Darkness Devours (31 page)

I knew that. I also knew that we might have no other choice—not if we wanted to keep my father, the keys, and me out of Raziq hands.

Lucian nodded. “I will see what I can find out.”

“Good.” I took a sip of coffee, then added, “In the meantime, get the hell out of here. I need to rest, and I can’t do that with you two dumping animosity all over each other.”

Lucian scowled. “Evict the reaper, then. I cannot see why—”

“Lucian, go. We both know I probably won’t get to rest if you stay, and right now that’s what I need above anything else.”

His gaze swept over me, and then he nodded. “This time I will comply.”

He’d fucking comply next time, too. Otherwise, he and I wouldn’t be seeing each other in
any
way. If there was one thing I couldn’t abide, it was a man who ran roughshod over his partner—a fact I thought he might have cottoned to after being on the outs these last couple of days.

He sent a less than pleasant glance Azriel’s way, then spun and left the room. As the door slammed shut behind him, I walked back to the table and sat down. I pulled the dinner plate toward me and resolutely ate everything on it—more out of the knowledge that I needed the sustenance than any real desire to actually eat.

“You should sleep,” Azriel said softly. “You are running at the limits of your strength.”

“I know.” I leaned back in the chair and drank some coffee. “Tell me honestly—do you think the Brindle
witches’ magic is going to be strong enough to counter the Raziq’s tracer?”

“It is an option we must try.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“No.” He hesitated. “In all honesty, I do not think it will. Aedh magic is strong, and the Raziq have traveled down a path that has twisted and darkened theirs. I doubt we reapers would be able to counter it, let alone human magic.”

“But didn’t you say reapers aren’t particularly well versed in magic anyway?”

“We are soul guides first and foremost, but we were forced to at least gain
some
knowledge about magic and the portals when the Aedh priests all but died out.” He half shrugged. “But the dark magic that beats within you is far stronger than anything we have dealt with up until now.”

A fact the Raziq had undoubtedly been aware of when they’d shoved the tracer into me. I drank some more coffee, then said, “What are we going to do about the Rakshasa?”

“We will find it and kill it, as the councillors require.”

I snorted softly. He made it sound so simple, yet we both knew that was far from the case. “Yeah, but it knows you’re hunting it now. Do you really think it will come into that room without first checking that we’re not near?”

“If we are not near, we cannot know when it arrives.”

There was that. I gnawed my bottom lip for a moment, then said, “There was a camera in the room, and
I’m guessing there’s sound, too. Maybe we could use that to our advantage.”

“The Rakshasa will not be visible on a monitor. Nor will you hear either her or the ghosts through a microphone.”

“No, but doesn’t the Rakshasa scratch her victims and follow them home before devouring them?”

“Yes.” His eyes gleamed with sudden understanding. “We can watch for such an event from a distance, then arrive at the victim’s house and set a trap for the Rakshasa before it arrives.”

“The only trouble is, the victim will be a vampire, and will sense my presence before he or she gets near the door.”

And given that I felt like shit and it was a state that didn’t seem to be improving in any hurry, I very much doubted I’d have the strength to remain in Aedh form for very long.

“I will set the trap and wait for the Rakshasa,” Azriel said softly. “You do not need to be near.”

I sighed. “Yes, I do. Hunter—and the councillors—want
me
to prove myself, not you. It has to be my sword and actions that kill this creature. Remember, her watcher is a witness to all that we do.” I paused. “Or have we permanently lost him?”

“He is downstairs. It appears he returns to our home base—wherever that happens to be—when we take energy form and he loses us.”

“Well, it doesn’t alter the fact that I need to be involved in the Rakshasa’s demise. I need to prove myself useful. Otherwise I’m dead.”

“Hunter does not want you dead. Not when you are still of use to her.”

“Hunter is
not
the council, even if she has grand plans to become head supremo.”

“Do not doubt that if Hunter wants you alive, you will remain alive, no matter what the council might threaten.”

I frowned, but before I could say anything, my phone rang. For several seconds I debated whether I should answer it or not, but in the end, the need to at least know who it was won out over the need to retreat from the world and get some sleep.

