Torn From the Shadows (15 page)

“What exactly do you want from me, Mr. Sallas?”
 

Henry Sallas was a middle-aged man with graying sideburns and what appeared to be more frown than smile lines on his olive-skinned face and around his hollow, dark eyes. He was clean-shaven, wearing a dull suit with a white shirt and faded tie. All his clothes seemed big for him, as if he’d recently lost weight and hadn’t had a chance to buy anything that fit. He certainly looked nothing like the man I remembered.

He glanced at his hands, which rested on the tabletop, before meeting my gaze again. He opened his mouth to speak, but abruptly stopped. He did the same thing a few times before finally answering my question. “As you already know, what happened inside the Council in February was…unfortunate.”

“Unfortunate?” I couldn’t help the anger bubbling inside me. “Mace tried to shatter the boundaries between this patch and the ghostly one, and in the process killed a lot of innocent catchers.” Not to mention the damage he’d caused to the ones who’d survived—Ebony was left broken, three teenagers were left homeless, and I was still looking over my shoulder.

“I realize that, and I’m very sorry about what happened to those poor girls.”

“Where were you that night?” I asked. “Why didn’t you do something to stop Mace? Why didn’t you try to protect them?” I refused to think about not being able to protect Juliet while interrogating him.

The chuckle that escaped him sounded dry and brittle. “If Mason is so easy to stop, why haven’t
you
managed it?”

Maybe because he’s been MIA for months and has now revealed himself as a fucking phantom!
“If it wasn’t for me”—I decided to leave Professor Claude Spooker out of this for the moment—“the damage would have been a lot worse.” Did this man initiate contact so we could throw accusations at each other? I took a deep breath, to calm my rapidly beating heart, and released it slowly. “Mr. Sallas, did you want to meet so we can play the blame game? If you did, I need to get home.” I made a move to slide out. I had better things to do and enough crap to deal with already.

Besides, Papan should be home by now.

He held up a hand. “No, wait. That’s not why I called you.”

“Then tell me what you want, because right now nothing about the Council is friendly to me. You people hired one of my friends to spy on me earlier this year and then when he refused to help, you hired someone else. You can’t blame me for being suspicious of your motives.”

“Miss Fox, if you let me explain—”

I cut him off. “Before you continue, I want you to know that I won’t listen to your lies or excuses, and I’m certainly not willing to run back into the fold. I paid my debt, and I want nothing more to do with any of you. So if there’s a point to this meeting, just spill it.”

Henry nodded knowingly. “I understand and respect your reluctance, but this matter affects you directly.” He toyed with one of the napkins. “I take it you’ve made arrangements to continue your business without needing to visit the Tower.”

“Maybe.” I wasn’t going to reveal all of my cards.

“Fair enough,” he said with a nod. “As you know, the Council started out as an honest committee dedicated to helping and nurturing catchers, while keeping spooks in line.” He paused for a moment. “Rochelle Spooker was a good woman with good intentions that were ripped away from her.”

At the mention of Roe’s birth name, my heart jolted. “What happened to Rochelle? As far as I know, her disappearance was as mysterious as her father’s.” The lie slid from my mouth easily, but I had to hear his answer and see his reaction.

His eyes glazed over, and as soon as they did, I knew this man had been a part of both the professor’s demise and Roe’s expulsion of power from the organization he’d created.

“I—”

“There’s no need to answer. Your reaction told me what I wanted to know.” I licked my lips and curled my hands into fists. Luckily, they were at my sides resting on the seat, or I would’ve reached over and whacked him one.

“I’m no angel and I’ve had a hand in just about everything that has happened at the Council,” he paused for a second, watching me. “Corruption, power and wealth are great motivators and the five of us have relished in it—at the expense of others—for far too long.”

“So you finally grew a conscience and want someone else to do the dirty work for you?”

He slammed his palms on the tabletop so hard the gem jumped and several people looked around as if they’d noticed the commotion. He leaned forward, eyes dark and glinting as he stared me down. “Make no mistake, my conscience has been nagging at me for years. I was just too weak to listen, too lazy to oppose what the others so happily welcomed…but there’s a line every man has that cannot be crossed, and I’ve just about reached it.”

“What the fuck is going on over there?”

Henry sat back, once again staring at his hands. “The scales are about to tip and the precarious balance is ready to topple. That’s why I needed to see you, to let you know that if you don’t take care of the problem at the Council very soon, it’s all going to go to hell.”

“How?” I asked. “Tell me what that bastard plans to do next. Is he even alive?” The fact the
Obscurus
freaks hadn’t bothered me for so many months was really starting to bite on my nerves, but I knew the truth about Mace now and wanted to see if Henry was going to lie to my face about him.

“Of course Mason is alive. He can’t die.”

“What does that mean?” Was this before or after the phantom thing?

“It means that he’s virtually immortal.” Henry sighed. “Sure, he might be able to transition into other states, but he won’t die. Not in the traditional sense. Mason Clamber can’t die until someone traps his soul inside something strong enough to hold it for all eternity.”

“You make him sound like a boogeyman.”

“That’s because he is.” He shook his head. “No, he’s worse. I’ve been looking into some possibilities, and the closest I’ve found to entrap him is a witch bottle.”

I didn’t want to talk about that asshole anymore. “What’s going on at the Tower? You mentioned something about trapped energy.”

He nodded. “Let me ask you something, do you feel ill whenever you step inside the Council?”

“Yes, but that place has always made my skin crawl.” I didn’t mention the nosebleeds, headaches or nausea.

“There’s a reason for that.”

“What?”

