A Risky Proposition (34 page)

He didn’t seem to hear me, his attention focusing instead on the voices spilling from the living room.  “You have company,” he murmured.  “Who is that?”  He brushed past me to enter the penthouse.

I trailed helplessly behind him as he followed the sounds of Sunny’s and Angelica’s laughter—which faded abruptly as we came into view.

“Jeremy,” Sunny said after a tense moment, “how are you?”

He didn’t answer.  My nerves were wound so tight it felt like I was about to shatter.

“Sunny,” he mumbled finally.  “I’m fine.  How did you…” he broke off, shaking his head as if to clear it.  Sunny and Angelica watched him, both of them looking frozen with discomfort.

My mind raced in a useless loop as I tried to figure out what to say to break the tension.

An Irish brogue broke the silence.  “Your door’s open, Sydney, were you expecting me?”

I turned to find Sparrow standing in the front doorway with a beautiful bouquet of wildflowers.  My brain spun faster.  “Sparrow,” I whispered, trying to smile at him.      

“I think I should go,” Jeremy muttered behind me.  I cringed at the anguish in his voice.  He dodged around me, pushing roughly past Sparrow’s more muscular frame on his way to the elevator.

No one spoke.  Sparrow’s eyes roved over my face, as if trying to read it.  I jumped when the soft ping of the elevator broke the suffocating quiet.  And then Jeremy was gone.

“Who was that?” Sparrow asked.

“My husband,” I answered, numb with the shock of Jeremy’s unexpected visit.

Sparrow stared at me.  “You didn’t believe it was worth mentioning you were married?” he queried with a furrowed brow.

He strode to the dining room table and put down the bouquet of flowers.  “These are for you,” he told me, his tone flat.  “I’m afraid I have to cancel our plans for the evening, but I’ll be sure to let Lorien know the pertinent details of last night’s death djinn arrest so that she can keep you updated.”

I finally found my voice.  “Wait, Sparrow.  Jeremy and I are separated.”

He blinked out before I finished speaking the words.  I suddenly realized how awful it was that I hadn’t told him.  I had been doing such a thorough job of hiding Jeremy’s betrayal from myself, it hadn’t occurred to me that Sparrow deserved to know about it. 

Tears rolled down my cheeks and I hugged my midsection.  It hurt to see Jeremy.  But it hurt worse to imagine what Sparrow must think of me now. 

Oh Goddess.  I was starting to fall in love with him.

A sob shuddered through me, and Sunny was suddenly there, her arm tightening around me as she led me toward the couch. 

I barely heard Angelica’s whispered, “I’m so sorry Sydney,” before she disappeared too, leaving Sunny alone to comfort me in my misery.

Chapter 16 – Playing With Matches

“What happened last night?” Lorien asked in a hushed voice.

I looked up from a blank study of my laptop screen.  I’d been attempting to focus on work for over an hour.  But my mind seemed determined to keep floating off into space.  At least it had ceased its insistent, torturous replay of last night’s Sparrow and Jeremy fiasco.  I’d tossed and turned all night with those images on a loop in my brain.

I felt tired and drained, but blessedly numb.  I lifted the corners of my lips in a smile that I knew didn’t reach my eyes.  “Sparrow and Jeremy showed up here at the same time, and I don’t think either one of them was too happy about it.”

The expression on her face was so sympathetic that it nearly broke through my numbness to the pain buried beneath.  I quickly looked away.

“Where’s Sunny?” she asked, her voice gentle. 

“In the shower.”

“Oh.  I just thought you’d both want to know what happened with the latest death djinn arrest.  I talked to Agent… well anyway, they arrested about thirty more death djinns and found almost a hundred more unaligned souls.”

I winced.  “That’s terrible.  What are they going to do now?  Surely that’s enough to prove the death djinns have been conspiring together on this thing.”

Lorien grimaced.  “So far, they’re claiming no knowledge as to how the unaligned souls got into their containment safes—just like the others.”

