Page 39 of Heart and Soul
“What do I want to know?”
“His name.”
“The name of her demon? You know him?”
“I’m a horde master. You think I earned those stripes by being a snitch? In any case, I don’t believe you’d do me the favor of killing me. Even the Agency has rules.”
“The rule of the FUA is to protect the damn FUA, and that includes protecting it from Washington. Hillerman’s up to something with you, and she’s not the sharing type. The Agency wants in, and if nobody will talk, then I’m fully authorized to take you by force, in or out of your body.”
His head rises from the pillow. “Out of my body? That, I’d like to see.”
“It’s tempting, I know.” I tap my fingers on the grip of my gun. “If it weren’t for the fact that you would haunt me afterward, right?”
His cracked lips pull into a thin smile. “It’s not what you’re thinking. There are upsides to a haunting.”
“Upsides? I can’t wait to hear this.”
“Since your act of delivering me from this body would not be met with the least bit of resistance from me, there would be no friction in our bond. I would have no negative energy on which to feed, making my connection with you rather docile. In fact, I may even be willing to completely wipe the slate clean between us.”
“Huh. Maybe it’s just me, but that sounds very much like a bribe.”
“Call it what you want.”
I wrap my fingers firmly around the grip of my gun. Arael sucks in his bottom lip, salivating at the thought of finally being freed from his prison. “Maybe ‘bribe’ isn’t the right word,” I say. “Maybe it’s more like a truce?” Arael’s face goes blank, and that’s when I know I’ve caught him in a bluff. “Except that the idea of a truce—even the mention of the wordtruce—would be the last thing to ever come out of a warmonger’s mouth. You’re a terrible liar, for a demon. Let me tell you exactly what youthinkwould happen, and what youhopeI’d be too dumb to figure out. I kill you in the face, and you haunt me, but only until Beyona tracks me down, after which I’m kidnapped and taken to a secret necromancy ritual, in which Tabitha Durran summons you away from me and into a reanimated body. Your new reign of terror then begins by killing me in some barbaric way.”
His head lowers back onto the pillow. “Is this the part where I’m supposed to be shocked that you know so much?”
“No. This is the part where you wonder why I’m not more scared of you.”
“Because you’re naive.”
“Actually, it’s because a lot’s happened since you been in here, gramps. New faces. A new ally. Maybe you’ve heard of her?”
“Who?” He tries to sound skeptical, but I can see the doubt flickering in his eyes. My bluff is working.
Just then, the hatch door swings open and Hillerman comes in shouting. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? I don’t know what favors you pulled to get in here, but the FUA has zero jurisdiction over this facility.”
My hand twitches on my gun. I want to shoot her. She told me ten minutes. It’s barely been five. If her objective is to get genuine anger from me, it’s working. “Are you kidding me? FBI lost the handle on this the second Henry Stadther was killed and Brenner’s memories of the revenants were unlocked.” I’m pleased to hear a slight hitch in Arael’s breathing. He’s getting tense, hearing how much we know about his secrets. “The FUA’s taking over, effective immediately, and starting with Arael Moaz, who, I might remind you, was our catch to begin with.”
“Listen to my words, Agent Davies. You. Don’t. Have. Authority.”
“And you don’t have any moretime. You’ve had him for months. What have you got? Nothing.”
“Not yet, but I will. I’ve got requests in for…let’s just say ‘stronger methods.’”
“Forget your methods. Start thinking in terms ofpower. Why bother getting him to talk, when we can take complete control of him? The East Side horde is prepared, and they’re one step ahead of us, I’ll give them that. But I guarantee you they didn’t prepare for our side having a siren.”
Arael’s uneven breathing stops altogether. I think I’ve just given him a heart attack. Both Hillerman and I turn to check on him. One of his eyes is a bit twitchy as he concentrates on my face, trying to read me, searching for the bluff.
Hillerman’s interest is piqued. “Nora Jacobs?”
“A siren’s call is dark magic. It doesn’t control the body. It ensnares the soul.” I wink at Arael. “No matter which body it’s in.”
Hillerman is genuinely stunned. “So, she would enslave him, and he would be forced to tell her whatever she asks.”
“Think bigger,” I say, gesturing to the colorful elixirs. “After we enslave his soul, we cut him loose. Pull the plug on all this. He dies of natural causes. Nobody gets haunted. We wait for the horde to reanimate him, and when they do…”
“We have full control of their master.” She narrows her eyes. “There’s just one problem. Would Nora Jacobs do it?”
