Tempting Evil (23 page)

Part of me thought it might be better if I
didn’t
know. Because in not knowing, I could still believe there was the chance of a normal life—even if that chance was disappearing faster than water down a drain.

Yet I had to acknowledge that ignorance
wasn’t
bliss. I
had
to know what was going on, if only so I could plan a new future. To do that, I had to tell Jack everything. He needed to know, because I needed to learn control. I’d been at the Directorate long enough to know that anything else could be dangerous.

The elevator finally arrived and the guard shuffled me inside. I watched the numbers slide by, wondering who would meet me—Moss or Merle.

It turned out to be neither.

As the elevator bumped to a halt and the doors slid open, Starr himself was standing there.

Again the sense of something depraved, something so evil it was beyond contemplation, swamped me. My insides froze in terror, and for several seconds, even breathing had become a luxury I couldn’t afford. Because to breathe, I’d have to inhale the scent of him, and even
that
felt like poison.

“Sir,” the guard said, as he straightened slightly. “Poppy Burns, as you requested, sir.”

“Thank you, Tarrent.” Though Starr spoke to the guard, his gaze was on mine. In those bloodshot blue depths, I saw my death. Or at least, the specter of it if I twitched so much as a fingertip the wrong way. “Follow me, my dear.”

He turned around and walked across to the other doorway, providing me with the perfect target, the perfect moment. And it was tempting, so very tempting. My fingers twitched, and the urge to grab the guard’s gun and shoot the hell out of Starr, to splatter his brains across the walls and bring to an end his bloody reign, was fierce. But the mere fact that he’d offered such a target had warning bells ringing.

Only a man who felt very secure about his safety measures would do such a thing. I flexed my fingers, vaguely hoping it would ease some of the tension running through my limbs, and forced my feet forward, past the guard and into the hall.

Only to discover Moss and Merle waiting in the shadows, both of them armed. I wouldn’t have gotten past cocking the weapon, let alone firing a shot. They would have splattered
me
across the walls, not the other way around.

I stopped. The elevator doors closed and darkness settled in. I didn’t bother switching to infrared. Moss’s and Merle’s inherent corruption stung the air, and though their scents paled compared to the man in front of us, the smell of them was still so thick and foul it quickly seemed to clog my throat. I certainly didn’t need to see them to know where they were.

The doors to the second elevator swished open. Starr stepped inside and we followed. It wasn’t a tight squeeze and yet, as the doors slid closed again, panic surged. Suddenly I felt caged. Trapped.

Sweat began to trickle down my forehead. I licked my lips and tried to get a grip. I’d been in far worse situations—though right now, I was hard-pressed to think of one of them.

I glanced around. Met Merle’s gaze, and saw the heat there. Iktar was right—Merle hadn’t yet finished with me. I wasn’t sure whether to be happy or sad about that, though he was definitely the safer option of the two hetero men. The vibes I was picking up from Moss suggested anger—deep anger—over the events of the previous night.

I swiped at the moisture running down my hairline and silently prayed Starr would either open the second door or get this elevator moving.

He did the former rather than the latter, and as the metal doors swished open, I got my first glimpse of the room beyond. It was like stepping back into time and coming out in the Middle Ages, in one of those vast, lush banquet halls so often seen in movies. A large wooden table, complete with rough-hewn, high-backed wooden chairs, dominated the far end, and behind that, lush wall hangings that depicted images of beauty and brutality. The rest of the concrete walls were brown, painted so that they resembled wood planking. A small arena of sorts lay in the middle of the room, though its base was rushes rather than the sand of the bigger arena upstairs. Scattered cushions and heavily padded benches were strewn haphazardly around the rest of the room. Heavy metal sconces lined the painted walls, these so laden with wax it was easy to believe centuries of candlesticks might have burned there. The candles were the only source of light, and the flickering amber glow added to the brooding, old-style atmosphere.

It should have been inviting, if perhaps a little mysterious, but it was neither. The smell of death rode the air and, as my gaze skirted the room, the faces of those who had died here seemed to step out of the shadows, filling me with their despair, their anger.

