Wrath: The Niteclif Evolutions, Book 2 (22 page)

Silence. I kept my back to him so he could have a minute to either strangle me or compose himself. “That’s about right,” he finally said. “What would you like to do?”

“I’d like to leave the testing of the hair for later. I think it’s best if we use the daylight to visit the sites where we know the girls have been killed, at least locally. We can look at the approach, the places someone could hide, the lighting—things I don’t have a freaking clue about but that I’m willing to take a stab at.”

He winced.

“Sorry. Bad pun. Unintentional, but still bad.”

Hellion reached for my hand and I reached back. It was the most I could offer. We headed for the door.

We started at the Pemberton because it was closest to Hellion’s home. The sidewalk had been washed down well by the daily rains, but there were still slight rusty-looking stains on the concrete. My stomach plummeted, and I fought to hold on to the remainders of my lunch.

Feeling like a complete fool, I looked over our single page of notes that covered all the crimes. According to this, police believed the woman had been walking toward the hotel entrance. She’d been taken down at the valet entrance, located between street lamps on a relatively dark side of the building. The only immediate sources of light that had been available were security lights along the side of the building. The killer would have been able to steal up behind her with ease, but had she turned at the last moment—before the killer could either hide or reach her—she would have seen the killer’s face without difficulty.

I stood facing the entrance and had Hellion walk down the sidewalk, ducking into doorways and moving as quietly as a large man can. It was surprisingly easy to see how she might have been snuck up on in the dark.

“So what do you think?” I asked as he made his way up to me.

“She would have been far enough from the entrance, and it would have been dark enough between security lights, that no one would have been likely to see anything. If you add supernatural abilities of cloaking or stealth, she never knew anyone was there.” He looked as disgusted as I felt.

“She never had a chance,” I repeated, frustrated. “Is there any way you can trace the magic that might have been used?”

“No, sweetheart. Magic fades like a scent on the air. So after this long, there’s no way to know what was here with any certainty. I would if I could.”

I reached out to him and we grasped each other’s hands, the sensation of being anchored in each other a comforting one. “It’s all right. I’m just floundering here, hoping for some quick fix to the problem and knowing it’s not going to happen.” I took a deep breath and nearly had to chew the London air to get it down. There was something to be said for the Irish countryside.

I took my hand back and walked down the sidewalk, looking for something, anything, that would give me a damn start on this nightmare of a case. Lying in the crevice between sidewalk and street, its color darkened from rain and grime, was a long piece of blue thread. I snatched it up and held it out triumphantly to Hellion. I had no idea what to do with it, but it was a start.

“What do you want to bet it matches the blue thread that bound the hair in the letter?” I asked.

“Chances are good you’re right.” He held out his hand and I gave him the thread. He mumbled something, and the grime and dampness disappeared, leaving only the vibrant blue thread in his hands.

“You’re pretty handy with this stuff. Can you handle red wine stains?” I teased.

“Funny girl. It’s all elemental—water, dirt, cotton thread—or it wouldn’t have worked.”

I thought about what he said.
Elemental.
“So if it had been man-made…”

“I’d have had to get the Tide pen just as you would have,” he responded dryly.

Shaking my head, I reached out and took the thread back, wrapping it around my finger to make a small bundle before shoving it in the pocket of my jeans. “Let’s try another site. Maybe the one…maybe the one near Bahlin’s.” His name hurt to hear, and I did my best not to show any emotion, but I’m pretty sure I failed miserably.

Hellion said nothing, just held out his hand to me and said, “I’ll drive.”

We rode the short distance to the park near Bahlin’s apartment. The back of my neck felt hot and my stomach hurt. If we ran into him, I was pretty sure I’d just walk away, but only if I could keep from running. Cowardly? More like self-preservation. Scanning the area for any sign of the blue weyr or their leader, I crawled out of Hellion’s coupe and began walking swiftly for the park. “Do you know where she was found?” I called out over my shoulder, never breaking my stride.

