Crave the Darkness (23 page)

Either the other members of my team were too distracted to pay us much attention, or they were really good at pretending not to listen. I had too much on my plate right now for the added stress. Asher wasn’t a threat to me or the team. On the contrary, I had a feeling he’d put his body in the path of a bullet for me. But why the cocky lone wolf routine? And why did he feel the need to supersede my commands?

“What the hell’s with you, anyway?” I finally said through gritted teeth. “This isn’t up for debate. You’re staying here.”

In two long strides, Asher was standing nose to nose with me. He moved his head to the side and leaned in so close that I could feel his breath in my ear. “Darian,” he said. “Leave Myles with the team. You need
me
to come with you. Trust me.”

Trust him? I wanted to punch him in the face. “You have done
nothing
to convince me that I should trust you.”

“You need me,” was all Asher said in answer.

When had I so totally lost control of him? For that matter, had I ever had control? “What I need is for you to do as I say. Dealing with your constant disobedience is a time suck we can’t afford right now. Every minute wasted is a minute tipped to Kade’s advantage.” I sighed. “I could just send you back to Raif . . .”

“You could,” Asher murmured. “But I wed.s advouldn’t advise it.”

“Maybe you didn’t get the memo, Ash. I’m in charge here, not you. So you don’t advise me of anything. Got it?” I didn’t have time for this shit. And whereas I knew the best course of action right now was to send Asher right the fuck back to Xander’s house, something in my gut told me I’d be better off bringing him along.
Damn it
. Until I could unravel Asher’s secrets, I had a feeling it would be best to keep him close. “Myles.” My voice was a controlled burn, scalding its way up my throat. “Stay here with the rest of the team. Watch out for anything unusual.” Wouldn’t you know, Myles didn’t even bat a lash. “And one more thing . . .”

Myles gave me a questioning look, and I held my breath for the barest second, wondering, did I really want to know? “If you see any sign of Tyler, I want you to tail him. I need to know everywhere he goes and
everyone
he meets with. Got it?”

Myles’s expression turned dark, and he shared a knowing glance with Julian. Let them think what they wanted. I turned my back on the redhead and headed in the opposite direction from Tyler’s building. I didn’t have to worry about Myles or the rest of my team; they’d do what I’d told them to do. As for Asher, well, at the moment, I couldn’t give two shits what he did as long as he stayed out of my goddamned hair. I probably should have taken Raif’s advice and cut Asher loose. Damn, I hated when he was right.

“What exactly are we doing here, Darian?” Louella asked, trotting up beside me.

I stopped. Turned to face her. “Spying on a Jinn,” I said.

“Yours?”

The one word hung in the air, and Louella cringed as if she wished she could suck it right back into her mouth. It was no secret that Tyler was bound to me. I suspected the whole of Xander’s kingdom and most of the supernatural community were aware of the fact. That word—
yours
—it just rubbed me the wrong way. Tyler was bound to me, sure. But he wasn’t
mine
anymore.

“Kade’s Jinn is in the penthouse.” At least, I hoped she was. Pausing at the crosswalk, I waited for Julian and Asher to catch up. “I’m not taking any chances. Kade might show up. Adira might leave to meet him.” I swallowed down the bitter taste of betrayal that rose up in my throat. “And Tyler might be more involved than I think. We can’t take anything for granted at this point. We have to have every angle covered. This city is too goddamned big, and Kade could be hiding right under our noses. I want his ass put down once and for all. If you see anything suspicious, call me. If Adira leaves, follow her. If Tyler—”

“Okay,” Louella said, holding up her hands. “I get it. What if we get hit with option D?”

I raised my brows in question.

Louella leveled her gaze to mine. “All of the above.”

“Then split up.” It wasn’t the best option. But I wasn’t sending my team out to fight, just to observe. “Don’t engage anyone on your own. That goes for Liam and Myles, too. Get your asses back to Xander’s if you’re made. You keep an eye out and report back to me. N
othing more, nothing less.”

“You think there’s a chance of things going south?” Liam asked. He rolled his massive shoulders and stretched his neck from side to side until it cracked. I looked him up andkedla leveled down from his tattooed bald head and gauged ears right down to his size thirteen boots. Damn, he was scary.

