Against the Dawn (6 page)

“I’ll think about it,” Ty answered slowly. “I’m not making any promises, because in my opinion, it’s too soon for you to be back in the field.”

“It’s been six months,” I argued.

He fixed me with a stare. “Not for you.”

“Would it help if I told you it felt like six months?”

Ty’s lips thinned. “No.”

Ty and I worked well together because we shared a mutual disgust for slimy rat bastards who needed to meet their ends. I didn’t want to go back to freelance work because I’d have no choice but to vet my marks before I took any jobs. Working for the morally bankrupt had its pitfalls. One of those being that they weren’t as discriminating as I was when it came to who deserved to die. Tyler would never take an innocent life. His business was cleaning up the trash, not spreading it around.

“Just think about it, okay?” I didn’t need to go back to work this second. But sooner would be a hell of a lot better than later.

“I will,” he assured me. “But Darian, you don’t have to run at full tilt all the time. It’s okay to take a little time.”

I only had one gear. Like a shark, if I stopped swimming, I was afraid that I’d shut down and die. “I can handle it, Ty.”

“I know you can,” he said, standing. “I just want you to know that you don’t have to. Not alone, anyway.”

His reassuring words put me at ease, made me feel a little less panicked. I was a classic internalizer. I bottled up my feelings and let them ferment to the point that I could no longer contain the pressure. By that point, I’d usually fucked everything up past the point of repair. But as I tried to heal, to learn to live my life with as much normalcy as my supernatural existence would allow, maybe I could learn to lean on those around me a little bit more. It wasn’t weak to ask for help.

It wasn’t.

Tyler looked as though he wasn’t sure if he should stick around or not. The indecision was written all over his face and the way he rubbed at the back of his neck. I knew how he felt. It would take more than a work conversation to settle things between us and there’d be a few more awkward conversations before we buckled and exposed our wounds. Until then, I’d settle for a short visit or three. I’d take any amount of Tyler I was lucky enough to get.

He turned toward the elevator but I wasn’t quite ready for our visit to be over, so I blurted, “Are you in trouble with the Synod?”

Tyler paused, back turned to me. “How do you know about the Synod?”

Did it matter? How did he know about Lorik? “They’re your ruling body, right?” Adira mentioned the Synod during our last conversation before we’d gone our separate ways. Like Ty, Adira was a Jinn and subject to the laws that governed their bonds. Her bond with Kade—a Cambion who could steal her power—had broken their rules and she’d been called to face them for the violation. “Adira was in trouble for binding herself to Kade. Did they punish you for helping her?”

“Adira shouldn’t have said anything to you about that,” Ty remarked, turning to face me. His expression was grim, his eyes, guarded. “You shouldn’t worry about the Synod, Darian. I don’t. They’re just a bunch of overinflated blowhard politicians.”

He was deflecting, but I wasn’t going to press him. I was simply opening a door for further discussion. “Okay. But I want you to know that if you need anything…”

“I know,” he said with a sad smile. “But seriously, I’m okay.”

“All right.” He turned again, obviously ready to get the hell out of there. I wasn’t quite done with him yet, though. “What’s
Nys’asdar
?” The Synod took a back seat to my curiosity over my ring. Adira had given it the strange name and it freaked her out to see it on my thumb. She’d warned me that Ty had done a very foolish thing to give it to me. Something that would land him in some serious hot water with the mysterious Jinn council.

This time, Ty didn’t turn to face me. “Adira should learn to mind her own business.
Nys’asdar
is a myth, Darian, and Adira is apparently superstitious. It’s nothing for you to worry about.”

“Are you sure about that, Ty?” I made sure that my tone conveyed my skepticism. “Because whatever it is, Adira seems to think that I have it and that it could get you into a lot of trouble.”

Over the past year, there’d been a couple of times I’d considered removing the ring from my thumb. And each time, I’d felt as though the ring itself refused to budge past my knuckle.

