Blood Promise (A SkinWalker Novel #4) (A DarkWorld SkinWalker Novel) (18 page)

"Good thinking. I'll figure it out." I tapped the drive into my palm while I tried to decide what was best. At last I sighed and slipped it into my pocket. "You two do some nosing around with the other kids. Ask about anything unusual."

"But Storm-"

I cut Lily of with a wave of my hand. "Yeah, but I'd rather not put all my eggs into one basket. The more sources of information we have the better."

Lily nodded, and as she got to her feet, Anjelo rose with her. They seemed to work fluidly, moving together as if they still belonged. And I hoped for Lily's sake that they really did.

They were good for each other.

As they headed to the door,
 

I scented Logan on the stairs outside. Hurrying to see the pair out, I greeted him at the door. We huddled for a moment, everyone saying helloes and goodbye, with Anjelo's awkward greeting a little painful to see. He still had problems with Logan and I had to figure that one out as soon as I had time.

Waving them off, I dragged Logan inside.

"So?" I asked as Nerina looked on expectantly.

Logan's expression was dark. "It's not good."

I sank onto the nearest seat at the dining table. "Is anything good right now?"
 

Logan remained standing, his face tight. In the last few days he seemed to have aged a decade.

"Sit down," I told him. "Tell us what you found"

He hesitated. Then he pulled another chair out from under the dining table and sat.

"I scanned the scene report," he said. "It's been tampered with. No entries to suggest a massacre. The incident now reads like a paranormal accident. The energy detectors measured pretty high amounts of paranormal Air energy, which suggests an air mage was involved, but the conclusion is accidental death. The file is now closed."

I couldn't believe it. "And they didn't get a death talker in?"

"You saw the scene," he said. "There wasn't much left to talk to."

"Such things do not matter to a death talker."
 

Both Logan and I swung our attention to Nerina.
 

"When a death talker dies," she said, "the spirit of that person can roam the normal plane for a certain time. For millennia, this ability has allowed us to communicate with the living, to pass on crucial information, family secrets. In Mika's case, her spirit found its way back to our estate and contacted her mother."

I shuddered. "That must have been awful for Kira."

"It was," she said sadly. "Lady Kira may not be the kindest of people but she is respected. Seeing her grief now has made it all the more clear to us how much of her emotion she hides. But Mika's arrival alerted us to the fact that she'd been killed and as soon as she showed us her vision, Lady Kira and I traveled to the scene to verify it."

"Verify?"

"Lady Kira could not completely trust the word of her daughter even in death. They had a lot of history." Nerina sighed and twisted her fingers. "The scene confirmed what Mika had said. Confirmed, too, that there was little left of her body. So we left."

"Kira didn't want to claim her child?"

Nerina shook her head.

I sat back, not understanding. "There are urns in your castle containing the remains of long-dead high-priestesses, but Kira's own flesh and blood isn't important enough to take home?"
 

My voice had taken on a dangerously critical edge.

Nerina's lips curved but it wasn't a happy smile. "Lady Kira does what she must. She felt that it would endanger the rest of the order if we came forward to claim the body."

"She wanted to avoid the scandal," I said, my voice hard. "She knew any media attention would focus on her relationship--or lack of a relationship--with Mika and would have been bad for her reputation."

And suddenly I no longer wanted to discuss Kira. Her daughter was more important.

I turned back to Logan. "I want to see the scene for myself."

Logan sat back, his brow creasing. "I'm not sure we can do that. Both Sentinel and Omega have people watching the place."

"I can get in and out and they'll never know I was there."

Skepticism gleamed in his eyes. "Turning into a panther doesn't always make you safe. It can make you vulnerable."

I scowled. "I'm fully capable of protecting myself, panther or otherwise."

"I'm well aware of that," he said. "But there are armed agents guarding scene. Not even your panther can survive being shot by modern weaponry."

He had a point. "But I still need to see the scene myself. I might just pick up on something you all missed."

Logan nodded. "Fine. We haven't used a walker at the scene. Your sense of smell may provide more information."
 

I got to my feet and dusted off the seat of my jeans. "I'm ready. Call Saleem."

Logan frowned. "I don't want to get him involved."

"He's already involved," I said, starting to lose patience. "And I can just imagine what he'll say when he finds out you went without asking him to help you." I raised an eyebrow. "Or would you rather
I
asked?"

In answer, Logan drew out his phone.
 

While he called Saleem I talked to Nerina. "Will you be able to get there on your own?"

Death talkers can move within the ether, going from place to place wherever they are needed. I'd also heard they used the Graylands to travel.

