Darkness Splintered (DA 6) (5 page)

I swore softly, wrapped my fingers around my keys, and called to the Aedh within. She came with a rush that literally blew me away. Energy tore through every muscle, every cell, numbing pain and dulling sensation as it broke them all down, until my flesh no longer existed and I became one with the air. Until I held no substance, no form, and could not be seen or heard or felt by anyone or anything who wasn’t reaper or Aedh.

In that form, I swept out of the house and into the sunshine, speeding away from peace and quiet of the rolling hills, heading toward Melbourne and the Collins Street building that housed Lucian’s apartment.

I didn’t re-form as I neared the building – there were too many people walking along this end of Collins Street to risk that. I didn’t immediately go into the building, either, but scanned it carefully, looking for anything that seemed odd or out of place.

It was one of those grand old Victorians the top end of Collins Street was famous for and, like many of them up here, only five stories high. Lucian’s apartment was on the top floor, at treetop level, and would have been beautiful once it had been finished. Not that being unfinished had ever stopped us from using the place – and we’d certainly shared many good times within the half-constructed interior walls. But it had all been a lie.

Well, not so much the joy he’d gotten out of sex – in
that
area, at least, he’d been real and honest. And yet the sex had been nothing more than a means to an end for Lucian. What he’d wanted – what he’d always wanted – was the keys.

The keys were
everything
. To Lucian, to my father, to the Raziq, and Hunter. Hell, even Azriel…

I cut the thought off abruptly. Don’t think about him, I reminded myself fiercely. Just
don’t
.

But it was hard
not
to when I was carrying his child.

I cursed and moved warily into the building. There didn’t seem to be any traps, but that didn’t mean they weren’t here. After all, Lucian’s other lover – and his partner in key-stealing crime – was a dark sorceress. And while we had no actual proof Lauren had been working with both Lucian
and
the key thief, my father certainly hadn’t denied the possibility, and that was good enough for me. And given
that
, she’d want to protect his identity just as much as Lucian had. After all, the game was far from over – for them, as much as for us.

I slipped under the locked gate and into the building’s foyer. New marble had replaced much of the old, but the floor was covered in dust and the breeze rustled the plastic sheeting still covering some of the walls. There were no workmen here, despite the fact it was only early afternoon. With Lucian dead, I guess they’d have no choice but to shut the site down – at least until his estate was sorted out, anyway.

That’s presuming he’d made a will. Lucian had never suffered from a lack of confidence, and he certainly wouldn’t have expected to die as he had – especially by my hand. But it might be worth doing a search through the probate office records. If he
did
have heirs, maybe he’d left information with them.

There would be something, somewhere, of that I was sure. Lucian had been betrayed once, and it had cost him his Aedh powers. He wasn’t likely to let anything like that happen again. He
would
have had some form of insurance.

I moved forward again, but tiredness washed through my particles and I stopped. I might shift to Aedh with far greater accuracy and power these days, but it still took a lot of energy to hold this form, and I wasn’t at my best. Not to mention the fact I was now pregnant. I had no idea how far along I was, but even if it was little more than a week or so, it would no doubt drain my strength faster. After all, there were now two beings for the energy to alter. I just had to hope that being in this form wouldn’t affect my child. But Azriel was energy rather than flesh, and I was half werewolf
and
half Aedh, so our child belonged to all three. Surely something that was part of my child’s heritage would not harm him or her.

Still, given the building site was closed, there was little reason to remain in Aedh form. I called to the transforming magic once again, and it stormed through me, rearranging cells until I was once again wearing flesh.

Dizziness immediately swept me, and I had to grab at the nearby wall to remain upright. But the pain that raced through my being was next to nothing when compared to my usual state after a shift.

