“All four were members of the gold-pass section of the Hunter’s Club, the upmarket health and fitness club Jin part-times at. From what I’ve seen, the gold-pass club is a word-only membership for people with special requirements.”
“What sort of special requirements?”
“They need extreme pain to get their rocks off.”
“All of our victims had healed scars on their backs and arms.”
“They should have massive scars if what I’ve just seen is any indication of what they go through.” I hesitated. “It’s quite possible I’ve met the woman lined up to be the next victim. Her name is Jan Tait.”
“You got all her details?”
“I grabbed everything off their computer that I could. The gold-pass membership files will require hacking skills to get into.”
“We’ll handle that end. You stay on Jin.”
Yeah, right. “Um…there’s been bit of a development in that area. I’m afraid I just walked out on him.”
His sigh was a sound of frustration. “Can you do nothing the easy way?”
“Trust me, I had no option. But I’ll follow him for the rest of the night, see where he goes and who he talks to.”
“Good. In the meantime, I’ll get Salliane to dig up the dirt on the Hunter’s Club and its owner.”
“Jan said that she was recommended to the Hunter’s Club by the owner of the Hellion Club. Apparently the two are brother and sister. And Quinn just happens to be following the woman who owns the Hellion Club.”
“Interesting.”
“Why?”
“Because we’ve been cross-checking the Cattle Club’s security tapes, and have discovered Jin talking to a man named John Kingsley on more than a few occasions.”
“So?”
“So, he’s a very nasty piece of work who’s been suspected of several murders. There’s never been enough evidence found to convict him.”
“That still doesn’t explain why he’s raised your badguy antennae.”
“Ah, but see, he also happens to have a half sister by the name of Maisie Foster, who owns a punishment club by the name of—”
“The Hellion Club,” I finished for him. “So Rhoan’s already checking this Kingsley person out?”
“Yeah.” Amusement crept into his voice as he added, “Apparently he ran into Quinn there.”
My eyebrows raised. “Don’t you think it’s a little bit coincidental that Quinn is following the woman who owns the club that is recommending people to the special services of the Hunter’s Club? He obviously knows something he’s not telling us.”
“Which means you need to find out what you can from him.”
Yeah, like he was going to tell me anything. He’d more than likely try locking me in a closet somewhere. For my own protection, of course. “You think this woman could be the one raising the demons?”
“I have no idea. Though I doubt Quinn would simply follow her if that was the case.”
“He would if he had motives other than finding the person who was raising the demons.” And I very much suspected that was the case. After all, the spooky guy in the alley had basically implied there was more to this than just a couple of demons.
“As I said, question him.” He paused. “I did a search for that name the souls gave you.”
“And?”
“Azhi Dahaki is part of an ancient Persian legend. It’s said that he’s the servant of Angra Mainyu, who’s supposedly the god of darkness, the eternal destroyer of good, the personification and creator of evil, and bringer of death and disease.”
“A real charmer, in other words.” I paused. “That ring I found had Persian hieroglyphic thingies on the back of it.”
“Cuneiform inscriptions, actually.”
“So you’ve translated them?”
“Not fully.”
His voice was grim, and chills skated across my skin. “What does it say so far?”
“Something about entrusting their souls to the god of darkness.”
I rubbed my arms. “But it’s just a legend, isn’t it? I mean, a god of darkness and lies can’t really exist, can it?”
“Humans once believed werewolves and vampires didn’t exist.”
“That’s because we were covering our asses like crazy. And it’s also totally different from this sort of situation.”
“No, it’s not. And there is no reason to believe there aren’t things in this world that have chosen to remain hidden while the bolder of our races have stepped out of the shadows.”
“Jack, we’re talking about an ancient god here.”
“Are we? Or are we merely talking about an entity that has bided his time for the right moment to come out of hiding?”
“Is there a third option? I mean, those two really suck.”
He chuckled softly. “We’re still researching the legend. But it’s not looking good.” He hesitated. “Be wary around Jin. If he
is
part of this legend, he may have powers we can’t even begin to guess at.”
That
was something I didn’t want to think about. “Anything else I need to know about Azhi Dahaki?”
“Well, he’s supposedly a three-headed dragon who represented pain, despair, and death.”
“Hate to break this to you, but no one I’ve met is a dragon, let alone one with three heads.”
“It could be a figure of speech, remember that. And you’re the one who mentioned Jin seems to enjoy pain.”
“He seems to feed on it,” I said, as I recalled the ring I’d found at Dunleavy’s and the ring Jin had been wearing. Remembered the dark room and the two men. One sucking in the sound of pain, the other despair.
Fuck.
Legends
could
come to life.
“Jin and Marcus,” I added. “Pain and despair. Two of the heads.”
“Who’s Marcus?”
“One of the club’s employees, and the man working Jan Tait over.”
“So, that leaves one more—death.”
I hesitated. “Gautier’s working for these people. Could he be the death head?”
“It’s possible, but Gautier’s not sexual, and that seems to be a requirement of the dragons.”
“Gautier’s been off the Directorate leash for a while. It’s possible he’s changed or evolved.”
“But he would have to change his very nature to become sexual. Activate your tracker, Riley, and keep in contact.”
“Will do.” I hung up, then pressed the com-link in my ear to activate the tracking. I know Jack’s new rules said all guardians had to be traceable twenty-four hours a day, but I’d be damned if I’d follow that particular order unless absolutely necessary. A girl needed
some
privacy. Especially with the full moon rising.
I started the car and drove around the building until I found the parking lot exit. I parked several spaces down, then hunkered down in the seat to wait.
