Thrall
Page 21
Liam straightened, but the frown lines in his forehead deepened. “What are you thinking?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know, but it’s relevant. I know it is.” I pressed my fingers to my temples, trying to think. “What did Nikolaos say about Renee? Her magic? Something about her having a fire elemental’s spirit?”
“I don’t know, but speaking of Nikolaos…”
I perked up. “What? You found him?”
“No. But I know what Stafford had on him.”
“What?”
“I’ll show you went we get to the room.”
The elevator door opened, and I stumbled inside to flop against the corner. I let my disguise fall away. If a spy made it this far into Suite Dreams, then no disguise was going to fool them anyway. Peasblossom dropped the glamour on Liam as well, so he looked like himself again when he stepped in and pushed a button for the subbasement. Now that we were in an enclosed space, away from the lavender fusion Arianne used to lull her victims into complacency, I realized I could smell Liam. He still had the usual scent of forest mixed with paperwork, but there was another scent too. Copper. Or, rather, blood.
Toby and Kurt.
“Are they still alive?” I asked quietly.
Liam gave me a sharp look. “Of course they’re still alive.”
“Was it hard to keep them that way?” Peasblossom asked.
Liam rolled his shirtsleeves up another inch, and I felt a little guilty when I checked his arms for signs of blood spatter. He noticed, and a muscle in his jaw twitched.
“Arianne was fine once they told us they’d never seen Iman, or heard anyone say her name. Kurt said straight out he knew the Emperor was a man, and if anyone accused Iman, it was because they wanted to hurt Arianne.”
“He told her what she wanted to hear,” Scath observed. “Arianne’s tricks to make them tell the truth wouldn’t work on shifters.”
“She’s not wrong,” Peasblossom agreed. “It’s a lot harder to manipulate dual psyches.”
“Oh, don’t underestimate Arianne.” Liam rolled his shoulders. “She’s…something else.”
“What did she do?” Peasblossom demanded.
Liam stared at the wall for a second. When he spoke again, it was with the careful, controlled voice of someone trying to keep emotion out of their tone. “She put them to sleep. And then she just sat there, staring at them. Every once in a while, she’d point at them and move her fingers.”
He held up his hand, imitating what Arianne had done.
“She was looking at their dreams,” I said quietly. “Probably nudging them to become nightmares. She wanted to know what they were afraid of.”
Liam shrugged both shoulders, and fresh gooseflesh prickled down his arms. “I’ve never seen anything like it. And that’s saying something. When they woke up, she just smiled. Smiled and waved her hands, like she was playing invisible instruments. Kurt and Toby started looking around, all wild-eyed.”
He turned to look at me, the movement so sudden I jumped.
“Illusions shouldn’t work on shifters. They can smell that they’re fake. I don’t know why it worked.”
“They weren’t illusions,” I said calmly. “They were dreams. Arianne can pull images from dreams. And nightmares.”
“But aren’t those the same as illusions?” Liam demanded. “They aren’t real, are they?”
“Not exactly, but dreams are made from memories. And olfactory senses are very strongly tied to memories. Kurt and Toby would have smelled when they saw, because they would have remembered what they smelled when they made the memories that created their dreams.” I leaned harder against the wall. “It’s hard to explain.”
“Well, regardless, Arianne definitely considers everything they said proof of her wife’s innocence,” Liam said, rubbing a hand over his face.
I scooted down the wall to stand closer to him. His aura wasn’t the charged, angry buzz that I’d expected, but rather the warm hum I’d felt earlier. I leaned my forehead against his shoulder.
“Third eye still hurts?” He shifted his body to make it a little more comfortable for me to lean on him.
“Yes. I feel so…useless. I’m tired of waiting for other people to process the crime scene. I’m tired of not being able to find this…Emperor. I hate knowing he could be inside anyone, watching me, eavesdropping on everything we do, and I’d never know it.”
“You need to eat something.”
