EdgeofEcstasy (2 page)

With her senses heightened and her innate talent for
discovering things hidden within a situation, Melissa had soon realized that the
essences she could detect were unnatural, an abomination. And vastly
contradictory. Her stomach had rolled then, as it did now, reliving it in the
shower.

Wobbling, deeply worried that she was about to vomit
again—as she had in Falconn’s toilet back when she had insisted on viewing his
body—Melissa once again pushed the memory to the back of her mind. The problem
of the conflicting essences seemingly stitched somehow together gnawed on her—a
knotty problem she didn’t have the first idea how to solve.

And yet solve it she must. Melissa would not have any peace
if she could not bring Falconn’s murderer to justice, if she could not gain
some balancing of the scales for herself. The feeling was akin to vengeance,
but not precisely the same thing. She did not want the murderer to suffer, or
be tormented eternally, she simply wanted them dead. Dead as her much-loved
friend was.

Shaking, Melissa closed her eyes, knowing that she was all
cried out. There were no more tears left in her for Falconn. Her grief hadn’t
diminished in the least, the wound still raw. But exhaustion beat at her,
drained some of the overpowering emotions. She suspected in part her tiredness
suppressed some of her physical reactions. Melissa breathed deeply of the
cleansing steam and pulled herself together, sniffing only a few times to keep
her fresh tears at bay.

“I’ll find them, Falconn. I’ll find them, gut them and let
their blood spill over the earth until they’re drained dry, never to return. If
necessary I will burn every fiber of their beings so their magic can never
taint and harm another living soul. This I promise to you, old friend.”

Melissa half-choked a tiny laugh-cry. She could almost see
Falconn grinning cockily at her, tilting his head to the side, hear him murmuring
ghost-like in her ear, “’Course you will, Mel my love—you’re a badass. The
biggest damn badass that ever there was. Dangerous, sexy and as hot as sin. Go
get ’em for me, love.”

So vividly could she picture her best friend that it nearly
brought her to her knees again. How many times had he teased her so? How many
times had she punched his shoulder for taunting her about her good looks hiding
her lethal skills? It had become second nature to expect such comments from
him. And now she would have given anything for Falconn to let himself into her
apartment with his keys and jibe her so.

She missed him. She missed Falconn like a never-ending ache
in her heart.

Melissa drew one last deep breath, ran her hands over her
wet body and slicked water over her skin. With her resolve firmed, she sharply
turned off the faucets and wrung her hair dry before sloughing the water one
last time from her limbs and flat belly.

Melissa stepped from the shower stall and reached for the
thick, fluffy blue towel hanging on the rail. She quickly wrapped her mid-back
blonde tresses in the towel and twisted it into a makeshift turban. She grabbed
a second towel and dried her body in sharp, economical motions as her brain
chewed over the nugget she had been toying with for almost a day now.

She trusted Aiden and Kelly implicitly. Aiden, with his
fiery temper, fierce loyalty and unswerving stubbornness, was the closest thing
to a brother she had ever had. But Kelly—Kelly was a thief, a woman and also a
trusted friend.

More importantly, Kelly currently owed her a favor.

A short time before Melissa had run down numerous leads and
tapped sources for Kelly as she and her lover had worked on researching and tracking
down an antidote to a now-obsolete drug that had been called Jolt. While
nothing Melissa had come up with had ultimately been useful, Kelly had
acknowledged the favor owed and her willingness to repay in whatever manner she
could.

Better still, Kelly’s lover Matthias was a contract Tracker
for the Enforcers. Kelly and Matt now worked as a team in a mingled crew of
Enforcers and human Police officers. Kelly and her best friend Liv would be
able to help Melissa.

While she trusted Kelly fully and knew that Liv could be
counted upon to support Kelly one hundred percent, Melissa knew next to nothing
about Matt, or Liv’s lover Julian. That was the unknown factor that had caused
her earlier hesitation. She had met Matt once, and thought favorably of him,
but she had not met Julian at all and until now had been unwilling to unburden
herself to someone she only had faint initial impressions of.

