"It is not logical to thank me for being me. I can hardly be anyone else."
Laughter rolled through me. I pulled back, dropped a quick kiss on his lips, and said, "That's not exactly true given you can look like anyone you wish."
"Ah, but you only ever see my true form, and I'm extremely thankful you happen to desire it. I'd hate to spend eternity attempting to look like someone else."
"But it could certainly put a new spin on sexual dress-ups." I turned and headed up the stairs. "And don't ask why anyone would want to dress up for sex, because this is neither the time nor the place to explain."
"I agree, but the concept is intriguing."
"And much fun."
The master bedroom was twice the size of mine and, like the rest of the place, pin-neat – almost sterile. The first time I'd been in here there'd been little evidence that anyone actually used this room, despite the clothes in the vast walk-in wardrobe and the pair of intricately carved Chinese sideboards that had sat in the middle of the wardrobe and radiated magic. A magic I had not wanted to go near.
My gaze swept the bedroom but little had changed other than the faint layer of dust now coating most of the shiny surfaces. It was obviously the maid's week off.
I walked across to the wardrobe, pushed open the double doors, and discovered emptiness. All the designer shoes and dresses, all the expensive but old-fashioned men's suits and shirts, everything was gone. As were the sideboards. Only the magic they'd held lingered, skittering across my skin like mites, stinging lightly.
"Well, shit." I stopped several feet inside the room and thrust my hands on my hips. "Looks like we're late to the party again."
And while Azriel might have told me to stop with the self-recrimination, this was definitely my fault. If I'd pulled my finger out instead of wallowing in self-pity, Lauren might not have escaped us so easily.
"She may have fled this place, but she will not have gone too far. She is too involved in whatever the other dark sorcerer has planned to run."
I glanced at him. "You read her mind?"
"No. But she obviously held Lucian's full confidence, and the standing stone we found in that storage locker ultimately led here. That suggests deep involvement."
"I guess it's unfortunate the locker is destroyed." As was the woman who'd rented it. She'd been caught in the blast that had razed the entire building and killed at least a half dozen other people.