Kiss Of Twilight (15 page)

The building seemed to spring from the hillside into the pouring rain, a massive forbidding monstrosity. Dupree looked at it with distaste. He hated this place. It was just as gloomy and oppressive on a sunny day. Just as austere and unwelcoming inside its great rooms. But his commander ordered and he obeyed. Someone had to inform the council one of its members was dead and find out what the fuck Contee was doing in Camden in secret.

Instead of approaching the old wood door, however, he stood in the rain fuming. Had he mentioned that he hated this place? And the people who inhabited it. Politicians all, sneaky and secretive. He wasn't counting on getting the answers he or Winter needed, and if he did they'd no doubt come with a heavy price.

"Any reason we're standing out here in the rain, babe?" Kara asked.

Because he was an idiot? Her tone was sharp. She was still annoyed at him for pulling Vic and Jonas off her protection detail, and yes, he'd done it partly out of jealousy. He had to grit his teeth every time he saw her with Vic. She may think they were just friends, but her friend felt anything but friendly toward her. So yeah, Dupree could admit that had been part of his motivation, but only a small part. They hadn't kept her safe. It would be a long time before he got over that.

"Dupree?" He looked down at her and his heart pounded.

She felt betrayed. He didn't blame her and it was hell seeing that hint of accusation in her eyes. And damn, it was nice to have her at his side. Even angry at him, she was an ally. The sooner he got what he came for the sooner he could get her alone and try to explain.

He'd be more concerned about her lingering anger if he wasn't so sick with worry. Ben's niece. She'd dropped that little bombshell on the drive up. She claimed she hadn't told anyone when the memory returned to her, not even Winter, and he believed her. Which didn't make him the least bit happy she'd delayed telling him. He couldn't help thinking that being related to Ben put her in even more danger. He hoped like hell she wasn't keeping any other big secrets from him.

The Grand Master himself opened at Dupree's knock. He stepped back so they could enter. "I was beginning to wonder if you meant to spend the night in the rain."

"I considered it." He kept his hand on the small of Kara's back. Angry with her or not, she was his to protect. "You've met Kara Stone, right?"

He smiled. "Of course. Come inside."

They followed Gray through the wide foyer into an office set off to the right side under the staircase. The floors were stone, the furniture severe and uncomfortable except for the plush leather seat behind the desk. Gray ignored it and sat in wooden chair next to Dupree and Kara.

"So why did Winter send you here?"

"Baas Contee was murdered." If Gray already knew about it his expression didn't betray him. "The question is why was he in one of our abandoned compounds?"

Something like uneasiness seemed to cross over his face before Gray once again schooled his expression, but not before shooting an uneasy look at Kara. "A good question. One I'm afraid I can't answer right now."

Because he doesn't know.
And that worried Dupree more than any other answer might have. He lowered his voice, tried to make it soft and cajoling like Winter or Gia could. "What's going on, Gray? We've got the Carolina council member dead in our region. Gia is still missing. The old job titles are being brought back." They'd decided to keep their knowledge of Kara's family tree to themselves for the time being.

Gray sighed heavily and looked around the room. His mental touch surprised Dupree.
If I give you an image can you take the two of you there?

Sure.

What the fuck was this about? Then the image was in his mind, down to the tiniest detail. An alley, probably in the nearby town. Dupree put his arm around Kara's shoulder and teleported them. He didn't feel too much drain on his power so they must be close. Gray teleported himself and arrived a second later. He pulled a key from his pocket and approached a door Dupree hadn't noticed. Concealed with telepathy somehow? Could that be done?

They followed the Grand Master inside, down a short corridor and into a much more comfortable looking room than Gray's office back at Order headquarters. Gray poured glasses of dark rich looking liquid, which Kara declined, and joined them in the sitting area with two glasses. Dupree took the offered glass and sipped. Bourbon, old, and very good. He'd have to check the label before he left. He set the glass on a table by his seat and leaned forward, elbows on his knees. Gray sat across from him.

