"No way in hell."
He smirked and turned the gun on Inigo's motionless body. "Place the amulet in the book, or I will shoot him in the head."
"You'll shoot him anyway."
"Perhaps. But I will definitely shoot him if you don't give me what I want."
There was no way I could get to Inigo before Alister shot him. Nobody was faster than a bullet. Not even a Hunter. I had to buy some time while I considered my options.
"It was you all the time, wasn't it?" I said. "The Bahamas. The pink house. Even the vampire at the club. All of it."
Alister snorted. "So, you finally understand. I was beginning to think you were just another thickheaded SRA minion."
"Sure. Sure. I'm just a Hunter, after all."
"Did you honestly believe all this running about you've been doing was random? Really, Morgan. I thought you were more intelligent than that."
I wanted to kick myself for not figuring it out sooner, but I wasn't going to let him know that. "Tell me, was it you who put out the hit on me?"
"But of course, my dear. Who else?" He looked downright smug. Unfortunately the gun never wavered.
"Well, it could've been Darroch." Although Darroch had denied it, of course. But I wasn't about to tell Alister that. "Or, you know, one of my many supernatural nemeses."
He gave a delicate snort. "Oh, yes. You've collected a few of those, haven't you?"
"One or two," I admitted. "And then of course there are always the unknown elements." I heard a faint rustling. Anyone with normal hearing wouldn't have caught it, but my Hunter senses were better than that. Inigo was waking up. Gods, I hoped he had the sense to lay still. If he moved, Alister would shoot him for sure.
"Oh, I assure you," Alister said, "there is nothing unknown to this. I hired the hit."
"Why? Why take a hit out on me when you know you need me?" Keep him talking. Keep him talking.
His face turned red and angry. "You've a bad habit of getting in my way, Morgan Bailey. With you out of the picture, well, let's just say it would make my work easier. Discovering you were the one needed to insert the amulet into that little grimoire was an unfortunate setback. I tried to stop the volunteers once I found out, but good work is hard to find these days."
"Don't I know it," I said sympathetically. "Most assassins aren't ready for a Hunter."
"It's a tragic truth," he agreed. "Alas, I will simply have to do it myself, now that I have you and the amulet here. Something I should have done in the first place."
"Oh, sure, I get it. If you want the job done right and all that. Still, I have one more question."
He raised one eyebrow and gave me a regal nod. "Fire away." That must have hit his funny bone because he chuckled a little.
"All right. The soul vampire technology. Tell me about it."
"What's to tell?" Alister shrugged, his gun never wavering. The trees cast eerie shadows across his face, and my Darkness-enhanced vision could see the black aura shimmering around him. It was downright spooky. "You know your father and I were partners, of course." It wasn't a question. I gave a slight nod, and he continued. "When the technology was developed by the precursor to your SRA, I immediately saw the vast potential. Can you imagine? An army of vampires at the bidding of whomever controlled the technology. We could end wars, poverty, hunger, destitution. It could be our salvation." His voice was intense. He really believed this shit.
I couldn't see how having an army of vampires would end anything but war perhaps. Rationality wasn't important right now. Keeping him distracted and talking was. "I can see that. So what was the problem?"
If a snort could be regal, Alister's was. "Your father, Alexander Morgan, was always annoyingly by the book. The man couldn't let go when he thought he was in the right. It was most annoying." He gave me a look as if to say it was clear where I'd gotten it from. Not that I was by the book, mind. At least not all the time. "There was only twice when he bent the rules, if not outright broke them. Once, when you were born." He gave me a nod. "And once when we heard about that technology. He believed most ardently that that technology could not fall into any government hands. Not even our own!"
I didn't bother to point out my father's government and Alister's government were two different governments, seeing as how Alister was British and my father had been American. "So what happened?"
"He went to destroy the technology," Alister said, his right hand tightening on the gun. I swear I broke out in a cold sweat. "I got there first."
"You murdered my father." It should have been a surprise. It wasn't.