He reappeared on the seat beside me just as Parred grabbed a piece of paper and scrawled two phone numbers onto it. "Here," he said, sliding the paper across to me. "The first is for Shard, the second for Sands. Hope you have better luck contacting them than I have of late."
"Thanks for your help."
"Anytime."
We headed out. Once safely across the street and well out of earshot, I pulled out my phone and gave both women a call. Neither one answered. No surprise there, I guess. Especially when it was more than likely that both women were either incapacitated or dead.
I shoved my phone away and glanced at Azriel. "We'll try Di Shard first. She's slightly closer."
"I will meet you there."
He disappeared. I called to the shifting magic and made my face my own again, then pulled on the helmet and climbed onto the Ducati.
The trip across to St. Kilda was hell, thanks to the traffic, and by the time I got to Martin Street, I was more than a little pissed off and totally wishing I'd simply come here via Aedh form.
I cruised slowly past the apartment building, then parked around the corner, stored my helmet, and walked back. Ten Martin Street was a modern glass and concrete building that looked like a series of receding boxes, each layer sitting farther back, giving that "box" more of a courtyard than the one below it. The top layer apparently had enough room for a large outdoor umbrella to be set up.
I glanced at Azriel as he appeared beside me. "Can you sense anything inside?"
"There is life in the first two apartments; nothing in the other two."
"Are there any bodies?"
"If death occurred some time ago, as you suspect, I would not sense it. A soul's resonance does not last beyond a few days in this world, unless they become one of the lost ones."
"So if Shard is dead in there, this death was meant to be?"
"Yes."