Nerina nodded. "I know where the place is. I shall meet you there." She drew her hood back over her head. "But first, I should report to the Lady Kira."

I made a face. "Just be careful what you tell her. A lot of what we have is just speculation. We don't want to get her hopes up."

Nerina nodded, her expression determined, as if she was building up the strength to face the grieving woman. "I will tell her only what is necessary. Don't worry, Kailin. We are both on the same team."

I smiled and nodded. Watched as she disappeared into a tiny hurricane of gray shadow and then disintegrated into nothing.
 

And wondered which team Nerina would support when it came to a fight.

W
ITH
N
ERINA
GONE
, I
TURNED
to Logan, ready to depart. And saw the expression of concern on his face. I smiled and he took me in his arms. There, in the privacy of the empty apartment he let himself go. What started as a simple hug built fast into a passionate kiss. I'd missed him so much and the depth of my need for him built as our lips met in blazing heat.

Finally he pulled away. Squeezed my butt. "Saleem's on his way, you know."

About five feet away someone cleared their throat. "Already here."

We both turned to the
djinn
, and found him grinning, his dark eyes sparkling. It always amazed me how he found the time for humor in the middle of all the mayhem that defined his life.

He clapped her hands together then rubbed them vigorously. "Now where are we headed on this clandestine mission?"

I gave him the address and told him to take us a block away. Appearing inside the room while it was occupied would be a bad move.

The shift through the planes was as disorienting as always, and my stomach turned. I was a big bad alpha panther and I got ether-sick. How embarrassing.

And just as suddenly as we'd left we returned to the human plane, the ground beneath my feet solidifying as the quiet street slowly came into view.

Cicero was a small city, west of Chicago, which had at one time been a bustling city. Not anymore. Now, most of the buildings were abandoned as citizens sought better opportunities in other more lucrative cities.

But the city, like Chicago, hadn't been entirely abandoned. Although Chicago still had a city council to maintain services, facilities, and run numerous businesses, Cicero had no council, and provided nothing to its citizens. The people who remained had to live without power and water, and so the city's atmosphere had sunk into something akin to a squatter camp.

Along its southern edge ran what had once been a popular night spot. Its restaurants and bars now stood abandoned and bare, with glass frontages smashed, and doors hanging open to dust, dirt, and animals.

As we moved down the street I allowed my panther to filter through my senses. Sounds of scurrying. Sniffing. The stench of garbage, old fat. And desperation.

Logan led us to the nearest corner, paused, and then peered around it into the street on the right. From that position we should be able to see right inside the destroyed room, the energy blast having destroyed a good portion of the front wall.

He pulled back quickly. "We have Sentinel on guard duty on this side of the sidewalk, and Omega throwing their weight around on the other side of the street."

"Why are both organizations watching the place?" I asked.

"They don't trust each other right now," said Saleem softly, giving Logan's enigmatic face a glance.

"With good reason," I said, my tone dry and little too hard.

Saleem grinned. I wasn't the only person on this sidewalk who didn't feel friendly toward Omega.

"So. You spiriting us inside the building?" I asked him.

Saleem nodded and held out a hand. Then he looked at Logan. "Coming?'

Logan nodded and grasped his arm.

When we rematerialized it was inside a dim hallway that stretched ahead of us into darkness. A door loomed a few feet from us. We'd solidified outside the bar where the kids had been killed, and somehow the murky dark that occupied the threshold to that awful place seemed to be filled with ominous shadows.

I took a step closer and inhaled a sharp breath. Logan placed a supportive palm on the small of my back, leaving it there for a few comforting seconds.

And then we entered the darkness.

M
Y
NOSE
TWITCHED
,
THE
PANTHER
scenting the coppery tang of blood. Although dried and old, the life essences in the children's blood called to me and I stepped deeper into the room.

Logan held out a hand, barring me from moving forward When I glanced at him he pointed down. A little yellow flag lay beside a dark spot on the grey concrete floor.

Blood.

Stupid
. I should have known to be careful at a crime scene. Instead, I'd barreled inside like an idiot oblivious to the evidence I could destroy by carelessness.

Get it together, Odel.

I sank into a crouch and stared at the dark spot as Saleem stepped around me to do his own search. The blood had dried to a red-brown, so much like the ochre sand of the African village that I had to suppress a shudder.

I drew on my senses and focused, giving my panther more access to my human body. My nostrils flared as I huffed in more of the scents around me, and I smelled the blood itself.

My ability to smell blood remains went only so far as to identify it as blood with a particular unique odor. And yet, now, as I stared at the reddish blotch, and inhaled the scent of the DNA, an image floated before me.