EdgeofEcstasy (13 page)

Still hoping that Kiera would explain whatever it was that
had her so upset and tense, Melissa held her silence and kept her thoughts to
herself.

With another shake of her head, after a short moment’s
silence Kiera continued to speak. “Anyway, we didn’t meet up for me to offload
on you, though I’m sure you wouldn’t mind the diversion, judging from how tense
you’re looking yourself. We can go over my problems next time. For now, though,
tell me what kind of information you’re looking for.” Kiera spoke firmly, her
dark-brown eyes showing nothing but determination. “There’s a hell of a lot
going on in a number of the divisions right now—the stress of so many things
happening at once is part of my beef with the Enforcers at this point. I’m used
to juggling balls, but not quite so many and not when they’re all so damn
important. I presume this is linked to Falconn’s murder? I can tell you
that
has been a headache all by itself.”

“Why a headache?” Melissa asked curiously.

“Because there were rumblings in certain quarters that it
had to be an inside job—someone either who is an Enforcer or works in one of
our areas,” Kiera replied without hesitation. “I’m sure you must know all this,
but there were signs at the scene—lack of evidence, knowledge of our
procedures, that sort of stuff—as well as the sheer brutality of the murder and
the strangeness of it. It divided many of the crews, but a number were positive
from the get-go that it was a knowledgeable insider and management vetted the
reports before releasing them. Without any hard evidence they wiped it from the
documents. Now, with Ryder’s death following so closely, the big boys have been
brought in and all hell will break loose any day now.”

“Ah, well that explains why it wasn’t in the reports we
read. Daniel and I came to the same conclusions,” Melissa admitted.

Before she could continue, however, Kiera jumped in. “You
mentioned this Daniel,” she said. “What’s up with him? I was almost going to
ask if you were a clone, make you verify it really was you and not some
paranoid delusional trap. You’ve
never
worked for anyone other than
yourself on consulting projects. How are you tangled up with such a company man
and why on earth did you want him along at this meeting?”

Melissa blushed slightly and grappled for words at her
friend’s blunt questioning. Kiera’s eyebrows rose in surprise and faint
understanding.

“Mel!” she shouted with laughter. “I know he’s walking sex
personified, but honestly. You? I never would have guessed you of all people
would break your own rules for a roll in the sack. Daniel is a suave, sexy,
deadly and dangerous bad boy, I’ll grant you that, but if you hadn’t just all
but told me, I never would have believed it. Well! I suppose I’ll have to get
used to you being in a partnership, right?”

“We haven’t worked much of that out,” Melissa hedged, still
flushing darkly.

Kiera chortled and clapped her hands with glee like a child
being given a particularly pleasant treat.

“Oh this is perfect, I wish I could tape this and play it
back for you later,” she snickered. “Okay, next time we meet he can come with
you. I simply must see him face-to-face now, with you, and discover for myself
what the dynamic is like between you. I’m sorry to laugh but you have totally
surprised me and made my week.”

“Is there any inkling internally of who might be responsible
for doing this?” Melissa asked, hoping to drag the conversation back on track.
Kiera shook her head, her dark curls swinging from side to side around her
face. She dropped the relationship gossip and went smoothly back to business.

“No—if there was I’d have called you already and told you,”
she insisted gently. “I know this animal killed Falconn. I’d have given you his
name with my blessing and read with relish of his untimely demise. All I know
is a number of the higher management gurus are very nervous and incredibly
twitchy. There’s a lot of it going around right now—people looking askance at
each other. I’ve got a strong feeling this is connected to a secret mission
Isacar gave to Falconn before he went on retreat, but I have nothing but gossip
to back that up. I’ve also heard very strong rumors of dark magic, but no one
knows what sort or how he got access to it or even what brand of black magic it
could be. That’s all being kept
very
hush-hush. Only the faint
mutterings of this all being connected as pieces of a bigger whole have
circulated, no actual details.”

Melissa nodded, happy to have her and Daniel’s hypotheses
confirmed but a little bummed that no
new
information was to be found.
She sighed, and Kiera wrapped a curl around her finger as she thought harder.

“I’m racking my brain,” she insisted, “I just can’t think of
anything else. I’m sorry. I can ask around, though, see what else I can get.”

“No!” Melissa insisted sharply. She looked abashed as Kiera
stared at her, shocked, before Melissa tried to explain. “Daniel and I talked
to Ryder yesterday, asked him to probe and talk to people, and the next thing
we heard he had been murdered. Please don’t ask around. But…well, maybe if
others speak to you, just listen carefully and if you come up with something,
then let me know.”

