“Stop grabbing me,” I snapped at him. “Just let go.”
He hesitated for a moment before dropping his arm and raising both hands in the air as if in surrender. He looked stunned by my reaction.
I didn’t have time to think about whether I was being insensitive or not. “Can’t you see her across the road?”
Gareth shook his head. “There’s no one there, Sierra.”
I looked back to find he was right. “She was there a moment ago.”
Chapter Nine
“So, did you ever find out who fixed your office?”
Papan paused for a second but continued to climb the stairs. “Ah, maybe.”
“Does that mean you did or you didn’t?”
“It means that I have a good idea but don’t want to confirm it.”
I didn’t say anything else until we reached my office door. “You know, I’ve come clean about a lot of stuff lately. Don’t tell me you’re keeping secrets from me, Papan.”
He stopped and turned to face me. He leaned closer, forcing my shoulders against the glass panel. “You sure you told me everything about why the cop’s scent was all over you when you got home last night?” His words sounded tough but he seemed relaxed, teasing me more than anything.
I groaned. “Dammit, Papan, we had this discussion already. He grabbed me when I nearly stepped out into the path of a car.” At the thought, I felt my gut clench because it reminded me of how I’d treated Gareth when he tried to stop me from doing it a second time. My intention hadn’t been to take it out on him but his grabby ways frustrated me. I wasn’t just another victim he needed to console. Or maybe the situation annoyed me because I hadn’t minded.
Papan laughed. “Relax. I know you were telling the truth. I heard him tell Oren the same thing—I just enjoy teasing you.” He leaned down and brushed his lips against mine while his fingertips toyed with one of my nipples. It hardened beneath his touch and a moan slipped between my lips as I pulled out of the kiss. “Like I said, I enjoy teasing you a lot.”
As much as it pained me, I pushed his fingers away from my breast. His eyes shone in response, but I had to stay focused. I had work to do and so did he.
“Just for the record, I’m not keeping any secrets from you. I think my father fixed my office and I’m not comfortable knowing he did.” He looked away. “Let alone trying to figure out how he knew it needed fixing.”
“You don’t talk much about your family.” This was an understatement. I’d tried to coax information about his werewolf roots and where his family/pack was from several times, but he only provided one word answers or changed the subject.
“I’ve got good reason to,” he said, taking a step back. “I left a long time ago because it was my only option. The last thing I want is for him to be nosing around my business.”
“So you didn’t call him to check if you’re right?”
“That’s what he’d expect me to do, and I’ve never adhered to his assumptions.”
I nodded and sighed. I might be itching to know all about this but wasn’t going to push. I had plenty of experience with dysfunctional families. My relationship with my father was nonexistent. I hadn’t spoken to him in over three months, and he didn’t seem to be in much of a hurry to contact me either. Unlike my mother who rushed from one man to another and ultimately got remarried—I still couldn’t believe she’d ended up with another supernatural anomaly—my father didn’t settle with anyone else. He spent most of his time travelling from one side of the country to the other. Everything in his life had become disposable, including me.
The last time I heard from him he was somewhere in Western Australia.
“Hey, Foxy, did you get a chance to look into completely severing all ties with the Council yet?” Papan asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.
“A little,” I said. “Shit, I’m actually supposed to meet with Roe tomorrow to chat about it. He says he’s got some ideas and plans about how we can do this and continue to function without the Council being able to stop us. I left some of the info you got for me with him, and he seems to be pretty sure you’re right.”
“That’s good to hear.” He rubbed the backs of his fingers against my cheek before stepping away. “I’ll be in my office if you need anything. I’ve got some paperwork to complete so I can get paid for my last case. I also have a few calls to make—”
“Don’t forget to line up some more cases.” Not that I wanted any more time away from him.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea right now.”
“You can’t put your business on hold because of me.”
“I’m not putting it on hold. I just need this week off. Those stakeouts took a lot out of me.”
“Sure, okay.” Last night, we’d both decided to make Monday our try-to-get-back-to-work day. Or the day where we at least attempted to get our working lives on track. I wasn’t sure how many hours that would entail because I wanted to get home to check on Willow, but it was almost midday.
Papan paused at the stairs and winked. “Don’t hesitate to call me if you need me for anything.”
Heat rose along my cheeks and I swallowed the emerging desire.
“Have you got yourself that trench coat yet?”
I sighed and turned around to face my door. “See you later, Papan.” His laughter chased me into the office.
One day I might surprise him and make his trench coat and red heels fantasy come true.
I didn’t bother closing the door behind me. It wasn’t like I was expecting any visitors and keeping it wide open made me feel closer to Papan.
My head was buzzing with everything going on. I’d left Willow with Oren again. He’d ducked out early in the morning to go pick up some stuff from home and returned freshly showered with a big bag afterwards. I didn’t mind him staying over. Actually, I appreciated it because it meant Willow was never alone while I had things to do, and she needed company right now. She’d seemed even more upset than usual this morning but I couldn’t blame her after everything she’d been through.
