Darkness Divides (Sensor #3) (17 page)

Easy for her to say. She wasn’t the one who had to interrogate an already traumatized child. Sighing, I pasted a smile on my face and pulled my chair around the table to sit closer to the girl. No point in frightening her by being too formal. I could already sense her fear and nervousness.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

Her eyes rounded. “Jezebel.”

Well, that was presumptuous of her mother. Some pixies chose their children’s names based on how they thought their kids’ personalities might turn out. Those who lived in a fae city were even more likely to hold to that tradition.

“Hello, Jezebel,” I said, keeping my voice low and as unintimidating as possible. “I’m Melena and I have a few questions to ask you today.”

She swung her legs back and forth under the chair where she sat. “Okay.”

“Can you tell me what you did on the day of the big blast?”

Jezebel bit her lip and looked at me with soulful eyes.

I squeezed her hand. “Nothing you tell me today is going to get you in trouble. We just need to know the truth.”

“I was playing with my sisters and brothers outside,” she said, ducking her head.

Pixie families were always large. It was probably why she lived in one of the poorest neighborhoods of the city. They took good care of their kids, but it wasn’t easy to feed and house them all.

“Were you playing a game?” I asked.

“Yeah.” She looked down. “But they’re all dead now.”

Tears started running down her cheeks. I wanted to wrap my arms around her and protect her from everything bad in the world. How could anyone set off an explosion that would kill innocent children?

“I’m sorry, sweetheart.” I pulled a spare tissue out of my pocket and wiped her eyes for her.

For once, my continued allergy to cats came in handy. I always kept tissues with me in case I ran into a stray kitty on the street that refused to go away. Though it helped keep people’s suspicions at bay about my physical changes, I was annoyed that the allergy hadn’t disappeared when I’d become immortal.

“What game were you playing?” I asked after the girl calmed down.

She took a shaky breath. “My brother found some magic rocks. We threw them at the shield for fun.”

I glanced at Nienna. The girl might believe they were magic, but that didn’t mean it was true. It did give us an idea of what might have happened to the ones Gator had hidden.

“Do you know how your brother found the rocks?”

She shrugged. “He said he just found them.”

“So you threw all of them at the shield?”

“Yeah,” she said. A small smile lifted her lips. “They made big flashes of light and disappeared when we hit it.”

Suspicion twisted my gut.

“Did anyone strange talk to your brother that morning or maybe the day before? Someone you might not normally see in the neighborhood.”

She nodded. “He talked to an elf. He was excited cuz elves never come where we live.”

“Do you know what the elf said to your brother?”

“No.” She shook her head. “My brother told us it was a secret.”

“Did you see this elf when he came?”

“Nope.” She swung her feet and looked around. I was losing her attention.

After a few more questions that didn’t reveal any more details, I let her go.

“The elders will want to question her later,” Nienna said once the girl was out of the room.

I gave her a worried look. “She’s been through a lot.”

“They won’t be hard on her,” she reassured me. “We treasure children here and would never hurt them.”

Maybe most of the residents in the city did, but clearly at least one didn’t.

“That’s good to know,” I replied diplomatically.

“Come on.” She swept her hand toward the door. “We’ll get something to eat while Elros arranges for the next group to come.”

We’d taken to working some odd hours since the interrogations began. It was shortly after dusk when we stepped outside, but we’d work until after midnight to accommodate the fae who were more active at night. I followed Nienna out of the palace toward our favorite tavern a few blocks away. Halfway there we ran into Nik and a woman I didn’t recognize.

“Melena,” the master vampire said, smiling when he saw me. “I’ve got someone for you to meet.”

He put an arm around the woman. “This is Josslyn. I told you about her before.”

It took me a moment to recall the name, but it eventually came to me. This was the woman Nik had thought he’d lost back during the supernatural war. It was her age that tipped me off. Josslyn was a five-hundred-year-old vampire, making the time frame fit. Apparently after all these centuries he’d finally found her.

