Kissed by Ice (15 page)

"So," he said, clearing his throat. "I guess you know."

"Do I?" I glanced back down at the book. I still wasn't entirely sure I wasn't still asleep on the plane somewhere. "Is it true?"

He shrugged as he placed the tea things on the counter, rattling the teacups slightly. "I rather suppose it is."

I blinked. I took a deep breath. "That means you're one of those they called the Titans. You were here even before the gods."

"Yes, that's true," Eddie said, busying himself with the tea. "Sugar?"

I nodded, and he tossed a couple lumps of raw sugar into my teacup, followed by a splash of real cream. He swirled it around carefully before handing me the cup.

"Does it matter?" His tone was very careful.

"That you're an all-powerful being who can command the obedience of gods? That you're as ancient as the world itself, maybe even more so?" I thought about it for a moment. I couldn't seem to take it in. It was too big. Too much. It was so much easier to think of him as an eccentric man with a penchant for things Victorian. "I guess not. You're still my friend, right?"

He beamed at me, that wide grin that was full of sunshine. "Of course, Morgan. Always."

"I wish you'd told me. You know all about me. Don't you trust me?"

His smile faded, and his face fell. He looked more hang-dog than cherubic. "You are right, my dear. But I simply did not know how to tell you such a thing. How does one tell one's friend that one is…"

"Literally older than the hills?"

That startled a laugh out of him. "Indeed."

"Yeah, I guess that's a tough one." I gave him a wide grin and slammed the book shut. "Well, now I know, and all that matters is that you're my friend. You have any biscuits to go with that tea?"

Eddie snorted. "You and your British-ism's," he chuckled, handing me a plate of cookies. I could almost feel the relief radiating from him. How odd that possibly one of the most powerful creatures in the world cared what I thought of him. "Now, shall we have a look and see if the book is willing to talk about other things more important to the immediate future?"

"Sure. Let's give it a try." I bit into the tea biscuit, enjoying the sweet taste of vanilla.

I flipped open the book again. This time I focused on Alister and the key to the Key. The sentient book riffled through its pages once again, this time landing on a page covered with images in rich jewel tones. Across the top in swirly silver ink highlighted with turquoise and aqua was written the word "grimoire."

"All right," I said. "This is interesting. According to this, the key to the Key isn't just some ordinary old book. Holy crap…" I read it again to make sure. "Does that say what I think it does?"

He adjusted his spectacles and peered down at the page. "Oh, my. This says it's a relic of the Atlantean Empire."

"Atlantis?" I practically squeaked. "It's really Atlantean? Not just written in their language?"

"Not at all. It's actually from Atlantis. That isn't the most important part," Eddie said, reading further. "The Atlantean book is a sort of Book of Shadows, if you will. A grimoire of various spells and such performed by the High Priests. Though perhaps 'spells' are the wrong word seeing as how we're dealing with quantum physics here. The ancients did not refer to it as magic, as we do…."

I scanned the page quickly, noting the book was original, not a copy or translation. It was the real deal. Written by the High Priest of Atlantis himself over ten thousand years ago. A relic of the lost Atlantean empire. Holy amazeballs.

"Look," I said, tapping the page. "This says there is something in the grimoire. Spell or whatever you want to call it. Something that would allow whoever uses it to control not just vampires but any creature: humans, djinn, even the Queen of the Sidhe herself."

"Oh, Hades." Eddie had an interesting way of swearing.

"Exactly," I agreed. "Can you imagine if Alister figures out how to perform that spell?"

"All hell would break loose, quite literally."

"I don't suppose the book says where to find this grimoire?"

We both perused the page, groaning as the answer became clear. No such luck. The book said nothing about where the grimoire was located at that exact moment. Nothing about Alister or his plans. Nothing of any use at all.

"Damn." I had hoped for more.

"I couldn't have said it better myself," Eddie said, selecting a cookie from the plate. He held up the teapot. "More tea?" he asked before sloshing coppery liquid into my cup.

I thanked him and dropped in another lump of sugar. There was nothing else we could do right now, so why not have tea?