“I’m sure,” Tyler said as he headed for the elevator. He could have simply popped in and out of thin air and it always amused me that he chose to travel on the power of his own two feet. Ty had a tendency to downplay his power. And it was something that both piqued my curiosity and worried me. “The Synod is nothing for you to worry about and neither is
Nys’asdar
. Adira shouldn’t have caused you any more stress or trouble. I’m sorry for that.”

Without another word, he hit the button and the elevator disappeared into the floor. He’d shut me down, but that didn’t mean I was letting this go. Besides Tyler, Adira was the only Jinn I’d ever met. And since she wasn’t bound to me, it’s not like I could wish her out of thin air. I had no idea how to contact her. So, until Ty was ready to open up and tell me what the hell this thing I wore on my thumb actually was, I’d have to hope that it wouldn’t get us both into any trouble.

Because god knew, our plates were full enough already.

Chapter Five

I couldn’t remember a time when I’d been so damned bored. A week had passed and I’d spent the entire time on my couch, catching up on re-runs of Dance Moms—I’m a sucker for reality TV conflict—and chowing down on my new food obsession, peanut butter Cheerios. Seriously, where had these delicious little O’s been all my life? My only company to date was the delivery service Xander had hired to keep my apartment full of fresh flowers and a couple of missionaries who were looking to spread the good news. It said a lot about my current state that I actually invited them up for a chat.

Unable to stand the solitude for another second, I decided to head over to The Pit. As I exchanged a few pleasant words with the bouncer, a giant of a human called Tiny, I reflected that it might be a good idea to spread my social wings a bit and try some of Seattle’s other popular night spots. But ultimately, I was a creature of habit and I just didn’t have it in me to be adventurous tonight.

Levi was standing behind the bar, a welcome sight if I ever saw one. I was planning to grill him—not to mention pay a hefty sum—for a little info on
Nys’asdar
and the Synod, but tonight wasn’t the night for that. I had to play this close to the hip and time my questions just right.

“Hey, Darian.” Levi flashed his cover model smile as I approached the bar. “Long time, no see.”

“How’ve you been?” I had no interest in discussing the reasons behind my recent absence and likewise, I didn’t want to have to guess how much Levi knew about it, either. Small talk was about all I was capable of at this point, and I wasn’t even very good at that.

“Not too shabby,” Levi responded as he slid a neon blue drink across the bar toward me. The first one was always on the house and I had a sneaking suspicion that Levi used me as his cocktail Guiney pig. “You?”

“Same,” I responded as I raised my glass in a silent toast. The sweet frou-frou drink tasted of coconut and other tropical flavors. Not bad, but I didn’t think I’d be able to drink more than one. “Anything going on?”

It was a loaded question and Levi gave me a sly smile. “There’s always something going on, isn’t there?”

I tilted my head to one side and regarded him. “What sort of bartender doesn’t share the latest juicy gossip?”

“The trustworthy sort.”

“Touché.” And point taken. Levi’s and my relationship centered around me giving him large sums of cash and him ponying up info on the supernatural world. The last time we’d talked, he refused my money because divulging any information about the Jinn made him a little more than nervous. Add to the fact that he’d hooked me up with the witch who’d cast a glamour on me to fool Kade, and I had a feeling that our friendship was going to be limited to the exchange of simple pleasantries for a while. Damn.

From the corner of my eye, I noticed a sleek, dark form making a bee-line for me. I wasn’t surprised to see Lorik, he’d said he wasn’t through courting me yet, but what I found odd was the fact that I sensed absolutely nothing extraordinary about him. I could sense the otherness of supernatural creatures as a physical thing be it a tingle, vibration, or a sudden flush of warmth or chill. But Lorik was as mundane as any other human in the bar, completely void of anything that might trigger my extrasensory awareness of him. Strange.

“Your friends must be dropping like flies,” Lorik mused as he sidled up next to me at the bar. “Another funeral?”

