My chest was heaving, breath coming in shallow gasps as fear warred with unwelcome arousal. I should close this hatch and march up to Mai and demand to know what the fuck is going on. What the hell did they have locked in that chamber?
“I don’t find your voice in the least sexy.”
He sucked in a breath and then a low groan that was pure sex drifted out of the hatch. “Yes, that was good.”
Fuck. He needed to stop saying shit. I needed to see him and be repulsed. “Light the candle.”
There was a snitch and a whoosh, and then the room was bathed in soft, flickering amber light that danced across the runes etched into plaster, and in the center of it, his back to me, was the creature.
Bare back loaded with muscles tapered at the waist, ass tight beneath loose black joggers, and every inch of him covered in an intricate swirling pattern of ink. It climbed his neck and covered his bald head. Oh, God. This couldn’t be real? How could anything be this beautiful?
“I want to see your face.” I needed to see it.
“That would cost you another lie, raspberry girl.”
My mouth opened to spill a fib, but I pressed my lips together. I was playing with fire, giving him power with my words. What would he do with it? I had no clue. This was bad. Real bad.
“No.”
He turned his head to the side, and my breath caught on his profile—strong jaw, inky downcast lashes, and a full mouth.
“Are you sure? Don’t you want to know what I am?”
Fucking hell, yes, I did. “Don’t you want to see me?”
Why would I think he’d care? The muscles across his back rippled with sudden tension, emboldening me.
With the light behind me and no candle lit, he couldn’t have possibly gotten a good look at me.
“All you have to do is turn around …” I waited, breath trapped in my throat.
His laugh was soft, conceding. He began to turn.
Boot falls echoed down the stairs, jarring me back to my senses. I shut the hatch and rushed over to the other door, hand up as if ready to knock.
“Oh?” Mai said from the foot of the stairs.
I glanced over my shoulder. “Hey. I couldn’t sleep. I was going to check on the hellions, I guess we had the same idea?”
Her gaze flicked to the left, and then she smiled. “You got me. They’re nothing special though, just the run-of-the-mill hellion. Four legs, two arms, and oversexed.” She joined me by the door. “Here, let me.”
As she unlocked the main doors, my gaze slid to the hatch, and my thoughts to the creature beyond.
I could have called Mai out on it … probably should have, but for some reason, I’d reacted in subterfuge, and now it was too late.
The door opened, and we stepped into the cell block. Time to fake being enthused by hellions.
* * *
Back upstairs, I closed the door and leaned against it. What the heck was I doing, sneaking around and then lying about it? Tris was still stone, and the room was bathed in pink light that shone through the drapes. Six more hours until everyone woke up. My body wanted to go back to sleep, but sleep was dangerous. Sleep held nightmares, and Tris wasn’t here to cast her humming spell to keep them at bay as I slipped under.
Maybe Henri was awake? I ducked back out of my room and down the corridor to his.
My knock went unanswered, and I was about to turn away when the door opened. He stood there, all glorious molded bare-chested metal with joggers hanging low on his hips. I dragged my gaze from his Adonis belt to his face.
“Put a shirt on.” I brushed past him into the room.
“You’re awake again.”
“Yes, Mr. Stating the Obvious.”
I turned to see him pulling on a tee. How could his metallic body ripple like it was real muscle? The urge to touch him gripped me, and I was across the room before I could stop myself. My finger gripped his bare arm.
He froze beneath my touch. I squeezed gently. This was the first time I’d touched his bare skin. He felt … alive.
“Um, Kat?”
“Sorry.” I dropped my hand.
“Why are you awake again?”
“I don’t know.”
“We need to tell Tris.”
I rubbed my forehead. “I know. I’ll tell her later tonight after she’s done the research. I don’t want to distract her with this. It’s nothing.”
“The fact you suddenly can’t sleep through the day isn’t nothing.” His tone brooked no argument.
“Fine. It’s something. But it can wait. The riders and the kidnappings can’t.”
It wasn’t like I could do anything about my sleep issue until Gramps contacted me anyway, and even then, if something had gone wrong with the weaving that bound Tris to my subconscious mind, the man who’d woven it was dead.
Vinod was gone.
I walked over to his bed and sat on the edge of the mattress. “I went down to the basement.”
“And?”
“I saw something.”
“Are we about to play twenty questions?”
Gosh, he was no fun. “The voice I heard the other day, it’s not a demon, and it’s not supernatural. I have no idea what it is, and it eats lies. They have an unidentified creature down there, and they lied to us about it.”
“So, we ask them.”
“No.” The word came out quick and snappy.
Henri’s silver brows shot up. “Why not? That thing could be dangerous.” His eyes widened. “Did you lie to it? Did you feed it?”
I winced.
“You have no idea what it can do with whatever power it gained from you. It’s locked up, so it must be dangerous.”
“There were runes on the walls, and it was covered in ink and … Oh … oh, wait a minute.”
A memory was stirring in my mind. Distant but struggling to the surface. “Mist mythology.”
“What?”
