Kissed by Fire (16 page)

“It was just a dream. No biggie.” I tilted my
head back and stared at the frescoed ceiling. I wondered vaguely
who thought up the whole idea of decorating a ceiling. I sort of
got it for a bedroom, but otherwise?

“I think maybe it’s more than a dream.” There
was an odd edge to his voice which made me sit up straighter.

I was quiet for a minute. Sometimes Inigo
knew stuff. Stuff he shouldn’t in the normal scheme of things. “OK,
what do you think it is?”

He sighed, and I could almost see him raking
his long artist’s fingers through his golden hair. My libido did a
happy dance and I slid lower on the bench, crossing my legs a
little tighter.

“I think it’s a warning.”

“Like a psychic thing?”

“Maybe. Or it might be a subconscious thing.
I think maybe your mind is trying to tell you something you already
know.”

“Like what?” I forgot I was supposed to be
keeping it down and raised my voice. The artists turned and glared
at me. A museum guard peered around the statue, a frown on his wide
face. I mouthed “sorry.” The guard shook his head, clearly
exasperated. At least he didn’t kick me out.

“Like the fact the dragons had nothing to do
with Alison’s death, but her death had something to do with them
... ”

Which made sense in a warped and twisted way
because someone sure as hell wanted it to look like dragons were
responsible; I just couldn’t figure out why. I had a feeling once
we answered the why, we’d figure out the who.

“It also happens,” he continued,” that I
think this Dragon Hunter Sandra told you about has something to do
with it. You need to find out more.”

“It just so happens I agree with you. Now I
gotta go before they throw me out of here.”

“Fine. Morgan?”

“Yeah?”

“Be careful.”

I grinned. “Always.”

There was laughter in his voice. “Liar.”

I pressed end and slid the phone back into my
pocket, frowning at the ugly statue. It was time to have a chat
with Alister Jones. This time the gloves were coming off.

***

MI8 Headquarters was located in an innocuous
looking building near Hyde Park Corner. In fact, it looked just
like the dozens of other Georgian buildings lining both sides of
the street. Some were private homes or discrete boutique hotels,
while others housed the consulates and embassies of smaller
nations. I’d been in more than a few of them while on business back
in the day.

“You sure you want to do this? I can go in on
my own. He can’t get mad at you if I’m the one up in his face.”

Kabita shook her head. “No. I’m never going
to be what Dad wants. It’s time I stop pretending otherwise.” She
squared her shoulders and headed up the wide steps. “And it’s time
he told the truth.”

I certainly agreed with that. I followed her
through the front door, noting the discreetly placed security
cameras and the neatly disguised fingerprint scanner. It may have
looked like any other building, but the place was wrapped up nearly
as tight as the Crown Jewels.

The lobby wasn’t much to get excited about.
It looked more or less like the entryway in any nice house of the
era. The floor was a simple black and white check with a small hall
table in dark wood topped by a vase of exotic flowers. A carved
wood staircase stretched up to the next floor and closed doors
bracketed either side of the entrance. I couldn’t see any
additional cameras, but I’d bet the bank they were there.

We didn’t bother trying the doors or
attempting to climb the staircase. Instead we waited quietly, if
not calmly.

Five minutes later, the door to the left
swung open and Kabita’s eldest brother stepped out. “Hello girls.
Nice to see you again.” He gave Kabita a quick hug and me a kiss on
the cheek.

“Dex, we’re here to see Dad.”

“Yeah. Figured. You’ve got that determined
look. Come on up.” He led the way up the stairs and down a short
hall to what looked like an ordinary door. He fiddled with what I
assumed was a light switch but turned out to be a keypad complete
with retina scanner. Damn, these people were serious about
security.

The rest of the house looked like any classic
Georgian home with beautiful moldings and modest chandeliers, but
what lay on the other side of that door was a computer geek’s wet
dream.

Everything in the room was sleek, slick and
modern. Every desk had a top of the line computer kitted out with
every whistle and bell you could imagine. Giant screens lined the
walls showing maps and photos and stats. It was like walking into
NASA’s control center. Insane.

