Part 26 (1/2)
”Your d.a.m.n lover can wait.” The darkness within him was suddenly so close to the surface it was a living thing that crowded the car's cabin. ”You've got a notebook to find and hand over first.”
I somehow resisted the urge to inch away from him. In this confined s.p.a.ce, that darkness-whatever the h.e.l.l it was-was far too close, far too real, and far too dangerous. And, oddly enough, it reminded me a little of the man who'd silently watched me from the shadows.
”Rory is as vital to my life as the air I breathe in this form,” I replied, the bitterness within me evident in my voice despite my best efforts of control. ”And the very least you could have done was listen. What we had deserved-”
”Enough.” It was an order and a warning, all in one. ”We've studied your building's security tapes. It wasn't red cloaks who broke into your apartment, but a thief with a long history of subcontracting to the sindicati.”
I took yet another of those deep, steadying breaths, but it had as much of an effect as the rest of them. ”I gather you've a warrant out on him?”
”Of course.”
He flicked on the blinker, and I realized with a start that we were now on the Tullamarine Freeway. Whether Sam was heading to PIT's headquarters or my home was very much up in the air, but I suspected the latter given he wouldn't want to risk me finding the notebook and handing it over to the sindicati.
”Unsurprisingly,” he continued, ”he's made himself scarce, but we have people checking his usual hangouts, just in case. The question, however, is why-if the sindicati have all the notebooks-do they now believe they are missing one?”
”That I can't tell you.”
”Were there four or five on the USB you gave me?”
”Four, as I told you when I handed it over. I'd typed up the remaining one, but hadn't gotten around to transferring it.”
I still had those notes, thanks to Rory. But I wasn't about to tell Sam that. Not yet. I might need it as a bargaining chip for Jackson's life.
”And you have no idea what happened to the final notebook?” Sam said.
”No. As I've told both you and them, as far as I was aware, all five had been stolen.”
His gaze narrowed, and just for a moment it felt as if he were trying to read my mind and unpick truth from lies. Eventually, he said, ”Well, obviously not by the sindicati if they were willing to go to such lengths to secure it.”
”I think they saw me with Amanda Wilson and decided to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.” I hesitated. ”You do know that the sindicati tried to kill her, don't you?”
He shrugged. ”To be honest, good riddance. But why the h.e.l.l didn't you report the attempted murder to us rather than the police?”
”Because I was-and still am-p.i.s.sed off at you.”
”Yeah, well, that's a two-way street,” he muttered. ”How are you supposed to get the notebook back to the sindicati?”
I crossed my arms and looked out the side window for several seconds. It was tempting-very tempting-not to answer, but I'd already seen the lengths he was willing to go to get what he wanted, and I wasn't about to risk another such debacle. Not with Jackson's life on the line.
”They've given me a number to call.”
”What number? I'll have it traced.”
”Why? It'll undoubtedly be a burn phone.”
”Perhaps, but we might be able to get GPS positioning on it.”
”And how does that help, exactly? Whoever is currently holding the phone will be a subcontractor. The sindicati haven't shown any real propensity to place themselves in the line of danger.”
”Exactly, which makes the fact that they took such a risk to grab you in broad daylight even odder.”
”As I said, I think I was merely an opportunity too good-”
”And what,” he bit back, ”if you're wrong? What if you were the target all along, and they were merely waiting for the right moment?”
”If they were going after me, they could have done it a whole lot sooner. h.e.l.l, I was next to useless for hours after you dumped us.”
”Except that they must have known we were watching you. That accident was not only very well timed, but executed in an area from which they could get away very fast-and they took our people out along with Jackson's truck.”
Another chill ran through me. To do something like that took time and planning, and that could only mean he was right. But it also meant Amanda might not now be in the hands of the sindicati if she hadn't insisted I uphold my end of our deal. And that, I thought grimly, was karma at its finest. ”Are your people okay?”
”Yeah. The same cannot be said for Jackson's truck, however. I'm not actually sure how Amanda Wilson survived that crash-there was a lot of blood on the seat.”
Seat. d.a.m.n, the USBs. ”Where's the truck now?”
”It was hauled away. I believe the police have been trying to contact Jackson.” He gave me a look that sat somewhere between annoyance and disgust. ”Wouldn't happen to know where he is, do you?”
”Yeah, I do. And thanks to you, he's in the same place I was.”
Sam's eyebrows rose. ”Why in the h.e.l.l would the sindicati want him?”
”As insurance. I give them the notebook, they free him.”
”Well, that ain't going to happen.”
I stared at him for a moment, unable to believe he'd actually said that. ”What the h.e.l.l is that supposed to mean?”
”What do you think it means?” His expression was grim. ”You've seen the red cloaks. You've seen what they can do. The life of one Fae is not worth the lives of the millions who could be affected if this thing gets out of control. We need the cure-or at the very least, a vaccine. To get it, we need those notes.”
”If you think I'm going to let you sacrifice Jackson's life-”
”You haven't exactly got a choice here. You're in this car, with me, and you're not getting free of either anytime soon.”
”What? You're going to chain me? Because that's the only d.a.m.n way you'll keep me captive.”
”Well, there is the drug option. Or I could simply take you back to headquarters and lock you in one of our flameproof cells.” He half smiled, but it was a cold thing, holding little in the way of amus.e.m.e.nt. ”It was designed to hold pyrokinetics, so I'm thinking it should be fine against the fires of a phoenix.”
I snorted. It might well be capable of withstanding the fires of a pyro, but he was forgetting one thing-I was a fire spirit. Of course, at this particular moment I was a fire spirit stuck in flesh form, but under normal circ.u.mstances, a cell of any sort wouldn't have held me. Not unless they'd employed witches to create magical barriers.
But I wasn't about to tell him that-why give him a heads-up? h.e.l.l, even if I didn't find myself in that cell, another phoenix might. While there was generally only one pair per city, it wasn't unusual for youngsters to linger in an occupied city for a few weeks or months while they were looking for a place to call their own. And there were always free cities-no older pair could ever remain in one place their entire lives. Sooner or later, it paid to move on-especially in places where hatred for nonhumans was high. Melbourne was pretty mild compared to some cities, but even so, Rory and I would risk only a few more rebirths here before we went searching for somewhere new. Personally, I was voting for any city that had more warm days than it did cold. Somewhere with bigger, wider sunsets where a firebird could enjoy the freedom of the skies every single night.
”For G.o.d's sake, Sam,” I said, shoving away pleasant thoughts of warm skies and freedom, ”when did it suddenly become okay to sacrifice even one life? You're still a cop, even if the department you work for has a fancy t.i.tle. Didn't you swear to protect and serve? To-as the force's motto says-uphold the right?”
He didn't answer. Didn't even look at me. But that lone muscle along his jawline was back in action. My words were hitting home, even if he wasn't responding. But would they make any difference? Once, maybe, but whatever had happened in the years since we'd parted had obviously altered at least some of the core beliefs and values of the man I'd once loved.