by Shéa MacLeod
“Shit!” I smacked the wheel with my palms causing the old lady in the car next to me to give me a startled look and make a sudden left turn. I almost laughed. Almost.
I had a feeling Jack was hiding something from me, something important. He knew something more than he was telling me, I was sure of it. He just wasn’t admitting it.
I scowled out my windshield. It pissed me off when people hid stuff from me, especially important stuff that might help me do my job. This felt important. I had a strong feeling the priest was the key to everything, I just didn’t know why.
My thoughts turned toward the kiss. It had been practically brotherly. OK, maybe more than brotherly, but it certainly hadn’t been anything to write home about.
My reaction, on the other hand, had been off the charts. It was ridiculous. How long had I been crushing on Inigo? And then this guy I barely knew came along and blew everything to hell.
Shit. Inigo.
I rubbed my forehead. Thinking about it was not improving my mood, so I popped in a CD, cranked the sound system and rolled down the window. Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” flowed from the speakers like a sign. I liked Tom Petty. Especially for driving. It was driving kind of music. Most people expected me to be into punk or heavy metal or something. I guess it sort of went with the whole vampire hunter persona, not to mention the penchant for leather and steel. But I was kind of old school.
The wind teased at my hair, sending violet red strands dancing around my cheeks. I loved the wind. It reminded me of the night down by the river, how I gathered the night … My brain stopped. I still hadn’t figured out what I’d done that night and I didn’t want to think about it yet. I turned Tom up a little louder to drown out my thoughts.
Avoidance issues? Me? My cousin, the therapist, seemed to think so, but I tended to ignore her. I called it self-preservation. She had no idea what I did for a living.
Sometimes thinking was good. Other times thinking made it too hard to face reality because frankly, sometimes reality was a just a little too freaky for comfort. For the last three years, my reality had been one freak show after another and overthinking things only made my job, and my life, harder than it needed to be.
I forced my brain to refocus. Darroch. I needed to talk to Darroch. I needed to figure out why he was pretending he didn’t have the amulet and why he wanted Jack dead. He was hiding something, I was sure of it, and I needed to find out what.
I needed to know why our government contact was insisting we do this job, no questions asked, because whether Kabita would admit it or not, our government liaison had something to do with all this. Yeah, there were lots of things I needed to know. Lots of people were keeping secrets these days. Brent Darroch was as good a place as any to start.
***
I smelled charcoal and cooking meat as I pulled up in front of Darroch’s house. I loved a good barbecue, but I was pretty sure Darroch was not going to invite me to stay. Not once I’d told him why I was there. I didn’t fancy hanging out with Darroch anyway, barbecue or no barbecue. Just thinking about him made my skin crawl.
Darroch’s neighbor was out watering his lawn again. Did this guy ever do anything else? He lowered his eyebrows at me, so I smiled and gave him a cheery wave. He hitched up his saggy pants, gave me a brief nod and went back to drowning his flowers. I was pretty sure he recognized me. Hard to miss the red hair. I was just hoping he hadn’t mentioned my earlier visit to Darroch. Guess I’d find out soon enough.
I didn’t bother going to the front door, just cut around to the back. Sure enough, there was Darroch and a couple of his goons surrounded by half a dozen swizzle sticks, I mean girls, in bikinis. There were also a couple of other unsavory types puffing on cigars and swilling down imported beer by the pool. Didn’t they know smoking was bad for the environment? They must not have gotten the memo.
I strode forward like I belonged there until one of Darroch’s goons caught sight of me and stepped into my path. He crossed his ridiculously muscled arms over an equally ridiculously massive chest and stood there glaring at me. His over developed shoulder muscles gave him the uncanny resemblance of a stegosaur. It nearly made me laugh, but I figured that laughing would be bad for my health. Instead, I crossed my own arms over my chest in an equally impressive manner. It wasn’t because of my muscles, obviously, but the sisters were definitely one of my best assets and I was not above using them to my advantage. He didn’t even blink. Where did Darroch get these guys?
