Enticed (20 page)

I"d do anything for you.

Somehow, that very thought reminded me … I couldn"t ask
anything
of him. He wasn"t mine and I could never expect him to risk losing his strength, his powers as a Grigori, just so that he could be with me. It didn"t matter that I"d have done it for him in a heartbeat.

„I thought we were partners," I said, trying to keep an even tone.

„We are. I just … I can"t fight at my best with you at the moment." Lincoln ran a hand through his hair and looked towards the door again. An escape looked mighty appealing to me too after that comment.

„Right then," I mumbled, burying my chin in my shoulder.

His expression broke and seemed to soften. „Please try and understand – it will all be over soon and then you"l be … I know I"ve been distracted, but once this is over, I"l be better for it – better for you … as your partner."

I stared down at my feet and then headed over to start picking up the pieces of glass scattered across the floor. „Okay, Linc. I"l stay out of it."

„Thank you," he said, surprised. He walked up to the door and put on his coat. „Don"t worry about that. I"l clean up later."

„Actual y, I … I don"t need to be at Hades for a bit. I"m happy to stay and clean up – if you don"t mind?"

His shoulders dropped, relieved I"d made it so easy for him. „Sure. You know where the spare key is. Just lock up on your way out." He grabbed a backpack and opened the door.

„Lincoln!" I called. „What about meeting Griffin and the rest of us at Hades?"

„We"l meet up with you guys there if we can. If not, Magda will get the low-down from Griffin."

I stared at him in disbelief.

Is he real y so obsessed he"s going to miss his chance to hunt Phoenix?

He smiled. „Don"t worry. Griffin won"t go after them tonight – he"l want to do surveil ance first," he said, as if he"d read my mind.

His eyes fixed on mine for a moment before he closed the door. Beautiful green eyes –

yet steely. I had not seen them like that before. All emotion under tight lock and key.

I was desperate to reach him but he was further away than ever.

I watched the front door for a long time after he had closed it behind him. How had things come to this? Lincoln was managing me. We"d had our fair share of arguments, so tension was not something we weren"t accustomed to, but this was different. He was just shutting down, locking me out. He was cold and distant, as if everything we had everything we had between us, our friendship alone – no longer registered. He was so desperate to get his revenge on Nahilius, nothing else mattered. I was starting to think he was willing to pay just about any price to get it.

„Wel , not me," I said out loud.

I might have told Lincoln I would stay out of it, but lie-detecting wasn"t one of his strengths. For all his imploring me to stand aside, it really came down to one question; if it were me, if the roles were reversed, would Lincoln let
me
go off on some renegade mission if he had a strong feeling I was headed for nothing but trouble and regret?

Not on your life!

And neither would I

When things were at their worst, when I have needed someone to be there for me – it has always been Lincoln. Until recently, it didn"t matter what it was – training, protection, hel …

even a balanced diet –
he
had been the person I"d talked to, who"d backed me up. He was everything to me.

I was damned if I was going to sit back and take this shit. The whole thing with Nahilius had given him twisted blood. Since Magda had come back from her holiday, Lincoln had changed – he was losing himself.

I needed caffeine. There was still an hour or so until I was supposed to meet up with the others at Hades. I made a coffee, sat at the breakfast bar and drank it slowly while I re-evaluated everything that had happened over the last week. By the time I started on my third cup, I"d come up with a number of theories and only thing I knew for sure – I needed help.

-

Steph arrived a half hour later.

„Hey," she said, walking in and seeing that I was alone. She"d changed since the morning and looked great, her hair perfectly styled in the edgy spritzy look she had mastered and she was wearing skinny jeans and a green vintage top. Her best colour. She"d obviously been planning something much more interesting than hanging out with me. I felt guilty, but I couldn"t do this without her.

„You look better," she said, noticing I wasn"t limping. „What"s so urgent? Salvatore and I were at the mall. He needs new jeans."

„Jeans can wait. I need your brains."

„And you only just realised," she said, smiling. „What"s up?"

