Chapter 17 #2
She wasn’t fooled by his apparent retreat, but she didn’t waste her chance either.
She carefully swung her legs around until she was no longer reclining.
When her feet hit the floor, she felt steadier, as if that small movement grounded her.
“I told you, it was a spur-of-the-moment decision. I didn’t know he was bringing me to the Den. ”
As her gaze swept over what appeared to be a staged living room decorated with bland artwork, something brushed against her awareness.
She glanced around. Through the opening to her right was a kitchen and, next to that, a narrow entry table holding a tall vase of dried flowers and a notepad.
On the other side was another opening, this one leading to a hall.
She could make out a partially open bedroom door and, through it, the gray corner of a bed.
But to get to any of that—including the front door, which was right there, next to the blind-covered window—would require getting past Angel.
Those blinds were angled to let in light, but she could make out a front yard with a thick-trunked tree and just beyond it, across the narrow street, a square cinder-block home.
An older neighborhood, then. “Where are we?”
“Somewhere we can talk without being interrupted.” Angel set the statue back in its spot and braced his arm along the mantel as he watched her.
“And if I want to leave?” There was nothing close by to use as a weapon but that damn statue.
“Worried your little pet won’t be able to find you?”
Oh, she had no doubt Locke was already on the hunt—probably Des, too—but admitting that to Angel would just make him more insufferable. Instead, she met his mocking question with icy contempt. “Ask whatever you want to ask, but make it quick. I have a business to run.”
A muscle in his jaw twitched. “I asked you a question.”
“You’ve asked a couple. Which one do you want me to answer?” She was poking a dangerous snake, but fuck that noise. She wouldn’t let him sink his hooks into her again.
Once more, that unknown presence brushed against her awareness.
Angel studied her for a long moment then moved to one of the nearby chairs. He sat and rested his arms on the chair’s edges as he set his ankle on his knee. “Who sent you after me?”
Isa felt some satisfaction in his barely concealed paranoia, but she didn’t have time to enjoy it. She needed to get away from him. Cautiously, she let her magic ebb outward. It lapped around something hovering near the fireplace just behind Angel.
When it came back to her, it carried a dark, driving compulsion aimed at the man watching her with unsettling intensity. Make him pay. He has to pay.
The gathering storm of vindictive need called to the magic she harbored, and Isa quashed her spark of anticipation before it could fully form.
She crossed her legs and laced her fingers over her knee as she let her magic pool around the spirit, offering it a chance to feed from her power.
It was a dangerous ploy, but if it worked, maybe she’d be rid of Angel once and for all.
The spirit leapt at the unexpected gift, drawing the offering deep.
She kept her attention on Angel and not the vengeful wraith coalescing behind him as she answered his question. “No one sent me after you.”
“Bullshit.” A thin line of anger rode under his voice, and his magic whipped out, found the tiny fissures she hadn’t been able to seal closed, and burrowed in.
Pain rippled along her nerve endings, but she embraced it, used it to fuel the cold rage simmering deep in her heart.
Isa met his unrelenting hunger with merciless fury, and neither of them was able to gain ground.
She touched the charm at her neck, and her magic deepened, forcing the invading power back a step while the world around her shifted.
“You’re entitled to your opinion,” she said.
Her small movement drew Angel’s gaze, and his lip curled. An invisible band snapped around her throat, tightening in a blink. He wiggled a finger at her. “Uh, uh, uh. This is just a simple conversation. It doesn’t need to get messy.”
Air was trapped in her chest, but she held still, refusing to show even the smallest hint of fear.
Not that she could feel any. Logically, she knew it was there, but it was distant, as if it belonged to someone else.
Instead, an affronted rage dominated, with her magic not so willing to play prey.
It reached into the inky, emotionless void that was Angel and hooked its claws in his spirit.
“Release me.” The demand wasn’t vocal but echoed on the spiritual plane. She flexed her magical claws, her threat very real. “Or I will shred you to nothing.”
On the mortal plane, Angel’s lips peeled back in a grimace, his face paling, his fingers digging into the chair’s arms. “You’ll kill us both.”
Black edged her vision. She didn’t blink but simply let her lips curl up. “Your point?”
A heartbeat, two, the black seeping closer. Then the collar around her neck loosened.
Without breaking eye contact, she drew in a subtle breath.
Behind Angel, a woman, maybe in her early twenties, with dark hair and eyes, crept closer, her need to exact vengeance filling Isa’s nose like an irresistible perfume and forcing her to function on two levels at once.
She held Angel’s gaze for a long moment, knowing he had pulled back his magic as she had pulled hers, leaving them in a standoff.
Angel broke the heavy silence first, his voice flat, like the reptilian sheen in his eyes. “You were asking questions of Nova. Why?”
Still feeding on Isa’s magic, the wraith’s form took on depth, inching closer to Angel. Isa tried to watch it without being obvious. “There have been a couple of incidents. I wanted to know if they were one-offs or if they were something to be worried about.”
He cocked his head. “And how would these incidents be associated with me?”
The wraith was right behind Angel now, still invisible to mortal eyes, but that wouldn’t last. Needing it to stay unseen, Isa locked her magic down, cutting off its food source.
The wraith’s head whipped up, and its fathomless eyes latched on to her as the mouth twisted open in a silent, furious scream.
Isa slowly got to her feet. “I didn’t say they were.”
Angel matched her movement, rising from his chair. “Where do you think you’re going?”