“We read about the creatures from the mist, the fomorians, and how they liked to cover their bodies in inky patterns. The ink is armor.” I stared at Henri in horror. “They have a fomorian locked in the fucking basement.”
Henri sucked in a breath.
“I need to figure out if this is a trust issue.”
“What?”
“I need to give them time to bring me into the circle of trust.”
But it was more than that. It was obvious they hadn’t wanted me to know about him, and if I told them I knew, what if they moved him? What if they got rid of him because I’d found out about him? I needed to see him again, to talk to him.
Why?
I didn’t know, and yep, that was a red flag, because protocol was everything to the Nightwatch. Yet, here I was, willing to break it so I could get another meeting with a monster with inked skin and a voice that made me want to come.
Henri padded across the room and crouched by the bed. “You’re tired; you’re not thinking straight. If you’re part of this team, then they shouldn’t be keeping secrets from you.”
I let out a bark of laughter. “I’m hardly one to talk.”
“That’s different. Revealing your secret could get you killed.”
“And we have no idea why they’ve kept the fomorian a secret. I haven’t known them long, but I want to trust them. I know they’re good people. I need to give them the benefit of the doubt for now.” I rubbed my head again. “My priority has to be the reaper. He knows my secret. I need to make sure he doesn’t tell.”
A yawn clicked my jaw.
“You need to sleep.”
“I can’t. Not without Tris.”
He lifted my legs up onto the mattress. “I’ll watch over you. Just an hour. I’ll wake you if you seem in distress.”
My instinct was to resist, but my body was already melting into the mattress, and my eyes were drooping.
Darkness surrounded me, the usual fare, but why was I so conscious of it. Why did it feel like a blanket was pressing down on me? Why did it feel like there was a prese
Flashes of images filled my mind. Rolling gray hills, silver-tipped spires. Dappled equine creatures shaking their glistening white manes in the breeze. This was a place to be … This was the place I needed to be.
I reached out, not with my limbs but with my mind, and pain shot through me, burning, searing pain in my arm, like the forbidding claiming of fingers against flesh. A whimper echoed in the darkness.
What was that?
A soft sob?
Where was that coming from?
“Kat, wake up. Kat.”
My eyes snapped open to Henri’s face.
“You’re all right.”
My pulse was racing, heart hammering.
“What did you dream?”
Dream? “Nothing. I didn’t dream of anything.”
He reached up to touch my cheek lightly with the tips of his fingers. “Then why are you crying?”
I touched my face to find my cheeks wet. “I don’t know.”
But even though my conscious mind was unaware, my subconscious was sending terror signals coursing through my veins. There’d been something in the dark, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I didn’t want to revisit it.
No sleeping without Tris.
Chapter Fourteen
Henri parked the car opposite the alley we needed to take to get to the hidden market. Tris was practically bouncing in her seat. I unlocked my door, and she climbed up onto my shoulders.
The street was empty at this time of night, too early for nightlife, too late for human traffic. We were on the outskirts of town too, so that made a difference. I led Henri, in his supernatural glamour, down the alley, right then left and through the weird shimmer into the amber light of the old-style lamppost.
“Oh my.” Tris tightened her hold on my arm. “This is … Oh!” She was off my shoulder and across the square in a flash. I’d never seen her move that fast, and then the reason was bounding across the square toward her.
A mini-tornado, a tiny, impish gargoyle with a leonine face and tail. They met in a hug and an echo of delighted squeals.
Henri and I exchanged amused glances before approaching.
“Kat, sweets, this is Glory. Glory, this is my charge, Kat.”
Glory looked up at me with her huge, round eyes. “Nice ta meet you. Hope you’re taking care of my Tris. Been a long time, sis.”
“Long time,” Tris agreed.
There weren’t many gargoyles active any longer. Most were in the Nightwatch vault, so I was curious to know Glory’s story.
But it was Tris who filled me in. “Glory used to work for the Nightwatch. She was honorably discharged fifty years ago.”
“I did my time,” Glory sniffed. “And now I live here. Sweetest town.”
“Sweet?”
She grinned. “It is for a gargoyle. You see, it’s always night time in the square.”
Tris stood straighter. “You mean you never …”
“Nope. Not unless I choose to.”
She didn’t have to be stone. She could be animated as much as she wanted. No more being a slave to the sun.
Glory slung her arm around Tris’s shoulder. “How about I show you around?”
I opened my mouth to protest—we were on a clock, after all—but Tris spoke for me.
“Not tonight, Glo. I have work to do. But I’ll come back another night.” She hugged her friend. “Now that I know where you are.”
Glory sniffed. “Ah, yes, I remember the grind.” She peered up at me. “You best be treating her right, or you’ll have me to answer to.”
I bit back a smile at the vehemence in her tiny frame. “Oh, Tris is my favorite person.”
Tris’s chest swelled with pride. “Kat buys me books all the time.”
Glory looked at me with new respect. “In that case, she’s a keeper. I remember your romance obsession. I’m a thriller girl myself.”
“We’re actually headed to the bookstore,” Henri said. “We need to get going.”
Glory eyed him. “You must be the token golem.”
“Henri isn’t token anything.” My tone was sharp.
