I tilted my head. “How did you know I slept with Rodán earlier this week?”
Olivia’s eyes widened as she looked past my shoulder and she had an “Oh, shit,” look on her face.
The skin on my back prickled and my body burned. Oh, my Goddess. Adam hadn’t just overheard us, had he?
I slowly turned and met a gaze that was now hard instead of warm. “Adam—”
“I need to get back to work.” He looked away for a moment as every good feeling drained from me.
“Let’s talk outside first.”
He headed to the door and I followed him. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Olivia’s stricken expression. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
It wasn’t her fault. I should have told her already. No, I shouldn’t have let it go that far with Adam to begin with. It was my fault.
He held the door open for me. When the office door closed behind us he was looking away from me as he dragged his hand over his face.
“I probably shouldn’t even ask this.” Adair, returned his gaze to mine. “Is it true? What I overheard? You’re involved with Rodán?”
“It’s not like that.” How could I explain my relationship with Rodán?
“You just had sex with him a few nights ago.”
“Yes, but—”
“Nyx, I can’t see a woman who’s involved with another man.” Adam’s features looked tired. “Been there already, and not going there again.”
My thoughts were confused, tangled. I didn’t know what I was trying to say. “Rodán—”
Adam blew out a harsh, audible breath of air as he pushed his hand through his hair. “I need to go.”
“Please, Adam.” My heart seemed to jerk out of my chest and stay with him as he moved away.
“You don’t understand.”
Adam paused and looked at me. “Yeah. I do.”
He walked away. And he didn’t look back.
CHAPTER 29
My heart hurt so much that I held my fists to my chest as Adam disappeared around the corner.
I wanted to run up to my apartment and hide from everything. I wanted to bury my face in a pillow and pretend I had tear ducts and could cry.
Real pain, as well as some anger, had been in Adam’s voice when he’d said he wasn’t going to go through a relationship like this. Another relationship. He’d been hurt, and it must have been awful.
Regardless, I’d screwed up big-time. I’d been wrong in going to bed with Adam yesterday. I should have insisted on waiting.
No excuse. There was no excuse.
My heart ached so badly I couldn’t go back into the office. Not yet. Instead, I walked around the side of the building, across Central Park West, and into the cool confines of the park.
It was fairly quiet when I stopped, hidden in the trees. It was well after lunch, when some of the city’s residents came here to enjoy a bit of nature as they ate their sandwiches while sitting on a park bench or a blanket on the grass.
A hot dog vendor was not too far down the street. My stomach grew queasy at the smell of food, and I wrapped my arms across my waist. Scents of grass, trees, and earth didn’t calm me like they usually did. Instead, everything seemed to make me feel more sensitive, like my skin was raw and exposed.
Lunch with Adam had been so beautiful, but all I could think about now was the tight set of his jaw after he’d overheard Olivia and me. And the combination of hurt and hardness in his expression just before he left I leaned against the rough bark of an oak tree and tipped my head back. I stared at the leaves above and watched the light blinking through them and caught glimpses of the gray sky.
Deep and guttural voices came from behind the tree I was leaning against and I started. They sounded like the Demons did when they spoke to each other.
Demons?
Chills crawled along my spine and I glanced out at the sunshine, as if making sure it was really the middle of the day and not night.
A snarl followed a low growl.. . that growl somehow sounded familiar. I’d heard it before. My heart thudded as I faced the tree, then peeked around the trunk.
The thudding of my heart nearly stopped completely. T. It was T and the Chance-Demon that I’d killed. That I thought I’d killed. Both spoke in some guttural language, and their mouths were filled with Demon teeth. Even T’s. Sunlight glinted off of T’s fully formed Demon claws.
Oh, my Goddess. T was a Demon. A Demon.
All this time we’d had him in our midst, working as one of us. He’d known everything, been with us every step of the way. He’d played us all along. He’d totally fooled us, even Rodán.
