Blood Slave: A Realm Walker Novel (8 page)

Chapter Eight

By the time the club emptied out, her feet ached like they were constantly cramping. Her boots were great for kicking ass, not so much for waiting on tables. Leaving her tray on the bar, she hobbled back to Morgan’s office. She knocked twice on the door and opened it when he told her to come in.

“Have a seat,” he said and gestured to one of the chairs in front of his desk. She slid into it and clasped her hands together in her lap. It didn’t matter what he wanted to say to her, it was worth it just to get off her feet for a while. Leaning back in the chair, she waited.

“What are you doing here?”

Unease crawled up her spine. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“It’s not a difficult question. Everyone is here for something. What are you here for?”

She shrugged attempting to appear nonchalant. “I needed a job.”

He shook his head. “I don’t buy it, sweetheart. People don’t just go looking for work in the River Market unless they’re dealers or whores. Candy works here because she’s a single mom and can make more in one night here than a week somewhere else. Same for Kelsey, except she’s paying for her dad’s medical bills. Jillian just likes money. And so on and so on. Now tell me, Jennifer, why are you here?”

Something in his words had her internal alarm sounding. Maybe it was his tone, the way he worded the question or the slight pause before he said her name, but Juliana had the uneasy feeling that Morgan knew who she was and why she was really here. But she couldn’t be sure and she certainly wasn’t going to ask. She needed a story that would cover her either way. “I left my boyfriend. He’s controlling, intense. My friend and I packed up his car and took off. This is as far as our money got us and this job is about as far from my old one as I could get. He’ll come after me, and I don’t want to make it easy for him to find me. That what you want to know?”

He looked at her for a moment and then nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I was after. You got a picture of this guy, you give it to Cullen. We’ll make sure he doesn’t get in.”

She blinked at him, startled by the gesture but shook her head as her thoughts turned to Thomas. “It doesn’t matter. The only thing that would be accomplished by someone trying to stop him is a lot of people getting killed. Better to just let him come.”

“I don’t think you fully appreciate who I am,” Morgan said, his voice low and lethal. “Or the lengths I’ll go to protect my girls.”

She smiled a little at that. “And I don’t think you fully appreciate the tenacity of my ex.” Or his fury if he knew she was calling him her ex. What was she getting herself into?

***

Nathaniel was waiting for her when she walked out into the early morning night. She started for the car but Cullen stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. “You know this guy? Boss told me to watch out for you.”

She smiled at him. “It’s my roommate. I’ll be fine.”

Cullen nodded and let her go. She slipped into the car and motioned for Nathaniel to drive.

“So how was it?”

She pursed her lips. “Interesting. No one asked if they could suck me dry while they screwed me if that’s what you’re after.”

“You always put everything so eloquently.”

“What about you? Discover anything that might help us?”

“Only that Charles Morgan owns all the establishments our vics worked at. Not that it means much. He owns half the city. He spends time at all his businesses, but seems to do a lot of his work out of Lust. It’s centrally located in the River Market area and it was the first business he bought there. His main businesses are all named after one of the seven sins. It’s clever. He’s even got a casino named Greed.”

“I don’t know what to think about him. On one hand, blood slaves are everywhere. There’s no effort to control the numbers or anything. On the other, he seems very protective of those under him. I can’t imagine he’s thrilled that some of his girls, as he calls them, were killed.” She shook her head. “He’s a tough read. Of course, after what happened with Taft, I find it hard to trust my instincts anyway.”

“When are you going to stop shouldering the blame for that?” Nathaniel asked, his voice tight. “He fooled everyone, not just you.”

But she’d been the one working the closest with Taft. She should have seen something, felt something that told her he was the killer. Knowing the argument would get her nowhere, she kept her mouth shut.

“You working tomorrow?” Nathaniel asked after a long stretch of tense silence.

“No. Why?”

“Morgan owns a club called Gluttony.  I’m going to check it out. It’s basically a buffet for vamps. Everyone pays a cover and the vamps get to eat and you get to be eaten. Of course, admission alone isn’t consent, some people just like to watch.”

Juliana curled her lip. She hated feeder clubs. “Why do I feel dirty all of a sudden?”

***

Ten AM came too early and Juliana sat on the edge of the bed trying to force her way through the exhaustion. She was due to meet James in half an hour. She finger combed her hair in an effort to establish some sort of order to it. Knowing it was hopeless, she gave up and headed to the bathroom, hitting the button on the coffee maker on her way by.

After splashing some water on her face, more in an effort to chase away the fatigue than to wash anything away, she brushed her teeth. She slid into a pair of jeans and a loose t-shirt as her new work uniform had pretty much killed her desire to wear anything revealing ever again. Poor Thomas. Heading back out to the little kitchen, she picked her bracelet up off the counter and slid it on. As she turned her wrist over so she could tie it up, flashes of her new tattoo showed through the gaps in the laces. She smiled then tightened the laces in well-practiced movements, hiding the shimmering purple ink.

She poured some coffee into a disposable travel cup and snapped on the lid. Pressing the dragonfly on the necklace James had given her, she stepped back and watched as the portal shimmered to life in the middle of the loft. She stepped through with a sigh. Training with her brother-in-law ranked pretty high on the list of things she’d rather not be doing right then.

James waited for her in the large open room where they practiced. He looked well-rested, energetic and ready to go.

She glowered at him. “Have I ever told you how much it annoys me that you’re a morning person?”

He smiled. “I believe it has been mentioned once or twice. We’re working on your fire spell today.”

She groaned. “Again?”

