Devil Inside (47 page)

“I got a replacement.”  He pulled out his large, bone-handled hunting knife.  He let the light hit the silver blade and it glinted off wickedly.

“Fine then,” she shrugged good naturedly.  “Give me my blade back.  That’s a nice piece,” she nodded towards his new knife.

“Thanks.  So, what is the long story?” Castor asked her.

Harley took a deep breath.  “I don’t think I can go into it today.  Can I tell you another day?”

Castor looked at her for several long moments.  The look her gave her was unreadable but it made her squirm and her Nocte perk up again.  “OK,” he said finally.  “But apparently you are looking for Cutter, right?”

Harley looked at him warily.  “Yes.”

“I’ve heard of Cutter.  He is a nasty, nasty piece of work.”

“Yeah, I know.”  Harley answered dryly but didn’t elaborate.

Castor took a deep breath.  “Whatever it is, you should probably let it go.”

Harley didn’t respond.  She wasn’t going to get into an argument about it.  Not now.  She didn’t have the energy for it.  Not to mention the fact that she didn’t need to justify herself to Castor.  She was sure that he was going to give her the whole “revenge won’t solve anything speech” so she brushed away his concern.

By the time they had recovered and made certain the fires from the Ignis weren’t going to burn down the whole building, night had begun to fall.

“Shit!” Castor said looking out the window.   Harley joined him.

“Well, it’s not completely dark…”

“Dark enough that I already feel it.”

Harley chuckled.  “Aw, don’t worry.  I can walk you home.”

Castor scowled at her.   “I drove here.  I don’t need an escort home.”  But Harley could see his eyes drooping and hear his words beginning to slur.

“Mm hmm.”  She rolled her eyes at him.  “I’ll at least walk you to your car then.”  Castor clenched his jaw but didn’t argue.

Nearly a week later Harley found herself watching the Queens warehouse that the Ignis had told her Cutter did business from.  The warehouse looked like it was usually used for storage of some kind.  She could tell from outside the building exactly what was being housed there—but she was sure it wasn’t stuffed animals and candy.  She had been watching the place at different times throughout the night from several blocks away.  She had seen a lot of Burners coming and going but had yet to see Cutter.  She didn’t bother the Burners that she saw come and go.  Instead, she waited for Cutter.  If she moved too soon and tried attacking or interrogating lesser Ignis, word might get back to Cutter and he would never return here.  Then she would be back to square one.

Harley was moving along the rooftop of one of the buildings that she hadn’t used as a lookout yet, it was located about a block away from the warehouse.  Suddenly, her Nocte picked up on a familiar scent. 
Castor
.  She knew right away that he wasn’t here.  It was dark.  And besides, the smell was old and lingering but it still maintained the warmth that his smell always had.   The faint scent of the Lux threw her off focus and she comically spun in a circle trying to figure out where the smell was coming from.  Feeling very canine like, Harley followed her nose to a small electrical alcove that served the building.  In between two hulking metal contraptions that she didn’t know the purpose of, Harley found the source of the scent.  It was so strong he had to have rubbed himself all over the metal machines fairly recently.  Either he was trying to rub a layer of skin off or he had been trying to get her attention.  She put a hand over her mouth to stop the laugh that threatened to bubble out at the mental image of him rubbing himself all over the metal contraptions.

Harley studied the metal walls trying to figure out what he had been doing. 
Why was he even here?
  Finally, she found what she didn’t even know she had been looking for.  A phone number was written at the bottom of the larger of the two machines.  She crouched down.  The writing was fresh.  She would guess it was about as fresh as the scent that Castor had left.  She shook her head and laughed. 
Very creative, Cas
.  She put the number in her phone and found a good spot from which to watch the warehouse. 

Harley wished her ability to sense supernatural creatures was fine tuned enough to hunt for particular signatures.  She couldn’t distinguish between them other than Nocte, Lux and Ignis.  Sometimes, if the difference was drastic enough, she could differentiate between strength—but that was the limit.  Otherwise, she would have been able to save herself from sitting on top of a building for the past week hoping Cutter would show himself.  She figured that this was the easiest way to find him instead of checking every Ignis buzz she came across.

Harley hadn’t talked to Castor since the night at the apartment.  She hadn’t been avoiding him; she had just been too focused on finding Cutter.   It seemed that when faced with the decision between sex and revenge, her Nocte could stick to what was most important.  She hadn’t pressured Harley to find Castor all week.   She did, indeed, like Castor more than she should really—
Is that true though?  Was there actually a limit that she should place on her desire for someone else?
—but she knew that the main focus needed to be finding Cutter. 
And the Rogue
, her Nocte reminded her.  Regardless, she could keep the Lux out of her head—he kept drifting back in when she least expected it.  Harley laughed at herself and continued to watch the warehouse for several more hours.  Five Ignis came and went during that time but none of them were Cutter.

Harley was about to give up searching for Cutter at night and start watching for him during the day.  If he didn’t know yet that she was the one not affected by the light then maybe he was trying to avoid her by staying in the sun.  The night was usually better to deal in nefarious business, but self-preservation would override that, Harley was sure.  Finally, she decided to give up on the warehouse for the night.  She wanted to at least hunt one Ignis tonight before she went home.  Even though she was spending most of her time watching for Cutter, she always tried to hunt down at least one Burner each night.  If not she would feel guilty, as if she was abandoning her duties.

Harley made it home just after dawn.  Harley’s body was sore and stiff and she was ready to rest.  The Burner she had made her night’s kill had put up a tremendous struggle and Harley had been caught off guard.  She hadn’t come across as many female Ignis as she had male—but when she did they were vicious.  They fought like wild animals and Harley had the healing scratches down her face and neck to prove it.  Harley hadn’t even had a chance to feed off the Burner.  She considered herself lucky to have managed to kill her at all.