“Kade’s dangerous enough,” I remarked. “But with a Jinn at his beck and call”—I shrugged— “anything’s possible.”

Without another word, I melted into shadow. The remaining members of my team followed suit as we crossed the street and headed for Belltown. I still wasn’t thrilled about having Asher tag along. My patience had been shot to hell hours ago, and if he decided to get cocky with me, I doubted I’d be able to restrain myself. At this point, the only thing that was going to make me feel better was a good old-fashioned ass-kicking. And if the night went according to plan, Kade was going to be on the receiving end.

Chapter 23

W
ith as much as I’d paid Levi over the past year, I wondered why he even bartended at all. Then I noticed a cute twenty-something in a leather micromini and scarlet bustier whisper something in his ear before she slid a folded piece of paper into his shirt pocket. He looked past her, though, returning the flirty smile of a guy who looked like he’d just gotten off work at some swanky downtown office. Jesus. That preppy bastard got a
shit ton
of play from every angle. No wonder he kept his part-time gig.

The Pit was slow, even for a Thursday night. Tiny sat on a stool near the cash register, nursing a beer. His face lit up with recognition, and he waved.

“Hey, Darian,” Levi called from the end of the bar. He retrieved the slip of paper from his shirt pocket, read the digits/note/shameless solicitation Miniskirt had passed him. A wicked grin spread across his Abercrombie poster boy face. “I’ll be with you guys in just a second.”

Julian looked around the bar; it seemed he enjoyed people-watching as much as I did. Asher, on the other hand, kept his gaze locked on me as we made our way to my favorite table in the back of the bar. His expression was severe, and tension seemed to cling to him like beads of sweat.

“What’s your problem?” I settled myself into a chair. “You’re making me nervous.”

Asher sat down beside me, leaning in toward my face. “You’re taking the long way when we have a shortcut solution.”

“Oh, yeah?” I remarked.

Asher’s gaze shifted to Julian, who’d taken a seat across from me. “We should kill the female. Without his Jinn, Kade will be easy to take down.”

Julian shrugged as if to say,
Why not?
But I couldn’t do that to Tyler. Killing Adira would destroy him. I had to try to find a way around the rules—no matter how much it would hurt me. “No,” I said, looking Asher dead in the eye. “No shortcuts. We’re doing this my way.”

“Even if your way sucks?” Asher mumbled.

“I’m sick of your shit!” I shoved my chair away from the table and stood so that I loomed over Asher’s face. “Get out of my fucking face and get your ass back to Xander’s.” I lowered myself so our noses were almost touching. “Now.”

Asher stood, slowly rising out of his seat until he towered over me. Stuphair awayid little shit. If he thought being bigger and taller intimidated me, I’d show him how I felt about that. With my fist.

“Whoa, am I interrupting something?” Levi put his hands between us and eased me back by the shoulders. “Let’s just calm down and take a little breather.”

I broke my gaze from Asher’s and took a deep breath. My hands shook with rage, and I stuffed them into my pockets, more to keep from popping Ash in the nose than anything. I wouldn’t pick a fight inside the bar, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t put him in his place later. That blond-haired pain in the ass was more trouble than he was worth.

“Take a seat,” I said to Asher, just barely loud enough for him to hear. “And keep your mouth shut. You make so much as a fucking peep and I’m going to lay you out.”

His expression softened, and his brow furrowed. I could see stress—worry—etched in every line. I needed to get to the bottom of what had Asher acting like an idiot. Too bad I didn’t have a free second to deal with my own problems, let alone his.

Julian hadn’t moved a muscle since Asher and I squared off. He lounged in his chair, looking completely at ease. Only the hard line of his mouth and the wary concern in his blue eyes suggested that he was just as worried as I was. Levi settled in, and all eyes shifted to him. Music pulsed around us, the heavy bass coming alive with its own heartbeat. A few humans danced, drank, and laughed, all but oblivious. But I swear to god, the anticipation in our small circle was so intense, you could have heard a pin drop.

“First of all,” Levi drawled, “I’m going on record here by saying that this doesn’t sit well with me. Which is why I’m giving you this information for free. And if this comes back to me, I’m going to deny that we ever had this conversation. Feel me?”

