Bob bloodline curse

Alamaya departed the temple in silence. Within a minute she was back. She bowed to the Red King - a full, kneeling bow, at that - and said something quietly.
The Red King narrowed his eyes. He murmured something to the girl and walked out. Conch horns blew and the drums began again as he appeared to those outside.
Alamaya had to raise her voice slightly to be heard. "My lord wishes you to know that this place is watched and warded. Should you attempt to leave with the child, you will be destroyed, and she with you. "
"Understood," I said calmly.
Alamaya gave me a more conventional bow and hurried out after the Red King.
When she was gone, I took two steps over to the altar and the dead woman upon it. Then I said, "All right. Tell me what I'm looking at. "
From the improvised Rolling Stones T-shirt bag tied to my sash, Bob the Skull said, in his most caustic voice, "A giant pair of cartoon lips. "
I muttered a curse and fumbled with the shirt until one of the skull's glowing orange eye sockets was visible.
"A big goofy magic nerd!" Bob said.
I growled at him and aimed his eye at the altar.
"Oh," Bob said. "Oh, my. "
"What is it?" I asked.
"The ritual curse they're setting up," Bob said. "It's a big one. "
"How does it work? In ten seconds or less. "
"Ten sec - Argh," Bob said. "Okay. Picture a crossbow. All the human sacrifices are the effort you need to pull back the string and store the energy. This crossbow has its string all the way back, and it's ready to fire. It just needs a bolt. "
"What do you mean, a bolt?"
"Like the little girl hiding back behind it," Bob said. "Her blood will carry the stored energy out into the world, and conduct that energy to the target. In this case, her blood relatives. "
I frowned for a second. Then I asked, "Does it have to be Maggie, specifically?"
"Nah. One bolt is pretty much like another. Long as you use a compatible knife to spill the blood, it should work."
I nodded. "So . . . what if we used a different bolt?"
"The same thing would happen," Bob said. "The only difference would be who is on the receiving end. "
"It's a loaded gun," I said quietly. I frowned. "Then why'd they leave me alone with it?"
"Who you gonna kill to set it off?" Bob asked. "Your little girl? Yourself? Come on, boss. "
"Can we disarm it then? Scramble it?"
"Sure. It'd blow this temple halfway to orbit, but you could do that. "
I ground my teeth. "If it goes off the way they mean it to, will it kill Thomas?"
"The girl's human," Bob said. "So only the human bits. His body, his mind. I suppose if he got lucky, he might wind up a vegetable in which his Hunger demon was trapped, but it won't spread any farther into the White Court than that. "
"Dammit," I said. I started to say more, but caught motion out of the corner of my eye. I stuffed Bob all the way back into the sack, admonishing him to shut up, and turned to find Alamaya entering the temple with a dozen of the full-vampire jaguar warriors at her back.


Changes Chapter 44, Page 467-469