‘Want a hand?’ I asked Rebecca with a smile.
The smile she gave me back was strained, and she shot a sideways look at Chris before answering. ‘That would be great, thanks. My coffee machine has one button, not a gazillion like this thing.’
‘Once you get the hang of it, it’s easy,’ I said as I smoothly inserted the coffee pod and got the next coffee brewing.
‘I’ll leave you ladies to it and take these out to the table,’ said Chris, picking up the platter of sandwiches and suiting his actions to his words.
I filled one mug with steaming fresh coffee and set the next one going.
‘Let me guess, you have one just like this at home?’ Rebecca’s smile was genuine this time.
‘Ah, not exactly. Chris taught me how to use it months ago.’
Rebecca’s brow creased. ‘Oh, I didn’t realise you were that close. But I guess you must be, with knowing how to operate his coffee machine. I guess you know all there is to know about the guy.’
‘Hardly,’ I said with a laugh. ‘We were just caught up in the same mess six months ago. When things got real bad, I ended up staying with him for a few days and pretty much lived on coffee.’
‘How did your boyfriend feel about that? Sam seems like a secure kind of guy, but surely he wouldn’t have appreciated his girlfriend spending so much time with another man.’
‘Sam and I weren’t together then. We were all caught up in a murder investigation. That’s how we met.’
She shook her head, long blonde hair falling over her face. She flicked it back and tucked it behind her ears. ‘From what I’ve seen, I’m guessing there is a lot more to that particular story than you’re letting on.’
‘It was a difficult time, for all of us.’ And from what had been happening lately, another difficult time was ahead. But I didn’t mention that as I placed an empty mug beneath the coffee spout, and piled the ones I’d already filled onto a serving tray along with a jug of milk and a container of sugar. I handed the tray to Rebecca.
‘Can you take these out to the table, please? I’ll bring the last one with me.’
Alone in the kitchen, I listened to the faint murmur of voices coming from the dining room. I could discern Chris’s deep baritone and Connor’s voice as they talked about his new car. I smiled when Sam’s voice chimed in, glad to have him back. With everything that had been going on lately, it would be a good idea for all of us to stick together. Safety in numbers.
If anywhere was safe when we were unsure who to trust and what was really going on.
My smile dipped. It was an effort to force it to reform before I left the kitchen and went in search of my family and friends.
Sam greeted me with a kiss after I placed the last coffee on the dining table.
‘Did you find anything?’ I asked.
He smiled. ‘Let’s eat first. Then we can go over it.’
‘Why not tell us now?’ Chris asked.
‘Because the last time any of us had a decent meal was this time yesterday. If we want to stay sharp we need to take care of ourselves or we’ll be no use to anyone.’
‘Fair enough,’ said Chris, a faint smile on his face as he used Sam’s favourite phrase and took a seat.
I sat beside Sam, surprised by how hungry I was. I demolished a plate full of sandwiches and went back for seconds. I wasn’t the only one who seemed to have a healthy appetite. We all tucked in to the simple but tasty lunch, washing it down with coffee.
I waited until there was nothing left on anyone’s plates but crumbs before I said, ‘All right then, Sam. Time to spill. What did you find out at the station?’
Sam stretched his arms above his head, wincing a little as he did so. He then eyed each of us in turn, leaving me for last. ‘You were right. Three others have been murdered in similar circumstances to Killian’s real estate guys over the last month, and only one of them has scars that suggest he might have once had wings.’
‘Were they tortured, before they died?’ I asked, sure I already knew the answer from the grave expression on his face.
‘None of them died easy, that’s for sure.’
‘Are the deaths related?’ Rebecca asked. ‘I don’t mean as in were they members of the same family. Did they work for real estate companies as well?’
‘One did. The other two worked for a law firm based in Melbourne. But according to the detective handling their case, they specialised in property law.’