I opened my eyes and stared at the elevator floor. “What?”
“Well, I’m guessing you haven’t eaten. Never starve yourself during an investigation.”
I straightened to look him in the eye. “Have you eaten? Since we left Goodfellows?”
“Yes, I have. And do you know why?”
Peasblossom landed on Liam’s head. “Because if you didn’t, you’d get growly? Maybe eat someone?”
Liam arched an eyebrow. “Not exactly, but yes. This job take a toll, physically and mentally. You need food, you need sleep, and you need support. Take away any of those things, and you become a danger to yourself and others. Some of us in the short run,” he glanced at Scath where she was positioned in the corner closest to the door, “and some of us in the long run.”
That one was aimed at me. He might have looked at me, but I wasn’t paying attention. I was unzipping my waist pouch and peering into the enchanted confines for a glimpse of a grig. “Bizbee, do I still have that packet of M&M’s—”
“Don’t you dare!” Peasblossom said, horrified.
I ignored her and accepted the small packet of candy from an equally disapproving Bizbee. I didn’t know how he managed to make his antennae look judgmental, but there was definitely condemnation in the way the fuzzy-tipped limbs bobbed at me.
With a magic word and a thought, I infused the M&M’s with a spell meant to replace a full meal, then popped them into my mouth. The magic sank into my body, and I took a deep breath, relishing the rush of vitality.
“Cheater,” Peasblossom chastised me. “You can’t rely on magic. It’s not the same as proper food.”
“You’re not yelling at Scath, I notice.”
Peasblossom gestured wildly at the sidhe woman in the corner. “Well, I’m not worried you’re going to eat me, now am I?”
“Are you hungry?” Liam asked Scath. “I can order room service?”
Scath shook her head slowly. “I’ll eat soon.”
Silence dragged out for a long, awkward minute, then the elevator doors slid open.
“Well, that wasn’t creepy at all,” Peasblossom muttered. “Who do you think she’s going to eat?”
“Once again, she can hear you.”
Liam ignored both of us and led the way down a long hallway. “Arianne gave us a conference room down here. I have the report Vincent and Kylie sent me about Janet Simms, the patient that died in the hospital room with Iman. And Aubrey.”
He led us into a room with a large circular table in the center. There were two files on the table. I opened the first file and scanned the contents. “An air bubble. Someone injected an air bubble into their bloodstream with a syringe.”
“Quick and easy,” Liam said grimly. “Especially considering they were both unconscious.” He tapped the file. “And Vincent confirmed Nikolaos was there. His DNA was all over the room, and his prints were on a syringe Vincent found in the bio-hazard box.”
“Well that seems sloppy,” I said, frowning at the report. “Nikolaos didn’t strike me as a man to take chances. You said you knew what Stafford had on him. What was it?”
Liam grabbed a large manila envelope from the table and handed it to me. “This.”
I reached into the envelope and pulled out a set of photographs. My eyebrows shot up. “These are pictures of Nikolaos meeting with Toby, Kurt…and Connor.”
“Very cozy, aren’t they?” He tapped the photos. “Look at the back.”
I flipped the first photograph over. “This picture was taken over two months ago.”
“He didn’t realize you had a name from Rima,” Liam agreed. “Without the name, telling us Connor was military wouldn’t have been nearly as big a clue.”
“Today when we went to Nikolaos’ house and Stafford was there,” I said slowly. “Stafford was all smiles when Nikolaos pretended not to know who Connor was.”
“He must have been there to make his demands,” Liam guessed. “And when Nikolaos said he didn’t know Connor, Stafford knew he had him. He had proof Nikolaos lied, that he did know Connor.”
“Where did you get these pictures?” I asked.
“They were delivered to my office an hour ago. There was a note from Stafford.” Liam took a slip of paper out of his pocket and handed it to me.
