Death Bringer (Soul Justice) (9 page)

“We wanted you to know the truth, Mr. Dailey.”

“The truth?” He got in her face. “That my son’s face was
stolen
, and he was left with someone else’s? Bullcrap!”

Ella stared him down. “Yes, now step back, sir, or I’ll let my partner at you. He really doesn’t appreciate it when people aren’t polite to me.”

Mr. Dailey looked up and went very still. She sensed Vadim at her shoulder, emanating a sense of cold menace that would probably make Dailey wet his pants.

“Morosov isn’t quite human, so don’t think to appeal to his better side. He doesn’t have one. He could probably kill you without even touching you.”

Her adversary stepped back, his gaze still fixated on Vadim, who appeared to be making a low growling sound.

“Now if you will all sit down, I’ll explain exactly what is going to happen next.”

She waited until the three family members were seated and looking obediently up at her.

“
Can you keep them calm for me
,
Morosov?
”

“
I’m already on it.
”

She took a deep, centering breath and focused on the turmoil of the three minds in front of her. Vadim’s power blended smoothly with hers, and she began to extract the memories of the conversation, of the family’s anger and disbelief, of their sense of horror... Other images—Brad as a sunny-natured little boy, a baby, a sullen teen—jostled with the ones she sought. She pushed those gently away and focused on only what needed to be removed.

After a quick check to see that she had everything, she opened her eyes and studied the vacant faces of the family. Usually she needed skin-to-skin contact to make the necessary connection, but with Vadim’s help she could do without it.

“When you wake up, you will understand that Brad was an extremely unhappy individual who was afraid of letting you down by disclosing his lack of interest in a medical career. You will know that on his last night of life he unknowingly took some as-yet-unidentified new street drug and suffered a series of hallucinations that made him believe his face was not his own. Despite the hospital’s best efforts, Brad was unable to recover from the effects of taking this substance and killed himself.”

Mrs. Dailey’s mouth quivered and a single tear ran down her cheek.

“You will feel shock and anger and grief over his death. You will insist on an investigation, which the hospital will offer you. It will become clear to you that no member of the hospital staff or the SBLE were responsible for your son’s death.”

She looked across at Feehan, who nodded, and then at Vadim.

“
Good enough
,
Ms.
Walsh.
”

She held out both of her hands, palms facing out, and gave a final push of power to set the new memories in place. The usual twinge of nausea and unsteadiness made her sway on her feet. Vadim was immediately at her side and led her to a chair.

“We can take it from here, can’t we, Mr. Feehan?”

“Indeed we can. I wonder where Ms. Phelps has gotten to?” Feehan joined Vadim in front of the Dailey family, who were gradually coming out of their trances and staring up at the two men.

“Do you have any more questions for me, Mrs. Dailey?” Vadim asked.

“No, I...I don’t think so, not at this moment.” She wiped away the tear on her cheek. “It’s just so sudden and unexpected.”

“I understand.” Vadim turned to her husband. “Mr. Dailey?”

“I’m not happy about this at all. My son was a fine, upstanding individual who never took drugs!” He stood up and brushed at the creases in his pants.

“You’re probably right, sir. We don’t know the circumstances. It is of course possible that another individual gave your son something illegal without either his knowledge or his consent.”

“Exactly!” Mr. Dailey looked over at his father for a long moment, and the older man nodded. “We will be demanding a full investigation into this matter.”

“As you should, sir.” Vadim agreed. “I don’t think the hospital should offer you anything less than a full public hearing.”

The ex-senator cleared his throat. “A private hearing. My family has suffered enough.”

“I’m sure they’ll do whatever you want, Senator.” Vadim handed over his card. “If you have any further questions or information for us, please call me or Mr. Feehan, and we will do our best to help.”

“Thank you.” Mr. Dailey took the card and studied it. “May we see Brad now? We’d like to say our last goodbyes.”

Ella and Feehan stared at each other. Feehan cleared his throat.

