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.”