“Maddy? Slow down, sweetheart. He’s not here.”

My pace faltered, and I stopped. “Are you sure?” I asked softly.

“I’m positive. He’s been seen at his family’s home in Scotland since he tried to enforce his claim to you.”

“Are you sure?” I asked again, a little more firmly. “Because I’d hate to have to brawl in the streets.” I smiled at him, trying to soften the blow my initial fear had caused him.

Hellion’s lip twitched and finally broke into a grin. “I’d like to see you brawl.”

Remembering Clay and the price he’d paid for forcing his hand, I looked away and shook my head. “No, you wouldn’t. Trust me.”

Hellion took three large steps, caught me by the elbow and spun me around to face him. Crushing me to his chest, he spoke to me quickly and quietly in Gaelic. I had no idea what he was talking about, but I nodded my head as if he made sense. He released me and stepped back, holding me at arm’s length. “Let’s check out the park and go home.”

I nodded and twin tears rolled down my cheeks. I swiped at them angrily, scrubbing my face and breathing deeply, blowing out through my lips.
Enough feeling sorry for yourself, Niteclif. Life sucks and then you get dead, one way or another.
It was tough talk. I needed it.

The sun was setting. Shadows crept toward us with the unspoken malicious intent of swallowing us and the light as a whole. People think darkness descends from the sky but it doesn’t. It creeps out from under trees and bushes, the shadows growing dense and dark at the same time. Small animals were bedding down for the evening to avoid the night’s predators, and foot traffic along the path was quickly thinning out as the mundanes followed the eons-old primal instincts to get inside to the safety of home and hearth before dark fully set in.

We walked wordlessly through the park, sticking to the path, all the way to the point where the girl’s body had been found. It had been seven days since she’d been killed. With the human traffic in the park combined with the foraging of animals, I didn’t anticipate finding anything in the way of clues. I was right. But the setting was suspiciously like the hotel in that the lamp’s light was spaced out just far enough to provide shadowy hiding places between the yellow glow of the gaslights. There were plenty of ways the killer could have approached and hidden, approached and hidden, until she, or he, was close enough to move in for the kill.

“Maddy?” Hellion called.

I jumped and spun around, instinctively throwing my hand to my throat. Knowing the things that went bump in the night were real and, on occasion, interested in my jugular, made my reaction more a defensive move of self-preservation. I could feel my heart thundering beneath my fingertips.

“What?” I hissed, forcing my hand down to my side and taking a deep, shaky breath.

“Step over here, love.”

I strode toward him as if he hadn’t just scared the ever-loving shit out of me.

Stepping into the halo of light, I noticed for the first time what he was pointing at. There were deep gouges cut into the ground about twenty feet off the path. They appeared to have been dug by a set of vicious tines or claws. The dirt had caved in at the edges with the passage of time and rain, and the grass was yellowing, but the ground had yet to heal its wounds. I bent down and ran my fingers along the dirt but there was no divine revelation; it was just disturbed earth. The gouges were also well concealed enough that the average path patron wouldn’t have seen them.

“What do you make of this?” I asked.

Hellion shook his head, staring at the ground. “I suppose we could take a sample of the dirt and see if it reveals anything back at the house.”

“What’s so special about the house? And what’s dirt going to ‘reveal’ anyway?”

Hellion stuck his hands in his pockets and stared at me in disbelief, shaking his head as if to rid himself of my ignorance. “I’ll be able to spend some time—private, uninterrupted time—and cast a couple of revelation spells. The dirt is organic and, therefore, belongs to no one, so it shouldn’t be magically warded in any way. Whatever scored the earth will have left a physical imprint behind, a sort of psychic, or metaphysical, signature. Does that make sense?”

“So you’ll do that voodoo you do and shazam. You’ll have an answer? Seems too easy.”

“No, Madeleine, it’s not voodoo. We’re talking very technical magic, difficult spells that focus on elemental and personal disclosures,” he snapped, rocking back on his heels and losing the easy-going façade. His hands made lumps in his pockets where he’d shoved them with force, the fabric straining against the continued downward pressure.

