She nodded. "Just be careful, Risa. There are many things—and many people—in your life who are not what they seem."
And on that rather ominous note, I turned and walked out. But as I left the room, instinct had me glancing to the left. Down the far end of the hall, her willowy figure almost lost to the shadows, was Kiandra.
"The ancient site will protect you when nothing else will." Her voice, cool and distant, was whisper-quiet, but it floated down the hallway easily, as if there weren’t any distance separating us. "But human blood must not be shed there. Not in anger, not in vengeance, and not in hate or fear."
I waited, but she said nothing else. She merely nodded my way once, then turned and disappeared through the closest doorway. Obviously, it had been Kiandra herself who’d given me all the extra information about the sacred ritual site.
For whatever reason, the Brindle witches were on my side.
Azriel appeared beside me as I walked across the park to the bike. "So you go to this sacred site next?"
I glanced at my watch. What I really wanted to do was go see Lucian and lose myself in a couple of hours of loving, but I guessed that really wasn’t an option right now. Hunter was tracking down the same leads I was, and faster, and maybe this test was my investigating skills against hers. And that was a test I would always lose.
As if to hammer home this particular point, my phone rang and Hunter herself appeared on the vid-screen.
"So," I said, by way of greeting, "when exactly were you planning to tell me you were working on this case yourself?"
She laughed softly, but there was very little humor in the sound or in her expression. "Did you honestly think the council wouldn’t have other investigators on the case? How else would they judge your usefulness?"
"But it’s not just any investigator—it’s you. And you have a vested interest in keeping me alive, because you want the keys found."
"Which does not mean I will hesitate to erase you if I find the killer before you do," she said, with deadly calm. "And the council members are well aware of this."
Oh, fabulous, I thought sourly. The one person on my side really wasn’t. "When were you planning to send me that list I asked for?"
"As soon as you forward Catherine’s list to me." Cool amusement played about her lips—probably because she knew I’d be pissed off.
Which meant I couldn’t give the bitch the satisfaction.