Darkness Unmasked (Dark Angels 5)

“Well, it wasn’t a human who killed him.” Not unless Spider-Man was fact rather than fiction.

“Of course not,” she said coolly. “Wolfgang was a powerful vampire. He would not have been taken easily by anyone—or any race.”

And yet he’d sat there and allowed himself to be bound by a web and then sucked dry. I rubbed my arms against the chill that stole across my skin. How could anyone—powerful or not—allow something like that?

“Which means either he was drugged, or there was some form of magic involved.” And if it was the former, was there enough of him left to find a trace of it?

“Yes.” Hunter’s voice still held little emotion, yet it hinted at a fury so deep it scared the hell out of me. “Which is why I wanted you to investigate. Whatever did this was not of this world. I’m sure of it. I want you to hunt it down, but do not kill it. That pleasure I reserve for myself.”

Well, I wasn’t about to argue over that particular order. “If we can find this thing, it’s all yours.”

“Oh, you had better find it, trust me.” She paused, as if waiting for a comment, but what the hell was I supposed to say to a threat like that? After a moment, she continued. “I will arrange for you to talk to Dark Soul’s owner and view their security tapes. Perhaps we can identify who—if anyone—he was there with.”

“They’re hardly likely to talk to me, given I’m not anything official—”

“That will be fixed,” she cut in. “Keep me informed.”

She hung up again. My fingers clenched the phone so tightly, my knuckles went white, and it was all I could do not to throw the damn thing and then stomp all over it in frustration.

Azriel plucked it from my fingers. “Temper tantrums, as I believe you would call such an action, will do no good. And it may well destroy a perfectly usable device.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Have you ever had a good temper tantrum?”

Amusement lurked in the rich depths of his mismatched blue eyes. “No. But I do believe that the longer I reside in your presence, the more it becomes a possibility.”

I snorted softly. “You could be right. And for future reference, a well-timed temper tantrum is a very good form of stress release.”

“Meaning, I’m wrong in believing there might be more pleasing alternatives than throwing a tantrum?”

I arched an eyebrow and stepped a little closer, but any reply I might have made was cut short as my phone rang. A quick look showed that it was Stane—Tao’s cousin, and a black marketer who just happened to be able to hack into any computer system ever created. It was an ability I’d made full use of when it came to Hunter’s cases as well as the search for the keys. I half thought about ignoring the call just to continue the gently teasing conversation with Azriel, but I knew Stane wouldn’t be ringing unless he’d uncovered something important.

“Hey,” I said, by way of greeting. “What’s the latest?”

“Well, let’s see,” he said, the rich tones of his voice more gravelly than usual. He’d obviously been hitting the online gaming hard again. “My mother is insisting I meet the daughter of her best friend and has in fact arranged a double date for this evening. And I believe I have found that storage locker you were looking for.”

I blinked at the dual information and decided to tackle the juicier one first. “A double date?”

“Yeah, the mothers are coming. Won’t that be fun?”

His voice was dry, and I chuckled softly. “Oh come on, she might actually be nice.”

“She’s taking her mother on a date. What does that say about her?”

“Hey, your mother will be there, too, remember.”

“Yeah, but my mother has become a conniving witch who plots incessantly to get me married.”

“What makes you think her mother isn’t?”

“Because,” he grumbled, “it was apparently her idea, not her mother’s. Besides, the word from the pack is that she doesn’t approve of wolf clubs. Hates what they represent.”

“She’s a werewolf, isn’t she? How the hell can she disapprove of the clubs?”

“Who the fuck knows? Maybe she’s a prude.”

Was it even possible to be a werewolf and a prude? It certainly wasn’t a likely combination. “If you think it’s going to be that bad, don’t go.”

He snorted. “My mother will make my life hell if I don’t go. Trust me.”