Page 28 of Phoenix Falling
“Dead.” Baer shrugged, though his voice told me it wasn’t indifference he was displaying. “I didn’t believe him. None of us did. We stayed then because if our sibling was out there somewhere, if she ever got free, she would know where to find us. With Maddox.”
“But staying wasn’t all you did.” I knew that without him having to tell me or having to read his mind.
“No. We searched. Everywhere Maddox had ever been, everything he owned, every piece of paper we could find. For years we searched. But—”
His voice broke then, though he didn’t have to continue. I knew how the story ended.
“Do you think she’s still out there?” I asked.
“It doesn’t matter, does it? Even if she was, Maddox is no longer here to be found. And neither are we.”
Beckan slowed his pace as he approached, then threw himself onto the grass just as Baer had done earlier. Gradually his breathing slowed, and as we all absorbed the night, he fell into an easy dose for what was probably the first time since his capture.
Baer stared at his brother for a long moment, then looked up at me. “What’s our future, Grim? What will happen to us?”
“That’s not any clearer than the future of the Archai,” I responded. I simply didn’t know what the future held, for any of us. All I knew was the feeling deep inside, the same feeling that had urged me to give Baer and Beckan one last taste of freedom.
Whether or not I could circumvent that destiny remained to be seen, but I’d do everything I could to try.
ChapterTwelve
RISK
Iwas in the habit of casually hacking the local police precincts on a regular basis, just to look for clues. Attacks. Reports of missing women. But tonight as I perused a virtual stack of reports, I cursed. Because I’d come upon one that definitely held a clue, and I’d missed it. It was my job to keep an eye on things, be the first person to spot signs of trouble, and somehow this had gotten past my radar for almost a week.
Why? Because I’d been mooning over a hot shape-shifter who probably only wanted to get in my pants.
I couldn’t believe what the detective had typed in clear black-and-white for anyone to see. It wasn’t only that the boys had escaped a stalker; it was how they both described him that had me worried. They’d managed to get away only because “men with glowing eyes and fangs” had interrupted their ordeal. Words likeglowing eyes and fangsdidn’t come out of victims’ mouths often, and when they did, they were mostly chalked up to hysterical witnesses (if they weren’t outright laughed at), but this guy had listened and actually typed the words into the report. I wasn’t sure if he was incredibly smart or equally brainless.
Even if said cops could find the vampires, it wasn’t like they could bring them in for questioning. They might try, but they’d never survive. I, on the other hand, knew that what the boys had seen was, in fact, real, and I knew it couldn’t be Sun’s men. Not only would the Archai not terrorize their victims, but they wouldn’t go after them in a group. And they certainly wouldn’t be fighting among themselves such that the victims could get away without any of them noticing.
No, this wasn’t an Archai problem. I had a very bad feeling it was an Anigma problem.
Needing more details, I pulled out my phone and shot off a quick text before hurrying to get ready for patrol. Only there wouldn’t be much time for patrol tonight. I had a business meeting with Sun tonight, and now this on top of it. Two meetings would take care of most of my time.
As I headed out the door, my phone pinged. When I brought up the text, I saw that Nick had replied. He was on duty. Good.
R2: Meet me for a quick chat? Usual place.
Chavis: Will do. Gimme 15.
Fifteen minutes later I was waiting around the corner from the bar Sun and I’d had our meeting at a few days ago. It took a couple more minutes for Nick to show up, but finally I heard his quick and heavy stride approaching from the city parking lot down the road. I leaned against the brick wall at my back and stared into the darkness coating the sidewalk. “About time!”
Nick entered the shallow light a few feet from me. “Don’t give me shit. It hasn’t exactly been a good night.”
“No? Why not, Detective Chavis?”
“Because some sicko slashed up a prostitute down by the park and left the mess for us to clean up.” He stopped next to me, joined me in my wall leaning, and pulled a pack of Marlboros from his back pocket. If I looked at Nick Chavis objectively, I’d say he was handsome, in his late thirties but still in great shape, athletic, and with a shoulder-length, thick black hair that he hadn’t bothered to pull back tonight. Definitely handsome, though he didn’t hold a candle to Sun.
Not that that was fair. Humans came up short in every category compared to vampires.
The flare of Nick’s lighter highlighted the currently haggard cast of his face. I refrained from my usual comment on how those things would kill him, also bypassing his usual reply,I’m betting on it, and instead went with, “Slashed her up?”
“Him.” He took a long pull from the cig. “Throat was fucked up like you wouldn’t believe,” he said on the exhale. “Almost decapitated. Some people are animals.”
Some people were, but others weren’t people at all. And that was what had me worried.
“Any leads?”
