Kissed by Darkness(42)

I sighed. “Then he threatened me.”

“Threatened you how?”

“Well, us really. He didn’t exactly give specifics and I wasn’t asking, but the phrase ‘or else’ did cross his lips.”

“Jesus, Morgan. You’ve gone and done it this time,” she groaned, shaking her head wearily.

“So, what do we do? Jack’s no monster. He shouldn’t die just because of his … ” I flung my hands about searching for a word that made sense. ” … race. The government has never before asked us to kill a creature unless it’s a danger to humans. Jack isn’t a danger. And that whole amulet business? Now that is just messed up. I simply don’t understand why Darroch won’t give it up. He knows that I know he has the amulet in his possession, so why this stupid charade?” I jumped up and started pacing her office.

“But why does the government care about any of it?” I wondered aloud. “OK, I get it; Darroch’s got friends in high places, but still. This is obviously a personal vendetta. Not to mention I don’t think Darroch wants anyone to know he’s got Jack’s amulet. That’s it!” I stopped dead in my tracks and whirled to face a rather startled Kabita. “I’ve got it! It’s the amulet.”

She looked understandably confused. “What about the amulet?”

“It’s so obvious! I can’t believe I didn’t see it before.”

“See what?” She was starting to lose her patience, so I plopped back into the chair and leaned forward. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t figured it out sooner.

“Listen. Darroch has the amulet, right? There’s no reason at all for him to pretend otherwise if it’s really his. So, why would he lie? Because it’s not his, and he doesn’t want anyone to know he has it. What he does want is Jack dead. I’m not sure why, but he does.”

“You’re sure Jack’s not a monster?” She sounded like she didn’t quite believe me.

“I’m sure.”

She nodded. That was the thing about Kabita. She was willing to take it on faith just because I believed it. “OK, with you so far.”

“Right, so he wants Jack dead but he doesn’t want anyone to know he’s already got the amulet. Maybe he doesn’t want anyone ever knowing he has the amulet. So, he’s using it as an excuse to have Jack murdered without implicating himself.

“He hires us to find the amulet with the express instructions to kill the Sunwalker since he’s supposedly a monster and that’s our job. So, while I am innocently doing my job, trying to find my client’s stolen property, I kill the bad guy. Then with Jack dead, there’s no one to say who has the amulet. Darroch assures us it’s all right, not our fault. We did the best we could. The government covers everything up as usual, and the amulet conveniently ‘disappears,’ nobody knows where. Darroch never has to worry about anyone coming to claim it or knowing he’s had it all along.”

Kabita thought for a moment. “All right, that makes sense, in a really twisted way. Just one question, though. Other than Jack for obvious reasons, why does Darroch care if anyone knows about the amulet? He could have just hired us to hunt down the Sunwalker and left it at that. The government would have never called it murder since he’s not human.”

“Yeah, that’s the weird thing,” I admitted. “According to Jack, Darroch’s had the amulet for a while, twenty years or so. Since Jack didn’t exactly go to the police about it, there’s no proof it was stolen or that it ever belonged to Jack in the first place and no real reason Darroch couldn’t admit, at least to me, that he has it. What is with this amulet anyway?”

“Maybe you should ask Jack.” Kabita leaned forward and propped her chin on her hand. The chunky gold bracelets on her wrist made a slight clanking sound. The Atlantean symbols I’d seen on the amulet were strangely similar to the magical symbols etched on her bracelets in ancient Sumerian. Interesting. “If anyone other than Darroch knows the answer, I’d think he would be the one.”

She had a point. Problem was that Jack liked to order people around a lot, but he sure didn’t like to share information very much. What the hell. It was worth a try. “I’ll have to catch him later. It’s a full moon tonight and this little Huntress is going to be busy.”

“Need any help?”

This time it was my eyebrow that went up or actually both eyebrows since I’m incapable of raising only one. “You’re offering to help me with vampires?”