I was jittery with excitement. It wasn’t so much the desperate urge to kill anymore. That had no longer been keeping me up at nights. Killing Marielle Ronin had quenched my thirst for blood for a while. Like before, the sword had suddenly vanished from my hand after Storm had secured Audriett Ronin. Storm had asked where I had got it and I had told him it was magic that I was unable to tell him anything about. That had not satisfied him. I could tell that he was burning with curiosity.
It served him right to be the one burning to know something about me for once.
And now I was finally going to find out who the Devil Claw Killer was. I was nervous about how to get DCK to my kill room. I had no fresh ideas. The team planned to get Ronin to the safe house so that he could tell me all I needed to know. After that Ronin would be released and we would keep an eye on him. We knew that Devil Claw would want to come for him asap. We were even prepared for him to come to the safe house itself, and Storm had posted a couple of mages there, hidden and waiting, in anticipation of our arrival.
Ronin had not agreed to be bait, and we had not informed him that DCK had flushed out Constance Ashbeck for us. We suspected that DCK must be keeping an eye on Ronin and would be aware when he was removed from prison. A savvy serial killer like Devil Claw should have no problem tracking down Ronin. And when he came, the team and the mages would be waiting for him.
We were all in Strom's office. I had on a pair of magical bracelets that had the effect of creating an invisible bulletproof vest over my torso. I had a clip in my hair that created a second invisible shield over my head. I had been loaded up with an Agency stunbommer too in case Ronin tried to attack me during our conversation. And Storm already knew about my sword.
Even then, Storm had given me a panic button alarm to carry. I had already told him that Theo had given me two shield bracelets of his own invention that would throw out an invisible blast if Ronin tried to rush at me. In reality Theo had provided those for my confrontation with DCK, but I had not told Storm that. I felt fully loaded with all manner of protections but even so, Storm was worried.
“Ronin has insisted that we can’t be in the room when you interview him but we will be waiting just outside. All of the entrances and exits in the room will be fully secured to deter him from thinking he can attack you and escape. Stay at least five meters away from him at all times once you are inside the room. We will be listening, but make sure you press the panic button the moment you feel a hint of a threat.”
“Relax,” I told Storm. “I made a deal to get him out of prison in exchange for information. He won’t attack me. And we already know that his mesmerism doesn't work on me. It will be fine. There is no reason for him to try to hurt me. You’re being too cautious.”
“There’s no such thing as too cautious,” said Storm, frowning as he checked the bullet-proofing bracelets around my upper arms as if worried they might be defective. The feeling of his fingers on my skin gave me a flip-flopping feeling inside that other people might call butterflies. I called them damn annoying since I had no idea whether he was feeling the same.
“So how’s everything with Saskia?” I asked.
“Good,” he said. “It looks like she took your advice on board. She flew to New York yesterday and seemed quite excited about finishing her final year of university. That’s Saskia all over. All or nothing. A bit like someone else I know.”
I scoffed. “I’m not all or nothing! I might be all, some of the time, but I’m definably never nothing.”
“Let’s keep it that way,” he said seriously.
“Aw, Storm! You do care!” I said in a jokey voice. But really I felt kind of terrible. He was conspiring to keep me safe and I was conspiring to deceive him.
He bit his lip and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear, a gesture which took me completely by surprise. “Just promise to be careful, okay?”
And hell if that didn’t make me feel even worse.
Chapter 30
DIANA
Steffane Ronin had a bounce in his step when he walked out of the secure part of the prison and into the free world. Storm and Leo watched him with identical scowls on their faces.
“Yow!” Steffane yelled loudly, stretching his arms above his head and shaking himself loose. “It feels good to be free man, and it’s all thanks to you little lady.”
He came right towards me as if he was going to sweep me off my feet and twirl me around. Storm stepped forward to shoulder him away.
Ronin laughed. He put his arms up in the air in a gesture of compliance, and said, “Chill out, big man. We’re all friends here.”
“We are not friends,” said Storm, scowling at the dhampir.
Steffane made a sad pouty face at me. “I don’t like your friends. They’re mean.”
“They’re here to keep you safe,” I said. “Until you tell us what we need to know.”
Steffane tapped the tip of my nose. “You,” he said. “Until I tell you what you want to know.” He jerked his head towards Storm and Leo. “These guys are rubbish. They put me in prison and threw away the key! For a crime I didn’t even commit. Tut. Tut. Tut.” He shook his head in exaggerated disappointment.
Storm put his hand flat in the middle of Ronin’s back and shoved him towards the exit and the waiting car.
Ronin resisted. “Dude! Go easy, man. I’m a free fellow now. I’m only coming with you because I promised the little lady that I’d give her a reward for helping me out.”
“We need to get you to the safe house immediately for your own safety,” said Leo.
“Safety shmaftey!” said Ronin. He gave me an wink. “Am I right?”
