“Why? You didn’t know it was Grim. In fact, you still don’t know for sure.”
When she shoved her hands into her pockets, he made a mental note to swing by one of the ski shops and buy her a pair of warm gloves.
“But you don’t understand. This is the closest I’ve come to finding Ian’s weapon after years of searching. And here I thought it was the flimsiest of leads, too. I should’ve jumped on a plane up here as soon as I found that photograph online. What was I thinking?”
“Why do you want it so badly?” Santiago really didn’t want to ask the question because he was fairly certain he wouldn’t like the answer.
“Let’s just say I made a promise and I intend to keep it.”
He turned back to the car. It was obvious that she was still in love with Ian and wanted this weapon of his to remind her of him.
They drove back to the field office in silence, the engine noise the only sound. He’d had fun with her tonight, but all he felt now was empty.
Clearly deep in thought, she twisted the engagement ring around and around her finger as if she was unscrewing it. “Why did you join the same military group that Ian did?”
Until he met Roxy, he hadn’t thought of the Madrid Seven in years.
He shrugged. “Why do most young men join a group like that? For adventure. For the challenge. To get away from their fathers.” And mothers.
A rain-and-snow mix began pelting the windshield so he turned on the wiper blades. The back and forth rhythmic sound reminded him of the even cadence of hoofbeats as he and the other warriors had galloped between villages in the dead of night.
“Your father?” She turned in her seat to face him. “Was he…abusive to you?”
“Physically? To me? No, it wasn’t that.”
“To your mother?”
“Only if you consider a broken heart to be abusive. Although my parents’ union was deemed a good one—it produced my sister and me—my father was not satisfied and had many mistresses. It was a machismo thing. He told her that just as vampires cannot survive without human blood, the men in our family are not capable of being with only one woman. ‘It’s in our nature,’ he used to say.”
“Your poor mother. She must’ve been devastated.”
“She dealt with it in her own way.” He remembered the beatings, the verbal abuse that he and his sister had suffered at her hands. “But she was so duty-bound that the thought of leaving him never crossed her mind. She blamed herself—and us—for his actions. Said that if we were better, cleverer, more trustworthy, he’d stay with us.”
“Did you ever talk to your father about it?”
Santiago laughed bitterly. “Yeah. He said his father was like this and his father’s father was like this. And that when I grew up, I’d be like him, too.”
“Is that why you never…you know…settled down?”
He shrugged. “I urged my mother to leave him, but she wouldn’t. She continued to put up with his philandering ways, however, I couldn’t put up with either of them, so I left home soon after my Time of Change and joined the Madrid Seven.”
“And where are they now? Your parents.”
“They died a long time ago.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
ROXY SPENT THE next few weeks wandering around the field office talking to various people, but so far, she hadn’t met anyone who triggered anything weird with her intuition. Santiago had been working a lot, trying to keep up with the demands of running both the region and field offices. Neither of them was any closer to figuring out the traitor’s identity. She was beginning to wonder if there even was a traitor.
As she waited for one of the elevators to open in the foyer, a Benny Goodman song played quietly over the speakers and she tapped her foot to the beat. Ever since learning swing from a navy guy she casually dated years ago, she’d loved the big-band era. Too bad no one danced like that anymore.
“Oh, good, you’re heading out.”
She turned to see Arianna coming around the corner. Brenna had first introduced the two of them up at region HQ shortly before the explosion that changed everything. With a messenger bag slung across her shoulder, she twisted her chestnut hair and tucked it under her scarf.
“Yeah, thought I’d better find something to wear to the awards gala before it’s too late.”
“Can I ask you a big favor then? I need an escort out of the building.”
Was this standard operating procedure in Seattle? “An escort?”
“Yeah. Santiago’s orders. He’s got the whole place on lockdown after what happened. Any humans in the field office must go out with an escort to make sure Darkbloods don’t see or follow them.”
“But it’s cloaked.” She’d been through the energy field a number of times since arriving here and it had never been down.
“The escort thing is an added precaution since humans can’t scent Darkbloods like the rest of you can.”
“In that case, of course.”
She couldn’t help but wonder if Arianna and Jackson had plans for her to become a changeling, thus solving that problem, but thought it’d be rude to ask. Besides being somewhat risky, turning one’s mate into a vampire was a very personal decision and one that wasn’t taken lightly. It’d be like asking a childless couple if they were going to have a baby.
Then she got an idea. “So, where are you headed?”
“I’m interviewing someone for my blog and after that, when rush hour’s over, I’m heading back up to the safehouse.”
The elevator dinged and the doors opened.
“Paranormalish, right?”
Arianna gave her a wary look as they stepped inside before pressing a button on the panel. “Santiago told you about my blog? What did he say?”
The big-band music was playing inside the elevator, too, and Roxy leaned against the railing. “He said it got Jackson into a lot of hot water but that he’s impressed with what you’ve been able to uncover about Darkblood activity. Said it’s been an instrumental tool in helping Guardians identify acts of violence by Darkbloods that previously would’ve gone unnoticed by the agency. He said you’ve got your finger on the pulse of the community and that you often hear about things before they do.”
