Because I need to know. About whatever magic our dark sorceress had come up with, and about the charm that now encircled my wrist.
And if the charm doesn’t work?
Then I guess you have the choice of watching, joining in, or keeping your distance. My reply was somewhat tight. I might understand his reasons for keeping his distance, I might even agree that it was for the best when it came to the task still ahead of us, but that didn’t give him the right to get pissy whenever I happened to be talking to—or was with—Lucian. Even if he had placed a compulsion spell on me.
I half expected Azriel to disappear in another huff, but he merely crossed his arms and gave me his impassive, not-thinking, not-feeling face.
“Earth to Risa,” Lucian said. “You there?”
I blinked. “Yeah.”
“But obviously didn’t hear a word I just said,” he said, amusement teasing the corners of his eyes. “That reaper giving you grief again?”
“No.”
He sighed. “You’re not a very good liar, my girl. I said, Lauren will be here at five, if you’re free.”
“Where’s ‘here’?”
“My apartment, not the club.” He paused, then gave me a wide grin. My stupid hormones did a happy little two-step. “Although we could visit the club afterward, if you’d like. It’s fancy-dress night.”>“I will.”
“I’ll be in touch when we have him.”
He hung up, but the phone beeped immediately as two messages came in. I opened them to discover the faces of both my hunter and his assistant.
As Rhoan had noted, Zane was one hell of an ugly man. His face was round and puffy, the left side so scarred that it almost looked like it had melted. His hair was sparse and the same nondescript brown as his eyes, and his nose large.
Jason Bright, his companion in crime, had thin features, thick-framed black glasses, and dirty blond hair. He was the sort of man you wouldn’t look twice at on the street. The sort of man who looked totally and absolutely harmless.
And yet it was no doubt thanks to him that Zane had discovered my home address. If he could hack into the systems of high-profile companies, it would have been easy enough to gain access to the security company that monitored Vonda’s and Dani’s homes.
And maybe he was the reason the Directorate hadn’t been having much luck tracking Zane. If he was so damn good, then it wouldn’t have been too hard to get into the Directorate system and see what they were up to. After all, Stane could do exactly that—though he hadn’t recently because the Directorate had increased security and he preferred to stay out of jail.
I took one more look at the killer who was hunting me, then dumped the phone on the nearby pillow and closed my eyes. Weariness still rode me, but it was nowhere near as deep as it had been. I half wondered if Azriel had given me a little energy boost while I’d slept.
“No,” he said softly. “It would not have been wise.”
To touch you. The unspoken part of that sentence swam through my thoughts. Frustration rose like a wave and threatened to swamp me yet again.
Get it under control, I reminded myself fiercely. Accept the reality and just move on.
But saying that, and actually doing it, were two entirely different things.
“What time is it?” I asked eventually. I could have opened my eyes and looked at the nearby clock—hell, I could have picked up my phone and looked—but right now either required too much effort.
“Four o’clock.”
“A.m. or p.m.?”
“P.m.”
That did wake me. “So I’ve slept for over twelve hours?”
“You needed it. You were running far too close to the edge of exhaustion, Risa.”
“Hard to do anything else considering what keeps getting thrown at me,” I muttered. I flipped the covers away from my face and sat up.
Azriel’s gaze swept me briefly, then moved away. But not before I’d caught the flash of desire in his eyes.