We passed through the open area to another
security door, this one without the camouflage. Another scan,
another password and we were following Dex down yet another hall to
a plain white door on the end marked A. Jones.

Show time.

Alister was just as suave as ever. He stood
to greet us, holding out his hand. I shook, Kabita didn’t. Alister
didn’t even flinch.

“Ladies, to what do I owe this pleasure?” The
way he said it made clear that this was anything but a
pleasure.

I glanced at Kabita. She nodded.

“We’re here for the truth.”

An eyebrow went up. “The truth? About what,
exactly?”

“About Dragon Hunters, exactly,” Kabita
snapped. “You told us there weren’t any more.”

He leaned back in his chair, calmly folding
his hands on the wide desk in front of him. “Yes, that is so. There
hasn’t been a Dragon Hunter born in generations.”

Kabita leaned forward, her face a mask of
fury. “You lie.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” she hissed. “Why are you
lying?”

He leaned forward, face hard. “I don’t care
what you think about me, but let me make one thing clear. There are
no Dragon Hunters.”

I opened my mouth, but Kabita shook her head.
She clearly thought we’d have no luck with Alister. She was
probably right.

“No Dragon Hunters, huh?” I kept my voice
light.

“No.” The smile he gave me was just this side
of smarmy.

“Fine. Tell me this. Why are you persecuting
Ben Landry?” I had to admit I felt a bit smug at the startled look
on his face. He obviously hadn’t expected us to go there.

His jaw went tight. “MI8’s investigation of
Mr. Landry is none of your concern.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.” Kabita’s voice
was just as hard as her father’s. “I’m making it my business. You
screwed up my life. I’ll be damned if I let you screw up his.”

I wanted to give her a standing ovation.
Instead, I crossed my arms over my chest and watched. I figured
that wasn’t going to go down well with Alister. I was right.

“Get out,” his voice was ice.

Kabita placed both palms flat on her father’s
desk and leaned forward. “Let me make this very clear,
Dad
.
I will not stop until I know the truth. And once I know the truth I
will make it my life’s goal to ensure everyone else knows it,
too.”

He began shuffling paperwork, completely
ignoring the fact we were both in the room. I placed my hand on her
shoulder, urging her away. I could feel her body trembling with
rage, her face white.

As we left his office, I could feel her fury
like a living thing. The Darkness in me roared to the surface. It
liked the anger and it wanted out to play. It took some doing to
stuff it back down into the little corner that had become its
home.

My palms burned. I rubbed them up and down my
pant legs. Kabita needed to calm down and calm down now before my
wonderful newfound abilities went on the fritz.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to worry about it.
Dex met us in the hallway. “Follow me.”

He led us back through the noisy room with
the computers, out through the security door, and into the hall.
Before we got to the stairs, he opened a door on the right which
led into the world’s smallest office. I actually had to stand in
the doorway since there wasn’t enough room for the three of us.

This room was nothing like the sleek offices
behind the security door, all shining and slick. A metal desk that
had seen far better days was crammed up against one wall and
occupied by a computer that looked older than I did. The rest of
the space, what there was of it, was overrun by two enormous filing
cabinets. Stacks of books and files were everywhere.

Dex opened the bottom drawer of his desk,
pulled out a bottle of whiskey and splashed two fingers into the
bottom of a coffee mug. Silently, he handed it to Kabita. She
swallowed it in one gulp. My throat burned in sympathy.

“I take it things didn’t go well with
Dad.”

“You take that right.” It was practically a
snarl.

I leaned against the wall while Kabita
attempted to pace the room. I wished her luck. She had all of about
two steps to go in any direction.

Dex sighed and ran his fingers through thick,
black hair. “Listen, K, I don’t know how much I can help, but I’ll
do what I can. We all will. Adam and Adler are itching to help.
What do you want us to do?”

