Mind Sweeper (20 page)

“He is older than I am, although I do not know how old, since they are very secretive. He has been in charge of the clan for more than one hundred and fifty years.”

“Anyone in line to succeed him?”

Jean Luc pulled into a parking space. “Succession in the Pavel clan is not through lineage. It is through power and determination, with a little blood lust thrown in for good measure. Rumor has it the previous leader was Josiah’s uncle. He was killed by a rogue demon. Josiah stepped up and assumed command shortly thereafter.”

I nodded. “Anything else we need to know before we go in?”

“Pavels’ disdain for humans is pretty strong. So I should be the one to interrogate him. Try to stay calm, Kyle. If you make him angry, we will not get anything out of him, and then we will have to deal with Nicholas afterwards.”

I smiled at Jean Luc. He was so cute when he was being all preachy. “Got it. I will be the poster child of diplomacy.”

Jean Luc rolled his eyes. He wasn’t so cute after all.

We took an elevator to Akers’ offices on the upper floors. No side trips to peruse the stores on the lower levels or grab a burger at the Hard Rock. When the doors opened with a ding on the fifteenth floor, I immediately knew we were in demon territory.

There were several large-ass males standing at the far end of the hallway outside a closed door. “Does he rent this entire floor?”

“Yes, so behave, or we will not make it back to the elevator in one piece,” Jean Luc murmured.

We walked down the hall, and within seconds a man who seemed to be lacking a neck greeted us. On second glance, he did have a neck, but it was short and thick and dwarfed by his massive head. I hoped they didn’t all look like this one. The image of a low-budget alien movie invaded my thoughts. Laughing in Akers’ face was not going to win points or influence anyone, demon or not.

“Josiah is available to speak with you now. Follow me.”

The demon spoke directly to Jean Luc, barely acknowledging Dalton’s or my presence. I could see how this was going to play out already, and I didn’t like it much. Dalton must have sensed my irritation, since he shook his head slightly at me. I took a deep, calming breath.

At the end of the hallway, I was relieved to see the guards standing outside the doorway did, indeed, have necks. Maybe I could avoid an interspecies incident after all. Before we could go through the door, one of the guards held up a wand metal detector. Was he serious? I stood there glaring at him while he ran the wand over my body. There would be no strip searches today. He did the same with Jean Luc, who wore a bemused expression.

When they got to Dalton, I bit my lip to keep from laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. Dalton was wearing his gun holstered to his belt. He pulled out his wallet and showed them his badge, shaking his head when the guard motioned for him to give him the gun. Before the guard could protest, a voice came through the door.

“He can keep the gun. They are no threat. Let them in.”

My eyes widened. How did he know what was going on outside the door? Was he the great and powerful Oz?

The guard stepped back and we were herded into the room. The man behind the desk, who I assumed was Josiah Akers, stood slowly. He was tall and thin, but not lacking in muscle. His tailored suit fit him perfectly and I’m sure cost him a pretty penny. His black hair was slicked back, and his brown eyes were small relative to the rest of his face. I took an immediate, irrational dislike to him.

He of course addressed Jean Luc first. “You must be Jean Luc. Nicholas mentioned you would be coming to talk to me today.” He then glanced at Dalton and me. “And are these your…
colleagues
?”

How he could make the word colleagues sound like pond scum was beyond me, but he did. I smiled at him anyway. What was the saying, attract more bees with honey? “Kyle McKinley,” I said. “And this is Joe Dalton from the police department.”

He motioned to the chairs across from his desk. “Please, have a seat.”

I took a quick gander at his office. The view was nice. Windows overlooked the city behind him. His desk was mammoth but practically bare, except for a monitor perched there with a view of the hallway. So, like Oz in the movie, he was not all-powerful. The rest of the office was understated, but elegant, done in silver and blues. I wondered if it clashed with his purple skin when he changed to his demon form.

He turned to Jean Luc again. “What can I do for you?”

God, I was so sick of the games. Forget sweet, why would I want to attract bees anyway? They sting. “Didn’t Nicholas tell you why we wanted to meet with you?”

His small eyes flicked toward me. “He mentioned you would like to talk to me about the incident at the Erie Bar. But I am not sure how I can help you with that.”

My internal voice screamed “pompous ass”, but my external voice calmly stated, “A Pavel demon was seen at the Erie Bar that night, and identified by multiple witnesses. Since you are the Pavel clan leader, we hoped you could provide us with some insight.”

He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his pristine desk. “How can you be sure a Pavel was involved?”

“Witnesses saw a man with purple skin and yellow eyes.”

“Can you produce these witnesses?”

I shook my head. “You are aware of standard procedure in these cases. The humans’ minds were scrubbed.”

“Since you have no
credible
witnesses, then you have no proof a Pavel was involved.”

“We had a shifter witness who also corroborated the human accounts. He was sure it was a Pavel,” I countered.

“And where is he now?”

“Dead.”

“Then you have nothing but hearsay.”

I stared at him for a moment before responding. “Actually, what we have now are two murders. This gives us an even bigger reason to find out more about the Pavel at the bar, since he is the number one suspect for the shifter’s murder.”

Akers snorted. “Why would this alleged Pavel go after the shifter?”

“Because he would have assumed the shifter’s memories were not scrubbed, so he would go to him for answers.”

“And what answers would those be?”

“Where Hampton’s head is, of course.”

He tapped his fingers on his desk. “Well, your argument doesn’t hold water. The head is still missing. Word on the street is someone is offering a large amount of money for it. I strongly doubt if a Pavel had, indeed, gone after this shifter, he would have come away without the information.” He smiled in triumph.