“Nice to meet you,” I said, shaking her hand. It was surprisingly soft. “I imagine you two have a lot of catching up to do.”

“We do.” She leaned into Nik, giving him a weak smile. “I don’t think I’ll be letting him out of my sight again.”

This turn of events really had me confused. I thought he and Felisha might have something going on, but he definitely had some feelings for this woman. Was I imagining things?

“I’ll leave you two to it.” I gestured at Nienna. “We’ve got to get going.”

Nik nodded. “Take care, Mel. I’ll see you again soon.”

As soon as we’d put a little distance between us, I looked back and found the master vampire had returned his attention to Josslyn. Neither of them had emitted emotions as strong as love, but I’d definitely felt some of the tenderness they had for each other—and a whole lot of lust. I wondered what the story was behind the female vampire. If she liked Nik so much, why the centuries-long disappearing act and why turn up now?

The scene at the tavern left me even more confused. At a table toward the front I saw Felisha sitting with a familiar male fairy—Yarrow. Last year he’d come to Fairbanks to court her. She hadn’t had the slightest bit of interest in him then and her tense posture told me her feelings hadn’t changed.

Her family must have made her meet with him again. They'd been pushing hard for a union between Felisha and Yarrow. Now that her father had died in the explosion it would give her mother even more leverage to guilt her into an agreement.

Pushing my shoulders back, I walked straight over to them. “Yarrow, wish I could say it’s good to see you again.”

His ice-blue eyes flashed at me. “I could say the same of you. It appears you don’t have your nephilim mate to watch over you this time.”

The fairy was probably still holding a grudge because I had Lucas compel him to back off of Felisha. Too bad compulsion didn’t last long on supernaturals. It had probably worn off months ago, which explained why he could go back to bothering her now.

“I see you’ve grown a few warts since the last time I saw you. What have you been up to lately?”

Just like all fairies, his looks reflected his behavior. His had gotten worse over the last year. He still had long white-blond hair and a nice lean build, but the warts on his face and the shockingly large hairy mole on his neck took away from the rest. There might be even more changes I couldn’t spot underneath his stiff clothes.

No one could see his flaws except me since he was using glamour to cover them up. It must be nice to change one’s appearance to whatever they wanted. If I had that ability, I’d never have to worry about a bad hair day again.

“It is none of your concern.” He waved me off. “Why don’t you run along and do the job we hired you to do.”

I saw right through him. He didn’t like me calling him out and was trying to downplay it. Most likely, he was behind Felisha’s family pushing her to marry him. He knew damn well she didn’t want him. If I had any say in the matter, a union between the two of them would never happen.

I crossed my arms. “That implies I’m getting paid. The only thing I’m getting out of this gig is free meals.”

“That’s all you deserve,” he said, sneering.

“Melena.” Felisha drew my attention to her, “I’m glad to see you, but I’m here to spend time with Yarrow. Perhaps I could visit with you later.”

Her family had definitely been working on her.

“Sure. You do that.” I’d let it go for now, but once I caught her in a more private setting we’d have to talk.

Yarrow gave me a victorious grin. Using all my control to keep from snapping his neck, I joined Nienna where she’d gotten a table for us.

The druid shook her head. “It seems you are one of those people that others either love or hate.”

Sadly, I had to agree with her.

“Which side of the fence do you lean on?” I asked.

She gave me an enigmatic smile. “I haven’t decided yet.”

Chapter Eighteen

“What exactly do you guard within the city?” I asked my latest witness.

Varn scratched his itty bitty nose. How orcs could have such big heads and bodies, yet tiny noses and ears made no sense to me.

“Me guard vault.” He pounded his chest with his fist.

For an orc, it was probably a big deal to get such a trusted position. They were tough and fiercely loyal, but a bit short in the intelligence department.

I paced across the floor. No way was I sitting in my chair and having to look up at the guy. It was hard to be intimidating when your subject could stare down at you.

“Were you guarding the vault on the day of the attack?”

Varn pounded his chest again. “Me guard vault every day.”

