“We would not expect you to kill. We have Cazadors more than capable of doing that.”
I frowned. “Then what do you want me to do?”
“Hunt.”
“No.” It came out automatically. Walking the gray fields to talk to a soul lost or confused was one thing. Hunting an escapee from the bowels of hell was another matter altogether.
“But what if one of those creatures was responsible for your mother’s death?”
“It wasn’t.” Again, the response was automatic. And yet, it was a possibility—it was just one I didn’t want to consider. Mom had spent half her life conversing with spirits. I didn’t want to believe one of them had killed her.
Hunter merely smiled. It was a cold, inhuman thing. “The crime scene was clean. Completely and utterly. There was no DNA, no prints, no evidence of any kind that anyone other than your mother, the housekeeper, and the occasional guest—all of whom have been vetted and cleared—has ever been in that kitchen. The place was not wiped down in any way. There is simply nothing there to indicate who or what might have done this.”
I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t say anything. Not when she was giving me facts that could only ever lead to a conclusion I didn’t want to believe.
“The Directorate will never find this killer if it is a spirit, but we can,” Hunter said. “Trust me on that.”
I stared at her, digesting not so much the words as the unspoken threat behind them. “You would ensure that?”
She looked surprised that I would even ask such a question. “Of course.”
“But why?”
“Because I have always done what must be done to keep my people safe. And these spirits—as well as the people who opened the gates and released them—threaten that.”
Her people. Not humanity. Not the rest of us. “But you’ve already said you have Cazadors who can hunt spirits, so why do you need me?”
“We have Cazadors who astral-travel, true, but if we had someone who could walk the fields at will and track down the location of our targets, it would make their job easier.”
There was a ring of truth to her words, but that didn’t mean I believed them. There was more to this. There were the gates, and the keys, and her desire to control them for the high council’s b
enefit.
But to achieve any of that, she needed me on her team.
“The one thing you have to ask yourself, Risa,” she said softly, “is just how desperately you want to find your mother’s killer.”
I didn’t answer, simply because it was a pointless question. We both already knew the answer.
“Become an adviser to the council, and I will throw every available resource we have at tracking down those responsible.” She paused, and that cold, cruel smile touched her lips again. “Refuse, and not only will the killer go free, but you will bear some responsibility for whatever destruction hell’s escapees wreak.”
That wasn’t fair, and we both knew it. But she hadn’t come up here to play fair. She’d come up here to get what she wanted.
And what she wanted was me.
It would be madness to accept. Sheer and utter madness. I knew it, but I did it anyway.
“You betray me, you play me or try to control me in any way, and I will destroy you, Hunter. Whether you believe I can or not.”
“I will play as fair with you as you play with me.” She held out her hand. “Deal?”
“Deal,” I said, and clasped her hand. Her flesh was cool against mine, her grip like iron.
And I knew in that instant I’d made a deal with the devil herself.
But I didn’t fucking care.
I had a vow to keep, and a killer to hunt down.