“Attn: Detective Sergeant Osbourne,” I read. “Nikolaos isn’t who he says he is. Take a look.” I turned the paper over, but there was nothing written on the other side. “That’s it?” I laid the note on the table and frowned at the pictures. “That’s not very— Wait a minute.”
“What?” Liam asked, leaning over to look at the pictures.
I spread them out over the table, then flipped them over. “Look at the bottom of each corner. This one says 1/5, this one says 2/5.”
“One fifth and two fifths?” Peasblossom asked. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Not one fifth,” I corrected her. I looked up at Liam. “One of five. Two of five.”
“Which means there are three more pictures.” Liam growled. “Why would he only send the first two?”
“If I were a clever blackmailer,” I said slowly, “and I was about to confront the person I’m blackmailing, I might take precautions. Some sort of safety net.” I tapped the envelope. “You said you got this an hour ago, but Stafford was dead before that. So it stands to reason, he had this set to be mailed out by someone else, maybe to be sent out if he didn’t check in at a certain time?”
Liam nodded slowly. “So he has one, slightly damaging set of pictures go out first. He tells Nikolaos there’s another one that will go out if he doesn’t pay up.”
“I don’t think he wanted money,” I said grimly. “I think he wanted control of Stavros’ old sideshow. He wanted the Sanctum. That’s the best payoff in the long run. With them to boss around, he’d be a lot more intimidating, even at Fortuna’s.”
“We need to find Nikolaos,” Liam said.
I nodded, then paused to look around. “Where’s Arianne?”
“She got a call. Something she didn’t want to tell me about, just said there was a problem at the airport. I got the distinct impression it had something to do with more refugees.”
“It would be nice if we could find Nikolaos before she came back,” I said, biting my lip. “I’d like to question him without her there to threaten him.”
“I have word out at the ports and airports. My men on highway patrol are on the lookout. But I don’t like our chances of just picking him up. I’m having my office go over his financials again, trying to find any other property he might own. Vincent already tried a location spell, but—surprise, surprise—he’s blocking it.”
“He won’t be able to keep that up forever,” I muttered.
Liam grabbed the back of a chair and leaned into it, staring down at the photos. “So we’re giving up on Iman as a suspect. Even though she was standing over Aubrey’s body.” He hesitated. “And even though if it is her, that would explain why the Emperor didn’t want anyone talking to Arianne.”
Unease rolled through my stomach just hearing the accusation while standing in Suite Dreams, Arianne’s center of power.
“Arianne isn’t here,” Liam reminded me, as if reading my mind.
“Well, that’s something.”
A sudden pounding on the door made me jump. For a split second, I thought it was Arianne, summoned here by our mention of her wife as a suspect. But when Liam ran to the door and jerked it open, it was Iman I saw standing there. Her dark eyes were wide, and she was wringing her hands.
“Shade! Come quickly, it’s Mr. Moghadam!”
“What happened?”
I ran out of the room after Iman, with Scath close on my heels. Iman ignored the elevator and hit the door to the stairs hard, shoving it open and bolting up the steps.
“He came to speak with Arianne,” Iman panted. “But I told him she’s not here. I took him to her office to wait, but he said he had to talk to someone. He—”
She stopped at the top of the first staircase to catch her breath. “He said he knows who the Emperor is.”
I almost fell up the last step, saved from a bruised knee only by Scath’s quick reflexes. She caught me under my arm and held me up until I got my legs back under me.
“I need to learn to fly,” I muttered.
“Did he say who he is?” Liam demanded.
Iman continued up the next staircase. “He tried. He started to tell me, then he started clawing at his throat.”
Scath held my arm as if anticipating another fall on my part. She wasn’t wrong.
“Please tell me he’s not bound to silence under contract,” I said.
Iman opened the door that led to the main floor. “I’m afraid so.”
“Is he dead?” Liam asked grimly.
Iman rushed down the hallway and pointed into Arianne’s office. “Not yet.”
I rounded the corner and found Mr. Moghadam lying on the floor. His throat had red lines where he’d clawed at it, in a gesture I knew only too well.
