Conspiracy of Angels (28 page)

I closed my eyes. I drew a breath.

And I swore.

The words shuddered through me as they were pronounced, none more resonant than the syllables of my Name. The backwash of power stirred a pale strand of Saliriel’s hair that had fallen free of her ponytail. The yellow fire of her eyes flashed, then faded as the last word left my lips.

Sal nodded once, almost imperceptibly, then made her own oath to exempt me from her use of the Eye. Finally, she relaxed her grip on my hand. I peeled my fingers away from the door handle, wincing as a tingling rush of feeling began to return. A moment later, the door flew open with such force, the hinges squealed. Sal neatly side-stepped it, and I danced hastily away.

Wild-eyed, with her red hair streaming, Lil burst into the room.

“What did you do, Zack?” she demanded. “I felt the ripples. That was an oath, wasn’t it?”

Remiel stumbled after her, nursing a fresh cut above his brow.

“Decimus, I’m sorry,” he started.

Sal fell back into character immediately, emitting a world-weary sigh

“I shouldn’t need a full security detail to maintain control over just one woman,” she pronounced.

Lil ignored them both, grabbing for me. She shook the front of my jacket.

“How could you be so stupid?” she said. “What did she make you swear?”

I glanced toward Remy where he lingered in the open doorway. I wasn’t sure what Lil had hit him with, but the fact that it was still bleeding was impressive. There was no sign of the other two security guards, at least not from this vantage point. Lil shook me again, her fingers digging into my leather.

“Zaquiel?” She pronounced my name like it was a threat.

“Get off of me,” I spat. “It wasn’t anything you didn’t already ask.”

Lil opened her mouth to start yelling again, but I shoved her away, pushing past Remy, as well. He gave me a querulous look, but I couldn’t meet his eyes. As I stomped toward the dance floor, I heard the throaty rumble of the lioness, even over the pulse of the electronica. She lay stretched across one of the fallen bouncers, her tail lashing her flanks. He wasn’t moving.

“What the hell, Lil,” I called. “Did you have to kill everyone?”

“Oh, shut up,” she snarled. “I just knocked them out. They shouldn’t have gotten in my way.”

“
Y
ou’re not coming.”

Sal faced off with the Lady of Beasts, arms crossed beneath her augmented D’s. The bouncers had recovered from being thoroughly pounded, and were scrambling to clear the detritus left over from the fight. I leaned against the bullet-scarred bar, trying to escape everyone’s notice. I didn’t want anyone talking to me—it seemed the safest way to hold to the oath.

“Like
hell
I’m not,” Lil hissed.

“I am not bringing a daughter of Lilith on board a Nephilim ship,” Saliriel replied. “It would be considered insulting.”

Daughter of Lilith?
I nearly choked. Suddenly an awful lot about Lil made sense.

“You forget the part where we’re going to kill that sonofabitch,” Lil objected. “Who cares about insults?”

Saliriel’s gaze flicked briefly to me. “Who said anything about killing?” she asked with an imperious lift of her pointed chin. “We’re going to get his side of the story.”

Even Remy sputtered at this statement. “But, Decimus, the photos, the article—all of Zaquiel’s claims—”

“May be nothing more than the delusions of an addled Anakim,” Saliriel replied. “Have you seen any of these jars for yourself? Held them in your hands, to verify what they contain? All I’ve seen is a photo. Photos can be faked,” she added witheringly.

“I know he’s a favored pet of yours, Remiel, but please remember, he’s also claimed that our brother Dorimiel has harnessed cacodaimons to do his bidding. That alone places his credibility in question.”

The rumbling growl of the lioness shivered the air as her fierce mistress stalked up to Sal. With threat vibrating through every molecule, Lil snarled at her.

“Don’t feed me that bullshit, Salvatore. You know something rotten is going on, and you’re hip-deep in it. You’ve known about Dorimiel’s ship this entire time, and yet you said nothing.”

“Oh, please.” Saliriel waved off Lil’s accusations with a lazy flounce of her wrist. “It’s customary for a decimus to announce himself in another’s territory. He was out there for a Halloween party—not really a threat, don’t you agree?” With an ugly sneer, she added, “And you will address me as Saliriel, or I will kill you where you stand.”

Lil’s lips peeled back to show all her teeth.

“Try it.”

The sharp scent of ozone crackled on the air as they locked eyes. Timorously, Remy spoke up.

