Darkness Unmasked

Amusement touched her lips. “I’m glad to hear it.”



I bet she was. Couldn’t have her pet joining the opposition, after all—not before she’d done what was expected of her, anyway.



“He did give me his contacts at the entertainment agency. I thought I might go talk to them, unless you’d prefer—”



“If I wanted to get deeply involved in this case, I would have,” she said. “Report back to me if you uncover anything else.”



And with that, she hung up.



“Hunter was her charming self, I see,” Azriel murmured.



I laughed, as he’d no doubt intended. “Yeah, she was.”



He caught my hand and rose, dragging me upright with him. “Tao is about to call for you.”



“Why?”



“I believe he is hungry.” He gave me a somewhat stern look. “And you should be eating something, too.”



“Yes, Mom,” I murmured, as I brushed past him.



“Hey, Ris?” Tao called, just as I neared his bedroom door. “You out there?”



I poked my head around the door. “I am. What can I do for you?”



“Ilianna threatened to make the old boy go limp for the next three months if I got out of bed for anything more than a pee,” he said, expression amused. “But she hasn’t come back from her shopping expedition, and I’m absolutely starving.”



“So get up and get something. She’s not going to know.”



He snorted. “Maybe, but I enjoy sex too much to risk it.”



I grinned. “What would you like?”



“Anything that involves lots of meat.”



“Steak, eggs, and chips?”



“Perfect.” He grinned. “And I’ll have a beer while I’m waiting.”



I raised an eyebrow. “Did Ilianna really make that threat? Because you seem to be milking it a little here.”



“Hell yeah.” He grinned. “Having you run around waiting on me hand and foot isn’t something that happens every day. Gotta make the most of it.”



I snorted softly and headed into the kitchen. Half an hour later, I dished up two plates and walked back into his room.



“That,” he said, practically drooling as he accepted the plate, “smells divine.”



“Then eat up.” I sat down on the chair beside his bed and followed my own advice. I was about halfway through my meal when my phone rang again. This time the tone said it was Stane.



I cursed softly. “I swear, people are intent on not letting me eat today.”



“So ignore it,” Tao said sagely. “It’s not like you can’t ring him back.”



Azriel appeared by the chair and offered me the phone. “It could relate to the storage unit.”



“Yeah.” I accepted the phone and hit the ANSWER button. “Stane, what’s up?”



“Genevieve Sands just got out of a taxi in front of that storage place again.”



I glanced at Azriel. “Maybe we spooked her.”



“Could be.”



“I think we should go see what she’s doing.” To Stane, I added, “I discovered her address today. Do you think it’ll help you dig up any other information about her?”



“Worth a try.”



I gave him the address, then added, “And while I’m thinking about it, have you still got that bug we used at the nightclub?”



“Certainly do. I wasn’t about to let that baby go—do you know how hard those things are to get?”



Given they were black market, I’d imagine very hard, and very expensive. “What’s the range of the thing?”



“Fairly extensive. Why?”



“So if I were to place it in an apartment up on the Gold Coast, you’d be able to pick up its signal?”



“No, but if you were willing to fork out the cost of hiring a buddy of mine, I could get him to pick up the signal and bounce it down to me.”



“Done. Can we pick it up later, after we’ve checked out the storage unit?”



“You can, but I won’t have everything in place by then. And I’m not sure if Fitz will have the necessary relay stuff on hand.”



“Do what you can.”



“I will.”



“Thanks.” I hung up and shoved my plate toward Tao. “You want to finish any of that?”



He snagged the rest of the steak and gave me a thumbs-up. I took the rest out to the kitchen and dumped it in the trash, then grabbed my bag and coat and turned to Azriel. “Let’s go.”



We reappeared in the side parking lot again. The evening air was cold enough for my breath to fog, so I pulled my coat on as I walked toward the entrance.



But I’d barely taken half a dozen steps when the building exploded in a gigantic ball of flame.



Chapter 8



The force of the blast knocked me off my feet and sent me tumbling. I landed in an ungainly heap near the shrubs that lined the parking lot, with bricks, metal, and wood thudding all around me. I didn’t move, just squeezed my eyes shut, threw my hands over my head, and prayed like hell that I wasn’t hit. Then Azriel landed on top of me, knocking out whatever breath I’d had left.



