Evalle shrugged. “It’s what I live for. And I’d rather you do that than the two of you get eaten by a demon.” She didn’t want Kardos to hesitate to call her again. “Now I’ve got to get going.” She walked over to her bike.
“You going to let me ride bitch?”
That stopped her as quickly as getting backhanded. Her anger reignited so fast and furiously that she was surprised she hadn’t already blasted him. In fact, she would spare Deek the trouble of killing Kardos.
Evalle turned slowly, expecting to find a smug look of arrogance on his face. “What. Did. You. Call. Me?”
His mouth was open but no words came out. Shock, or fear, sucked the color from his face. He was doing a great imitation of a fish suffocating from lack of oxygen until he finally squeaked, “What? You thought … I would never … no, I didn’t call you that.” He pointed to the bike. “The seat, Evalle. I was asking if I could ride on the back.”
“Oh.” She’d heard it with a comma before the word bitch. He’d meant the slang term for riding two up with the one on the back riding bitch.
Yeah.
“Okay, I’ll let you live. This time only.”
His cheeks flushed heavily with color.
Good. Maybe he’d lose some of the cockiness around her. She’d let Kell slide for most any infraction, but this brother would be right back in trouble in an hour if she gave him any leeway. “Your mouth is going to be the death of you. You know?”
“God, I hope not. I want to go out in my sleep next to some hot babe after a great harrumph harrumph.” Kardos stared at the ground and shuffled his feet. “How’d you end up here anyhow?”
She shouldn’t let him change the subject just to distract her from reaming him, but the truth was even if she spent all night chewing on Kardos she’d only end up with a sore jaw. With him, it went in one ear and out the other. “I was looking for you and Kell. Grady told me you were here. I need you and Kell to do something for me.”
“You got it. Whatever you want.”
She sighed at how fast he’d agreed. Yes, they were friends, but there were many of the preternatural kind who would bind him into slavery with that.
“I don’t want you or Kell talking to anyone about being with that Birrn last night or about seeing me there either. Especially about seeing me with the Birrn. You got it?”
His gaze slid away, but not before worry jumped into his eyes.
She was too late. “Crap! Who’d you talk to?”
“Not me.” Kardos held up his hands in surrender. “Kell talked to someone he was playing chess with at the park.”
Everyone from office workers to street people hung out in Woodruff Park. A favorite loafing spot for elderly men. And chess games cropped up like weeds beneath the shade of sprawling oak trees on the south side. Kellman picked up games with the old guys because, unlike Kardos, he didn’t go around seeking activities that would shorten his life. He liked the challenge.
Evalle had only seen the chess games in passing during the rare times she’d come above ground during the daylight and never long enough to remember anyone. “Do you have a name or any way to identify the old guy Kell told about the demon?” “Old guy” wasn’t much of a hint, since to the twins it could have been anyone over twenty-five.
“Wasn’t an old guy, not one of the regulars. I walked up while they were talking and asked Kell what was he thinking talking to a human about the Birrn. Kell said the guy wasn’t human and it was weird when he started talking, like everything around them slowed down and Kell felt compelled to tell him, like it was a relief.” Kardos squinted, thinking. “The dude was thirty maybe. Beefed up. Long black hair. He was Native American I think.”
Her stomach clamped down tight enough to make a diamond. Double crap.
Storm had tracked the boys from where she’d killed the Birrn. She lifted her watch into view. A little more than ninety minutes until she had to meet Storm at Piedmont.
Had he found out about the body in the morgue yet?
If he had, there was about to be another body in the morgue.
The only question was would it be his?
Or hers?
THIRTEEN
Since Kardos couldn’t ride without a helmet and there was no way with her luck they wouldn’t be stopped and ticketed, Evalle sent him to the closest MARTA subway station and gave him money so that he could ride back downtown and meet up with his brother. He complained about public transportation, but in the end he went.
As soon as she was sure he was safely on the train, she took off for the morgue, hoping to circumvent yet another disaster.
It didn’t take long to reach it, and she swung into a parking spot near the front door of the two-story building, which looked out onto Fulton County Stadium, where the Braves played baseball. She yanked her white coat out of her seat bag and rushed to the door. In one well-practiced move, she pulled the lab coat over her shirt.
Inside the glass doors, she walked straight ahead down the hallway until she reached the examination area, where Medical Examiner Beaulah Layton was dissecting a cadaver on the other side of the glass window. Beaulah’s eyebrows moved up and down in rhythm with her humming some music from the ’70s that Evalle couldn’t really place. Beaulah moved like a silent movie screen star, short black hair perfectly styled, as if she’d had dinner plans instead of slicing up bodies until five in the morning.
When Evalle wasn’t tracking demons, she performed simple maintenance on equipment and some cleaning, but she preferred to stay as far away from cadavers as possible. Unfortunately this morning she’d been face-to-face with a mauled body.
She tapped on the glass.
Beaulah turned just far enough to make sure whoever disturbed her peace got the full brunt of her glare. She put down the bone saw she’d been using and sidled over to the door Evalle had opened.