“Of course they’re not admitting it!” I exploded.  “Why would they stop pleading ignorance now?  Lauringer’s right—this is ridiculous.  They’ve got over a hundred death djinns in custody and who knows how many hundreds of unaligned souls that were found in their possession.  What more do they need?” 

The anger felt good—much better than the emptiness.  A sudden reckless need to
do
something pulsed through me.

“It’s not that simple,” Lorien reminded me.  “King Moab is using every ounce of his considerable influence to fight this.  And the Seelie mages haven’t been able to determine that any of the djinns are lying.” 

She frowned as she continued.  “It gets worse, Sydney.  Apparently, after the first mass arrest, Agent Sparrow ordered that death djinn containment safes be secretly monitored for suspicious activity.  The unaligned souls they confiscated last night were all deposited some time within the last week.  The problem is that, according to the records, at least half of the death djinns arrested didn’t access their safes within the last week.”

I groaned in aggravation.  “Someone else?  Could they have had someone else make the deposits for them?  Or could they have figured out a way around being recorded?”

I ground my teeth.  The frustration and lack of progress made me want to crawl out of my skin.

Lorien sighed.  “Agent Sparrow is wondering the same thing, but so far this is more proof in King Moab’s favor.  Mages are examining the new unaligned souls for any connection to their mortal hosts, as well as any traces of the magic used to extract them.  They’re not letting the arrested death djinns go, but with the king leaning on the Seelie Court, they still can’t convict without further proof. 

“And a conviction is what it’s going to take for your contract to be questioned.”

“So more waiting,” I spat in disgust.  I watched Lorien fidget with the skirt of her color-shifting dress, the restless action signaling that there was more she hadn’t told me.  “What else?” I demanded.

When she looked up at me, there was sorrow in her eyes.  “It’s just that now the general consensus among the mages is that the human hosts belonging to the unaligned souls are probably dead.  They can come up with no other explanation for the fact that they haven’t been able to trace any of the souls to their owners.”

“But you and Angelica said the souls were of no use if the people were dead!”

“They aren’t,” Lorien said on a vexed exhalation.  “If the mages could only get a better fix on the magic used to extract them, maybe they could figure out what’s really going on.”

I managed a bitter smile.  “Did the Seelie mages at least get any fresher traces of magic on these new souls?”

Lorien shook her head.  “So far the strongest traces of magic they’ve found are still from the soul of the woman in the coma.”

It kept coming back to Balthus’ unaligned soul.  And the only lead we had was the mysterious goblin with the infinity tattoo on his palm.  Apparently Sparrow’s mages weren’t coming up with squat on any of the others. 
Then again, it wasn’t their souls that were on the line if the death djinns went free
, I thought bitterly.

A niggling voice in my brain insisted that there was still one connection no one had bothered to explore—the Hell Ride.  And in my current mood, I was feeling just rash enough to do it myself.

Sunny wandered out from the hallway, the edges of her skirt swirling above her pink polished toenails.  She dropped into one of the heavy dining room chairs and began pulling a brush through her long, damp curls.

“Hey Lorien.  What’s up?” she chirped.

Lorien glanced my way and said, “I was just telling Sydney about the latest death djinn arrests.”

Sunny paused mid brush stroke, her expression intent.  “Tell me the bastards are going down.”

I let out a derisive snort and she scowled.  “Why the hell not?”  She yanked the brush through a tangle in her hair.

“Same old, same old,” I intoned.  “Nobody can trace the magic used to illegally extract the souls.  Nobody can prove the death djinns are lying about having nothing to do with it.  Forget the fact that they had them in their own containment safes.  Some justice system, huh?”

“Be fair,” Lorien chastised.  “They have proof that at least half the death djinns arrested didn’t access their containment safes during the times when the unaligned souls were deposited,” she told Sunny.

Sunny’s brows knitted in surprise and confusion.

“Whose side are you on, anyway?” I muttered resentfully at Lorien.

