“Part of my family is from Iran, so tonight we are having a Persian feast,” he said, leading me to the other side of the street. I felt oddly calm holding his hand, protected and like myself from my pre-palace life years ago.
Zach took me to the corner restaurant, with colourful windows and a name that I couldn’t pronounce. After that kiss in the car, my whole body was charged with energy and I was having trouble blocking the human emotions around me. There was a cosmopolitan feel in this area, and I was feeling good being surrounded by people for a change.
“Zachary, my boy, so good to see you. How the devil are you?” shouted a large man that raced towards us. He had dark hair, with salt and pepper streaks on the sides, and was most likely from Iran too. He started hugging the detective next to me, shouting greetings in a language that I didn’t understand.
“I’m fine Uncle Azero. Let me introduce you to my date. This is Maxine, we are currently working together,” Zach said, once he was free. His uncle looked at me and beamed.
“A date, that’s impossible… You don’t date, my boy, but this creature. She’s so beautiful,” Zach’s uncle shouted. Everyone in the restaurant was staring at us and I was trying to hold it together. The place was quite busy, but most of the customers were foreigners. He hugged me without warning, cuddling me into his large chest. “Maxine, good strong name. She doesn’t like to be touched that one.”
“I’m sorry?” I asked, baffled when he let go of me, and I could breathe normally.
“Azero, be a gentleman. Maxine is having dinner with me tonight and she desperately needs to taste your khoresh,” Zachary said, pulling me closer to his body. “I presume that you have a table for us?”
Azero narrowed his eyes on his nephew and took me by my elbow.
“No need to ask. Tell you what: Zach doesn’t know how to treat women right. Let me show you around. The food is good, delicious here, and you look like you could put on a few pounds.”
Over the next couple of minutes I was forced to listen to Azero going through his life in the UK, and telling me about his dead wife. After that he let me sit in front of Zach. We had a quiet table at the back. His uncle fussed over me a few more moments, asking about my work and Zach about his mother. He was very loud, outspoken and didn’t care that there were other people in the restaurant. He should have annoyed the crap out of me, but I could feel his pride and love for Zach and hoped that I could make him happy. His emotions were so genuine it was hard to be annoyed.
“So you are half Iranian then? I should have guessed earlier on. I had a feeling that your family was from somewhere in the Middle East,” I said, once we were finally alone. The restaurant was cozy, keeping in tradition, painted in vibrant red-maroon, blue and sun-gold colours. His uncle had tried really hard to use the antiques, old copper lamps, rugs and carpets to bring out the atmosphere from his home country. It was nothing posh or extravagant, but it felt really warm and homey like you’d be happy to spend the night chilling here.
“Yes, my mother married my father after six months of knowing him. They met in London in the British library. He was British, died of a heart attack when I was four,” Zachary explained, putting the napkin on his knees. A moment later, the waitress brought two beers to our table. “Cheers. All alcohol is banned in Iran, but my uncle is trying to adjust to the British culture.”
I didn’t drink much beer. I always preferred something much stronger, but tonight I was detoxing. My throat burned, but I was planning to stick to my resolution and stay away from tequila.
“So you have never brought any other ladies in here then?” I asked, thinking about the blonde woman from a couple of weeks ago. Zach gave me the impression that he was the kind of guy that always took what he wanted and hooking up with random women was something that he enjoyed doing.
“I don’t do dates, prefer keep my ladies in the bedroom, Maxine. I like you, so I’m making an exception,” he said, smiling. His dirty mouth was a good distraction.
I was just about to ask him about his mother, when his phone rang. He glanced at the screen and frowned. I guess the fun was over.
“I have to take this,” he muttered obviously not too happy that we were interrupted. I nodded and drank some more beer. Zach got up and went outside to take the phone call. A second later Azero appeared back in front of me with a plate with something that looked like crackers and dip.
