Darkness Devours (Dark Angels 3)

I grimaced and stood. “Yeah. But there’s not a lot I can do about it.”

“No. And I haven’t got holy water or even a stake in my purse to give you.”

“You said that like they’re everyday items one finds in a purse,” I said wryly.

She snorted softly. “Given the way Hunter is dragging you further and further into her web, they should be. At least then when the spider calls to the fly, the fly will be better armed.”

“Ilianna—”

She held up a hand, stopping me. “I know, I know. But the fact remains, you want revenge more than you want out of any deal with Hunter.”

Well, that was certainly true. “If this whole key business blows up in our faces, we might yet need Hunter and her Cazadors on our side.”

“If this whole key business blows up in our faces, we’re all going to be ass-deep in demons and fighting for our lives. I think Hunter and her council cronies will be too busy saving their own skins to worry about the rest of us.”

That was also probably more true than not. And Hunter was an unreliable ally. She may have convinced the council to give her more time to prove my worth, but that didn’t mean she—or they—couldn’t change their minds. And considering that they’d already thrown one test at me, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was yet another one.

I sighed and rubbed my tired eyes wearily. “I’ve arranged for Sara to come in and do your shift at the café. I want you to go home tonight and get some sleep.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Sara couldn’t pour a decent drink to save her life.”

“Which is why I’ll be pouring drinks and she’ll be tending tables.” I raised a hand against her objections and added, “No more arguments. Just go home and rest.”

“Okay, okay,” she muttered. “I promise.”

Which meant she would. In this place, you didn’t break promises made. “I’ll see you sometime tomorrow, then.”

She nodded. I dropped a kiss on Tao’s fiery cheek, then left. The day seemed even hotter after the cool darkness of the Brindle. I squinted up at the sky, looking for the storms they’d been predicting for later this afternoon but seeing only endless blue. This was Melbourne, though; weather could—and often did—change in a blink of an eye.

As I neared my bike, Azriel appeared. “I do not like the sound of this bar.”

“Neither do I.” I unlocked the Ducati, then pulled on my leathers. And immediately began to sweat. Having to wear heavy protection on a hot day was one of the few bad points of bike riding—although it was better than falling off and skinning my body down to bone on the tarmac. “Which is why I wouldn’t mind you appearing as something fearsome.”

He raised an eyebrow. “I would think a reaper is fearsome enough, even for a vampire.”

I wrinkled my nose. “I guess that depends on what you expect death to look like. If they envision him as a scantily clad, nubile young woman, I rather suspect that’s not going to be much of a deterrent.”

“I am not female, so I can hardly give them the visage of a young woman.”

Amusement ran through his words and a smile tugged at my lips. “So they’ll see the scythe-bearing shroud instead?”

“Yes. And that is often scarier than anything I could draw from their minds.”

Having seen such reapers myself, I could certainly attest to that. Even knowing that they weren’t coming for me didn’t erase the tendrils of fear. That vision of death was too locked into literature and film to produce anything else.

I checked my phone and discovered that Hunter had followed through with her promise and sent me the address—not that I’d expected anything else. Dark Earth was located on Barkley Street, either near or in the Barkley Square shopping center. It didn’t seem an ideal area for an underground vampire bar, but maybe that was the whole point.

I shoved the phone away and met Azriel’s gaze. “Shall I meet you there?”

He nodded and disappeared. I climbed onto the bike, fired her up, and zoomed out of the parking lot. The traffic was heavier than before, the roads filled with people undoubtedly escaping the office to enjoy the afternoon sunshine, so it took me a little longer to get across to Brunswick, even though it wasn’t that far away.

Once I’d parked and secured the bike, I walked down Barkley Street. According to Hunter’s instructions, the entrance to Dark Earth was located between Coles and the Kmart loading bay, in a small shopping-trolley collection nook.

I found the nook easily enough, but there sure as hell wasn’t any entrance.

Azriel appeared behind me, his heat fiercer than the day itself, but a whole lot more welcome. “It wouldn’t be evident given that the vampires have no desire for humanity to know its existence.”

“Logic is not what I need right now.” I ran my hand over the sunbaked apricot-colored concrete wall. It was rough and grimy under my hands, and there were vague stains lower down that smelled faintly of urine.