“Not when I had already swept the shifter’s memory.”

Akers’ eyes widened for just a second before he blinked and reverted to feigned indifference.

Dalton spoke up next to me. “Mr. Akers, we are not here to argue
ad nauseum
about whether or not a Pavel demon was in the bar. We know it’s true. What we
are
doing is trying to protect the supernatural community from exposure. I assume you want the same thing?”

Akers’ lips tightened into a thin line. “Of course.”

“Do you know who might have been in the bar that night and why?” Dalton persisted.

“No, I do not.”

“Then we have a common goal. To find this rogue demon and stop him from causing more damage.”

“If one of my clan is involved, I will find out and deal with the situation internally.”

Jean Luc spoke then. “Unfortunately, when Hampton and the shifter were killed, it became more than a clan matter, sir. Now other factions are involved.”

Akers grimaced. “Sebastian does not scare me.”

“Can you think of any reason why a Pavel demon would be working with Hampton?” Dalton continued.

“No. Vampires and demons normally do not work well together. No offense, Jean Luc.”

Jean Luc inclined his head. “None taken.”

Akers stood, signaling the end of our meeting. “I will conduct an internal investigation of this matter, although I am not convinced a Pavel is involved.”

“Can you think of anyone with the means to offer large amounts of money for the head?” I asked.

Akers had the nerve to smirk at me. “Well, I have the available capital, as do several others in the supernatural community. I assume you will be speaking to them as well.”

I smirked right back. “Of course.”

“I will be in touch if I learn anything more.” He ushered us to the door and opened it. Two of his goons stood just outside.

“If I may, I have one more question.”

He gave me a look much like a parent would give a disobedient child. “Yes?”

“Would a Pavel hire a human to help retrieve the head?”

“Absolutely not. We do not work with humans.”

Condescending, much?
“And yet it’s humans who have provided you with the money to live like a king in your mini-fiefdom, right?”

Akers pupils darkened for one second before he regained his composure. “You know your way out.”

We walked to the elevator, Jean Luc and Dalton flanking me. They seemed a bit anxious. I was just pissed. I had thought Boris was arrogant. He was a cute, wiggly puppy compared to this barracuda.

We rode the elevator in silence and then walked through the parking garage to the van before speaking. I had calmed down considerably by then. I couldn’t say the same for Dalton and Jean Luc.

Dalton slammed the door so hard the van rocked. “Jesus, Kyle, did you have to goad him?”

I scowled. “I behaved until the end. He was giving us the bum’s rush. I just wanted to see if I could get a reaction.”

“What if his reaction had been to have his guards come in and take care of us?”

“He’s too smart to do that. Nicholas knew we were there. How would he have explained it?”

Jean Luc put the van in reverse and backed out of the space. “I thought we agreed I would interview him. You really should watch your temper, Kyle. We may need Akers’ help.”

I shook my head. “Akers isn’t going to help us at all. He’s lying. I think he knows very well who was at the bar. The question is, was he the one who sent him?”

Jean Luc nodded. “I listened to his heart beat to see if he was lying, but he regulated it most of the time.”

“Of course he did,” I added, “he knew exactly what we were going to ask.”

Jean Luc paid the parking fee and pulled out onto West Sixth. “He did get agitated when you mentioned you had swept the shifter’s brain.”

I smiled. “You noticed it too? He definitely didn’t know that, which means either he isn’t in control of the Pavel or it wasn’t a Pavel who killed the shifter. My vote is on the latter. Especially since Byron was not killed in a typical Pavel manner.”

“Akers was also lying when he said Sebastian did not scare him. His heartbeat accelerated then.”

“I don’t blame him for that one. Now, what are our next steps?” I glanced first at Dalton and then Jean Luc.

Dalton jumped in. “I think we need to talk to the shifter leader. It’s interesting Akers only mentioned Sebastian and did not refer to Griffin as a threat. Maybe he isn’t going to be a major player in this.”

“Or maybe,” Jean Luc added, “Akers is underestimating him.”

Chapter 20

I fiddled with the pepperoni on my pizza, pulling it off and stacking the pieces one on top of the other, the smell of the spicy meat making my mouth water. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Dalton’s right eyebrow rise questioningly. I picked up the pizza and went to town, the steamy mozzarella nearly taking off the roof of my mouth. Pizza nirvana.

“I’m glad to see you enjoy food.”

I shrugged. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“I don’t know. Most of the time women either pick at their food or insist on having only salads.”

“It’s not because they don’t like food. It’s because they’re trying to impress you. They don’t want you to think they eat a lot. Heaven help you imagine them gaining weight. When they get home after the date they probably pack away a half gallon of Rocky Road.”

“That’s crazy.”

“I agree. Most men don’t think that far ahead. They aren’t thinking any further than ‘will I get lucky tonight?’”

Dalton chuckled. “Wow, talk about harsh…and more than a bit sexist.”

“No, just honest. I believe both women and men are messed up in their thinking.” I took another large bite.

“Good to know you aren’t trying to impress me right now.”

“Nope. And you aren’t thinking about how to get me into bed, right?”

Smirking, Dalton reached for another slice of pizza. “I have to know. What are you going to do with the stack of pepperoni on your plate?”

“When I get down to the crust, I like to lay the pepperoni across the bread and eat it like a sandwich.”

“I’ll have to try it some time.”

“Thanks for having lunch with me. Jean Luc would have come, but it’s a bit disconcerting to have him just sit and watch me eat. Besides, he wanted to go check on Misha.”

“Misha’s doing better?”

“Yeah. He’s big-time cranky, which means he’s feeling much better. Jean Luc is going to relieve Doc so she can get out of there for a while.”