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“The fucking keys, at a guess. Why didn’t you call in help?”
“I had help.” And probably better help than anything either he or the Directorate could provide—and safer, too, given Director Hunter’s interest in the whole affair. I had no doubt I’d catch flak over my failure to keep her informed as to what we were up to, but that was something I was willing to face. The whole idea of the vampire council getting control of the gates made my skin crawl. “Look, please, just come down here, so I can tell you what happened and then go home to scrub myself clean.”
He opened his mouth to say something, but the phone was ripped from his grasp as Aunt Riley appeared. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m fine.”
“Do you want me there?”
It was on my tongue to say no, then I hesitated. One of the reasons Riley was still hooked to the Directorate was her ability to talk to the dead. Or rather, the souls of the dead. “Hang on.” I glanced around, but couldn’t see any reapers other than Azriel.
“There aren’t,” he said softly. “These deaths were not ordained.”
I glanced back at the phone. “It might be worth trying to talk to the souls of these things. We might be able to learn something about their maker.”
“Good idea. I’ll bring some fresh clothes for you, too. You might want to clean yourself up first. Trust me, you’ll feel better without all that gore over you.”
I couldn’t argue with that, so I signed off and looked at Azriel. “How long before whatever you did to the guards wears off?”
“Just under an hour.”
“Time enough to find the bathroom, then.” I hesitated, my gaze sweeping his bloodied, grimy torso. “Are you okay?”
He nodded. “This is merely flesh. I am unharmed where it matters.”
“But you can be hurt—even killed—in flesh form, can’t you?”
“Killed, yes, but the wounds affecting this vessel are not painful and will heal once I claim my natural form.”
My gaze skimmed his body again. Some of those wounds looked pretty deep.
“I’m fine, Risa,” he said softly. “Go find your water. I’m sure your friends will appreciate the effort.”
In other words, I stank. I snorted softly and headed for the café door. It only took me a couple of minutes to find the bathroom and I quickly stripped off, rolling up my T-shirt and using it to wash off the worst of the gore.
Thankfully, the coat had protected my sweater, even if the left sleeve had been shredded by the shifter’s claws. But my jeans were unsalvageable. I dumped them in the waste bin along with my undies, then washed my hands and headed out, suddenly glad that my sweater was long enough to cover my butt. Although the cold night air teased me in unmentionable ways that had my pulse rate humming happily.
Or maybe that was a result of the brief look Azriel gave me as I walked back into the room. Intense didn’t even begin to describe it. And though it was a weight I felt deep inside, I wasn’t entirely sure just exactly what it meant. Frowning, I walked around the other side of the café counter to raid the cookie jar, picking out a huge chocolate chip one as well as a macadamia and white chocolate.
“So,” I said, meeting his gaze again, a little relieved that the intensity had been replaced by his more normal inscrutability. “How will we know if whoever has stolen the key has used it?”
“We will feel it.”
“We? As in, you and I, or everyone who lives in this world and the next?”
“Those who are connected to the fields or who can walk them will feel it. That’s how we became aware of the keys first being tested on the portals.”
I frowned. “I didn’t feel anything when they did that.”
He shrugged. “It might have been nothing more than a sense of unease that you weren’t able to place.”
Maybe. And maybe he was overestimating my abilities. “These people might not have stolen the key to force the portals closed.”
“No.” Grimness briefly flickered through his expression before he caught himself. “And I do not know what will happen should the gates be eternally forced open. None of us do.”
“How could it be worse than that whole human-race-becoming-zombies scenario?”
“That,” he said, and this time the grimness did more than flicker, “would be a walk in the park compared to the hordes of hell being unleashed.”
