Authors: Elizabeth Lapthorne
“I’m not asking because I want to trap you or I’m wearing a
wire of some sort,” she replied, exasperated, flicking the thought away with
her hand with genuine irritation. “I’m trusting you here. Even just mentioning
the
existence
of these rituals is enough to get me before the Tribunal
and in seriously hot water. I’m talking about the killer.”
Impatience snapped in her tone. She’d made her decision to
trust the wizard—now she wanted to act immediately, not bandy words about and
verbally spar with him.
“He had numerous magics all glued or stitched together
within him,” she continued, hoping that when Daniel heard her being up-front
he’d share his knowledge in return. “They weren’t melded, or properly seamed as
you would expect if it were somehow natural. Your friend Will seemed skeptical
when I used the term ‘abomination’, but I’m telling you that was the feeling I
got for this person. Unnatural.”
Melissa nervously licked her lips. Daniel continued to stare
unblinking at her and although it didn’t unnerve her it did cause her to wonder
whether she’d misjudged him.
“The only thing I can think of is someone who is stealing
other people’s magic with a soul-destroying ritual I once heard about,” she
finished.
Daniel remained silent for a moment, then raised an eyebrow
curiously and made a “go on” motion with his hand, rolling it in a circle to
indicate that she should continue.
Sighing, wondering with slight paranoia if now
she
was
being set up by
him,
she decided rashly that one of them would have to
trust the other first and break through that thin barrier all Assassins erected
out of sheer self-defense. She had already said enough to be hanged should he
choose to report her. Melissa decided to go the whole way and damn the consequences.
“Some people were talking in whispers around a campfire
years ago when I was a fresh-faced newbie and no one here in the States knew me
from Adam,” Melissa admitted. “I was nothing but a kid, barely twenty-two, and
it was one of my initial missions where I was more cannon fodder than an actual
full-blooded Assassin. They ignored me and talked among themselves. At first I
thought it was just utter bullshit, everyone one-upping one another in a
pissing contest, but I’ve heard similar stories over the years that verify most
of what I heard that first time. They said the ritual magic explodes inside the
victim and leaves nothing but a shattered husk. Sooner or later the wizard or
witch responsible disintegrates when their soul shatters and the imbalance in
their magic breaks free.”
For a full moment Daniel stared at her, his face unreadable,
his eyes as blank and clear as a frosted pool of water.
Melissa felt her heart sink. She had gambled and,
apparently, lost. Here she had thought that Daniel—above all others—might
understand. He wouldn’t judge her for wanting her best friend’s killer to die a
slow, painful death. He wouldn’t caution her or tell her to let the authorities
deal with it. Most of all he could help her to discover whether the ancient, forbidden
magic she had heard whispers of was real and in play in this case.
But no. The strong man just stood there, silent and utterly
still. He stared at her. Melissa’s temper snapped and she pressed her lips
together, more angry with herself than him. She should have learned
years—decades ago!—that the only person she could rely on was herself.
No one else.
“Forget it.” She waved a hand angrily as if to break the
electric connection between them. “Don’t worry about it. I can see you have no
knowledge or interest in it. I shouldn’t have said anything in the first place.
Tell Will thanks for the offer but I’m much better able to do this myself. I
don’t need his bloody help after all.”
Melissa spun on her heel and took a quick step toward the
door, fully intending to storm out of the office and back down to her car.
Daniel caught her wrist easily in the circle of his fingers
and effectively stopped her without a word. His gaze was laser-bright and
piercing in its intensity. He scanned her face, seemed to take her in as if he were
memorizing her. When he smiled it was a twitch—just a hitch at the corner of
his lips. Despite the tiny gesture she could feel the amusement radiating from
him.
“Do you always drop bombshells and expect instant responses?
Give a guy a chance to think over his answer. You’re like a spitfire, all
hissing and ready to charge into the fray. I know you were close to Falconn,
that you were best friends and far more. You need to remember, Mel, that you’ve
had more than a week to digest this and come to grips with it. Let me catch up
mentally for a moment.”
Melissa’s anger deflated. She took a deep breath and nodded.
She turned back to face Daniel again and felt a shiver of sexual excitement as
his hand casually remained chained around her slender wrist. The bracelet of
his fingers kept them in contact as he shifted his eyes, watching her movement.