I nodded slowly, wondering what sort of rules Levi might be breaking by revealing this information. From my own experience with their bonds and magic, I knew all too well that the Jinn coveted their secrets like an invaluable treasure. I could only imagine what would happen if they found out that Levi was handing out little golden nuggets of knowledge. “What conversation?” I asked innocently.

Levi smiled and settled back in his seat. “When a Jinn is compelled to bind himself to a Charge, he secures a part of his essence to the Charge’s soul. This can be done with or without the Charge’s knowledge.”

Yeah, no shit.
Ty had bound himself to me and I’d been none the wiser. Levi gave me a strange look, as if my thoughts were written all over my face. I cleared my throat and looked away.

“By ‘giving’ a part of himself to the Charge,” Levi continued, “it creates the connection that allows a Jinn to sense when their Charges are in danger and helps them to locate that person, even when they’re separated by hundreds—even thousands—of miles. That soul connection also links the Jinn’s magic to the Charge’s wishes, thereby granting with absolute certainty only the wishes that are needs and not simply selfish wants. That same binding is what makes them vulnerable.”

Levi looked uncomfortable as hell, like revealing this information would cause him to self-destruct or some shit. “So if you kill whoever the Jinn is bound to, the Jinn will actually die?” I’d been told, more or less, but having it confirmed sent a pulse of adrenaline through my bloodstream. I’d thought of the timghtbound toes I’d been knocking on death’s door. Instances where I’d put my own safety second to someone else’s. I’d risked Tyler’s life right alongside mine.

“Not exactly,” Levi said with a shrug. “A Jinn can choose the level to which he wants to bind himself to a Charge. The need to protect is sort of like instinct, so the Jinn is compelled to answer the call of the Charge’s soul. But a certain level of compatibility is necessary for a binding to be successful. A Jinn is larger than life or death or physical embodiment. Whether or not a Jinn’s existence ends with the death of their Charge relates directly to the level of the binding.”

Level of the binding?
What the hell was that supposed to mean? “This is news to me,” I said. “Are you telling me a Jinn can choose how he’s bound to a Charge? Sort of like gold – or platinum-level protection?”

Levi laughed. “That’s a good way to look at it. I’ll have to remember that one.”

“So let’s just say for the sake of argument, a Charge gets the basic package. A silver-level binding. If the Charge dies . . . ?”

“The Jinn would probably be fine,” Levi finished for me. “I can’t say for sure, though, Darian. I know a lot, but I don’t know it all. Their magic is supersecret, which is why I’m going to forget about this conversation the second you walk out the door. A Jinn anchors his essence to the Charge in a sense. A Jinn doesn’t just see a Charge as a person or creature. A Jinn can see the Charge’s soul—bared for what it is. Good, bad, or in between; therefore, the compatibility comes down to the nature and essence of the Jinn, be it good, bad, or indifferent.”

I could hope that Adira did the smart thing and bound herself to Kade at the economy level. But aside from outright asking, I couldn’t be sure. Which was why my best option at this point was to try to break Adira’s bond with Kade. “So how is it that a Jinn’s magic and existence doesn’t fade when the Charge breaks the bond?”

Levi fidgeted with a cocktail napkin, tearing off little shreds. “When the bond is made, the Jinn is essentially imposing his will on the charge.” He shook his head as if trying to find the right words. “That’s not really right. It’s more like a donation. Protection . . . wish-granting . . . all of it. It’s a gift of magic—a part of his soul—given of the Jinn’s free will. When the bond is broken, I guess it works just the opposite. The Charge is giving back the gift, essentially rejecting it, of her own free will.”

It wasn’t lost on me that Levi had been referring to his generic Jinn as
he
and the generic Charge as
she
. He’d dissected the construct of Tyler’s bond and laid it out for me in tiny, understandable pieces. The bond that Ty had made with me—that gift of magic—was nothing less than a piece of his very essence. His soul. My heart ached at the knowledge that, at one time, Tyler had thought me worthy of that gift. Once, he’d wanted to give
himself
to me.

“How do you break it?” I asked, my voice thicker than I liked. I forced my ragged emotions to the back burner. I couldn’t afford the luxury of regret right now.

