“Kye Murphy.”
“Who's he?”“A gun for hire. Our paths crossed a year ago, when he was playing bodyguard to the son of our pack's alpha.”
“The one you and Rhoan beat up?”
Surprise ran through me, and it took me a moment to reluctantly admit, “Maybe.”
He laughed. “Don't sound so shocked. There isn't much that goes on in this place that I don't know about.”
Something I'd better remember in the future if I was planning any other little side excursions on Directorate time. I walked left along the railing until I found the tiny excuse for a ladder, then slowly—carefully—began to climb down. When my feet finally hit the concrete, some of the tension that had been riding me eased. I might be able to fly, but my fear of heights had never entirely vanished. I doubted it ever would.
“Look, Cole and his team are just about there—”
“You sent Cole after me?” I couldn't help the surprise in my voice. “Why send a cleanup team rather than a guardian?”
“They were the closest to your position, and Cole and his men can fight, trust me on that.” His voice was dry. “He might as well check the zombie remains while he's there. At least we can confirm whether our killer was raised or not.”
“There's not much more than blood here, boss. I'm afraid the hellhounds ate nearly everything else.”
“What, even the bones and skull?”
“Yep.” I walked toward the swing doors. “Was my being stationary the only reason you were trying to contact me?”
Even as I asked the question, I had my fingers crossed for the correct answer. After my near miss with Kye, I really needed to get home to my vampire.
“No. There's a disturbance at a house I want you to investigate, but it can wait until the morning. I'll send you the address.”
Relief swam through me. Morning might almost be here, but at least I could catch a few hours alone with Quinn before I had to leave again. That'd be enough to take the edge off the hunger. “What's so special about this disturbance that we're investigating it?”
“He's an old friend of mine.”
“How old a friend?”
“We were turned together.”
Which made him a very old friend indeed, considering Jack had been turned over 860 years ago. I blew out a breath, then said, “I can drive over there tonight, if you'd prefer.”
It was the last thing I actually wanted to do, but I owed Jack more than a few favors. Besides, friends that old were surely rare, even in the long-lived world of vampires.
Jack hesitated. “No, it should be all right. Armel thinks it may be a ghost of some kind. Things have been moved around or gone missing. Nothing major—just small things. He's just curious as to what is going on.”
Hence the reason Jack had called me. He might be good at many things, but the one thing he couldn't do was see ghosts and souls.
Unfortunately, I could.
“Why did he call you rather than a clairvoyant or someone like that?”
“Because we're old friends, and I owe him a few favors.”
Calling in the Directorate still seemed like overkill. But maybe that was why he was a long-lived vampire. “No one's broken in, I gather?”
“He believes not. He's got good security and he doesn't sleep all that much. He'd hear anyone entering his house.”
Outside, a car pulled up, but the scents of wolf and bird were suddenly strong on the still air. I recognized both.
“Cole and his team have just arrived.”
“Good. Once the situation there is sorted, go home and get some rest. I told Armel you'd be there at nine.”
“Gee, thanks for letting me sleep in, boss.”
“He wanted you there at six,” Jack said dryly, “so be thankful for small mercies.”
“Why so damn early?”
“He doesn't believe in wasting good daylight.”
“He's a vampire. There's no such thing as good daylight, is there?”
“There is when you're old enough to enjoy it.”
“Which neither you nor he is, so why the hurry?”
“Just because we can't play in it doesn't mean we can't enjoy it.” Jack's voice was amused. “And be careful when you're there. Armel will flirt with anything that breathes, but he's partial to redheads.”
“I've already got two old vampires in my life. I don't need another.”
He laughed and signed off. I touched my ear to turn off the voice part of the com-unit, then pushed open one of the doors and said, “Cole, I'm down this way.”
A second later, he appeared.
“So much for me hoping to save your pretty ass,” he said dryly. His gray overalls were still blood-splattered from the previous crime scene and his silvery hair was darkened with sweat. “You just love spoiling my fun, don't you?”
I grinned. “Totally. Especially if it means me not lying somewhere half dead.”
