It hurt badly, but desire flared all the same. I couldn’t help what I was, couldn’t help that danger drew me like a moth to flame, and perhaps that was just as well. Because Jin was taking the lust for danger for the lust for pain, and in this situation, that was a good mistake. One that might just keep me alive.
He chuckled softly, and stepped away. I tried to ignore the throbbing ache in my lip, as well as the one lower down, and said, “You take me for granted.”
“Because you want it. Because you get off on it.” He flicked a puckered nipple casually. “You will wait, for as long as I want you to wait, simply because you hunger for what only I can give.”
Arrogant bastard. But I kept the thought inside and simply looked at him as he continued, “But unfortunately, I have other duties to tend to before I get to satisfying your desires.”
He turned and walked out. I listened to his footsteps, the sound of doors opening and closing, the soft questions and answers.
He wasn’t so sure it was me after all.
Thank God.
And his actions here just now had given me the perfect excuse to run. I’d already accused him of taking me for granted. Given his arrogance, it would be perfectly logical for me to now walk out.
Which was more than worth the price of a bitten lip.
I had a shower to wash the scent of chlorine and Jin off me, then toweled myself dry and put the robe back on. After peering out the door and testing the air to ensure Jin’s scent had well and truly faded, I headed back up the stairs to the changing room.
Once dressed, I walked around to the reception area.
“All finished?” the blonde said brightly, as I handed back the locker key.
“Yes. And when Jin comes looking for me, please tell him I do not appreciate being taken for granted.” I slipped into her mind as I said it, handing in the stolen keycard and making her believe a guest had found it near the stairs.
“Of course,” she said, without skipping a beat. And if the amusement in her eyes was anything to go by, she’d absolutely delight in making such comments to Jin.
I nodded my thanks, but on turning away, caught sight of her computer. Would a receptionist have membership lists on her computer? She’d have to, wouldn’t she?
I slipped into her mind again, making her do a search through the database. And discovered that Jan Tait wasn’t the only woman who had signed up for a gold pass.
Karen Herbert, the latest victim of the serial killer, had too.
And so had every other victim.
Chapter 8
Jack wasn’t going to let me walk out on Jin for very long, that much was obvious. Not when the club he worked at had finally provided a link between all the murdered women. Jin was a source of information not yet fully explored.
None of which changed my determination to walk out now. I glanced around to ensure no one was paying us any particular attention, then got the woman to download onto a disk all the membership files and employee details possible. The gold-pass membership files were restricted, and I wasn’t about to push my luck by getting her to try and load those. Jack could order one of his tech plebs to do that. Although I’m sure the caramel cow would just wet herself at the thought of showing off her technical skills. She certainly had them: I’d caught her hacking into my files once.
I slipped the disk into my pocket, then erased my tracks in the woman’s mind and headed out the door. Once I’d returned my pass to the guard and was safely ensconced in my car, I grabbed my phone and dialed Jack.
“She reports twice in a twenty-four-hour period,” he said, by way of hello. “This is indeed a time for miracles.”
“You’ve been hanging around the cow too much. You’ve picked up her smart mouth.”
“The only woman in my employ who has the sass to backchat her boss is the one I’m talking to. And it’s not nice to call someone a cow.”
“It is when they have tits the size of hers. And don’t tell me you haven’t noticed.”
“Are you ringing for a reason? Or do you just want to piss me off?”
Both, usually, but I didn’t think it would be wise to admit that. “I think I’ve found the link between all our victims.”
“What? How?”
“All four were members of the gold-pass section of the Hunter’s Club, the upmarket health and fitness club Jin part-times at. From what I’ve seen, the gold-pass club is a word-only membership for people with special requirements.”
“What sort of special requirements?”
“They need extreme pain to get their rocks off.”
“All of our victims had healed scars on their backs and arms.”
“They should have massive scars if what I’ve just seen is any indication of what they go through.” I hesitated. “It’s quite possible I’ve met the woman lined up to be the next victim. Her name is Jan Tait.”
“You got all her details?”
“I grabbed everything off their computer that I could. The gold-pass membership files will require hacking skills to get into.”
“We’ll handle that end. You stay on Jin.”
Yeah, right. “Um…there’s been bit of a development in that area. I’m afraid I just walked out on him.”
His sigh was a sound of frustration. “Can you do nothing the easy way?”“Trust me, I had no option. But I’ll follow him for the rest of the night, see where he goes and who he talks to.”
“Good. In the meantime, I’ll get Salliane to dig up the dirt on the Hunter’s Club and its owner.”
“Jan said that she was recommended to the Hunter’s Club by the owner of the Hellion Club. Apparently the two are brother and sister. And Quinn just happens to be following the woman who owns the Hellion Club.”
“Interesting.”
“Why?”
“Because we’ve been cross-checking the Cattle Club’s security tapes, and have discovered Jin talking to a man named John Kingsley on more than a few occasions.”
“So?”
“So, he’s a very nasty piece of work who’s been suspected of several murders. There’s never been enough evidence found to convict him.”
“That still doesn’t explain why he’s raised your badguy antennae.”
“Ah, but see, he also happens to have a half sister by the name of Maisie Foster, who owns a punishment club by the name of—”
“The Hellion Club,” I finished for him. “So Rhoan’s already checking this Kingsley person out?”
“Yeah.” Amusement crept into his voice as he added, “Apparently he ran into Quinn there.”
My eyebrows raised. “Don’t you think it’s a little bit coincidental that Quinn is following the woman who owns the club that is recommending people to the special services of the Hunter’s Club? He obviously knows something he’s not telling us.”
“Which means you need to find out what you can from him.”
Yeah, like he was going to tell me anything. He’d more than likely try locking me in a closet somewhere. For my own protection, of course. “You think this woman could be the one raising the demons?”
“I have no idea. Though I doubt Quinn would simply follow her if that was the case.”
“He would if he had motives other than finding the person who was raising the demons.” And I very much suspected that was the case. After all, the spooky guy in the alley had basically implied there was more to this than just a couple of demons.
“As I said, question him.” He paused. “I did a search for that name the souls gave you.”
“And?”
“Azhi Dahaki is part of an ancient Persian legend. It’s said that he’s the servant of Angra Mainyu, who’s supposedly the god of darkness, the eternal destroyer of good, the personification and creator of evil, and bringer of death and disease.”
“A real charmer, in other words.” I paused. “That ring I found had Persian hieroglyphic thingies on the back of it.”
“Cuneiform inscriptions, actually.”
“So you’ve translated them?”
“Not fully.”
His voice was grim, and chills skated across my skin. “What does it say so far?”
“Something about entrusting their souls to the god of darkness.”
I rubbed my arms. “But it’s just a legend, isn’t it? I mean, a god of darkness and lies can’t really exist, can it?”
“Humans once believed werewolves and vampires didn’t exist.”
“That’s because we were covering our asses like crazy. And it’s also totally different from this sort of situation.”
“No, it’s not. And there is no reason to believe there aren’t things in this world that have chosen to remain hidden while the bolder of our races have stepped out of the shadows.”
“Jack, we’re talking about an ancient god here.”
“Are we? Or are we merely talking about an entity that has bided his time for the right moment to come out of hiding?”
“Is there a third option? I mean, those two really suck.”
He chuckled softly. “We’re still researching the legend. But it’s not looking good.” He hesitated. “Be wary around Jin. If he is part of this legend, he may have powers we can’t even begin to guess at.”
That was something I didn’t want to think about. “Anything else I need to know about Azhi Dahaki?”
“Well, he’s supposedly a three-headed dragon who represented pain, despair, and death.”