Now that she really looked at him, Melissa could see that he
appeared to be weighing and calculating her, as if she were a mathematical
problem he had become determined to unravel and solve.
Curious now, wondering what on Earth was going on behind
that impassive face, she attempted to read those cold, clear eyes. Even though
the pale blue of his irises reminded her of frozen water, they were not icy in
the angry or cool sense. They were piercing, hiding more than they could
possibly give away.
Despite that, Melissa felt almost positive Daniel felt
emotions deeply. She had learned over the years that those like herself who
came across as aloof, isolated and even repressed had usually erected large,
solid walls. It wasn’t just necessary to protect oneself from the natural
emotions one felt, it was a survival skill.
And no wizard who brought such desire so easily to her
surface could be cold or frigid inside. Passion crackled in the air around them
and her wrist heated in his warm, tight grasp. This man felt things right to
his bones, but he had obviously spent years and years learning to hide that
fact behind his impassive features and clear, solemn gaze.
Melissa knew she’d never be deceived by his face and think
him unfeeling or robot-like. Indeed, the more she watched him the more she
wondered if, in fact, he felt things
more
deeply than others and had simply
become more adept at hiding the fact.
“Yes, you’re right,” Daniel finally said.
Melissa blinked, thinking he had read her mind and was
confirming that he felt things more deeply than others and had a wealth of
emotions carefully held behind a façade of coolness.
Then she realized he was speaking about the forbidden
rituals. Melissa gaped a little. She had only partly believed it herself,
certain the idea had been born from equal parts wishful thinking and the desire
for Falconn’s death to be more than just a hideous, tragic crime.
“There
are
such rituals?” she stammered. “Rituals
that can
explode
a person from the inside out? Where on earth would
anyone tap into such knowledge? Surely it would have been burned and disposed
of long before now? The Tribunal would
never
—”
“You can’t be that naïve,” Daniel interrupted, a smug smile
crossing his face. “Not the Black Witch of Death. I refuse to believe an icy
blonde beauty like you wears rose-tinted glasses.”
Melissa flushed. While she didn’t hate the moniker people whispered
behind her back, neither did she like the connotations it brought to mind. Her
father used to call her “Black Death”, thinking that a busty blonde English
beauty would need a hard, chilling nickname if she was to be taken seriously in
shooting circles. Her nickname had come from some bright spark who had recalled
her teenage “glory years”. “I don’t have rose-tinted glasses,” she replied.
“And you should know those stupid names the idiot hangers-on give us are pure
rubbish. Warlock of Doom makes it sound like you go prancing around with a cape
and seven-foot staff.”
Daniel grimaced but then a laugh escaped his lips.
Melissa smiled in true understanding.
“We might have only met once,” Daniel replied, “but I know
you’d push that if you really wanted to. Okay, I’ll call a truce about
so-called titles. But honestly, it was the Tribunal and the upper management of
the Enforcers who hid the rituals away and refused to burn them. Some people
never learn.
Everything
gets stolen. Everything.”
Melissa nodded, not truly surprised but still feeling as if
at any moment Falconn would walk through the door, laugh, hug her fiercely and
tell her she was such a sucker and wasn’t this just the best practical joke
ever? Melissa had to purposely close her mind to the evidence she had seen with
her own eyes that Falconn would never again walk through that or any other door
and laugh at some idiotic prank he had pulled on her.
Taking a deep breath, she calmed her rapidly beating heart
and blinked away the tears that had sprung to her eyes. Daniel astonished her.
He lifted a hand to cup her jaw and tilted her head so they could stare deeply
into each other’s eyes.
“It’s okay to miss him,” he said softly, his eyes
calculating once again before he nodded and wrapped a warm, strongly muscled
arm around her shoulders. “Let’s walk and talk. All this standing around in a
fishbowl of a meeting room where everyone can see us is making me jumpy.”
Melissa realized that while Daniel probably didn’t feel
especially safe in the open view of the office staff, he largely wanted to move
for her benefit. Walking around outside would help to keep her calm and away
from the edge of tears. Besides, old habits die hard. Paranoia kept them both
on their toes. Melissa rarely had deep and meaningful conversations in the
middle of the day in sight of two dozen or more Enforcer agents. She had the
feeling that Daniel had even fewer such conversations than she.