My clothes, however, came through the change as disastrously as ever. They always disintegrated just fine, but re-forming them was trickier, as the magic didn’t always delineate bits of me from the other particles. Which meant I often ended up with a dustlike sheen covering my skin rather than fully formed pieces of clothing. My jeans generally came through relatively intact, although the breeze teasing my left butt cheek suggested a rather largish hole around that area. My underwear, as usual, hadn’t fared all that well, given both my knickers and bra were little more than fluff that clung to my skin and itched like hell. My sweater had also survived – a good thing, considering the state of my bra. Being nearly naked on a building site probably wasn’t a great idea, even if the building site was currently empty.

But I’d barely pushed away from the wall when a familiar scent teased my nostrils. I swore softly and turned around, my gaze scanning the plastic sheeting. As I did, Jak Talbott stepped out from behind it and said, “Well, that was certainly one
hell
of an entrance. Care to explain how you did that, exactly?”

“No,” I bit back. “Care to explain why the
hell
you’re here?”

Because he was certainly the
last
person I wanted – or had expected – to see here. Not only was he my first love – though one, thankfully, I’d finally gotten over – but also a reporter with a nose for a story. I did
not
want said nose sticking in this particular story, even if I’d been using him – and his resources – to help find the ley-line gate.

His answering smile was slow and sexy. At five ten, he was pretty much the average height for a male werewolf, and while he wasn’t what I’d term drop-dead gorgeous, his rough-hewn features could certainly be classified as handsome. His hair, like his skin, was black, but there was a whole lot of gray in it these days. More, perhaps, since he’d become part of my quest. As for the smile – well, it had certainly enabled him to slay more than his fair share of maidens. Me included.

“Where else was I supposed to be?” he said, his dark eyes showing little of the amusement evident in his expression and his voice. “You wouldn’t answer the phone, Tao threatened to cut my nuts off if I went near you, and Ilianna – well, heaven only knows what
she
would have threatened had I contacted her.”

Amusement bubbled briefly. Given Ilianna’s opinion of Jak’s reappearance in my life, her threat would probably have been a whole lot nastier than Tao’s. “None of which explains your presence here.”

“Where else might I be given the Directorate’s reticence about answering questions concerning Lucian?” He eyed me for a second, the amusement fading. “I figured that, given your involvement with the man, sooner or later you’d come here.”

A statement that made me wonder just how much he knew about Lucian’s death. “You could have been waiting a long time —”

“I doubt it. Now, it’s your turn.”

I grimaced. “Look, the way I reappeared… it’s not something —”

“Don’t try that,” he cut in. “We passed the whole ‘it’s not something I need to know’ thing around the time we were attacked by hellhounds. I deserve some honesty, Ris, if nothing else.”

I sighed. He was right. He did. After all, I could hardly bitch about people lying to
me
when I was doing the exact same thing to him.

“You know how Azriel comes and goes —”

“You’re
not
a reaper.” His gaze swept me, though I wasn’t entirely sure why. When Azriel wore flesh, it wasn’t obvious he was anything else.

“No, I’m not.” Not yet, anyway. “But I
am
partially an energy form. My father is an Aedh, just as Lucian was.”

Something sparked in his eyes. The reporter within had the scent of a story. “So you
do
know he died?”

I hesitated, though there was little point in denying it. “Yeah.”

“And do you happen to know
how
?”

“Why? What have you heard?”

“Interesting way of not answering the question, Ris.” He studied me for a moment, then added, “I talked to several people who were near the warehouse at the time of his murder. By their accounts, it appeared that Lucian had been blown up – something later refuted by the Directorate. They said the cause was accidental.”

If the Directorate were saying
that
, it could only mean Uncle Rhoan was cleaning up my mess and protecting my ass. They knew, as much as I did, that it had been no accident.

But if Jak had been talking to people who’d been near the warehouse at the time of Lucian’s death, it was more than possible he knew my part in it. Still, I returned his gaze steadily. “And you don’t believe the Directorate’s statement?”

He snorted. “I saw the photographer, remember? From what the witnesses said, the manner in which Lucian died was almost identical.”