“I’m with them,” I said. “You are no good to me dead. Not until you give me what we agreed.”
“You’re hurting my feelings,” he said. “And anyway, it’s past lunchtime and I am starving! I haven’t had a decent meal in six whole years. And a guy has been really looking forward to eating.”
I raised my eyebrows. “You can’t seriously think we are going to stop to provide you with a blood snack?”
“I’m planning on saving that little treat for tonight,” said Ronin. “For now there’s a burger place around the corner that I have been dreaming about. The guards would go there every single day at lunchtime and get juicy hot meaty beefburgers, and I could smell them all the way across the prison. And I said to myself, when I get out one of those is the first thing I am gonna eat. One or ten!” He thumped Leo on the shoulder. “This guy knows what I’m talking about. Am I right?” He winked at Leo. Leo did not to smile back.
Ronin practically bounced into the back seat of the car, and then bounced up and down in his seat like an excited toddler. “C’mon!” he said. “Let’s hit the road! It’s drive-through time!”
Leo got into the back seat behind beside Ronin, close enough to keep an eye on the unexpectedly excitable dhampir. I suppose six years being locked in a chair would do that to a guy. Leo did not look impressed.
Storm got into the driver’s seat next to me and started the car. To my surprise he headed for the burger place that Steffane had insisted on. Perhaps he thought Steffane would be more cooperative if we fed him. Or maybe he thought he preferred the Steffane to be busy munching his burgers while I interviewed him than to have his hands free to attack me with.
Given that it was the tail end of lunchtime, the drive-through was packed with a line of cars. Our car crawled slowly towards the front. Leo was keeping a close eye on Steffane, but Steffane was still bouncing like a kid, eager to get his hands on his burgers.
And then Steffane said something. Three words that made absolutely no sense. An explosion ripped through the car. Not fire but pressure. Some sort of magical bomb that threw us against the metal shell of the car. Only Steffane had braced himself against it. I was vaguely aware of him throwing open the door and getting out. I was aware of Leo in the back seat, stunned by the blast, frozen into immobility by whatever it had been. He had been nearest to the source of the blast. He had got it wo
rst. My ears were ringing. I could tell that Storm’s ears were ringing. Storm was desperately trying to shove open his car door but it took him a couple of tries.
I was numb with shock. I tried to open my car door as well. I had to chase Ronin. I had to catch him before he got away, But my hands were not obeying my orders. There was something wrong with them. I looked down and saw that my hands were drooping limply. I had lost my ability to control them. There was something wrong with my wrists and forearms. They looked crumpled somehow. And then the pain came. The pain that left me gasping and fighting the urge to scream.
But I couldn’t scream, because then Leo who had only just managed to open the back door and was scrambling out of the car would know that there was something wrong with me. He would come to check up on me. And I needed to him to chase Ronin.
“Go!” I gasped.
Leo went.
Even after he left I didn’t scream, even though the pain was ripping up my arms and leaving me shaking. I was going to go into shock. I couldn’t go into shock. I had to get out of here. I had to get out before Storm found me like this.
Somehow I managed to get my door open by using my elbow to unhook the lock. I stumbled out of the car, and nearly fell flat on my face. I staggered around and by some miracle I managed to stay upright. If I had fallen no doubt I would have tried to catch myself with my hands by sheer instinct, and the pain would have made me pass out. And I couldn’t afford to pass out.
All around me I saw that people had gotten out of their cars and were staring at me. I couldn’t see Storm. I couldn’t see Leo, and I could not see where Ronin had gone. He was gone. There was no point running after him. My arms were on fire with pain. I crossed them carefully over my chest, cradling them inwards to my body, and gasping as they grazed each other. It hurt so damn much.
Whatever magic that Ronin had used had activated Theo’s shield bracelets, but it had interfered with the magic, and the shields had exploded inwards towards my wrists. The magic had shattered the bones in both of my arms. My arms were useless and in complete agony. I was going to pass out. I couldn’t let myself pass out. Because then Storm would come back here and he would find me.
The watching crowd had closed around me, concerned people reaching for me to see if I was all right. “Move!” I screamed at those who are nearest to me. They rapidly backed away, looking scared.
I ran past the crowd and away from the burger restaurant and down a side street. When I was finally sure that I was somewhere that Storm would not find me, I sank to my knees on the ground. I was fighting to stay conscious despite the waves of pain. If I passed out now then someone would find me. A stranger. They would check me over and see that my arms were broken. They would call an ambulance and rush me to hospital. And then while I was unconscious my body would start to knit itself together and heal itself. And they would see it. They would see my navelstone. And they would wonder what the hell kind of creature I was. They would find my Agency badge on me and they would call Storm. And then Storm would know.
I couldn’t allow that to happen. I fought the the darkness that was creeping into my mind and fighting to take me into unconsciousness. I fought it as I used my hands, which were both numb and throbbing with agony at the same time, to get my mobile phone out of my pocket and somehow dial Theo. I fought the darkness until Theo arrived.
