Darkness Unbound (Dark Angels 1)

“Good.” Her gaze flickered to Mom for a moment, and I knew then that Mom had asked her to plead for caution. And again it made me wonder just what she’d seen—and wouldn’t admit to.

“What else do you know?” Riley asked.

“Well, we know Handberry appeared a year ago, too, when he turned up as owner of the Phoenix club. He’s apparently a half-Aedh rather than human—although I didn’t sense that when I was close to him.” I paused to order another Coke, then added, “Did they run a DNA test on Handberry?”

She nodded. “His profile confirmed his Aedh–human origins.”

“What about his background check? Or autopsy? Did either of those reveal anything?”

“Nothing. He is—was—perfectly healthy. No known cause for death, other than your witness report that his soul had been stolen.”

I blinked. “Do I actually have to write up a witness report?”

She nodded. “Rhoan will help you once he gets around to the paperwork. There was one interesting connection between Handberry and Turner, though. Each man had the same tattoo on his left shoulder.”

“Really,” I said. “What sort of tattoo?”

She glanced down at my arm. “A similar but smaller version of the one you’re almost hiding with the cardigan and long-sleeved T-shirt, only theirs have two swords crossed at the center.”

“You have a tattoo?” Mom said, and again there was something in her voice that snagged at my concern. “Where?”

I pushed the sleeves up and revealed the bottom half of the dragon. In the half-light of the restaurant, she glowed fiercely, fanning violet light through the shadows. Mom might be blind, but she’d see it thanks to the Fravardin giving her sight. I could feel its presence hovering behind her.

Mom closed her eyes for a moment and breathed deep. “He had one of those.”

He being my father, obviously. “I’m told it’s a Dušan, and that they protected the Aedh priests when they were guiding souls through either the light or dark path.”

Something sparked in her eyes. Maybe hope, maybe something else. “So it’s a good thing that you have one?”

“So Azriel tells me. He also has one.”

“So who is sending out these Dušan, and where can I get one?” Riley commented, lightly touching my arm. Fire rippled across the dragon’s scales, and if her eyes had been visible, I’m sure they would have gleamed.

“That is the million-dollar question,” I said grimly.

Riley’s gaze jumped back to mine. “Your reaper can’t tell you?”

“Not when it comes to why we both got sent one. Did Rhoan run a check on the tattoo?”

She nodded. “Nothing came up, and it wasn’t something Jack had seen before.”

Jack being the vampire who ran the guardian division, and the man who happened to be Director Hunter’s brother. On a hunch, I asked, “Did anyone happen to show the tattoo to Director Hunter?”

Riley smiled and patted my arm. “You know, you would have made a damn fine guardian—although I’d kick your butt to hell and back if you ever decided to take that path.”

“Only if I couldn’t get to her first,” Mom said, voice grim but amusement tugging her lips.

“Both of you know I’ve seen too many of Riley’s scars to ever want to go down that path myself,” I said drily, and once again thanked the intuition that had told me to keep the Directorate’s approach a secret. She really would kill me if she ever realized I’d actually gone as far as doing some entry tests before I’d come to my senses. “So what did Hunter say about the tattoo?”

“That the tatt used to be the marker for the Razan—human serfs who tended to the day-to-day running of the temples that the Aedh priests lived in.”

I blinked. Aedh priests lived in temples? “But Handberry wasn’t fully human. And why hasn’t Uncle Quinn ever mentioned them? Didn’t he undergo priest training?”

“Yes, but from what he said, the priests were in decline by the time he began training, and the Razan were only kept by the older ones.”

“So these two Razan are either far older than they look, or the priests did not die out as everyone was led to believe, and we have an Aedh temple here in the city that no one knows about.”

“According to Quinn, there’s no temple here. But I suspect Hunter will be investigating that option regardless.”