I rolled my eyes and then explained everything that had happened, and how Lincoln had been acting so awfully since he started pursuing Nahilius.

She was surprised to hear that Nahilius had infiltrated his mother"s company and I was glad that it stirred her interest, because the more intrigued she was, the more likely it was that my plan was going to work.

„So, basical y, this all goes back to Nahilius, to what happened to his mother," I summarised.

„I hear you. Corporate evil. But what is it you want me to do?"

„Linc wants me out of this. He only trusts Magda, for some, stupid reason, and I told him I wouldn"t get involved, but …"

„You plan on sticking your big nose in anyway?"

„Damn straight," I said, collapsing into a chair. „If we can find Nahilius before they do then I can help Linc finish this properly. I"m scared that if he finds Nahilius with Magda … he"l do something he"l regret."

Steph went to the fridge and helped herself to a Coke. She took her time, considering everything I had told her. After she"d positioned herself across from me at the dining table and taken a sip of her drink, she looked up and squirmed.

„What?" I demanded, automatically defensive.

„No offence or anything, but what"s he going to regret? I mean, don"t you guys have a 007

licence to kil exiles, anyway?"

„It"s not like that, Steph!" I snapped. „Sorry, it"s just … there"s a different between getting into combat with an exile and giving them a choice, hunting one down solely for vengeance, with only one plan. We"re supposed to give them a chance, Steph, and the way Lincoln was talking …"

„Got it. Where do I start?" Steph asked, all jokes halted. The knot in my stomach eased and I exhaled a few tight breaths before I filled her in on what I needed – which mostly involved gluing Steph to a compute and the library for the next couple of days.

„Done. I"l let you know when I find something," she said, while opening random kitchen cupboards, prying. „You realise he"s too clean for a guy?" she asked, pointing to the spice rack.

I half smiled. „Thanks Steph, I don"t know where I"d be without you."

„You"d be in need of a manicure and in a great big mess, is where you"d be."

„If it"s any consolation I think Salvatore is going to be pretty busy for a while now, too," I said.

„I figured. Anyway, being stuck with Zoe for a bit without me as a buffer wil be good for him."

„You mean, good for you."

She shrugged and gave me her devious grin, which quickly turned faced to sombre. „You guys are hunting Phoenix, aren"t you?"

„I think that"s what Griffin will want. It won"t be tonight, though, according to Lincoln."

„Well, you better get going. Sal was heading straight there when I left him."

I checked my watch.
Crap
, it was getting late. I ran through the warehouse, turning off the lights.

„Thanks Steph, I owe you big-time," I said as we left Lincoln"s. „Call me if you find anything."

„No guarantees – I"ve never tried to locate otherworldly creatures on the internet before. It might not work."

„I know," I accepted with a sigh. „But I had to try."

„Be careful out there, okay?" she said, giving me a serious-Steph look.

„I will."

„Salvatore said he can sense lies around – he just can"t see where they"re coming from."

Probably me.

„And can you make sure Zoe isn"t too much of a bitch to Salvatore?"

„Real y?" I asked, raising one eyebrow at her.

Steph re-evaluated. „No. let her be a bitch," she said, giving her best conspiratorial wink.

„That"s my girl," I said, glad to see Steph hadn"t had a dramatic personality change like Lincoln.

Steph didn"t mind if Zoe and Salvatore became closer – she wanted it for him – but deep down, we felt the same way: girls don"t need to make any other girls close to their men.

Come on
.

All in all, I was pleased with myself. I was sick of just letting things happen and then dealing with the aftermath. I wanted to be a step ahead for a change and I had a feeling having a semi-genius in my corner was about to be a big help. Plus, there was another upside. With Steph on-board helping out, she was also away from the action and out of the firing line … for now.

-

During my brisk walk to Hades, my hand kept going to the pocket where I had slipped Lincoln"s spare key. For some reason, I knew having it with me was important. Something back at his place had made me stay behind so I could get that key. It didn"t make a lot of sense, but thinking about it as I walked I couldn"t help but wonder if someone else was interfering.