I looked down at my black t-shirt and shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a slob and the enchilada sauce I spilled at lunch doesn’t show as bad on black.”

Lorik laughed and leaned in close. “Let’s go somewhere with a little more personality.”

What in the hell was he talking about? The Pit was overflowing with personality. “I like it here.”

“Suit yourself.”

Levi watched us from the far end of the bar, his gaze alternating from the doorway to me and back again. I caught a shock of coppery curls near the entrance and something inside of me uncoiled and relaxed. It wasn’t until I caught sight of Tyler that I realized just how tense I was in Lorik’s presence. “Let’s get a table,” I suggested and led the way to the back corner of the bar.

“I don’t want to sit and brood,” Lorik complained as he followed behind me. “You’re no fun anymore, Darian. What happened to you? This place is a bore and sulking at your table is a bore, and if you don’t watch out, you’ll bore me as well. I don’t have patience for uninteresting things.”

Can you say broken record? Blah, blah, bored. Blah, blah, uninteresting. Blah, blah, entertain me. One thing hadn’t changed over the course of a century. Lorik was still a whiny, spoiled brat. “Well, if you want to hang out with me, you’re going to have to humor me.”

Lorik shrugged and plopped down in a seat at my usual table. From my vantage point, I had a full view of the bar, as well as Tyler who was chatting up Levi as though he had no clue I was sitting thirty or so feet away. He was taking his promise to keep me safe pretty seriously and I wasn’t about to complain.

“Have you reconsidered my offer of employment yet?” Lorik propped his feet up on the chair beside mine and lounged back, arms crossed at his chest. “Because I’ve got a couple of prospects brewing. I might even take a meeting or two next week and I’d like to have you there. Not that I can’t take care of myself, mind you. I just like to put on a good show.”

When I’d starting killing for money, most of my employers hired me for the novelty. Let’s face it: not a lot of female assassins passing out business cards in the nineteen-thirties. And though women in my profession weren’t coming out of the woodwork, we weren’t exactly a minority anymore. Surely Lorik could think up a more convincing reason to put me on his payroll.

I glanced toward the bar to find Levi looking at me. He quickly turned his attention elsewhere, his head bent close to Ty’s as they shared some private conversation. Levi waved down one of the cocktail waitresses who promptly took up his place at the bar while he and Tyler disappeared behind a door that led to what I assumed was an office or storeroom. Interesting.

The DJ was spinning dance mixes tonight and Lorik bobbed his head in time with the beat. When a new song began, his eyes lit with recognition and he leaned forward in his seat and said, “I saw Avicii at a private party in Prague last year. Amazing. Let’s dance!”

I pressed my booted feet into the floor as if I could somehow anchor myself there. No way was I setting foot past my table. “I’m good. You go ahead.”

He rolled his eyes and shot up out of his seat, backing away from me as he displayed his dance moves in a silly mockery of dubstep style that caused the laughter to bubble up through my chest. Lorik was a walking parody. And his lightheartedness could be such a contradiction to the ruthless bastard he became the second crossed him. Into the crowd he went, swallowed up by the press of bodies with a wide, seductive grin on his face. My own cheeks ached from the amusement and I wondered how long had it been since I’d actually let loose or felt carefree. Decades at the very least. But no matter how much I wanted feel unburdened, I wasn’t going anywhere near that dance floor.

“Dance with me?” Lorik’s dark eyes were glazed over and he swayed on his feet, a little too drunk to walk a straight line. The jazz band in the speakeasy was winding down for the night, but Lorik wasn’t about to quit moving until they packed up their instruments. Tonight marked night number three of his bender and Azriel and I were doing everything we could to keep the young gangster out of trouble. His father paid us a ransom for our services and if that meant babysitting his progeny, then so be it.

“Humor him, Darian,” Azriel said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “He won’t shut up until you do. Besides, he’ll drag us somewhere else if you don’t tire him out here and now. I want to go home.”