The gods alone knew how long we’d have stood there glaring at each other if Darroch hadn’t noticed. “Clive, let the pretty girl in to play. It’s not nice to keep her standing there.”
I couldn’t help myself. “Clive? Seriously? Your name is Clive?”
Clive didn’t answer. He just glared for a minute longer before slowly stepping to the side and letting me pass.
I had enough hardware on me; I could have taken him. Probably. Another look at his impassive face and rippling muscles had me second-guessing my assessment. In my experience, Clives were usually scrawny, pasty white guys, not big-ass African American guys with enough muscle to rip a vampire’s head clean off without breaking a sweat. I so did not want to get on Clive’s bad side, which might be difficult, seeing as how I was about to seriously piss off his boss.
As I moved in Darroch’s direction I glanced at his other muscle. This one concerned me a hell of a lot more than Clive did. He was the one that should have been called Clive. Pasty white? Check. Scrawny? Check. Not to mention he was short. Really short. At least a good three or four inches shorter than my own five foot five. Not exactly goon material.
That’s why of the two, I knew he was the dangerous one. Clive might have been big and scary, which was good for show, but this one was no doubt completely lethal. You didn’t go hiring muscle unless it looked like muscle. That’s the point. The only reason you’d hire a goon that didn’t look big and scary was because he was in reality the scariest one of all.
It’s horribly cliche, but I’d bet the farm the guy was an expert in several martial arts and probably had a few blades stashed about his person. I was so not looking forward to pissing Darroch off, but I really didn’t see I had a choice.
“Ms. Bailey, so nice to see you again,” Darroch said as he turned one of the steaks over and the scent of sizzling meat hit my nose. Damn, I was hungry. I hoped no one could hear my stomach growl.
He was wearing a pair of baggy cargo shorts which showed off his tanning bed fried legs and a flowery Hawaiian shirt. Seriously. All he needed was a lei and a camera and he’d look like a bloody tourist. He waved at me with the hand holding a beer bottle. “Come on over, pull up a chair. There’s plenty to go around.”
I stepped a little closer. The steaks smelled like heaven, but there was no way I was going to sit down for a meal with this man. My stomach was in knots just standing next to him.
I flipped a glance at Darroch’s guests. They were studiously ignoring us, intent on their cigars and one of the swizzle sticks who’d suddenly decided taking her bikini top off was a good idea. “Listen, Mr. Darroch, I need to talk to you.”
He gave me a smile just this side of smarmy. “Of course, Ms. Bailey. Have a seat. We can talk over lunch.”
I shook my head firmly. “Sorry, I can’t stay. Besides,” I glanced at Darroch’s Guido-like guests again, “this is a private matter.”
His eyebrows rose. “How intriguing. Clive, take over the steaks.” He ushered me into the house while the expressionless Clive manned the grill. Go Clive.
The pool was just off what appeared to be the same large family room I’d spotted during my clandestine visit. I seriously doubted it got much use as a family room, but the enormous TV screen along one wall and the autographed football on the mantelpiece told me it had probably seen quite a few Superbowl parties. Odd. Darroch hadn’t struck me as the Superbowl party type. Then again, I’d never pictured him as the manning the barbecue in a Hawaiian flowery shirt type, either.
> “To what do I owe the pleasure, Ms. Bailey?” He was still playing jovial host with just a touch of smarmy as he settled onto the black suede sectional. In case I hadn’t mentioned it before, I hated smarmy and I loathed fake jovial. I decided to go straight for the jugular. I wasn’t much for subtlety anyway.
“Listen Darroch, I need to know why you want me to kill the Sunwalker and why you lied to me about the amulet.”
He didn’t even flinch. Kudos to him.
“I’m afraid the reason I want the Sunwalker killed is none of your business, Ms. Bailey. He’s a monster and your job is to find kill monsters. End of story. As for accusing me of lying, well, I find that to be extremely rude.” He crossed one leg over the other, took a sip of his beer and gave me a look that was just a tad too smug for my liking. Rude, my ass. It did not go unnoticed that he’d avoided the question of the amulet.