Nodding, Melissa let Daniel walk her to the door of the
meeting room and open it for her. His hand at the base of her back felt warm
and solid—far better and more reassuring than she would have imagined. After signing
out, Melissa returned her visitor’s badge and left a message for Kelly to say that
she’d left the building and would contact her soon.
The sun felt warm on Melissa’s face as they turned and
headed to the left, the wind brisk and cool but the air still a lovely mild
temperature. In comfortable, easy silence they walked down the busy street.
Daniel rested his hand gently on her back to guide her as they strolled the
streets of Chicago.
Melissa had a feeling that she and Daniel surprised
themselves and not just each other as they made their way silently down the
busy Chicago street. After a short time Daniel took her hand in his, lacing their
fingers together, and the intimacy felt so good and right that Melissa couldn’t
think of a single reason to say anything, let alone stop him.
They walked almost a mile, easily keeping pace and not
saying a word. As they drew closer to the harbor and the nearby parks, Melissa
wondered whether she had unconsciously led them there, or whether Daniel had
instinctively taken them somewhere she considered one of her safe places.
“I love this place,” she confessed, feeling it was time to
break their comfortable quiet. “The harbor is just there within sight. The
grass in the parks is always lush and green, the smell of the flowers and trees
all around you. Were it not for the sounds of such heavy traffic, I could
believe I wasn’t in the middle of the city at all. I come here frequently.”
“I enjoy it here too,” Daniel replied, his voice low. “There
is a sort of serenity here. It makes me feel as if I am a part of a larger
picture. Helps me to keep perspective on what’s important and what’s not.”
They continued to stroll through the sprawling parkland,
hand in hand. Melissa had never done this with another soul before. The fact that
she could do it here, now, with this wizard, was special to her. Even though
the silence lengthened between them, it was an easy one. There was no need for
speech.
Finally they walked along a graveled, meandering trail and
Melissa drew in a deep breath. With a wry smile, she turned to Daniel.
“I haven’t had many of these sorts of conversations,” she began
earnestly, “but at least we can be honest and blunt. Out here we can be pretty
sure no one can overhear us.”
The wickedness of Daniel’s grin made her heart race. He
didn’t say a word about whatever naughty thing he was thinking about, nor did
he need to. Every confirmation she needed glinted in his pale eyes and the
sardonic twist of his lips. The beauty of the area was
not
the only
reason he had taken her there after all.
“So you believe this killer—this witch or wizard—has been
using a forbidden ritual?” Daniel asked, finally returning to their earlier
conversation.
Melissa drew in a sharp breath. His words confronted her
with their brutal honesty. She couldn’t shy away from her beliefs, though, and
having trusted Daniel thus far she was not about to back down now.
“Yes,” she said more firmly and loudly than she had
intended. More softly, she reiterated, “Yes, I do believe that. More importantly,
I think the Assassin purposely drained Falconn, consciously took his magic and
power after killing him. I can’t prove it—I wouldn’t even know where to start,
let alone what to use or collect to back up such a claim—but my gut, my
instincts, scream that at me.”
“Why? How did you come to feel that way?” Daniel pressed,
not unkindly.
Melissa had the feeling that in his own way he was
interrogating her to confirm or deny his own thoughts on the matter. Undaunted,
she continued as best she could, attempting to explain matters not easily put
into words.
“Once I got past the original horror of Falconn’s body so
brutally ruined, the way he had been placed seemed odd…awkward,” she tried to
explain. “It appeared as if his internal organs had literally exploded from
him, as if in some cheesy alien movie. There was blood splattered everywhere,
but much of it had—and please don’t laugh at this—seemingly disappeared. You
know what we are. More than anyone, you
know
I understand how messy
death can be. I have seen with my own eyes how much those pints of human blood
can soak into everything and create an enormous, gory mess. There was plenty of
Falconn’s blood around—more than I care to recall—but there wasn’t enough.”
“The Assassin could have taken it,” Daniel pointed out.
Melissa shook her head.
