“There is also the apartment’s security system to deal with. It is activated, so even if there are no sorcery surprises, we would need to disconnect that.”
I glanced at him. “How did the police get in if the place was alarmed?”
“Building security has an override. I retrieved it from the guard’s thoughts.” He glanced at the floor indicator. “You had better become Aedh. We’re almost there.”
I wrapped my fingers around my phone, then took a deep, steadying breath and reached for that part of me that was Aedh. Energy surged in response, sweeping through me like a heated tide, numbing pain and dulling sensation as it invaded every muscle, every cell, breaking them down and tearing them apart, until my flesh no longer existed and I became one with the air. Until I held no substance, no form, and could not be seen or heard or felt by anyone or anything who wasn’t reaper or Aedh.
The lift came to a halt and the doors opened. Azriel led the way, his reaper form bright and golden in the warm light of the corridor. We swept under the glass security doors, then headed toward the apartments. There were only two on this floor, and Jantz’s was the one on the Hyde Park side of the building. I slithered in through the small gap between the door and the floor, then paused and looked around. The apartment was absolutely beautiful. It was minimalist in design and one vast open space, the kitchen, dining, and living areas flowing into one another seamlessly. The wall facing the park was all glass doors that could fold back completely, allowing entry onto the gently curving balcony from wherever you were in the main room. Chairs, tables, and mats were the same white as the walls, and the floor was white marble. The only color in the place was the dark wood of the kitchen cabinets and the long entertainment unit that lined one internal wall. There was nothing out of place, and nothing, as far as I could see or sense, that spoke of our sorceress or any of her nasty spells or creatures.
Not yet, anyway.
I moved into the bedroom. There was more color here—splashes of red among the bed furnishings and deeper gold in the en suite. Still no magic, and no obvious bombs.
If she has set such a trap, Azriel commented, she would hardly make it obvious.
True. I drifted back into the main room and headed left, past the entrance door and into the three rear rooms. One was a laundry, one was a bathroom, and the final one a spare bedroom. I still couldn’t feel any magic, and there certainly wasn’t hell spawn of any kind waiting for us. I went back to the main living area and stopped. You know, this doesn’t feel right. At every other place she has had something prepared for us, so why not here?
It could just be that, in these forms, we are unable to sense whatever it is she has waiting.
Maybe. I spun around and headed for the security pad near the front door. What’s the override code?
Seven-four-nine-one.
I called to the Aedh again but siphoned the power into my arm, down into my fingertips, imagining them alone gaining flesh rather than the rest of me. The energy surged and, in an instant, fingers appeared, seemingly floating in midair. I typed in the override code and watched the light stop flashing and turn green.
We should be all right, I said, half turning around.
And in that very instant, the apartment exploded into a million different pieces.
Chapter 5
Heat hit me, a wave so fierce and strong that I was little more than dust before it, tumbling and twisting and burning as it blew me through the apartment, then out the window. Concrete and metal, glass and wood, and god knows what else surrounded me as I was flung from the building, the force of the blast throwing me over the street and into the park.
I hit the ground hard enough to bounce even in energy form, and tumbled several feet farther before I came to a halt. I lay where I fell for several seconds, winded and shocked. Every part of me burned with the force and the heat of the blast, and yet, incredibly, I was alive and not hurt. Being in energy form had undoubtedly saved my life.
Azriel? My mental tones were little more than a croak.
Here. His energy briefly ran across the edges of me, as if he were reaching out with one hand and clasping mine. I think that is what you would call a lucky break.
Yeah. But it also means Lauren was here after the police had investigated Jantz’s apartment—otherwise, it would have taken them out rather than almost getting us. And that meant it might be worth pulling up the security tapes to see who had entered Jantz’s apartment after he’d been reported missing. Unless, of course, Lauren had used magic to get in and out of the apartment. If she’d known Jantz well enough to either use his name and identity or employ him to pick up her parcels, then she would have been familiar with his place. Magicking in and out in that case certainly wouldn’t have proved a problem.
I shifted my still-tingling particles enough to see the building. On the seventh floor, where Jantz’s apartment had been, there was now a huge, gaping hole. The apartments above and below had sustained some damage, but not as much as I’d expected from the force of the explosion. Or maybe it just seemed huge because we’d been energy ourselves. Smoke and dust billowed through the shattered remains of the glass doors, though from where I was, I couldn’t see flames. Sirens were going off everywhere, and people were evacuating both Jantz’s building and the buildings on either side, running down the pavement, away from the destruction.
If that is the case, there might not be anything in that apartment to find. Maybe it was Jantz himself who was the danger.
Possibly. But we should—
—check what is left of that apartment, just in case any fires within destroy what the blast did not, he finished, resignation heavy in his mental tones. Are you sure you’re feeling up to it? It has not been an easy few days and your energy levels are yet to recover, despite both our revive session and the sleep you’ve had.
Revive session—what a nondescript way of putting great sex.
Amusement ran through his thoughts. Economy of words is always best when even the most descriptive of sentences could never do justice to what we share.
And if there’s one thing that’s been a constant since you arrived on the scene, it’s your economy with words. I forced myself upward. Pain slivered through my particles, but it was distant, dull. No major damage, I gathered, though I suspected I might have one hell of a headache when I finally regained human form.
We went back to the apartment, slipping quickly through the smoke and into the ruins of the once beautiful main living area. Everything that had survived was little more than broken, scorched bits. Even the marble floors were blackened and cracked. There wasn’t much hope of finding anything here.
I drifted into the bedroom. Though this room had sustained less damage than the living room, a fire was beginning to burn here, and it was catching fast. I did a quick look around but didn’t see anything more than the last time. I retreated and moved to the rear of the apartment.