“I’ll think about it.” Ryan gulped down his whisky and poured another. “The waiting is fucking killing me. I want something to happen.”
“Be wary of saying that. Things will happen soon enough.”
“You think they’re going to come after Roz? The”—Ryan paused as though the word might choke him—“angels.”
“I’m sure they are.”
Ryan pressed his fingers to his forehead. “Christ. I never thought the time would come when I would be on the opposite side to the angels.”
“You believed in them? Before all this, I mean.” Ash waved a hand encompassing the area.
“A few years ago, I would have said no. But then I met Roz.”
“Ah, Roz,” he murmured reminiscently. “Enough to make anyone believe in angels. Did you and she ever…?”
“No. How about the two of you? Were you close?”
Five hundred years ago, Ash had saved Roz from being burned at the stake by a mob of rampaging villagers. In exchange, she’d been indebted to him until she’d completed thirteen tasks. He’d taken her that night amid the dying screams of her oppressors. She’d been seventeen, a virgin, and sweet as sin.
But he wasn’t about to share that with Ryan.
Christian and Tara arrived at that moment saving him from answering. Piers and Roz were close behind. From the crimson glow in his eyes, Piers had fed recently. That and the puncture marks in Roz’s neck.
“So,” Piers said. “Is someone going to tell me what this is about? I had plans for this evening and you’ve fucked them up.”
Piers had taken over the leadership of the Order when Christian had left. Most had considered him a strange choice. Though probably the most powerful vampire in existence—Piers was over two thousand years old and vamps gained strength with age—he’d never been known for his diplomatic qualities. And keeping peace between the races was one of the main functions of the Order. But he’d done well and it was probably only his intervention that had saved the world from being under Andarta’s less than tender control. Andarta had been a mad bitch, but she’d loved Piers. There was no accounting for taste.
“So sorry,” Ash said not attempting to hide his sarcasm. “But as head of the Order you might be interested in this.”
“‘This’ being?”
Ash turned to Ryan. “You want to start?”
Ryan was leaning against the wall at the back of the room observing them, as usual. Now he pushed himself up and strode to the front.
“Last night, I had a visit from my old partner at the Met. Apparently, yesterday morning, she was approached by a government department who claimed to be investigating Christian.”
“Investigating me for what?”
“Well not nonpayment of taxes. Other than that, she wasn’t sure, but they hinted about some sort of supernatural, spooky connection. She told them to piss off. But she said they implied there was a tie-in to the murder case we were investigating. The first girl your vamp friend took. The one who didn’t survive.”
Piers frowned. “Jack’s dead. And he was hardly my friend—I pulled his head off. So why is the case is still open?”
“Well, I could hardly suggest we close it without explaining how I knew that the perp is dead. Faith also said they mentioned Roz.”
“Why the hell would they mention Roz?”
Ryan seemed unfazed by the anger in Piers’s voice. He shrugged. “At a guess, if they’ve been watching the CR building, they’ve picked her up on surveillance. Maybe she was already on their files.”
“Your ex-partner, where does she enter into all this?” Piers asked.
“Again, at a guess—nowhere. Except the fact that she is my ex-partner and I’ve come to work for Christian.”
“You’re sure of that? She couldn’t already be involved with this government organization? Maybe she’s playing you to get close to Christian.”
“Faith? You’ve got to be kidding. She doesn’t believe in any of this stuff. She’s almost pathological about it, and it would take a hell of a lot to shift that attitude.”
“Why?” Ash asked suddenly curious.
“Why what?”
“Why is she so emphatically against believing in us? There’s usually a reason. Something that happened in the past. Has she always been like that?”
Ryan shrugged. “As long as I’ve known her.”
“Does she have family?”
“Not that I know of and not that she ever speaks of. And hey, why are you asking so many questions about Faith?”
“I phoned up her old office today—”
“Old?”
“Yeah—old. I told them I had information relating to a case she’s working on and they transferred me to some guy. Apparently, Detective Faith Connolly has been reassigned and is no longer working her cases.”