Darkness Devours (30 page)

He reached out and gently ran his fingers up my chin to my lips. It hurt, even though his touch was light. He dropped his hand, his fingers suddenly clenched. “I will order your meal and then go take care of Jak. Call if you need me.”

I nodded, my skin still aching from his touch. Once he’d left, I simply stood there, letting the heat of the water chase the chill from my flesh and wishing it
could do the same to the odd knot of coldness deep inside of me.

After what seemed like ages, I sighed and washed myself properly, then grabbed a towel and stepped out of the shower. One look in the mirror revealed the reason why Azriel’s soft touch had hurt so much. Half my face was bruised, and there were similar blotches all over my body. It was as if in taking me apart so brutally, the Raziq had damaged the very fabric of me. And it made the bruises I’d received when I’d been knocked off my bike seem mild in comparison.

My bike… damn, in all the madness I’d forgotten about her. And while a bent and busted Ducati sat pretty low on the scale of immediate problems, it was at least something that had a clear path of action.

Unlike everything else in my goddamn life at the moment.

I swung around and went in search of my phone, then remembered I’d left it in the rear of the rental car. Which was unlocked, with the keys sitting inside. If it hadn’t been stolen, it would be a goddamn miracle.

I scanned the room, found the hotel’s phone, and rang Lonny to see what the damage was.

“Well, it ain’t pretty.” His voice held even more of a drawl than usual, and that probably meant bad news. “We can fix her, but it’s going to cost. Spare parts for that model are a bitch to find.”

“I don’t care what it takes. Fix her.”

He grunted. “Figured you’d say that, so I’ve already started ringing my sources. You want an estimate or shall I just go ahead?”

“Just do it.” Money wasn’t a problem, and even if it
had been, I wouldn’t have cared. She was the first thing I’d ever purchased with my own money, and I’d be damned if I let her go. Besides, she was a reminder of the sane, normal life I wanted—a life that seemed to be slipping further and further away from me. “Thanks, Lonny.”

“I’ll be in contact if we have a problem,” he said, then hung up.

I rang Ilianna next, getting an update on Tao—who was still improving but not yet conscious—and asking her to alter the power of her wards so that Azriel could get into our apartment.

The doorbell rang as I said good-bye to her. Figuring it was probably the meal Azriel said he’d order, I shouted, “Hang on a minute,” then quickly threw on a shirt and jeans. I grabbed some of the change I’d dumped onto the bedside table the night before and walked across the room to open the door.

“Just put it—” The words froze in my throat.

Because it wasn’t
just
a waiter and one of those new hover trays standing outside my door. A grinning Lucian stood behind them.

“Ma’am?” the waiter said politely.

“Oh, yeah, just put that over on the table.” I stepped aside and waited until the tray and the waiter had moved past, then quickly raised a hand to stop Lucian. In a heated whisper I added, “How the hell did you find me?”

“I simply phoned hotels asking to speak to you until I found which one you were staying in.”

Damn, I should have thought of that. Next time I wanted to hide from the world, I’d better use a false name! “But you didn’t leave a message.”

“No. I thought you’d have a harder time ignoring me if I simply turned up.” His gaze suddenly fixated on my face and his smile faded. “You’ve been in the hands of the Raziq, haven’t you?”

I hesitated, but it was pointless denying it. And I guess if he was going to help us find the remaining keys, he had to know just how much deeper the shithole had gotten. “Yes.”

He swore softly. “How the hell did that happen? Why didn’t the reaper stop it?”

“He couldn’t—”

“It’s his job to
protect
you.”

His voice had sharpened significantly, and the waiter glanced over at us. I gave him what I hoped was a reassuring smile, then met Lucian’s angry gaze and added softly, “He
is
. But it’s not that simple.”

“It fucking
is
—”

“Lucian,” I cut in. “Enough. I’ll explain.”

“Then explain.” He glanced down at my hand. “But I would suggest you allow me to come in first.”

I dropped my hand and waved him inside. The waiter had finished setting out my meal, and approached with the tray in tow. “Will that be all, ma’am?”

