“Of all the cases that I would expect to come through your door, that wasn’t one,” I said, keeping my voice low. “You’re seriously going to snoop around to see if Barnaby’s neighbor is swiping his booze?”
Herne snorted. “You have no idea how seriously clurichauns take their alcohol, do you? If he’s like the rest of his kind, he’d have an easier time if his wife were cheating on him than with somebody stealing his wine.”
I wiped my eyes, shaking my head. “You know, I realize how little I know about my own people. I’ve had little to do with them, and my parents didn’t talk much about them. They chose to live like humans because of the way they were treated. I was brought up that way. My mother taught me to respect and honor Morgana, and she taught me magic of a sort, but whenever I’d ask about my parentage—you know, grandparents, the like—I ran up against a stone wall.
“It’s almost as though I have no family at all, other than Angel. Sometimes, I actually feel quite alone in the universe.” I may have started laughing, but I ended on a serious note, realizing that what I had just said resonated true to the bone. I truly did feel alone in the world, belonging to no one, with no culture, no heritage.
Herne was sitting beside me, silently listening. After a moment, he let out a soft sigh and opened the bottom drawer to his desk. He pulled out a bottle of spiced rum and two shot glasses. He filled the glasses and pushed one over to me. We slammed back the drinks, and he refilled them, then put the bottle away.
“Everybody has a right to know their background. While I understand why your parents did what they did, they left you at a distinct disadvantage. Maybe we can fill in the blanks, somehow.” He lifted his glass and I touched my own to his, not sure what we were toasting.
“I’m not sure if I want to. Part of me does, but I think I’m afraid of what I might find. It’s hard when you know the people you come from don’t want anything to do with you. Even harder to know that they killed your parents. My parents really did love each other. I could see it on their faces every day. I could hear it in their voices with every word they said. If I could ever find a love even half that strong, I think I’d be blessed. I don’t know if I would have had the courage to do what they did—to defy tradition to the point of putting my life on the line for it.”
Herne said nothing, just let me ramble on. When I finished, I looked over at him, suddenly realizing just how much I was revealing. I blushed, feeling like I had said too much.
“I do understand, even though I’m not in the same position. We’ll pick up this conversation later, but right now we need to touch base with Yutani and Talia.” He stood up, escorting me to the door.
As we headed for the break room, I felt slightly giddy from the booze, but also from the sudden realization that I felt better after talking to Herne. He had a way of making me feel comfortable in my own skin. Until now, Angel was the only one in the world who had ever given me the space to be truly who I was.
Chapter 12
YUTANI AND TALIA were waiting for us in the break room. Viktor and Angel came right in after us as we took our places at the table. I glanced up at the clock, startled to realize it was almost seven. The day had passed so fast that I hadn’t realized it.
Talia went first. “While Yutani analyzed the video, I did some digging. I have some information on this Kuveo creature. He’s not actually a demon, but he is a monster of sorts. And he can be summoned with the promise of blood and life force.”
“Okay,” Herne said. “What is he and why would someone summon him?”
“He’s a fox shifter. Kuveo is a carnivorous creature who feeds off of life energy and fear and pain. He’s also known as an interdimensional assassin and he delights in torture. Which means our victims were probably alive when he ripped them to shreds. He may eat chunks of his victims, a bite here and there, but mostly he’s looking for their fear and pain while he’s attacking them.”
Angel grimaced. “Does he normally belong in our world?”
“Good question,” Talia said. “No, but he’s not from the physical realm. At least not our physical realm. He lives out in the Dreamtime, but he can be summoned here to perform an assassination of some great magnitude. He won’t go after just anybody, though. And he requires a total of thirteen sacrifices before he will turn on the target. So, if you want to summon him to destroy somebody, you must provide him with thirteen victims first.”
“And Kevin was our thirteenth. Crap, that means that Kuveo is ready to go after the actual target.” Herne stiffened in his chair. “Is there anything that you came across that says how long it takes after the sacrifices before he’ll attack the actual target?”
Talia shook her head. “I looked, sugar. But I didn’t find anything. However, when Kuveo goes after the actual victim, he’ll track them until they are dead. You get your money’s worth with him.”
“So the Dark Fae summoned him to perform an assassination. The victims were simply payment?”
“It looks that way,” Yutani said. “I did a close inspection of the video Kevin took of the summoning. And I swear that it had to be held in UnderLake. While Castle Hall is abandoned and falling apart, there’s enough of it left to house a number of ghosts. When I examined the frames one by one, it looked as though the summoning spell was done in an underground chamber. Since all of the victims were connected with UnderLake in one way or another, my guess is that they were killed there, and then dumped in other places.”
“What about Kuveo? Once he performs his task, i.e., the assassination, what happens to him?” Herne leaned forward, resting his chin on his hands.
Talia shook her head. “Then he’s free to go do what he wants. And he’s in this realm. That’s another thing I found out. Kuveo can’t enter this realm without being summoned. Once he’s here, he’s free to wreak havoc after he’s fulfilled his part of the deal.”
“That means more victims after he’s assassinated his target. Which means we have to take him out as soon as possible,” Viktor said. “Did you find anything about his weaknesses? Does he have any vulnerabilities that you could discover?”
Talia consulted her notes. “Yes, I did. He’s hard to kill. However, if someone can manage to cut off four of his nine tails, he’ll be sent back to his own realm. He’ll regrow them, but he won’t be over here. And he doesn’t have a heart like we do—literally speaking. He lives on energy. He only takes bites out of each of his victims as a ceremonial rite.” She rolled her eyes, looking disgusted.
“Is there a way to kill him?” Somehow, the idea of fighting a creature that couldn’t be killed didn’t appeal to me.
The harpy nodded, her eyes beady. Talia had a harshness about her that both scared me and yet made me appreciate her. “Cut off all of his tails while he’s in this realm. That will do it. Nobody has ever managed to do so, though.”
Herne was playing with a paper clip. He tossed it on the table. “Wonderful. So have we figured out who his main target is? Was that in Kevin’s files?”
“Yes,” Yutani said, “The answer isn’t good.”
“Lay it on us,” Herne said.
“The Dark Fae conjured him up to assassinate Névé. Apparently, Light took a potshot at Saílle recently, and this is retaliation. Kevin had his nose in everything and he made copious notes just in case something happened. Which, unfortunately, it did.”
Herne groaned and rubbed his head. “We missed a previous assassination plot? Thank heavens that wasn’t realized, but that means that we have to take care of this and pronto.”