I drew back to make sure I wouldn’t be seen and tried to control my breathing. Adrenaline spiked through me, and even the roots of my hair seemed to rise from my scalp.
My gun, daggers—in my purse. Left behind at the office. But I had to take care of T. I had to eliminate him. Along with the Chance-Demon that was supposed to be dead.
No choice. I had to use my elemental powers and I didn’t know how they’d work against T. Not after the things I’d seen him do.
The knowledge that T was a Demon was almost too much to process.
Another guttural sound, and then quiet.
I gathered my elemental powers as I stepped around the tree. The Chance-Demon wasn’t there anymore. Only T, looking normal again, no claws, no mouthful of jagged teeth. It was as if I had imagined it all.
But I hadn’t. I knew it. And, by his expression, so did he.
I drew my elements to me. All of them. T opened his mouth and said something, but it was only a buzz in the background as I felt the strong white heat flash in my eyes.
The ground trembled and air whipped around T.
A nearby fire hydrant’s caps ripped loose, and water shot up into the air and to its sides. I instantly gathered the water, wrapping it around T until he was in the middle of a cyclone of my power. I called up enough static that a lone bolt of lightning cut through the cyclone. T shouted as it struck him, and he dropped to his knees.
Anger at his betrayal—maybe even at our stupidity—drove me like nothing had before. The pain of losing Adam combined with my anger, and my wind element whipped the trees like a gale-force hurricane.
Every emotion, every bit of rage consumed me as T staggered to his feet in the water cyclone.
“You sonofabitch!” I focused every bit of my air power on T and released it.
As if I’d flung a two-ton boulder at T, the concentration of air I’d gathered slammed into his chest.
T shouted again as he was blasted away from me, toward an enormous tree trunk.
Before T’s body hit the trunk, a flash of red lightning tore through him.
T vanished in the burst of red light.
He . . . just... vanished.
Nothing was registering as I stared at the spot where he’d just disappeared. I dropped to my knees and hit dirt. I kept looking at the place where that bastard, T, had vanished—or disintegrated. A prickling sensation crawled over my scalp and trickled down my body.
Was he dead?
I closed my eyes for a moment and heard the sounds of a baby crying, a bicycle bell, cars driving nearby, and honking from all the way over on Amsterdam. The sounds rushed at me, overwhelmed me. My sensitive hearing picked up everything and I couldn’t block any of it out.
Every smell was an assault. Too many flowers and trees in Central Park, the smell of hot dogs from that vendor a few blocks down, and the sickly sweet scent of ice cream from the ice cream cart.
Pollution, dirt, asphalt—I was going to throw up.
I don’t know how long it was before I staggered to my feet. The power I’d unleashed, and every emotion that had been churning in my body, had drained me.
Nothing would process. T was a Demon. I had just killed him.
It. T was an it after all.
When I walked into the PI office, Olivia came up to me, her face worried, but puzzled, too. She grasped my forearms. “What happene
d?”
“I—I.. .” How could I explain what had happened when I didn’t even know? “I think I just killed T.”
Olivia clenched my forearms tighter. “Explain.”
I gestured toward Central Park West, just outside our office. “There. I. . . killed him. Disintegrated him.”
“You killed Torin?” Olivia didn’t relent her hold on me. “You disintegrated him?”
“Unless one of his talents involves vanishing.” I wondered why I hadn’t given that more thought. I’d been too wrapped up in the pain I’d felt from Adam’s rejection, and thinking that I’d blown T away.
“If he does, that could explain a lot of things. Like appearing when I’m not expecting him. Or beating me to our destination every time.”
I told Olivia everything, including what Adam said to me when he left. By the time I finished she had let go of me, had her Sig Saner out, and was checking the magazine.
“Jesus.” Her expression showed more fury than I ever remembered seeing on her face. “That [insert curse words in languages I didn’t understand] sonofabitch. If you didn’t kill him, I will the next time we see him. A Demon. A fucking Demon.”