I shook my head. ‘Why would Talaom be torturing and killing Killian’s people over property deals? He wouldn’t have anything to gain by stopping Cade from creating safe havens for Tr’lirians stuck on the physical plane? That would benefit Davilians too, in the long run.’
‘He would have everything to gain if one of those property deals revealed where my father has stashed the Davilian clan members you said he and Cade took captive after the battle,’ said Rebecca. ‘Maybe that’s why this Talaom guy is doing it.’
‘Is it that simple?’ I turned to Rhonda. ‘Would Talaom go so far just to find out where Killian and Cade have hidden the exiled members of your clan?’
Rhonda gave a grim smile. ‘Clan loyalty means everything to Talaom. He would do whatever it took to ensure their safety. If he thought for one second that any of them were in danger, he would not hesitate to kill to save them.’
My eyes went wide. ‘Do you think that’s why he wants to meet with me tonight? To see if I know where they are?’
Rhonda nodded. ‘It makes sense. I can’t see him seeking you out for any other reason unless it was for revenge, and he’s had plenty of opportunity to do that.’
I swivelled in my chair to face Sam. ‘We need to find the Davilians, and not just for Talaom. I’m willing to bet the reason Killian is fortifying his compound has something to do with them being missing.’
‘If they’re even alive,’ said Chris.
‘Why do you have to be so negative?’ Rebecca rounded on him. ‘It almost sounds like you want them to be dead.’
Chris raised his eyebrows and gave her a cool look. ‘I’m just saying what everyone at this table is thinking. Cade and your father despise the Davilians. In fact, despise is too mild a word to explain their ancient enmity. Frankly, I was surprised Cade didn’t wipe them out completely, six months ago, rather than give them the choice of exile and loss of immortality.’
‘Bradbury has a point,’ said Sam. ‘How sure are we that any of Rhonda’s clan members are still alive?’
I blanched, not wanting to contemplate the idea, forcing myself to face it regardless. ‘Why lie about it, if that’s the case? Why go to all the trouble of getting them to vow to never take up arms against Clan Godden again, and to make them give up their wings? And I don’t buy Killian’s line he is fortifying the compound to protect his people from the possible threat of exposure to the general populace. None of this adds up, which is why we need to find the Davilians. We need to find out what’s really going on.’
‘I don’t suppose there’s any point in going out to the compound and asking Killian one last time?’ Connor shrugged as he said it.
I shook my head. ‘He’s Cade’s man to the core. He’d never go against him.’
Beside me, Rebecca let out a soft sigh. ‘I’ll do it.’
I turned to look at her. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘I’ll return to the compound and talk to my father. It can’t hurt to see if he’ll tell me what he’s done with the Davilians. At the very least I could do some snooping, try to discover why he’s really buying up property and turning his compound into “Fort Knox”. I’ll be your inside man…woman,’ she said, her attempt at a smile looking more like a grimace.
‘You don’t have to do that,’ I said, though the idea of having someone on the inside was tantalising. I knew first-hand what it was like to be around a father you had mixed feelings about.
‘Actually, it’s not a bad idea,’ said Chris, rubbing his chin. ‘As long as she had a good enough reason for
going back, Killian might let his guard down enough to let something slip. It’s worth a try, at the very least.’
Sam tapped his fingers on the table. ‘Rebecca made it pretty clear she didn’t want anything to do with Killian. What possible reason would be convincing enough to get him to let his guard down?’
I choked on my coffee when Rebecca said, ‘I could tell him I’ve changed my mind, about not wanting to marry him.’ She pointed across the table at Chris. ‘I could say I’m considering the idea, anyway, as I’m sure he wouldn’t believe me if I told him I’d changed my mind completely.’
Sam patted me on the back as I coughed down the bitter taste left in my mouth by coffee going down the wrong way. ‘There is no way he’d believe that.’
‘He might, if I went with her,’ said Chris.
17
I stared at Chris, mouth open but no words coming out.
