Keeper of the Shadows - By Alexandra Sokoloff Page 0,40
thought. It was just so outrageous.... I mean, we’ve all seen the film. No one could possibly have kept a secret like that.”
Darius shook his head, as if still trying to recover from the idea. “Where on earth would you have heard something like that?”
“It was an anonymous source. Really left-field...but of course I have to check out every lead.”
He was watching her in a way that made her feel a little like a mouse with the huge shadow of a hawk circling her. He rose and moved around the couch, rendering her even more profoundly uncomfortable. She hated to have her back to a vampire.
“I must say, I’m concerned that your father and uncles are so far away. I do hope you’re not meeting any of these ‘sources’ in dark alleys.”
She was fairly certain his words were a coincidence, but she couldn’t help but think of the alley where Tiger had been dumped.
“Well, there’s one source who might be able to clear everything up for me right away. But I need your help to get to him.”
“And who might that be?”
Barrie took a breath. “I need to see DJ.”
The vampire actually laughed out loud in disbelief as he sat back down. “See DJ?”
For a moment she expected him to say, No one sees DJ.
“If anyone knows what was happening on that movie, it would be him,” she pointed out.
Darius chuckled and leaned forward to pat her hand indulgently. “You’re overestimating your reach and mine,” he told her. “DJ doesn’t inhabit the same planet as any of the rest of us. You might as well ask to see Johnny Love.”
Don’t worry, I’m already on it, she thought silently. But what she said aloud was “I don’t need a private appointment. The premiere of his new movie is tonight. If you can just get me in, I’ll take it from there.”
He frowned. “There’s been a wait list for tonight for months, but I’ll do what I can.”
Liar, she thought. As if you can’t get tickets to anything, anywhere, anytime you want. “That would be great, Darius, thank you so much.”
He rose, signaling the end of the interview.
“Even if you can talk to him, I wouldn’t count on the clarity of his memories. DJ’s—” he paused delicately “—habits...started long ago.”
Drugs again. There are drugs all through this case.
“Do keep me apprised,” he told her at the door. Not a request.
“Of course,” she told him, lying.
Darius’s shifter assistant walked her to the staircase, and she was aware of him still standing above her, watching as she walked down the slow spiral of the staircase.
She pushed out the doors with a feeling of release and relief. But as she walked down the curving path toward the adjoining garage, the feeling of being watched, tracked, continued.
It was one of those huge Century City garages, with confusing levels and half levels. As she headed toward her car, heels clicking, she became aware that she was essentially alone in the labyrinth of concrete pillars and rows of cars. And yet, she didn’t feel alone....
She didn’t change her pace but focused her attention on her astral body, the aura of energy perception that surrounds every living being, human and animal. It was the astral body that shifters learned to manipulate. As a shifter Keeper, she also had a certain natural facility with manipulating the astral body. It was what allowed her to put on a glamour, and she could also tune in to the heightened perceptions of her astral body to sense people and beings around her.
Her heart began to beat faster as she realized there was indeed someone following her, someone who was intently focused on her. Then she was unnerved to feel a rush of heat through her body, an undeniably erotic charge.
She stopped in her tracks in shock.
And then she realized what was happening.
She turned around and faced the dimness of the garage.
“Shifter, I feel you. Show yourself!”
There was a shimmer in the darkness, and then Mick Townsend was standing there looking at her.
“Following me?” she accused, furious.
“I can’t seem to stay away from you, Gryffald,” he said with a half smile.
“Maybe a restraining order would help.”
She moved to brush by him and reach her car, but he caught her forearms, and she felt an electric shock of attraction.
“Barrie,” he said, and she had to look at him, then found she couldn’t breathe. “Things got a little intense last night.”
That was the understatement of the year. She couldn’t even work up the strength for a