Only Ashes Remain

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Only Ashes Remain Page 18

by Rebecca Schaeffer


  Nita expected Adair to be amused by the whole thing, but after she left, his face fell a little and he just seemed tired. His swampy eyes seemed to be looking somewhere else, and his mouth was pursed. He brushed a strand of black hair from his eyes, hiding his face for a moment.

  Then he went over and picked up the broken statue. “She’s going to pay for that next time. Four dollars plus tax.”

  Twenty-Six

  KOVIT CAME IN less than a minute later, narrowly avoiding Gold.

  Adair tossed the pieces of the statue in the trash, the solemn look gone, and his usual slightly arrogant smile back. He nodded to Kovit. “You just missed Gold.”

  “I know. Nita texted me.” Kovit rubbed his temples. “I didn’t know she was aware of this shop.”

  Adair hesitated a moment, then said carefully, “Matt introduced us a while back. He needed some assistance cleaning up an incident.”

  Nita winced. How many “incidents” had Matt had?

  Kovit sighed and muttered, “Of course he did.”

  Adair turned away, and Kovit brushed past him. He opened the door to the stairwell and crashed into Nita, who fell backwards onto Diana, who tumbled to the ground.

  All three of them shrieked, a tangle of limbs like a mutant octopus. Adair opened the door and burst into laughter at the sight, all signs of tiredness gone. He clutched his stomach as he doubled over laughing.

  Nita, squished in between two people like a human sandwich, glared at Adair. She snapped her foot out and kicked his knee.

  Adair yelped and toppled, but instead of toppling back into the other room like Nita planned, he fell on top of their pile and Nita grunted as the breath was crushed from her.

  There was much swearing, death threats, and too many elbows as the four of them disentangled from each other and rose. Adair glared at them all when they were back on their feet. “Who kicked me?”

  No one answered, they just turned in unison to glare at him. Diana stuck her tongue out and said, “You were being an ass about it.”

  “And this surprises you because?”

  “It doesn’t.”

  Nita rolled her eyes at the two of them, and hesitated. Gold had just come to Adair for his connections. Adair took pay in information. If there was something Nita wanted to know, Adair was a good person to ask.

  If she could pay the price.

  She turned to Adair. “Can I talk to you?”

  He raised his eyebrows and smiled slightly. “Me?”

  “Yeah.”

  He shrugged and gestured to the large dining room table in the center of the pawnshop.

  Nita turned to Kovit. “I’ll be upstairs in a minute.”

  He gave her a long, searching look, then nodded and climbed the stairs to their room. Diana looked at the two of them and sighed. “I guess I’ll take the trash out.”

  Nita swallowed and made her way to the table as the others left the room. She sat down gingerly on one of the chairs, a hard, straight-backed Victorian thing that was ridiculously uncomfortable.

  Adair sat across from her and leaned back in his seat, steepling his fingers and smiling slightly. “What can I help you with?”

  Nita hesitated. “I want to know if you can find out about a vampire for me.”

  He tilted his head to one side, eyebrow arched. “Oh?”

  “My father was murdered recently.” A wry smile twisted her mouth. “Which I suppose you know, since you’ve been spying on me.”

  Adair gave a faux-innocent face as if to say, Who, me?

  Nita rolled her eyes, and he sighed.

  “It was the mention of knowing Fabricio’s location, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Ah, bad move on my part.” But he didn’t sound angry, and his smile stayed firmly in place. “So, what about your father?

  “I want to find his killer.”

  “And you think I can help?”

  “Yes. It’s a vampire. I figured you’d know who to ask to find out more.”

  Adair considered. “How do you know a vampire killed him?”

  “INHUP showed me pictures of him.”

  “And you trust INHUP is telling you the truth?” An ironic twist of his mouth made clear what he thought of that.

  Nita blinked. It hadn’t occurred to her that they might be lying. But after a moment of consideration, she shook her head. “I don’t think they’re lying. The same vampire came to ask me questions when I was in the market.”