I looked beyond him as the similarly garbed Dobbs came into view. Like Cole, he was armed, his laser humming softly in the silence. Unlike Cole, he wasn't relaxing; his gaze constantly moved through the shadows. I was betting Dobbs could fight every bit as well as Cole. It was evident in the quiet way he moved. He reminded me of a predator about to strike.
I met Cole's gaze, noticing the sweat staining the collar of his overalls and the quick puff of his breath on the night air. “What, did you run here rather than taking the car or something?”
“Basically, yes.” He stopped and swiped a hand at the sweat running down his cheek. “Well, I ran and Dobbs flew. Dusty collected the gear and car first.”
Jack must have been worried to impart that sort of urgency. “Sorry to put you through that hassle for no good reason.”
“I think you owe us a beer.” He studied me for a minute, nostrils flaring, then said, “I smell another wolf.”
He didn't actually say he could smell him on me, but that's what he meant. I smiled. “You know what us werewolves are like—we can find a man in the oddest places.”
“Then he's not here now?”
“No.” I stepped back, giving him room to enter. “But we have zombie remains—well, zombie blood and little else, really—sitting in a destroyed pentagram.”“The wolf did the pentagram?”
“No, he was hunting the woman who did. She had a couple of hellhound helpers, which proved a bit of a problem for both me and the wolf.”
“So you know him?”
“Had a run-in with him last year. I won.”
“But not this time.” He paused, his gaze amused. “I gather he drugged you.”
“Yeah.” I stopped as we reached the smudged pentagram. “Might be worth getting one of the magi out here to look at this. They might be able to tell us what she was using it for.”
“Something black would be my guess.”
That went without saying. I mean, surely witches on the side of good didn't employ hellhounds or zombies to do their bidding. Our magi didn't—well, not as far as I knew, anyway.
“Our witch took the form of a crow and flew off, but while she was here, she was perched on the gantry above the pentagram.” And her human scent still lingered—it was faint, but there, and I'd recognize it if I smelled it again.
Cole nodded. “We'll check it, and see if we can find any droppings or feathers.”
“Might be worth doing the same at the crime scene—unless you've already checked the trees?”
“We had no reason to do so.” He hesitated again. “Are you feeling all right? Your eyes are very bloodshot.”
“Combination of the drug and shadowing, I think.”
“I've seen you come out of shadow. It doesn't usually cause this reaction.”
“I was shadowing two of us.” I shrugged. “Maybe it's just plain tiredness. You'll send me the report ASAP?”
“As usual.” He glanced around as Dobbs finished his perimeter check and approached. “You want to get a kit up to that gantry? We probably have shifter traces up there.”
Dobbs nodded, gave me a half-smile, then walked away, reholstering his weapon as he went.
“He's a believer in the old adage that it's better to say nothing, isn't he?” I asked, amused.
“Totally,” he agreed, a smile crinkling the corners of his blue eyes. “Unlike some guardians who just love to hear the sound of their own voice.”
“And this is wrong because … ?”
He made what sounded like a disgusted snort and shook his head. “You can leave anytime you want.”
“You know, the amusement that still lingers on your lips is spoiling the whole stern effect you're trying for there.”
“Riley, stop being a pain and go.”
I went.
It didn't take all that long to drive back to Quinn's, but finding parking anywhere near the hotel, even at this hour, was a pain. I eventually gave up and just dragged out my Directorate parking tag. They might be for use only in emergencies, but hey, this was.
There was no one in the lobby, though I could hear voices in the office near the desk. I took the elevator up to Quinn's suite and walked down the plush, carpeted hallway to his door, dragging my key out of my pocket and swiping it through the reader.
The door clicked open. “You're back early,” Quinn said, the rich Irish lilt in his voice sending shivers of delight down my spine.
He came out of the bedroom as I closed the front door, as naked as the day he was born. I couldn't help smiling. I'd once thought of this vampire as staid, but I'd learned over the past few weeks that staid only applied to new relationships. Once he knew—and, I suspected, trusted—his partner, he was as adventurous as any wolf could want.