‘You go back there with Rebecca, and Killian’s going to have the two of you hitched before you know it,’ said Sam. ‘He seems awfully keen for a wedding to take place.’
Chris shrugged. ‘It shouldn’t be hard to stall him, not if we play it right.’
I finally found my voice. ‘How on earth are you going to convince him you’ve changed your minds when the two of you can barely say two words to each other without starting a fight?’ I looked from Rebecca to Chris. ‘This is the craziest plan I’ve ever heard.’
‘I can assure you, I am perfectly capable of playing the part. The real question is whether Rebecca can do the same.’ Chris quirked an eyebrow and looked over at her. ‘What do you say? Think you can manage to act as if I am the love of your life?’
Rebeca scowled at him. ‘I’ll have you know, in my senior year I played Hamlet in my high school’s production and garnered rave reviews for my performance. I’ll bet I can act rings around you any day.’
‘Undoubtedly.’ Chris sent her a smirk before smoothing his expression when he turned to me. ‘We wouldn’t rock up to the front door and say we were madly in love and wanted to get hitched. All we have to do is say we are considering the idea, and have chosen to get to know each other a little better before making our final decision.’
‘And what would you tell Killian was behind your sudden change of heart?’
Chris shrugged. ‘Forced proximity during recent events made us realise how much we have in common, as well as having the two of you to show us just what we’re missing out on.’ He waved a hand between Sam and me.
‘Seriously, that’s the best you can come up with?’ I huffed out a laugh, almost wanting to say yes just to get the opportunity to see Chris and Rebecca forced to pretend they were developing feelings for each other. ‘Let’s keep that as Plan B. Now we need to come up with Plan A. Any suggestions?’
When no one offered anything I said, ‘There can’t be that many places to hide half the population of Angellin.’ I turned to Rhonda. ‘He’d practically need a city just as big to hide them all in, right?’
Rhonda grimaced. ‘That may have been true before the war between Clan Godden and Clan Davila started and our people filled every inch of Angellin. Now, thanks to our penchant for killing each other, and a less than stellar birth-rate amongst our kind, I would say less than a tenth of us remain. Maybe three thousand Davilians, with close to five thousand in Clan Godden.’
‘What about the smaller clans who you said chose sides?’
‘They no longer exist. Either killed off completely or absorbed into Davila or Godden when their numbers declined to such an extent calling themselves a clan became laughable.’
I shook my head at the chilling picture her words were painting for me. The chill intensified as the hollow below my throat signalled a soul to be reaped. I sighed. It was times like this, when I was in the middle of something important, I wished there was another reaper in Easton to help take some of the load. Technically, Talaom was a reaper and would be able to help out. But as I still wasn’t sure what he was up to, and considering the situation we were in the middle of, asking him to share the load with me would not be a good idea.
I pushed my chair back and stood. ‘Duty calls. While I’m gone you guys can figure out where Cade and Killian might have stashed three thousand Davilians.’
I left them to it and headed back to the guest room. Moments later I was winging my way across Easton in astral form, pondering the problem of the missing Davilians as I went. Perhaps Talaom would have the answer. He wasn’t going to be happy when he realised I had no intention of meeting him alone, as requested, but he would have to deal with that. None of our past encounters had been the type to foster trust on my side.
I pushed thoughts of Talaom aside when the call to reap drew me to the hospital. I flitted in through the emergency doors and down gleaming white hallways. I passed into an area marked “Theatre”, stomach clenching as I slipped through one last set of doors.
Surgical staff, gowned, gloved and masked, bustled around an operating table, manner rushed and yet calm as the surgeon in charge called commands to his staff. A man lay on the table, tubes and wires connecting him to an array of machines monitoring his vitals.
Most of the patient was covered by a sheet, except for an open section in the shape of a square that allowed the surgeon to access the internal organs. Right now, the surgeon’s gloved hands, covered in blood, were inside the chest cavity, deftly massaging the man’s heart, while surgical nurses calmly read out the patient’s stats.