I leaned forward. “I don’t need to find the amulet, Darroch. I know you already have it. In fact, you’ve had it for the last twenty years. Why the charade?”
Was it my imagination, or had he actually frozen for just a second? He took another sip of beer, and then carefully placed the bottle on the side table next to the couch. He leaned forward, eyes boring into mine. I resisted the urge to squirm in my seat like a kid in the principal’s office. Barely.
“Ms. Bailey,” he bit the words off one at a time. “I will say it once more. Your job is to kill the Sunwalker. If you can’t find the amulet, then killing the Sunwalker will have to suffice.”
Ah, ha! He still hadn’t admitted he had the amulet, but now I knew killing Jack was the real reason he’d hired me. Either the amulet wasn’t important, or as Jack claimed, Darroch already had it. I was betting on the latter.
“And if I refuse?”
He leaned back and for the first time gave me a genuine smile. Frankly, it was a little disturbing.
“You would not like the results. Trust me on this, Ms. Bailey.”
“Let me get this straight. You want me to find an amulet that you already have in your possession and which, by the way, doesn’t belong to you, and you want me to kill a man who is completely harmless. You want me to murder an innocent person and pretend he’s just another monster.” I didn’t actually know Jack wasn’t a monster, not for sure. Not yet. But my gut instinct said he wasn’t.
Darroch’s smile grew even broader as he flashed a perfect set of pearly whites. “I am so glad you are finally grasping the situation. I was beginning to think you were a little slow.”
“You do realize this is illegal. Not to mention morally unethical.”
He shrugged. “And yet, you have no choice. Your own government has ordered you to kill the Sunwalker and return the amulet to me.”
“The amulet you already have. Does the government know that Sunwalkers are not monsters?”
He laughed. “Semantics, my dear. The government can hardly be expected to catalogue every breed of creature in existence, and you can’t prove he’s harmless any more than you can prove that the amulet is in my possession. If the Sunwalker gets killed while you are trying to find my property,” he shrugged, “then what is one to do? Just another monster dead at the hand of a talented Hunter.”
“You are insane.”
“Quite possibly.”
This was going nowhere. Darroch wasn’t going to hurt me. Not yet, anyway. He wanted me to do his dirty work. Though why he insisted on pretending I needed to find that damn amulet was beyond me.
I stood up and strode toward the front door. No way did I want to walk past Clive again. I turned and gave Darroch a measuring look. “I won’t do it. I won’t kill him. And I’m going to get that amulet back.” Brilliant move. Tell the bad guy your entire plan why don’t you?
His laugh made my skin crawl. “Oh, yes you will, my dear. You will kill the Sunwalker or else you and your friends will suffer the consequences. Believe me, it won’t be pretty.”
I turned my back on him and strode down the hall and out the front door into the fresh air, taking a deep, cleansing breath. Then I froze. The priest from my dream was standing in the neighbor’s yard holding a garden hose.
I closed my eyes, pinched the bridge of my nose and counted to ten. When I looked back, the priest was gone. It was just the neighbor giving me a very odd look. I was losing my frigging mind.
I stomped down the front walk to my car. On the way to the office, I nearly blew my speakers out, I cranked Tom Petty up so loud. Sometimes a girl just needed a little Rock ‘n’ Roll.
***
“We need to talk.”
Kabita just gave me a look. “Hello to you, too.”
I dropped into my usual chair across from her desk. It gave a slight creak in protest of my abuse. “I’m serious. This thing with Darroch is way out of line.”
She narrowed her eyes at me and folded her hands neatly on the desk in front of her. “I told you. Darroch’s connected. We don’t have a choice.”
“There are always choices.” Was I channeling Yoda all of a sudden? Geez. Kabita just smirked at me. It wasn’t a happy smirk.
“Listen, Kabita, I know you’ve been ordered to take this job. No, let me get this right. We’ve been ordered to take this job, but come on. There is something really hinky about all this.”
“Hinky?”
“Yes, hinky,” I said stubbornly. “I talked to Darroch today.”
She rolled her eyes and gave a very exasperated sigh. I have that effect on people for some odd reason. “For goodness sake, Morgan.”