“She has a point, Decimus.”

Sal whirled on her underling, fury flashing in her inhuman eyes. It was all an act, and I couldn’t even raise my voice to object. I’d given my word.

“You dare to question me, Remiel?” Sal hissed.

Convulsively, he swallowed, dipping his head out of reflex. Even so, the long, thick braid held all his hair, providing him no cover for his conflicted expression. Then he drew upon some hidden well of courage.

“Zaquiel woke up on the shore of the lake,” he said through gritted teeth. “You didn’t think once to mention Dorimiel’s presence on those waters.”

Saliriel went still as a snake stalking a rodent.

“Are you implying that I have some involvement in this?” she asked in quiet tones.

He lifted his eyes to meet hers.

“I knew nothing about the ship.”

“You didn’t need to know,” she snapped.

“Ha!” Lil scoffed. “That’s how much she values you, Remington. Haven’t I been saying it all along?”

Sal was playing an elaborate game of chess, to maneuver her pieces into the positions she wanted, and I was pretty sure she wanted Lil to come along. Except it couldn’t look as if that was her goal. Had she demanded it, Lil would have refused her out of pure spite. I guessed my place in her gambit.

“Let her come,” I said quietly. No lightning bolts struck me as I spoke, so I was on the right track.

“It has a voice,” Sal purred. “Didn’t I put you in your place, Anakim? I showed the courtesy to do it behind closed doors, but if you want me to embarrass you in front of everyone here, please, go on.”

“If there’s nothing to hide and Dorimiel’s not involved,” I responded, “then it costs you nothing to bring Lil along.”

Saliriel pivoted toward me. “On the contrary, it costs me quite a bit,” she replied. “I run the risk of insulting another decimus. I can’t expect you to understand the manners of civilized tribes, but—”

“I’ll vouch for her,” Remy offered.

Both Lil and Sal turned toward him.

He almost faltered beneath the combined weight of their gaze. Then he continued with a quiet fervor.

“I’ll take responsibility for her presence,” he insisted. “If this comes to nothing, then the insult can fall to me. You will remain blameless.”

While Lil gawked openly, Saliriel made a show of considering it. Suddenly someone near the front of the club cleared their throat. The bouncers tensed, then relaxed as a trim woman of medium height stepped into view. She wore a smart pin-striped uniform complete with a chauffeur’s hat.

“The car’s ready,” she announced.

“Thank you, Ava,” Sal said. To NIN guy, she called, “Caleb, you’re coming along. Contact Gerald and Asif and have them meet us at the marina. Ivan, you’re in charge of the work crew here. I want these repairs finished tonight, understood?”

The bruiser in the bowling shirt grunted his acknowledgment.

Abruptly, Lil shoved past and headed toward the chauffeur.

“I’ll be in the car,” she said. “Make my night and try to stop me, Sal.”

Remy’s lips pressed into a fretful line as he tracked her progress across the room. The little redhead strode with purpose, heels clacking smartly on the freshly cleaned tiles. When Saliriel raised no objections, he ducked his head and followed Lil. Sal swept after him, her own heels punctuating each determined step.

“Well?” she called over her shoulder.

Chewing my silence, I brought up the rear.

Beyond the doors waited a sleek stretch limo—gun metal gray and pristinely waxed. The smartly dressed chauffeur held the door, and I squinted at her as I went past. She returned my speculative look, unruffled.

“Bring any zombies this time?” she asked.

I blinked, a little taken aback. After a moment, I placed her. It was Sal’s slave—the one who had managed not to get shot. I fumbled for something to say

“Um, sorry,” I said lamely. “Didn’t recognize you.”

“With clothes, you mean,” she suggested archly. “Guess you weren’t looking at my face, the last time we met.”

Lil snorted. “I like her.”

W
e rode to the marina in silence. Lil, Remy, and I perched tensely across from Sal and her goon Caleb. Everyone avoided eye contact with everyone else. Saliriel made things easy by staring out the heavily tinted windows, watching the cityscape glide by.

Lil’s lioness was stretched across the floorboards at our feet. I could feel her as a warm pressure against my ankles, and if I looked just right, I could see the pale outline of her tawny, muscled form. I almost wanted to ask Lil about the beast, but knew that was a conversation for another day.

