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“No, I’m fucking not,” I snapped. Amaya’s hissing increased, buzzing through my brain like a saw, sharp and hungry. Her fire spilled across the darkness, giving it a creepy glow. I took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly. It didn’t do a whole lot to ease either her noise or the tension and dread roiling around inside me. “Sorry. This isn’t your fault.”
“No,” he agreed. “But that does not mean I cannot help you.”
I eyed him for a minute, then said, “How?”
“You do not need to be here to watch. I can do that.”
“Nice thought, but there’s one problem.” I pointed at the camera. “We’re not the only ones watching. And we have no idea whether it’s Marshall, Hunter, or those fucking councillors behind that camera.” Hell, for all I knew, they could be recording everything we said, as well.
“I could find out.”
“And what good would knowing do? It doesn’t alter the fact that I have to stay here for the entire evening.”
He fell silent, but the room beyond suddenly wasn’t. The ghosts began to moan, the sound one of agitation and horror. It crawled across my skin like a rash, making me itch. Making me shiver.
Then came the sound of footsteps. Two pairs entering, one leaving. A blood whore being delivered. My stomach began to churn. I couldn’t listen to this. I really couldn’t.
“Then don’t,” Azriel said, and touched two fingers to my forehead lightly. “Sleep, Risa. I will guard this night.”
“I can’t—” But the protest died on my lips. Sleep closed in and I knew no more.
I woke hours later, feeling stiff and less than refreshed. The scent of blood was heavy in the air, mingling with the stench of antiseptic. In the other room, someone whistled tunelessly, the sound grating across waking nerves.
I stretched, trying to work the kinks out of my body, and realized I was lying across the two chairs, my back against the padded wall and my coat under my head. I opened my eyes. Azriel leaned against the far wall, underneath the camera. His arms were crossed and his eyes were hooded. But a strange red-purple fire flickered along Valdis’s sharp sides.>Hunter’s eyebrows rose delicately. “Why?”
He regarded her steadily, and I suddenly wished I could read his thoughts. I had the distinct impression they’d be very interesting right now.
He ignored her question and asked instead, “Were blood whores killed in this room the nights the addicted vampires were murdered?”
Marshall glanced at Hunter and, at her nod, said, “Yes. In each case there were fatalities.”
So much for the whores being well looked after, I thought, as anger surged. My gaze flicked to the silent three, and I felt an answering rise of emotion in them—anger or hunger, I wasn’t entirely sure which. But in this situation, one was as deadly as the other. I returned my attention to Hunter and fought for calm.
Azriel stepped closer, his shoulder pressing against mine. I didn’t know if it was for my benefit or theirs, and I didn’t really care.
“Then that is the link,” he said. “The hour between midnight and one is a very powerful time. When bloodshed is combined with anger and the desperation for revenge, it becomes a call few dark ones could resist. I’m surprised only the Rakshasa has answered.”
I looked at him. “So if the bloodshed stopped, the Rakshasa would be less likely to appear?”
“That,” Hunter said immediately, “is never going to happen.”
“Not even to save lives?”
“The object here is not to save the lives of people I care less than zero about, but to find this thing and stop it. As your reaper will no doubt confirm, the Rakshasa will just move on to less tasty hunting fields if we are not successful here. Such is the nature of a killer.”
And the five of them would know all about that. “So what do you expect me to do?”
She smiled, and it was the smile of a predator whose prey had just stepped neatly into a trap.
But she didn’t answer. The tallest of the three councillors, a thin man with dark auburn hair and muddy, empty eyes, stepped forward.
“What we expect”—his voice was like silk, smooth and sensuous—“is for you to be here every night from midnight to dawn to wait for this thing to appear.”
Horror spread through me. Spend half the night here? Every night? With a room filled with blood-addicted vampires above me and a bloodbath around me?
“Are you insane?” The words were out before I’d really thought about them, and that coiled sense of darkness sharpened abruptly. For several seconds I couldn’t even breathe.
“The sanity of the council may be a debatable point, but it is not the question we seek to answer here,” he said softly. “You and your pet reaper will wait here for this thing, and then you will stop it by whatever means necessary.”