Truthfully, I didn’t know what he was capable of other than the dematerialization thing. And while it was impressive, the novelty had worn off after the sixth or seventh trip we’d made together. I said as much to Hellion and he sighed heavily, closing his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose. I’ve been known to have that effect on people.

“Obviously you have no concept of whom you’re dealing with,” he said, his voice serious. Holding out a hand, he breathed across it, and a flame sprung from his palm. With the other hand, he extinguished it.

I watched his little performance in silence but it was impossible not to comment. “If you’d ever been a Boy Scout you would have undoubtedly earned your fire-starter badge with no trouble.”

Hellion gaped at me, his mouth hanging open just a little, his brows arched and bared hands falling to his sides. “I can call down the stars from the heavens, cause the earth to quake and split, destroy someone where they stand with little more than a thought.” He stepped closer to me, leaning over me enough that I was forced to either step back or lean away from his building fury. I did neither, craning my neck to meet his gaze but holding my ground. “I travel through space and time and heal death blows in others with my
will
, and you compare me to a Boy Scout?” he hissed, seething with rage. His eyes had gone flat black, the irises eating at the whites, and a fine wind blew around him, whipping his hair about and stirring his clothes.

“Sorry,” I whispered, and I was…mostly. But the intimidation act was pissing me off since we both knew he wouldn’t physically hurt me. “Really. It’s just that I’ve never seen you do anything other than move me around and cure the tail end of that curse, so I
don’t
know what you’re capable of. Maybe instead of getting mad at me for my lack of understanding you should show me what to expect. I never even saw you fight at the big showdown with Tarrek.” He opened his mouth to object and I quickly continued. “No. That’s not what I meant. I
know
you fought, I just didn’t witness it myself.”

Hellion nodded tersely before turning to storm off, his movements jerky and uncoordinated as his anger drove him away. I stood in the fringes of the lantern’s glow and shivered in the damp, cooling air. The noises of the night seemed louder, more threatening, the minute I was alone. They seemed to feed on the all-encompassing dark and my escalating heart rate, the scent of my perspiration, the twitching of my fine muscles. The implied threat of that darkness circled without apology or compassion. The sudden cessation of noise transcended everything I thought I’d known of fear in that space: the crickets stopped chirping, the rustling noises of prey mammals ceased, the wind held its breath.

A figure shoved me as it rushed by, swiping at the back of my head as it passed me from behind. It was so sudden I didn’t even have time to gather a breath to scream, but instead grunted in pain as I slammed shoulder-first into the dirt. I pushed myself up, gritting my teeth against that initial blow. I was getting really tired of getting my ass kicked as the Niteclif, and this newest fight had just begun. Regaining my feet, I turned on unsteady legs to face my assailant. There was no one there.

I was slammed again from behind, my head snapping back, the impact so hard my teeth clacked together and I bit my tongue, the coppery taste of blood flooding my mouth as the fight-or-flight response kicked in post-shock. I raised a fist and swung out, connecting with a shadowy mist. It was like a blast of nitrogen to the skin, and I involuntarily jerked my hand back. Following the retreat of my hand, the mist knocked me off balance with a blow to the solar plexus, and I gasped for the air I couldn’t convince my lungs to retrieve. I stepped into the ruts and fell. The shadow flung something at me but I was too slow to roll out of the way before it pelted me on the forehead.

The assailant rushed me just as Hellion broke through the brush at a dead run. He shouted something and cast out a hand in my general direction, and the shadowy attacker dissolved into wisps of smoke. I rolled onto my hands and knees, and my breath came in short gasps. I was shaken, and the shock of recognition the gold coin evoked only added to the riot of emotions clamoring for my immediate attention. Settling on nausea as the most relevant physical feeling and anxiety the domineering emotion, I studied the coin closely. I’d seen coins like this twice before: first, weeks ago in a dragon’s den and, more recently, when Darius passed a mate to Hellion at the henge.