Any hint of a trail left behind by this monster would grow
steadily colder the longer she let this draw out. Melissa knew that the more
time she allowed to pass, the harder it would be to find anything new and the
less likely she would be to discover anything worthwhile. She needed to make
progress, and soon. Deep in her soul she did not want to expose herself, her pain
or her concerns to a virtual stranger. She trusted Kelly, though, and sooner or
later she would need to act on faith or lose everything she had on this
steadily stagnating case.

Melissa decided it would be smarter to trust her friend and
make an attempt to bring Falconn’s killer to justice even if it was
uncomfortable for her than to continue to beat her head against the proverbial
brick wall.

Melissa got dressed, finished drying her hair and picked up
her bedroom landline phone. Modern technology worked notoriously poorly around
wizards. While she did own a laptop, she went to great lengths to protect it
from stray currents of her magic. She routinely kept it powered off at the
bottom of her closet in an industrial-strength carry case. Melissa backed up the
hard drive in triplicate every time she used it.

She owned a cell phone but almost never used it. The damn
instruments rarely lasted for longer than a fortnight with her powerful magic
pulsing around them and screwing with their inner chips and circuits.

Landlines and more old-fashioned devices were better for
longevity—all witches and wizards knew that. When Melissa only got Kelly’s
answering machine, she had to stifle a curse.

“Kelly, it’s Melissa. Call me. I’ll try you at work.”

After reciting the date and time she hung up and—with a moue
of distaste—dialed the fairly new work number Kelly had left encrypted on her
message bank and trusted her with. She still retained her job at the Archives,
but now shared an office with Matt at the Enforcers’ headquarters. Not
surprisingly, Kelly picked up on the third ring.

“Kelly, it’s Melissa.” Melissa heard the clipped British
tone that only happened when she was stressed. She took a deep breath, tried to
calm her sudden flutter of nerves and started again more carefully. “Have you
heard about Falconn?”

“Mel—oh I’m so glad you called,” Kelly replied, her genuine
pleasure clear in her high voice.

Melissa frowned for a moment, not used to anyone worrying about
her.

“I was going to give you a few more days to grieve,” Kelly
continued, her voice wobbling slightly as if she was not certain whether she
should keep talking but was determined to get through it. “But I knew you’d
want to do something. Why don’t you come over here? Matt and I can share what
we know and you can point us in the right direction.”

“I’ll be doing this myself,” Melissa replied, her voice low
but firm. “I know you’re Enforcers now, Kelly, but I need to do this. If you
can’t or won’t share information with me I understand, but—”

“Mel,” Kelly interrupted, and Melissa cringed. Her friend
sounded genuinely hurt. “Don’t. You know I’ll help however I can. I know how
much you’re hurting. I am too. You weren’t his only friend.”

“I apologize,” Melissa said softly as tears gathered in her
eyes. She swallowed hard before continuing. “I know. I’m sorry. Again.
Just…will you share what you can with me? Keep the official people off the case
until I can find this bastard? Please?”

“They’re looking into it,” Kelly replied softly. Melissa
could all but see her crouching over the phone and turning her back to the
window. “Matt, Julian, Liv and I can cover for you, but you need to come in,
speak with us first. Just so we’re all on the same page. Please. Even if you
can’t give me that, I’ll still do everything I’m able to. I swear.”

Melissa nodded. It would be enough. Even just to brainstorm
with Kelly—and by the sounds of it Matt as well—would help to nudge her in the
right direction. She could take it from there by herself. Melissa was more than
used to working alone.

A part of her withered inside. She knew that isolation was
the best route but the necessity dragged at her, depressed her. She hadn’t
realized just how much a deep part of her had hoped to team up with Kelly—with
or without her lover—until she’d discovered that wouldn’t be possible. Melissa
straightened her spine. She could do this, she knew. She was perfectly capable
of catching her Falconn’s killer by herself.

Alone as always.

Melissa had come this far without needing anyone. She would
not stumble and fall now. Not when this was so critically important. She
couldn’t let Falconn down. He would have done the same for her, and more.

“I’ll come now—is that okay?” she asked.

“That’s fine,” Kelly assured her. “Just ask for me, I’ll
leave your name at reception and they’ll direct you up here.”

“Thanks,” Melissa replied and ran a hand through her damp
hair. She took a deep breath and Kelly spoke again before she could say
goodbye.

