Darkness Rising (Dark Angels 2)

“Thanks, but—”

He raised a hand, stopping me. “I know you and I are not close, but your mother and I were. If you ever need help with any matter—even if it’s simply an unbiased mind to talk to—then please, feel free to come here. Your mother would have wanted that, I’m sure.”

“Thanks, Mike. I really appreciate the offer—”

“But you’d feel uncomfortable discussing personal matters with a man who is little more than a business adviser?” he said, humor in his eyes. “I can understand that, but the offer stands nonetheless. And remember, I do have quite a few interesting contacts through my business dealings. You never know when one of them might prove useful.”

I smiled. “And if that was meant to tempt me into asking just what sort of interesting contacts, I think you might have succeeded.”

He laughed softly. “I merely meant that I have business and personal relationships with people from all levels of society. They might prove useful one day.”

I nodded and rose, drink in one hand as I offered him the other. “I was sincere when I said thanks for the offer, and I really will keep it in mind. I promise.”

“Good.” He shook my hand, his grip light, warm, and filled with a restrained strength.

It certainly wasn’t the grip of a man in his twilight years, and again I wondered just how old he was. He’d been in charge of Mom’s finances since I was born and, from what Mom had said, he hadn’t exactly been a fresh-faced kid even then. Which meant he had to at least be in his fifties, if not older. Yet he didn’t show it. Maybe he’d been blessed with good genes, I thought wryly, and wondered why I was even worried about it—especially given it had never seemed to concern Mom. And if anyone was going to sense anything off about him, it would have been her. She’d been one of Australia’s most powerful and successful psychics, after all.

“Don’t forget that the next Business Activity Statement is due soon,” he added, getting back to business.

I grimaced, but suddenly wondered if the curious itch over his age had simply been a reaction caused by his stepping past our usual boundaries. Now that we were back on safe ground, the itch retreated. “Yeah, I know. And it’s still a pain in the ass.”

He laughed again. “Anything dealing with taxes generally is. But it keeps us accountants employed. I mean, if the system were simple, anyone could do it, and then where would we be?”

I grinned. “Sunning yourself on a beach somewhere?”

“Good Lord, I could think of nothing worse,” he said, and added, with a mock shudder, “All that sand!”

I laughed, said my good-byes, and headed out. The weather outside had deteriorated in the brief time I’d been at Mike’s and I shivered, wrapping my coat ends across my body in an effort to stop the wind from chilling me. But it didn’t help much.

I looked around for my bike, then cursed when I remembered I was still doing the whole cab thing. “Damn it, Azriel, we really need to find a way to stop the Raziq attacking our home, because I do not want to be living out of a suitcase—or without my bike—for much longer.”

The heat of his presence snatched away the chill wind. He materialized a second later, standing at the bottom of the steps staring up at me.

“The only way we could ensure that,” he said, “is by not taking the book anywhere near your home. They need the book as much as you, and they will not make a grab for one unless they can attain the other. Their trap in the sewers was evidence of that.”

His hands were resting on the railings on either side of the steps, effectively hemming me in. It was hard to say if it was deliberate or not because, as usual, his expression gave little away. And even though the fact he’d warned that the mind link would deepen our connection, I was getting zip from him—and maybe I never would. I wasn’t actually telepathic, after all. Maybe all he’d meant was that the link would deepen on his end, not mine.

“Yet they attacked you and Ilianna yesterday when you both went there, and the book was nowhere near the house.”

“Because they know I follow you and would presume I was with you rather than Ilianna. They would also have hoped that we possessed the book.”

“My point exactly—they attacked without feeling the presence of the book.”

“A move I doubt they’ll repeat. They will wait and ensure all pieces are in place before they attack again.”

I frowned. He seemed confident, but I wasn’t so sure. The Raziq weren’t exactly the sanest inmates in the asylum. “But the minute I touch the book and bring it out of the gray fields, they will attack—and you’ve already said you can’t handle such an attack.”

“No, I can’t. But if your Aedh is right about the void, then we can keep the book safe in the brief moments it is here on earth while leading the Raziq in a completely different direction.”

I studied him a moment, contemplating his words, sensing the slight edge of excitement rolling through the heat that surrounded him. “I’m guessing this means there is a locator spell on the book, and that you’re planning to use it to lead them astray?”

He nodded. “We have managed to mirror the spell. Another Mijai has been assigned the task.”

“But will the Raziq be stupid enough to fall for the charade for long?”

“The Raziq do not think much outside the box when it comes to human behavior. And the spell on the Dušan’s book has been created in such a way that humans wouldn’t be able to sense it.”

/> “And yet they know a reaper is helping me, so you’d think they’d factor that into the equation.”