Seeing the bitch responsible for the deaths of so many of Willow’s friends last night made everything worse. There was no denying it now—the woman who was searching for my sister was also the Lamia. Maya had seen me at the scene of her latest crime and obviously wanted me to know. Would that lead her right to my doorstep? I cringed at the thought.
I collapsed onto my chair and leaned back into it, stretching my arms above my head to unknot the tense feeling in the back of my shoulders. At least the lustful thoughts Papan had inspired were now gone.
Today, the sun peeked out from behind the clouds every now and then, but rain had once again been forecast. It looked like we were in for a wet autumn.
Papan’s search for information about Maya hadn’t returned anything at all—no phone number, address, occupation, history. As far as Australian records were concerned, she didn’t exist. Being a Lamia, she probably kept a low profile, which must have provided some problems when she got involved with a prominent business man.
I still couldn’t pinpoint where I’d seen her before, but the nagging sensation wouldn’t go away…
I know I’ve seen her somewhere.
I spent the next few hours going through the stack of manila folders on both mine and Ebony’s desks. Every time I looked at her empty chair I felt a little tinge of sadness because I didn’t know if she’d ever sit across from me again. She still wasn’t answering my calls.
Getting lost in the tedious work helped my rampant thoughts from consuming me.
A multitude of phone conversations later, I’d determined that most of the outstanding cases on our desks no longer needed any action. Since Mace Clamber tried to rip apart the space between our world and the ghostly patch and had used spook catchers as conduits, most of Sydney’s ghosts had been sucked into the vortex, forced to move on. So the majority of my outstanding cases no longer needed my attention—the spooks had vanished on their own. Some of these people a
lso needed refunds, so I put those folders aside and filed the inactive ones away.
I did manage to line up a bunch of appointments for the next week. Mostly new cases—some which Willow had taken messages for—that required my attention, and a few that had slipped through the cracks while I avoided my work duties. Like Papan, I decided to keep this week free from bookings because so much was still going on.
It felt good to catch up. I’d neglected the office lately so it was a relief to be able to sit here and work without cringing, or reliving Benita’s death over and over inside my mind. I hadn’t forgotten, and never would because I still carried the guilt, but each day that went by made what happened to her downstairs a little easier to bear.
My phone rang and I picked it up. “Hello?”
“Hey Ghostie, how are ya? It’s Conrad.”
“Hi, did you find out anything?” I’d almost forgotten he was supposed to get back to me about the vampire situation.
A sigh echoed down the line. “Man, is that all you care about? No, ‘how are you?’ or ‘what have you been doing?’ from you, huh? You’re all business all the time! If I didn’t know any better I’d assume you didn’t care about me.”
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “Conrad, this is serious. I don’t have time to joke around at the moment.”
“Yeah, you never do—”
“Conrad!”
“Okay, okay, keep your panties on.” He sighed again. “You’re one frustrating chick, you know that?”
“So you keep telling me.” Was he ever going to get to the point?
“Anyway, I popped into a few of the more popular vampire hangouts last night and although there doesn’t seem to be any new vamp arrivals lately, I did hear whispers about a vampire who’s been lurking around Sydney for a few months now.”
“Did you get a name?”
“Nah, no name, but no one wanted to talk about it.” He paused. “I had to introduce a few vamps to the pointy end of my stick to even uncover that tiny nugget of info.”
“You’re not taking Ebony with you when you’re staking vampires, are you?” The thought made me shudder. After all, he’d probably introduced her to these vampire clubs before.
“Nah…of course not.” He answered a little too quickly.
“You are, aren’t you?”
Silence.
“Conrad!”
“Fucking hell! Yeah, I’ve taken her with me a few times. She enjoys being out there in the wild against the wicked vamps.” Conrad paused for a long moment. “It really gets your body pumping, and in the right mood. If you know what I mean.”
“Too much information,” I said. “How’s she doing, anyway?”
He hesitated a few seconds—enough to make me worry. “I think she likes those vamp joints a little too much but I reckon it’s because it’s all new and exciting, y’know?”
I couldn’t figure out if he was trying to convince me or himself.
“That’s what worries me,” I said. If she was looking for an escape from her troubles and a way to forget what had happened to her, she might get careless.
“Don’t worry about it—she’s with me.”
And that’s exactly what I’m worried about.
A noise near the open door caught my attention, and I looked up. My heart stopped for a moment because I recognized those dark eyes. How could someone be so familiar for months and now seem so foreign and unnatural?
“Hey, are you listening to me?”
“Conrad, I need to go,” I whispered, feeling my mouth dry up.
“What the hell’s the matter with you? We’re in the middle of a conversation—”
“Bye.” I disconnected the call even though he was still talking. Right now, I couldn’t afford to be distracted. Though, my fingers did twitch with the need to call Papan down. Even if screaming would do the same.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I hissed.
“I really need to speak to you, and you don’t return my calls.” Jonathan took a step into the office and looked around with a haunted look in his eyes and a small grin. “Do you remember the last time I was here?”
I shook my head. No, I didn’t want to remember any of the times we spent together—especially the night he was talking about. Afterward he started acting like a violent, possessive jerk and I realized he was connected to the Obscurus.