“Mel, it will be all right, I promise you. Between us we’ll
get this guy. We will.”

Melissa smiled but it was a tight, cold, hard thing on her
face.

“Oh I’ll get him,” she replied softly but with steel in her
tone. “I can guarantee it. No matter what else I do, this man, this killer, I
will get.”

“I’ll see you soon,” Kelly promised and they said their
goodbyes.

Melissa took a look around, packed a few items she always
carried in her long leather jacket, put her keys and wallet into one of her
outside pockets and, with a last look, left her apartment.

She had a killer to hunt.

After winding her way through dozens of similar-looking
beige corridors, the directions Melissa had been given finally paid off.
Unbeknownst to her, she must have been sent on the “scenic route” to Kelly and
Matt’s office. Her mind was firmly stuck on her friend and the unusual magic
she had come across in his apartment.

The door to the room stood open and Melissa knocked on the
flimsy wooden frame as she peered inside. Kelly stood up from her desk the
instant Melissa’s knuckles rapped and Kelly beamed. Melissa noticed that there was
a serenity and confidence in her friend, an unmistakable glow for which Melissa
guessed Kelly’s lover and partner Matt could claim responsibility.

Kelly’s usual curtain of warm brown hair remained bobbed
around her ears. Her melted-chocolate-colored eyes were shining happily and
full of genuine welcome.

“Melissa,” she cried as she rushed over. “It’s so good to
see you again. I’m really glad you’ve come, even if Falconn has been the
cause.”

The two women met and embraced in the middle of the office.
Melissa found herself holding her friend unusually tightly and for a few
seconds longer than normal. She toyed with the heartfelt words that sat on the
tip of her tongue, but her awareness of Matt seated behind his desk kept her
silent.

She liked the man, had genuinely enjoyed his acceptance of
her teasing, and he seemed to care deeply for Kelly, and that went a long way
in her personal book. Melissa thought that Matt was a good wizard and a good man,
but she didn’t
know
him, so her usual reticence held her tongue.

“It’s really good to see you too, Kelly,” Melissa finally
said.

Kelly pulled back and appeared to look Melissa up and down
with a laser-bright, knowing eye. Melissa grinned, hoping that Kelly wouldn’t
say something embarrassingly accurate about her state.

Even though she knew she had not a hair out of place,
Melissa could
tell
her regular cool reserve had cracked slightly with
the death of her beloved friend. Something inside her had changed and it was still
raw and new enough that even she was not yet precisely sure just
how
she
had been forever altered by her loss.

“Don’t be mad at me,” Kelly started, her words rushing
together. Only long years of friendship had Melissa still able to tell exactly
what Kelly said when she spoke so fast, nerves and worry edging her speech.

“Matt and I decided to prod into the more private Enforcer
files,” Kelly continued, “we knew you’d want to be updated and informed of
everything you could. Honestly,
everyone
bends those particular rules
when it’s personal, so we didn’t think we were doing anything too naughty or
out of the ordinary. I didn’t know Falconn as intimately as you did but he was
my friend too. This would be personal even had you not asked the favor. Your
call just spurred me on to do what I would have got around to sooner or later under
my own steam.”

Melissa raised an eyebrow and a tiny smile hitched at the
corner of her mouth in her gratitude for Kelly bending the rules for her. Even
though Kelly claimed otherwise, in her heart Melissa knew she would have
struggled to break the rules on her own account. Melissa asking had made Kelly
a lot more comfortable, and she was thankful for that. She wanted to express
her thanks but was unable to interrupt and spoil her friend’s flow.

“There isn’t a lot of data to be found anywhere,” Kelly said
all in a rush without pausing for breath. “Indeed, it had to have been a
professional hit because they pretty much have diddly-squat and it looks as if the
case has already stalled, despite the fact that Falconn was one of us. So I
called Will.”

Melissa felt her heart accelerate. She frowned slightly and,
a little more sharply than she had intended, repeated, “Will? Will who?”

“Captain Will Allcott,” Kelly replied firmly but with a hint
of placation in her tone. Melissa bit down on the urge to say something she’d
regret. Kelly took her hand and hardly paused for breath before she explained
further. “Technically Will is our boss…or Matt’s, anyway. I’m still only half
signed on. You can trust him, Melissa, I swear it.”