I sucked in a breath. With so many members of the surgical team crowded around my client, there was no way I’d be able to reach him without having to pass through someone. Not an enticing experience. Unless I could call his soul to me from where I was, watching the futile effort to save his life.
I focused on the call, the draw that had carried me halfway across town to release his soul. To my relief, the soul answered, floating out of the man’s body and over to me. I reached out and tapped it with one finger, sending it on its way. With all my attention on the soul, I sensed rather than saw the activity around the operating table cease.
I looked up, tears filling my eyes at the solemn process taking place in front of me as the surgical team spent a moment of stillness and silence. I waited with them, head bowed, until they once again began to move around the operating theatre, voices and movements brisk as they dealt with the loss of their patient. With my duty done, I headed back the way I had come.
From the moment I’d been called the man’s fate had been sealed, no matter what the surgical team had done to try and save him. Now the surgeon would have to face the dead man’s family and deliver the bad news.
As a reaper, I had to be present for the deaths of my clients, but for the most part I didn’t have to experience the lead up if someone were sick or injured. I was also spared the aftermath, not having to witness the outpouring of grief at a loved one’s loss. My admiration for the emergency services personnel and medical staff who faced possible tragedy each and every working day, and yet continued to care and fight for their patients, buoyed me up as I neared the Plaza.
I was almost there when a familiar sense of wrongness enveloped me, coming from above. I shuddered, the weight of the bad feeling taking some of the buoyancy out of my flight. My stomach churned, and if I was in physical form I was sure bile would be rising in my throat. What the hell was going on in Angellin?
That had to be where this sense of wrongness was coming from, though I was nowhere near the tunnel Rhonda said was the only way to get to the city. Perhaps after we’d found the Davilians there would be time to uncover what was happening in the Tr’lirians’ birthplace. If I could find one of them willing to carry me there.
I slipped inside the suite and reconnected with my body, taking a moment to reorient myself before going in search of my family and friends. They were all still grouped around the dining table, the remains of our lunch in front of them. None of them had noticed me and I hoped their intense concentration meant they’d miraculously found a cure-all for o
ur problems while I’d been gone. Loud knocking on the front door sounded before I could announce my return and voice this faint hope.
‘Expecting company?’ Sam looked over at Chris.
Chris shook his head as he stood. ‘Not without someone at the reception desk letting me know first.’ A frown creased his brow as he strode over to the front door.
He opened it and then swiftly backed up, hands out in front of him as Cade and Killian, swords drawn, entered the suite.
18
Six Tr’lirians, wings furled and weapons bared, entered the room behind Cade and Killian.
‘To what do I owe the pleasure of this unexpected visit?’ Chris’s back was straight, gaze fixed on Cade. ‘Although, I suppose I should be grateful you knocked this time.’
Cade, an older, winged, version of Chris, narrowed his eyes at the mention of the time he’d barged into the penthouse to throw his weight around six months ago. That was the night I’d sacrificed myself in return for Cade’s promise to protect those I cared about. I winced at the memory, hoping tonight did not have a similar outcome.
‘You know why I’m here,’ said Cade. ‘It is time for you to fulfil your duty to your clan.’ He looked over at the dining table where everyone else was now standing. ‘Rebecca, you and my son are to return to the compound immediately. We need to begin preparations for your wedding. It is past time for your family to be joined with mine.’
I stepped out of the hallway and moved to confront Cade before either Chris or Rebecca could respond. ‘They’re not going anywhere with you.’
Cade’s lips curled into a sneer as he looked over at me. ‘This does not concern you, girl.’
‘Are you kidding me?’ I edged closer to Cade, positioning myself between the two groups. He and his goons weren’t carrying swords for the fun of it. It wouldn’t be long before his demands became threats. I called on aether, drawing in as much as I could hold, taking slow steady breaths as I prepared myself for whatever happened next.
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