But instead of taking offense, Glory’s face cracked into an amiable grin. “I’m glad to hear it. I’ll see you later?”
Tris and her friend hugged before the leonine gargoyle loped off.
I crouched so Tris could hop aboard, and we were off.
The bookstore, Wicked Imaginations, waited for us. My skin tingled as we stepped over the threshold, and a figure materialized from the shadowy depths of the store. Luther took us in with a sweep of his emerald gaze and then smiled. “Which friend will I be entertaining tonight?”
Tris slid down my arm and onto the counter. “Me, you lucky boy. Now, how about you put on a pot of tea and show me that library of yours.”
Luther’s mouth twitched. “Earl Grey?”
“Ooh, you naughty boy.”
Yep, Tris would be just fine.
* * *
With Tris safely ensconced at the bookstore, Henri and I set off to locate the ghost bar; okay, so there was no real locating required because Henri was a walking GPS, but still. The bar was there, snug between the buildings covering the alleyway. I touched Henri lightly on the shoulder to share my vision with him. Leaving the car parked at the curb, we headed for the entrance.
The ghosts hanging around outside turned away from us as we passed, pretending not to see us. What was their deal? Hopefully, the reaper would be here, if not, then maybe the bar ghost could point me in the right direction with a little persuading.
Henri halted me with a hand to my arm just before we entered. “Remember what happened last time, the warning they gave us?”
“Yeah, I remember. It’s got to be something to do with the riders. Just be vigilant.”
“Aren’t I always?”
He had a point. “Come on.”
The club materialized around me just like last time, but whereas last time the colors had been vibrant and solid, this time there was a wishy-washy look about everything as if it had been painted in watercolor.
The headless can-can dancers kicked their stocking-clad legs, an eyeless man with a torn throat played the piano with aplomb, and ghosts in various era clothing milled about in groups. But unlike last time, everything seemed to be happening in slow motion, almost sluggish. The tune was slightly off-key too. They looked away as we passed through them, making a beeline for the bar. The woman at the bar froze as we approached, but this time, she didn’t fake not seeing us. Instead, her face twisted with annoyance.
“What are you doing here? I told you both last time that it was dangerous.”
Had she been this pale and drawn last time? I mean, she was dead, a spirit, but hadn’t there been more color in her cheeks the last time we’d met?
I placed a hand on the bar. “Yes, but you didn’t explain why.”
“Not everyone has control over where they should be or where they can go,” she said. Her face flickered like a hologram glitching. “Not all of us have tongues and eyes that are free to wag and roam.”
Huh? What was she saying? “You’re trapped.”
“You’re free, so keep it that way and …” She trailed off and ducked her head. She shrugged. “Or not. It’s up to you. But don’t get in his way. He won’t take kindly to interference.”
“Who?” Henri asked. “Who has you trapped here, and why?”
“No one knows his name. We call him the man in the hat. He’s a wraith, a shadow, and his influence is everywhere, and—”
Her body shimmered, and she vanished in a wisp of ether. The phantom cloth she’d been holding dropped to the ground.
“What the fuck?” Henri peered over the counter and shook his head. “She’s gone.”
The man who’d been clutching a drink to our left made a strangled sound. “We’re next. We’re all next.” He slid off the stool and made a run for it. He didn’t get far before he vanished in a wisp of ether too.
Shitting hell, what was this?
The can-can dancers flickered but continued to dance. The piano player played on, and the rest of the company closed ranks in their groups, tightening the circles as if they could ward off whatever was coming, and something was coming. Its menace was a shiver across the back of my neck and crawling over my scalp. It was a tightening in my stomach and a fist around my heart.
“We need to get out of here,” Henri said.
He felt it too.
“Yeah, let’s go.”
The world was wavering, the doors flickering. We had to get through them before they vanished. We broke into a sprint and hit the doors just as the whole bar flickered out of existence. The cold air hit me in the face like a slap.
“Dammit.” Henri stood hands on hips, looking pissed. “Why does it keep doing that?”
“Disruption maybe? It’s a construct built by the collective force of the dead, and maybe our living essence caused it to glitch?”
“And the bar woman vanishing?”
“I don’t know.” I turned back to look at the spot where the bar had been. “I don’t know if the place will be back either.”
“We didn’t even get to ask about the reaper.” Henri began to pace. “We need to find him. We can’t risk him blabbing to his reaper buddies.”
“Reaper buddies?” The voice was a smooth, amused drawl.
I spun to face the reaper.
He smiled and walked across the street toward us. “You obviously don’t know that reapers are solo creatures. We don’t hang out. And we don’t have buddies.”
The light from a lamppost cast his face in amber and reflected off his dark hair, so he was highlighted in gold edging.
“You’re worried I’ll tell people what you are?” He smirked.
“No.” I crossed my arms. “I’m not worried about that, because no one knows what I am.”
He inclined his head in concession. “Fine, then you’re afraid that they’ll discover you’re not a pureblood.” He canted his head. “And we know what Nightbloods do to hybrids. Anything to preserve the bloodlines and protect their race.”
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