“Yes, thank you.” I gave him the change as a tip, then closed the door behind him.

Lucian stood in the middle of the room, his arms crossed and his stance radiating displeasure. “So, explain.”

Rather than answering immediately, I walked over to the table and lifted the lid off the various plates. Azriel had ordered steak, vegetables, and pasta, as well as several cream cakes. After a few minutes of dithering,
I picked up the triple-layer chocolate cake and started eating it. The steak and veggies might be the saner choice, but I needed the immediate sugar rush.

Lucian waited. Anger rolled off him, thick and heated. The little hairs on my arms stood on end, even as my pulse rate quickened. It wasn’t exactly fear, and it wasn’t a more sexual reaction, but rather sat somewhere in between. Which was kind of odd, because up until now I’d always reacted on a purely sexual level to his presence.

“Over the last couple of days,” I said eventually, as I finished the cake and licked the cream from my fingertips, “the Raziq have made several attempts to capture me using Ania. We managed to thwart most of them, but we were simply caught off guard this last time.”

“If they caught you off guard, then the reaper
isn’t
doing his job,” Lucian snapped. “He is sensitive to the creatures of hell—there is no known way they should have been able to sneak up on you.”

“They didn’t. They were transported in magically and were just
there
. There was nothing Azriel could have done to prevent it.” I picked up my knife and fork, then glanced at him pointedly. “And
you
wouldn’t have been able to do anything, either, so stop giving me attitude and just sit down. Having to look up at you is making my head ache.”

He grunted, but pulled out one of the chairs and sat. “What, exactly, did the Raziq do?”

“From what they said, they unmade me and attached some sort of sensor to my heart. It’ll inform them when I’m in my father’s presence.”

“Enabling them to capture him.” His voice was
grim. “This is not good news for those of us wanting to keep the keys out of their hands.”

“Exactly.” Then I frowned and added, “‘Those of us’? That’s an odd way of putting it, isn’t it?”

He shrugged. “Are you sure that’s what they’ve done?”

“That’s what they said they’ve done. And they definitely pulled me apart.”

“The bruises are evidence enough of that.” He leaned forward and placed a flat hand against my chest. It wasn’t a sexual touch by any means, but my pulse still reacted to the warm press of his fingers. After a moment, he swore and sat back. “The dark energy of the tracer definitely beats within you.”

I wasn’t surprised, but my stomach still sank. I guess a tiny, foolish part of me had hoped the Raziq had been lying. Still, I couldn’t help asking, “How can you be so sure?”

“Because I am not unfamiliar with such things. I’ve seen their use before.”

“Where?”

“It was a long time ago, and doesn’t matter now.”

In other words, mind your own business. He and Azriel were more alike than they thought. “They said it cannot be removed.”

His expression was grim. “It can’t. Not unless you die.”

Having Lucian confirm
that
particular fact made me feel sick. I put the knife and fork down and pushed the dinner plate away. “Which means the minute my father appears, they’ll grab us both.”

“Unfortunately, yes.” He thrust to his feet and began
to pace, every movement reeking of frustration. “Which does not mean it cannot be stopped.”

“The only way it can be stopped,” Azriel said, appearing in the room in a sudden rush of heat and anger, “is via the use of dark magic. And
that
is never a wise choice.”

Lucian swung around, his expression like thunder. The dislike that emanated off the pair of them made me feel like I was a red cape between two bulls.

“Lots of unwise choices have been made over the course of the last few weeks,” Lucian spat out. “But we do what we must to reach the endgame, don’t we, reaper?”

“Dark magic may be a path you choose to walk, Aedh, but it is not ours.”

Lucian snorted and glanced at me. “If you believe he’s not willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants—and remember, what he wants is the same as what the Raziq want—then you are a fool.”

“Actually,” I said, rubbing my aching head wearily and wishing they’d both just leave me alone, “what I believe is that neither of you is telling me the entire truth when it comes to what you really want. That said, why do you both believe dark magic can null this thing inside me? Why not regular magic?”

“Because the tracker isn’t of this time or place,” Lucian said. “And regular magic would not combat it. Only dark magic has that chance.”