  Adair’s eyes darkened. “What kind of questions?”

  Nita waved it away. “Not important.”

  Adair snorted. “Do you think you can use that information to pay me for something later?”

  Nita just shrugged. The truth was it was simple instinct now to protect her mother’s secrets, to hide who and what her mother was. She’d been doing it so long it was second nature. Though now that she considered it, information on her mother was probably valuable.

  But that didn’t mean Nita was going to reveal it.

  “So all you want is the name of the vampire?” he finally asked.

  “Well, motive would be nice too, but I can find that out for myself when I catch him.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Going to kill him and avenge your father?”

  Nita’s eyes narrowed. “Yes.”

  Adair considered her for a long moment. “You do realize if INHUP knows he’s a vampire, he’ll be posted online so people can hunt him down and kill him.”

  “I looked already. He’s not on the wanted list.”

  That made Adair pay attention. He turned to her sharply, eyes narrowing. “Not there?”

  “No.”

  “Has he died?”

  “I doubt it. Agent Quispe would have told me.”

  He tapped a finger on the table slowly. “Interesting. I’ve never heard of them not putting someone on the wanted list after they’ve been confirmed.”

  Nita shrugged. “I thought maybe he was part of another case. Perhaps they’re tracking him, hoping he will lead them to someone else before they eliminate him?”

  “Perhaps,” Adair acknowledged, but his eyes were narrowed in thought.

  Hook, line, and sinker. Adair liked knowledge, and she’d given him a mystery to solve.

  Adair considered her. “This will cost.”

  Nita crossed her arms. “I think I’ve already generously paid you from the information you’ve gleaned from that bug in our room.”

  “Hardly. I’ve barely gleaned anything from that, and this may be tricky information to find.”

  “How so?”

  He shrugged. “If you ask the wrong questions to the wrong people, sometimes the answers get locked away and the keys thrown in the ocean. It’s a delicate art.”

  She snorted. “You’re a kelpie. Since when has a key being thrown in an ocean been an impediment for you?”

  “It was a metaphor.”

  “So was mine.”

  He laughed then, and smiled. “Fair enough. But the information from the bug won’t be enough.”

  “What do you want?”

  He considered, swampy eyes flickering for a moment, so his pupils almost seemed slitted. “I want to know about your family. About your father. About your mother. Vampire hit men don’t get on INHUP’s radar for killing regular folk. Normal mothers aren’t kidnapping powerful men’s children.”

  Nita blanched. “No.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “Then I suppose you won’t be getting that information.”

  She swallowed heavily and looked away. “What, specifically, do you want to know?”

  He laughed. “Trying to get out on a technicality?”

  Nita rolled her eyes. “Well, I could tell you my mother doesn’t like dacts and my father’s favorite drink was ginger ale, but I doubt that’s the information you’re looking for.”

  He snorted. “All right. What does your mother do?”

  Nita hesitated a long moment. Protecting her mother’s secrets was so ingrained, so
integral a part of her now she didn’t know if she could reveal them.

  But she needed answers. Her mother wouldn’t give them to her, INHUP wouldn’t give them to her. Maybe Adair could.

  “She sells unnatural body parts on the internet.”

  “A black market dealer,” he murmured softly to himself. “What’s her username?”

  Nita shook her head. “Get me answers, and I’ll give you answers. That’s all I’m saying until I have the name and location of my father’s killer in my hands.” She considered. “And a few other things.”

  She listed a few more things, inconsequential to someone like Adair, but important for Nita’s plans.

  Adair gave her a long, assessing look, his eyes flicking back and forth, swampy green to yellow. Then he smiled, slow and sure. “Deal.”

  Nita didn’t like the way he said that, as though she’d given him far more than she intended.

  Adair rose, and Nita followed suit. Their conversation was over, and Nita was left feeling deeply uneasy, like she’d made a terrible mistake.

