[M__M 03] Misery Loves Company (22 page)

“Legends and history often go together, particularly where magical lore is concerned. What I want to know…” he sat up and cupped his coffee mug, “…is why you’re interested in this if your curiosity wasn’t sparked by the case you’re on?”

Briefly, I told him about my new deal with Gunthra. He had a few choice words about that, but he found her interest in the Vessels as strange as I had. In return, he told me about his meeting with Dezzi and Assym last night.

He’d been there as backup for her, along with a couple other particularly threatening satyrs. Devon had been left out in case the meeting didn’t go over well and he had to take on Dezzi’s duties during the fallout. Although Dezzi hadn’t shared any details about what I was, nor her offer about the council seat, she’d threatened Assym with something—here, Lucen refused to provide details—and it sounded like Assym was going to back off. Temporarily anyway. According to Lucen, he wanted desperately to know how I’d done what I’d done, and as long as that was a secret, the satyrs had power over him.

I wanted to make a snarky comment about pred politics, but I held my tongue. I was a pred, after all. The more I thought about it, the more I accepted that Devon was right. I had to own it. That led me down another path, and I told Lucen about my conversation with Steph.

“You blew her mind, little siren. That’s all.”

“What if, in the end, she hates me?”

He took my hands. “She’s not going to hate you. She just needs to reconcile two very different opinions. Cognitive dissonance is a bitch, as you should know. Give her time.”

I sighed, kicking one of Tom’s books aside. “What if that’s in short supply? What if this prophecy is on a collision course with us?”

“What if you get hit by a bus tomorrow? No sense worrying about what you can’t change. But on the off-chance that the bus is coming, you shouldn’t wait to thank me for my extensive brainpower.”

“Brawn and brains all in one.” I climbed onto his lap and draped my arms over his shoulders. “How
did
I get that lucky?”

He rested his hands on my hips, sliding his thumbs along the bare skin at my waistband. “I don’t know, but I think you should show me some appreciation.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

I could think of only one reason why Gunthra might be interested in the Vessels of Making, and I suspected she wouldn’t be pleased when I brought it up.

She already was not pleased because I arrived at her house with Misery strapped to my hip again. “It’s unnecessary and unfriendly of you to arrive at my house carrying a lethal weapon.”

I tapped my fingers against my legs. “I wasn’t aware we were friends, therefore I don’t see how unfriendly applies.”

Gunthra could make a face every bit as disdainful as her butler. Impressive. “You are in no danger from Assym or the sylphs. I heard that Dezzi had a rather forceful chat with him last night concerning your safety. Seems she intends to bring you into her fold.”

I held my face impassive, hoping it would quiet whatever errant emotions might give something away. “Dezzi was clear with me that the choice to join her domus was mine.”

“And yet she’s taken up on your behalf. That suggests a rather strong interest in you. I think she’s recruiting you.”

I tapped my fingers harder, studying my nails as a distraction. I should have known Gunthra would want to discuss recent events. No doubt she was hoping to get me to spill satyr secrets.

“It would be quite a coup for her to have a satyr in her domus who was also trusted by the Gryphons,” Gunthra continued. “I’ve never heard of such a thing. Plus with your unique abilities, you’d make an important asset. Assym is seething with curiosity as to how you did it.”

I flattened my hands to stop the damn tapping. “You haven’t told him?”

“I don’t give out information for free.”

Of course not.

“Speaking of which, do you have any for me?” She crossed her legs and settled back against her cushions.

“I have some, but it might not be anything you don’t already know. The Gryphon library here in Boston wasn’t exactly teeming with details. I had to put in interlibrary loans requests.”

A muscle in Gunthra’s ear twitched. She had no reason not to believe, seeing as she could tell if I were lying, so maybe she was displeased by the ineptitude of the Gryphon’s Boston librarian. “Tell me what you did find out.”

I wanted the name she owed me first, but I also knew better than to think I’d get it. So I recounted everything I’d read, as well as the information Lucen had given me. When I finished, Gunthra fell still.

“It occurred to me,” I said, watching her closely, “that the Vessels share a striking resemblance to the containers that your people and the sylphs must be using to store those addicts’ souls.”

I expected derision from her, or denial. Maybe that she’d want to deflect. But Gunthra merely nodded. “It is the same concept, although the Vessels were designed for a greater purpose. Much blood and sacrifice went into making them, far more than what would be required to make the containers you’re searching for. The scale is nowhere near the same.”

“You believe they’re real, not a legend.”

“I know they’re real. That doesn’t make them any less of a legend.” She smiled.

I acknowledged the point with a grunt. “Fair enough. You said they were made for a purpose. What purpose? Why do you want to learn more about them?”

“Knowledge.” She raised one hand. “Price.” She raised the other, then clasped them together.