“Yes, again. And again after that. And so on, until I’m satisfied.”

“I can heat up my coffee, that’s good enough for me.”

“Well, it’s not good enough for me. Let’s go.”

Putting down the cup, she stretched forward, touching her fingers to the floor in front of her. She straightened and looked at him, waiting for her orders.

“Targets are at the far end. I want a fireball right through the middle.”

Irritation spiked through her. That was beyond her abilities and he knew it. She could light a candle, heat a pot of coffee and maybe melt some snow. That was it.

“Don’t give me that look,” he said. “We both know you’re capable of more than you’ve done up to this point. Taft proved that.”

She’d turned a serial killer inside out with her limited magic and now James was convinced she was some kickass mage, but she didn’t buy it for a second. She’d done what she needed to do at the time and that was the extent of it.

“Are you even trying?” James growled in frustration an hour later as she’d managed to do little beyond singeing the edges of the target.

“Yes I’m trying. I can’t do it.”

“Bullshit.”

“Excuse me?”

“No, I won’t excuse you. There is no excuse for this. Your reluctance to use your magic is going to get your ass killed someday.”

“Well, I’ve managed just fine up to this point.” She’d raised the volume of her voice to match his.

“Actually you haven’t, because you’ve never let me train you properly. I’ve told you again and again what you need to do to channel your abilities and you refuse to do so. Are you just going to wait until the next time someone’s trying to kill you and lash out again hoping it works?”

“It wasn’t me he was trying to kill!” She screamed the words in frustration and immediately fell silent, her chest heaving. Taking deep breaths, she willed herself to calm down.  James had gone absolutely still and silent, looking at her with those ice blue eyes. They’d never talked about what happened that day. In fact, they’d gone out of their way to avoid the conversation.

“Say that again.”

“It wasn’t me he was trying to kill.” Her voice was so low that time, she wasn’t sure if he heard her or not.

“Explain.”

She shook her head.

“Please.”

She wiped her sweaty palms on the legs of her pants. They would have to do this sooner or later. There was no reason it shouldn’t be now. “Once Taft had me, he decided he didn’t need Rachel any more. He started to suffocate her using the wild magic. Sara had already died because of me, I couldn’t let Rachel die because of me too.”

“How many times do I have to tell you that Sara’s death is not on you?”

Fury flooded her. She tightened her jaw and leaned toward him. “Isn’t it, James? Because I’m pretty damn sure I was the one that wasn’t there to stop it. I’m also pretty damn sure that Taft told me the reason he went after Sara and Rachel, the
only
reason he went after them was because he’d lost his chance at me so he wanted to go after those closest to me. I brought the son-of-a-bitch with me to dinner and watched as you reset the wards to let him in. I didn’t see what he was and it got her killed.” She was yelling by the end and flung her hands out toward the targets at the end of the room. A fireball the size of a basketball flew through the air and smashed through the middle of the center target.

Her eyes widened at the visible display of power and she stumbled backward a step or two.

James just stood with his arms crossed over his chest looking between her and the flaming target. “Told you,” he said finally and waved a hand toward the target. A shaft of ice flew through the air, colliding with the target. The heat melted the ice and the water put out the flames.

She dropped to one knee and let her head fall forward as she balanced her arm on the other knee. James squatted beside her and put his hand on her back. “You’ve got the power, Jules. We just need to hone it, to train you to access it when you aren’t pissed. Pissed will save your life in a pinch, but I’d rather you just be able to use it as you need it, angry or not, okay?”

She turned her head to look at him. “I turned a man inside out, James. There’s nothing okay about that.” As much as Taft deserved to die, the way it happened had been horrible. And the images of it had been haunting her dreams ever since. She didn’t regret killing him; she just wished it had been by bullet or blade. Something not so gruesome she wouldn’t see every time she closed her eyes.

“You did what you had to do to save my baby and yourself. Don’t you ever regret that.”

“She died grieving, James. She thought I was dead. She shouldn’t have died that way.”

“She shouldn’t have died at all, little sister. But she did and that’s because of that bastard, not because of you, understand?”

The tone of his voice told her he wouldn’t be argued with so she merely nodded her agreement. She felt the way she felt and no amount of lecturing was going to change that. Better to let him think she’d taken his words to heart.

They stayed silent, both lost in their own thoughts. “He wants me to find out where you’re going when you leave here, you know,” James said finally.

Fear made Juliana’s heart flutter. From the little she’d seen of Charles Morgan, it was evident Thomas’s involvement would not go over well. “You can’t tell him, James. He can’t get in the middle of this and he will.”

“You seem so certain of that. Have you talked to him?”

She tapped her fingers on her thighs. “No. I haven’t even called since I left. I’m afraid I’ll tell him everything if I do. To be fair though, he hasn’t called me either.”

“Little sister, if your instincts are screaming at you to confess all, don’t you think it would be wise to listen to them?”

His words were reasonable but she had a job to do. If Thomas kept getting tangled up in the middle of her cases it was going to appear as if she couldn’t handle the work on her own any more. And curse it, that just wasn’t true. She was good at her job and she’d be damned if she let anyone think otherwise. “I can’t. I just can’t.”

“Then you will tell me.” He held up a hand to stave off her unvoiced protest. “Someone outside of the Agency needs to know where you are. You tell me where you’re working and I promise I won’t tell Thomas. On one condition.”

“What condition?”

“Call him. Give him some peace of mind.”

“And if I don’t agree?”

“I’ll have my tracking mages find your precise location and hand it over immediately to my brother-in-law.”