"Then I can't help you."
"How many times, Portia?" Xander's tone fills with exasperation, not anger. "This shit affects the fae too. Not helping us could put you in more danger."
She jabs a finger at the screen. "My daughter is in danger."
Heath rests his elbows on the table and rubs both hands down his face, swearing.
"We could ask Syv or Abel to sort it?" suggests Seth.
"Excuse me?" Portia narrows her eyes at the guys. "Is your little friend telling me you're involved with that half-demon bitch?" I cringe as her voice rises. "Do you know what she stole from us and how important it was?"
"Nice one, Seth," mutters Heath. “Thanks, mate."
I feel like putting my head in my hands too. So much politics, it's insane.
"I knew it!" She points a finger at Xander. "Someone told me you'd asked her to help you before, and I didn't want to believe them."
"When?" asks Heath, sharply.
"A couple of weeks before she arrived."
"She has a name," I say in a low voice.
I don't miss Ewan's “we're going to talk about this look” to Xander. He was involved with Syv before now? No secrets, huh? Hypocrite.
"Verity." Portia smiles. "You seem different since I last saw you. More powerful. Do you feel more powerful?"
I hold her challenge, ignoring the undertones. "I feel I'm becoming more who I need to be."
"And what's that?"
"Part of the guys."
She gives a seductive bite to her lip and looks at Xander. "Has she claimed you all as I suspected she would, or left any of you for me?"
Xander huffs. "You're relentless, Portia."
"I'm used to getting what I want, that's all." She twirls the mug on the table in front of her. "Surely one girl isn't enough to satisfy all your... urges."
Oh, good God.
"Some things are more important than sex," says Ewan gruffly. "Will you help us or not?"
She taps her phone screen. "Once you've dealt with him, yes. I'm sure if you dig deep enough you'll find there are humans sneaking into the club, and you could punish him for that."
Ewan rubs his mouth and looks at Heath.
"I don’t care what reason you give. Eliminate him so I don't cause problems by doing it myself."
The conversation deadens, each person in the room preoccupied by their own thoughts. I'm most interested in what Xander's are, whether he’ll agree, and where we go from here.
13
HEATH
La Fee Verte operates 24/7, but with less patrons in the daytime. Inside, some sit beneath the violet lights at the bar, drinking, and a few sit in shadowy corners holding meetings. I’d love to know exactly what about.
Most come for their magic fix.
Xander and me attract attention when we walk in. War and Death paying the place a visit? Everybody knows we're not just here for a drink.
I study the people around, the obvious addicts and the deadbeats who slump over their drinks. Many shift their gazes away from me. Because I'm Death or because they've something to hide?
I'm unsurprised when I spot Syv at the bar, chatting to the blue-haired barman. She makes sweeping gestures in the air as she does and is the most animated person in here. Xander wanders over to talk to her while I watch the door and stairs in case Mac appears, or bolts out the entrance.
"Has she found anything connected to the rune yet?" I ask Xander when he returns.
He shakes his head. "I asked if Mac was around, and the barman said he's upstairs."
"Wow, way to sell out your friends."
"The guy knows better than to lie to me. Everybody in this joint knows not to cross us, because I bet everybody here has something they'd rather we didn't know about."
He's right. I look over, and Syv gives a small wave before returning to her drink and chat.
"I told her about our deal with Portia."
"Xander! Maybe you should've asked Syv to sort the situation. I don't like this."
A skinny guy in leather and a half-shredded black vest passes with an empty glass, and determination, as he approaches the bar. Xander lowers his voice. "I don't think we need to kill Mac. I'll give him the chance to get the hell out of here and the country."
I rub my temples. "Portia has asked us to do this. What if she finds out we didn't fulfil our end of the bargain?"
"If she doesn't find out until after our visit to Alasdair, I'm fine. After that... I'll deal with the situation if she discovers the truth later."
That's what I'm worried about.
"Seriously, Heath. I'm surprised Mac's still here. Sure, these guys have nothing to do with Portia's fae, but they know how powerful she is. The owner won't be happy Mac's drawn attention to the place." He gestures to the stairs. "C'mon, I'm not hanging around."
We tread up the narrow staircases, past the room we sat in before with the others, which is dark and empty today. There's no music and nobody dancing in the other rooms, the place a shell of the normal place, as the many people here are shells of themselves.
We reach the top floor. A guy sits on a chair outside Mac's room, staring at the carpet as he jiggles his legs. His long black hair sweeps forward, obscuring his face, and he picks at the chair edge.
Mac's client looks up when he hears our footsteps. Purer fae's faces are sculpted into sharp features with a strange beauty, but this fae's high cheek bones protrude in his sunken skin.
He regards us with dulled violet eyes surrounded by dark circles. "I'm next."
Xander doesn't respond.
"Is Mac in there?" I ask.
"He went into the room just after I arrived. I've been waiting ten minutes. He's late."
I glance at Xander, who immediately tries the door handle. He rattles, and movement sounds in the room behind; a door slams.
"There's a window in his bedroom," I say to Xander. “I saw when we found Elyssia.”
"Fuck." In usual Xander style, he kicks at the door.
The other guy jumps to his feet and wraps arms around himself. "Whoa, dude. Mac won't like that; he hates interruptions."
Ignoring him, Xander kicks the door again. The chair someone pushed beneath the handle, in an attempt to stop anybody opening the door, cracks under the force. I follow as Xander strides into the room. The place looks the same as when I last walked in on Mac, swapping magic with the girl. This time the chair's broken on the floor and the door to the room we found Elyssia in is open.
Xander rushes in. "Shit! The fucker left."
I peer into the room after him. Clothes cover the bed; discarded items are strewn on the floor. There's no sign of a struggle; this is someone trying to decide what to take in a hurry.
"Do you think we heard Mac leaving?"
Xander crosses the bedroom to a dirty open window and leans out. "I'm bloody sure it was. He could've gone this way."
Beneath the window, there's a lower floor’s flat roof between this room and the ground, but still a long drop as this is the third floor in a tall building.