“As to that—”

Vadim stepped forward. “It’s not a problem. Mr. Feehan, I know you’re expected at another appointment. I’ll take the Daileys to see the body.”

“If you’re sure, Vadim.”

“I’m happy to do so.” He glanced at Ella. “Will you accompany me, Ms. Walsh?”

“Sure.”

With a reassuring pat on Feehan’s arm, she followed Vadim down to the ER.

“
I’ll need your help to maintain the illusion.
Do you remember what Brad used to look like?
That’s what I’m going to project.
”

“
Got it.
”

She held the door open for the ex-senator and waited while they completed the necessary security checks to reach the body. Mrs. Dailey was the only member of the family who seemed genuinely upset by the tragedy. Ella was mainly picking up anger and disgust from the two men. It chilled her. Was that how they’d seen Brad? As some sort of pawn in their family empire, one that had disappointed them? No wonder he’d acted like such an insecure loser...

Vadim opened the door into the temporary morgue, and the Daileys filed in after him. She focused her attention on her partner, adding her emerging magical powers to his as he lowered the sheet and revealed Brad’s altered face. How odd that they were using magic to add yet another layer to Brad’s mask. Would Adam sense their spell and come looking for them?

Mrs. Dailey burst into tears and tried to reach for Brad. The two men held her back, their expressions remote and tinged with impatience. Mr. Dailey caught Vadim’s eye.

“We should leave. There are arrangements to be made. When will you release the body?”

“You’ll need to consult with the hospital authorities about that.” Vadim replaced the sheet. “Hopefully it won’t be too long. May I suggest you liaise with Ms. Phelps about drafting a statement to be released to the media? I’m sure she gave you her details.”

Ella held the door open and waited until the Daileys had gone before turning back to Vadim.

“Where is Ms. Phelps anyway? Wasn’t she supposed to be at that meeting?”

Vadim slowly raised his head. “Yes, she was.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Dammit, she’s blond, isn’t she?” She ran for the door, only to have Vadim catch her arm.

“Hold on a minute.”

“Why? She might be in danger!”

“
Wait.
Think this through. We’ve both got a good sense of Adam. Let’s use our combined power to see if we can locate him.”

“How?”

“Just close your eyes and use your empath abilities.”

“But—”

“Ella, shut up and do it!”

She complied and forced herself to slow her breathing and turn her thoughts inward. Vadim’s magic flowed along with hers, sometimes in parallel, other times so closely mingled that she couldn’t tell where he ended and she began.

“
He’s close.
”

“
Yes.
”

“
Now what do we do?
”

“
Concentrate on where you feel his power most strongly and find him.
”

She opened her eyes, and this time he didn’t stop her leaving. Adam’s power drew her on. He was in the hospital. He was close. She was standing outside Ms. Phelps’s office, Vadim right behind her.

“She can’t be here. We were just in here.” She tried to turn the handle. “It’s locked.”

“Try it again.”

A surge of Vadim’s magic passed through her fingers and the lock clicked open. She drew her weapon and gently pushed open the door. Someone sat in Ms. Phelps’s chair. She didn’t turn or react to the opening of the door. Her eyes were wide open and she wasn’t blinking.

“Holy cow.” Ella whispered. “That’s not how Ms. Phelps looked yesterday, is it?”

“No.”

Vadim went past her. “She’s in a trance.”

“Maybe that’s for the best.” Ella moved closer. “If it
is
Ms. Phelps. Her face and hair coloring are completely different.”

“It’s her, all right. Can’t you feel the magic? Remember, this was where Adam’s power was most concentrated.”

“Shall I call Feehan?”

“Yes, tell him what’s happened and get him to send a second SBLE security team up here. I’ll keep her under. You and I can take turns standing guard until they get here.”

Chapter Eight

“Ella, can I speak to you, please?”

She looked up to see Feehan at her elbow. “What’s up?”

He nodded in the direction of the door. “Out here?”

She rose from her seat beside Ms. Phelps’s bed, nodded at Vadim and headed out into the hallway. It was now dark outside, and the SBLE team had secured the private room where Ms. Phelps lay. She was still in a magical trance and had betrayed no trace of awareness of what had been done to her.

