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Grimshaw frowned. “She got a call a few minutes ago and said she had to go. I thought she was going to see you!”
Chapter 32
DIANA
I had woken up an hour ago in Theo’s lounge above his magic shop, feeling drained but whole again. Both of my arms had healed fully in my sleep, and when Theo had come to see me he had been astonished by this fact. He had known about it of course, because I had told him that I healed in my sleep, but he had never seen it for himself.
Theo had insisted on feeling the bones in my arms and making me wiggle my fingers until he believed that I was fine. And then he had insisted on feeding me a large meal. He had ignored my protests, and in the end I had been glad because I had been absolutely famished. The healing always left me starving.
I had been about to go into Agency Headquarters, sure that Storm would be there hunting for Steffane, when I had received a phone call. It was Steffane Ronin. I couldn’t believe it. I hurried out of the kitchen to avoid Theo’s enquiring gaze.
“Sorry for pulling that little trick on you,” said Ronin. “But a man’s gotta look after numero uno first.”
“That is not cool, Ronin,” I whispered into the phone. “We had a bargain.”
“Take a chill pill,” he said. “Our bargain is still on. I’m a man of my word. I had a few things that I need to take care of in my own life first. Don’t think I don’t know the Devil Claw is planning to come after me. If you want him, I’ll send a car for you. I’ll be long gone. But you and your team had better come prepared to take him down, because he is very dangerous and he’ll be coming for me with everything he’s got.”
“You are in danger,” I said. “You need to tell me where you are right now. He probably alread
y knows.”
“No deal,” said Ronin. “You can take my car or nothing.
So I told him where the car could pick me up, a short distance away from Grimshaw’s magic shop so that Theo wouldn’t get too suspicious. I made my excuses to Theo and hurried out. I didn’t feel all that great, but this was my one chance to get DCK. I had thought it was gone. Now I had it again, I was not going to mess it up.
I didn’t know where Ronin was going to send me, but wherever it was would have to do. And I would have only my sword to help me. Only my sword with which to force Devil Claw to tell me the things I wanted to know before I killed him.
The car that Ronin sent for me was a black cab. The driver claimed to know nothing about Ronin, and said that he had been paid richly to not tell me the address of the destination that he was taking me to. Ronin clearly had not wanted me to call Storm on the way. He didn’t want me to call Storm until I got there. He wanted to assure that he was going to get away first.
I sat in the back seat of the cab impatiently bouncing up and down in my seat like Ronin had been doing earlier. But in my case it was not excitement. It was fury. Ronin had tricked us. Why had I not seen that coming? And now Ronin was going to get away. And if the Devil Claw did not turn up like Ronin was sure he would, then I would never find out who the Devil Claw was. Ronin had lied. He was supposed to tell me with words. But Ronin thought that this was him completing his half of the deal. The sneaky dhampir had better be right!
The cab drove halfway across London before it finally stopped outside a large house in a very wealthy area of town. “This is it,” said the cabbie.
I let myself out. The instant my feet were on the pavement, the cabbie drove off without a backward glance.
It was past 10 o’clock at night, and dark outside. Dark enough for a vampire to be comfortable. I wondered if the large mansion in front of me belonged to one of Ronin’s vampire friends. I wondered if the house was empty, or if it was a seething vampire’s nest. But there was nothing for it, so I squared my shoulders and marched down the driveway towards the front door, and experienced a jolt of unease when I found that that door was open.
I knew immediately that something was wrong. It was like all of the air had been sucked out of my lungs. The psychic music all around the house had some sort of ominous tone to it. A dead-end quietness that made me feel like whatever was waiting inside was not good.
I pushed open the door and walked in. The darkness within embraced me. It called me forward. It was like there was a path in front of me that my psychic senses were pointing me down. I followed it. Down the plushly carpeted corridor and up a set of stairs, and down another corridor to a closed door on the end.
There was something on the door. I didn’t have to turn on the light to see it, but I turned it on anyway.
The mark of the Devil Claw was gouged into the white painted door. The blood was dripping slowly down towards the floor. It hadn’t reached the white carpet beneath yet. I felt sickened. I felt like I had felt when I had seen Magda’s kitchen door two years ago. I knew what I would find when I turned that handle.
I turned it anyway. I didn’t care that I was getting my fingerprints everywhere. What did that even matter?
I stepped into the room. The killer had left the light on for me so that I could see exactly what he had done. Steffane Ronin’s blood was splattered everywhere. All over the white carpet, all over the cream covers of the bed, all over the ceiling, all over the walls. So much blood for one body. Steffane Ronin himself was sitting propped up on the bed. Or at least his corpse was. It turned out that a damphir’s corpse did not disintegrate when it was killed, or at least Ronin’s had not. The corpse of Steffane Ronin was holding its own head in its hands. The head was grinning.
A hand reached out to touch me from behind and I screamed a battle cry. I whirled around to smack whoever was there, but it was only Storm. I took a shuddering breath, and threw myself into his arms.
“It’s too late,” I said. “It’s too late. He’s already gone.”
My words came out sounding as deadened as I felt inside. Finally that bubble of sunshiny delight that had filled me for the last three weeks had popped. And the awful rage and grief left in its place left me staggering in shock. Only Storm’s arms were holding me up. If he wasn’t there I was sure that I would have collapsed to my knees and sobbed my heart out.
I had thought I was going to get him. I had really thought I was going to get the Devil Claw Killer. But he had outsmarted me again. One step ahead. Just like Ronin.
And I did not deserve Storm’s comforting embrace. I didn’t deserve his warm strong arms wrapped around me, or to have my head tucked under his chin so securely. I had meant to betray Storm. I had meant to kill the Devil Claw myself. I would have done it if I had found him here. I hadn’t cared that Storm wanted only justice. Storm could have justice with any other killer, but not this one. And now I never knew if I was gonna catch this killer at all.
