“I’m gathering Hunter has been contacted and asked if she knew where he was?”
“Ringing
her
was the first thing I ordered when it came to my attention he was missing. She doesn’t deny that he was with her but says she has no idea where he is now.”
Thank god he’d asked someone else to ring her rather than confronting her himself. “And you believe her?”
He snorted. “No, but I have no evidence to the contrary, and I’m not fool enough to make any sort of accusation until I do.”
“Is there any security footage anywhere of him? Perhaps coming in or out of her office?”
“They didn’t meet in her office; he went to her house. There’s no security footage because Hunter had all cameras removed not too long ago.”
Meaning this step had been planned for a quite a while—and yet, knowing that didn’t make me feel any
better. Jack had gone to see Hunter basically because I’d pushed; if he was dead, then in some ways it was my fault.
You cannot
take the blame for the actions and choices of others,
Azriel said.
Jack’s decision to talk to Hunter stemmed from both his desire to keep the Directorate autonomous in the battle he knew was coming and his need to protect both your uncle and the other guardians. Your comments only confirmed what his next course of action should be.
Yeah, but he might still be alive if he hadn’t actually decided to go right away.
Given Hunter’s recent cleansing of council members who oppose her,
that
is a debatable point.
I guessed it was. It still didn’t make me feel any better, though. I returned my attention to Rhoan. “If Hunter has either killed Jack or simply contained him somewhere to take him out of action, she can’t be too far from making her move for total control. And that puts
you
in a very tenuous position.”
“A point I am well aware of, believe me.”
“Then you’re going to do the sensible thing?”
He snorted again. “You ask that, and you’ve known me how long?”
“I know, but Hunter is a bigger threat—”
“I will do my
job
,” he cut in, “and now that Jack has disappeared, that’s running the guardian division. The only reason I’m ringing you is to let you know what has happened. Be careful, Ris. If she’s done this, she could do anything.”
I
wasn’t the one who needed to be wary. She still needed me to find the key. She didn’t need him, other than as a lever to ensure my good behavior.
“Trust me, I’m totally aware of what she’s capable of. Just make sure
you
watch
your
back.”
“I’m surrounded by people I trust at this very
moment. You just make sure you’re doing the same. Don’t let Azriel leave your side.”
“I won’t,” I said.
“Good,” Rhoan said. “Ring me if anything happens.”
“I will.” I hit the End button and glanced at Azriel. “Do you think it’s possible Jack is still alive?”
He hesitated, his eyes narrowing slightly. “I cannot hear his resonance, but that doesn’t mean he’s dead. It might just mean he’s being kept underground, where I cannot sense him.”
“I guess we can only hope that’s the case.” Though I personally feared it wasn’t. I thrust a hand through my still-curly hair and added silently,
Do you think it’s worth contacting Markel, to see if he knows anything more?
I doubt Markel would, given he is tasked with following you around. Harry Stanford, however, might be an option.
Except that he’ll use Jack’s death as a means to entice me into his plot.
It is nevertheless worth talking to him. If someone would have any understanding of Hunter’s current moves, it would be her fiercest opponent.
I guess. But to talk to him, I had to go back to the office and get comfortable. It was the only way I could astral travel.
Azriel caught my hand, tugged me into his arms, and a second later we were back in the café’s office.
“Fucking
hell
,” a familiar voice said. “You could give a person warning when you’re going to drop in like that!”
I swung around. Tao stood in the doorway, his brown hair wet, a towel half slung over his right shoulder, and his expression a mix of surprise and amusement. At first glance, little appeared to have outwardly changed since I’d seen him just over nine hours ago; his face was still gaunt, his body rail thin, and heat radiated from him, the
force of it so strong that I could feel its caress from where I stood in the middle of the room. But flames no longer burned uncontrolled in his eyes, and the air of desperation that had surrounded him seemed to have fled.
“You’re okay,” I said, and it was a statement rather than a question.
“I am,” he agreed. “How long it will last, I have no idea, but for now, we’re good.”
We, not I.
That was a new and hopeful sign. “What happened?”
“I did what you suggested I do. I went back to the sacred site and talked to the elemental.” His brief smile was almost a grimace. “It wasn’t easy, but we got there in the end. You were right, Azriel. It doesn’t want to die. It just wants to protect the fire that gave it life.”
“So you have reached a compromise?” Azriel asked.
“We have. One I think we could both live with.”
“And that is?” I prompted, when he didn’t immediately go on.
“I have the days. It has the nights.”
“What?” I said, surprised. “I would have thought it would be the other way around, given it draws energy from heat and sunlight.”
“There may be neither at night, but there
is
the sacred fire. Not only is it the source of the elemental’s power, but
it
is also most vulnerable at night. Therefore, we’ll be there at night to protect it, and I’ll have the days.”
“So why are you here now? It’s nine thirty
and
nighttime.”
“I came back here to grab a shower and to leave you a note. I wanted to let you know I was okay—that we were okay. Then I was heading back out.”
“To do what?” I said. “I mean, there’s nothing up there but wilderness and the fire.”
“The elemental doesn’t need anything else,” he said, expression gentle.
“So when you’re up there, the elemental is in control?”
“Yes, but I am not unaware, just as it is not unaware during the day.” He lifted a hand. His skin briefly glowed with a deep orange fire. “I can still have a life, Ris, even if it is one that wasn’t what I’d quite imagined.”
Half a life was better than no life. Or worse, losing yourself forever in the fires of another creature. I walked over and gave him a hug. “Be careful up there, won’t you?”
He returned the hug fiercely, then brushed a kiss across the top of my head. “I will. And I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Hopefully, yes.”
He frowned and stepped back. “And what, precisely, is that supposed to mean?”
I waved a hand. “Nothing. This whole key quest thing is just getting me down.”