He needed to talk to his union about getting some vacation time. Even orcs needed a break every once in awhile.

“What’s in the vault?”

“You no fae. I no tell you.” He set his jaw and stared past me.

I looked over at Nienna and she nodded. As fast as humanly possible, I punched the orc in the nose. It wasn’t as easy as it sounded since the darn thing was sunk into his face, making it a tough target to reach. Varn screamed and held his nose as it gushed tiny spurts of blood. Luckily we had a pixie woman on standby to clean up after incidents like this. We’d kept her rather busy lately.

Hitting a witness might seem brutal, but over the last few days that I’d been questioning the city guards I’d learned the only way to earn their respect was to show force. They wouldn’t talk otherwise.

“You mean, mean woman.” The orc’s dark eyes glared up at me from above his cupped hands. “I like you.”

Well, I could write that off my bucket list.

“Answer the question,” I demanded. Couldn’t start being nice now or he’d stop liking me.

He let out a huff. “Me guard relics and magic stuff.”

“You didn’t watch over them alone, did you?” The fae couldn’t be that stupid. This guy might be a great fighter, but there should be at least one intelligent person on their security team at all times.

Varn huffed. “Silly woman. Course not!”

“So who was with you guarding the vault that day?”

The orc gave me a blank stare, scratched his head, then frowned. “Me no remember.”

“You don’t remember?” I cocked my head. “What do you remember from that day?”

He took in several deep, heavy breaths. I could sense the panic in him starting to rise. “Me guard vault. Big explosion. Me hide.”

“That’s it? That’s all you remember?”

The orc pulled on his leather vest. I could almost see the tiny wheels in his head turning as he tried to find the answers to my questions. He was working those few brain cells as hard as he could. I had to give him credit for that.

“Me no remember nothing else.” By this point, his vest was turning into a wrinkled mess.

“Did anyone visit the vault that day?”

He shook his head, but it was more in frustration than as an answer.

“Me no remember.” His bottom lip started to tremble. The poor guy probably took his job rather seriously. I was actually starting to feel sorry for him.

I walked over to Nienna and spoke in a low tone. “He’s been compelled. They need to check the vault he guarded right away and see if anything is missing.”

She rushed to the doorway and called for Elros.

“Varn, I need you to go sit outside. One of the elders will want to talk to you soon.”

His eyes rounded. “Me in trouble?”

I shook my head. “No, but you need to cooperate with them. Okay?”

“Okay.” He got up with a frown and lumbered out of the room.

Nienna came back after speaking with Elros. “We’re going to hold off on talking to anyone else until after they check the vault. It’ll be dark soon. We might as well get out for a bit while there’s still some light.”

“Yeah, sounds good.” Anything that involved leaving this room would make me happy.

We came out of the palace into cool, crisp air. It was that perfect temperature that made you wish it would stay that way all the time. Storms still brewed overhead blocking the sun, but at least no rain fell within the city. The fae who controlled the weather only allowed it to fall for a few hours just past dawn, when there weren't many residents active.

Most didn’t get out and about until mid-morning, as I’d discovered since arriving. It also explained the timing of the explosion. That’s when the majority of people would have just left the safety of their homes.

“Would you mind if we made a quick stop at the market?” I asked Nienna.

Since arriving I’d been kept so busy that I’d forgotten to pick up the salt Bambi had requested. We’d probably be here for a while longer, but I’d feel better getting it now. No way did I want to face the troll’s wrath if I returned to Fairbanks without it.

“Sure,” Nienna said, leading the way.

She took me toward the west side of the city where I hadn’t visited yet. The first few blocks were the familiar homes that circled the palace in every direction, but after that we reached what had to be the fae version of a commercial district.

The buildings were stacked close together with shops on the ground floor and what appeared to be residences on the floors above that. Frilly curtains in view, with children sticking their heads out the windows led me to that conclusion. Farther out I spotted open-air stalls, but the vendors there were starting to put away their goods for the day.