Circle of Death (Damask Circle 2)

He grinned. “Well, you’re certainly the tastiest morsel I’ve tried in a long, long time.”

“Yeah, like I believe that.”

He shrugged. Nothing he said right now would make her believe otherwise. She was looking for excuses to keep him at a distance. He put his coffee back on the table, then crossed his arms and leaned forward. “Do the names Marline Thomas or Trina Jones mean anything to you?”

She frowned. “No. Why?”

“Because they’re the other two women on Camille’s list of possible victims. If your ghost is right, then one of them is the killer.”

Her frown deepened. “But the caretaker said it was a Felicity Barnes who asked him about our records, so where does she fit in?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. And it was damned frustrating.

She sipped at her coffee for a moment. “Helen told me that she’d tried to find out who her parents were, and that’s why we were involved.”

“It could be.” Maybe their killer worked for the government department responsible for adoptions. Why else would Helen have been killed after she’d begun her inquiries, and not before? “Had you?”

She shook her head, grimacing slightly. “I’ve never wanted to.”

If she had, she might now be dead, right alongside Helen. He reached out and clasped her hand. “Why not?”

“I don’t know.” She hesitated. “I guess it stems from anger. I mean, they abandoned me. They left me on the doorstep of a hospital and walked away. Why would I ever want to find people who could do that to a baby?”

“They might have had good reasons—”

“To leave me on the steps? To not even give me a birth certificate?” She wrenched her hands from his. “Do you know what it’s like to always be alone, knowing there is no one—no one—you could really turn to when …”

She broke off, but her unfinished sentence whispered through him, sharp with pain and memories. When the bad t

hings happened. She was right, of course. He could never know what it had been like for her, but he could imagine. For the last ten years he’d been alone, away from his family, and it had certainly provided an insight. And while he’d had friends and the occasional lover to fill the void, it just wasn’t the same.

And she’d spent nearly her entire life with that feeling. “At least you had Helen once you reached that facility,” he murmured lamely.

She looked down at the table. “Yeah. I guess I did.”

He watched her a minute longer, then resignedly got out his cell phone and dialed Camille. He quickly filled her in on what had happened at the facility as well as what the ghostly Helen had told Kirby.

“I was afraid of this,” Camille muttered. “That circle being carved into the doors has to represent an elemental circle.”

“Which is?” He pulled the phone away from his ear so Kirby could hear. The old witch had a loud voice, and it would carry across the table easily enough.

“It was thought for a long time to be little more than a myth, but we’ve been doing some research and our findings are saying otherwise.” She sniffed. “An elemental circle is the combination of five elements—fire, water, earth and air. The fifth element is strength, but it’s more commonly known as the binding element. The binder is the most important element of all, because without one, the others cannot unite.”

“It sounds like a pentagram.”

“It isn’t. A pentagram is just used to perform magic or to protect. An elemental circle is a force.”

“Why would one of the five be killing the others, if they need each other to work this circle?”

“She’s not just killing them, she’s sucking their abilities from them. Maybe she tasted the power once and now hungers for it all. But, this time, she wants all the elements under her control.” Camille’s voice was grim. “But that could only happen if either she is the binding element, or she consumes the binding element.”

His gaze met Kirby’s. The caretaker had said they’d formed the circle to attack him. That’s when it had started, all those years ago. But why wait until now to attack? It didn’t make any sense. “One of the two remaining names might be the killer, Camille.”

“Maybe,” Camille growled. “And maybe not. I’ll take Trina Jones. You two try to find Marline Thomas. Russ can search for the mysterious Felicity Barnes.”

“You got addresses?” He pulled a pen from his pocket and grabbed a table napkin, quickly jotting them down as Camille read them out. There were close to fifteen possible locations. They weren’t going to get through them all today.

“Kirby wants to head home and grab some money and clothes, then we’ll head off.”