Page 86 of The Shade of Things
His anxiety was rubbing off on me. I wanted the vampire who was fully in control back, not whatever this was.
“What about the quote?” I said.
“A quirk of the founder who loved Shakespeare. One only accesses their services if they’ve been invited by a current member and then thoroughly vetted. The quotes allow the Woodses to track who invited a person, in case of trouble.”
“Why didn’t you think of this place before you hired me?” It wasn’t like him to overlook such an obvious possibility.
“I did.” He shot me a look dripping with disdain. “I was assured by the head of the Woods family that they had no such item in their possession.”
“They lied to you?” I rubbed my hand across my neck, wondering how bad their death would be.
“No. He wouldn’t dare.” He drummed his fingers on the armrest, sounding almost distracted. “I’d called in a rather large favor I’d been owed. Otherwise, they would never disclose what they guarded.”
“Ah. That’s why you think I sent you on a wild goose chase. That truly was Arlo’s answer to where I’d find the Ascendant. He might have lied, but I’m not sure he was capable of it. Not in the state he was in.” I fell into a pensive silence. “This other case with the Consortium also has a connection to the Ascendant, which I only just discovered. In fact, I was coming to tell you about it when you so rudely choked me.”
“You believe that the Consortium has it?”
“That or Tatiana stole it from them. I have the name of someone in their organization. Let me follow up tomorrow and I’ll report back immediately with any findings.”
Zev threw his head back looking up at the night sky. What had this estrie done to him? I would have paid a small fortune to know what was going through his head to make him look so defeated. “Very well,” he finally said. “But I cannot impress upon you strongly enough that time is of the essence.”
“Understood.” I paused. “Uh, do I have your word that you don’t want the Ascendant to harm humans?”
He tilted his head to expose his neck. “Trust me or kill me.”
An interesting dare if we both didn’t know I’d never take him up on it. I still needed his protection from whomever had restarted the hunt for the Ascendant.
“Touché.”
* * *
I was so zonked, I could barely keep my eyes open long enough to strip off my clothes, my lids half shut before I hit the mattress.
Sadie’s quick goodbye before she left for school Monday vaguely registered, but I didn’t achieve full consciousness until midmorning. Yawning, I stretched out my limbs. My department store sheets had never felt so decadent and luxurious.
Once I was fortified with so much lovely caffeine that my leg was jittering and a completely fattening double chocolate chip muffin that I wolfed down with zero regrets, I wrote out my to-do list: Jason Maxwell, Tatiana, Ryann, and Ian.
I tapped my pen against the notepad. Tatiana wanted to meet today, but it would be best if I found Jason Maxwell before being ordered to turn the case over to the Lonestars, which I fully expected to happen.
Plus, there was one other thing bothering me. My hypothesis about the Ascendant being tied to cracks and seams and dybbuks getting free had one big flaw with it. Arlo never got the magic amplifier, so how did he show the angels what it could do? I could be wrong about its powers, but it fit together so well.
I sent Tatiana a text asking to chase down a lead before meeting with her. I framed it as wanting to have as much information as possible in case the Lonestars took over, but I also needed answers about the Ascendant for Zev.
No, not just for the vampire. Had my parents known what they were stealing? Ninety-nine percent of me believed that they hadn’t. That they would never have agreed to get involved with such a dangerous artifact unless it was to destroy it.
What about that one percent?
I stared blankly at the table. They’d raised me to be polite and kind to others, and the one time I’d shoplifted some candy on a dare, they’d been furious because stealing was wrong, especially from a small business owner in our community. I’d forgotten all about that until now.
Did they live by a Robin Hood mentality of stealing from the rich or was all of it a ruse?
Tatiana’s responding text saying that we could meet tomorrow shook me out of my stupor.
Time to get cracking.
My attempt to meet with Arlo for a second time was a bust. I was very careful not to mention his name, and yet I found myself blown out of the KH and into my living room. Message received.
If I couldn’t get answers from the source, I’d get them another way.
