books are scattered all over the table along with the empty pizza box and cans of Coke. Several of the books have the same symbol as the Book of Va’halzoret on the covers. Arcayos isn’t there, not that I expected him to be.
More banging on the door.
“Detective Morgan?” a reedy male voice calls breathlessly. “Are you in there?”
I narrow my eyes at the door. The voice somehow manages to sound both growled and thin all at the same time.
At the peephole, I look out into the hall and blink.
The strangest-looking man peers into the hole. He’s thin and wiry, his frame decked in a shiny black blazer and pants, a bright-yellow shirt and an ugly red tie. His hair is a mass of curls. Jesus, he looks like one of those badly dressed pimps from a seventies cop show.
I cup my gun in my hands. He looks like I could lay him flat with one punch, but after the wolves, I’m not taking chances.
“Who are you?” I call out.
“Oh, you’re there, thank God. You gotta let me in, Detective.”
“And why would I want to do that?”
He sighs. I hear him press against the door, and he rasps into the crack between it and the frame, “Because it’s about our mutual… uh… friend. You know? The Champ.”
The Champion.
Whoever this guy is, he knows Arcayos. Still, Arcayos probably knows a lot of nasties who would make it look like they’re on good terms in order to get me to trust them.
“What about him?”
“Come on, you gotta let me in. I think he’s in trouble.”
The urgency in his voice is unmistakable. He’s either the world’s best actor, or Arcayos got himself into something.
I unlock and open the door.
The strange man rushes in, looks warily down the hall, and then shuts the door. His dark eyes size me up, and a nervous smile alights on his face.
“So you’re the one who’s gotten past the ice fortress Arcayos keeps around his heart. I get it now. You’re hot.”
I don’t know whether to be insulted or not, considering that he looks like a guy who would ask me to pose nude. “You said this was about Arcayos.”
“Uh, right. Sorry.” He wrings his hands and eyes my gun. “You can put that away. I wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“Famous line of serial killers and worse. Who the hell are you?”
He clears his throat. “Name’s Hagor. I wouldn’t come here unless it was absolutely necessary, believe me.”
“Hagor?”
“He’s never mentioned me then?”
“No.”
He looks at the gun again. “You’re kind of paranoid, aren’t you?” I give him an impatient look, and he shifts his feet. “Okay, look. He’s in trouble, I’m sure of it, and I think it’s my fault.”
“How? Where is he?”
“Well, before I get into that, there’s something you should know.”
Hagor’s weak features and patchy dark beard… ripple… and shift to a grayish-blue visage, like Arcayos’ but not nearly as beautiful. His eyes are yellow, and there is no fire in the crevices.
And two stubby horns stick up from his dark curls.
I step back, aiming my gun at his head and cocking it.
Hagor’s hands fly up. “Whoa, whoa, take it easy, Annie Oakley. I’m one of the good guys.” His eyes dart everywhere but at me.
“Yeah, right. Talk. Where is Arcayos?”
“I don’t know. He cleaned me out, and then he left in a hurry muttering something about Hazuldar and the In Between.”
The In Between. Shit, I bet he ran off to find Saffron on his own. Bastard.
“Where did he go?”
“That’s just it. I don’t know. If he’s looking for a doorway to the In Between, he could be any—” He stops and then rushes past me to the coffee table, snatching up one of the Books of Va’halzoret. He hisses, dropping the book and holding his fingers. They’re smoking.
“I’ve never tried to pick one of those up before.” He grabs a napkin and opens the book with it, careful not to touch the pages directly with his fingers as he leafs through them. Finding the right one, he points to something on the page. “Son of Hazuldar.”
“Care to share?”
He makes a desperate sound. “He went to the portal in Rockwell Ridge. That explains why he took all my cash.”
I feel a rush of adrenaline. “What the hell are you talking about?”
He waves his hands. “There are Gorda demons there. They guard the portal, but they also hoard things.”
“Wait, are you saying he’s going to buy his way past this Gorda thing to get in?”
“Yeah.”
I put the safety back on