“I do,” he whispered. Every move seemed slow and erratic, as if each step took all of his concentration.
“I think you need to leave.”
“No, not yet,” he said, raising his left hand. “I just need a few minutes alone with you.”
“I don’t—”
“Sierra, please… I know how hard I’ve made it for you to trust me.” He was now standing beside my desk and stopped to lick his lips. “And that’s not what I’m asking you to do now, anyway. I just want to tell you something while I’ve got a few moments to be myself.”
“What?” He’d lost some weight since the last time I saw him because the familiar shirt and jeans didn’t fit him as well as they used to. His features were gaunt and his eyes appeared to be a lot darker. The air of menace I’d grown to associate with him lately wasn’t there, though.
“Let’s not pretend we don’t know what’s really going on.” He paused, leaning over the desk to clutch his chest, a grimace darkening his face. “You know what’s happened to me, and know the demon has pretty much taken over. But sometimes…sometimes I get a reprieve. I manage to overpower him for a brief moment or two and can see the world through my own eyes again.” He looked up, his gaze intense on mine. “I miss being in control.”
“Maybe you should’ve thought about that before giving your body over to some demon,” I snapped. I really didn’t have any patience or pity for him right now. The closer he got, the more my pulse quickened. I kept expecting him to strike at any moment. This could all be another trap and I wasn’t going to let my guard down.
He snorted. “You make it sound so easy.”
“It is easy. You either choose to join a crazy demon-obsessed group, or you don’t.” I leaned to my side, slowly moving my right hand so it hovered over the hilt of my sheathed dagger. I wouldn’t hesitate to use it on Jonathan the same way I’d used it on Mauricio.
“I didn’t want to hurt you. I really didn’t…”
“It’s too late for regrets, Jonathan.” Too late to change the fact I’d realized he probably never cared about me at all—had just wanted to use me.
“I suppose it is.” He licked his lips again, as if he couldn’t get rid of the dryness I could see from here. His body was already changing, slowly becoming the gray creature I’d encountered several times. He groaned as he squeezed his chest. “I…don’t have long, and certainly don’t want him to see where I am when he returns. Listen to me—she’s sick of waiting and is getting ready to strike. No matter what I say, she’s done postponing the inevitable.”
I found the fact he referred to the demon as him instead of it disturbing. “Who are you talking about?”
“Maya…” Sweat collected on his brow and his face was getting grayer, losing the youthfulness he once had.
“How do you know about her?”
“She’s my associate.”
Oh my God! It suddenly clicked, almost as if something inside my brain shifted to reveal what had been nagging me since I’d seen the blurred pictures of Maya Anwar on the laptop screen. Maya had been the woman in Jonathan’s bookstore the day I went to make sure he understood we were over.
My heart sank as I realized something else. “You’re the one who lures them into the alley, aren’t you? You’re Jay.” Not Jay as the girls assumed, but J. It made sense. Jonathan might be in his mid-twenties and possessed, but the demon could still use his boyish charm to attract teenage girls. “Tell me!”
He nodded. “Yes, it’s me, but I didn’t want to hurt those girls! I had no choice. I’m no longer in control.”
“I think you need to go.” How coul
d I have a conversation with a killer? He might not be the one physically attacking them, but he still played a big part. “I’m going to call the police if you don’t leave right now.” This could be the lead Gareth needed to put an end to this horrid case.
“The police can’t keep me—him—restrained.” He shook his head and once again groaned. “Just listen to me for a second.”
I looked into his eyes and they were the same ones I’d first seen in Prologue, which reminded me why we’d met—a poltergeist—and I got pissed off all over again.
“You can’t let her find the Moss girl.”
“What does she want with her?” My heart pounded so hard I felt like it would explode.
“The girl’s not as strong as you but with both of your talents, we can complete the ritual sooner. They’re—we’re—running out of time.”
“Why?”
“I need to go now.” He fell backwards, tumbled a few steps and collided with the wall, which kept him upright. A crack appeared on the paint. “I can’t keep him suppressed for much…longer.”
“What’s her plan?”
“I can’t. I don’t…”
“What does she plan to do with Willow?”
He met my gaze. Those familiar chocolate-brown eyes were back, pleading for me to let him go. “Now that you’ve eliminated so many members and broken the circle, the girl’s got a focal purpose. But first, she’s going to be the carrot you can’t ignore.”
“Jonathan, I need to know more!”
He shook his head and took a step back. The average-sized shadow on the wall behind him swelled to freaky proportions. The demon was taking over.
“You have to tell me.”
He raced out the door like a flash.
I stood up and ran after him, calling out his name, but by the time I’d reached the landing and was leaning over the banister, he was already gone. Though, he’d left a series of cracks on the corridor wall and the large window.
The sound of thumping footsteps echoed overhead.
I looked back and noticed Wyatt the solicitor peeking out of his office. He shook his head in obvious disgust then closed his door seconds before Papan stormed down the stairs looking furious.
On Pins and Needles: Sierra Fox, Book 3 Page 17