One glance at the screen told me it was Jak. I hit answer and said, “Hey—”

“No time for small talk,” Jak cut in brusquely. “Just get your uncle to the secretary’s place quick smart. Three men just busted their way into her house and they obviously
don’t
intend to sit down and chat.”

“Oh, fuck,” I said, then added, “Don’t go in. Wait until we get there.”

“Ris, it’s three against one woman. I can at least even the odds a little—”

“Jak, you have no idea what you’re—”

I didn’t get the rest of the sentence out, because the bastard hung up on me. I swore, hit my contacts list, and dialed Uncle Rhoan.

“What is it this time?” he said, his voice resigned.

“Just got a call from Jak. Apparently three men just busted their way into Logan’s secretary’s place. You need to get someone out there immediately.”

“Why the hell is Jak there, and not you?” he snapped.

“Long story, but I’m about to head there now.”

“Ris—”

I knew what was coming, so I hung up. It’d piss him off, but right now I was more concerned about Jak’s safety than Rhoan’s fury. Jak might be a werewolf—and more than capable of handling himself in any normal situation—but this was about as far from normal as you could get. Just because they looked like human males didn’t mean they actually were.

“Azriel—”

The rest of the sentence caught in my throat as Azriel’s heat and arms wrapped around me. Then we were out of there, zipping through the gray fields so fast they were little more than a blur. My feet touched solid ground a heartbeat later, and the air became thick with the sound of screaming—a scream that stopped all too abruptly. The brief silence that followed was broken by the snarls of a wolf—Jak.

“Stay here,” Azriel said, immediately disappearing again.

I snorted and ran for the house. You’d think he’d know by now that I wasn’t about to obey an order like that—no matter how sensible it might be.

The snarling had come from a town house at the rear of a block of eight. More than a dozen people had gathered in the driveways of the other houses—all of them peering toward the very last town house in the row—but no one approached it. Which was pretty sensible, given that most of the people watching were either women with children or elderly.

I ran past them all and around the double garage that dominated the front of the town house. The front door had been forced open, with one half left swinging from a hinge that was barely holding on and the other lying in pieces on the white tiled floor. There was no sound coming from inside the town house now. Everything was ominously quiet.

Ignoring the tension that curled through my belly, and hoping like hell that Jak was okay, I drew Amaya and stepped inside cautiously. The purple fire flicking down her length was muted and halfhearted, and her
hissing was little more than its usual background noise. If there was danger here, she wasn’t sensing it.

Which didn’t mean I shouldn’t be careful.

I took several wary steps. Bits and pieces of furniture lay scattered everywhere, evidence of a fierce fight. The air was rich with both scent of blood and the musky odor of wolf, and twined within it was the fainter, more odious scent of unknown males.
Human
males.

But three human males—no matter how strong—shouldn’t have been able to overwhelm a werewolf unless they’d gotten the drop on him.

Or they’d been armed with silver.

I walked cautiously through the living room and into the dining room. There was less mess here, an indication, perhaps, that more running than fighting had happened.

I stepped into the next room—the kitchen—and saw Jak. He was sitting on the floor leaning back against one of the cabinets, his eyes closed and an expression of pain etched into his face. He was nursing an arm that was bloody and torn, and his clothes were less than decent—although I wasn’t sure if that was a result of the shape-shifting or the fight. But he was alive, seemed relatively unhurt—slashed arm and pained expression aside—and relief slithered through me.

Until I looked beyond him. A gray-haired woman lay still and silent on the floor near the small table, her neck twisted at such an odd angle it could only mean it had been broken. Her eyes were open but unseeing, and an expression of terror had been forever frozen onto her face.

Jak hadn’t been able to save her. I closed my eyes and cursed the killing efficiency of Nadler’s men.

But at least Jak
had
gotten one of them—and the bastard was still alive. He was lying several feet away from the woman, his legs also twisted into odd shapes. He probably would have been screaming had he been conscious, and part of me was tempted to slap him awake just so he could suffer for the death he’d caused.

