“I will talk to her,” he said heavily. “And make it known that all Directorate personnel are off-limits. That by touching one, she sets the guardian division on a collision course with her.”
How much protection that would provide was anyone’s guess, but given that Hunter appeared to value her brother’s opinion—or rather, she did if comments she’d made in the past were anything to go by—it was better than nothing.
“And the keys? Or her takeover attempt of the high council?”
He half shrugged. “I have never gotten involved in high council politics, and have no intention of doing so now. I do not care, one way or another, whether it is ruled by a committee or a force of one.”
“Others don’t quite see it that way.”
“I’m well aware of that.” His expression was grim. “I have been on this earth for a very long time, young Risa, and I have not survived by keeping my head in the sand and being unaware.”
Duly chastened, but still not backing away, I said, “Will your sister listen to you? She’s . . . well, she’s gone a little off the deep end since the death of her lover.”
Though I personally suspected she’d well and truly jumped into the crazy pool before that death. Her lover’s murder had just made it more obvious.
“I have not seen her much since then, so you could well be right.” Jack drained his coffee, then tossed the cup in the bin and rose. “I’ll arrange a meeting with her immediately. In the meantime, do nothing to antagonize her.”
“I have no intention of contacting her until the twenty-four-hour deadline is near.” Whether she’d contact me—antagonize me—was another matter entirely.
If you don’t bite back at her, it should not provide a problem, Azriel commented.
Easier said than done, I’m afraid.
Not if you recall the faces of those she might destroy out of sheer spite.
I glanced at him. He raised an eyebrow, as if daring me to contradict the statement. But I couldn’t, because it was true. I simply had to control my temper. No ifs, buts, or maybes.
“Good,” Jack said. “But be careful, Risa. Those who oppose my sister are no angels, either.”
“Something I’m well aware of.” But if push came to shove, I’d use them—and anyone else, for that matter—to protect my friends and to stop the crazies from ruining the world.
Jack walked from the room. I released a long, slow breath, then downed my coffee in several quick gulps. That had turned out a whole lot better than I’d hoped—but it could have very easily gone the other way, and I knew it.
“Liander is, as we speak, jumping in his car and heading to parts unknown,” Rhoan said, as he returned to the table. “He won’t contact me for the next forty-eight hours.”
“What about his phone and the GPS in his car? They can both be used to trace him—”
“He’ll disable both. He has not been the soul mate of a guardian for so long without picking up a trick or two.”
“Forty-eight hours is long enough,” Azriel commented. “One way or another, things will be sorted by then.”
I shot him another glance. I thought you said we had a week?
No, I said we had no more than a week. His expression gave little away, but I could feel the turmoil in him, the uncertainty, and that scared the hell out of me. That timetable has since been revised.
Meaning our actions have revised it? But what actions? Finding Jantz, blowing up his apartment, or talking to Rhoan and Jack?
It doesn’t matter, Azriel said. The timetable is what it is now. And, at the very least, it gives us a shorter period to survive.
And you’d better survive, reaper, I said, mental tones fierce. Or I will not be happy.
You can be assured that I would be decidedly unimpressed with anything short of survival myself.
“I get the feeling,” Rhoan commented, “that there’s a completely different conversation happening right now.”
I glanced at him and smiled. “Yeah, sorry.” I slid the phone we’d found at Jantz’s across to him. “Can you let me know the minute you find any information about who owns this?”
“Can do,” he said. “And I’ll watch my back. I’ll even ensure I have people I trust around me at all times. Will that assuage your concerns?”