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Chapter 1
The office phone rang with a sharpness that jolted me instantly awake. I jerked upright, peeled a wayward bit of paper from my nose, and stared at the phone blankly. Then the caller ID registered and I groaned. The call was coming from Madeline Hunter, the bitch who was not only in charge of the Directorate of Other Races, but was a leading member of the high vampire council, too. She was also the very last person in this world—or the next—who I wanted to hear from right now.
Unfortunately, given that she was now my boss, she was not someone I could—or should—ignore.
I hit the vid-phone’s ANSWER button and said in a less-than-polite voice, “What?”
She paused, and something flashed in the green of her eyes. A darkness that spoke of anger. But all she said was, “I have a task for you.”
A curse rose in my throat, but I somehow managed to leash it. “What sort of task?”
But even as I asked the question, I knew. There was only one reason for her to be ringing me, and that was to track down an escapee from hell. She had not only the Directorate at her command, but a stableful of Cazadors—the high council’s elite killing force—and they dealt with all manner of murderers and madmen on an everyday basis.
I even had one following me around astrally, reporting my every move back to Hunter. Trust was not high on her list of good traits.
Not that I think she had all that many good traits.
“A close friend of mine was murdered last night.” Her voice held very little emotion, and she was scarier because of it. “I want you to investigate.”
Hunter had friends. Imagine that. I scrubbed a hand across my eyes and said somewhat wearily, “Look, as much as I absolutely adore working for you, the reality is the Directorate is far better equipped to handle this sort of murderer.”
“The Directorate hasn’t your experience with the denizens of hell,” she snapped. “Nor do they have a reaper at their beck and call.”
So I’d been right—it was an escapee from hell. Not great news, but I guess it was my fault that these things were about in the world. It might have become my task to find the three lost keys that controlled the gates to heaven and hell, but the only one I’d managed to find so far had almost immediately been stolen from me. As a result, the first gate to hell had been permanently opened by person or persons unknown, and the stronger demons were now coming through. Not in great numbers—not yet—but that was thanks only to the fact that the remaining gates were still shut.
Of course, given the choice, I’d rather not find the other keys. After all, if no one knew where they were, then they couldn’t be used to either permanently open or close the gates. But it wasn’t like I had a choice, not anymore. It was either find them or die. Or, when it came to the choice given to me by my father—who was one of the Raziq, the rogue Aedh priests who’d helped create the keys, and also the man responsible for having them stolen—watch my friends die.
“Azriel isn’t at my beck and call,” I said, unable to hide the annoyance in my voice. “He just wants the keys, the same as you and the council.”
Not to mention the Raziq and my goddamn father.
“This takes priority over finding the keys.”
I snorted. “Since when?”
That darkness in her eyes got stronger. “Since I walked into my lover’s house and discovered his corpse.”
I stared at her for a moment, seeing little in the way of true emotion in either her expression or her voice. And yet her need for revenge, to rend and tear, was so strong that even through the vid-phone I could almost taste it. That sort of fury, I thought with a shiver, was not something I ever wanted aimed my way.
Yet, despite knowing it wasn’t sensible, I couldn’t help saying, “I’m betting the rest of the council wouldn’t actually agree with that assessment.”
I think if she could have jumped down the phone line and throttled me, she would have. As it was, she bared her teeth, her canines elongating just a little, and said in a soft voice, “You should not be worried about what the rest of the council is thinking right now.”
The only time I’d stop worrying about the rest of the council was when she achieved her goal of supreme control over the lot of them. Until then, they were as big a threat to me as she was.
But I wasn’t stupid enough to actually come out and say that to her. “Hunting for your friend’s killer is going to steal precious time away from the search for—”
“And,” she cut in coolly, “just where, exactly, is your search for the keys?”
Nowhere, that was where. My father might have given me clues for the next key’s location, but deciphering those was another matter entirely. We figured it was somewhere in the middle of Victoria’s famous golden triangle, but given that particular region encompassed more than nine thousand square kilometers of land, that left us with a vast area to explore. It was fucking frustrating, but all Azriel and I could do was keep on searching and hope that sooner or later fate gave us a goddamn break.
“It’s probably in the same place as your search for my mother’s killer.”
The minute the words left my mouth, I regretted them. Hunter really wasn’t someone I needed to antagonize, and yet it was her damn promise to help find my mother’s killer that had made me agree to work for her and the council in the first place. And while I’d kept my end of the bargain, she hadn’t.
For several very long seconds, she didn’t reply. She simply stared at me, her expression remote and her eyes colder than the Antarctic. Then she said, voice so soft it was barely audible, “Tread warily, Risa dearest.”
I gulped. I couldn’t help it. Death glared at me through the phone’s screen, and she scared the hell out of me.
