15. Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Fifteen
Define “Death”
veilknight
Tall woman, black robes, escorts the dead to the other side. Have you met her?
That certainly matched the description of the woman who took my mother.
j-aust13
Perhaps. How can she be killed?
veilknight
Killing isn’t the difficult part. It’s getting her here…and the consequences that come after.
j-aust13
What consequences?
I logged off and dressed for my weekly night at Avalon.
A new shipment of Moon Dust, a magic-laced drug the humans loved and had no idea was anything but the greatest vice they’d ever had, came in last night, and two of my men were distributing it tonight.
That meant I could probably sit in the office monitoring cameras instead of listening to the noise on the dance floor.
The club goers would be in euphoric trances most of the night.
My driver arrived at seven and took me downtown to Avalon, where I made a polite stop to say hello to the bartender; a new woman with her hair pulled tightly on top of her head and a poker face better than any of my other employees.
Gray must have done well with this one. He knew I liked them stoic, efficient, and discreet.
The kind of employees who would keep anything abnormal at the club quiet.
“I don’t believe we’ve met,” I said. “I’m Austin.”
“Yes,” she said while still mixing a drink for one of my customers. “Gray said you’d be by tonight. I’m Helen. It’s my first night.”
“You’re doing an excellent job.”
She looked up just long enough to give me a small, close-lipped smile, and then slid down the bar to deliver the cocktail.
A man settled on the barstool next to me, the sleeves of his suit jacket pushing back a little so that the brown skin of his hands and wrists caught the lights overhead.
“I’ve been looking for you,” he said. “I’m afraid I missed you at your gala.”
Emmett Graves.
“Representative Graves, how nice to meet you. I have to apologize for that. The galas are always such busy evenings for me.” The activities that kept me busy behind a locked door that night flashed through my mind, but I covered the discomfort it gave me with a charming smile. “Congratulations on your Council seat.”
“Not yet,” he said. “We’ll see how the election turns out. There is still time for someone to run against me, but I’m hoping to win the vote either way.”
I raised a lazy hand to get Helen’s attention. “Get him a drink.” Then to Emmett, “What do you drink?”
“I don’t drink,” he said, “but thank you for the offer. This is quite an establishment. Your guests seem to enjoy themselves.”
My eyes panned around the room, where I realized some of the human dancers were already under the influence of Moon Dust.
“We try to offer the best experience for our customers.”
“So nothing illegal, then?” He raised one eyebrow, and despite his studying gaze, there was still something soft and kind about his face.
This was a man who charmed through empathy, not through deceit or oozing power to everyone he met.
Good. That would make him a less threatening opponent, should it come to that.
“All of my business ventures are above board,” I said.
He tapped a finger on the countertop. “That’s excellent. I’d heard otherwise from my predecessor, but you know how people can spread nasty rumors. I would hate to think we might have conflicts if I end up on the Council.”
“When you end up on the Council, we’ll have no problems at all. I stay in my own corner.”
And spread my influence like vines growing underground through the city. Blackwell was a ruthless man who manipulated laws and kept his political position just above the line of corruption. I did not expect the same hardness from the man in front of me.
“Good to hear. The Council can be a difficult place to navigate, and even more challenging to keep its members focused on the important issue—interspecies cooperation and serving its people. I plan to change that.”
“Good luck,” I huffed under my breath.
His smile stretched wide. “Call me idealistic, but I think we can do better. This city can be a lot less corrupt than it is now, and I plan to clean it up from the moment I’m in office.
Our people deserve better than the darkness that has infiltrated everything.
Anyone caught up in those reforms will be swept away. ”
Was he threatening me? He still had that warm smile on his face.
“Your ideas about cooperation seem a bit farfetched, if you don’t mind my two cents,” I said, returning the warmth, though my eyes were too sharp to match the sentiment, “but if anyone can do it, perhaps it will be you. I look forward to hearing your ideas.”