The smell of coffee lured Ella farther down the hallway to the nurse’s station, where Jose obligingly handed her a cup.

“Thanks.” She smiled at him. “I needed that.”

“You’re welcome. Where’s lover boy?”

“Who?”

“You know, tall, dark and dangerous, who looks as if he wants to devour me whole every time I talk to you.”

“Oh, him.” Ella shrugged, then sipped at her coffee. “He’s standing guard.”

Jose leaned against the desk. “What’s going on with Ms. Phelps?”

“She seems to have had some kind of fit.”

“What kind of ‘fit’?”

“They’re not sure. That’s why she’s being kept in isolation.”

“I saw her this morning at the staff meeting, and she looked fine.” Jose shook his head. “Whatever happened, it sure seemed to come out of nowhere.”

“I know.”

“Ella?”

She turned back to Feehan, who was waiting patiently behind her.

“Sorry, boss. Emergency caffeine refueling.” She nodded at Jose. “Thanks for the coffee.”

Feehan walked her over to a seating area by the elevators and sat down beside her.

“I wanted to ask you something in private.” He looked around and then settled his gaze back on her. “I talked to a couple of the staff on this floor earlier, and they told me the strangest thing.”

“What?”

“That the last person they saw going into Ms. Phelps’s office was Vadim.”

“So?”

“Could it have been him?”

“Boss, you were with us most of the day. We only parted when we went down to the ER with Brad’s parents. I was there the whole time with Morosov. He certainly didn’t sneak away and do this to Ms. Phelps.”

“Are you quite certain?”

“Sure I am. Do you think he bespelled me? He needed to be one hundred percent present in the ER to do the magic required to convince the Dailey family that Brad’s face looked the same as it ever had.”

Feehan scratched his thinning hair. “It does sound a little farfetched, doesn’t it?”

“Look, whoever this Adam dude is, he wants Vadim to take the blame for his actions. This is the second time he’s pretended to be him.”

“But why? Liz thinks—”

Ella sat up straighter. “What’s Liz got to do with it? Is all this coming from her?”

“She’s seeing a lot of connections between Vadim and Adam in her Fae-Web.
Serious
connections.”

“So? He said they shared some of the same bloodlines. Doesn’t that account for it?” Feehan studied her carefully and she felt herself blushing. “
What?
”

“She also insists that you and Vadim are, um, closer than you admit to being.” He held up his hand. “I have to say I found that part a bit difficult to swallow, until I noticed how vigorously you’ve been defending him over the past couple of days.”

“Do you think he’s controlling me with his magic?”

“God forbid, just that you might be—” Feehan was beet-red now and struggling to meet her gaze,”—
physically
intimate, and as you are close to your twenty-seventh birthday, you might not be reacting in an emotionally secure way.”

“You think I’m like a sex-crazed teen who will do anything to protect her man?”

“Um, yes.”

“Wow.” She stared at Feehan for a long moment. “Well, that was ballsy.”

“I know, I can’t believe I said it. But Ella, I’m your boss. I don’t want this team imploding during an important investigation.”

He’d impressed her. Who’d have thought it? Now she had to decide how to respond. There was only one answer.

“I suppose I should tell you something important.”

“What’s that?”

“Morosov is my Otherworld-approved mate.”

“
What?
”

“I have the paperwork somewhere, if you want to check it out. I’m not infatuated with him, I’m mated to him. That means my empath gifts are working just fine, and I’m in no danger of going nuts next week. It also means I can connect with Morosov’s mind, and he isn’t the killer.”

Feehan kept gawping at her.

She waved her hand in front of his face. “Boss? Are you okay? I’m telling you this in the strictest confidence, because I don’t want you imagining all this other stuff is a problem. You know me, I wouldn’t lie to you and compromise a case.”

She supposed at this point she should vouch for Vadim’s integrity too, but she didn’t want to inhibit him. He definitely was hiding stuff. Hopefully she’d said enough to keep Feehan happy at least for a while.

