Darkness Devours (32 page)

His gaze moved from me to Jak.
Do you wish me to render him unconscious?

No. I’ve told him about you. It’s easier.
Out loud I added, “Did either of the men tell you anything?”

“They’re not men—they’re Razan.”

I blinked.
That
was something I hadn’t expected. Razan belonged to the Aedh—did that mean our face-shifter was either Aedh or in league with one?

“Can’t be,” I said automatically, even as instinct suggested it very likely
was
.

“Hate to interrupt,” Jak said dryly, “but what the hell is a Razan?”

“Basically, it’s the long-lived human slave of an Aedh,” I answered, almost absently. To Azriel, I added, “Are they wearing the tattoo?”

In reply, he leaned down and tore the shirt away from the back of one of his captives. Two tattoos were revealed—one of a dragon with two swords crossed above it and, on the right shoulder, a ring of barbed wire.

Confusion swirled through me, and I frowned.
“That barbed-wire tat is the same one the rat-shifter saw on the fellow who’d paid him to deliver the note and the book from my father.”

“First,” Jak said, exasperation in his voice, “you really need to introduce me to the seminaked, sword-bearing reaper. And second, I thought you didn’t know your father.”

“I didn’t know my father until recently,” I said. “And Jak, meet Azriel.”

The two men nodded at each other. Azriel said, “The fact that these men are Razan suggests your father could be in league with our fake Nadler—if these men were sent here by Nadler, that is.”

“There’s no one else who would gain any benefit from the death of Logan, the photographer, and now his secretary, so it has to be Nadler.” I paused, chewing absently on my lip. “And it makes no sense for my father to be involved with someone like him. Even if he can no longer attain human form, he’s probably more powerful than any human could ever hope to be.”

Azriel nodded in agreement. “Even a human involved in dark magic who has control of a ley-line intersection would not be as powerful as your father.”

It should have been one hell of a scary thought, but maybe I was simply too damn tired and sore to feel any more scared than I already was. I rubbed my aching head wearily, and said, “None of this is making any sense, is it?”

“Especially not to me,” Jak muttered.

I gave him a half smile, but it faded quickly at the sound of approaching steps. I almost reached for Amaya,
then relaxed as a voice said, “Risa, it’s Harris West from the Directorate of Other Races.”

“We’re in the kitchen,” I answered, a little surprised that Rhoan hadn’t come. But then, he
was
head guardian these days, and I guess I couldn’t always expect him to show up when I called.

But he’d still sent one of the daytime division’s best. While most vamps weren’t able to traverse the daylight hours, other nasties could, which meant these days the Directorate had a full complement of specialized non-humans in its ranks. From what Aunt Riley had told me, I knew that Harris wasn’t only a powerful werewolf; he was also an extremely strong telekinetic.

He appeared several seconds later, a tall, dark-haired man with handsome features. His eyes were the blue of the ocean, his shoulders broad, and his body lithe as a wolf. He scanned the room quickly, his gaze pausing on Azriel and briefly narrowing—which made me wonder just whom he saw—before finally coming to rest on me. “Up to your neck in it again, I see.”

“Afraid so. I gather Rhoan updated you on what has been going on?”

“Yes. He also suggested that I wring your scrawny neck,” he said in a wry voice. “But I’ll settle for an update.”

I gave it to him, suddenly grateful that Rhoan
hadn’t
shown up. Harris took statements from Jak and Azriel—although Azriel merely backed up what I’d already said—then, as the cleanup team arrived, told us to leave.

I helped Jak rise and we walked outside. I, for one,
was more than a little relieved to have gotten off so lightly.

“What now?” Jak said, still cradling his bleeding arm.

I grimaced. “I’m going home to catch some sleep. I think you need to stop that arm from bleeding.”

“I meant case-wise.”

“I know, but I’m all out of ideas right now.”

“What about those photo disks you gave your uncle?”

God, I thought irritably, he was like a rat with a tasty morsel—he just wouldn’t let it go. “I have copies in the hands of a computer geek who’ll contact me the minute he gets any relevant information out of them. Until he does, we’re basically at a standstill.”