The phone rang after half an hour. I glanced at the number ID and smiled. Jin had obviously discovered I’d skipped.
I pressed the receive button and said, “Hello?”
“Riley? Where the hell are you?”
“I’m on my way home. Where else would I be after your charming little display of machismo?”
“You liked it. You can’t deny that.”
“Just because I like it rough in bed doesn’t mean I like it rough out of it. If that’s what you like, then go find another playmate.” And with that, I hung up.
The grass was
always
greener on the other side of the fence, and I was betting on the fact that Jin would be desperate to have what was now out of his reach. I wasn’t the only one who hungered this night. I’d seen Jin in action, and his needs were every bit as fierce as a wolf in moon heat.
He’d ring me, and keep on ringing me, until he got me again. Because if nothing else, I was a wolf and I gave good sex.
He did ring, several more times. I studiously ignored all calls and after an hour or so, saw him pull out of the car park in a white BMW. Not the sort of car I would have imagined him in—something black, sporty, and dangerous would have been more appropriate, surely.
Once he’d passed, I pushed upright and pulled out after him. Following him wasn’t hard, despite the speed he was doing. Rush hour had well and truly passed and the streets were relatively clear of traffic. In fact, the hardest thing about the whole exercise was trying to remain far enough behind that he didn’t notice me without me losing him.
I wasn’t entirely surprised that we ended up in Toorak. That’s where Quinn was, and he sure as hell seemed to know more about this whole situation than the rest of us. And he was going to let me in on the secret, or I was going to get
really
angry. Just how much good that would do was anyone’s guess.
Though zilch was an odds-on bet.
Jin pulled into the driveway of a gated residence. I stopped well up the street, and got out once the gates had opened and he’d driven in.
The cool breeze swirled around me, carrying with it a familiar scent. But not the one I was expecting.
I shoved my hands in my pockets and scanned the night behind me. “Gautier, one of these days you’ll actually bathe and I’ll be in deep shit.”
His soft chuckle slid across the darkness as uneasily as oil across water. Chills skittered across my skin. There’d always been something particularly nasty about Gautier’s laugh, but tonight it seemed ten times worse.
“And one of these days, I’m going to enjoy smacking that smart mouth from your face.” He shook free of the shadows and strolled toward me. “Interesting that we both turn up at this place.”
Tension rippled through my limbs. I shifted my stance a little but still felt like a sprinter at the starting block. All edgy and ready to run. “The only thing interesting about it is the fact I doubt it’s coincidental.”
He stopped well short of laser range. Not that I actually had a laser to use, but I wasn’t about to let him in on that little secret.
“Coincidence doesn’t play a huge role in my actions,” he admitted, “but I am curious as to what you’re doing here.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You don’t know? I thought you knew everything.”
“Oh, I know more than you could ever guess.”
His smile was all teeth. Too much teeth, in fact. But it was his gaze that sent another chill down my spine.
There was something not quite right about his eyes.
Something almost inhuman.
Not vampire inhuman, but something more. Something alien and old.
And it reminded me of the coldness I’d seen lurking in Jin’s eyes.
Gautier
was
the death head of the dragon.
Sexual or not, he was definitely one of them.
I flared my nostrils, drawing in his scents, tasting the nuances and differences. It
had
changed—the differences were slight, but nevertheless there. But I couldn’t say for sure that it was scent I’d smelled emanating from room two at the health club. Maybe the night, the cold, and my fear was somehow distorting sensory information.
Or maybe something else was.
Someone
else.
I resisted the urge to retreat and shifted one pocketed hand, as if clenching a nonexistent weapon tighter. His gaze flickered down and his toothy smile grew. I had a bad feeling he wasn’t fooled by the ruse.
Either that, or he wasn’t worried about being shot by a laser. Which was probably more likely. He was the type to think getting shot might be a good price to pay for the fruition of his aims. And it’s what those aims were when it came to the immediate future and me that had me worried.
And he knew it, damn him. The quick glimmer of amusement firing his cold eyes was easy to see, even at night.
“Riley, keep him talking,” Rhoan said into my ear, through my still-open link. “I’m armed and on my way.”
Good, I wanted to say. Hurry.
But Rhoan was mind-blind, and I dared not use the com-link because it would only warn Gautier. I forced a smile and said, “So if you know it all, tell me why you killed Dunleavy and his girlfriend.”
He raised a mocking eyebrow. “What makes you think I did that?”
“It’s that smell thing I keep warning you about. It lingers, you know?”
“They died during daylight. You know I can’t move around in daylight.”
“I know you never used to be able to, but you’ve been off the leash for a while, and who knows what nasty sort of company you’ve been keeping? Or what talents they have that could help a foul piece of work like yourself?”
He raised a mocking eyebrow. “Nasty doesn’t even begin to cover my current company, dear Riley. And you should watch yourself. He has his eye on you.”
I forced a grin. “Is that concern I hear in your voice, Gautier? I’m so touched.”
“You will be, if he gets his hands on you.”
“So why the warning, Gautier? If you’re working for these people, why warn me?”
“Because you are mine to destroy.” He took a step forward. I took one back. He grinned, and it was a cold, ferocious thing. “I intend to destroy all you hold dear, and then I intend to destroy you. Slowly, and sweetly. And no one—no matter who or what they are—will stop me. Not when I get all that I am promised.”
A shiver ran through my soul. There would be nothing sweet about his sort of destruction, of that I was sure. Especially not now that he’d become the death head of an ancient legend. “And just what were you promised, Gautier? Or should I guess? Let’s see, what do all good little psychos want? Power?”