He reached for her hand and awkwardly patted it. “Well, I’m very pleased for you—I think. Vadim is...”

“Well equipped to deal with me. I think that’s what you’re trying to say, isn’t it?”

His smile was wary. “Something like that.”

“Seriously, boss, Morosov and I want to solve this case. If I thought he was the murderer, I sure as hell would tell you.”

“Then what do you think is going on?”

“I think this Adam guy is trying to draw attention away from himself and onto Vadim to confuse us. And it’s working. But at least this time we’re better prepared for when Adam comes back.”

“He’ll be back?”

“You have to assume he’ll want to complete his task and force Ms. Phelps to kill herself.”

“Hopefully we’ll be able to stop that this time.”

“
Ms.
Walsh
,
what the fuck are you doing?
”

She slammed down her shields. “I’m sure we will. Shall we go back now?”

Feehan left her at the door to Ms. Phelps’s room, and she braced herself for what lay within. Vadim was leaning back against the wall, arms crossed. His expression wasn’t encouraging and his eyes were narrowed to icy blue chips. The temperature in the room dropped below freezing, and a couple of black feathers swirled in the air.

Oh
,
crap.

“Ms. Walsh.”

“Morosov.” She gestured at the bed. “No change here, then?”

“No.”

She sighed. “For God’s sake, stop sulking. I had to tell Feehan something. Between him and Liz, you were starting to figure as a shoo-in for the killer.”

“So you told him we were
mated?
”

“It was better than telling him about your connections with Adam and the Otherworld sect, wasn’t it? I had to choose the lesser of two evils.”

“Our mating is an ‘evil’ now?”

“Don’t split hairs, you know what I mean.” She glared at him. “I thought you’d be pleased. You’re the one who’s always complaining that I don’t take it seriously or want to tell anyone.”

“You didn’t share the news because you were
happy
about it. You shared it to get yourself out of an awkward confrontation.”

She shot to her feet and advanced toward him, batting a few feathers out of her way. “I
shared
it to get
you
out of an awkward situation, you dumbass.”

He stared down at her and she shook her head and turned away. “You’re such an idiot sometimes, Morosov.”

“Ella.”

He reached for her, but she shook him off and marched right out of the room. She should have agreed with everything Feehan suggested and let Vadim sort it out from his Otherworld prison cell. She halted in the hallway. Where the hell was she going? She’d agreed to share the night shift with him.

She started walking again. He’d be fine while she got herself something nice and sugary to eat at the cafeteria. When she calmed down, she’d go back, and maybe, if he had any sense,
he’d
be the one to leave for a while...

The door to the janitor’s office to her right opened and she instinctively went for her weapon.

“It’s all right, Ella, it’s only me.” Rossa’s head appeared around the door and he beckoned to her. “Come in here!”

She glanced around and then followed him into the small, crowded space, which smelled of disinfectant, damp rags and skin-stripping chemicals.

“What do you want?”

He blinked at her. “I got the impression you wanted to talk to me.”

“From where?”

“You used my name.”

“So?”

His smile was blinding. “You’re family now, and I heard you. Now, what did you want?”

Ella studied his beautiful face. Up close he was even more stunning. His eyes were honeyed silver and his mouth begged to be kissed. She wanted to stroke the pure white feathers that covered parts of his skin. Mentally, she gave herself a slap. Number one, she knew better than to be taken in by Fae glamour. Number two, Vadim would probably kill them both if she laid a single finger on his relative. But Rossa was here with her, all nice and tight and up close in the janitor’s closet, so she might as well make use of him.

“Do you know anything about an ancient Otherworld sect that competes to collect things?”

Rossa shifted his stance and his wings rustled, almost dislodging some of the bottles on the shelves. “What sort of things?”

“I think you know. They tend to collect groups of three.”

His face paled. “I...don’t know anything about that.”

“If Morosov knows of them, I’m sure you do too. My question is, why are they collecting stuff in my world, and what does it have to do with my partner?”