“If I can help in any way—”
“I know.” I squeezed his arm. His peace with the elemental was too new, too fragile, to even
think
about bringing him back into the quest, even if I
had
wanted to.
Which I didn’t.
“I have my phone with me, so if I don’t answer it immediately, leave a message,” he said. “You know I’ll be there if I can.”
“I know. And thank you.” I kissed his cheek. “Go, before the elemental starts getting antsy.”
He turned and went. I listened to the sound of his retreating steps, and though part of me rejoiced that he’d found a solution that enabled him to live, part of me also felt like crying. Because nothing was ever going to be the same. The tight-knit group we’d grown up with had fractured, ever so slightly, and it couldn’t ever go back to what it was. The events of the last few weeks had changed us all, and not entirely for the better.
“I do hope I’m not included in the ‘not entirely better’ portion of that thought,” Azriel said, amusement in his voice.
“You, reaper,” I said, as I turned and headed for the sofa, “generally have a foot in both fields, depending on where my hormones are at the time.”
“Then it is your hormones that are the problem, not me.”
I kicked off my shoes and lay down. “You’re the reason the hormones are going haywire, though.”
“Hardly the only reason,” he said, the amusement stronger. “It does, after all, take two to make a life, whether in this world or in mine.”
“Yeah, but you could have warned me your rockets were such fertile little buggers.”
The amusement faded from him. “Do you regret it? The pregnancy, that is?”
I shot him a surprised look. “Hell,
no
. I’ve always wanted kids. I could have done with the time to get to know you better, but aside from that, no regrets.”
“Ah. Good.” His relief ran through me, bright and shiny—an indication of just how important my answer had been to him.
“Azriel, you can read my mind. Surely you knew that whatever else I might regret, the pregnancy wasn’t one of them.”
“One of the side effects of sharing my life force with you is your ability to now shield some portions of your thoughts from me.” He gave me a lopsided smile. “Your feeling on the pregnancy was one such thought.”
I frowned. “I wasn’t doing it intentionally.”
“Perhaps not, but it was nevertheless a source of tension for me.”
“Well, you should have just
asked
. It’s not like you haven’t been vocal about all sorts of other things.”
“But if I had, I might have received an answer I did not desire. I would rather face ten hordes of demons than the knowledge that you did not want our child.”
“You, reaper, are an idiot.” I rose, walked across, and
hugged him as fiercely as Tao had me only moments before. Then I stepped back and gave him a somewhat stern look. “The thing is, I not only want this child, but lots of little brothers and sisters for him as well. You’d better start preparing, reaper, because you have a lot of work ahead of you.”
“A task I look forward to.” He tapped my nose lightly. “And now, you should do what we came here to do.”
And let us hope that Markel still watches, not Janice Myer.
Because if it was Janice, I might have to kill her, as I had Nick Krogan. Just thinking about the possibility had my stomach turning over.
I returned to the sofa, got comfortable, then closed my eyes. In very short time, I was back on the fields. The fates were with us for a change—Markel was our watcher.
He smiled and gave me a somewhat formal bow as I appeared.
I take it you have come here because of Hunter’s recent actions.
So you know about Jack’s disappearance?
I am charged with following you astrally, remember. I heard your conversation with your uncle.
Ah.
Bugger.
Does that mean you haven’t heard anything else on the grapevine?
The event is only recent, so no.
He paused.
I would doubt if even Harry has more knowledge of it, as I would imagine the murder of her brother is something Hunter wouldn’t advertise. It would set off too many alarms within the council.
I snorted softly.
And her recent behavior hasn’t been enough to do that?
He half smiled.
Well, no, because she is a very old vampire, and old vampires tend to have peaks and troughs when it comes to behavior.
So they’re viewing her whole “I will take the keys from hell and rule you all” as nothing more than one of those troughs? Because you and I know it’s a lot more than that.
He nodded.
But not all the councillors feel that way; otherwise, Harry would not have contacted you.
He contacted me because he wanted me to fight Hunter for him,
I retorted.
It had nothing to do with the council’s desires and everything to do with his own.
Not just his,
Markel said, a slight hint of censure in his mental tones,
but for the good of all. You’ve seen what she has become. Do you honestly think someone who would kill her own brother—who also happened to be the one person who has had any sort of influence over her in recent years—should be allowed to remain in control, be it on the council or at the Directorate?
No, I don’t, but I also think it’s a bit rich to expect me to do what you, Stanford, and a whole other bunch of very old vampires fear to.
Sometimes, life
isn’t
fair. I would have thought you’d have learned that after all that has happened recently.
Oh, I’d learned it, all right—that didn’t mean I had to be happy about it.
Is there any way we can uncover whether Jack is alive or not?
Markel was shaking his head even before I’d finished speaking.
None. If the Directorate and your uncle cannot find any trace of him, then he has surely been destroyed by her.
Meaning destroyed as in eaten, I thought with a shiver, as she’d eaten the Jorõgumo, the shape-shifting spider spirit who’d foolishly chosen Hunter’s lover as one of her victims. I hated to think Jack had died that way—and I hoped like hell that he’d at least had a chance to defend himself. That he’d got in a blow or two and made the bitch pay for her betrayal before she’d consumed him.
My stomach threatened to rise in my throat again. I swallowed heavily and said,
I still think it’s worth asking Stanford if he knows anything. There’s always a chance—a very small chance—that she’s not quite as bloodthirsty or insane as we think.
I might not actually believe it, but for Jack’s sake, I couldn’t help hoping for a miracle.
Insanity is something no maenad can escape,
Markel said.
The close contact with their god, and the rituals they perform, usually send them over the edge sooner rather than later. Hunter has held on to her sanity centuries more than most, but these last few years have proven even she is not immune to the fate of her sisters.