Recalling what Kelly had already told her about the man in
idle phone conversations, Melissa relaxed somewhat. Part of her remained itchy
and hypersensitive. She needed to do this herself. She didn’t feel fully confident
that she could trust
anyone
else to do it to her satisfaction.

Kelly remained silent, the quiet lengthening between them.
Melissa calculated the repercussions in her head, grateful for a moment to do
so. She watched Kelly gazing at her. A lightning-quick glance at Matt saw him
standing up but not making any move. His obvious love and defensiveness for
Kelly softened Melissa’s heart and she decided to change the subject while her
brain continued to process this new turn.

“You can come and hover over her if you like,” she drawled
laughingly to Matt, resting her amused gaze on his face for a moment. The
clipped British tone had come back into her voice as she struggled internally.
Still more emotional than she’d have liked, she swallowed hard and cleared her
throat, speaking a bit more naturally when she continued.

“Kelly is one of my oldest friends, one of only two people
left in this world whom I trust without question. I’m not going to strangle her
because she did something she thought best, even if I do need a moment to mentally
adjust to it.”

Matt grinned, his blue eyes twinkling at her.

“I just thought there might be a girl fight,” he lied
smoothly. The quick movement of his gaze as he watched Melissa’s hands and face
with a knowing, well-trained eye gave away the falsehood as much as his
defensive posture. “You know the kind I mean—the kind men pay to watch. Torn
clothes. Naked flesh. Sweating female bodies rolling around everywhere. I
needed to stand to see it better. No man is going to give up such a golden
opportunity.”

Melissa snorted with laughter and looked from her friend to
Matt and back again. “I’m glad you kept him—he’s funny,” she said.

Kelly nodded, a smile on her face but her eyes serious.

“I know I’ve thrown you for a loop,” Kelly explained as if
the byplay between Melissa and Matt had not occurred. “And I know you think
I’ve lost the plot a bit. But truly, if anyone will be able to help—or know who
to go to for assistance—it’s Will. You’ll speak to him with us? He’s in another
office, visiting others in the team. He knows you won’t necessarily fall into
line, and it’s off the books, but he’s eager to sink his teeth into a new
problem. Will’s been complaining vocally about being buried in nothing but
paperwork and testimonies ever since the drug case was closed.”

Not many months ago Will had been made the leader of a covert
mingled Enforcer-police team. Human, ex-army, strongly built and with short,
spiky blond hair—Melissa had only met the man once in passing and found him to
be exactly as Kelly had described him. Powerful in his own right, smart and
with a take-no-bullshit-attitude, the man was the epitome of a fierce leader.

Again, it didn’t mean that Melissa felt right in handing
over the case of her friend’s murder to the man. Will had been an excellent captain
and from all the reports she had heard, he had been integral in the breakup of
a new drug. Jolt had smashed the boundaries, infused with magical essence that
had resulted in the death of a number of human youths. Potently addictive and
causing mental illnesses in countless users, its elimination had been a massive
undertaking, with Will in charge of it all.

When a partial antidote had been discovered, Will and his
team had risen to the challenge again. With the aid of Kelly and Liv they had
stolen the partial antidote, completed the steps necessary and removed the drug
from the market and jailed those responsible.

So unprecedented had their success been that Will had been
retained as the leader of the group, not just for his prowess but also, Melissa
guessed, because the members of his crew were so fiercely loyal to him that they
had threatened, pleaded and bargained until there was no other option.

Melissa licked her tongue out to dampen her lower lip. After
only a tiny pause to gather her courage, she took what—for her at least—was a
deep plunge.

“Okay, I’ll talk to him,” she conceded. “But is it really
necessary, if the Enforcers don’t have anything?”

Kelly grinned, then shrugged. She took Melissa’s hand and
drew her toward the door.

“Will has this way of defying all expectations,” she half-laughed.
“He said he’d be interested in talking to you and that he might have a contact
who can help.”

“And I’ve called Ryder,” Matt added. “I have a friend—he’s a
Sharp Shooter. We’ve worked on missions together before, when I’ve been called
in as a Tracker. He’s solid, reliable.”