I stumbled under the weight of it, and would have fallen if Merle hadn’t grabbed my arm. The sick heat of him ran across my skin, overrunning all other sensation. When I looked up, the wraiths had gone. Maybe they were never there. Maybe it was just my imagination, my fear.

Maybe.

I swallowed heavily and wrenched my arm from Merle’s grasp. He chuckled, a heavy sound that itched at my skin. “You won’t be pulling away like that later. You’ll be begging.”

“Yeah, that you’ve somehow learned some technique overnight.” The words were out before I could stop them, and Merle’s face darkened. Even more so when Moss chuckled softly.

“The wolf has spunk,” he said. “Perhaps I might have to steal her back. Sounds as if she’d appreciate a man with a little more style.”

“What I have claimed you cannot have,” Merle growled. “You had your opportunity. You were too busy looking for new talent in the recruits.”

Moss’s face went red, and little veins began to stand out in his forehead. “I am not the ass-lover amongst us—”

“No,” Starr interrupted calmly, “I am. And if you two can’t shut up, kindly remember that I am not overly fussy about my partners being willing and that I am more than ready to try someone I have until now considered off-limits.”

As threats went, it was pretty darn efficient. The two men continued to scowl at each other, but otherwise fell silent. But they’d obviously been around Starr a long time, and would have had plenty of firsthand experience about how ugly he could get. And how far he would go.

Starr walked across to the table and took the middle seat. Moss headed left, while Merle motioned me to the right. Lucky me got to sit between death and his righthand man. Not a place someone with a stomach as fragile as mine was feeling right now should really be.

As I pulled the chair up closer to the table, I looked up at the ceiling then around the walls again. There were no monitors to be seen, but there were guards hiding in the shadows. Surprisingly, they weren’t Iktar’s kin, but gray things with scaly skin and human extremities. They were armed—candlelight flickered across the barrels of the guns they held inhumanly still.

And they were watching me with that same unnerving stillness. One wrong move, one nod from Starr, and I was one splattered puppy, of that I had no doubt.

Starr clapped his hands, the sudden sound making me jump. Well-built men wearing skimpy thongs and little else appeared, all carrying either wine or food. It was a decadence I would normally have enjoyed, except for the fact Starr was so close. He watched them appreciatively for several seconds, then turned in his seat so he could look at me. And he wasn’t looking at me appreciatively—far from it.

A chill ran down my spine. This man suspected I was not who I was pretending to be, and I had no idea why.

“So tell me a little more about yourself.”

I shrugged, wishing like hell I had a coffee to hang on to, and yet at the same time, glad I didn’t. My hands were trembling so much I probably would have scalded myself. “I’m sure you’ve read my file.”

“I have, but it’s all dry details. I’m sure there is more to you than that.”

“And I assure you, there’s not.” I shoved my hands under my knees and let my gaze drift to the nearest waiter. I just couldn’t look at Starr for very long without my stomach turning at the vileness of his aura. At the deadness in his eyes. “The life of a thief is not very exciting.”

“These people you stole the jewelry off—Jamieson was their name, wasn’t it?”

I shrugged again, and did my best to ignore the sick trembling in my limbs. Sitting on my hands helped them, but it didn’t do much for the rest of me. “I have no idea. I don’t study the people before a job. I just study the house.”

“And the jewels? Who was your fence?”

Fucked if I knew. If it had been in the files, then I’d managed to skip that section of it. I glanced at him briefly. “Who said I’ve fenced them yet? Maybe they’re a little too hot right now.”

He grinned. He had an awful lot of teeth, many of them pointy. And not just the canines. “A nice safe answer.”

“The truth always is.” I thanked a dark-skinned man as he placed a platter of meats and bread in front of me. His gaze met mine, and the warm brown depths were haunted. This man might not be physically dead, but deep down where it really counted, only ice existed. Everything else had been ripped away by the perversity of the man beside me.

I blinked at the sudden insight, and had to clench my hands against the urge to reach out and touch him—reassure him—either physically or psychically. There was nothing I could do for this man, nothing I could do for the others in this room. Nothing other than destroy the foul thing who had ripped away their self-respect. Their humanity.

“But how do I know you are telling the truth?” Starr said.

