"Will do." I hesitated, then added, "Now go home and be safe."
"I really think you're overreacting but —" He paused, frowning as he glanced at something offscreen. "That's strange."
"What?" I said, my heart leaping as fear surged through me.
"The lights in the foyer just went out."
"Jak, get out of there. Use the stairs or something —" I stopped as the lights over his head went out, plunging him into darkness. "Jak? Move!"
"Moving as ordered," he said, confusion and perhaps a touch of fear in his voice.
"Hide if you can. I'll be there in a minute." But if it was a vampire – if it was Hunter – then he didn't even have a minute.
Which meant I had to get there now. And the quickest way to do that was to have Azriel take me. Changing into Aedh form might be fast for me nowadays, but travel wasn't instantaneous. It was with Azriel.
"Problem?" Tao said.
I grabbed a jacket from the back of one of the chairs as I jumped off the table. It was sodden, but right then I didn't care. My handbag was in my bedroom, and I needed a pocket to shove my phone into… the thought barely crossed my mind when Azriel appeared in front of me, holding out my handbag.
Thank you. I glanced at Tao as I swung the bag over my shoulder. "Jak's in trouble. Can you ring the cops and the ambulance, and get them to his building ASAP?"
As Tao nodded and reached for his phone, Azriel caught my free hand and pulled me close. I had a brief moment to enjoy the press of his body against mine, to feel the warmth and strength of him, before his energy ripped through us both. He transported us through the gray fields so fast that the reapers' ethereal, unworldly homes were little more than a bright blur. We re-formed into darkness. A darkness ripe with the metallic scent of blood.
Oh god…
Azriel? Can you see anything? I swung around, my nostrils flaring, trying to catch the source and location of the blood. Trying to discover if Jak was here.
Whether his attacker still was.