I frowned. “But white magic is strong enough to combat dark, so why wouldn’t it work against this?”

“Because what lies inside you is very different from the magic of this world,” Azriel said. He stood on the
other side of the table, his arms crossed and his face unreadable. But Valdis flickered with blue-black energy and the air around him seemed to shimmer with heat. “But that does not mean we should not explore the option.”

Lucian snorted. “My wings may be clipped, reaper, but I am still Aedh. Believe me when I say that the magic of this world will not be strong enough to counter what lies within her.”

“Which does not negate the fact that we should at least try it first,” Azriel snapped. “Dark magic has a way of staining its users.”

“Does that mean this thing inside me is dangerous?” I asked hesitantly.

Azriel glanced at me. “I do not know.” Silently, he added,
Has Amaya reacted to it?

I frowned.
She seems no worse now when it comes to background chatter than she was before the tracer was attached.

If the tracer in your body does anything more than inform the Raziq of your father’s presence, she will react to it. Until she does, you are probably safe.

It was the “probably” bit of that sentence that was worrying. I glanced at Lucian again. “If anyone can counter this tracer, it’ll be the witches at the Brindle.”

Lucian snorted and crossed his arms. “I do not have your faith in their teachings
or
their power.”

“Why? The Brindle may not, in itself, be old, but it still contains eons of witch history and teachings. If there is any way to combat this tracer, then it’ll be found there.”

“Perhaps.”

My annoyance flared brighter. “Why are you so damn sure that dark magic is the only way to go? You’re Aedh, not Raziq. What experience have you even had with dark magics?”

His smile was remote and cold. It was a reminder that underneath the “humanized” outer layer, a true Aedh still lay within. “How do you think the keys were made? How do you think the tracer was made? It wasn’t the clean, bright power of the fields that was used, but rather the energy that lies between the dark portal itself and blood. Aedh blood.”

My father had told me the keys had been made with blood, but for some reason I hadn’t made the connection to that and blood magic—and that’s what we were talking about here.

I rubbed my temples again and said, “How do you know so much about the creation of the keys, Lucian? And how the hell would you know they’re made with Aedh blood?”

He snorted. “I was there when we found the first one, remember? I felt their darkness within it.”

“So if you could feel it, why weren’t you able to find the key?” I was the one who’d done that, not him.

“Your father disguised the keys. It was only when we were close enough to touch the thing that I could feel the dark energy within it.”

He lies,
came Azriel’s soft thought.

Why would he lie about something like that?
I asked. Hell, if he’d wanted the key himself, he could have taken it anytime during the ensuing attack. It wasn’t like either of us could have actually stopped him—we were too busy trying to survive. Or at least,
I
was. I
hadn’t even realized someone else was there—someone other than the creatures who’d attacked us—until it was too late and the key had been taken.

You trust him too much, Risa.

And you distrust him
too
much.
I glanced at Lucian. “Even if the Brindle witches couldn’t help us, I’m not sure it’d be wise to tempt any sort of blood magic.”

“Dark magic isn’t always blood magic,” Lucian replied. “It may be the strongest form of black magic, but it often also depends on the strength of the practitioner.”

“It’s a rather moot point, given that none of us is, or knows, a dark practitioner,” I said wearily.

And Ilianna would kill me if she discovered I was even discussing the option.

“Remember, I have lived on this earth a very long time,” Lucian said. “I may not know or practice dark magic, but I do know how such practitioners might be found. It is not as hard as the witches of this world think.”

I pushed to my feet and walked to the coffeepot. Lucian didn’t move out of the way, forcing me to brush past him. The musky, powerful scent of him teased my nostrils, stirring the ashes of desire.

And again, that struck me as odd. I might be in a physically wretched state right now, but given the fierceness of our attraction up until now, I’d have thought the stirring of lust would have been stronger.

I poured myself a coffee, then turned around and leaned back against the counter. “If,” I said slowly, “the Brindle witches cannot find a way to mute the tracer, then we may have to resort to dark magic. But I draw the line at any sort of blood magic.”

This is not a wise move
, Azriel commented.