"Well, Jack is still looking for leads," I said, taking a sip of the biscuity goodness. I'm more of a coffee person, but I do love a good Assam. "Maybe he'll come up with something."

"We can only hope," Eddie said, clinking his cup against mine. "If we don't get hold of that book soon, very bad things could happen. And there will be nothing I or anyone else can do to stop them." His tone was beyond grim.

He wasn't kidding. If what we had discovered about the grimoire was correct, Alister could use it to wreak all kinds of havoc. We had to stop him before it was too late for everyone.

# # #

After I left Eddie's, I stopped by the office to let Kabita know I was in town, and the results of our consulting the sentient book. She was sitting behind her desk, calmly sharpening one of her many blades. She took the news of Eddie's true nature surprisingly well. But then that was Kabita for you. She took everything surprisingly well. For all I knew, she'd known who he was long before I had. She was sneaky like that.

"Have you heard from Jack?" She asked, as if that were somehow more important than the fact that one of our dear friends was an ancient Titan masquerading as an ordinary human obsessed with steampunk

"Nope," I said. "Not since Scotland. I've tried calling him a couple times, but he doesn't answer. Talk about worst Guardian ever."

That made her chuckle. "No kidding. So we've got no leads on Alister's location."

"Not a one." I paused. "Unless…"

"Yes?" She glanced up from her whetstone.

"Unless," I said. "What about Jade?"

"What about Jade?" Kabita asked, laying the stone on her desk and carefully sliding her knife back into its sheath. "You're not seriously thinking of consulting that freak are you?"

"Watch who you're calling a freak," I said. "She's not that different than me."

"You're kidding, right? That girl is as different from you as night from day. For one thing, she's mad as a March hare. For another she's completely homicidal."

"It's not her fault she's crazy and homicidal," I reminded her. "Darroch and the freaking Fairy Queen messed with her brain. There's no way of knowing what she would have been if they hadn't screwed things up. There's no telling what I would have been if someone had done the same to me. I lucked out. You found me first."

That was the real question. Who was the monster here? The girl who'd had magic screw with her brain? Or the one who just naturally liked to kill things? Granted it was the Darkness that enjoyed the killing, not me. But the Darkness was part of me, and that I couldn't change even if I wanted to. Did that mean I was a monster?

"You're nothing like her, Morgan." Kabita shook her head. "Anyway, what makes you think she can help? She's been locked up for months. She's had no contact with Alister. She couldn't possibly know where he is any more than I do."

Gods, it must suck to find out your father was a bigger bastard than you could have ever imagined. "Jade spent a lot of time with him at one point. Maybe she knows something, someplace he likes to go. Somewhere that's important to him. Maybe he told her about his plans. I need to try. I have to talk to her. We can't leave any stone unturned. This is far too important."

Kabita shook her head. "Fine. But don't blame me if she tries to shank you."

"Trevor will be there to protect me." I couldn't help the sarcasm.

She snorted and started shuffling through a stack of paperwork. As I left the office, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and called Trevor. If I was going to talk to Jade, I was going to need his help.

Chapter Sixteen

For the second time in as many months, I found myself bouncing over the rough terrain of the Nevada desert. The road, if it could be called that, seriously needed a new pave job, although I doubted the government would let any road workers near the place. They probably had more than enough gossip to deal with as it was without a road crew telling tales of an escaped vampire snacking on their boss. Made the alien conspiracy seem like small potatoes.

I glanced at Trevor, who was unusually stoic, hiding behind dark tinted glasses. "Thanks for this," I said. "I know you had to pull a lot of strings to get me in again."

"You have no idea." He gave me a sideways glance. "The things I do for you."

"That's what family's for. Right?"

I could almost see him rolling his eyes at me. "My life was so simple before you came along," he said, but I could hear the affection in his voice. Before I'd come along, we'd both been alone. Only children without a father. Our father was still dead, but now we had each other.

"Oh, sure, it was," I said. "Probably spent all your time down at the pub. Nothing to do, nothing to see. No demons to fight or crazy-ass sidhe to throw in jail. Poor man, your life was so dull without me."

"Don't make me drop you off in the middle of the desert."

