Darkness Devours

“Well, no, but any storage facility with power would be suitable.” He gave me a somewhat wry look. “Do you know how many of those there are in this city?”



“Hundreds, if not thousands. But we can still do a search for one under the name of Nadler, just on the off chance that we find it.”



“It seems unlikely he’d be so stupid, but I guess it can’t hurt—and if we do find one, maybe I can raid the security tapes and see who has been accessing the unit.”



“My thinking exactly.” I finished the rest of the bitter coffee and stood. “As ever, let me know if you find something.”



“As long as you don’t forget the dinner you owe me.”



“When this is all over—”



“Forgive me if I’m being a little picky, but this might not be over for months. Years, even. A wolf could starve in that time.”



I grinned. “So, next week then.”



If, I added silently—and somewhat grimly—I was still alive in a week’s time.



“Date,” he said.



I glanced at Azriel. He took the hint and whisked us out of there. Once we’d reappeared at home, I walked into the kitchen. Stane’s bitter coffee had woken me up, but I really needed something to eat if I was going to get through the rest of the evening.



I zapped a large helping of leftover lasagna in the microwave, then grabbed a fork and headed into the living room. Azriel was standing in the middle of it, his arms crossed and his pose watchful. Ever the guard, I thought, and wondered if reapers even knew how to relax.



“Not in the sense that humanity does,” he answered.



I dropped onto the nearest sofa. “As usual, that reply is not very informative.”



He half smiled. It sent a hum of delight swirling through me. “In very simple terms, we mingle energies and recharge.”



“Mingle energies? That sounds almost sexual.”



“There is no ‘almost’ about it.”



So in their free time, reapers basically ran around having sex? And they called werewolves horny bastards. “How different is it from human sex?”



This time the smile was full-blown and sexy, and it didn’t just swirl, it stormed, leaving me breathless and aching.



“It’s as different as night from day.”



A statement that did nothing to relieve the desire raging within me. I licked my lips and tried to concentrate on eating. However much my hormones might rage, now was not a good time for that sort of action. Christ, I was barely even capable of standing.



You don’t have to stand to make love, my treacherous inner voice whispered.



I studiously ignored it and continued to shovel food in until the lasagna was almost gone and I was sure I could speak with some semblance of normalcy. Not that he’d be fooled—there was that damn chi link, after all.



“Is this mingling what you meant when you said you couldn’t make love to me as a reaper, because I wasn’t ready for it?”



His expression closed up again. “In a sense, yes.”



I sighed in frustration. Getting any sort of information out of him was like squeezing blood from a stone, but it was far worse when it came to questions about his life as a reaper.



Before I could say anything else, my phone rang, the sound sharp in the brief silence. The ringtone told me it was Hunter.



I briefly considered not answering it, but that wasn’t likely to do much. The bitch would just track me down and confront me in person. At least if she was on the other end of the phone, she didn’t have access to my thoughts.



“The reason I didn’t ring with an update,” I said without preamble, “is because there isn’t a whole lot to tell you. The Rakshasa sensed our presence in that room and made a run for it. Azriel wasn’t able to track it back to its lair.”



“That is extremely unfortunate given that the deadline clock is counting down.” Hunter’s voice was cool. “I do not wish to lose a good resource, Risa, so I suggest you do your utmost to catch this thing.”



I snorted softly. If she considered me a good resource, then her other resources obviously sucked big-time. My mother I was not.



“Trust me—I have no intention of getting dead just yet, but we do have a problem. I can’t stand guard in the viewing room tonight. The Rakshasa knows we are waiting for it now, so it’ll be overly cautious. We need to try something else.”



“Such as?”



I hesitated, thinking fast—not an easy task at the moment. “There are cameras installed in the ghosts’ feeding room, so would I be wrong in thinking there are some who get off on watching others feed and kill?”



“Yes.” She paused. “The camera feed goes down to several side rooms in the main bar.”



“What sort of side rooms?”



“The sort you find in werewolf bars,” she said, her voice dry. “The kind that allows participants privacy if they prefer.”