"So what's going on?"

"What do you know about the council?"

Dupree shrugged a shoulder. "As much as anyone I guess. Six members representing each region plus the Grand Master. All members have to be bonded and they're former regional commanders, or elected from that region's quadrant leaders. Kara could probably give you complete bios."

"And technically we answer to the Church."

"Which has a history of not interfering with Order business."

"Times change."

Fuck. He didn't like where this was going. "And how are they changing?"

"There are some who believe we've become too liberal. Too secular and too accommodating of our non-Catholic members. They want to strengthen those old ties."

"I didn't take you for that kind of man," Dupree said, letting disapproval color his voice. The kind of changes he was hinting at would devastate recruitment not to mention the lives of current members. And something about this story just felt wrong.

"It would never work." Kara voiced his concerns. "We'd lose half of our people."

"I'm not advocating it. I have no interest in taking the Order backward."

"Then tell them no," Dupree said.

Gray smiled. "Did Winter send you because of your bluntness? It's not that simple. The council is divided. There has already been one call to remove me. Until Contee's death, it was a tie. The man most likely to replace him when the quad leaders vote, though... Well, let's just say I'll be looking for a new house."

Dupree sat back unbelieving. Maybe a little stunned. "If he was one of yours why was he in our region without your knowledge?"

"The million dollar question, isn't it? He said he'd be gone a few days. I thought he was going home for something, and he was not the kind of man who tolerated interference in his personal life, so I didn't ask. We weren't that close."

"His wife? She has to know he's dead."

Nodding, Gray stood. "Keeps to herself. If she's told anyone it hasn't come back to me, but if anyone knows what Baas was up to it would be her. I have a sudden urge to pay a social call."

He didn't ask before sending the image to Dupree's mind and he didn't give any warning before teleporting to the new location. Dupree teleported with Kara. It was a pretty little walled garden, still lush in the north Georgia summer despite the unrelenting rain. Dupree followed Gray to the back door, and could smell the death that waited inside. He tensed. This was one of the reasons why he'd brought Kara along, but he didn't like it.

"Someone's died here very recently," he warned her softly before allowing her to enter before him.

He followed. Gray knelt over the woman's small body a moment before turning to meet Dupree's questioning gaze.

"Blood is still warm. And this is not demon work."

Which begged many questions, didn't it? He unclipped his phone from his belt, scrolled through the numbers and hit send. Timothy answered right away. Dupree figured he would still be in the lab despite the late hour.

"What's up?" Tim answered on the first ring.

"What do you have on Contee?"

"Weirdest thing." Dupree heard the excitement in the scientist's voice. He liked a good puzzle. "Looks like a demon attack."

"We knew that already."

"Right. Well it isn't. I found traces of obsidian in the tissue wounds."

Dupree went cold. "Like transferred from a knife?"

"Exactly."

Only hybrids carried those blades.

"This stays between us and Winter. Don't forward that report to the council."

There was a long pause. "We have to send them something."

"Don't worry. We will." He didn't tell the scientist it would be a highly sanitized version though.

After he replaced the phone in its holder he looked over at Gray. "You have a problem."

"I heard."

"You think one of the other council members got him to Camden and killed him? Why go to that much trouble?"

"I have no idea, but we're going to find out."

"We have to get home."

"They can spare you for a couple days."

Dupree had anticipated that, but he didn't let on. If he was honest with himself, it's why he'd agreed to bring Kara. He didn't want to spend days away from her.

He looked down at her. She looked a little pale, but she was holding up. "Anything?"

She shook her head. "No. Sorry."

If Gray noticed the exchange, he didn't comment. "Let's get back to the mansion." He looked around. "We were never here."

"We should look around first."

"Right. Of course."

Dupree realized Gray had been Grand Master so long he was used to asking for information and had forgotten how to find it on his own.

"Take the bedroom. We'll start in the study." He thought of something else before they split up. "Why is a councilor living separately like this? Why not at headquarters?"

