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Ten minutes later, my phone buzzed.
Crow: The garden. Now.
Reaper: 15 min. I have to find s/o to cover for me.
Crow: Do it.
I found a Paris soldier to take over my post and slipped out to meet her. The garden was blissfully cool and uncrowded. The wolfdogs raced up to me, and I held out a hand for them to sniff. They wagged their tails and returned to their handler.
The white pebble paths gleamed in the moonlight. I put my hands in my pockets and chose a path at random. I didn’t bother to look for Crow. She’d find me.
I circled a sweet-smelling bed of lavender and creamy roses, and there she was, seated on a cast-iron bench. She fell into step beside me.
“Report.” Nothing in her tone gave away the fact that she was suspicious of me, but I knew she must wonder why de Froulay had asked to speak to me privately. And why he’d called me “Ma petite,” an endearment meaning “my little one.”
I kept my face and tone as calm as the white marble statue of a young woman we were strolling by. “I contacted Stygian, but he said you’d gone dark.”
Stygian wasn’t her assistant’s real name, of course. Crow assigned nicknames to all of her operatives.
“And? What does the primus want?”
“He wants me to spy on—” I tipped my head at the softly-lit mansion instead of speaking Moreau’s name aloud. You never knew when someone was listening.
“I see.”
I dropped my voice. “The primus suspects something’s going on. If I don’t investigate, he’ll just find someone else. This way, I can filter what he finds out.”
We exchanged a look. I could tell Crow understood.
Leo de Froulay was a smart man with the resources of a powerful syndicate behind him. If he started poking around, he might discover the truth—that Slayers, Inc. had joined with the Tremblay Syndicate to take out Karoly Kral and his sons.
De Froulay could blow Operation Angel sky-high. Karoly Kral was already pushing for changes in how SI was run.
If the syndicates found out that SI had taken sides in a vampire blood-feud, we were fucked. Karoly would have the leverage he sought to force those changes through. Changes that would give the vampires more power on SI’s secretive Board of Directors.
Crow pursed her lips, then nodded. “Fine. You have my okay. But only if it doesn’t interfere with your primary job.”
I did a mental fist-pump. Yes.
To Crow, I said, “Understood.”
I waited for her to ask why de Froulay had called me his little one but fortunately, a pair of Paris vampires came into view, heading toward us.
Crow slipped into her role as a thrall, giving the men a bold, sensual smile. “A lovely evening, isn’t it, gentlemen?”
I brushed past the three of them and hurried back to the mansion. Behind me, one of the vampires said something to Crow, and she gave a husky chuckle.
My step hitched.
Hearing Crow chuckle was like hearing a wolf baa like a sheep. It was more than odd. It was flat-out bizarre.
When I got off duty at three a.m., the party was still going strong.
I heaved a sigh of relief and headed downstairs to my quarters. With its cushy queen-sized bed and fancy bathroom, the room I’d been assigned was actually a step up from the bare-bones way I lived between ops. Why put money into a place I only used a few months a year?
Kicking off my shoes, I grabbed my laptop and sat yoga-style on the bed. The coverlet was a deep purple sateen with a huge gold griffin like the one on my uniform embroidered in the center, its lion’s tail curling over its back, its beak and talons open in threat.
I opened the laptop and went into something similar to incognito mode, but more secure. I’d decided to poke around some, see if I could turn up proof that Moreau was trafficking in blood slaves on the side.