Kiera hugged Melissa and she returned the embrace.

“I’m sorry I can’t be more help,” she said sadly. Melissa
waved her worry away as if it were nothing.

“Just keep an ear out—that will more than satisfy me, I
promise,” Melissa insisted. Kiera looked around nervously and frowned.

“Is it just me? I feel so twitchy, like something creepy is
hanging around. Maybe I need another coffee. You will be careful, won’t you?”
Kiera said, worry tingeing her voice. Melissa stepped back out of their embrace
and nodded.

“I’ve just come from Ryder’s,” she explained. “These things
have a way of hanging on to us. Daniel and I arrived before dawn and we came
straight from there to here with only a minor detour past the offices. I really
need to stop off somewhere and cleanse myself. Daniel noticed a strangeness
too.”

“Be safe,” Kiera cautioned her. Melissa smiled softly at her
friend, nodded and indicated with a slight tilt of her chin that her friend
should leave the alley first.

“You too—watch yourself over there, okay?” Melissa insisted.
Kiera waved before she turned on one heel and left the alley. Melissa checked
her watch and waited for a minute to allow Kiera to clear the street before she
left.

After the second hand of her watch had made a full sweep,
she left the alley, only to stop short a few paces before the end. She could
feel that unnatural essence as if it were a blanket being thrown over her.
Melissa reached under her jacket for her gun and pulled it out as she looked
wildly around for the source of that sick essence but could not see anyone
nearby.

A sharp zapping sound followed by a slight burning smell
snapped through her brain and Melissa shot her gun wildly, completely on
instinct as a searing, burning pain ravaged through her body, electrocuting
her. Only a second later as darkness descended over her did she realize the
sound and smell had been those of a tazer. No wonder she hadn’t been able to
see her assailant, only sense him. The whole time he had remained out of sight.

This understanding was followed quickly by one last thought.

She’d been blasted by a tazer.

Melissa didn’t even feel the cold ground as she crashed into
it, unconscious.

Melissa had a rotten headache. Her back felt stiff and her
pillow smelled awful and was incredibly uncomfortable. She tried to turn over
but found herself unable to. With a groan, she forced an eye open. Instead of
seeing her familiar walls and ceiling, she found herself in a wide-open space
she didn’t recognize.

Frowning, she tried to remember where she was and came up
blank. Shifting her weight, she attempted to roll over, only to be restrained
once again. This time her aching head pointed out to her that her hands were
tied above her head and secured to whatever it was she lay upon.

With a jerk she recalled the zap of the tazer and the
electric pain shooting through her. Melissa no longer wondered about her
headache but now struggled to find a way to free herself. By twisting her body
this way and that she noticed that she was utterly naked and her clothes—and
gun and throwing knives—were nowhere in sight.

She seemed to be lying on some sort of table or altar. The
bare bench was fiendishly uncomfortable and with her hands tied as they were
she couldn’t really move much to get a clearer visual of it. A number of
candles and some very sickly smelling incense burned on a nearby, low-slung
wooden bench.

A cold, clear voice sounded from the other side of the large
loft. “I wouldn’t bother. The incense is a special blend all my own. You should
be feeling it very soon. It’s already started to fill up the room. Don’t
struggle, Melissa—you won’t get free. I’ve planned this quite carefully, you
see. I had a lot of time on my hands while you were passed out. Honestly, you
should feel pleased. I’ve decided that you will be the end of my ritual.”

“Ritual?” she repeated, hoping to distract the man while she
worked something out.

He stepped forward and despite her intention to remain calm,
her eyebrows rose in surprise.

“Ben!” she cried out unconsciously, before hastily hiding
her emotions once again. “You realize that everyone knows someone within law
enforcement is responsible for this whole mess. There is no possible way you
can expect to get away with this madness.”

“Ah,” Ben replied smoothly as he ran a hand down his neatly
buttoned shirt. “But I already have gotten away with it. My control gets better
every hour. With your magic to help anchor my own, along with your friend
Falconn’s and Ryder’s, I should be back to normal. Even if that doesn’t prove
true, I am positive Mr. Cranston won’t be too far behind us here, connecting
the dots with plodding slowness. Should your essence and power not be
satisfactory to heal my splintered magic, I am sure his will be enough. Then I
just need to lay low for a few months, let the rumors of a serial killer die
down and move cities. I can pick up where I left off. It will be easy.”

“You’re raving mad,” she murmured, her British accent strong
and thick as her mind grew somewhat hazy from the smoke. Melissa didn’t really
notice as she had just been struck by how totally sane and rational Ben could
appear until you actually
listened
to what he said. The wizard somehow
managed to be utterly insane, but still lucid and with the appearance of
normalcy.