“Well, somebody had to do it.”
“What did he tell you?” She sounded resigned as she leaned back in her chair, folding one slender leg over the other.
“Not much,” I admitted. “I told him I knew he already had the amulet and I that I knew Jack wasn’t one of the monsters. He just kept insisting I find the amulet and kill Jack. He finally as much as admitted he already has the amulet in his possession and that he knows Sunwalkers aren’t evil, but he still insists I kill Jack. I mean, he’s obsessed.”
Kabita just sat there staring at me. It was her stare that told me she knew there was more and was just waiting for me to spill.
I sighed. “Then he threatened me.”
“Threatened you how?”
“Well, us really. He didn’t exactly give specifics and I wasn’t asking, but the phrase ‘or else’ did cross his lips.”
“Jesus, Morgan. You’ve gone and done it this time,” she groaned, shaking her head wearily.
“So, what do we do? Jack’s no monster. He shouldn’t die just because of his … ” I flung my hands about searching for a word that made sense. ” … race. The government has never before asked us to kill a creature unless it’s a danger to humans. Jack isn’t a danger. And that whole amulet business? Now that is just messed up. I simply don’t understand why Darroch won’t give it up. He knows that I know he has the amulet in his possession, so why this stupid charade?” I jumped up and started pacing her office.
“But why does the government care about any of it?” I wondered aloud. “OK, I get it; Darroch’s got friends in high places, but still. This is obviously a personal vendetta. Not to mention I don’t think Darroch wants anyone to know he’s got Jack’s amulet. That’s it!” I stopped dead in my tracks and whirled to face a rather startled Kabita. “I’ve got it! It’s the amulet.”
She looked understandably confused. “What about the amulet?”
“It’s so obvious! I can’t believe I didn’t see it before.”
“See what?” She was starting to lose her patience, so I plopped back into the chair and leaned forward. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t figured it out sooner.
“Listen. Darroch has the amulet, right? There’s no reason at all for him to pretend otherwise if it’s really his. So, why would he lie? Because it’s not his, and he doesn’t want anyone to know he has it. What he does want is Jack dead. I’m not sure why, but he does.”
“You’re sure Jack’s not a monster?” She s
ounded like she didn’t quite believe me.
“I’m sure.”
She nodded. That was the thing about Kabita. She was willing to take it on faith just because I believed it. “OK, with you so far.”
“Right, so he wants Jack dead but he doesn’t want anyone to know he’s already got the amulet. Maybe he doesn’t want anyone ever knowing he has the amulet. So, he’s using it as an excuse to have Jack murdered without implicating himself.
“He hires us to find the amulet with the express instructions to kill the Sunwalker since he’s supposedly a monster and that’s our job. So, while I am innocently doing my job, trying to find my client’s stolen property, I kill the bad guy. Then with Jack dead, there’s no one to say who has the amulet. Darroch assures us it’s all right, not our fault. We did the best we could. The government covers everything up as usual, and the amulet conveniently ‘disappears,’ nobody knows where. Darroch never has to worry about anyone coming to claim it or knowing he’s had it all along.”
Kabita thought for a moment. “All right, that makes sense, in a really twisted way. Just one question, though. Other than Jack for obvious reasons, why does Darroch care if anyone knows about the amulet? He could have just hired us to hunt down the Sunwalker and left it at that. The government would have never called it murder since he’s not human.”
“Yeah, that’s the weird thing,” I admitted. “According to Jack, Darroch’s had the amulet for a while, twenty years or so. Since Jack didn’t exactly go to the police about it, there’s no proof it was stolen or that it ever belonged to Jack in the first place and no real reason Darroch couldn’t admit, at least to me, that he has it. What is with this amulet anyway?”
“Maybe you should ask Jack.” Kabita leaned forward and propped her chin on her hand. The chunky gold bracelets on her wrist made a slight clanking sound. The Atlantean symbols I’d seen on the amulet were strangely similar to the magical symbols etched on her bracelets in ancient Sumerian. Interesting. “If anyone other than Darroch knows the answer, I’d think he would be the one.”
