His answering smile was slow and sexy. At five ten, he was pretty much the average height for a male werewolf, and while he wasn't what I'd term drop-dead gorgeous, his rough-hewn features could certainly be classified as handsome. His hair, like his skin, was black, but there was a whole lot of gray in it these days. More, perhaps, since he'd become part of my quest. As for the smile – well, it had certainly enabled him to slay more than his fair share of maidens. Me included.
"Where else was I supposed to be?" he said, his dark eyes showing little of the amusement evident in his expression and his voice. "You wouldn't answer the phone, Tao threatened to cut my nuts off if I went near you, and Ilianna – well, heaven only knows what she would have threatened had I contacted her."
Amusement bubbled briefly. Given Ilianna's opinion of Jak's reappearance in my life, her threat would probably have been a whole lot nastier than Tao's. "None of which explains your presence here."
"Where else might I be given the Directorate's reticence about answering questions concerning Lucian?" He eyed me for a second, the amusement fading. "I figured that, given your involvement with the man, sooner or later you'd come here."
A statement that made me wonder just how much he knew about Lucian's death. "You could have been waiting a long time —"
"I doubt it. Now, it's your turn."
I grimaced. "Look, the way I reappeared… it's not something —"
"Don't try that," he cut in. "We passed the whole ‘it's not something I need to know' thing around the time we were attacked by hellhounds. I deserve some honesty, Ris, if nothing else."
I sighed. He was right. He did. After all, I could hardly bitch about people lying to me when I was doing the exact same thing to him.
"You know how Azriel comes and goes —"
"You're not a reaper." His gaze swept me, though I wasn't entirely sure why. When Azriel wore flesh, it wasn't obvious he was anything else.
"No, I'm not." Not yet, anyway. "But I am partially an energy form. My father is an Aedh, just as Lucian was."
Something sparked in his eyes. The reporter within had the scent of a story. "So you do know he died?"
I hesitated, though there was little point in denying it. "Yeah."
"And do you happen to know how?"