Torn

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  revisiting. Sorry to hear that Merle is missing, but she ain’t with no good fae. And there ain’t nothin’ to tell.”

  “Jerome, please. You obviously know something about these fae.” I fought to keep my patience. “What can it hurt by you telling me about it?”

  He laughed. “Girl, ya don’t know anything.”

  “That’s why I’m here.”

  “There’s nothin’ to tell,” he repeated.

  I counted to ten before I continued. “Obviously there’s a lot to tell. There were fae who didn’t harm humans at one time. Why can’t you tell me about them, about what happened?”

  Jerome was quiet.

  “You know the knights and the prince came through those gates and—”

  “And that got nothin’ do with what used to be some thirty or so years ago. They can’t help ya, because they ain’t existin’ no more,” Jerome snapped, his voice thick with the cold. “Sorry I ain’t got the kind of news ya lookin’ for, but it’s time for you to go.”

  “Jerome.” My hands curled into fists.

  “I mean it, Ivy. Ya need to go. Now.” His gaze cut to mine. “Don’t make me ask ya again.”

  I held his gaze. I didn’t get it. He knew something. He’d pretty much confirmed that there had been good fae once upon a time, but refused to go into any detail about it and I couldn’t figure out why. Why was it such a big deal for it to be known that there were fae who didn’t feed on humans?

  “Ya know where the door is,” Jerome said.

  As much as it ticked me off, I knew when it was time to give it up when it came to Jerome. Pressing my lips together, I rose. “Hope you enjoy your pie,” I said.

  He didn’t say anything until I reached the door, and then he stopped me by saying, “Don’t go around askin’ other people about that either. Heed my advice on it. There ain’t nothin’ you need to know about any of that.”

  I didn’t respond as I walked outside, closing the door behind me. As I walked down the steps, my phone rang. I pulled it out and saw that it was David. My heart skipped a beat and I willed my voice to stay level as I answered it. “What’s up?”

  “Is Ren with you?”

  I stopped walking. “No. Why?”

  “Shit,” grumbled David. “He was supposed to come back and talk with me last night about some shit that was urgent. He didn’t show. I called him last night and this morning. No answer. Like he’s done dropped off the face of this planet.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  The conversation with Jerome and the whole situation faded into the background. My heart was thumping fast as I stared at my phone. Ren couldn’t be missing. Twenty-four hours hadn’t even passed since the last time I’d seen him. Granted, the length of time didn’t matter, but I refused to believe he had just disappeared. No way. My brain couldn’t even process that.

  There was a good chance he was taking some unplanned and unapproved leave time after I’d dropped that bomb on him, but would he really not tell David? Ren was too responsible to do that.

  As I walked back toward the Quarter, I ignored the way my pulse was all over the place, and called Ren. The likelihood of him answering my call when he wasn’t answering David’s was slim, but I had to try.

  The phone rang and went to voicemail. For a moment, I didn’t know if I should leave a message or not, and then told myself I was being stupid. The words tumbled out. “Ren, this is Ivy. I’m calling you because David is looking for you. He’s been trying to reach you and you—well, obviously you know you haven’t returned his call.” Rolling my eyes, I stopped at the corner of St. Louis and Basin. “Anyway, can you call him back? I don’t expect you to call me. But just call him back. Please.”

  Hanging up, I slipped my phone back in my bag and then brushed the fine wisps of hair back from my face. I glanced over at the cemetery. Nervous laughter could be heard as a tour guide regaled them with stories about Voodoo queen Marie Laveau and her daughter.

  Acid churned in my stomach like I had drunk bad milk. What if the prince had gotten hold of Ren? The mere thought of that robbed the air from my lungs. Ren could hate me and want to gouge his eyeballs out at the sight of me, but I wanted him to live.

  Okay. There was no need to panic right now. I had to go to the headquarters because David reminded me about the stupid report before he’d hung up, but I’d be passing where Ren had parked his truck yesterday afternoon. I could see if it was still there. If it was there, then that . . . yeah, that could be something to get concerned over.

  I picked up my pace, and it took about fifteen minutes to get to where Ren had parked. Entering the small, dimly lit garage, I shivered since it was at least ten degrees cooler here than outside. He’d parked on the second level, the top floor. I headed toward the cement stairs. The garage was small, only fitting about fifty cars, but some days it was packed like a can of sardines. Today was one of them. The entire place smelled of gas fumes and body odor.

  I rounded the second-floor landing and hurried toward the back of the garage, walking around the stained pillars as I scanned the row of vehicles. I knew he’d parked somewhere in the middle, but as I reached the back, I didn’t see his truck anywhere.

