As Harry said, we are bound by rules and conventions. It is not that simple.
I snorted. And do you think Hunter plays by the rules? Or even cares about them?
Perhaps not, but if we play her game, then we are no better than her. And she is not without her supporters. He hesitated. Be wary of what you say. We hear every word here on the plane. You would not want her other followers to realize anything untoward has happened.
I know. I studied him grimly for a moment. What happens if they do suspect anything?
Then I will have to take care of them.
Kill them, you mean.
He shrugged. There is little other choice. Besides, it is what I do.
But won’t it alert Hunter that something has happened?
If an astral traveler is killed on the plane, then they die here on Earth. It would not be the first time such a death happened, and I daresay it will not be the last. It is a risk we all take when traveling.
That didn’t actually answer the question.
Yes, she will suspect and more than likely question me. But she has no reason to question the loyalty of the Cazadors, and she will not suspect my involvement.
No, she’d suspect me.
Perhaps, but we work twelve-hour rotating shifts. If the kill is timed right, it would be at least ten hours before the body was discovered. The plane is an ever-shifting environment. There would be no evidence left to find.
There’d be a ghost. Ghosts can be questioned.
It would be a fragmented ghost, and insane. They would get no information from it.
I frowned. What the hell is a fragmented ghost?
It happens when the part of the soul that walks the field is killed. The traveler not only dies in flesh as well as spirit, but it sends the remainder of their soul mad. It is the source of the ghosts who wail. They can do little else. He bowed slightly.Until next we meet.
And with that, he disappeared. I shook my head and imagined myself back in my body. I whooshed back quickly – a little too quickly, as it turned out. My eyes sprung open as I gasped in shock.
“Whoa,” I said, swallowing heavily as my stomach leapt up into my throat. “Forgot all about the side effects of doing that.”
The bed dipped as Azriel sat beside me and held out a can of Coke. “Would this help?”
“If I was a normal person, no it wouldn’t.” I pushed upright, and ignored my rebellious stomach as I accepted the Coke. “I, however, happen to have this stuff running through my veins.”
He smiled. “And here I was thinking it was junk food that fueled you.”
“Speaking of which, where’s the pizza? If I don’t eat it, you’ll nag me.”
He nodded toward the bedside table, then added, “What did Markel want?”
“He was basically warning me to get a move on with the keys.” I leaned sideways and snagged a thick slice of pizza, then, just in case one of my astral watchers was near, silently added, And playing middleman for Stanford. It doesn’t take a genius to guess what he wanted.>We meet here because it is safer for us all. Hunter cannot astral travel.
Meaning there was something the bitch couldn’t do? Amazing. That still doesn’t answer the question about my other followers.
They are not among Hunter’s supporters, he said, but neither do they side with us. They do not, in fact, know I support Harry. If they did, they would report it to Hunter, just as they would if they knew of this meeting.
Then I guess I had to be glad they didn’t know about it. It also meant I had to be damn careful about what I said out loud from now on. I returned my gaze to Stanford. None of this changes the fact that I have no intention of helping you.
And if Hunter attacks more of your friends?
I’ll deal with it when it happens. But would I? Could I? As much as I hated Hunter, as much as I’d love to see her dead for what she’d done to Jak, I very much doubted I could ever win a fight against her. And even though I knew Azriel would take the witch out if given half the chance, he could do so only if she attacked me. She wasn’t stupid enough to do that, either. Besides, he’d made no secret of his desire to kill her – not even from her. She no doubt had plans – and protections – put in place for such an eventuality.