But the minute his body covered mine, the debris stopped falling—not just on us, but around us. And it became quiet. Whisper quiet. I frowned and opened my eyes. We were surrounded by a halo of blue fire.



“What the hell?”



“Valdis shields us.” His warm breath tickled my ear. “She formed it the minute the building exploded.”



“Is that why you’re lying on top of me?”



“Yes. It was easier than transporting us both out of here—especially given you would only want to come back.” He hesitated, then added, with a hint of a smile in his voice, “Of course, this way I also get to touch you more fully, and that is not entirely unpleasant.”



I snorted. “You’re beginning to sound like a regular male, and that’s scary.”



“Right now, I feel like a regular male.”



Laughter bubbled through me. “Well, I was going to be polite and not mention that bar you have—”



“I meant,” he cut in, the amusement in his voice deeper this time, “that I was feeling protective. You, Risa Jones, have what I believe is called a dirty mind.”



“Hey, I’m not the one manning up.”



“That is a function of this body I have no real control over.” Valdis’s shield flickered and died, but he didn’t immediately move. “Are you all right?”



I opened my mouth to say yes, but the word never came out. With the shield gone, the noise hit, and it was horrendous. But the creak and groan of a dying building wasn’t the worst of it. It was the screams of those trapped and injured that were the hardest to take.



“Oh god, Azriel, we have to help—”



“We cannot,” he said, voice firm. “It is too dangerous to go in there just yet.”



I bucked my body, trying to get him off me, but I might as well have tried to shift a brick wall. “Damn it. I can’t just lie here—”



“You can, and you will,” he said. “It is not within your ability to save those people.”



“But it is within your ability.”



“No.”



“Azriel—”



“No.” This time there was an edge of anger in his voice. “I am not here to alter the hand fate has dealt to any of those people inside.”



“Not unless it had something to do with the keys, which this does.”



“Only peripherally. I have no justification for interfering in either the life or the death of those within that building.”



“What about Genevieve Sands? She might be connected to both the dark sorcerer and the keys, so why can’t you at least go in there to see if she survived?”



“Look at the building, Risa. Do you really think it possible she could be alive?”



I twisted around and my gaze widened. Flames leapt high from either end, but it was the middle of the building—in the area that had held Lauren Macintyre’s storage unit—that had taken the brunt of the explosion. It was completely destroyed. There was nothing left but the charred remnants of brick walls and the twisted remains of metal. There is no way in hell anyone in that area could have survived.



“There’s no guarantee she was actually in there at the time of the explosion. She might have set it all up and then used the stones to escape.” That was what I would have done if I’d been in her somewhat ugly shoes. “We need to go check the Razans’ place and see if she’s there.”



Azriel’s expression went back to being noncommittal. “You cannot go in Aedh form, as they will sense you.”



I met his gaze. “You could go.”



He hesitated. “I prefer not to leave you—”



“Who’s going to attack me here? The Raziq are waiting for my father’s appearance, Hunter still has use for me, and anyone else I can cope with.”



“Given you do have the unfortunate habit of attracting danger, that is no comfort.”



I smiled. “It’s going to take you a couple of minutes, if that, to check. What trouble could I get into in that amount of time?”



“Plenty, I suspect.” He rose, his movements fluid and graceful, and offered me a hand. “Do not go into that building.”



“I won’t.” Not in human form, anyway.



“Risa—”



“Stop being such a worrywart and go before she escapes us again.”



He did. I brushed the dirt and grit from my hands and clothes as I studied the blackened, broken building. There was little sound coming from the building now—little in the way of human sound, anyway—but the flames were intense, a caress of heat that would burn my skin if I got any closer. But I had to get closer, no matter what Azriel said. Though the approaching wail of the emergency vehicles was barely audible over the fierce burn of the fire, they were little more than a couple of minutes away. If I wanted to check if anything in that locker had survived the blast, I’d better do it now, before officialdom descended and perhaps destroyed whatever evidence still survived.