Harley quickly showered washing off the blood and the grime from the city.  Sitting on the edge of the bed she pulled out her phone and called Castor. 
At least I hope its Castor and not some random person’s number
.  She was relieved when Castor’s familiar voice answered after two rings.

“Hello,” he sounded expectant but cautious.  It was early for him, but he sounded alert.

“Nice message,” Harley said with a small laugh.

“Wow, that actually worked?”

“Obviously.  That building reeked of you.”

“Which building?”

“Uh, the brown, five-story one?” 
How many buildings did he rub himself on
?

“Good lord.  I was there two days ago.  You could still smell me after two days?”

“Well, yeah…I guess you just smell that bad,” she joked.

“Ha. Ha. Ha,” he said dryly.

“So did you just want to have some girl talk?  Or was there a reason for the smell-o-gram?”

“I need to see you.”

“I get that a lot.  You’re a great guy and all, but I’m just not looking for a relationship right now.”

“Could you be serious for five minutes?”

“Maybe.  Spit out whatever it is that you need.”

“I have information about the Burner you are looking for.”

Harley’s blood turned cold and her Nocte, who had been settling down to sleep, perked up again.  “What do you know?”

“I’ll tell you in person.  Will you be out during the day at all today?”

Harley sighed.  “I hadn’t planned on it.  I just got home.  I’ll make it happen though.  Where do you want to meet?”

“Remember the café from last week?”

“Yes.  I can meet you there.”

“OK.  I’ll be there two hours before sunset.”

“See you then.”  Harley hung up the phone and flopped back on the bed.  As excited as she was to get closer to finding Cutter, she was exhausted and she was asleep in no time.

_________________

Harley’s alarm woke her a few hours before sunset.  She groggily climbed out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom.  She hadn’t been getting enough sleep and it was beginning to wear on her.  Harley realized that she would need to feed again soon to feel normal.  She pulled her hair into a ponytail and dressed in a tee-shirt, jeans, boots and a light hooded jacket to hide her Bowie.  Stepping into the sun she had to quickly put on her sunglasses and resisted the urge to pull the hood over her head as well.  Her Nocte grumbled angrily about the sun.  She was less pleased than normal to be out in the daylight.  Apparently, she was feeling the lack of sleep as well.

It didn’t take Harley long to reach the café.  She found Castor sitting at the same table he had been at before.  There was already a coffee waiting for her when she sat down and she had to resist the urge to kiss Castor out of sheer gratitude.  She immediately took a gulp of the hot coffee before she even spoke.

“Good evening,” Castor laughed at her, watching her wince as the hot liquid burned her tongue and throat.

“This had better be good,” she glared at him from behind the dark glasses.

Castor watched her for a minute.  His eyes glowed as they had when he had watched her feed.  The green faded so much that they were almost as white as the rest of his eyes.  The look raised the hair on her arms and caused her heart to pound.  She knew the intensity of her look was evident even behind the sunglasses. She knew he must be feeling the same heated connection that she did but she forced herself to shake it off with a shutter.

“I have been doing some research and some interrogating on my own,” he said, finally breaking away and taking a drink of his coffee.  Harley waited for him to continue.  “Cutter is currently working on a drug deal.  A major one.  It involves meth and bath salts—lots of it”

Harley let him continue.  Her heart began to beat faster.  Her Nocte was trying to ignore the sun and pay full attention.  “How did you find this out?”

Castor hesitated.  “This is privileged information,” he cautioned.

“Yes, yes.  I get that, go on.”

“The Vigilum have been investigating the—what did you call it?  The Rogue?  It seems that one of the commonalities that we have discovered between the murders is drug use.  That’s what our focus has been on.  That’s how we came across the Rogue to begin with.  Specifically, there is a connection between the murders and meth and salts.  Any of the places where the Rogue murders have taken place seem to come with an increase in the use of those drugs in the area.  We have gotten hold of some samples and the compositions of the drugs are the same  The same formulas as being distributed in the same areas where the Rogue has been.”

Harley mulled this over.  “So do you think the Rogue is dealing in drugs?  That these murders are all tied to drugs?”  Harley and the other Nocte had pretty much discounted the murders as being drug motivated.  But it didn’t hurt to get an outside opinion.

“No.  We don’t think so.  They aren’t your normal drug casualties.  I caught an Ignis a couple of days ago that was running errands for Cutter.  He wouldn’t talk much but I overheard some of his phone conversation before I confronted him.  He said that he had just delivered the last shipment to Cutter.  I couldn’t get anything out of him before I killed him.”

Harley wondered how hard he had tried to get information out of the Ignis.  He didn’t seem to have the same taste for hard interrogations as she did.  “So do you think Cutter is the Rogue?”

“No,” Castor answered quickly.  “I think Cutter is just involved with drugs and has some connection to what is going on with the Rogue.

“What makes you think that?”

“It just seems too…obvious?  If the murderer was Cutter it would be too easy wouldn’t it.

Harley nodded thoughtfully.  “Yeah, you are right.  I don’t think Cutter is the Rogue either.  The timing just isn’t right.”

“How so?”

“Well, Cutter is here, right?  In New York? And he has been for a while.”

“Right.”

“Well, the Praesidio is pretty sure the Rogue is in, or was recently in, Italy.

“What makes you think that?” Castor asked.

Harley only hesitated a moment.  “That’s where Levi just was.  He followed a solid lead there.”  Castor only nodded at that information.  Harley knew without having to ask that he wouldn’t repeat the information she had just given.  “Have you included drug activity in Kentucky in your investigation?”

“Kentucky?”