"Seniority. He's served longer than the rest of us. And we are on the grounds. Go through that back gate it's a quarter mile through the woods."

Dupree assumed his expression betrayed his opinion of that because Gray laughed. The sound was more bitter than amused however.

"Stupid. I know. He was a very powerful telepath. He thought he was untouchable."

Dupree snorted at that and walked through the house until he found the councilor's office. Either someone had rifled it before they got there or the man was a slob. Papers littered the desk. A couple of the file cabinet drawers weren't completely closed. A half filled coffee pot sat on a table under the window.

Gia could have made sense from the mess. He hoped Kara could too, because he had no idea what he was looking for. He was tempted to pack it all up and take it back to the mansion in Camden. Something told him he wouldn't be allowed to do that so he started with the desk.

It contained more blank paper and financial flow charts than anything else, though the charts didn't make much sense to him. Most of it looked personal, not Order related. He stacked those and set them aside. Under them he found reports. They were the standard dry records all the region commanders sent in to the council. Activity levels, recruitment, mate bonds. But one region was missing. He found the southern region's reports buried under a stack of ledgers in the bottom desk drawer. It was locked but easy enough to turn the simple mechanism with the point of an envelope opener.

The standard report was in the file, along with reports of the compound attacks Ben had led and a summary of the autopsy reports. Except for one. He had the complete report of Nancy's autopsy. As near as they could determine, Ben's wife had been killed a few days before he went rogue. The breaking of that bond was what pushed him over the edge into madness.

Why did Contee have this particular file? Dupree fingered the silky paper. Faxed? And from an old machine, using old paper. He held it up and saw the faint jagged black lines on the edge that gave it away. What was so interesting about Nancy's death? And who in his lab had secretly given out a confidential record? Tim's signature was scrawled on the bottom. The only copy that should exist outside the lab was in Kara's office at home. There was no way anyone could have accessed it.

"What did you find?" Kara asked.

"Someone faxed him Nancy's autopsy."

He showed it to her. "How did Contee get one of our lab reports?" she murmured.

"I'd like to know that myself. And why."

She frowned. "I checked with Timothy a couple of days ago. She was definitely killed by a demon."

Kara and Contee had both been curious at this late date? What was he missing? "Why would you ask?"

She shrugged. "A hunch. Something feels wrong about it. Nancy happens to get killed. Ben goes rogue. Then there's a power play in the council? It's like someone needed him out of the way."

He agreed, but... "She was killed by a demon though."

"Yeah. Blows my hunch, doesn't it? Weird that Contee was questioning the same thing though."

"Find something?" Gray asked from the doorway.

"More questions." He handed the papers over and Gray scowled as he read. There was a summary on the back page, speculation about how it had happened.

"She was out alone?"

"Near as we can tell." Dupree sighed. It didn't make more sense now than it did then.

"Was that unusual?"

Dupree snorted. "You let your woman run around alone? Neither did Ben."

"I don't get away with telling my wife what to do anymore than you do."

"I'm not married," Dupree pointed out. Beside him Kara got very quiet.

Gray grinned. "Yet?"

"Like I told Winter. My business. Not yours." He wasn't discussing his personal life with Gray. He didn't trust the Grand Master and he wasn't about to say or do anything to put Kara in more danger. Or make her angrier with him than she already was.

"I'm sure Winter leaves it at that too," he replied dryly.

Dupree chose to ignore that. "What's all the rest of this stuff?"

"Greek." Gray flipped through financial papers. "We need an accountant."

"Got one you trust?"

"No," he said curtly.

What could he say to that? "There's no journal or log here. He was interested in a dead woman and financial reports that make no sense."

Gray held up a key. "Found it in the safe in the bedroom."

Dupree took it and turned it over. "A padlock key. This could go to anything."

"Must be something important to leave the key in the safe."

"What else was there?"

"Not a damned thing. And that," Gray said pointing at the key he held, "was taped to the top. So the key was missed
if
the safe was cleaned out."