The marina was gated. When we approached the guard shack, Saliriel had Ava pull forward so she could roll down her window and speak to the guard herself. The guy at the gatehouse was an older fellow with pockmarked cheeks and a thick, graying mustache. Saliriel greeted him warmly, pitching forward in such a way that he got a lavish view of her enhanced cleavage.

“Sully,” she cooed, pitching her voice a little softer and higher than was usual. “They still have you out here all alone on these chilly nights?”

“Indeed they do, Miss Valkyne,” he responded in a voice rough from years of coffee and cigarettes. At least those were a good bet, considering the stains on his teeth.

He actually doffed his hat for her. It was styled like an old sea captain’s hat, complete with a little ship’s wheel pinned to the front. His whole outfit—or uniform, rather—made him look like the escaped mascot of some obscure seafood restaurant. If he rang a ship’s bell when we left him a tip, it would complete the effect.

“Well, I know it’s late, but I need to go out,” she chirped. “Early meeting.”

Sully consulted a clipboard hung from a nail above his computer.

“Twice in one week? They really got you running around—but important people like you never seem to sleep,” he observed, pretty shamelessly ogling the parts he found most important.

Sal fished something out of her purse, then leaned her cleavage even further toward Sully as she handed over an ID. She also folded a crisp bill of some undoubtedly high denomination beneath the plastic identification card, and let her fingers linger briefly on the guard’s hand.

“Just so we’re official,” she purred.

He had the most besotted grin on his face as he took her ID, punched some numbers into an archaic computer, then handed the glossy little rectangle of plastic back to her. Somewhere in the midst of all that, the money disappeared. Like magic.

“Any time, day or night, Miss Valkyne,” he said, doffing his hat again. “It’s always a pleasure. You be careful on those waters. This late in the season, the lake gets tricky.”

She responded with her most ingratiating smile—managing to hold her lip in just such a way that it covered the tips of her fangs. Not that Sully’s eyes were anywhere near her face.

Once she was done, she rapped on the divider that separated us from the driver. Then she hit the button to roll up her window. The minute the tinted glass slipped back into place, the smile slid from her features and she squared her shoulders again, smoothing the front of her shirt.

“Nicely done,” Lil observed.

Saliriel practically beamed. “To misquote an old associate of ours, ‘You get more with a kind word and a nice rack than you can with just a kind word.’” Nodding politely in Lil’s direction, she added, “I learned a great deal, watching how you operated back then.”

“Good to know you were taking notes.” They faced off with rigid smiles, their expressions mean-girl sweet. Even the bouncer shifted awkwardly in his seat, leaning ever so slightly away from our group. I couldn’t really blame him.

In the tense silence that followed, Remy asked, “What did he mean, second time this week?”

Sal’s smile faltered, but she recovered quickly.

“Oh, that,” she said. “I got restless the other day. I thought a bit of sailing might soothe me.”

As lying went, it was pretty weak.

Another play, then.

“But you didn’t tell me,” Remy objected.

“I don’t answer to you, Remiel,” she replied stiffly.

He pursed his lips, swallowing any further comment, and peered uneasily out the window as the limo pulled around to park. Lil wouldn’t let it drop, though. She lunged forward with an almost hungry look.

“Didn’t expect the gatehouse guy to bring it up, did you?” she taunted. “I knew you gave in too easily. So what’s the real plan?”

“Always so suspicious,” Saliriel said.

“You can change everything about your appearance, Sal, but you can’t change what’s underneath,” Lil pressed. The lioness lifted her head, growling softly as its mistress grew more agitated. The air crackled electrically around the Lady of Beasts and it suddenly felt way too small in the limo. The vehicle came to a stop, but everyone kept sitting on the edge of their seats, each waiting for the other to do something.

Someone rapped their knuckles on the window closest to Saliriel. I jumped, tasting bitter adrenaline—but it was just the driver. A moment later, she opened the door.

“Asif and Gerald are already here, ma’am,” she said, extending a hand and helping Saliriel out. “If it’s all right with you, I’ll head to the
Daisy Fay
and start getting her prepped for open waters.”

“Of course,” Sal responded. “Thank you, Ava.”

I wasn’t waiting a minute longer in the limo, and I sure as hell didn’t need a chauffeur to help me out. I grabbed the door on my side and stepped into the lot. Lil and Remy followed suit. As did the lioness. She chucked her head into the backs of my knees as she went by. It seemed affectionate, but it was still damned creepy.