“One looked like he was about to, but the other—a female fae—killed him before he could. She had one of our daggers.”
“Thanks to Val, I’m sure,” David muttered, and my chest clenched.
“The fae have long since adapted the use of iron for their own in a self-policing sort of way,” Kyle replied, casually tossing his arm over the back of the chair. “Though, it
is
rare that they use it against one another.”
I glanced at him. Real helpful intel right there.
“It’s good that you’re here,” Kyle added. “Got some questions to ask you.”
My stomach dipped. Obviously they couldn’t care less about the two fae. “What’s up?”
“Last night we were chatting with Ren, and then he left here to meet with you. David advised us that you two are seeing each other,” he stated.
I glanced at David, who looked rather bored with the conversation. Then again, he looked bored with everything. I lifted my chin. “Well, I’m also sure Henry told you that since he saw us kissing.”
Henry arched a reddish-brown eyebrow. “Still surprised you didn’t get pregnant from that kiss. Jesus Christ.”
I wrinkled my nose at him, but refused to actually answer the question, because I was sure that Ren and I weren’t dating anymore. “You guys still haven’t heard from him?”
“No,” answered David.
“That’s why I was in the parking garage,” I explained. “Ren parked there yesterday, and his truck is gone. So he must’ve gone back there. I was thinking—”
“Ren was asking some off the wall questions last night.” Kyle kicked his booted feet up on the desk. “He was asking if we knew anything about fae who didn’t feed on humans.”
Oh. Oh, shit.
“Do you know why he’d ask something like that?” Kyle asked, his head tilting to the side. “Because that’s a strange thing to ask.”
Double shit. Instinct told me to lie, but then lying meant I was leaving Ren, wherever he was, out there hanging on his own. He’d done that to me when we’d first met, and I remembered how crappy that made me feel. But telling them about what Brighton had found would turn Kyle and Henry’s attention to her and Merle, and there was something about those two I didn’t trust.
And I probably didn’t trust them because I was the halfling, but whatever.
Plus, I remembered what Jerome had said about talking about that.
So I shook my head. “I don’t know why he’d ask that, but Ren’s always curious about things.”
“Huh,” replied Kyle. “What a weird thing to be curious about. Maybe you need to find better ways to occupy his mind.”
I started to frown.
“His absence and its timing is strange,” Henry stated from his corner. “Do you have any idea where he could be?”
My Spidey senses were tingling now. “No. I mean, I was thinking about checking his place, but this . . . isn’t like him.” I looked to David and admitted, “I’m a little freaked out about this.”
“Yeah, well—” David’s phone rang and he picked it up. “Yeah?” he grumbled, rubbing his hand over his head. I hoped it was Ren, but the way he suddenly stiffened and then stood, told me that if it was, it wasn’t good. Several seconds passed. “I’ll send a team down there now.”
My little ears perked up with interest. “What’s going on?” I asked.
He hung up the phone. “Jackie just called. She and Dylan said there was a lot of police activity down at Flux. Several cars. Reporters setting up outside.”
“I thought you guys checked that place out,” I said.
“We did. There were no fae there when we went,” David replied, thumbing through his phone contacts. “This may not have anything to do with fae, but it warrants investigating.”
“I’ll go.” I turned and jerked back, finding Miles in the doorway. God. Was he there the whole time, lurking all quiet-like? Creeper.
“Not you,” David called out, stopping me. “I want that report about Val filled out. Now.”
I pivoted around. “But—”
“Why is it that I always have to tell you an order is an order?” David walked around his desk, a folder in his hand. “Every single time.”
He had a point.
I took the folder from him as Kyle stood up. Henry was the first out, glancing down at my folder. “I’d rather be shot in the fucking head than do paperwork.”
Um. Wow. Okay. I hated paperwork too, but that was excessive.
Kyle said nothing as he walked past me. I was half-tempted to toss the folder back on David’s desk, but I knew better than to do that.
Under Miles’s watchful gaze, I walked out to the common room, plopped down at the table, and picked up a pen. I opened the folder and was about to relive something I really didn’t feel like doing at the moment, but stopped when I felt eyes on me.