Chapter 31
STORM
Steffane Ronin had vanished without a trace. Storm and Leo had given chase, but the dhampir must have had his route planned out. He must have had friends waiting to pick him up, because he was well and truly gone.
The magical explosive device that Steffane had used had been on the Agency car. How the hell it had got there Storm was determined to find out. Later.
Stunned by the turn of events, and furious with himself, Storm had returned to the car to find another shock. Diana had gone. At first he had worried that Ronin may have circled back to get her, but witnesses said that she had run off of her own accord. That she had seemed injured. Storm had been just about to send a search team out for her, when Diana’s friend Theo Grimshaw had called to say that he had picked Diana up because she wasn’t feeling well. So Storm had returned to Agency Headquarters. At least he now had to worry only about finding one person and not two.
Many hours later the team was still in the office engaged in efforts to find Ronin. London was too busy to throw up any roadblocks, but they had scoured security camera footage and sent teams of officers down to question witnesses in businesses near the area. Nobody had seen anything. Steffane had disappeared into a security camera blind spot. He had done his research well.
Storm had ordered the team to look into all of Steffane’s known acquaintances and find out which of them were most likely to have helped Steffane with his escape plan, and whether any of them were likely to be sheltering Steffane right now. The problem was that Steffane Ronin had a great many acquaintances, and many of them were the exact sort of wealthy and disreputable people who would be able to help Steffane escape.
Storm had even visited the Ronin mansion and persuaded a sullen Rodrigge Ronin to allow him to search the place. Rodrigge seemed to have lost his zeal since the arrest of his mother and loss of his wife. He had allowed Storm in without a search warrant. Storm had even gone into the room where the vampire Gaius Ronin lay resting, still recovering from the Vaerus X imprisonment that his wife Audriett had subjected him too. Steffane had not been hiding in there.
Instructing his team to continue the search for Steffane, Storm left the office. He knew in his heart that the only person who might really be able to find Steffane right now was Diana Bellona. He needed her skills. And anyway, he wanted to know if she was okay. It wasn’t like her to have left and not be in the office looking for Steffane. Which meant that she must have been more hurt in the blast than he and Leo had been. Storm was worried.
Storm called Diana, but she did not answer her phone, which worried him even more. When he arrived at her apartment and hammered on her door there was no answer. Storm listened through the door, but he knew that she was not there. So he went to Grimshaw’s magic shop next.
The wizard Theo Grimshaw seemed confused to see Strom, and even more confused when Storm asked to see Diana.
Grimshaw frowned. “She got a call a few minutes ago and said she had to go. I thought she was going to see you!”
Chapter 32
DIANA
I had woken up an hour ago in Theo’s lounge above his magic shop, feeling drained but whole again. Both of my arms had healed fully in my sleep, and when Theo had come to see me he had been astonished by this fact. He had known about it of course, because I had told him that I healed in my sleep, but he had never seen it for himself.
Theo had insisted on feeling the bones in my arms and making me wiggle my fingers until he believed that I was fine. And then he had insisted on feeding me a large meal. He had ignored my protests, and in the end I had been glad because I had been absolutely famished. The healing always left me starving.
I had been about to go into Agency Headquarters, sure that Storm would be there hunting for Steffane, when I had received a phone call. It was Steffane Ronin. I couldn’t believe it. I hurried out of the kitchen to avoid Theo’s enquiring gaze.
“Sorry for pulling that little trick on you,” said Ronin. “But a man’s gotta look after numero uno first.”
“That is not cool, Ronin,” I whispered into the phone. “We had a bargain.”
“Take a chill pill,” he said. “Our bargain is still on. I’m a man of my word. I had a few things that I need to take care of in my own life first. Don’t think I don’t know the Devil Claw is planning to come after me. If you want him, I’ll send a car for you. I’ll be long gone. But you and your team had better come prepared to take him down, because he is very dangerous and he’ll be coming for me with everything he’s got.”
“You are in danger,” I said. “You need to tell me where you are right now. He probably alread
y knows.”
“No deal,” said Ronin. “You can take my car or nothing.
So I told him where the car could pick me up, a short distance away from Grimshaw’s magic shop so that Theo wouldn’t get too suspicious. I made my excuses to Theo and hurried out. I didn’t feel all that great, but this was my one chance to get DCK. I had thought it was gone. Now I had it again, I was not going to mess it up.
I didn’t know where Ronin was going to send me, but wherever it was would have to do. And I would have only my sword to help me. Only my sword with which to force Devil Claw to tell me the things I wanted to know before I killed him.
The car that Ronin sent for me was a black cab. The driver claimed to know nothing about Ronin, and said that he had been paid richly to not tell me the address of the destination that he was taking me to. Ronin clearly had not wanted me to call Storm on the way. He didn’t want me to call Storm until I got there. He wanted to assure that he was going to get away first.
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