She gave me a hurt look and her wings began sifting purple dust.  “I’m on your side, Sydney.  I’ve always been on your side.”

“Well then maybe you could stop defending the damn death djinns for a minute!” 

I regretted my words immediately.  My only excuse was that I was tired and hurt and apparently itching for a fight.  Lorien’s wings buzzed faster, sounding a high-pitched noise of protest, and then she disappeared.  I stared after her, my chest constricting with shame. 

I was such an asshole—first Sparrow, and now Lorien.  Maybe I could work on alienating Sunny next.

My best friend’s expression was neutral as my gaze drifted to her face.  “Way to shoot the messenger, Syd.”  Her tone was sympathetic, despite the accusation in her words.

I closed my eyes and sighed, then pulled my legal pad in front of me and picked up the phone.

“Who are you calling?” she asked.

“I’ve got an exorcism to perform.  Think it might count as atonement?”

“Say three hail Mickeys and call me when it’s over,” she said dryly.

I smiled at her quip.  “Here goes nothing,” I muttered as Mickey’s cell phone began to ring.

“Mick here,” he drawled.

“Mickey, hey there!  It’s Sydney.”  Silence.  “I, uh, wanted to ask how your test went yesterday.  Did you get there on time?”

“Yeah, yeah.  Thanks,” he answered, sounding surprised.

“Good, that’s good.”  I rushed ahead before I lost my nerve.  “Well, the reason I’m calling is I was wondering if you’d like to come by my place for that cup of coffee we’ve been talking about.”

“Really?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I faltered, grasping for a reason to explain my sudden change of heart.  “My friend, Sunny, you remember her from the coffee shop?”  Sunny’s eyes narrowed on me.

“Sort of,” he answered uncertainly.

“Well, she remembers you.  And she’s teaching a college class next semester on, um, trends and modern society,” I invented.  “She wants to interview you about being Goth.”

Sunny smacked my arm with the back of her hairbrush.

“Oh.  Well, I’m not really into that anymore,” he said.

“I know,” I rushed on, “but you used to be, and that’s exactly the perspective she needs.  You know—someone who can look at it from the outside, who’s already been on the inside.”  Wow.  I really hoped that hadn’t sounded as lame as I thought it had.

“Alright, I guess,” he answered slowly.  “I’m at my parents’ store, but I was just leaving.  I can come by now if you want.  Where are you?”

I swallowed a lump of panic.  “Uh, I’m in the tenth floor penthouse of the big beachfront hotel up the street.  I’ll tell the front desk to buzz you up when you get here.”

“’Kay—I’ll see ya in a few.”

The line went dead and I jumped to my feet and darted toward my bedroom to find tweezers.

“Why did you tell him I wanted to interview him?” Sunny hissed behind me.

“Sorry!” I exclaimed breathlessly.  “It just popped into my head!”

“Couldn’t something else have popped into your head?  Something that didn’t involve me having an intimate conversation with a death djinn possessed teenager?  I can’t think of two beings I’d rather spend less time with!”               

Her reflection glared at me in the vanity mirror as I dug through a drawer for the tweezers.  When I didn’t respond, her hands flew up to rest on her hips, and I flinched, knowing I was in trouble.

Fantastic.  I was batting a thousand today.  Next stop:  pissing off Jasper.  Where were those friggin’ tweezers?  Aha!

I stuck the metal tips into my pocket and whipped around, folding my hands into a pleading gesture and giving Sunny a desperate look as I picked up the phone to dial down to the front desk. 

“Please Sunny!” I begged.  “All I have to do is get him into the bathroom and burn some hairs from Jasper’s tail in there with him.  It’ll be okay, I promise, but I have to get the hairs before he gets here.  Worst case scenario, you just sit with your laptop like you’re taking notes and ask him a few questions about the Goth scene, and I’ll keep feeding him coffee ‘til he has to go!”

She shook her head at me in disbelief.  “Are you delusional?  That is far from the worst case scenario, Syd—more like the
best
case scenario.  And what if you’re wrong?”