“You like him,” Angel said, a wide grin on her face. “Don’t try to wiggle out of it. There’s something between the two of you. I can feel it from a mile away.”
I wanted to believe her, but the fear was still there. While I doubted that Herne would end up dead like my other boyfriends, there was enough uncertainty that I was afraid to chance it. And there was still the fact that he was my boss, and also the son of a god.
“Don’t even start,” I said. “Did you have a chance to unpack?”
“Yeah, I’ll clean it all off later.” She crossed to the kitchen, holding up the box of cookies. “How about I make you an espresso, and we watch some TV? I need to unwind, and I think you need to cool off.”
I couldn’t argue with her there, so for the next hour we watched a documentary on penguins in the Arctic. But all the while, I could still feel his fingers tracing my face, and the fire that they had left behind.
WHILE ANGEL WENT through her things, I returned to my search. I had jotted down the names of some of the parapsychology groups that I knew our four victims had belonged to. As I began searching through the websites, looking for anything that might stand out to me, I began to notice a common theme. Each of the groups met at least once a month, and had at least three or four field trips per year. Several of them had member lists posted on their sites, and I was able to find the names of our victims included in them. While not every victim belonged to every group, there was some overlap, so at least some of our victims must have known each other.
“Find anything?” Angel asked as she returned from the guestroom. I had a daybed in there, and I had moved some of my weapons and gear out of the way for her.
“I think so,” I said. “There’s something here and I can’t quite seem to put my finger on it. But I know there’s some connection. I think at least a couple of our victims had to know each other. At least a cursory acquaintance. Wait a minute.” I paused. I leaned forward, staring at the screen. And then I realized what looked so familiar. “Here. I’ve seen this on several of the groups I looked up.” I pointed to a picture on one of the field trip pages. “This group, the Faustians, recently took a field trip to look over the Castle Hall area. At UnderLake.” I glanced up at Angel. “I think…”
I rapidly switched between tabs, searching on the various websites.
“What?” Angel sat down beside me, craning her neck to see the screen.
“Four of these groups recently took a field trip to Castle Hall.” I looked at her, my mouth dry. “Besides the fact that DJ overheard the Light Fae there…the fact that several of our victims probably visited the area recently seems like there’s got to be some connection. Either that, or it’s a massive coincidence.”
“I don’t believe in coincidence,” Angel said.
“I know you don’t. I do, but this seems too coincidental to be a fluke. Do you think I should call Herne?”
“I think you just want to hear his voice. Maybe you should wait till tomorrow.” Angel gave me a long look. “You need to walk softly around him, Ember. There’s so much energy between the two of you that it could spontaneously combust. Find out a little more about him first.” She reached out to pat my hand. “I want you to be happy. I want you to find the right guy. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“And you think that I will, if I go for it with him?” It wasn’t a rhetorical question. I trusted Angel’s instincts.
“I don’t get a feeling on that either way. I just know there’s more to him than meets the eye. They brought you into the agency for more reasons than just because of me. I think you need to find out what those reasons are before you jump into anything else.” With a yawn, Angel stood. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to take a shower and go to sleep. It’s been a long past couple of days.” She paused, and with a sad voice, added, “I miss DJ. I miss that little guy so much.”
“I know you do. And I wish things could be other than what they are. But like you said, there’s so much on the line right now, for both of us. Go take a shower and go to bed. We both need sleep.”
As Angel headed into the bathroom, I crossed to my own room. I was too tired to do anything but fall under the covers and sleep. But my dreams were filled with screaming victims, and dark shadows chasing them, and at one point I turned around and felt Herne’s eyes on me, watching me closely, like a hawk. And then he turned into the silver stag and dashed through the woods, and I found myself alone again with a growing shadow threatening to gobble me up.
COME MORNING, ANGEL had toast and eggs ready. I fed Mr. Rumblebutt, then made my latte, and fixed her a cup of tea. We gobbled down our breakfasts, and carrying our travel mugs, headed for my car.
“I need to buy a new car as soon as I can,” Angel said. “I got a call this morning while you were showering. Sure enough, they’re chalking up the fire to a gas leak. They say that it managed to travel to my car as well, because they said my car was in the garage. But I didn’t leave my car in the garage. I didn’t tell them that, though, given what Herne said would happen.”
“Did you have renter’s insurance?”
She shook her head. “Are you kidding? Who can afford that? But I did have car insurance, and while it won’t pay for a new car, I should be able to get a decent clunker that will last for a while.”
“With your new job and pay rate, you should be able to get a loan for a new one.” I still couldn’t get over the fact that we were both making so much more money than we had ever seen in our lives.
“I suppose so. It seems like we have job security. Maybe I’ll go talk to the bank later today.”
The city streets were slick with rain as it sputtered out of the heavens. It was a gloomy day and I longed for a sun break, just a few days of balmy weather. The wind picked up at that moment, and I shivered as the car rocked. I’d hate to be dealing with buses right now.
“Well, here we are,” I said, pulling into the parking garage. “Are you ready for the day?”
Angel nodded. “We don’t have much choice, so we might as well make the best of it. And it could be worse. I could still be at my old job.”
“Yeah, I suppose you’re right about that.”
WE FOUND OUT that every morning at the Wild Hunt Agency, we started the day with a brief meeting to bring everybody up to speed. Talia was there, carrying a box of doughnuts. Yutani had a sheaf of papers in his hand, and he looked like he’d been up all night. Viktor was entirely too bright and perky for eight in the morning, and he gave me a two-fingered salute as we entered the room.
Herne was the last one to straggle in. He was talking on his cell phone. Talia had made coffee, and I thought about refilling my cup, but the fact that I’d already had four shots of espresso made me hesitate.
Angel gave me a sardonic look. “You know you want to. Go ahead. It never seems to affect you, anyway.”
“That’s because I live on the stuff. I think the mix of the Dark and Light Fae scrambled some of my brain cells.” I was joking, kind of. There weren’t enough of us half-breeds between the two Fae courts to do any studies on.
“Excuse me,” Herne said, waving for us to be quiet. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you. My staff was joking around.” He flashed us a warning look, then turned away. “I know what you said. There’s not much I can do about it.” He paused, then let out a huff of irritation. “I don’t think you’re going to find it of much use now, but go ahead and knock yourself out. Call me when you have an answer.” He stared at us for a moment, then slipped the phone in his pocket.
“Anything the matter, boss?” Talia put a doughnut on the plate and shoved it his way.