AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His voice was gruff as he met her eyes. “You know what I’m going to say, don’t you? You guessed sometime back but you never confronted me about it.”
She nodded, the tension between them crackling. “I’ve been waiting for you to come clean. Don’t make me be the one to say it.”
I looked from her to him, then frowned. “What the hell is going on? Shamas? What’s Camille talking about?”
After an awkward pause, Shamas straightened his shoulders. “I knew you’d figure it out at some point. Especially since you’re married to that one.” He nodded toward Morio.
Morio let out a little growl. “As long as you didn’t bother the girls, I was willing to let it pass. But they need to know, especially now.”
“Will you just fucking tell us what’s going on?” Everybody stared at me. I didn’t swear as much as Menolly or Camille.
“All right.” Shamas caught his breath, then let it out slowly. “One of the Tregarts is from Otherworld. He’s one of the sorcerers I trained with. That’s how I learned the magic that I used to escape Lethesanar. He was a demon back then and he’s even more powerful now.” His dark eyes flashed dangerously as he pulled out a silver blade and readied the deadly-looking weapon. “And let me tell you this: He’s dangerous, and he hates my guts.”
Chapter 7
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I was confused. Smoky and Shade both looked confused, too. Camille seemed to know what was going on, but whatever it was, it was eluding me.
“I’m a sorcerer.” Shamas cast his gaze toward the floor, his face pale and pinched. “That’s how I escaped Lethesanar. I studied with Feris, a Tregart sorcerer who had managed to gate into the Southern Wastes. He’d worked his way up to Ceredream when I met him. He took me on as an apprentice. No one else in the family knows what I was doing down there. I learned fast. But Feris got pissed when I wouldn’t turn myself over to him for the transformation into demon. He might have let that one go, but then…”>She looked at me, her eyes glittering with unshed tears. “Find out who killed her, please. Trixie wasn’t the brightest bulb in the socket, but that made her special. And…she was my sister.”
As she suddenly busied herself straightening up her desk, we took that as our clue. I scooped up the matchbook and put it in my pocket, and we filed out. By the time we hit the front door, I’d forgotten all about buying myself one of her cinnamon rolls. The pain on Marion’s face had killed my appetite.
Back in the car, Camille held out her hand for the matchbook again. She shuddered as I dropped it into her palm. “This is nasty. Demonkin energy—and I’m beginning to recognize Tregart energy in particular, we’ve run into so many of them.”
Chase made a small sound. I glanced over at him. It had been a Tregart who had almost killed him, who had changed his life forever. He’d been terrified of them since last year, but now the look in his eyes was borderline dangerous. He didn’t so much look frightened as pissed.
“So we’ve got Van and Jaycee—I think we can safely say they’re wrapped up in this. They’re both sorcerers and Tregarts. We’ve got a magical club that seems to be connected to everything. Telazhar’s most likely involved…what else are we missing?”
“The kitchen sink?” Camille snickered, but then pressed her lips together. “Whatever they’re up to, you can bet it’s no good. Question: why Trixie? Why use her this way?”
“Because she knows about the coyote shifters. Because the Koyanni are out to even the score and they hate their less volatile brethren. Because…” A cold sweat washed over me. “Because Marion told us about the Koyanni and they found out, somehow, that she’s the one who outed them.”
Camille snapped her fingers. “And Trixie might have told them that. Or…killing Trixie…murder makes good revenge against someone you hate—kill their family members?”
“I think you’re right, but it doesn’t fully account for them blowing up the Supe Community Center. And why not just kill Trixie alone, why destroy others?” Chase cleared his throat. “I still have a feeling they’re trying to drive a wedge between the FBHs and the Supes. Getting Trixie in the mix that was a bonus.”
I thought about it for a bit. “You may be right. They could also be trying for a psychological edge. They know we have a small army, so either they must be confident they outnumber us or they’re doing their best to psych us out before we meet. Set us on guard. Make us jump.”
Camille leaned forward against the backseat again. “So what next?”
“We should check on the other two families and see if there was any link to the Energy Exchange, because that seems to be our primary connection so far.” Chase put the car in gear and we headed off to our next victim’s house.
By the time we finished up, we hadn’t found any connection between Thomas and Salvatore and the Energy Exchange.
Chase dropped us off in the parking lot. “Sharah and I’ll see you tonight at seven.” He paused. “So, you don’t think it’s weird that I’m dating a relative?”
I laughed. “Sharah’s so far removed that you really shouldn’t worry. And think of it, dude…you’re related to royalty.”
He shook his head, looking a little dazed. “I still can’t believe that I’m part elf. A very small part, but…”
“Welcome to our world.” Camille shook her head. “Guess what, you’re part minority now. When Andy Gambit writes his sleaze column, he’s writing about you, too. Think about that the next time you lecture me for smacking that pervert’s face. I still think I should tell Smoky what he did.”
“No! I mean…let it be for now. I’ll see if I can get through to him that a nice long vacation out of Seattle might be a good idea.” Chase headed back into the building as we climbed into my Jeep.
Camille fastened her seat belt. “So what do we do about the Energy Exchange?”
“We do what we always do. Investigate, see what we can dig up on it.” I eased the Jeep out of the parking lot and we headed toward home. “And we ask Menolly to convince Roman to tell us about Bryan. In fact, I wouldn’t mind a look at that website. Maybe we can find Trixie’s postings online.”
“You think Roman would tell us even if he has information about this guy?” Camille shrugged. “We still don’t know a lot about Roman, or what he eventually wants with Menolly. She’s convinced he’s okay and I trust her, but let’s face facts—he’s an ancient vampire, more powerful than even Dredge was, and he’s the son of Blood Wyne, the Queen of the Crimson Veil. He’s not necessarily going to rat out a fellow vampire.”
