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I let a beat go by, then another, before saying, “All right. I’m okay. I just…it’s hard for me to trust. I’ve been hurt too many times in the past. I tend to get bristly…” I was hoping that he’d buy the explanation.
He didn’t say anything for a few minutes, then gave me a short nod. “Yeah, I’ve met a number of women with that issue.” For a moment, he almost sounded empathetic, but I reminded myself that not only was the man wearing a spirit seal, but he was working for one of Shadow Wing’s henchmen, he was responsible for tearing people away from their homes, and most likely, he had been in on ordering them to turn themselves over to the eggs as demon fodder.
“I can wait on the coffee.” I relaxed back into my seat.
Another ten minutes and we turned left onto a heavily wooded road. My internal compass told me we were in the vicinity of our stomping grounds—the Belles-Faire District.
The car slowed as we turned left yet again. A bright yellow Dead End sign was posted at the corner. I sat up, looking around. There weren’t any houses along the parklike spread of grass and trees. It was then that I noticed the entire street was fenced. This was one estate. One huge, freaking estate. And near the end, a gated drive opened up as Halcon held up his phone and said, “Open.”
So the place was wired, and probably heavily. We pulled through the wide iron gates as they swung open and into a long circular drive, which curved around in front of a four-story mansion.
Cripes, this joint must have cost a fortune, even for as run-down and gothic as it looked. There were lights on inside, in a spotty pattern, and bodyguards at the door. By their size and bulk, I guessed they were also Tregarts.
Damn. Gulakah was living right inside the city, and somehow he’d managed to escape our prying eyes. My guess, by the humming ring of magic that permeated the place, was that this entire building and any other structures were under the protection of a cloaking spell, as well as whatever secrecy that technology could provide.
Halcon pulled up to the sidewalk, to where two of the bodyguards were waiting. One moved around to open his door, while another opened mine. I let the demon help me out of the car, again impressed that Tregarts could clean up so well to suit-and-tie standards.
Halcon hurried around to my side and took my arm. “Welcome to the home of the Aleksais Psychic Network. Come, let’s hurry before it rains again.”
It was only now that I noticed the weather—it had stopped raining and the moon was peeking out from behind a heavy cloud cover. I held on to the thought that tomorrow night, on Beltane, she would be full and I’d be out running with the Hunt.
As Halcon escorted me up the stairs, I caught a sound in a nearby bush. It was just a whisper—so faint that nobody else picked it up—but I knew that sound. I recognized it on an internal, gut level, and I could feel the connection through the Soul Symbiont ritual. It was Morio, in his fox form, slipping through the bushes.
Relieved, knowing that I wasn’t alone, I focused on the steps as Halcon escorted me in to meet Gulakah.
The mansion was old, and unlike most of the mansions that I’d been in, the central staircase wasn’t built of spacious marble, but instead of polished wood. The ceiling towered four flights above me. The main foyer was open to the very top of the building, and as I turned, I could see that the stairs continued on both sides from the second floor on up.
There was an odd scent in the air. Some sort of incense, but I couldn’t quite place it. Halcon noticed me looking around, and he smiled.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
I nodded. That, he had right. The place was a showstopper, and if this had been any other time, any other situation, I’d have gone over to the intricate wallpaper and studied it, and rubbed my hand over the burnished wood of the railing, wondering at the smoothness.
“Come. We need to go downstairs. My master awaits.”
That was the first time Halcon had used the term master, and the way he said it told me that when he was out and about, Halcon was good at putting on a mask. But Gulakah scared the hell out of him, and here that fear showed.
We headed toward a door to the side of the stairs, and I realized we were going down to a basement. Just how freaking huge was this place?
“I’m…a little claustrophobic.” I didn’t want to go down there without knowing I had an exit close at hand. Basements weren’t on my list of best places to escape from, and chances were it would be hard as hell to get out of there once that door closed behind me.
“Nonsense. Everything will be fine.” Halcon opened the door just as a loud slam came from behind us. We whirled around to see that the front door had swung open, but there was no one in sight.
Halcon paled. “Hell. Not another one,” he muttered under his breath.
“Another what?” I asked.
“Never mind. Wait here.” He moved toward the door, cautiously, and I realized he really was afraid.
At that moment the lights flickered and died, plunging us into darkness. A lot of shouting went on, and I thought about trying to maneuver my way out the front door, but we had to make sure this was where Gulakah was. Indecision kept me frozen, and then a light touch on my shoulder made me jump. I kept my mouth shut as a low voice whispered in my ear.
“Go downstairs with him. You won’t be alone. When you’re there, I’ll give you the word and you hit the Lord of Ghosts with that rune. We’ll be right behind you. He’s there, I scoped it out.”
Shade! I let out a long breath and gave a short nod, and then the lights came back on. Halcon was examining the front door suspiciously, but then he shook his head and moved back to my side.
“I should warn you, we have a few ghosts around here. But they won’t hurt you. Come on, let’s go.” He motioned for me to follow him, and, confident now that I knew Shade was around, I did.
We descended the stairs, winding down at least two floors’ worth, to finally reach a large, spacious floor deep beneath the house. The ceilings were at least fifteen feet high, which accounted for the number of stairs, and the chamber into which we stepped was nearly as large as the entire first floor of the mansion.