“I’d love to know how you managed to get those photo disks to your friend without me or your uncle realizing it.” Jak paused, his gaze moving past me. “Or did your reaper friend have a hand in that? I’m thinking if he can pop into existence to chase bad guys, it probably means he can transport himself around invisibly.”

“He can.”

The fact that
I
could—when I was fit enough, anyway—was something I kept to myself. I trusted Jak, but only to a point. If this whole scenario with Nadler didn’t pan out into a decent story, I didn’t want him suddenly deciding to do a follow-up piece on me.

“So until your friend comes through, we have nothing, as I said.” He rubbed a somewhat bloodied hand across his bristly chin. “I hate it when a story stalls. I might contact a few people and see if there’s any whispers on the streets about these murders.”

“Let me know me if you uncover anything interesting.”

He gave me a wry sort of grin. “I’m hardly likely to do anything else, given the threat your uncle has left hanging over our heads.”

If that threat prevented Jak from chasing leads without first informing me, then I couldn’t be sorry about it—even if I wasn’t exactly intending to obey it myself.

“I’ll ring you tomorrow if I don’t hear anything before then.”

He nodded, gave me a sketchy wave good-bye with his good hand, then headed off down the street, dripping blood as he went. Obviously he had no intention of shifting shape to heal himself just yet. But then, he’d always been somewhat reluctant to shift shape in public—mainly, I think, because he never liked to remind people he was a werewolf. Humans might have accepted non-humans as a whole, but that didn’t mean there weren’t pockets who feared all things supernatural—especially at the very low levels of society, where suspicion of anything bigger and stronger tended to be entrenched. Jak might have the skill to relax people and make them talk, but that skill couldn’t always override a base-level apprehension of non-humans.

I watched him walk away for several seconds, then turned to face Azriel. “I need to sleep.”

He snorted softly. “I believe I suggested
that
some time ago.”

“Well, I’m finally giving in to the inevitable—if you’ll zap me back home, that is.”

“You’re abandoning the hotel?”

I nodded. “I want to sleep in my own bed, seeing as the Raziq aren’t such an immediate threat.”

“And the things you left at the hotel?”

“I can get them later.” When I was rested and able to think logically again.

“Then home we shall go.”

He stepped close and wrapped his arms around me once more. I rested my head against his shoulder and closed my eyes, enjoying the sensation of his physical presence as his heat and energy tore through me like a storm, sweeping me from that place to mine in a heartbeat.

As my feet touched the wooden floors of our building, I sighed in pleasure. The huge industrial fans hanging from the vaulted ceilings whirled, gently moving air that was cool and still smelled faintly of roses and lilac—the scents lingering from potions Ilianna had been making earlier in the week. But there was dust on the dining table and over all the other bits and pieces scattered about, and there was an odd sense of abandonment in the way everything lay where it had last fallen. But I guess that was to be expected, since Tao was still unconscious and Ilianna was dividing her time between the Brindle and Mirri’s.

“Are you okay?” Azriel asked softly.

His breath tickled the top of my head and stirred a sense of well-being deep inside. Or maybe well-being wasn’t the right word—it was more a sense of safety. Of being right.

Which was dangerous thinking—things would never be safe or right while the Aedh, the reapers, and Hunter were all such fixtures in my life.

I pulled out of his warm embrace and took a step back. The big living room felt so much colder without the cocoon of his warmth.

“I’m going to bed.”

“Once you are safely asleep, I will return to the fields and see what additional information I can uncover about ensnaring the Rakshasa.”

I frowned. “I thought they were best caught in their lair.”

“Yes, but to trace this Rakshasa back to her lair, we first have to watch her dismember and eat her chosen victim. I don’t think either of us could sit through that nightmare easily.”

He had
that
right. I hesitated, then leaned forward and dropped a kiss on his lips. “Night, then.”

Surprise and something deeper—something that was desire and yet a whole lot more—flitted across his expression before he got control of himself again. “What was that for?”

“A kiss good night is something of a custom here on earth,” I said, my lips still tingling with the warmth of his. “Don’t tell me the woman who showed you the delights of human procreation never kissed you good night like that?”

“No.” His expression gave little away, but there was a decidedly devilish twinkle in his eyes. “It is, however, a custom I could grow used to.”

