Page 52 of What Is Dark Within Me

“Shit. Paola. I was supposed to work… yesterday? Or is it today?” She still had little handle on how much time she had spent in the Hiding Place.

The mountains were now behind them. Garm snored in the back, with two of his paws jutting between the front seats. They bumped against her phone as she scrolled through dozens of texts from her cousin, sighing with relief as she reached the end of Paola’s thread, which read:

Abuela came to visit, told me you were okay, and you’d be in touch soon. What the hell, Al?

I’m doing something you would not approve of, but I’m safe, I promise. I’ll be in touch in a few days. Please, please, please let me keep my job,Aleja typed back.

Her phone vibrated as Paola called her, but Aleja switched it off and dropped it into her lap. She pinched the bridge of her nose as Garm kicked in his dream.

By the time they reached the city, it was nearly midnight. It must have rained while they were gone. The skies were so clear she could see Orion’s belt shining above the streetlamps, but the gutters were on the verge of flooding.

“We could wait until morning. Better you go in rested,” Nicolas said.

Cold and dark. Violet was somewhere cold and dark.

“Garm, tell us where he lives,” she said.

“In the hills. Turn left up there, boss. I’ll guide you.”

“What’s the plan here?” she continued. “Thierry Laurent might have been a middling occultist, but if this doctor had an Unholy Relic, he must be powerful, right?”

“You’re powerful,” Nicolas pointed out.

She rolled her eyes so hard she hoped he couldfeelit. “And you’re the Knowing One. Can’t you force him to talk?”

“It would be problematic, especially without half my power. Don’t look at me like that, I’ll explain. The title of the Knowing One comes with certain rules.”

“Can you kill people?” she said, her voice unintentionally low. “If you need to?”

“Yes. If either my life or the lives of those under my protection are at stake, but in truth, there’s usually no need. Humans are very good at strolling into the traps they’ve set for themselves. Besides, I’m not exactly on the Second’s good side right now.”

“What happens if you don’t abide by his rules?”

“I’ve already done that. You saw how it turned out,” he said quietly.

“What did you do, exactly?” she asked, remembering how both Liam and Bonnie had deflected the question.

“I won the war.”

“You aresoobvious when you deflect a question.”

“He is, isn’t he? I’ve always thought that,” Garm said. “We’re almost there. There’s a private driveway at the top of the hill leading into a grove of fir trees.”

Nicolas ignored his dog. “The story is too complicated for right now.”

She forced herself to fall silent. Centuries ago, they had fought side by side in a battle she had no memories of. They had married each other amid a war neither of them might survive. They had fucked and loved and made promises to each other that Nicolas had kept and she, apparently, hadn’t.

They traveled a short distance before coming to a closed wrought-iron gate. The lights of a sprawling house twinkled behind tall metal bars. Damn, Aleja thought, if I’d known how doctors live, I wouldn’t have pursued an art history degree. She spotted a small intercom system attached to the gate’s lock.

“Convince him to let us in,” Aleja said, sinking into the seat. She couldn’t see any security cameras, but anyone as rich as this probably had them pointed at the driveway.

“He’s not some blindly devoted Satanist like Laurent,” Nicolas said. Garm’s panting face, wedged between them, seemed to give him an idea. “Garm, slip out the back door. See if you can sneak onto the property.”

“It’s an iron fence, boss. They make me itchy.”

“But notironsalts. This terrain is rough. I doubt it extends around the entire property. It’s the wards I’d worry about, but you’re a clever dog. You’ll figure it out.”

Garm whined with pleasure before opening the back door and slipping into the darkness. Aleja rolled down her window to listen as Nicolas punched the bright red button on the intercom.

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