different ways, Jali. Jorge's smart, and he tries hard."

"Yeah but I won't make mistakes to get us all killed in the field."

"Jorge is a friend, and a good one. He understands the risks and he's willing to help anyway."

"So am I. Maybe I don't know you as long but that shouldn't matter."

"Jali," Caelan said. "Trust me, it ain't nothing against you. This thing, I don't know I believe it's really a god, but it calls itself one. You asked me about August coming back. I told you I believe he would."

The wound-up intensity of her eyes lessened to something wide and just faintly fearful. But she blinked it away after a moment. "You're saying he's got August?"

"I'm saying he's my brother. Zakar will absolutely trot August out at some point. The second he realizes what August did to you, and it won't take many seconds, believe me, he'll be after torment you, too." He didn't want to tell her the cat could be listening in even now; there was no way of knowing, but it was certain he'd find out eventually.

Jali bit her lip. "This thing could scare anybody in other ways, right? It doesn't just know everything that goes on inside your head or your life's history, right?"

Caelan shrugged. "Ain't sure, and we may never know. Zakar is a liar, Jali. He can spin something horrific up in a jiff and you'd never know whether it was real or fake without getting close enough to touch. He leaves out bits of relevant information, makes something out to be the truth only to change it down the road. We don't know the extents of his powers, what he is, or if he can be killed. But I do know he'll use August to hurt me, and he'll see August hurts you and find a new way to torment you."

"What kind of things?" she asked slowly. Jorge had returned. Jali didn't notice. Caelan held up a hand and waved the young man off. Jorge nodded and slipped around into the kitchen.

"Might depend on how much of my brother is still in there. Might be nothing. Might just be his shape or some memories he can latch on. Might be my brother himself coming to you. Zakar has got the body. It could be a doll, it might not. What matters is that it'll feel real to you. You shouldn't have to see August again."

"The worms should have his eyes," Jali said. "But I don't actually want to see the worms."

"I know," Caelan said. "And I know that any number of unknown nightmares might frighten Jorge or put him in peril and this shouldn't disqualify you from helping us. There's things none of us can prepare for and yet we have to face them every day. But I got your reports and evals, Jali. I know how hard it's been and it wouldn't sit right in my conscious to subject you to something you may or may not be prepared to confront. You have to at least know why I didn't come to you immediately with a request for help."

Jali thumbed absently through the pages of the text in her hands. "Sir," she said after a time. "You approved me for regular duties and I've been doing a good job getting myself in good working order. You know my record, and you know how much you rely on me to keep order when you're out. I trust your judgment. If you don't think I can handle whatever's going to be thrown then I'll hang back on the sidelines. I'll be pissed, and jealous and annoyed and you can bet at our next boxing match you'll hit the mat first. So what do you think?"

That she even had removed herself from the decision spoke volumes to how much August had hurt her, and how much she was hurting still, willing to take her hat of the ring if he said so. Jali was not the sort to surrender even a modicum of self-control, especially if someone like Jorge, whom she viewed overall as an annoyance, was allowed places she couldn't.

"Jali," Caelan said softly. "I can't make that decision for you. I can only give you the facts. If you chose to come, you must coming knowing some iteration of August will be waiting to torture you. Can you survive him again? Do you even want to try?"

"I made it once." Doubt tipped her tone to something low and thoughtful.

"You did," Caelan agreed, not encouraging, not attempting to set a finger on the scales to tip the weight, just affirming.

"Not alone." Her questing eyes found his. "Would you help me get through again?"

"As much as I am able to, but I may not be able to. I don't understand a lot of what's going on and may not for a time to come. I may not be in any position to help you in the end, neither could Jorge, neither could anyone else Belzer sends."

"Alright," Jali said. The more times she said it, the more confidence she gained. "I'm signing on, for now."

"Won't think anything less if you opt out any time in the future," Caelan said. "But I'm glad to have you part of the team going forward."

"Nightmares about the same thing over and over are still scary, but they get a little less frightening every time. This version of August will be new to me, but I'm an improved Jali."

"And you'll be too distracted saving my ass to be scared about some dumb zombie." Jorge poked his head around the corner. 'Matt of fact, you can start right now. I don't like being at your house, boss. I thought Igor was a big time creeper at the office. It's even worse now that I'm in her environment. Where the hell is she?"

With Jali content to laugh the serious moment off, Caelan pointed to the hearth. The fireplace, filled with logs so dried and dusty they'd ignite without more than a toothpick's worth of kindling, was a dark and often unused area of the house. Jorge peered into it from a safe distance away. Jali took a few steps back for a better angle. In the dark behind the logs, bulbous yellow eyes blinked. One black paw eased around the side of the logs, then the cat brushed herself against the gaudy gold screen guard and stepped into the open. She gave all of them a baleful expression, perhaps at being found out, and, always a crooked walker, leaned and pressed against various walls and furniture until she'd slunk herself out into the kitchen.

"God, she's spooky," Jorge said, picking up the nearest book.

"I for one like her," Jali declared, taking a seat on the opposite end of the cushion. "Keeps the riffraff away."

Jorge's hand gripped the nearest throw pillow; Jali's imperious stare had him thinking better of it and he resorted to a whiny, "Hey, I won't bite!"

"Jali will," Caelan pointed out. He had in his hands not a book about South America, but one about ritualistic summoning. Whatever the least embarrassing and cheapest spell would be ideal.

Igor was gone all of a half-minute before her dark head perked back around the corner. Tattered ear flopping, she turned her head left then right and came to sit at Caelan's feet. When the werewolf didn't react, she assessed the distance from floor to annoying hellbeast and made the leap. Her claws hooked into his chest. Before he could throw her off she'd walked his shoulders, draped herself over and flipped her tail over his nose.

Ridiculousness is part of the fun, sheriff. I for one appreciate a good spectacle. A reedy hiss slid through the air like a serpent through brush. The book Caelan was holding blew open. Igor hissed and flattened herself against his neck. You have to think about who invented these things. Certainly wasn't humans. What a night I'd have, letting you try successful spell after successful spell with my just never showing up.

From the couch across, Jali and Jorge had frozen. They were staring at Igor who was staring at a spot in the corner where there was absolutely nothing at all.

Hi, friends! came the tone, and with it the faint prickling sensation of moving air, as if someone were waving right beside you.