“It’s all the spook energy trapped inside one place. It’s not good for anyone,” he said with a stern shake of his head. “I know Mason has plans for it, but as we saw during the portal incident, it can literally blow up in our faces and I refuse to take any part in it.”

“All that energy is from the spooks that were supposed to be banished, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is.”

“So you’re not talking about spooks inside holding cells waiting for judgment? You’re talking about something else.” I needed to understand the situation.

He shook his head. “I’m talking about a multitude of dangerously trapped spook energy inside the foundations of the building, deep within the ley lines that crisscross it. And you need to expel it—expel all of them to their rightful place in Tartarus.”

Roe once mentioned that misbehaving ghosts who were banished were meant to go to a specific patch on the other side. I just hadn’t figured it would be there. According to Greek mythology, Tartarus was a place worse than Hell.

“How can I do that? I don’t even know where they are!”

“I can tell you, I can get you inside…”

“I told you I’m not going back there.”

“There’s no other way. Miss Fox, you have to do this.”

It took me a few silent moments to digest what he was saying. All of my worst fears about the spooks damned to banishment had just been confirmed by an insider. A man who’d lived his life by taking advantage of others. I didn’t want to go anywhere near the Council by principal alone, but I couldn’t let this ride out. If what he claimed was true, Mace would never stop trying to use these monsters as ticking time bombs.

I can’t let this happen.

I had to swallow my fear, my pride and prejudice in order to do this.

“Fine,” I finally said with a determined nod. “I’ll do it. You just need to get me into the building without anyone seeing me, and show me where they’re being held.”

“Excellent.” He sat up straighter. “I can tell you their location right now—”

I leaned closer to make sure I didn’t miss what he was about to say when the sound of earth-shattering glass filled the diner. A second later, Henry slumped forward. His head slammed against the tabletop so hard the gem tumbled to the floor, destroying the spell.

“Henry,” I whispered, even though I knew he was already gone. His blood was all over my face, arms and hands.

I looked up, across the diner and out the gap that used to be a plate-glass window.

Vixen—aka Anna Smith—stood on the other side with a black gun still pointed in my direction. What was
she
doing here, and why would she shoot this man? Was she going to shoot me too?

Time slowed as we glared at each other, waiting to see who would make the next move.

She sneered before shuffling away from the window, just as the shattered glass shards rose from the tiled floor and began to connect back together.

I can’t let her get away with this.

I pushed out of the booth and whispered, “Henry.”

For some reason, even though the Look-Away Gem’s cloak was broken, the other patrons acted as if nothing had happened. As if a woman hadn’t just killed a man in cold blood. Why, I didn’t know or care. I had to chase Vixen.

“He’s not going to answer you, hon. He’s as dead as a doornail.”

A familiar waitress blocked my way out. She was wearing her usual uniform and like everyone else seemed too calm for someone who was inspecting a dead man.

She tucked her notebook and pen into her apron pocket, leaned closer and grabbed a handful of Henry’s hair, tugging him upward until he was sitting against the backrest of the booth. Both of his eyes were closed and the neat bullet hole between his eyes spelled out what I’d already suspected.

“See,” she said, letting his hair go. His head slumped against the table. “He’s dead.”

I took a few breaths, swallowed the lump lodged in my throat and managed to say, “Did you…did you see who did it?”

“Sorry, hon, I didn’t,” she said, lowering her gaze.
 

She’s lying.
I wasn’t sure why, but this waitress knew more than she was letting on.

She pointed a pale hand at the booth I’d just been sitting on. “But you’re damn lucky the bullet just missed you.”

“What?”

“Take a look for yourself.”

I turned around and spotted the round hole. “Shit.” She was right. The bullet had gone right through Henry and was now stuck inside the fabric. My head was spinning.
I have to get my hands on Vixen.

“See what I mean?”
 

“I need to get her!” I tried to push past the waitress but she wouldn’t budge and was shaking her head.

“You need to sit down and take it easy for a second.”

“No, I—”

“Chasing the shooter won’t achieve anything,” she said. “Well, except getting you killed.”

“We need to call the police—”

“No,
we don’t.
”

“But, he was shot.” I instantly thought of Gareth. “I know a cop who can—”

“I said no cops.” The waitress looked over her shoulder and shouted something unintelligible towards the kitchen. When she turned her focus to me, she placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. “We can take care of this guy.”

I nodded, speechless.

“Don’t you worry about anything, okay hon?” She squeezed my shoulder and moved aside as a short man with a limp made his way towards the booth with a bucket and rag. Another had a pen knife in hand and started digging the bullet out of the booth. He handed the bullet to the waitress and she pocketed it.

“What’s going to happen to him?” I asked, pointing at Henry.
 

“We have to relocate him. We can’t have anyone finding him here.” She turned to the men. “Guys, you need to dump the body as far from the diner as you can. Preferably somewhere near the Spook Catcher Council.”

I watched as the short man wiped the table and then the seat behind Henry.

“Do you need me to call anyone?” the waitress asked.

“No, I’m fine. I drove here.”

“Like you always do, right?”

I nodded absently. My brain was working slower than usual. It took me another few seconds to get my body moving and out of the booth. As soon as the man was done cleaning, he waved over the other one and together they grabbed Henry and took him towards the kitchen. And no one even bothered to look up to see what the commotion was all about.

“Does anyone know you’re here?” the waitress asked.

“Yeah, my boyfriend knows.”

“You need me to call the pretty PI?”

I didn’t even want to question how she knew who my boyfriend was since Papan and I had never come here together. I’d suggested we stop by several times but he was never interested and always suggested other places. I’d never thought anything of it, but now I was starting to wonder if there
was
a reason why Papan didn’t want to come to this diner.