With the clock counting down on Hunter’s deadline, you haven’t the time to chase after him, Azriel warned softly. If the fire elemental is in control, then there might be no bringing him back this time. Nor will I allow you to endanger yourself again by touching him while the elemental holds sway. It might just kill you this time.
Which technically wasn’t a problem given that I’d just become a dark angel. But that wasn’t something I actually wanted; I wanted to live a full and happy life here on Earth first. Wanted to bring my child into this world, not the other.
But Azriel was right. I really couldn’t afford to lose any time, even if it was a matter of minutes.
Let’s just hope he comes back from this, I said. He has before.
By this time, the elemental will have reached Macedon’s sacred site. And given the fire that created it still burns within that place, its very closeness to it may provide the creature with enough strength to completely block Tao out.
I know. Believe me, I know.
He smiled grimly, adding, Then you should also remember that I can’t get into that site, so it’s not as if I can even check whether he is there or not.
“Damn it!” I plonked down on a chair and watched as Stane resumed his usual position on his captain’s chair in front of his computer bridge.
“Yeah,” Stane said. “Can you get into that site and check that he’s there?”
“Maybe.” I hadn’t actually tried since I’d become a dark angel in waiting. But given that the place had banned reapers and Aedh from entry, it might just ban me now that I had both their energies running through me. “Only problem is I haven’t got the time to find out right now. I have a deadline and people will die if I don’t meet it.”
“Tao might die if you don’t,” Stane replied, grim faced.
“Don’t you think I fucking know that?” I took a deep breath and tried to calm the anger and fear running through me. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have responded like that. But the thing is, Hunter’s given me a twenty-four-hour deadline, and if I don’t come through with the key, she’s going to start killing people. People like Ilianna and Tao and you.”
He blinked. “Why would the psycho want me dead?”
“For the same reason she wants the keys to hell—for control. In your case, control of me. Or rather, my actions.” I took a sip of the coffee, noting somewhat absently that it was indeed the good stuff. “I have a choice, Stane. Save Tao and risk everyone else, or simply try to save everyone the best way I can.”
“Hell of a choice,” he muttered.
“Yeah, tell me about it.” I paused. “I don’t suppose you want to evacuate the immediate area and go hide somewhere, do you?”
“I’m thinking you can probably guess the answer to that.” He patted the desks holding his range of light screens and keyboards with affection. “I’m not leaving my baby, and I can’t exactly pack her up with me. Besides, someone has to be here in case Tao does turn up.”
“What, no mention of a particular upcoming sale of the generous-to-your-bank-account but definitely black market type?”
He grinned. “Well, there might be a couple of sales in the works over the next couple of days that I can’t afford to walk away from, now that you mention it.”
I snorted. Of course there were. “It could be dangerous. I’ve already lost Jak to the bitch. I don’t want to lose anyone else.”
“Then I’ll install a secondary energy shield around all internal walls. Trust me, no one—not even a vampire hell-bent on destruction—will get past it.”
I hoped he was right. I didn’t want to lose Stane any more than I wanted to lose anyone else.
“So,” he said, grabbing his coffee, then swinging around to face me. “Do you want to tell me why you’re here, or do you wish to see my results first?”
I blinked. “On what?” To be honest, we’d asked Stane to do so many searches over the last few weeks that I’d totally lost track of them all.
“You know those index cards you swiped from the dead jeweler’s place?”
I nodded. We’d gone to the jeweler’s after discovering his maker’s mark on the antique silver cuff link we’d found in Lauren Macintyre’s Gold Coast home, hoping he’d be able to tell us whom he’d made it for. As per usual when it came to our sorceress, we’d been a couple of steps too far behind. Not only had she fled her Gold Coast home before we’d arrived there, but she’d also made a visit to the jeweler and slashed his throat from ear to ear. Which meant the index cards, with their list of client names, had become our only chance of possibly tracking down another of Lauren’s alternate identities—an almost impossible task given that she could take on both male and female personas.
“Well,” Stane continued, a pleased grin stretching his lips, “I found a connection between the jeweler, the names on the cards, and your mad sorceress.”
I smiled at his enthusiasm. He really was going to be lost when all this crap was over with and life got back to normal. “The connection being?”
“Harry Bulter.”
I blinked. For some reason, that name rang a bell. Then the connection hit and I sat up a little straighter. “Harry Bulter—as in, one of the names mentioned in John Nadler’s will?”