Melissa felt woozy for a moment, the incense starting to
have an effect on her. Decades of training had her softening her breath, making
it more shallow as she changed the pattern of how she inhaled and exhaled to
reduce the amount of the sickening smoke she took into her lungs.

“Ah yes, and so it begins,” Ben murmured, obviously
mistaking her slowed breathing for her partially passing out. He moved off to a
different area of the loft and after a moment she heard water running.

Slowly, Melissa tugged hard and felt around her restraints
with her fingers. After a minute she had to admit that Ben was right. There was
no way she could break free from them, naked and contained as she was. She
would have to bide her time.

Angrily, she thought how stupid and blasé she had been. She
should have paid more attention to Daniel’s intuition and not been such a
stubborn fool. What was worse, even Kiera had felt something amiss around
Melissa. And even then Melissa had just blindly associated it with the crime
scene at Ryder’s.

When she got out of this, Melissa swore, she would apologize
profusely to her lover and never again dismiss his judgment when he had a
feeling. She had believed him earlier but simply felt that the contamination of
Ryder’s death as well as the essence of the killer’s craziness had muddled her
lover. It was obvious now that Ben had followed them from Ryder’s apartment.

Melissa forced her mind to relax as she entered a light
meditative trance to keep herself conscious as the incense smoke grew thicker.
There would be plenty of time for blame and recriminations
after
she had
broken free, killed Ben for destroying so many lives, then collapsed on Daniel
and told him how very sorry she was. Melissa coughed a few times, her lungs
burning from the smoke, then focused all her attention on shutting her body
down as much as she possibly could without passing out or inhaling more smoke and
becoming seriously ill.

Even though she knew that if given the opportunity she could
extract herself from this mess, Melissa still found herself praying for Daniel
to come and rescue her, something she would not have believed possible a few
days earlier.

* * * * *

Daniel paced outside the copy center and wished for the
first time in years that he still smoked. The itchy, crawling sensation up the
back of his neck and down his spine simply would
not
go away. He had
walked around the block twice after he had seen the tiny, curvy brunette enter
the alleyway Melissa had been waiting in.

Despite his deep reservations about the situation they found
themselves in, he trusted Melissa. He had known her by code name and reputation
for a number of years, and been genuinely impressed after the Lourensz affair.
He did not doubt her skills or professionalism. But something niggled in the
back of his mind—something he
knew
was wrong but just could not put his
finger on.

For the dozenth time he looked into the reflective glass
window of the front of the store and caught sight of the same shadowy figure he
had noticed a handful of times in the last ten minutes. Deep certainty
solidified in his gut. He was being followed. Frankly, given the current
circumstances, he didn’t give a shit. If he wanted to lose a tail, he would be
able to. For now it was of little consequence to him.

Glancing at his watch again, he wondered what the hell the
two girls could possibly be talking about to take them so long. Melissa knew
they had a lot to do and she was not one to indulge in idle catch-up gossip.
She knew he would be over in this direction and he had not seen her leave the
alley. It had been almost an hour and his patience was at an end.

Cursing, Daniel shook his head and decided to hell with it
all. Kiera could just be offended and upset, he figured. Daniel was feeling
more and more on edge as each consecutive minute passed and he needed to assure
himself that Melissa was all right. They could talk ’til kingdom come as far as
he was concerned, but he needed to know his witch was not in danger. Kiera
could either deal with that or smoke it out her ass.

Daniel walked the block and a half back to the alley and
peered in, hoping to appear like a curious tourist as he walked past. He skidded
to a halt when he saw that the alley was totally empty. Daniel blinked, checked
the street to assure himself his bearings were accurate, and once again looked
up and down the entire length of the short alleyway.

Nothing.

For a handful of heartbeats, Daniel simply stared blankly,
his mind frozen in absolute, pure terror.

Melissa was not there.

Almost a whole minute passed before Daniel’s brain
assimilated the ramifications of this. She wouldn’t have left—not without
telling him, not under any circumstances. That meant someone had taken her
against her will.

Deep inside his soul something snapped, and he shouted out
loud. The harsh, angry, almost animalistic sound of a wounded beast intent on
dismembering and eating its prey. Acting on pure instinct, Daniel jacked up his
senses to their limit and the stench of the serial killer hit him like a
baseball bat to the head. He clenched his hands into fists and a red haze of
killing rage overcame him.

In that moment he came dangerously close to shattering and
losing his sanity and soul. Only the knowledge that Melissa had been caught
unawares without him guarding her back and was in lethal danger kept him from
the brink. He could not possibly lose his soul until
after
he had
rescued her.