I laughed. "I'd like to see you try."

"Don't tempt me." I could see the slightest hint of a grin curving his lips.

"You and whose army? No wonder they haven't given you a new partner yet."

A muscle ticked in his jaw, and I could have kicked myself. His partner had been murdered by the Fairy Queen's psycho brother. Trevor had been understandably upset and had asked me to help him find the killer. I'd always wondered if the two had been more than just work partners. But I hadn't asked. I figured if they had been, and he'd wanted me to know about it, Trevor would have told me. Since he hadn't, it was none of my damn business.

"Sorry," I muttered. "I didn't mean…"

"What's the plan?" he interrupted. He stared straight ahead, tapping his thumb on the steering wheel. Okay, subject change.

"We walk in. I ask Jade if she knows where Alister is. We get our answer. We walk out. Easy is that."

"You think it's gonna be that easy, huh?"

I shrugged. "Maybe. She seemed to be a little more forthcoming last time we saw her. I think she's finally figuring out Alister and Darroch aren't exactly on her side. Those two have been using her for their own purposes for a long time. Maybe she's finally ready to stand up for herself. Take control of her life." Jade might be a killer, but it was the three amigos who'd turned her into one. I couldn't wait to get my hands on them.

"And you think she's gonna do that by helping us?"

"We can only hope."

The car slid to a stop in front of the first checkpoint. It was a simple aluminum-sided building painted a boring cream and surrounded by a whole lot of chain-link fencing and razor wire. Trevor rolled down the window. The heat was oppressive. It hit me like a blast furnace as a face appeared at the window. I recognized the guard from my last visit. He peered into the car, face impassive as he scanned each of us carefully. "Mr. Daly. Ms. Bailey. I was told to expect you. Please proceed to the next gate." He stood back and waved us forward. It didn't make me feel very confident that he still had his gun ready.

With a small salute, Trevor continued down the gravel road. Dust kicked up behind us in a billowing cloud. All around us, as far as the eye could see, was baked earth and dusty sagebrush. This was not a place I would choose to vacation.

The second checkpoint was almost as quick and soon we were making our way down the hill to the large parking lot that surrounded Area 51. As Trevor and I climbed out of the car, it felt as if the heat and dry air were sucking the moisture from my lungs. I could almost feel my skin cracking as we approached the concrete building that housed the underground prison for the compound's more interesting inmates. I breathed a sigh of relief as we passed into the cool darkness of the entryway. I didn't even mind the pat-down from the big, burly woman who looked like she could break me in half with two fingers. I bet she could bench press a car if she had a mind to. I gave her a big smile when she was done, which she totally ignored. Instead she waved me over to join Trevor before stomping off down the hall.

We didn't have long to wait for our escort to join us. I remembered him from our first visit. The over-eager young Roberts with the wide eyes and freckled nose. He greeted us enthusiastically as he ushered us toward the bank of shiny elevators.

"Don't worry," he said. "I'm quite sure this time there won't be a jailbreak."

He was no doubt right since Brent Darroch no longer resided inside Area 51. According to Trevor, he'd been sent somewhere a whole lot worse and a whole lot more secure. Since Area 51 was about as secure as they came, I was guessing Antarctica. Served him right.

We stepped into the elevator, and Roberts pushed one of the numerous unlabeled buttons. The doors slid shut with a small ding, and the elevator began to descend much faster than I would've liked. It came to a stop with a small bounce, leaving my stomach somewhere in the vicinity of my throat. I swallowed hard, willing the bile back into place.

"Here we are," Roberts said cheerfully, ushering us from the elevator car. "We've got a room reserved for you. Don't worry, she'll be chained so she can't get to you. She's been pretty calm lately, though. Reading a lot of poetry, and meditating and stuff." He shook his head as if to say he'd seen everything.

He let us down the hall to a gray door marked with the number six in red paint. Swinging it open, he waved us inside. "The prisoner will be here any moment. Can I get you anything? Coffee? Water? Cola?"

"Thanks, Roberts. We're fine," Trevor said, giving the young man a tight smile. "We'll take it from here."