My nerves were so bad I jumped at the sudden sound of his voice.

“You don’t.” I reached forward and plucked a slice of beef from the platter. “I don’t have the jewels with me, so there is no way I can prove anything right now.”

The beef was butter-tender, but it tasted as dry as sawdust. I swallowed with some difficulty, and reached for a glass of wine to wash the taste away.

“How very true. Unless, of course, you have a psychic at your disposal.”

He clapped his hands a second time. The elevator doors slid open, revealing Dia and a guard. At least she hadn’t lied about that. Which maybe meant she was playing this whole thing
completely
straight. Maybe it was just my suspicious nature suggesting otherwise.

She stopped in front of the table. Her stance was neither compliant nor aggressive, but somewhere between the two. “You called for me?”

She wasn’t looking at me, wasn’t looking at anyone except Starr. Never turn your back on a tiger snake in mating season, my brother had once warned me. Obviously, someone had told Dia the same thing.

“I want you to read this woman.” Starr’s hand came down on my forearm. It was only a brief touch, but even so, his flesh burned mine, leaving red marks long after his fingers had gone.

Dia nodded and glanced at me. Despite her stance, her expression was serene, businesslike. “Hold out your hand.”

Given I had little other choice, I obeyed. Her cool fingers wrapped around mine, and electricity leapt from her fingers to mine, tingling warmly across my skin. Something flickered in her unseeing eyes, and just for a moment, there was a tightening around her eyes and mouth. What that meant I had no idea, but I sure as hell planned to ask her later.

“I see much anger in this one.” She hesitated. “She has already fought with several of the women. She will fight with others before her time here is over. Rebellion is part of her nature.”

“A given, seeing she’s here as an arena whore,” Starr snapped. “Tell me who and what she is.”

Tension ran through me. If his instincts were suggesting I was a fake, why wasn’t he just getting rid of me? Doing this made no sense. But then, when did psychos ever play by the rules of the sane?

Dia’s fingers briefly tightened against mine, as if in reassurance, then she said, “She is a wolf who has been rejected by kin. She has fought to survive, and will continue to fight through the many life changes that are on the horizon. Her path will not be easy.”

“The who, Dia. Stop hedging.”

Dia hesitated, and for a moment I was so sure she was going to give me up that my heart lodged somewhere in my throat and every muscle twitched with readiness to leap from the chair.

“She is who she says she is,” Dia said softly. “A no-good lying thief. Lock up your valuables, Merle. She has already noted the gold watch resting on your side table.”

Starr laughed. It was an uncomfortable sound that itched at my ears. “Then the thief has taste problems. That watch is gaudiness at its worse.”

“But it would have a good street value.” Dia dropped my hand and stepped back. With her touch gone, the tingling sensation of electricity quickly died. I wasn’t sure whether to be happy or sorry about that. At least her touch offered warmth in a room that was so, so cold.

She rubbed her forehead wearily and looked at Starr. “Is that all?”

“For now. I will have my reading later. After we go for our little walk.”

Though her expression didn’t change, a wave of anger and hatred rolled across my skin, drowning my senses for too many seconds. Dia wasn’t playing games—not with me, anyway. And she would do anything to get her child free
and
destroy this man.

She nodded and walked back to the door. Once she’d gone, Starr looked my way. “Perhaps we should have some entertainment while we eat?”

Though it was phrased as a question, he didn’t wait for an answer, simply clapped his hands again. Talk about taking the role of a king to the extreme. The curtains on the door to our left swept open and two men entered. The first was a black giant, so tall he had to bend almost at the waist to get through the doorway. And he was big width-wise, too, with hands and feet the size of paddles, thighs thick enough to support a jetty, and shoulders that just seemed endless. Unfortunately, the old saying of big hands, big dick didn’t apply here. My thumb would have been bigger than his appendage. Maybe that was the reason for all the muscles—maybe he got tired of the jokes.

The second man, though not small, almost seemed dwarfed by comparison. He was lean but muscular, a man who walked light and with understated power, like that of a predator on the hunt. His brown skin glowed like dark honey in the subdued lighting, and his expression was that of a man confident in his own strength, his own power…Shock rolled through me as he drew closer.