“I need to call Rodán.” My hands shook as I started to come down from the adrenaline rush and jitters took over. I fumbled with the XPhone when I retrieved it from my purse, but I managed to press speed dial for Rodán.
I don’t remember the conversation I had with him. It was short and he sounded stunned. The moment I ended the call, Olivia took me by my shoulders.
“Lie down for a little while,” she said. “Then get yourself together. You did the right thing.” She gave me a hug. “I’m sorry about Adam. I’m so damn sorry.”
“It’s okay.” I swallowed. “I screwed up.”
Olivia headed me off to the kitchenette/lounge we had in the back of the office. I collapsed onto the couch and wrapped my arms around myself until the shaking stopped.
“Got a surprise for you.” Olivia waved an eight-and-a-half-by-eleven clear sheet as I walked into the office from the lounge an hour later. Still enough daylight to get something done, something to keep me busy.
“Is it good?” I felt like I was dragging my feet through sludge as I walked toward my desk. “I need good.”
Olivia sighed and put whatever it was on her desk. “I’m so sorry, Nyx.”
“Don’t apologize again, or I’m not responsible for my actions.” I plopped into my chair and rubbed my temples. “I’m a fast draw with my Kahr.”
Olivia picked up one of the erasers from her stash and rolled it with her fingers. She didn’t say anything, but her gaze was intense as she looked out one of the windows, toward Central Park.
“Won’t be long until we’re out of daylight,” I said. A change of subject would be good about now.
“Show me what you’ve got.”
“Check this out.” She set down the eraser. I was glad to hear the normalcy back in her voice. I needed normalcy, and I’m sure she’d realized it. “James called while you were taking a nap, and I told him what we needed.” She pushed aside a stack of file folders. “James sent them by courier and they just got here.”
“Hold on.” My hair kept sliding across my cheeks and into my eyes, and was beginning to drive me crazy. I dug a clasp of Drow platinum out of my desk and fastened my hair away from my face before moving around behind her desk.
On her desk, Olivia had spread several clear sheets with colors and symbols on them.
I examined the sheets but didn’t quite get what I was looking at. “Something like infrared?”
“Yeah.” Olivia sounded immensely pleased. “Satellite images from before the Demons escaped through that Ruhin Demon Gate, and after.”
I braced my hand on her desk and leaned closer. “I see streets, buildings, and blobs. Lots and lots and lots of red, yellow, and green blobs.”
“Hold on.” Olivia arranged the images side by side. “It’s a before and after.”
“Ohhh.” A little slow on the uptake, Nyx.
We both leaned down and looked at the satellite image of Manhattan from a couple of weeks ago, before the Demons came through the gate. Then, as one, we looked at the sheet with the most recent image.
“The green is a lot thicker now around the Museum of Natural History.” I met Olivia’s gaze as the air seemed to go cold. “According to this the Demons are in my territory, and they’re practically on top of the museum.”
“Or below it.”
“Yeah. That.” I hurried to my desk, dug my XPhone out of my purse, and hit the speed dial number for Rodán.
“We know where the Demons are,” I said. “They’re below the Museum of Natural History.”
He said something in Drow that was as harsh as a stake driven into the earth. “By the Goddess,” he added, the fury in his voice growing. “How could I not know this? Sense this?”
Rodán didn’t ask me if I was certain. He knew me too well and trusted me too much. I explained Olivia’s discovery to him.
“Call the other Trackers and have them meet at the Pit one hour after sundown.” His tone was even darker. Angrier. “I may be late, but I want everyone there, waiting.”
It was almost an hour yet until sundown, so that gave us nearly two hours. “I’ll take care of it immediately.”
“I’ll see you when I arrive,” he said, and disconnected.
“We’ve talked about the possibility of Abaddon creating another Demon Gate.” I set the XPhone down and walked to the file cabinets. “But since the massacre didn’t happen until last night, while I was fighting that Demon at Fort Tryon, we didn’t have a lot to go on.”