Arianna’s mouth opened slightly as if she’d just run up a few flights of stairs and was trying to catch her breath. “Wow, he really does believe in what I’m doing. I knew he supported the sweetblood home, but I wasn’t sure if his support of the blog was just lip service to Jackson. He’s always storming around, cussing and swearing, that it’s hard to know what he feels.”
“Ha. Tell me about it.”
Once they were past all the security checkpoints and Roxy hadn’t picked up any Darkblood scent around the building, Arianna turned to her. “Where are you headed? Want to grab a bite to eat? Food, that is, not you-know-what.” She laughed.
“What about your interview?”
Arianna checked the time on her cell phone. “It shouldn’t last long.”
Roxy wasn’t expecting that, but she really liked Arianna’s company. Only a handful of people knew why she was there, so it’d be nice to relax and drop her cover for a change. “Sure, and afterward, can you tell me where I should go to find something to wear to the awards ceremony? It’s coming up soon and I haven’t even thought about what I should wear.”
“Better yet, after we eat, I’ll take you to a few of my favorite shops. Vintage or new? Oh, wait, most of the vintage shops I like are only open during the day. It’ll have to be new.”
“Deal.”
It was after six o’clock when they arrived at the coffee shop, a few minutes late for Arianna’s meeting. While she interviewed the college guy, Roxy sat at a nearby table, sipping on a green tea. They weren’t kidding when they said Seattle had a coffee shop on every corner. Try two or three on each block.
She couldn’t help listening to part of the conversation. The guy told Arianna about a support group he belonged to that consisted of people who believed t
hey’d been abducted by aliens. They met once a month at the same coffee shop. Arianna nodded, took notes, and asked a few questions. Apparently, she was going to feature the group on her website. Roxy looked around the room so as not to be too nosy.
A young couple wearing clip-in biking shoes were sitting on the same side of a table near the window. The man had one arm draped casually over the seat back and the other hand was resting on the woman’s belly. If the woman was pregnant, she couldn’t be very far along because her stomach still looked flat. Roxy wanted to look away, but no matter what she did—staring at the black painted ductwork on the ceiling or studying the retro-patterned upholstery on all the chairs—her gaze ended back on the couple. The man kissed the woman’s cheek and she laughed.
Roxy grabbed a magazine from the coffee table and flipped aimlessly through pages of celebrity gossip. She used to dream of one day starting a family with Ian. Having grown up with only a brother, she wanted lots of children of her own. At first, Ian had said he wanted kids, too, and she really thought he meant it at the time—but then his addiction began and everything changed.
She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn’t realize Arianna’s interview was over and she was talking to someone else.
“So you’ve resorted to stalking me now, is that right, George?” Arianna’s knuckles were white as she gripped the edge of the table.
The man—George—wore black slacks, a leather bomber jacket with a winged insignia on the back that said OSPRA, and a pair of Oakley sunglasses pushed up on his head. How could she have missed a guy like that walking in the door? He took the recently vacated chair, turned it around and sat down without waiting for an invitation. Arianna stiffened.
“I happened to see you here so I thought I’d come say hello.”
“Bull.”
“You don’t have to believe me but it’s the truth.”
L…i…a…r…
The word whispered softly in the air, trailing off and getting lost in the room while a faintly bitter taste hung on the back of her tongue. Roxy glanced behind her. A man with his service dog—a shepherd/husky mix, if she wasn’t mistaken—was ordering at the counter. Near the fireplace, two women were knitting and carrying on a conversation without looking at each other. The couple expecting a baby had left.
She had to have imagined it. The sound was probably just her own breathing or that of the wind. The strange taste lingered until she took another sip of tea and it faded away.
“I had no idea you were here,” George continued, “but when I saw you, I thought it’d be the polite thing to do to come say hello, especially after all we’ve been through.”
L…i…a…r…
A little louder this time. And there was that strange aftertaste.
Her intuition hadn’t been this strong in…well, forever. He was definitely lying to Arianna.
“We’ve been through nothing, asshole.”
“Touchy, aren’t we?” He started to say more, but a girl with stringy dark hair, who’d just come through the door, stopped next to him as if her feet had suddenly been glued there. Even her arms flailed as she tried to catch her balance.
“Oh, my God, you’re that ghost expert guy! George…George…from the Olympic Society for Paranormal something, right?”
“The Olympic Society for Paranormal Research Analysis. How gratifying to meet someone who follows me. Here, let me give you my card.” George pulled one from an inside pocket, wrote something on it that looked suspiciously like an autograph, and gave it to the girl.
Who signs their business cards anyway?
“Can I have my picture taken with you? My boyfriend totally won’t believe me.” If the girl gushed anymore, she’d be hyperventilating.
“Of course,” George said, his voice a little too loud. Roxy got the sense that he loved the attention. A few other people looked up.
Without asking Arianna, the girl shoved the phone at her. “Make sure you focus on us. Not past my shoulder or anything. Just touch the screen and—”
“Believe me. I know how to take pictures on a cell phone.”