“Basically,” Levi said with a sigh, “you just . . . will it away. Because a Jinn binds himself to a Charge on a soul-deep level, the bond has to be broken in pretty much the same way. Just as a binding is made from an instinctual urge, the bol u Becausend is broken from an instinctual rejection. The Charge may even break the bond without consciously realizing it. The thing about a Jinn bond is this: it’s as easy to break as it is hard. So much of the binding is made on a subconscious or spiritual level. Just as Jinn can sense an inherent need in a Charge’s soul when granting wishes, the Jinn can sense when a charge no longer needs their wishes granted or protection offered. A bond is automatically broken the moment a Charge no longer needs the Jinn. And due to the soul-deep change that would have to take place in order for the Charge to reject the Jinn, once broken, the bond can never be remade.”

Ugh
. Levi had told me, after all. He’d said that if I wanted the bond broken, I’d know how to do it. Breaking my bond with Tyler could never be as simple as a set of spoken words or giving back his ring. I had to truly want it. No, I had to
need
it. Deep down in the pit of my being. And in the process, I’d be rejecting Tyler—everything he was—proving that he meant nothing to me.

“Then we’re back at square one,” I said, massaging my temples with the tips of my fingers. “Because, how in the hell can I possibly manipulate Kade into believing that he should break his bond with Adira?”

Levi rapped his knuckles against the tabletop in a nervous rhythm. “That’s where Pamela comes in.”

I quirked a brow. “Pamela?”

“My ex. You know, the witch. She’s agreed to help, but, Darian, it’s going to cost you.”

A cold lump of dread coiled in my stomach. “How much?”

Levi’s eyes met mine. “Maybe more than you’re willing to pay.”

From the corner of my eye, I noticed Asher shift in his seat. His jaw was set, and the muscle in his cheek ticked. “You don’t want to go down that road, Darian,” he said. “Dabbling in witchcraft isn’t going to get you anything but a shitload of trouble.”

Julian nodded in agreement. “I gotta say, Darian, this doesn’t sound like a good idea.”

I didn’t know the first thing about witchcraft. But I didn’t like the worry in Julian’s or Asher’s expressions. “Have either of you got a better one?”

Julian shrugged. “Kill the Jinn, like Asher said. Once Kade is unprotected, he’ll be weakened and easy to take down.”

I ignored Julian, and my better judgment. “What’s the price?” I asked Levi again.

“That’s the thing about a witch’s magick,” he said. “It depends on the person, and everyone’s price is different.”

I slumped in my seat, the bitter taste of defeat rising in my throat. “I take it we’re not talking money.”

Levi shook his head. “It’s never just about the money. Sorry, Darian. I wish this could be an easy fix for you.”

It never is
, I thought ruefully. “Can I see Pamela tonight?”

Asher shot up in his chair straight as a soldier, his eyes practically burning a hole through Levi as he waited for a response. “Not tonight,” Levi answered. “I’ll get ahold of her, and she’ll arrange a meeting. Might not be for a couple of days. She’ll have to prepare for whatever you decide you want her to do.”

Well, damn
. That took a crap on my plan of wrapping this up tonight. Anya would be off bed rest by tomorrow morning. And then my evening would be occupied with Xander’s damned dignitary ball. This was not the turn of events I was expecting. “Why a couple of days? Does she have to stock up on eye of newt or something?”

Levi gave me a wan smile. “If only.”

Man, this situation got more depressing by the second. I was going to need a boatload of medication to get through it. “Okay, now that that’s settled, let’s talk Cambions. What do you know?”

“What do you want to know?”

“How to kill the fuckers, for starters,” Julian said.

“They die easy enough.” Levi motioned for a cocktail waitress. “You guys want anything?”

“I’ll take a rum and Coke,” Julian said, like we were just a bunch of college buddies shooting the breeze.

“Water,” Asher grunted. Guess he wasn’t as chummy as the rest of us.

“Water for me, too,” I said in answer to Levi’s questioning glance.

“Hey, Jill,” Levi called to the cocktail waitress. “Would you bring us a rum and Coke, a Stella, and two waters?”

Jill gave him what must have been her fuck-me smile and started off toward the bar.
Give me a break.
Was there anyone here who
didn’t
want to climb into bed with Levi? “Can we get back to business, please?”

Levi flashed a mischievous grin. “You’re no fun lately.”