“I have no idea.”

She stared into his eyes for as long as she could. “If you’re lying to me, all I have to do is take a peek in your mind and I’ll know.”

He flinched away. “Don’t touch me, Soul Sucker.”

“Then tell me what’s going on. Does this have something to do with Morosov’s family wanting him back in Otherworld?”

“Not all of them want him back.”

“But those that do.”

“It’s highly likely his family are involved somewhere, but the sect plays by its own rules and doesn’t listen to anyone.”

“So the two things could be totally separate.” Ella sighed. “You’re not much help, are you?”

“I’m too afraid of your mate to be much help.” He studied her face. “It’s a shame he got to you first. I should imagine you are very creative in bed for a human.”

“Well I certainly like sex.”

Rossa grinned. “Cygnet is a lucky male, then. When he is executed, perhaps you will allow me to console you.”

“Why do you assume he’ll be executed?”

“Because one way or another they’ll force him back to Otherworld to answer for his crimes.” His smile faded. “And he won’t be allowed to escape his fate a second time.”

“Are you suggesting he’s already a tried and convicted man?”

“Didn’t he mention that? Crimes against the Royal blood, especially when it’s your own line, are definitely frowned upon.” He looked back at the door. “I have to go.”

“Don’t tell me Morosov’s spotted you?”

“No, it’s something worse than that. You’re the one who sucks out emotions. Can’t you feel it?” He shivered and all his feathers stood up on end.

“Just tell me one more thing. Do you know this Adam who is stealing human faces?”

“Is that what he’s calling himself now?” Rossa started to disappear. “Whoever he is, I’m not staying around to see him.”

“He’s here? Rossa, wait!”

But it was too late, the Fae had already gone, leaving her in the closet alone.

* * *

“Dammit!”

After the door shut behind Ella, Vadim cursed as quietly as he could. Why was she so contrary? And why had she told Feehan about their being mated? He took a long, slow breath and contemplated the still figure on the bed. Ms. Phelps couldn’t be left alone, so he couldn’t even chase Ella down. Tentatively, he touched his mate’s mind, but her shields held firm. He could get through them, but he didn’t want to force the issue.

Especially when he’d made a complete ass of himself...

She’d told Feehan they were mated to protect him?

There was no other explanation, and he’d gone and made her feel bad about it. All this recent contact with the immorality of Otherworld was making him as paranoid as his parents. He wasn’t used to dealing with someone who literally said what she thought and acted accordingly, whether he liked it or not. No wonder the whole of Otherworld was scared of her...

He leaned his head back and banged it on the wall. When he opened his eyes, Ms. Phelps was sitting bolt upright and staring at something at the end of the bed—something that shimmered and bent the air into different shapes.

Vadim held up his hand, and a shield instantly surrounded Ms. Phelps.

“
A
little help here
,
partner?
” Politeness forgotten, he shoved the message into Ella’s mind.

Coldness pushed at his magic, trying to find a way in, and he strengthened the barrier. As he advanced toward the bed, the shape materialized into the distinct form of a man.

“You can’t beat me in this realm, Adam, or whatever you are calling yourself these days.”

Laughter rang in a discordant note that made Vadim want to cover his ears. “You’re wrong, little cygnet. I’ve grown up.”

“You’re dead.”

“Am I?”

“I killed you. Nothing I kill survives, so who are you really, behind that mask?”

“
I’m coming in.
”

Ella, just outside the door. “
Do it slowly.
”

He couldn’t afford to look at her. His power was already being tested too much.

“What do you want, Adam?”

“My trophy.”

“You can’t have her.”

“You can’t stop me.”

“Obviously, I can. Ella, do you see him?”

“Barely. What do you want me to do?”

“Can you access his thoughts?”

The bright image wavered. “Stand back, Soul Sucker. This is not yet your battle.”

“Sure it is. You’re in my world and you’re killing my people.” She took another step forward. “I’ve got a vague sense of him. He doesn’t like you at all, does he, Morosov?”