And then there was the second part to that thought – light or dark?

„
The resolution to avoid evil is seldom framed till the evil is
so far advanced as to make avoidance impossible."

Thomas Hardy

The meeting at hades went pretty much as expected. We all sat around a big table at the back of the restaurant section. Nyla and Rudyard ordered lots of food that none of us –

except Spence and Salvatore – wanted, but it kept Dapper"s agitation at bay. He wasn"t as grumpy as usual. He was definitely softening some, though it was on a knife-edge.

Griffin had brought half a dozen local Grigori along with him. I"d been getting to know everyone gradually over the past month. He had people working in all precincts of the city –

mostly they were self-sufficient, weeding out individual exiles and following up on intel and leads that he had filtered. Griffin acted as the central hub. Some Grigori got titbits of information from exiles they returned that could uncover another group. They would pass this intel back to Griffin who would then allocate the nearest Grigori to the task.

So far, Lincoln and I hadn"t been given a territory. Partly because we"d been too busy with chasing up the Scriptures, partly because I think Griffin likes working closely with Lincoln and partly … probably … Griffin didn"t trust me on my follow-through yet.

And he was right.

Until I could prove I wasn"t a liability – in other words, I could draw my dagger and use it without compunction – I wasn"t ready. Griffin teamed everyone up – pairs with pairs. Nyla and Rudyard headed out with Samuel and Kaitlin. They were going after more intel on the Scriptures, we could find Phoenix. I got the feeling it was messy work from what Griffin said

– or didn"t. They were going after a small pack of exiles in Samuel and Kaitlin"s precinct – a mix of light and dark who they believed were under Phoenix"s command.

It was now they consensus that Phoenix had taken over where Joel and Onyx had left off, which meant volatile groups of mixed exiles, light and dark, were now most likely under his charge, thanks to the help of two particularly viscous exiles, Gressil and Olivier. What he"d had to do to win that control was something none of us wanted to brainstorm.

Zoe and Salvatore were sent out with two Grigori I"d never met before – Archer and Beth.

But while we were waiting for Griffin to get started they made small talk with me. I tried to nod politely after I told them I was an artist and they responded by telling me about the time they met Michelangelo. They were in Florence and apparently he"d just been commissioned to start work on a new statue that was later named
David. David
was sculptured by Michelangelo at the beginning of the sixteenth century!

Suddenly I was very nervous. I mean, how do you talk to people that have been around for more than
five hundred
years?

The weirdest thing, of course, was that they didn"t even look close to thirty.

Zoe, unfazed, leapt right into conversation with them. She didn"t seem to struggle to find something to talk about and from the looks of Archer and Beth; they were not surprised by anything she said. I guess when you never really age you just learn to move with the times.

Griffin arranged for them to go to the farmhouse and scout around as much as they could without getting within sensing range of the airport, which couldn"t be easy. He didn"t want to tip off Phoenix that we knew where he was. Griffin was planning on gathering more reserves before anything like that happened.

He"d heard from Magda and it seemed clear from Griffin"s subsequent abruptness that both Magda and Lincoln were MIA for the night. When I came to think of it, Magda had been around even less than Lincoln.

Finally, Spence and I were put on a different kind of recon. Since the airport was currently out-of-bounds, Griffin wanted us to go to an aircraft factory. He was hoping I might be able to sense something there that might help identify a pattern that could help locate Phoenix. We knew from my reaction at the airport there was a good chance he may be hiding on a plane of some description and I agreed it was worth a shot. Spence, on the other hand, was piqued.

„Great. So while everyone else is off doing real recon, we"re going to see if we can
sense
a plane
. Excellent," he grumbled.

As far as I was concerned it worked out perfectly. We hadn"t been paired up with anyone else and now the only person I had to deal with was Spence, which was manageable for what I had in mind.

When we all started heading out, Griffin gave me a look that told me he knew I was up to something, but he either decided I was entitled to a few secrets of just didn"t want to know, because after a few appeasing words to Dapper, he left.