there?”
“Yes, along with a small list of demands, such as no enlisting the help of more people who work with the Tribunal. He knows I’m in town, so I have no element of surprise.”
“When trouble happens in my region, you’re always the Investigator I call. It’s expected you would show up when Sinclair attacked my house. He’s smart enough to know since I got away, you would be showing up.”
“I would have come down after your first call, anyway; I just had to speed up the timeline a little. My uncle was annoyed I was running off to help you again. He thought I was over this.”
“Is there being over your job?” I asked, crossing my arms. “He does know you’re the only Investigator with a base of operations in this region, right? Who else would I call?”
“I made sure to point that out to him, and I’m glad you called me. I know you better than the others do and know how you think.”
“You know how Sinclair thinks as well.”
“Yes, and I think on that note, you and I should continue this conversation in my office.” He stood up and gave a pointed look at Leith, who raised his hands and stood up as well, leaving the room. Once he was gone, Cassius looked at me with an expression I was certain any future children he had would hate. “They’re nosy.”
“They are, but they do it because they want to support you. Where’s Annie-Lyn, by the way? I haven’t seen her at all.”
“She’s in the shadows, cleaning up after us. She’s not in the mood for company.”
“Ah. Tell her I said hello, and I hope she’s happy.” Annie-Lyn was a dark fae with the ability to disappear into the shadows. The idea of dark and light courts went the way of the dodo centuries ago, but the clans of the fae were still strong, still unique. Annie-Lyn’s clan was probably once a strong force of the dark court.
“She would appreciate you taking the time to say something to her,” Cassius said with a sharp, knowing smile. She must have been in the room. There weren’t many magics that could hide someone from me. Annie-Lyn was one of them, but I trusted her not to stab me in the back or while I slept. Cassius’s smile was a stark reminder that some of my friends were dangerous. He knew where she was, but then, there was no fae magic he couldn’t see through.
I followed Cassius to his office, checking the corners, wondering if I might catch a glimpse of the little girl fae.
“Stop looking for her,” Cassius ordered. “She’s uncomfortable that we’re talking about Sinclair and doesn’t want everyone to see her scared.”
“Of course. Actually, her hiding around in the shadows got me thinking.” Once I closed the door to his office, locking us inside, I made a little flourish to represent magic. “Do we know anything about Sinclair’s shadow magic abilities? I’ve never seen him use any.”
“He doesn’t have any,” Cassius answered. “He’s never shown the ability to use that particular set of vampire powers. It’s not common for them to be able to do those magics until they’re close to a thousand years old, so we can count ourselves lucky.”
“That’s right,” I said, snapping my fingers. “Age problem. Maybe we can kill him this time, and he’ll never get that powerful.” As with most supernatural species, age equated to power. The longer one survived, the more powerful you could consider that person.
“If we kill him now, we’re going to have to send someone to Las Vegas to deal with the power vacuum,” Cassius pointed out.
I nodded, finding a seat. There was a lot to think about, but I kept coming back to one thing, one problem.
“Twenty million isn’t worth this,” I mumbled to myself, crossing my arms as I sank into the comfortable leather chair.
“There could be a lot we don’t know.”
“That really bothers me.” I huffed, tapping my foot and playing with my lip piercing with my tongue. “Sinclair has money. Is there some more private deal with Mygi I don’t know about? This isn’t just his reputation. If anything, he’s ruining his reputation. People liked working with him because he was a criminal who was…criminal. He could pull it off and get away with it.”
“What if it’s Raphael? What if there’s something about Raphael he’s willing to kill for?”
“Another reason to keep them far apart,” I said, raising an eyebrow at the fae taking his seat.