The image of a blood whore–addicted vampire jerking off while he watched another feed and kill made my stomach flip-flop, and I was suddenly glad I’d just about finished the lasagna. “Surely we could snag one of those to use.”



“Only if your reaper remains ready to fight. Marshall cannot remain with you for that long, and it is only his presence by your side that gets you through the bar safely.”



I was betting Azriel had a whole lot more to do with that than she was giving him credit for. Every vampire might see him as something different, but reapers had a natural ability to see and take on whatever form a soul would most accept, so it was natural that they could also see what souls feared. Given the reaction of the nearby vamps, I was betting the latter was what he’d been projecting.



Still, being in such close proximity to that many hungry vamps wasn’t something I was keen on. “There have to be monitors elsewhere, surely. What about the security area?”



“The security area is not situated on-site—and the cameras in the feeding rooms do not transmit to the main system. We do not wish to risk anyone hacking into them.”



I wondered if Stane could, then erased the thought. That would only put him in unnecessary danger, and I refused to do that any more than I already was.



“But surely someone is keeping an eye on what goes on down there. I mean, you haven’t got an endless supply of whores—have you?”



“Of course not.” Hunter’s voice was cool. “That would be absurd—and illegal.”



My heart began to pound a little harder. It may have been absurd and illegal, but my intuition was prickling, suggesting that’s exactly what they had.



An endless supply of blood whores could mean only one thing—they were being created and farmed. They had to be—how else could the vamps guarantee supply? And it would certainly explain the strange lack of memories in the two whores Azriel had tried to read, and their oddly identical eyes.



Fuck, this situation was getting deeper and shittier by the moment. And the worst thing was, I couldn’t do anything about it. I couldn’t even tell anyone. We’d all be dead in an instant if I did.



“Surely Marshall has monitors in his office.”



“He does not,” she replied coolly. “It is either the viewing room or one of the side rooms. Your choice.”



If I’d had a real choice, I would have gone back in time and recanted the words that had led me into this impossible situation. I’d known when I’d said them that it was stupid and dangerous, but I’d been so desperate for revenge that I think I would have agreed to enter hell itself if it meant finding Mom’s killer.



Working for Hunter, and being under threat from the vampire council, wasn’t exactly hell, but it wasn’t far off it, either. Especially considering that Hunter and the Cazadors were no closer to finding Mom’s killer than we were.



“Tell Marshall we’ll take one of the side rooms.” We simply couldn’t risk staying in the viewing room again. The Rakshasa’s hunger might force her to return, but I doubted that she would simply appear like she had the last time. After all, she now knew we were here and, at the very least, would be more cautious.



“That is very brave of you,” Hunter said. “The council will be impressed.”



And that, I suddenly realized, was the whole point of this exercise. Impressing the council, making them believe that keeping me alive was a far better option than killing me. This wasn’t about the Rakshasa or the vampire killings. This was about Hunter strengthening her power base.



And I was one of the foundation stones.



I rubbed my head wearily. If I’d had the energy I would have cursed long and fluently. But the truth of the matter was, I’d brought this on myself by agreeing to her terms back in that forest, and now I had no option but to deal with it.



“I don’t give a fuck whether the council are impressed or not. I just want to find this thing so I can concentrate on the business of finding the remaining keys.”



And with that I hung up. It might not have been wise, but I was way past tired and beyond caring.



“Then get some sleep,” Azriel suggested. “I will wake you when it is time to return to the club.”



My gaze rose to meet his. That thick sense of heat and desire still swirled within me, but stronger than that was the need to be held. Just held.



He took half a step forward, then stopped and clenched his fists. “Go,” he said, his voice holding a rough edge. “Rest.”



I briefly closed my eyes, and half wished Lucian was here. He, at least, would have understood the need for contact and comfort that wasn’t sexual—although truth be known, while he might have held me, it wouldn’t have been for long. He was a sexual being, and that’s where it would have ended.



What I needed, I thought bitterly, was a straightforward relationship with a normal everyday man.



Someone like Jak—only less work oriented and more trustworthy.



But an ordinary man was not something I was likely to find anytime soon. Nor was it wise to bring such a man into my current situation.