Pirate's Promise (Sentinels of Savannah #5) - Lisa Kessler Page 0,78

but I’ve been with the department since the sixties.”

She nodded slowly. “I don’t know the particulars, but I’ve heard rumors you stopped aging decades ago.” She studied his profile. “Did you drink from the Grail, too?”

“No.” He plucked a velvet pouch from his pocket and looked her way. “These are blended for the Department 13 directors.” He put them away and faced forward again. “Charmed herbs and roots, doused in water drawn from the Fountain of Youth and bound by oil made from the Gilead balm. They help me heal and slow the aging process until it’s almost nonexistent.”

That would also explain why the directors’ wall in the department held so few pictures. The department ran with one director. Agent Bale was the fifth person to lead the department since its founding in 1780.

“Do you ever regret it?”

He looked over at her for a moment. “Eternity, or devoting my life to the department?”

She shrugged. “Both?”

“We all have regrets.” He stared out the front windshield. “If you’re really asking if I would do it all again…” He paused, a muscle in his cheek tensing. “Yeah. I would.” He gradually started to nod, and his attention slid over to her. “It’s lonely, thankless work, but I make a difference. It gives me purpose, which is a necessity if you’re looking down the barrel of eternity. Time can be a vindictive bitch. My best advice is to stay busy and find a reason to get up every day. That makes everything worthwhile.”

Worthwhile. She swallowed the knot in her throat. “What about love?”

The words slipped out before she could reel them back in.

He sighed. “Love has kicked my ass enough that I give her a wide berth.” He looked her way. “Undercover operations are always tough. They blur the lines sometimes.” He searched her eyes. “I didn’t think you were happy about being paired up with Greyson Till.”

“I wasn’t, but…” She shook her head, breaking eye contact. Just hearing his name hurt. “He was much more than I bargained for. I wouldn’t have been able to get the Tyrfing from the demon without him.” She did her best to bury the pain in her heart and cleared her throat. “Have you figured out how the demon got past our safety protocols?”

Bale relaxed behind the wheel as the conversation shifted from love to work. “Kingsley believes the demon must have possessed a human and gradually took shape inside him like a parasite. So his outward bio scans came back human, no sign of demonic activity.”

She recalled the way the demon’s human flesh had seemed to flake off during the fight on the ship, revealing scales underneath. Maybe Jones had started out as human on the police force. Nausea roiled in her stomach at the thought. Did he know something had invaded his mind and body? Had he been afraid?

She wondered if she could have helped him. Did he have any chance at surviving the evil once it penetrated his soul? “Is there any way to trace when or where the possession took place?”

Agent Bale shook his head slowly. “Not yet, but if anyone can find out, it’s King.” He tilted his head toward her car. “You should get home. Rest up and I’ll let you know when we find anything.”

“Thanks, sir.”

“David,” he said as she got out. “We’re going to be working together for a long time. You can call me David.”

Her lips curved into a smile. “Okay, and you can call me Aura.”

She got out and popped the locks on her car. He waited for her to drive away before getting out of his car. He grew smaller in her rearview mirror until he was gone.

She let out a slow breath and tightened her grip on the steering wheel, eager to settle back into her rhythm, to find her footing again.

Maybe it had all been the mission.

The lines had blurred until she’d believed she was actually in love.

The drizzle turned into a soft rain as she made her way through the traffic, toward her condo just outside D.C. Maybe it was the silence, or the rain, but a tear rolled slowly down her cheek. She needed to find a reason to wake up every day, something to make eternity worthwhile. There was that word again. Char had said love made everything worthwhile.

What did she know about love?

She just needed something to focus on, to fill the time that Greyson had occupied.

It wouldn’t be an easy task. She’d never met anyone like him before. Yes,