Lifting my gaze, I saw Miles leaning against the wall, staring at me. I waited a second and decided to make use of the fact that he was being a creep. “Can I ask you a question?”
“If I say no, you still going to ask?”
“Probably.” I twirled the pen between my fingers. “The crystal that Val came back and took from here. What is the significance of it?”
One shoulder rose, but there was a forced casualness about it that I didn’t trust. “Just a piece of shit gem that doesn’t mean much.”
“Then why would she come back and take it if it’s nothing?”
He shrugged. “Probably because she’s a dumbass and thinks it holds some value.”
Okay. Yeah, I wasn’t believing that for one second, but it was obvious he wasn’t going to tell me anything else. I got back to filling out my report, and when I peeked up again, he was still being a creep. I sighed. “What?”
Miles smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “You and I don’t really know each other.”
I tilted my head. “To be honest, no one really knows each other in the Order.”
“Except you and Val. You two knew each other fairly well, and she betrayed the Order and is now dead.” He pushed off the wall, approaching the table. “Fell off a roof. Huh.”
There wasn’t a single part of me that missed the fact that he
didn’t
refer to Val as the halfling.
“
And
you’re close with Ren. You two are dating.” He sat in the seat across from me, which sucked, because that meant he wasn’t planning to leave anytime soon. “And now he’s MIA. An Elite member missing. That’s odd.”
I dropped my pen. “Where are you going with this, Miles?”
“Nowhere, really. Just thinking out loud.”
“Can you not do that?”
The chair squeaked as he leaned back. “You know what else I can’t not do?”
“I don’t know,” I replied. “Your double negative is confusing as hell.”
“I can’t shake this feeling I’ve had for about three years that there is something very, very off about you.”
My breath caught as our gazes locked.
“David trusts you. He even likes you.” Miles’s stiff smile slipped from his face. “I don’t know why, but I don’t trust you, Ivy.”
I didn’t look away as I tensed, but hey, good to hear David actually did like me. “Well, thanks for letting me know your personal, irrelevant opinion of me. I appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome,” he replied, smirking. He leaned forward, placing his elbow on the table. “I’m going to be real cliché as hell, too. I’m keeping my eye on you, Ivy.”
Chapter Seventeen
I finished my report, which was just a generic breakdown of events leading up to Val’s death, under the watchful eye of Miles. I managed to ignore him and not spin kick him upside the head when I left. I pushed the episode with him to the back of my mind. I had other things to stress over.
Namely Ren.
The prince.
The fact my womb was a walking time bomb.
I caught a ride over to the warehouse district, to Ren’s place. As I rode the industrial, cage-style elevator up to his floor, I worked through the multiple scenarios of how this could play out. If Ren wasn’t here, I didn’t know what to do next other than scouring the streets for him, but I knew I’d have little luck. After living in New Orleans for three years, I knew the streets could swallow people whole. And if Ren was at his place? Oh gosh, I’d probably just cry out in relief, hug him, and then scamper off. If he was at his place, avoiding David and my calls, he didn’t want to be found.
My heart was bouncing all over as I walked up to his door. My hand froze as I went to knock on it. Fear held me still. Ridiculous. I could face down a pack of rabid fae, but I was too scared to knock on Ren’s door?
I rolled my eyes.
Rapping my knuckles on the steel, I stepped back and waited . . . and waited. I knocked again and waited probably five minutes. Nothing. Either he wasn’t in there or he spotted me through the peephole and wasn’t answering. Either way, I felt sick to my stomach.
I gave up and went back down the elevator. Outside his apartment, I fought to not give in to the panic building in my stomach. I needed to refocus, and since I was close to Flux, I decided that was better than nothing. And it would totally be worth David’s glare when he saw me.
It took me about fifteen minutes to get to the stretch of newish buildings and old warehouses converted into clubs and restaurants. There was no missing the fact that some serious crap had gone down at the club. Blue and red lights lit up the street, casting alternating colors along the shiny windows of the nearby buildings.