“I used a sleep spell,” Iman said. “As soon as I realized what was happening.”
“You can do sleep spells?” Liam asked, moving closer to the wall to give me space to get to the lawyer.
I knelt by Moghadam and felt for a pulse, finding one there, but weak.
Iman shifted uneasily from one foot to the other. “Arianne keeps them around the hotel. For emergencies.”
I shared a look with Liam, but didn’t say anything. Now was not the time to discuss the legalities of Arianne’s business plan.
“So he didn’t tell you.” I pulled out my cell phone to call Borvos Springs. They specialized in cases like this, and after a situation very much like this one, I’d programmed their number into my phone. They couldn’t break a magical contract, but they could keep it from killing him until we could figure out a way to break it.
On a whim, I started unbuttoning Moghadam’s jacket, then his shirt. I pushed it down and rolled him over, just enough to see behind his right shoulder.
Liam sucked in a breath. “He has the same tattoo.” He whirled to face Iman. “You’re certain he didn’t say anything?”
“No, but I was able to link our minds.”
“You what?” Liam asked sharply.
Iman wrung her hands. “He begged me. Before he passed out. He pointed to his head, then mine, I knew what he was asking.” She waved her hands. “The point is, I saw inside his mind. I know what he was trying to tell me.”
“Well?” Peasblossom exploded.
Iman took a deep breath. “It’s Nikolaos. Nikolaos Sideris is the Emperor. And he’s at the Acme Building right now!”
Chapter 19
“You’re absolutely sure?” Peasblossom demanded.
Iman’s hands tightened where she gripped the driver’s seat with one hand and the passenger seat with the other from her place in the back of Liam’s truck. The strain in her jaw was all too familiar to me. Peasblossom could be relentless. Even with my own heart racing as I stared out the windshield looking for the first sign of the Acme Building, I couldn’t help but feel a pang of sympathy.
And my familiar wasn’t above repeating the question fifty times if she didn’t like the an
swer.
“I am certain,” Iman said, for the sixth time. “I connected my mind to his. I saw his thoughts.” She shivered. “It was frightening to touch his mind. To feel that contract. It was like having barbed wire threaded through my thoughts, pulling my mind apart. Nikolaos Sideris is the Emperor.”
“And you’re certain he’s at the Acme Building?” Peasblossom pressed. She slid her fingers into my hair, tugging until sharp stabs of pain lanced through the top of my head through my scalp.
“I’m sure,” Iman said tightly.
I tried to reach for Peasblossom, to hold her and offer some comfort, but she dodged my grip. “The shapeshifter is dead,” I reminded her.
Iman tilted her head and met my eyes questioningly.
“Stavros employed a pair of shapeshifters,” I explained. “And a telekinetic. The telekinetic put Peasblossom in a bubble and handed her off to one of the shapeshifters.” I lowered my voice, even though Peasblossom was right there. “She’s the one who crushed her wings. The telekinetic survived that fight.”
Iman looked up at Peasblossom. “I’m so sorry.”
Peasblossom pulled harder on my hair, enough that I grit my teeth to keep from shouting. “You should stay in the pouch with Bizbee,” I told her. “You need to keep up your—”
“I won’t leave you to fight without me,” Peasblossom snapped. “Familiars are supposed to make their witches stronger, not be a hindrance. Or worse, a coward who hides when there’s danger.”
I didn’t argue with her any further. She was scared, but she was going into battle with me anyway. She was courageous like that.
“You have the healing spell,” I reminded her.
“You should have given me something nasty. Something I can use to take down an enemy, not just be life support.”
“Life support is important,” I argued.
“Flint says if your offense is strong enough, you don’t need life support.”
We both fell silent when the words left her mouth, sharing a moment of horror that we were both beginning to absorb some of Flint’s teachings. I made a mental note to call Andy as soon as this was over and find out how his investigation was going.