Melissa nodded cautiously. “I’ve heard of Ryder. I’ve not
worked closely with him but we know of each other and have helped one another
on the fringes of certain projects when the situation has called for it. He was
more friendly with Falconn than with me.”

A few times over the last half a dozen years she and Falconn
had called Ryder in as backup or an extra set of eyes. Similarly, Falconn and
Ryder had worked on a couple of missions together and Falconn had called her in
to perform some task. So while she and Ryder had not worked intimately on any
mission, they knew each other as something like passing acquaintances.

Their working worlds were small, so it was difficult—though
not unheard of—not to know others in their field. Melissa felt a bit better.
She presumed that Will wanted to smooth things over, introduce her to Ryder and
maybe glean some details of the case firsthand from her. More at ease with the
situation now, she nodded and let Kelly lead her out of the office and down a
few corridors to knock on yet another identical beige-colored door.

“It’s open!” a deep voice boomed.

Kelly opened the door and entered, Melissa following and
Matt entering last and closing the door behind him.

Will stood by the window. Looking down out of the window, he
turned to face them as the door closed. His legs were slightly apart, his arms
clasped behind his back as he chewed on an unlit cigar. They all stood in
silence for a few seconds, then Will nodded politely in greeting to them. He
jerked his chin slightly, indicating that they should sit, and after one last
glance out the window he followed them to the large central table and pulled up
a chair.

“I’ve heard good things about you,” he said to Melissa.

She tilted her head thoughtfully. Will appeared to be a
straight-shooter—no bullshit and up-front. While the lack of subtlety surprised
her somewhat, in his areas of expertise she imagined it would cut through a lot
of time and trouble.

“I’ve heard similarly good things about you,” she replied
with a nod. “I was hoping Kelly would be able to help to point me in the right
direction on this. Falconn was a particularly close friend of mine. I don’t have
many of those and am not prepared to sit back and wait for the Enforcers to
discover what happened. Especially not when I’ve already been a witness and
know there are a number of things wrong with the picture which, despite their
training, skills and my general faith in them, they might not be capable of
solving.”

“Wrong how?” Will asked.

Melissa let her gaze roam over Will and then Matt, weighing
them silently in her mind. Over the years she had become very adept at making
judgments about people, how trustworthy they were and how likely they were to
freak out over details she gave them. She had frequently needed to sum up
clients and targets alike on fairly short notice from early in her career.

Matt, she decided, was a reliable man besotted with Kelly. Even
if he would not agree completely with all of Melissa’s methods, she figured that
if he wasn’t confronted with too much gritty detail he would support his
partner. Will, she concluded, had seen and probably done more than she could
comprehend without further, more honest and in-depth discussions with the large,
blond man. He did not have rose-tinted glasses and knew that to get the job
done, one frequently had to get more than just slightly dirty.

Neither man would truly comprehend the full scope of the jobs
she undertook, nor could they constantly do it as she did. But they genuinely appeared
to want to work with her, to help her to solve Falconn’s murder and bring the
killer to justice.

Melissa made the snap decision that she could trust these
men…to a point. Their paths would likely diverge when it came to the actual
meting-out of the justice they all sought—as well as how far she would push to
get the answers she needed—but for now they were all on the same page and she
truly did require help.

“I’ve been to Falconn’s apartment many times,” she started,
the emotions of her memories heightening her accent somewhat. “When either of
us had the need, we often lived in each other’s spare room. I know that place
the same way I know my own home. It only took me a minute to realize I could…
feel
that Falconn wasn’t present in the apartment anymore.”

Melissa paused for a moment, eyeing Matt and Will carefully.

Will nodded, indicating his understanding. Matt had taken
Kelly’s hand—her eyes appeared somewhat red around the edges as she held back
tears. After all, Falconn had been her friend too. Melissa decided to skim the
harsher details and moved on. Dwelling on them would only reopen her own barely
closed wounds and would do nothing except upset Kelly further.

“Aside from the actual manner of death, which I am sure you
all know was unusual in the extreme,” Melissa hedged, not wanting to be too
graphic as the memory still pained her, “the main thing that has been bothering
me is the essence of the killer.”