  Twenty-Seven

  NITA LEFT ADAIR on the main floor of the pawnshop and retreated upstairs. The staircase creaked ominously with every step she took, and she wiped her sweaty palms on her pants, trying to brush away the lingering nerves from the last few hours.

  Kovit was lying on the bed when Nita pushed the door open. He rolled into a sitting position when she came in.

  “Hey.” His voice was soft.

  She smiled at him, and a bit of the tension in her shoulders released, just being with him.

  “What did you want to ask Adair?”

  “I wanted to see if he could find anything about my father’s killer.”

  Kovit frowned slightly, forehead creased in concern. “What price did he ask?”

  She shook her head. “Don’t worry about it.”

  He hesitated, then nodded and let it go. She sat down on the bed beside him, tired.

  Kovit hesitated, and turned to her. “What happened with Gold?”

  Nita shrugged. “Nothing. She came in looking for help, but couldn’t pay Adair’s price.”

  “You don’t think she knew I was here, right?”

  “No, she didn’t say anything to indicate that.”

  He sighed, flopping back on the bed. “That was close, though. Too close.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Thanks for warning me.”

  “Of course.” She really didn’t need Kovit’s Family trying to poach him back. Or kill him. She frowned. “Maybe we should just kill Gold. To be on the safe side. If she knows about Adair’s place, she might come back. And we have enough problems without risking her recognizing you.”

  Kovit gave her a look. “I’m not killing her.”

  Nita blinked, baffled. “Why not?”

  “Because.”

  “Because why?”

  “Because I don’t want to,” he snapped. “I’m not some murder machine you can just switch on whenever someone inconvenient pops by.”

  Nita flinched. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just thought it’s better safe than sorry. She’s been hired by Fabricio to kill me, and she’s been killing anyone in her way, including random bystanders. And you said you didn’t get along—”

  “If I murdered everyone I didn’t get along with, the world would be pretty empty.” He sighed. “Besides. We worked together. I don’t necessarily like her, but I know her.”

  Ah. There was the real reason. Nita had seen it before, with Kovit. With people he didn’t know, it was like they weren’t real, didn’t exist to him. He could torture them and feel nothing. But the moment he put a name and a face and a life to them, he saw them as people. And once that distinction was made, there was no going back.

  Nita sighed. “All right.”

  Kovit brushed the hair from his eyes. In the jungle, it had been so hot and there’d been so much sweat on people that when he’d brushed his hair back, it had stuck like pomade. But in the fresh spring air of Toronto, his hair just resumed its place in front of his eyes. He ran his hand through it, mussing it and tangling the strands together so it stayed out of his face.

  “Need a haircut?” Nita asked with a small smile.

  He gave a short laugh. “Probably.”

  His smile was tired, and for the first time, Nita noticed the dark circles like bruises forming under his eyes and the tightness around his mouth.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Hmm, why?”

  “You just look . . .”

  He looked away, and in that moment she knew. He was hungry. And not for pizza.

  At first she was confused as to why he’d be hungry—four people had just died, and not all of them peacefully. But then she remembered his weird metaphor with trees and how much emphasis he’d put on duration. He needed an extended period of time eating pain, not a bite here and there before people died.

  He just shook his head. “I’m fine.”

  She nodded slowly. “All right.”

  She would have to trust he would tell her if it was an issue. Or he would get food. Either way, she didn’t want to bring up the idea of finding a new captive for him to torture.

  She rubbed her temples. “Did you learn anything tailing Adair?”

  He shook his head. “Nothing. He just went to the beach, bought six ice cream cones. No, I’m not joking,” he clarified when he saw her face. “Six. Then he sat on the waterfront pier with his feet in the icy cold water eating them.”