“Try this, beautiful, it’s freshly made hummus,” he said, waving the plate in front of me. I reached out and then felt it. The new demonic energy that rippled through me suddenly. A full-blooded demon just walked in and when I looked up I realised that we were somehow connected. And that evening had been going so well.
Chapter 28
“Through me the way into the suffering city, Through me the way into eternal pain, Through me the way that runs among the lost.” ― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
He was tall, blond, and for a split second I thought that I recognised him from somewhere. He stared at me for longer than was necessary and then sat at the table in the back, joining a female human. I didn’t need to panic just yet. After all, I wasn’t that important in the underworld. Maybe he was here for other reasons and I just had to relax. Azero was holding the plate with snacks front of me, so I took a piece of a cracker with hummus, telling myself that everything was fine.
“Any good? It’s the special recipe from my grandmother side,” Azero asked and his question distracted me from the supernatural creature that was now in the restaurant. My paranoia kicked in, rolling over my body like a cold shower. My life was complicated, but tonight was all about me.
“Good, very good,” I muttered with my mouth full. As long as I didn’t have Watchers chasing after me, I was relatively safe. “So I’m the first girl that he’s brought here?”
Okay, I didn’t need to be that nosey, but Zach wasn’t particularly forthcoming.
“Yes, his poor mother has been telling him to settle for as long as I can remember, but he never listens. Our Zachary is a wild card.”
“Yes, I have noticed,” I responded. “How long have you had the restaurant?”
“Since his sister disappeared, over six years now. I treat him like my own boy, but he doesn’t come often. He is always busy with his police work,” Zach’s uncle said, shaking his head like he remembered something from the past. I frowned and leaned over just to make sure that Zach was still outside, talking on the phone.
“His sister? I thought he didn’t have any siblings?” I asked. Azero lost his smile for a second and then sat down opposite me, still holding the menu in his hand.
“I don’t like telling this story, but you’re the first that he brought in here, so I guess it’s okay. Zachary has a brother too, but it was his sister that had always been the black sheep in the family. She never used to listen to her mother, was a wild child and things spun out of control. She got pregnant when she was about twenty, very young then. She partied a lot and got herself into trouble with the police and some Turkish immigrant. I don’t blame Zafira for what happened to Zara. She brought up her children here, not in Iran, without a husband, so it wasn’t easy. Zara left the child with Zafira many times. At first it was a few hours, then days and once she vanished for over a week,” Azero said, giving me way more than I expected.
I had no idea that Zach had such a big family. It looked like we both didn’t like sharing things about ourselves. Paul was right, he was troubled, even more than I expected. It was strange that he never mentioned his sister.
“During one night Zafira sneaked out for a party and didn’t come back. Everyone was used to it, but this time it was different. Zach had just graduated and got into the police force,” his uncle continued. “And he had a lot that he had to deal with. Zara had vanished from the face of the earth, and after a couple of weeks Zafira had filed the missing person report. Zach started to look for her, but he wasn’t getting anywhere. No one had heard from her. Things were difficult at home too. Zafira was blami
ng herself and fell into depression. Cornelia, Zach’s niece was raised by Zafira, and after her mother’s disappearance she stayed with her grandmother for good. Zafira lifted herself up for the little girl. Cornelia is six now and Zach adores her, he helps out as much as he can. He looks after her whenever he can, but I don’t think he ever got over what happened with Zara.”
I was completely and utterly speechless. This wasn’t something that I expected to hear. I thought Zach simply liked keeping his private life away from nosey people like me. His partner’s suicide was just the tip of the iceberg. He most likely believed that demons had abducted his sister too. My head was spinning, as I tried to take all this in. Now it didn’t surprise me that Zach was so sensitive and believed in supernatural forces.
“I didn’t know about her. Zach hasn’t spoken about his family at all. Besides, we haven’t been working together long,” I admitted, feeling like an idiot.
