“We don’t call it that,” Trevor interrupted.
Kabita ignored him. “As far as I’m concerned we’re done. Job finished.”
“Wait a minute.” I watched Trevor pull himself together. “Did you find the Sunwalker?”
I shrugged. Show time. “There is no such thing as a Sunwalker. My sources tell me they died out hundreds of years ago, not long after the Crusades. The so-called ‘Sunwalker’ we were supposed to hunt was just powerful vampire Darroch wanted out of the way so he could control the local vamps. I took care of it.” I was so going to hell for lying, but I knew there was no way Trevor Daly could follow up on my story. Vamps didn’t leave corpses.
Trevor brushed it aside. “And the artifact you mentioned. The one Darroch hired you to find. Where is it? It needs to be secured immediately.”
Ah, so that’s what this was about. The government didn’t care one bit about a possible Sunwalker threat or Brent Darroch and his friends in high places. They wanted the artifact, pure and simple. It’s what they’d wanted all along. I wondered if they had any idea what it was, what it could do.
“We didn’t find it,” Kabita broke in, her face every bit as bland as Daly’s. “It probably doesn’t exist. It was most likely just another of Darroch’s stories to gain influence with the local vampire clans and to justify the hunt.”
“But you said he had a plot to enslave humanity. How could he do that without the amulet?” Trevor wasn’t giving up that easily. It was now obvious he had some idea of the amulet’s power and he was definitely suspicious of our story. I tried to ignore the fact that his crossed arms showed off a very impressive chest and really nice, broad shoulders.
“He did. He was planning to unite the vampire clans. Do that and you can enslave humanity; turn us all into a bunch of sheep. At least on a local level. Who knows what his ultimate goal was. He’s not exactly sane.” Her face was completely deadpan. I swear if I didn’t know her as well as I did, I’d have totally bought it. I really hoped Trevor Daly did.
Trevor turned to me. I shrugged. “I searched Darroch’s place top to bottom. Never found any artifact,” I lied through my teeth. “A few antique knickknacks, but nothing like what he claimed he had.” I shrugged. “He’s a psychopath and a liar. What can you expect?”
Trevor looked from Kabita back to me, mistrust written all over his face. It was obvious he didn’t completely believe us, but what could he do? Hold us down and frisk us? Now there was an idea. Oh, bad girl! What was wrong with me?
Inigo made a sound that sounded suspiciously of laughter. I glared at him. He just smiled back innocently. If I didn’t know better I’d have said he read my mind.
“Fine,” Trevor snapped slamming his fist down on Kabita’s desk. Temper, temper. “If that’s the way you want to play it. Just remember, Ms. Jones, what I mentioned earlier? That isn’t going away.”
Kabita’s normally dusky skin looked a little pale, but she stood ramrod straight and didn’t give an inch. I was so proud of her. Of course, that was Kabita through and through. When she decided on a course of action, she followed it through to the end. Damn the torpedoes and all that.
I’d no doubt that he was reminding her of whatever it was he’d threatened her with to get our cooperation in the first place. Whatever it was must be something big. My estimation of Trevor Daly dropped way down to scumbag. You did not threaten my best friend and get away with it no matter how hot you are or how nice your ass was.
Trevor snatched up his leather briefcase and with barely a nod to me, stormed out of the office. But not before he paused in front of Inigo and gave him one long, very dirty look. One of these days Inigo and Kabita and I were going to have a talk about Trevor Daly and deep dark secrets. They were not going to like what I had to say and I didn’t plan on giving up until I knew the truth.
“You OK?” I asked Kabita. She still seemed a little shaky.
I watched her visibly pull herself together. “I’m fine, Morgan. Thank you. Trevor Daly is just one of those nasty little things we have to deal with in our line of work. Unpleasant, but a fact of life.”
“Right up there with Zagan demons, huh?”
That made her laugh. She turned to Jack. “The amulet?”
“Safe. And I’m going to make sure it stays that way.”
“Good,” she nodded. “I don’t want to know where it is, either.” Plausible deniability. I guess if it was good enough for the government, it was good enough for us.
“No problem,” Jack agreed. Then he turned to me. “You need a ride?”