Staying on his good side might buy me time to understand how he operated. I always needed to know my enemies, whether they were small threats or giant pains in my arse. The Council would change with Emmett, but only time would tell just how difficult it would make my life.
***
Avalon was close enough to my building that I decided to walk home rather than call my driver. I needed fresh air and movement to process that bizarre interaction with Emmett Graves.
Something was off about him. No one was that friendly or idealistic, not in this city where crime ran rampant and uniting all the supernatural peoples was a delusional dream.
He was hiding something, and if I had to guess, it was his own plans for self-gain.
There were no Council members above corruption, even if they pretended they weren’t or dressed it up in legitimate clothes.
He obviously knew who I was, and I suspected, more about my business than he let on. I’d need to keep an eye on him.
You’re being watched.
The dead whispered in my ear and I almost missed it over the sound of the wind. I stopped in the middle of the street, listening to the whoosh, and then even the wind died off. The stillness unsettled me, but listening harder only made me more attuned to the lack of sound.
No people.
No cars.
“By whom?” I muttered under my breath.
The one who wants you dead.
“Is he watching or waiting to attack?”
We think he’s observing you.
I nodded, more to myself than to them, and walked at a normal pace. I would not run and make them think I was afraid, but as I walked home, the hairs on the back of my neck prickled. I heard no footsteps, glimpsed no one in the shadows, but I could feel them following at a distance.
“Man or woman?” I whispered.
Man.
“Who is he? What does he look like?” My building came into view. Only one street to cross, and I didn’t hurry.
We don’t know. He wears a mask.
If he didn’t know where I lived before, he did now.
How long had he been watching me? I crossed the street and unlocked the front door to the lobby, which was still lit, then locked it behind me and turned toward the windows.
No shadows or masked faces peered in at me.
I took the lift, but my body did not fully settle until I was safe behind my penthouse door.
I kicked off my shoes and flopped gracelessly onto my bed, staring at the ceiling. A masked man who was following me and now knew where I lived. I wondered what else he might know about me.
It looked like I was on his hit list, but the others…
A nobody.
A Council representative.
The file clerk.
Me.
What was the connection? I stewed about it, lying there with all the lights on as if the shadows might hold danger. I wasn’t afraid of a boogeyman in a mask lingering around, but the other piece of information I had kept the lights on. I refused to face that in the dark.
If there was no apparent connection between the victims, I had reason to believe someone else I knew might still be a target.
I slid my phone from my pocket and tapped my finger against it, and then I scrolled through my contacts and pressed to dial.
“Am I interrupting your fights?” I asked before he even greeted me.
“I’m watching from my office, so no,” Rook said. “What’s up, England?”
“The killer is a man, but he wears a mask, and I am a target.”
There was a long pause before he asked, “Did you see him? Did he attack you?”
“He followed me, and I didn’t see him.”
“Then how do you—”
I realized too late that I’d made a mistake by telling him the truth. I should have lied and said I saw him. The fact that I didn’t meant he would want an explanation.
“I can’t tell you how I got that information, but it is accurate.”
Another pause, and he cursed under his breath. “Sorry, that wasn’t directed at you, even though you’re being fucking sketchy about this. One of my guys is getting his ass handed to him. Why are you calling me about this?”
“To warn you.”
“Aww, you do care,” he said, and despite the fight he was observing, I think I had his full attention.
“Professional courtesy. We are, in some fucked-up way, allies, are we not?”
“I never said ‘allies,’” he laughed, “but I’ll take it. Allies with benefits.”
I shifted uncomfortably, as if my mattress had suddenly developed lumps underneath my back. “No benefits.”
“How many times have I made you come?” he asked. “Sounds like I’m very beneficial to you. Ah, fuck. I have to go. Someone is about to make my night bad, and I’m going to make theirs worse.”
Nothing could explain why it made me huff a laugh under my breath. I muffled the phone with my hand so he wouldn’t hear it.
“Go give everyone hell.” I took a deep breath. “And…be careful. That’s all I wanted to say.”
I hung up before he could smack me with some amused comeback.