“Zach doesn’t like bringing this stuff up. It hurts too much, but he does love Cornelia. He’s a hard man, but soft like a cushion inside,” his uncle said fondly, thinking how much trouble Zara had brought into the family. I could see he believed that she was long dead.
“Uncle, what are you telling, Max? I’ve only been gone for what… five minutes?” Zach asked, appearing by our table. His family was important to him, and maybe he just didn’t like broadcasting the fact that his sister had vanished from the face of the earth. I was certain that demons had something to do with it and I wanted to help, but I couldn’t ask him about her straight away. The date was going well, and I didn’t need to ruin it.
“I was telling Maxine about my special dish, the khoresh, so hurry up and order it for her. She is just skin and bones,” Azero said, lifting my arm, like he wanted to prove his point. I had no idea what khoresh was, and I didn’t want to look like an idiot asking Zach to explain it to me. He chose the food in the end. I finished eating the hummus that Azero brought over earlier on. My stomach stopped growling, but I was still pretty hungry.
I kept thinking about Zach’s niece. She was only six and now was growing up without a mother. Deep down I knew that at some point I would have to ask him about her. My own secret was burning my insides, but I’d made my choice. Zach on the other hand was no doubt hoping that Zara was still alive and well. We chatted about the investigation for the next half hour, until his uncle brought the food. It turned out that the khoresh was a stew, made from aubergines, lamb leg and other vegetables.
“Dig in. The chef doesn’t prepare this every day, only on special occasions,” Zach said, and I did. Everything was delicious, fresh, and yeah, my mouth was on fire by the time I tasted all of the dishes that were brought in. Azero came over every few minutes to check on us. The candle was lit and we ate, talking about my time when I was growing up with nuns. Zach kept asking about my parents. I was having fun, but my phone kept vibrating constantly. I ignored it for as long as I could, until Zach heard it.
“You should answer it. Whoever it is seems persistent,” he said, finishing some sort of rice dish that his uncle brought in a moment ago. It was Ricky. He left tons of messages. I didn’t want to talk to him right now. Besides, he was supposed to take a night off. At least I was hoping he would.
“What’s up?” I asked, not wanting to leave the table.
“Max, what the hell? What took you so long?” he snapped. “This is bloody important.”
“What’s so important? I bet you’re just checking up on me. For your information I’m not in the bar mate, but on a date,” I hissed into the phone, wondering how long he was going to treat me like a child.
There was a silence on the other side of the phone.
“A date?”
“What do you want, Ricky?” I asked, going slightly red, because Zach started touching my leg with his.
“I might have found something in the evidence,” he said, his tone serious. I shook my head to let Zach know that he needed to stop. Ricky sounded like this was indeed important.
“Tell me,” I said, not wanting to discuss the fact that two Watchers had stolen the evidence from the hotel room from the police. Zachary had no idea what could happen if the elixirs got into someone else’s hands.
“I found Arthur’s hair in the elixirs in the hotel. The mixture was odd, looked like a failed first attempt, so that’s why it took me so long to figure it out. Some of the useless substances were filled with his and George’s blood too. I had to dig through a lot of books to get the gist of what was inside. Whoever is involved might be controlling the prince from the outside. ‘Cherry water’ that was the name of the potion. It’s a highly possessive elixir that serves only one purpose: to gain control of a human, in this case a very important human,” Ricky explained, talking faster than normal.
My stomach contracted and I suddenly felt sick. For some reason Emma’s words rang in my head: just go back to the basics. What if someone was using George to get to Arthur? Everything was possible.
“Anything else?”
“Arthur might have helped whoever took control of George. The answer is in the palace, Maxine. The answer had always been there, but I backed away from there too quickly.”
Zachary was watching me, as the panic settled inside my stomach. I didn’t want to believe that I didn’t sense that there was something wrong with Arthur. He would have never brought any harm to his brother. Maybe he wasn’t himself when he was in that hotel either; maybe the meeting was just an excuse. God, I didn’t want to believe that this was even possible.