“There were no wounds indicating a knife or similar object—he
couldn’t have drained blood from Falconn. I made damn sure of that when I
inspected his body. I know what some of the nastier blood rituals are capable
of, and I would never have let anyone do that to Falconn, as he wouldn’t have
had I been in his place. No, his blood was not collected for later castings. It
was…gone. I don’t really believe it could just fade into nothingness. To my
mind, that can only mean it was vaporized somehow. Despite my very close
relationship with death, I’ve never heard of such a thing, and
that
is
why I started to think about darker, forbidden rituals. Nothing else seems to
fit. Not to mention the wrong feeling I got from the Assassin. My intuition
says he’s masculine, but a good killer can mask that, so I can’t truly be
certain. But the overriding feeling of abomination and the utter wrongness of
those essences barely held together by a thread has convinced me that something
beyond my knowledge is at work here.”
Daniel silently mulled over her words, finally giving her a
simple, curt nod.
Melissa sighed, all talked out for the moment. Instead of
repeating herself, she gently stroked her fingers inside Daniel’s hand as they
continued a long lap of the park. They were lost in their own thoughts, but it was
only a minute or two later when Daniel finally spoke again.
“You realize this is dangerous territory we’re wading into,
don’t you?” Daniel asked, his tone serious as his gaze flickered over her face
to gauge her reaction.
Melissa nodded. A blonde tendril fell over her eye with the
motion of her head and she brushed the errant curl behind her ear
“I know, and I don’t care. This bastard killed Falconn. I’m
not sure about you, but I only had three people in my life I could count on for
absolutely anything at any time. Falconn was one of those individuals. I won’t
shrug and sit back, waiting for the Enforcers to stumble upon something and
bring his murderer to the Tribunal.”
Daniel smiled, a tight, sardonic expression that some would
find uncomfortable. Melissa found that it mirrored many of her deeper, more closely
held feelings. Of revenge. Of a killing, ice-cold rage and the faithful promise
of retribution. She might keep those aspects of herself hidden from public
view, but she understood with a soul-deep knowledge exactly what Daniel’s face
showed in that short second.
The fact that they were on identical pages made her want to
run her hands through his cropped, spiky hair to see if the strands were as
soft as she imagined. His was not a beautiful, pure face, but a hard, lean and
somewhat scarred one, but it drew Melissa on a deeper level than anything she
could imagine.
This was not a man who would need or want her to change, to
give up aspects of herself. This man, this soldier, would stand beside her and
fight to his last breath with her. They had very nearly done just that in the
Lourensz complex—and they hadn’t even been intimate friends, as they were
starting to become.
“I’m the same as you,” he said, his voice rough and gravelly
with barely suppressed emotions. “I only have two people like that. And had
either of them been murdered in this manner and I had managed to look upon
their bodies and study their death scene as you found the strength to…”
Melissa let her gaze drink in the hard, determined set of
Daniel’s face. The fact that he felt so protective of his few well-loved
friends spoke volumes to her. She had a very good idea of what something like
that would do to him, as she was going through it herself. Melissa let Daniel
clear his throat and collect himself as the overwhelming emotions momentarily
cut off his ability to speak.
“Let’s just say,” he finally finished, “that it would not
end well for whoever took someone like that from me.”
Melissa grinned, her heart lightening. She could
really
find some common ground with this man. Squeezing his hand, she shot Daniel a
cheerful, slightly wicked smile.
“Well at least I won’t have to hide my
true
motivations for finding this asshole from you,” she laughed, relieved. “Most
other mere acquaintances would bray and bleat for me to leave it to the authorities
and not sully my soul with morbid acts of revenge. None of those people really
knew Falconn, nor loved him as I did. They couldn’t possibly truly understand,
or be certain to punish him as he deserves. Falconn was
my
friend—I need
to do this.”
“I understand,” Daniel replied soothingly. “Far better than
you know. So. I can at least help to confirm some of your hypotheses now. There
is, or
was,
a manuscript similar to what you have imagined. The Tribunal
Council hid it away decades ago. An associate I’ve worked with—a mentor of
sorts—told me that he and a few others on the Council campaigned heavily for it
to be destroyed, but these things are usually deemed to be ‘knowledge’ and
never ruined or lost. They are merely put aside in the vain hope that they will
be forgotten about.”