  That was a good sign, I told myself as I looked out the dust and dirt-covered window, down to the street below. His truck being gone meant he came back to it at some point last night. The truck being here would have meant he’d never made it back, and there would be very limited reasons that didn’t include something horrific for why that would happen.

  Still, as I turned around, I wasn’t exactly relieved. I took a step and then stopped as I heard footsteps. My gaze swung to the right as my eyes narrowed. My paranoia blew through the roof, and my hand drifted to the dagger concealed at my hip, under my shirt.

  A second later, a tall and slender man stepped out from behind a dark green van. On first glance, he looked super normal. Long-sleeved shirt and denim jeans, but within seconds the façade of normalcy faded away, revealing the truth beneath the glamour I’d been warded at birth to see through.

  Holy shit.

  He was a fae.

  There was an actual fae in the garage, and normally this wouldn’t be a big deal, but since no one other than my lucky ass had seen a fae since the gate had opened, this was huge.

  The fae walked into the center of the garage, his steps slow and measured. He appeared older than most, and his silvery-white hair was shorn short. I unhooked my dagger.

  He stopped, raising his hands at his sides in a universal don’t-kill-me gesture, which I knew better than to trust. I tightened my grasp. The fae opened his mouth as if he were to speak.

  Another fae appeared at the top of the stairs. Crap. A female stalked forward purposefully. No fae in days and days, and I end up with two of them?

  Oh, but I had a lot of pent-up aggression to work out of my system, so this could be a good thing.

  The male turned, his arms dropping. “No—” His words were cut off as the female fae rushed forward, her long, icy-blonde hair streaming out behind her. She held something—a dagger, most definitely an iron dagger.

  Before I could say a word or do a thing, the female fae slammed the dagger into the gut of the male fae. His surprised shout was lost as his body folded into itself.

  “What the fuck?” I stared at the spot where the one fae stood. “What just happened?”

  I didn’t expect an answer from the female fae, and I sure as hell didn’t expect what happened next.

  She ran straight toward me. I widened my stance and lifted my dagger, expecting her to try to grab me or take a swing. Nope. She right straight into me, and into the dagger.

  My mouth dropped open as I stepped back. Her pale blue eyes met mine a second before she folded into herself, disappearing. Her dagger clanged off the floor, and I stood there, mouth gaping so wide people could’ve walked by and thrown things into it.

  The female fae had legit impaled herself on my dagger. She ran right up and into the pointy end.
/>   I looked left and then right.

  “All righty then,” I murmured.

  I sheathed my dagger as I mentally added another WTF to the ever-increasing list I was now going to officially keep track of.

  I bent down and picked up the dagger the female fae had used, then I got out of the garage and walked quickly to my destination. It was Miles who opened the door to headquarters. I barely forced a grimace of a smile in his direction. “Where’s David?” I asked.

  “Office.”

  Angling sideways to get inside, because he sure as hell didn’t actually step out of the way, I handed over the dagger the female fae had used. “Here you go.”

  He took the dagger, frowning. “What the hell am I supposed to do with this?”

  “Well, most Order members use them to actually kill fae,” I replied. “You know, when they go out there and work.”

  Miles muttered something under his breath that sounded an awful lot like “itch.” Grinning, I walked across the common area. David’s door was open, and as I approached his office, I saw he wasn’t alone. Kyle and Henry were with him.

  Ugh.

  My weak grin faded.

  The three men looked up as I entered the room. “I just saw a fae in the parking garage we use,” I told them. “Actually, I saw two of them. One killed the other and the other sort of . . . impaled herself on my dagger.”

  David blinked slowly. “Come again?”

  “Yeah, if you heard what you think I said, it’s what I said.” I walked further into the room, giving the other two dudes a wide berth. I stopped at the corner of David’s desk. “I’ve seen a lot of weird stuff, but that was . . . Yeah, that took the cake.”

  “I don’t even know what to do with that info,” David replied, leaning back in his chair. He glanced at the two Elite members. “You guys?”

  “Nope.” Kyle eyed me. “Did either of the fae say anything?”

  “One looked like he was about to, but the other—a female fae—killed him before he could. She had one of our daggers.”

  “Thanks to Val, I’m sure,” David muttered, and my chest clenched.

  “The fae have long since adapted the use of iron for their own in a self-policing sort of way,” Kyle replied, casually tossing his arm over the back of the chair. “Though, it is rare that they use it against one another.”

  I glanced at him. Real helpful intel right there.

  “It’s good that you’re here,” Kyle added. “Got some questions to ask you.”

  My stomach dipped. Obviously they couldn’t care less about the two fae. “What’s up?”