  If Nita had ever needed more confirmation Adair wasn’t even remotely human on a biological level, that was it. Ice cream in icy cold water? No, that was him trying to lower his body temperature significantly. Whatever he was, he wasn’t a creature of the heat. It was spring now, but she wondered what he’d do in the summer. Toronto got hot.

  “Did he do anything else?”

  Kovit shrugged. “He put his earbuds in and listened to music.”

  No, not music.

  The bug.

  She’d only just found out Fabricio was coming to Toronto. Adair must have been eavesdropping with the bug then.

  Nita looked around the room. If she were Adair, where would she hide a bug?

  She checked the light fixtures first, unscrewing lightbulbs and examining the lamp.

  Kovit leaned over her. “What are you doing?”

  She bit her lip, then typed it out on her phone: This room is bugged. Adair’s been listening to us.

  Kovit’s eyebrows rose, and then he started hunting too.

  They scoured the room, and it was Kovit who eventually found the bug, underneath the wall socket cover. Nita yanked it out and crushed it beneath her shoe. It made a satisfying crack when it fell apart.

  She let out a breath. “Ugh. I wonder how much intel he got from us.”

  Kovit rubbed his temples. “I don’t think there was much. He probably knows why we’re here and who we’re running from, and I suppose he’s learned a lot about Fabricio and some about my Family, but I don’t think it’s life threatening.”

  “All the same, I don’t like him knowing who our enemies are. He’s in this business for the money, and you can never trust people like that not to sell you out.”

  Kovit shook his head. “Nah, he’s in this business for the dead bodies and the information. The money is just enough for living, but I don’t think he cares too much about it.”

  Nita raised her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

  “Adair almost always takes payment in information over money when he can. Have you noticed? He’s more concerned with staying abreast of what’s happening in the world than he is about almost anything else.”

  “Why?”

  Kovit shrugged. “Why not? Kelpies aren’t on the Dangerous Unnaturals List, but they will be one day. Everyone knows it. Information gives Adair bargaining tools that money doesn’t. Bribes can be refused, but blackmail is hard to ignore. I wouldn’t put it past him to be selling things he finds out to INHUP in exchange for keeping his species off the l
ist.”

  “That’s . . . not a bad plan.” Nita considered.

  “He’s sharp. And he knows that if people want to buy information from him, it’s in their best interest to keep him alive. He’s always trading in information. Sure, lots of people might want to kill him for his knowledge. But those same people use him to find things out. It’s not exactly a safe position, but it’s a powerful position if used right.”

  Nita tapped a finger on the bed frame. “So it is. Information can be quite useful.” The idea of informational power swirled around in her head. “It’s a little like Fabricio’s father. He knows where everyone’s money is, so he has the evidence to destroy them. It’s the information that gives him power over people, and safety.”

  “Yeah, it’s a similar concept.” Kovit tilted his head. “Hard life to live, though. Hard line to walk.”

  “All lives are hard. But some leave you alive, and some leave you dead.” Nita’s voice was thoughtful.

  Kovit rolled his eyes and plopped down on the bed. He pulled his phone out of his pocket. There was a suspicious smudge on it.

  Nita raised her eyebrows. “Did you get ice cream?”

  He laughed at her look. “It looked really good. And Adair had six cones. I wanted one.”

  Nita shoved his arm. “You didn’t bring any back for me.”

  “It would have melted.”

  “Excuses, excuses.”

  He grinned and unlocked his phone. Then his eyebrows pulled together as he stared at his screen. “What . . .”

  Nita frowned and looked over his shoulder.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s an email.” Kovit swallowed and looked up at Nita. “From Henry.”

  Twenty-Eight

  NITA’S HEART RATE SPIKED. An email from Henry.

  “Did Gold see you?” Nita asked.

  Kovit shook his head. “No, look at the time stamp. This was sent before Gold got to the store.”

  “Okay. That’s good news at least.” Nita tried to keep her tone optimistic. “Maybe it’s another phishing email. You said he sent one before.”

 

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