Evalle did her best to ignore the scent of stale death that invaded her nostrils. “Sorry I had to bail this morning. Must have been something I ate. It came and went though.”
“Good. I don’t want no H1N1 running through here, and especially not through me.”
Evalle smiled. “I hear ya on that. Just wanted to check in, see how things are going. Any problems with the equipment?”
“The equipment’s fine, but things were crazy here this afternoon.”
Evalle frowned. “I haven’t been listening to the news. Did we have a tornado or something? Somebody bomb the airport?”
“Uh, no. It wasn’t bodies coming in, but one that left.”
Evalle’s gut tightened in apprehension. That didn’t sound good at all. “What do you mean?”
“The chewed-up Jane Doe disappeared.”
For a moment, Evalle thought she might actually be sick. This could not be good for her. “What? How?”
Beaulah shrugged. “No idea. She was here when I went off shift at noon. I came in at six tonight to meet with the animal control investigator, who wanted to see the body, and I pulled out an empty drawer. No one knows what happened, and she sure as the devil didn’t walk out on her own. Cops dusted for prints, but the only sets were mine and the intern’s who helped me load the tray.”
Evalle cringed with every word that brought her just that much closer to disaster. “What do you think happened?”
“No idea. Security ran through the tapes of everyone who came in after I left. Nothing unusual. No one who wasn’t supposed to be here.”
That was understandable, since all the security staff Evalle had met were human and wouldn’t know that some nonhuman beings could enter and remove a body undetected.
The question was, who had been here and what had they wanted with the dead woman’s body?
To use as evidence against me? Her paranoia revved into high gear. And who could blame her?
Think, E, think.
Would Storm have taken the body? She had no idea what the extent of his powers was or what exactly Sen expected him to do while partnered with her, but she wouldn’t
rule out his stealing a body to use as evidence against her, then returning it to the morgue.
Evalle fought the need to take deep breaths until she got outside, where the air wouldn’t taste like formaldehyde. “I don’t want to hold you up any longer. I’ll see you on Tuesday.”
“You take care.” Beaulah headed back to her cadaver.
Evalle made haste to get out of the building as soon as possible. The minute she stepped outside, she sucked air into her lungs and hurried to her bike. She’d just packed the white lab coat in her seat bag when a male voice startled her.
“Did you think I was joking when I said ‘or else’?”
She’d forgotten about Isak.
Evalle rearranged her panicked expression into a look of pleasant surprise before she turned toward him.
He didn’t appear quite so menacing tonight in a collared blue shirt that was tucked inside jeans, but she’d seen him in demon-killing mode and gear. Judging his relaxed pose as casual would be a mistake. All a person had to do was look into his steely gaze to see the danger lurking there.
Danger could be sexy as all get-out to a woman in her line of work. Like you care.
Funny thing was, she almost did.
She tucked her hands into her pockets. “How’d you find me here?”
“I have friends in low places.”
Just how low was the question. She glanced to the gate, where she’d swiped her card earlier. “How’d you get inside the security gate if you’re not law enforcement?”
She’d always considered this a safe place to park, but she started wondering now.
“Creative conversation. What happened to you this morning?”
“Sorry about that, but something unexpected came up and I didn’t have a number to call you to let you know. See what happens when you don’t share?”
No reply. No reaction. No sale.
She added, “It had to do with my job and my boss.”
“This job?”
Oops. She’d forgotten how sharp Rambo was. “No, uh, my other job. I do some courier work and had to make a run up to Chattanooga on short notice.” Good thing Storm wasn’t here or his lie detector needle would be buried far in the red.
“Must have been pretty damned important for you to get a call that early on a Sunday morning.”
You have no idea. “More like an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
He didn’t appear convinced, but neither did he call her on the lie. “Doesn’t change the fact that you were a no-show.”
“Sue me.”
“That wasn’t what I had in mind.”
Just the way he said that ruffled her skin and made her nervous. She swallowed before she could stop the telling motion.
His lips curved up on one side, not quite smiling, but enough that she didn’t think he was angry. His eyes were blue, a deeper blue than she’d expected.
She still needed to find out what he knew about the Birrn, if he’d share. “We were just meeting for coffee. How about we reschedule for a meal and I pick up the tab? Your choice.”
He took his time making up his mind on how to answer. “Okay. How about lunch tomorrow?”
Lunch? She couldn’t do that, nor did she want to explain why she really didn’t want to come out in the daylight to a man who had no compassion for something unnatural. “I’m on a different body clock schedule because of working nights here.”
“In that case, what about tonight?”
She had less than thirty minutes to make Piedmont by midnight and to find that rock. If they didn’t get their hands on the Ngak Stone, her problems would become moot in comparison to the coming Armageddon. Even more important, she couldn’t bail on Storm without drawing additional suspicion.
Isak didn’t crack a smile, but his voice was full of humor. “Is there a decision coming out of all that heavy processing I see going on?”
“Tonight’s a little busy. I was just trying to find a break in my schedule. But I can definitely meet you at four thirty in the morning.”