I flopped backward. “Fine, but if you know so much, what more were you expecting me to be able to tell you?”

“Where to find them, primarily. What they look like. How to use them. Also confirmation that what I believe is true actually is true. All of which, Miss Moore, you’ve failed to deliver.”

That was quite the list.

My hands clenched at my sides. “I told you everything I could find out, and you know I’m not lying. Maybe now that you’ve given me more to go on, I’ll have a better chance of discovering what you want when those books arrive from the library. But, meanwhile, I did what was requested. If you want more information than we originally agreed on, then tell me this—does your interest in the Vessels have anything to do with the containers your people used to steal those souls?”

Surprise flashed over Gunthra’s face, then she slammed her mask of indifference down on top of it. “I can’t tell you for sure, but I would certainly hope not.”

Then why do you want them?
My best—and only—idea was wrong.

“Just curious,” I said, trying to play it off as a random thought. “So what about your end of the deal. I’d like to get Eric Marshall’s soul back.”

Gunthra pressed her lips together. “You’re not lying about what you found, Miss Moore, but you’ve hardly done much. You haven’t given me anything that I wanted to know.”

“Our deal was that I’d tell you what I could learn by Sunday evening. I warned you that it might take longer than that to get information.”

“Yes, but Sunday evening was an artificial time limit stuck on this deal by you.”

“Doesn’t matter. I upheld my end.”

“Yes, it does matter.” Gunthra’s words ran together as she clenched her jaw. “You said you would hand over more information, though it might take longer.”

She wasn’t the only one on the verge of losing it. My fingers itched to caress my knife. There was no way in hell I was letting her get away with reneging on our deal. “I did say that, and I will hand it over. But first I want to know the name of your goblin,
as we agreed on
.”

“When you tell me all you could learn.”

I jumped up because I could not control my limbs any longer. “That wasn’t the wording we agreed upon.”

“That’s my interpretation of it.”

“Oh, this is a pile of salamander shit.” I smacked a pillow. It was that or lunge for her, and I couldn’t get away with that. “Forget it. You are not getting any more information out of me until I have Eric’s soul back in my possession. That is my priority. Not you and your nefarious history concerns. I don’t have time for this.”

“Fine.” Gunthra’s word came out like a punch, startling me. I held my breath as she stormed over to her mantel and picked up one of her glass-encased butterflies. She held it to her chest like it brought her comfort. “You realize what it means for a Dom to sell out her own people to the Gryphons?”

I crossed my arms. “Not exactly, no.”

“Our job as Dom is to protect those under us. If we can’t do that, we fail at our only job. It’s like selling out one of your children.”

“My heart breaks. Your child turned someone into a ghoul. What’s his name?”

“I tell you this, you’ll tell me what else you continue to learn?”

I chewed this over. It sounded an awful lot like what we’d originally agreed upon, but apparently Gunthra hadn’t expected me to walk if she’d tried to be sneaky. I couldn’t trust her anymore. “Yeah, okay, assuming your information pans out, that is. You’ll forgive me for being less than trusting at the moment.”

Gunthra clucked her tongue in disapproval, and I wanted to smack her more than ever. She was the one reneging on our deal. “Silas. He runs the dry-cleaning shop by the bookstore.”

That couldn’t be right. Silas didn’t sound like a goblin name. “This is the goblin that has Eric’s soul?”

Stiffly, Gunthra set the butterfly back. “No. This is the sylph who makes the containers that my goblin and the others used to capture those souls.”

“That was not—”

“At his place of business you’ll find the names of everyone to whom he sold those containers, along with evidence to support arresting him for doing it. Trust me, Miss Moore. Arresting Silas is a much greater victory than arresting a single goblin, and I won’t have betrayed my own people by pointing you toward him. I think that’s more than fair.”

I gritted my teeth. Much as I longed to pull Misery from its sheath and threaten the goblin’s name from Gunthra, I fought to keep my temper in check. “You know how long it will take the Gryphons to pull off a raid like that. How do I know you won’t tip off Assym?”

She sighed. “Because I have to assume if you don’t find what I’m telling you is there, you won’t continue to cooperate with my research. I am certain the Gryphons have records that will give me what I need, and unfortunately for both of us, you are the only person I know with the remotest chance of accessing them. So.” She raised her hands in defeat. “I won’t be tipping off Assym any time soon. His inability to control his people isn’t my problem.”

“Then let’s hope you’re right if you want anything else from me.”

“How did you get this information?” Bridget asked.

I paced in circles around my living room, holding my phone to my ear. Books were strewn all over, turning it into an obstacle course. “You told me to work my contacts in Shadowtown. I worked my contacts in Shadowtown. Can we leave it at that?”

“Jess, between this and the lack of details you provided yesterday about the sylphs, people are going to ask questions.”