The photographer had been one of the many leads Lucian had erased before we’d had the chance to talk to him. I’d forgotten Jak had been there when I’d discovered the body. “Whoever killed Lucian didn’t kill the photographer.”

“Never suggested they did.” He quirked an eyebrow. “And that wasn’t actually a question I asked.”

Perhaps not out loud, but it was nevertheless implied. And I didn’t have to be psychic – although, technically, given my somewhat unreliable clairvoyant abilities, I was – to predict his next question.

“It does, however, force me to ask – did you kill him?”

I didn’t pull my gaze away, didn’t react, even if my insides were churning so badly it felt like I was about to throw up. “What do you think?”

“I think it’s possible, and I’d like to know why.”

I considered my options, weighing honesty – and what that might mean – against the knowledge that I still needed his help. Probably more so now than ever before thanks to the fact that I’d pushed Azriel away.

And yet, it was no more right to draw Jak deeper into this whole mess than it was to involve Ilianna or Tao.

“It’s possible,” I said eventually, “that Lucian died the way he did simply because that’s the exact same way he killed my mother.”

Jak blinked. “Lucian killed your mother? Why the hell were you fucking him, then?”

“Why do you think, asshole?” I spun around and stalked toward the elevator.

He took several quick steps and grabbed my arm, stopping me. “Look, I’m sorry, but you’ve got to admit, it’s an obvious question.”

I drew in a deep breath, though it did little to calm the rush of anger – anger that was aimed just as much at myself as at him.

“Do you think I haven’t agonized over the fact I was having sex with my mom’s murderer? It makes me want to puke every time I think about it.” I pulled my arm from his and continued on to the elevator. “And the worst of it is, that
wasn’t
the end of his crimes. It was just the beginning.”

Jak fell in step beside me. “What else did he do?”

“Just about everything.” I punched the Call button. “He was working with the sorcerer who stole the keys, and he was reading my thoughts during sex to keep up-to-date with everything we were doing to find them.”

“Wow,” Jak murmured. “Even
I
wasn’t that much of a prick. At least when
we
were making love, I concentrated on the business at hand.”

A reluctant smile touched my lips. “Oh, I don’t know about that. There were definitely occasions when it seemed your thoughts were elsewhere.”

“If my thoughts were elsewhere, you can bet it was because I was trying
not
to come. You, my dear, can sometimes make a man a little too quick on the trigger.”

My smile grew. “I did notice you had a tendency to fire off a little too soon —”

“It didn’t happen
that
often,” he said, nudging me with his shoulder.

“If you say so,” I murmured, amused. The elevator door opened and I stepped inside.

He followed close behind. “What floor are we heading to, and why?”

“Top floor, to what would have been Lucian’s apartment. I’m looking for clues.”

He punched the appropriate button. “Clues for what?”

I grimaced. “I wasn’t Lucian’s sole bed partner. Not only was he bedding a dark sorceress, but we’re pretty sure the two of them were partners in crime with the sorcerer who stole the keys.”

“Well, speaking from experience, the man had to have superman’s stamina if he could cope with more than
you
in his bed.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You and I are over, so you really can stop with all the compliments.”

“Hey, throwing a compliment doesn’t mean I want back in your bed. I mean, yeah, I’d love it, but I’ve come to accept it’s not going to happen.” He paused, then added more seriously, “So we’re looking for something to pin down the sorceress?”

“No, because we know who she is. However,
we’re
not looking for anything.
I’m
looking. I don’t believe you were invited to this particular party.”

“Unfortunately, you’re stuck with me. I mean, considering the options and all, what choice do you have?”

“
That
sounded like a threat, and really? That’s not a place you want to go.”

“It wasn’t so much a threat,” he murmured. “Not considering you could probably get your uncle to throw my ass into jail or erase my memory.”

“Then what the hell was it?”

“More a… reminder. I know what I know, simply because I have the contacts. Contacts you still need.”

I should have been annoyed, but the reality was, he was right. I’d gone to Jak in the first place because of those contacts, and I still very much needed them.