Lightning-fast, the possibilities raced through his head.
Kiera, while an unknown, was a single female. He had watched her enter and knew
she had been alone and not followed. She could not have taken Melissa unawares
and was almost certainly not the killer. While keeping her in mind, he
discarded her for now.

And then it hit him—
Kiera
had not been followed, and
Melissa
had not been followed, but
he
had been followed for most of this last
half hour. Light-years beyond angry, Daniel reined himself in, controlled
himself with the ice-cold grip of a seasoned killer on a life-and-death
mission.

Gone was his somewhat amused demeanor, his indulgence toward
a witch he was falling in love with. The only thing left in Daniel at that
moment was the angry, fierce warrior who had not protected what was his and
would kill anyone and anything between himself and her. Daniel had not an iota
of mercy or kindness left in him. The only rational thought he retained was to
get Melissa back and to hell with the rest of the world. It could burn for all
he cared.

Set upon his new course of action and more determined than
anything to follow through with it, Daniel walked in an outwardly calm manner
back down the street. At a particularly busy group of market stalls, he ducked
and wove among them, doubling back in a tricky move and coming up behind where
he had been heading. The dark figure came into focus now ahead of him, and he
recognized Hayden Foxworth, the Special Operatives agent.

A blinding, potent rage consumed Daniel, and with a shouted
cry he tackled Hayden to the ground right there in the middle of the fruit and
vegetable market. As the two men fell to the ground, Hayden knocked over a
stand of oranges and the round fruits flew in every direction.

“What the—? Cranston!” Hayden shouted and the two men struggled
together. Daniel punched Hayden in the jaw and suddenly the agent was fighting
in earnest, landing a solid blow to Daniel’s chest and following it with a
quick jab to his chin.

The wizards rolled on the pavement and crashed into another
wooden stall, assorted vegetables falling over and around them as the market
owner screamed abuse at them and started hitting them with the stick end of his
broom.

“Where the fuck is she?” Daniel ranted incoherently. Hayden,
flushed in the face and puffing from the exertion, seemed clueless, and this
further incensed Daniel. The man had been
following
him and should at
least have the grace to admit his transgressions and confess what had happened
to Melissa.

“Damn you to hell,” Daniel roared, totally losing his grip
on what part of his brain had until now been functioning. “Tell me where she
is! What the fuck did you do with her? I’ll kill you!”

This last bit he screamed, his voice cracking slightly as he
teetered on the edge. An assassin
always
remained in control. It was one
of the first lessons one learned in training and it was by far the lesson most
reiterated for years and years afterward.

An Assassin bore the brunt of a lot of grief, guilt and
strain. If an Assassin could not contain himself, if he could not balance his
soul and mind and keep himself above water, he would burn out and fall to
pieces.

Daniel, having held himself in check for years, had in the
course of less than two days opened himself so deeply to Melissa that the very
thought
of being without her, of her being in danger and he helpless to do anything
about it, utterly crushed him. Far from falling into a heap and wailing or
crying and beating his chest, he instead turned to the only thing he knew—how
to kill. In that split second when he screamed at Hayden, the agent appeared to
grasp that something had gone seriously amiss. Hayden lifted his hands to
circle Daniel’s neck and he cut off circulation to the pressure point.

For a split second, Daniel blacked out. It was enough time
for Hayden to get him in a headlock and drag him around the back of the market
stalls and into some semblance of privacy.

“Dude,” Hayden panted heavily as Daniel woke up and
immediately struggled fiercely. “I don’t know what the fuck bug crawled up your
ass, but you are barking up the wrong tree. I am following
you
, not
Melissa. I haven’t got the foggiest where she is. Quit beating on me, or so
help me I will take you down the hard way and chances are good we will both end
up in hospital.”

Daniel panted and stopped struggling, though Hayden wisely
kept him restrained in the headlock. Daniel clenched his fists and ground out
between gritted teeth, “Melissa is
gone,
you useless little fuckwit, and
I want her back. Right.
Now
.

“I’m telling you, I have no clue where she is. If you can
keep your dick from twisting for one fucking minute, I’ll call Ben and see
where she is,” Hayden insisted, but he still didn’t release Daniel.

Some of the haze of anger, fear and blinding fury cleared in
Daniel’s head.

“Ben?” he repeated stupidly.

Hayden snorted, clearly amused.

“Yeah, jerk. Like I said,
I
am following
you
.
Ben
is following
Melissa
. That’s the beauty of having a partner, you see.
You can split up when the people you’re following go in two different
directions and that way you don’t lose them.”