“Thanks, Ricky. I’m with Zach right now,” I told him. “I will check this straight away.”
“Arthur might be under the influence of a demon. You should speak to Rodriquez. The demon most likely needed both brothers to create some kind of powerful potion.”
I exhaled sharply, massaging my forehead.
“Okay, we will drive there straight away. I’ll speak to you later,” I said, and then hung up.
“What’s going on?” Zach asked suddenly alert.
“We need to head to Buckingham Palace right away. The royals might be in danger, but I believe that most of them are in their usual residences,” I said, wondering if Arthur was with Natalie in Kensington.
“My uncle will be disappointed if you leave before tasting a dessert,” he said, not taking me seriously. “And if you’re pulling any kind of stu—”
“No, I’m perfectly serious, Zach. This lead is solid. There is an intruder in the palace and he might have something to do with Prince George’s abduction. We need to check this out now,” I pressed, annoyed that he thought that I was playing him. I stood up and picked up my clutch bag.
“Are you coming with me or not?”
“Yes, of course, I won’t let you go alone this time around,” he said.
Sometimes I hated myself for being a mongrel, hated that I couldn’t tell him that the world he knew wasn’t what it seemed. We both apologised to Zach’s uncle, who didn’t seem that offended.
My energy was crackling gently over my skin as we got to Zach’s car. Arthur was himself when he trapped me in that hotel room. I would have recognised if there were something wrong. Maybe Ricky was wrong; maybe he made a mistake.
“Put your seat belt on,” Zach muttered and roared the engine back to life. The palace was on the other side of the city, but Zach wasn’t planning on driving slowly. He maneuvered the car into the flow of traffic and then stopped caring for road rules. He was speeding through the busy streets, overtaking other cars and running through the red lights. I held onto the ‘oh shit’ handle by the window, hoping to still be alive when we finally reached our destination. My heart was in my throat and I was so grateful that we were both safe by the time he reached the palace gates. My phone kept vibrating in my pocket. Ricky kept trying to get hold of me, but I didn’t have time to update him on what was going on.
My abilities were sharpening and working at full speed. The A’rea attack had weakened me, but I was recovering and was able to sen
se the humans nearby. Even so, I wasn’t up to my usual form yet.
The guards at the front gate were difficult. It was late and some young smart arse didn’t want to let us in, backing himself up with emergency protocol. Apparently the palace was empty. The Queen Mother and most of the family had left to some party. They didn’t know if Prince Arthur was in his quarters or if he was in a different part of the city, in his private residence with Natalie.
We needed to speak to Rodriquez urgently, but the guards had no idea if he was in the palace or not. This whole thing was absurd and after a moment Zach lost his temper. He took out his gun, pointed it on one of the guys and told him to let us in; otherwise he was going to shoot him. Yeah, that worked, only just, but the guards were most likely on the phone to someone inside the palace as soon as we passed through the gates.
We headed straight to the head of security who was based in the west wing. We expected to be greeted by guards, or at least Rodriguez himself, but the corridors were empty. The whole palace seemed deserted. Something wasn’t right, and the general sense of dread and pressure was building up in my chest.
Zachary was nervous, suddenly anxious and my own power was going slightly berserk. We barged through the doors of the head of security, reaching abandoned posts. Computers were still on, and there was a fresh coffee on the desk. This didn’t look good—why would security leave in such a hurry?
“What is going on in here? Where is everyone?” I asked, concentrating on the people inside the palace, but I wasn’t sensing anything. My energy was depleted, and I felt robbed. I was well enough to detect humans or demons nearby, so what the hell was going on?
“Let’s split,” Zachary suggested, glancing around disoriented. There was only a handful of guards by the gate, and I didn’t see that we had any other option. I was truly hoping that Arthur wasn’t in the palace, along with other members of the royal family. Whoever was in charge of the security these days needed to be fired.
Doomed Cases Series Box Set Page 22