I resisted the impulse, though, and sheathed Amaya as I walked over to Jak. His nostrils flared; then a slight smile touched his lips—indications that he knew I was close even if he didn’t open his eyes.

I knelt wearily beside him. “I thought I told you to stay outside and wait for us.”

“Yeah, I’m going to do that when someone is being murdered.” He finally opened his eyes and gave me a somewhat annoyed look. “I’m not that much of a bastard, Risa.”

“I didn’t say you were. I just didn’t want you hurt.”

I gently pulled away the remnants of his shirt and inspected the wounds underneath. The knife wounds were long and deep, and while some of the bleeding had been slowed by his shift back into human form, the deeper ones were still weeping.

“You didn’t?” he said in a surprised voice. “I would have thought the opposite.”

I gave him a lopsided smile. “If I’d wanted you hurt, I would have done it myself. Which doesn’t mean,” I added hastily, as his gaze warmed, “that I am, in any way, ever going to forgive you for what you wrote.”

He grimaced. “I sometimes regret what I wrote, but
I’m afraid it never lasts long. It was a good story, Risa, and it was the truth.”

“As you saw it.”

“Which is the only way I can ever report things.” His gaze sharpened. “And now, you’d better tell me about that sword-wielding man who suddenly popped into existence and saved my ass.”

I sat back on my heels and wondered why he’d seen Azriel’s real form.

In this case, simply because I allowed it. Generally, it is only powerful clairvoyants who see us as we are.

Which Jak isn’t, so why reveal your true self?

You trust him.

Yeah, but I trust Lucian, too.

That is totally different.

I wasn’t so sure it was, but I glanced back at Jak. “You don’t want to shift shape and heal your wounds first?”

“Just answer the damn question, Risa,” he snapped. “I’m really not in the mood for games.”

I grimaced. “Remember I mentioned that I could see the reapers?”

He stared at me for a moment, then said incredulously, “You’re telling me he’s one of them?”

I nodded. “Although technically, he’s not just a reaper, but a Mijai—he guards the gates to heaven and hell, and hunts down the bad things that come through them.”

He studied me for a moment, clearly trying to decide if I was pulling his leg or not. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

I tore off my shirtsleeve and used it to bandage the
worst of his wounds. “Does that mean you didn’t believe me when I mentioned them before?”

“To be honest, I had no idea what to think. I mean, ghosts and demons I can accept, because there’s been enough evidence of both over the years. But reapers? And winged beings that no one has ever seen except in the pages of religious books?” He shook his head. “I’m an investigative reporter. We tend not to believe anything unless there’s some form of proof.”

I snorted softly. “And when there’s no proof, you make it up from half-truths or outright lies.”

His black eyes glimmered with sudden anger. “I have
never
concocted a story. You of all people should know that.”

I did. I was just being petty and baiting him—not that I was about to admit it. “The secretary obviously knew enough to identify our face-shifter. It’s bloody frustrating that his people got here before us.”

“Yeah. He seems to know exactly what we’re up to. I mean, first Logan, then the photographer, now the secretary—surely it can’t be a coincidence that he’s killing them in the same damn sequence that we’re seeing them.”

“We’re talking about someone who has shown no hesitation about sending a soul stealer against anyone who opposes his plans to buy up the area around the ley-line intersection. Who knows what other type of dark magic he has at his beck and call?”

“Magic wouldn’t reveal our intentions. Not from what I know of it, anyway,” Jak said.

I shrugged. I didn’t know enough about magic to say whether it was possible or not, but there was definitely
some force at work here—even if it
was
human based. Jak was right—the sequence of the murders very likely
wasn’t
a coincidence.

Awareness surged across my skin, and I twisted around. Azriel appeared with two men in tow. Both of them were pale and wide-eyed with terror. Obviously, the journey through the gray fields had shocked them.

He dropped them unceremoniously on the floor. They stayed where they fell, breathing but unmoving, meaning he’d restrained them in some way, even if the restraints weren’t visible.