My steps slowed as I neared Flux. Yellow police tape spanned the area, roping off the entrance to the club. Reporters were being kept at bay by several police officers. I scanned the crowds but didn’t see David or any other Order member. Remembering the back entrance where Ren and I saw the fae talking with the officers, I skirted around the crowd and cars and headed for the alley.
Walking past the stone benches and potted plants, I stopped and peered around the corner. Several dark SUVs blocked the doors. There was a back entrance where food service and staff entered. One that I doubted would be easily—
“Hey.”
Swallowing a yelp, I nearly came out of my skin as I whipped around. Glenn stood behind me, dark brown eyes wide and brows raised. “Holy crap, are you part ninja?” I exclaimed. “I didn’t even hear you walk up behind me.”
“It’s called being quiet,” he replied, grinning. “I’m pretty good at it.”
“I’ll say.”
He stopped beside me. “Whatcha doing?”
I turned back to the loading area. “I was hoping I could sneak in the back and see what the hell is going on in there.”
“It’s a freaking horror show.”
“You’ve been in there?”
Glenn nodded. “Got here when David put the call out. Haven’t seen anything like it. Seriously.” He lifted a hand, rubbing it over his skull. “You don’t have to sneak. Only members are inside, and a handful of detectives that David knows.”
“Crap,” I murmured. If the police were here and most of them were outside while only members and the cops who knew about us and the fae were inside, this was some serious stuff. “Let’s go.”
Glenn led the way to the doors where the SUVs were parked. “So where are you from?” I asked, realizing I knew very little about him.
He looked over his shoulder at me. “You’re the second person to ask me that.”
I glanced around. “Oh?”
“Yeah. You and Ren.”
“Oh,” I said again, much lower this time.
A handsome grin appeared on his face. “I’m from New York City. It’s taking me a bit to get used to this place.”
“I’ve never been there. Always wanted to see it though.” We walked around one of the SUVs. “I’m originally from Virginia.”
“So the summers are as bad here as I’ve heard?” He opened the door, holding it out for me. “I was expecting it to be warmer by now. Sort of feels like I’m still in the north.”
“Yeah. The weather right now is a little weird.”
Glenn stepped around me and led the way down a narrow hallway with several closed and opened doors. A break room. A door marked “Manager.” A storage room that was open, with liquor bottles everywhere.
“I’m not sure what you’ve seen before. I’m guessing you’ve seen some crazy stuff since we all have, but this . . .” He trailed off as he stopped in front of a gray door with a small window. “Yeah, this is something else.”
Unsure of what I was preparing myself for, I walked through the door he opened and made it a couple of steps before I came to a complete stop. Horror rose within me, robbing me of the ability to speak or even think.
The house lights were on, glittering like sharp diamonds. I spotted David standing next to Miles and Henry. Dylan and Jackie were standing near what used to be the shadowy corners. And then there were detectives staring up, and I had to wonder if they had ever seen anything like this before.
People hung from the ceiling.
Humans.
Their bodies were swaying like branches in the wind.
People were scattered across the floor.
Their bodies left behind like discarded trash.
Some were nude, and some were fully clothed. They looked like staff. The men were in black slacks, and some were still wearing white uniform shirts. Others were bare-chested. Some women wore slinky black dresses. The closest body to me belonged to a female. She had one high heel on her foot. For some reason I looked down to see if I could find the other shoe, and I don’t even know why that was important, but I looked and then I saw her.
It was the waitress I’d seen the night Ren and I had come to Flux. She’d been serving Marlon and the ancient whose blood had opened the gates. I’d suspected she’d known what they were, based on her wariness around them, and how she seemed to know that she was about to be fed on when the ancient had grabbed her. Now she was dead and cold on the floor, staring up at the dazzling lights.
They were all dead—dozens and dozens of humans. Some hanging from the ceiling. Others splayed across the floor and in between tables and chairs.
And all of them had been fed on until there was nothing left but pale skin and tainted, darkened veins.
~
It was late Tuesday night when I got home. Tink was asleep, or at least that’s what I guessed he was doing, because his door was closed and no sound was coming from inside. But I was too disturbed to sleep.