I stepped over a history book. “Let them. Those are two completely unrelated events, and any questions about yesterday can be directed at Tom Kassin.”

“Who’s conveniently out of the country.”

“But on his way back.” Unfortunately. I adjusted the phone. “Look, it’s a good lead. I have reason to be confident about it. Are we following up on it or not?”

If not, I might have to do it by myself, and I didn’t see that going over well. Dezzi might have threatened Assym on my behalf, but the sylphs would not roll over and let me raid one of their businesses. And I was certain that, even if she was trying to court me, Dezzi would not back me up on such a hostile act.

“We are,” Bridget said. “But it’s a Sunday evening, so it’s going to take me a couple hours to pull a team together for something this big. I’ll get started as soon as we hang up.”

“Whoa, wait.” I reached for the wall as I tripped on the lamp cord. “Tonight? What about waiting for morning and catching everyone unawares?” That was how the Gryphons preferred to operate, and it made sense.

“This case is time sensitive. I don’t want to do this during prime pred hours either, but the sooner we have leads for tracking down the preds involved, the better. I don’t want to wait, and I don’t know enough about your informant to trust him.”

I grimaced. “I wouldn’t recommend it.”

“Then as soon as I get a team together and a warrant, we’re going. Can you come in? I assume you want to be a part of this.”

“You know me. Wouldn’t miss it.”

Before I went in, though, I stopped by Lucen’s. The Lair was closed since it was Sunday, but that was often the day he took care of backend business if he hadn’t had time during the week. So when he didn’t answer his apartment door, I knocked on the bar’s.

He opened it so fast he must have known I was there already. “Need to talk about your meeting with Gunthra?”

“Sort of. I’ve got to be quick.”

I didn’t owe the satyrs a warning about what was going to happen. Theoretically, they shouldn’t even be involved, and the gods knew how illegal tipping off Lucen must be. Yet my conscience wouldn’t let me leave Shadowtown without letting him know what was coming his way. If nothing else, I wanted him to be forewarned about what I was up to so there could be no arguments about it later.

Lucen stepped aside so I could enter the bar. He had boxes sitting out on the tables, the radio was on, and he seemed to be in the middle of some reorganizing.

“Hey, Jess.” One of the boxes slid to the side, and Devon’s face came into view.

I managed to hold in the whimper that crawled up my throat. Seeing him and Lucen together was too weird, and clearly not a situation I’d been prepared for.

It was also irrelevant at the moment, but that didn’t make the weird feeling any less intense, nor stop Devon from silently laughing at my reaction.

I pushed my hair behind my ears self-consciously. “I wanted to give you a heads-up. The Gryphons are coming this way. Not after you, but after a certain sylph. It shouldn’t concern you at all, in fact, but I feel this sense of obligation to warn you.”

I was pleased to see my news wiped the humor from Lucen’s face, but Devon just popped the cap off a fresh beer and shrugged. “Dezzi will be very happy that you’re so considerate. Care to offer more details?”

“Not really. I shouldn’t be telling you this much.”

Lucen pulled me close. “Why are we being invaded?”

“Illicit magic operation.”

Devon let out a whistle. “Better the sylphs than us. Those are always exciting. I should grab a rooftop seat to watch. Want to point me in the right direction?”

“Not really.”

“You found who’s making the containers?” Lucen asked, and I nodded. “Nothing we need to worry about then, but thanks, little siren.”

“No problem.” I kept my eyes averted from Devon as I kissed Lucen’s cheek. Would I have felt as much like a traitor if I hadn’t told him? Gryphons or satyrs—I needed to straighten out my loyalties. “I need to go.”

Lucen kissed me back, not content for anything so chaste, and I could feel Devon’s gaze on me. My cheeks flushed.

When I pulled away, he was watching me intently. “You’re going along?”

“My case. My lead. Hell, yes.”

Devon set his beer down and walked over. “Then you’d better give me a kiss for good luck too. The sylphs already have it in for you. You need to be careful.”

You need to be careful.
Devon’s words rang in my head as I joined Brian’s team in the Gryphons’ conference room.

Bridget had turned my information over to her supervisor, and over the past hour, the Gryphons he’d called had been trickling in. There were ten, not including me, many of whom I hadn’t seen before. For the most part, they weren’t investigators like Bridget. More like the equivalent of a SWAT unit.

In the past few minutes we’d apparently reached some critical mass because Brian dimmed the lights and the briefing started. After providing a summary of what we’d been up to, he turned the floor over to Bridget, who related what I’d told her. Then we moved on to the logistics and other practical matters—who the sylph was, where his business was located, what we were likely to find.

This amounted to a lot of speculation because this sylph didn’t have a criminal record. That made the people around me nervous, which made me jittery. When I asked Bridget about it, she explained that a lack of history meant they were dealing with the unknown.