  “Last night we were chatting with Ren, and then he left here to meet with you. David advised us that you two are seeing each other,” he stated.

  I glanced at David, who looked rather bored with the conversation. Then again, he looked bored with everything. I lifted my chin. “Well, I’m also sure Henry told you that since he saw us kissing.”

  Henry arched a reddish-brown eyebrow. “Still surprised you didn’t get pregnant from that kiss. Jesus Christ.”

  I wrinkled my nose at him, but refused to actually answer the question, because I was sure that Ren and I weren’t dating anymore. “You guys still haven’t heard from him?”

  “No,” answered David.

  “That’s why I was in the parking garage,” I explained. “Ren parked there yesterday, and his truck is gone. So he must’ve gone back there. I was thinking—”

  “Ren was asking some off the wall questions last night.” Kyle kicked his booted feet up on the desk. “He was asking if we knew anything about fae who didn’t feed on humans.”

  Oh. Oh, shit.

  “Do you know why he’d ask something like that?” Kyle asked, his head tilting to the side. “Because that’s a strange thing to ask.”

  Double shit. Instinct told me to lie, but then lying meant I was leaving Ren, wherever he was, out there hanging on his own. He’d done that to me when we’d first met, and I remembered how crappy that made me feel. But telling them about what Brighton had found would turn Kyle and Henry’s attention to her and Merle, and there was something about those two I didn’t trust.

  And I probably didn’t trust them because I was the halfling, but whatever.

  Plus, I remembered what Jerome had said about talking about that.

  So I shook my head. “I don’t know why he’d ask that, but Ren’s always curious about things.”

  “Huh,” replied Kyle. “What a weird thing to be curious about. Maybe you need to find better ways to occupy his mind.”

  I started to frown.

  “His absence and its timing is strange,” Henry stated from his corner. “Do you have any idea where he could be?”

  My Spidey senses were tingling now. “No. I mean, I was thinking about checking his place, but this . . . isn’t like him.” I looked to David and admitted, “I’m a little freaked out about this.”

  “Yeah, well—” David’s phone rang and he picked it up. “Yeah?” he grumbled, rubbing his hand over his head. I hoped it was Ren, but the way he suddenly stiffened and then stood, told me that if it was, it wasn’t good. Several seconds passed. “I’ll send a team down there now.”

  My little ears perked up with interest. “What’s going on?” I asked.

  He hung up the phone. “Jackie just called. She and Dylan said there was a lot of police activity down at Flux. Several cars. Reporters setting up outside.”

  “I thought you guys checked that place out,” I said.

  “We did. There were no fae there when we went,” David replied, thumbing through his phone contacts. “This may not have anything to do with fae, but it warrants investigating.”

  “I’ll go.” I turned and jerked back, finding Miles in the doorway. God. Was he there the whole time, lurking all quiet-like? Creeper.

  “Not you,” David called out, stopping me. “I want that report about Val filled out. Now.”

  I pivoted around. “But—”

  “Why is it that I always have to tell you an order is an order?” David walked around his desk, a folder in his hand. “Every single time.”

  He had a point.

  I took the folder from him as Kyle stood up. Henry was the first out, glancing down at my folder. “I’d rather be shot in the fucking head than do paperwork.”

  Um. Wow. Okay. I hated paperwork too, but that was excessive.

  Kyle said nothing as he walked past me. I was half-tempted to toss the folder back on David’s desk, but I knew better than to do that.

  Under Miles’s watchful gaze, I walked out to the common room, plopped down at the table, and picked up a pen. I opened the folder and was about to relive something I really didn’t feel like doing at the moment, but stopped when I felt eyes on me.

  Lifting my gaze, I saw Miles leaning against the wall, staring at me. I waited a second and decided to make use of the fact that he was being a creep. “Can I ask you a question?”

  “If I say no, you still going to ask?”

  “Probably.” I twirled the pen between my fingers. “The crystal that Val came back and took from here. What is the significance of it?”

  One shoulder rose, but there was a forced casualness about it that I didn’t trust. “Just a piece of shit gem that doesn’t mean much.”

  “Then why would she come back and take it if it’s nothing?”

  He shrugged. “Probably because she’s a dumbass and thinks it holds some value.”

  Okay. Yeah, I wasn’t believing that for one second, but it was obvious he wasn’t going to tell me anything else. I got back to filling out my report, and when I peeked up again, he was still being a creep. I sighed. “What?”

  Miles smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “You and I don’t really know each other.”

  I tilted my head. “To be honest, no one really knows each other in the Order.”

  “Except you and Val. You two knew each other fairly well, and she betrayed the Order and is now dead.” He pushed off the wall
, approaching the table. “Fell off a roof. Huh.”