He looked a little doubtful that she’d make it again. “Where? Since you have a busy schedule, you pick the place.” He heavily emphasized “busy schedule,” questioning the validity of her words.
“There’s an all-night diner on Peachtree just south of the Fox Theater.” Since they seemed to be back on good terms and she had the patience of a gnat, she went for a quick bit of intel. “Find out anything about what brought that Birrn to the city?”
“Few things.”
She waited, hoping he’d expound, but no. Instead, he took a step forward and wrapped two fingers around her wrist, gently, and lifted her hand, turning her wrist into view.
The casket-shaped IC stamp glowed in the narrow dark space between them.
She should be pulling her arm out of his grasp and giving him reason to keep his hands off her if he’d like to continue using them. That would show more self-preservation than standing here drinking in how delicious he smelled.
“Girls’ night out?” His question had come partnered with a smile that warmed his appeal even more.
She shrugged. “I don’t have girlfriends.” On second thought, she did have one female she considered a friend, but Nicole was a witch and Evalle had never done a girls’ night out with anyone. No point in recanting that now.
“Boyfriends?”
“No.” She’d answered too quickly and realized too late how that sounded. No girlfriends. No boyfriends. No human friends. “I mean I have friends that are male but not like a boyfriend.”
That answer pleased him, which left her feeling the need to explain her lack of social life. “I work a lot.”
“At night.”
“Yes. Never been much for the daytime.”
“Why’s that?”
The more she said right now the easier it would be to hang her later. She lifted her watch into view just for show. “I’d love to finish this conversation, but I’ve got somewhere I have to be in the next twenty minutes.”
He studied her face and hair, his gaze pausing on a detail, then roaming again, intimately, like a visual caress that made her shiver even in this heat.
Being the center of that intensity bumped up her heartbeat in a funny way. Part suspicion and part attraction.
Neither made her comfortable.
She took a step to the side, then busied herself with checking that everything was ready to go when her bike was always ready to go. “See you at the diner, okay?”
“I’ll be there.”
She could feel him thinking. If he was Tzader or Quinn, she’d just demand he tell her what was bothering him, but she hesitated with Isak. He was an unknown entity.
He had a gleam in his eye that made her wonder if he picked up on her thoughts. “There’s one thing I haven’t figured out about you.”
She’d pulled on her helmet, but the face shield was up as she straddled the bike. She laughed derisively. “Just one thing you haven’t figured out? I can’t wait to hear what.”
“I’m curious about your aura. Yours is … different.”
He can see auras? Crap. She’d anticipated a lot of questions, but not that one.
“Different?” she asked, hoping he missed the slight quiver in her tone. “How so?”
“It’s not human.”
FOURTEEN
Piedmont Park covered over sixteen city blocks of open green space that linked thick stands of trees, a small lake and recreational areas most people found relaxing.
Evalle knew what could lurk in all those dark corners at night, and none of it was relaxing or fun—at least not for the victims. She left her bike parked two blocks away and hiked to the park, reaching the Piedmont entrance a minute after midnight.
No Storm.
While she paced outside the gate, she sent a telepathic call out. Tzader or Quinn. Are you in Atlanta? Helloooo?
Nothing stirred along the sidewalks, human or otherwise.
I’m here, Evalle, Tzader’s voice brushed through her mind.
Quinn’ll be back in the city in another hour or two. Where are you?
At Piedmont Park, meeting the new guy. You hear about Storm?
Trey filled me in on the Ngak Stone and Storm, but he didn’t have much on this guy.
She sighed out loud. All I have is what Sen told me when he stuck us together. Storm’s a shaman who can track supernatural activity and tell if someone is lying or not. She hesitated to mention how Storm had influenced her emotions, since Tzader only needed pertinent details at this point. I think Sen brought Storm in intentionally to find proof that I pose a threat to the rest of you so he can lock me up for eternity.
Eve … I know he stays on your ass, but I wouldn’t say he’s trying to get rid of you. VIPER needs your power and skills. You don’t help the situation when you go out of your way to bust on him.
Don’t tell me you’re justifying Sen’s actions?
Not even, but I have to keep peace between him, VIPER and the Beladors for the safety of our tribe. I won’t let Sen get away with abusing his position when it comes to you, but antagonizing him only makes it easier for Sen to justify his actions.
The fact that she breathed antagonized Sen. But she understood what Tzader was saying. I hear ya. Where are you now?
In Decatur. Still trying to find my source on the Noirre. He disappeared, running from something. I’m hoping no one got to him.
She felt Storm’s presence an instant before he stepped into her path. “Thought you weren’t going to make it tonight.”
“I’ve been here,” she told Storm, then silently informed Tzader, New guy’s here. I need to have all my attention available to deal with him. Meet you at my place by daylight.
We’ll be there.
Good. Quinn would be there, too. For some reason, she needed to feel less alone tonight. Though she prided herself on being independent, there were times when even the strongest needed reinforcements.
Blood Trinity Page 15