“What are you thinking?” Olivia left her seat and followed me to the file cabinet.
“I think the attacks have a pattern.” I formed a mental image of each location of a murdered Tracker, a missing liaison, and a symbol. I pulled out the drawer of the file cabinet where we kept all of our maps. “Midtown West, Central Park, and the Upper West Side . . . and something to do with the Museum of Natural History.”
Olivia headed over to the large corner table with me. We could have brought up maps on the comer, but there was something about actually spread-. one out on a surface and being able to examine it in detail. I handed Olivia an orange marker. Mine—purple. I like purple.
I drew a circle on the map of Manhattan and put the number one inside of it. “Caprice was murdered around Fifty-fifth Street and Avenue of the Americas.” I tried to keep my personal emotions under wraps and look at this from a professional angle. I was a PI. That was my job.
And 1 was oh, so stellar at keeping that emotional distance.
Not.
Olivia drew an orange circle close to my purple one. “The same night, the disappearance of a liaison happened near Fifty-eighth Street and Fifth Avenue.”
I made another circle at Frawley Circle on the upper northeast corner of Central Park. “This is where Jon died.”
Olivia marked 109th and Madison. “Missing liaison and murdered family here.”
“Riverside Park near Seventy-seventh Street is where they almost killed me.” I cleared my throat.
“Close to where they killed Randy that same night.”
“And the third liaison was taken about Seventy-ninth Street, near Riverside Drive.” She circled the approximate location.
“The massacre ...” I drew another purple circle. “Seventy-seventh and Central Park West.”
My scalp started to tingle like I was going to go through the transformation. I took a green marker and connected all the orange circles where the liaisons had been kidnapped and the symbols left behind. “An almost perfect triangle.” I took a red marker and put a star on the museum.
Olivia dropped her own marker onto the map.
“With the museum and the concentration of Demons practically dead center.”
We slowly looked at one another. “Oh. shit,” she said.
I nodded. I think that just become my new favorite phrase.
CHAPTER 30
I leaned against the bar and faced the location where almost all of the remaining Trackers had gathered, in our usual corner at the Pit. Everyone was eating dinner and having a drink before Rodán showed up. Probably to fortify themselves for when we would discuss the situation and make our plans to take down this Demon, and every other one that had come through the Ruhin Demon Gate.
A hand on my shoulder, and the scent of fresh air and the woods, brought my attention to Carlos, a Werewolf who had taken over Randy’s Central Park territory. “Everything okay, Nyx?” he asked.
Of course not. “Just about to order my martini.” I tried to smile but I don’t think I did even close to a good job at it. “I could use one. Or a dozen.”
Carlos raised his clear bottle of Corona. “I’ve got a head start on you.” He patted my shoulder and moved on to where the rest of the Trackers were sitting.
“When will Rodán get here?” Nancy said as she clenched the stem of her nonalcoholic chocolate martini. (Isn’t alcohol the point?) Pixies even smell like milk chocolate.
I remained leaning against the bar, looking toward the other Trackers for a moment. I desperately wanted my martini. Mine would have the good stuff, unlike Nancy’s. Mine was only good stuff.
“The usual, Streak?” Hector said from behind me, and I turned to face him.
I shook my head. “All I want is a huge piece of chocolate tall-cake and my martini.”
Hector raised his eyebrows. “You’ve got it.”
I could really use the cake. Chocolate helped cure all the world’s ills, right?
Except Pixies smelled like chocolate, so there went that theory.
Goddess, my head ached. I rubbed my temples and squeezed my eyes shut for a moment. I couldn’t stop thinking about Adam, and Torin, and the symbols, and what Olivia and I had come up with. It was all giving me a massive headache.
Hector made my dry martini with three green olives, the olives skewered on a blue sword this time.
I like blue. Good thing.
A thought occurred to me and I frowned, even as my friends laughed at a good-natured joke someone was telling about a Doppler and a Shifter.
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