Darkness Devours (Dark Angels 3)

“I know, but I’m all out of ideas right now.”

“What about those photo disks you gave your uncle?”

God, I thought irritably, he was like a rat with a tasty morsel—he just wouldn’t let it go. “I have copies in the hands of a computer geek who’ll contact me the minute he gets any relevant information out of them. Until he does, we’re basically at a standstill.”

“I’d love to know how you managed to get those photo disks to your friend without me or your uncle realizing it.” Jak paused, his gaze moving past me. “Or did your reaper friend have a hand in that? I’m thinking if he can pop into existence to chase bad guys, it probably means he can transport himself around invisibly.”

“He can.”

The fact that I could—when I was fit enough, anyway—was something I kept to myself. I trusted Jak, but only to a point. If this whole scenario with Nadler didn’t pan out into a decent story, I didn’t want him suddenly deciding to do a follow-up piece on me.

“So until your friend comes through, we have nothing, as I said.” He rubbed a somewhat bloodied hand across his bristly chin. “I hate it when a story stalls. I might contact a few people and see if there’s any whispers on the streets about these murders.”

“Let me know me if you uncover anything interesting.”

He gave me a wry sort of grin. “I’m hardly likely to do anything else, given the threat your uncle has left hanging over our heads.”

If that threat prevented Jak from chasing leads without first informing me, then I couldn’t be sorry about it—even if I wasn’t exactly intending to obey it myself.

“I’ll ring you tomorrow if I don’t hear anything before then.”

He nodded, gave me a sketchy wave good-bye with his good hand, then headed off down the street, dripping blood as he went. Obviously he had no intention of shifting shape to heal himself just yet. But then, he’d always been somewhat reluctant to shift shape in public—mainly, I think, because he never liked to remind people he was a werewolf. Humans might have accepted non-humans as a whole, but that didn’t mean there weren’t pockets who feared all things supernatural—especially at the very low levels of society, where suspicion of anything bigger and stronger tended to be entrenched. Jak might have the skill to relax people and make them talk, but that skill couldn’t always override a base-level apprehension of non-humans.

I watched him walk away for several seconds, then turned to face Azriel. “I need to sleep.”

He snorted softly. “I believe I suggested that some time ago.”

“Well, I’m finally giving in to the inevitable—if you’ll zap me back home, that is.”

“You’re abandoning the hotel?”

I nodded. “I want to sleep in my own bed, seeing as the Raziq aren’t such an immediate threat.”

“And the things you left at the hotel?”

“I can get them later.” When I was rested and able to think logically again.

“Then home we shall go.”

He stepped close and wrapped his arms around me once more. I rested my head against his shoulder and closed my eyes, enjoying the sensation of his physical presence as his heat and energy tore through me like a storm, sweeping me from that place to mine in a heartbeat.

As my feet touched the wooden floors of our building, I sighed in pleasure. The huge industrial fans hanging from the vaulted ceilings whirled, gently moving air that was cool and still smelled faintly of roses and lilac—the scents lingering from potions Ilianna had been making earlier in the week. But there was dust on the dining table and over all the other bits and pieces scattered about, and there was an odd sense of abandonment in the way everything lay where it had last fallen. But I guess that was to be expected, since Tao was still unconscious and Ilianna was dividing her time between the Brindle and Mirri’s.

“Are you okay?” Azriel asked softly.

His breath tickled the top of my head and stirred a sense of well-being deep inside. Or maybe well-being wasn’t the right word—it was more a sense of safety. Of being right.

Which was dangerous thinking—things would never be safe or right while the Aedh, the reapers, and Hunter were all such fixtures in my life.

I pulled out of his warm embrace and took a step back. The big living room felt so much colder without the cocoon of his warmth.

“I’m going to bed.”

“Once you are safely asleep, I will return to the fields and see what additional information I can uncover about ensnaring the Rakshasa.”

I frowned. “I thought they were best caught in their lair.”

“Yes, but to trace this Rakshasa back to her lair, we first have to watch her dismember and eat her chosen victim. I don’t think either of us could sit through that nightmare easily.”