I smiled, but resisted the temptation to kiss him again, and backed away instead. I might be bone-weary and aching, but I had a suspicion if I did it again, the desire to rest would be overwhelmed by another sort of desire entirely.

“Night, Azriel.”

He nodded and winked out of existence. He was still near; I knew that because his heat swirled around me. I resolutely turned and made my way to the bedroom, stripping off clothes and letting them drop to the floor as I went. I’d pick them up later, when I had more energy. I pulled back the covers, crawled underneath them, and was asleep before I could even smile in pleasure.

The sharp ringing of the telephone woke me sometime later. I opened an eye and glared blearily at the object making all the noise, but it didn’t catch the hint and stop. After several more seconds of the incessant sound, I groped blindly for the handset and croaked, “Hello?”

“Well, you sound like crap,” Stane said, all too cheerfully.

“That’s how I feel, so it’s really no surprise.” I rubbed my free hand across gritty eyes, then glanced at the clock. It was just after six, meaning I’d had a whole five and a half hours’ sleep. “You’d better have a good reason for waking me, because otherwise I’m going to send Azriel over there to beat you up.”

Stane laughed. “No, you wouldn’t. You’re too much of a softie to do something like that to your friends. Besides, you need my hacking skills.”

His hacking skills wouldn’t be impaired by a little beating or two,
I thought grumpily. “Stane, what do you want?”

“A night out at the Red Iris, no expense spared.”

I sat up abruptly, and bit back a groan as my head just about exploded. “You found Nadler?” I said, the words little more than a hiss through gritted teeth.

“Well, I’ve found the version currently striding around as Nadler. He has a little beach house down at Portsea. I’ve just sent you the address.”

Portsea being the sort of place where even the littlest of houses meant big prices. “Don’t suppose there’s any way you can check if he’s down there?”

After all, according to his neighbors, he hadn’t been sighted at his Brighton home for some time, so there was no guarantee he’d be in Portsea, either.

“There’s no handy-dandy traffic cameras nearby, so I had to resort to more underhanded tactics. In this case, that meant digging up his cell phone number. Which, I might add, was not an easy thing to do. Phone companies are fierce when it comes to protecting the private numbers of their customers.”

But not fierce enough, obviously. Although it did have to be said that Stane was one of the best when it came to hacking.

“So, the dinner will include the finest bottle of champagne the Red Iris has,” I replied dryly. “Just get on with it.”

He chuckled softly. “Our Mr. Elusive is, according to the GPS tracker on his phone, at his Portsea house right this moment.”

Finally, we’d caught a break. I closed my eyes in relief. “For that, you can have two bottles of their finest.”

“Excellent,” he said. “Let me know how it goes.”

“Will do.” I hung up, then twisted around as the surge of energy told me Azriel had appeared. “You heard?”

He dropped my purse and bag of clothes onto the bed—obviously he’d been back to the hotel room to
collect them. For a reaper, he was pretty damn considerate. Sometimes, anyway.

“Yes,” he said, his voice flat. “But you should—”

“Azriel—” I said, cutting him off before he could finish that sentence. “Give it up. I’m not going to be left out of this chase in
any
way. And if you leave without me, I’ll just chase you in Aedh form.”

I pushed the blankets off me, clambered out of bed, and went over to my huge walk-in wardrobe.

“I know all that,” he said, his tone still flat and yet oddly hitting at the annoyance that swirled like a distant storm somewhere deep inside me. “But I continue to hope you will eventually do the sensible thing. I
know
there is sensible in you somewhere.”

I gave him a grin as I pulled on some clothes. “I’m afraid it doesn’t appear all that often.”

“So I’ve noticed.” He’d crossed his arms and was watching me somewhat grimly, but Valdis flickered with red-gold fire and the energy that surrounded him became more heated than usual. And it echoed through me, stronger than that distant storm and far, far more alluring.

Which was
not
what either of us needed right now. I resolutely ignored him and concentrated on the business of getting dressed. Once I was, I walked back to the bed to grab my phone, checked the address Stane had sent me, then shoved it and my wallet into my pockets before finally turning around to meet his gaze again.