I wondered what it would be like to have
brothers to protect and look after me. Would my life have been
different if I’d had siblings? It was hard to imagine having that
kind of relationship with anyone. Though a tiny piece of me wished
I did. No use crying over what couldn’t be, right?

“What about the archives?” I piped up.

“Good idea. Alison was supposedly going
through the archives, looking at old files before she died. Can you
get us in, Dex?”

He rolled his eyes. “You don’t ask much, do
you? I can get you in, but it won’t be easy.”

Kabita was quiet for a moment. “Listen, Dex,
you don’t have to do this. I know Dad’s life-long obsession with
destroying the supernatural has gone into overdrive. If he catches
you, you’re in deep shit.”

“You worry about yourself, K. I’ll be fine.
I’m going to attempt damage control, but right now Dad’s got the
power of MI8 behind him. There’s only so much I can do. I’ll do
what I can, though. You’re my sister.” The finality in his voice
told me end of story. Dex would help as much as he could, no matter
what problems it might cause him.

I watched a little enviously as Dex and
Kabita hugged and did the cheek kissy thing. Then she and I slipped
out of MI8 and down the street. I didn’t relax until we were out of
sight of the building and even then, I felt itchy all over. Like I
was being watched.

I glanced at the nearest CCTV camera. They
were all over the city. It made London safer, but it also meant
that doing my job was a heck of a lot harder. Fortunately, I knew
where the blind spots were.

“Do you think he’s watching us?” I asked
Kabita.

She didn’t pretend not to know who I was
talking about. “What do you think?”

“Then how on earth are we going to get into
that building without your Father catching us?” And locking us up
for good, no doubt.

The smile she gave me was just a little
creepy. “Trust me, he’ll never know we were there.” Looked like
Kabita had decided to play dirty. Go girl.

The phone call came shortly after
midnight.

“Yeah. Uh huh. Got it.” Kabita switched off
her phone. “That was Dex. Adam and Adler are going to hack into the
system so we can get in the door. After that, we’re going to have
to bullshit our way.”

I glanced up at the Georgian building. Mostly
empty now, there were only a couple of windows still lit. “Looks
like your dad’s still in there.”

She frowned. “Yeah. Probably best we avoid
him.”

You think?
I gave her an eye roll and
tugged my cap lower over my eyes.

Dex had stopped by the hotel earlier and
dropped off a couple of outfits and a plastic key card. It wasn’t
an official MI8 key card since those were all accounted for, but it
would allow Adam and Adler to get us into the building
remotely.

We strolled across the street. To any
watching eyes, we looked like a couple of maintenance types taking
a leisurely evening stroll. The baggy coveralls and ball caps
turned us into unisex non-entities.

Nobody looked twice at the cleaners.

I dug the card Dex had given us out of my
pocket and swiped it across the sensor. Nothing.

I glanced at Kabita. She shrugged.

I blew out a breath. If this didn’t work, we
were back to square one. I swiped the card again.

This time there was a small clunk sound as
the door lock released. Adam and Adler had come through. We pushed
out way into the lobby.

We strode to the door on the right and I
waved my card over the next sensor. Moving like you had every right
to be there was the key to not getting caught breaking and
entering. If the door didn’t open, we were going to have problems.
I couldn’t see any security, but I knew they were watching.

This time the door popped open without
hesitation. The hall on the other side of the door was short and
carpeted in an ugly gray.

“Last door on the left,” Kabita said under
her breath.

I gave a slight nod and we proceeded down the
hall. The last door on the left was unlocked and proved to be
nothing more exciting than your average, ordinary maintenance
closet stacked to the ceiling with rolls of toilet paper and
bottles of cleaning products.

The room was too small for both of us to
enter at one time, so Kabita wheeled the cleaning cart into the
hallway and we both started loading it up. We used our trips into
the closet to hide our conversation as much as possible.

“Dex said the door to the archives is at the
other end of the building, basement level. There aren’t any gaps in
security there, so we’re going to have to figure something
out.”

“Okay,” I whispered back. “I have an idea.
I’ll see if it will work when we get there.”