They posed and Arianna begrudgingly snapped a few pictures. The girl thanked George, not Arianna. Hunched over her phone, she walked away, probably uploading them to her social network sites.
George turned back to Arianna who stood up and was gathering her things into her messenger bag. “I think you’re taking things too seriously. I was in the area because one of the local TV stations invited me to be a guest on one of their news shows. We recorded the piece and it’ll be aired tonight.”
Roxy waited for that inner voice and strange taste, but nothing happened. Maybe he was telling the truth about this part.
“Did Cult TV ask you to come talk about that two-headed horse again? What’s it a symbol for again, I forget?” He opened his mouth to talk, but Arianna kept going. “Oh, yeah, the coming Armageddon. Wait. Was it the animal sacrifices they’re doing up on Cougar Mountain? The TV viewing public loves stories about animals.”
These guys seriously must have some history because Roxy doubted her friend would be this pissed off about the picture thing.
“No animals have ever been harmed in the making of my TV appearances.”
Roxy almost laughed, but she checked herself just in time. This conversation—if you could call it that—was quickly devolving.
His face softened just a touch. “Listen, I know you don’t like me, but I enjoyed the article you wrote last week and the video you posted was fascinating. I’ve been trying to get an appointment with old Mr. Simmons for ages, so it’s nice to see that you were successful. What I wouldn’t do to go on an investigation in that place.”
He was telling the truth, but from the way Arianna held her arms crossed tightly over her chest and the frown on her face, it was clear that she thought he was feeding her shit.
“Why should I believe someone who’s repeatedly tried to hack into my account? You’re really on shaky ground in the whole ‘I’m innocent’ and ‘you should believe me’ department.”
George exhaled heavily, the frustration apparent on his face. “I’ve told you before but I’ll say it again, I have not tried hacking into your site. Ever.”
Arianna didn’t look ready to back down. It was obviously time for Roxy to take on her role as a wingman. “Are you ready to go?”
George snapped his head in her direction, his watery gray gaze sweeping over her. Given his line of work, she hoped she gave off a human vibe. His smile made the corners of his eyes crinkle and he whipped out his hand in a borderline used-car-salesman fashion. “Well, hello there. Leaving before we can be properly introduced? I’m George Tanaka.”
With such an abrasive personality, no wonder Arianna didn’t like him, whether he was lying to her or not. “I’m Roxy, a friend of Arianna’s.” She wasn’t going to shake his hand, but then her mean streak kicked in. Not bothering to put up her mental barriers to block the energy absorption, she held out her hand. Call it passive/aggressive or just being a bitch, but she wanted to make him a little tired.
His energy, which was nothing special, skimmed up her arm like she’d expected, but then she tasted a hint of sweetness on the back of her tongue. Weird. She let go and it was gone. Since smell and taste are closely related, she wondered if it was a scent of some sort that she’d detected instead.
He yawned then. A big one—the kind where your mouth stays open for a long time and your jaw pops. She could see his fillings and felt guilty that she’d made him so tired.
“That’s my cue, ladies. I must be on my way. Don’t forget to watch the news tonight. My segment goes on right after the second commercial. Nice meeting you, Roxy.”
Arianna rolled her eyes as he left. Roxy bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling.
“What’s so funny? He’s an ass, isn’t he?”
“It not that. I…ah…”
Arianna snorted with laughter when Roxy told her she’d taken his energy. “Oh, my God, I lov
e you. Seriously. Will you be my BFF?”
“I’ll definitely consider it,” Roxy teased.
Arianna’s phone rang once they got outside. While she was talking to someone at the safehouse, Roxy thought about what had just happened. Why was she suddenly having these powerful sensations about truth and lying? She mentally searched through her scent memories but it didn’t compare to anything she’d ever experienced before.
“Everything okay up there?” she asked when Arianna hung up. Running a safehouse for sweetbloods had to be stressful.
“Yeah, we’re just finishing up some minor odds and ends. Painting, tiling. That sort of thing.”
“You know, I’d love to come visit sometime. That is, if I’m allowed.” She knew the region kept the location on a strict need-to-know basis as it had the potential to be a vampire magnet, which would not be good when you’re talking sweetbloods. Before Arianna could answer and tell her no, Roxy quickly changed the subject. “I was getting the strangest sensations back there in the coffee shop with George.” As they walked, she told Arianna what had happened.
Arianna scowled. “You can’t seriously think the guy is telling the truth, do you?”
“I’m saying I think that part of what he said was the truth. I’ve always been a good reader of people, but it’s like my intuition has kicked into high gear lately.”
“Then let’s do an experiment.” Arianna rubbed her hands together gleefully. “I’ll tell you something and you have to tell me if it’s a lie or not.”
“Sounds like a slumber party trick,” Roxy said.
Arianna pursed her lips and got a faraway look in her eye. “Okay, I’ve got one. Do we need to hold hands or something?”
Roxy reminded her that she only shook George’s hand at the end.
“That’s right. Okay, here we go.” While they waited at a crosswalk, Arianna leaned against a streetlight and kept her expression blank. “Paranormalish isn’t my first blog.”
Roxy didn’t feel anything different. “True.”
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