“Sure,” Melissa said. “Because that has worked so very well
for them and others in the past. You’d think so-called wise elders would learn that
these things
always
get stolen. There’s always someone who thinks they
can handle the knowledge, control the outcomes and be smarter or braver or
stronger…whatever. You’d think we’d learn from history, wouldn’t you?”
“Captain Will and his like would be out of jobs if that were
true,” Daniel pointed out logically.
Melissa shrugged and beat down the surge of anger that
pompous dickheads like the mages of the Tribunal, steeped in their supposed
wisdom and foresight, had inadvertently been the cause of Falconn’s death. She
took a deep breath, contained her anger and moved on.
“So this manuscript,” she began again. “Let’s assume the
killer has it. Do you know what it contains? What is he actually doing, or
trying to do? And more importantly, how do we find him…and
stop
him?”
“I’ve not read it personally, nor do I think Isacar has ever
read it,” Daniel said. “Actually, Isacar is, or was, Ryder’s mentor. I’ve done
a number of jobs for Isacar and it was he who…
nudged
me onto the path
I’ve trodden for over a decade now. He could see that I needed a sense of
purpose and a reason for what we do. Working on contract for the Enforcers and
other organizations akin to them makes me feel like I’m serving a higher
purpose, a greater good. Isacar sensed that within me and helped me.”
“Ryder is a friend of Matt’s,” Melissa said once she had
silently digested the nuggets of information Daniel had shared with her. “Matt
wanted to call him in, but Will thought you would be better, as Ryder is caught
up in something. Do we need to go through Ryder to speak with Isacar?”
“We don’t have to, no, but Isacar is on a retreat just now,”
Daniel answered. “He’s a highly esteemed mentor to many and frequently travels
abroad to cleanse his spirit. He is not an Assassin by trade, and every few
months he needs to rebalance himself and re-dedicate himself to helping
Assassins to find their True Paths. It drains him, the potential of setting in
motion deaths and possibly aiding an Assassin or Sharp Shooter who will turn
bad. I don’t think it wise to try to contact him unless it becomes absolutely
necessary.”
“So we need to get to Ryder,” Melissa said with a sense of
irony, “which is exactly what Matt wanted me to do in the first place. Oh how
he’ll laugh and poke at me when he finds out.”
Daniel snorted as he tugged teasingly on her hand. “You
don’t have to go through Matt, love. I’ve worked with Ryder plenty in the past.
He owes me a few favors.”
Melissa turned her head to look up at Daniel. The brief
endearment, although it had been said casually, had her heart pattering.
Nothing in his posture, facial expression or tone indicated that he wanted a
deep and meaningful conversation. Indeed, nothing in his manner gave away the
tenderness of the word that had slipped from his mouth. Only in that cool,
clear glaze of his did she see that his feelings were aroused.
Since he didn’t appear to want to discuss it, she decided
not to mention it either. She could feel the heat of a faint blush on her
cheeks, though, and knew she’d cherish the ease with which he’d called her “love”,
even if it counted for nothing in the long run.
A girl could hope.
“Really?” She struggled to sound as if she weren’t
breathless, as if her heart didn’t hammer at his sweet word. She strove to
remain calm. “Isn’t that just the best thing ever? I always find it so
interesting to be brought in on someone else’s mission. I find it usually
injects a bit of spice into my life.”
“It’s like catching a sneaking glance into someone else’s
life,” Daniel agreed. “Though I bet you weren’t so happy about Aiden dragging
you into the Lourensz thing.”
“Oh on the contrary. I shudder to think of how much trouble
Aiden and you would have been in if I hadn’t been called to help. And besides,
I got to meet the legendary Daniel Cranston. He’s supposed to be the most noble
Assassin around. Did you know he only ever performs hits for companies against
those oppressing the weak? He’s nearly a hero—haven’t you heard?” Her tone had
been very lightly tongue-in-cheek but the strength of her tone indicated that for
the most part she was obliquely expressing much of her opinion of him.
Daniel’s eyes almost appeared to smile for a moment. Had he
been anyone else Melissa would have thought he was embarrassed by her praise.
If he was, his face didn’t give it away.
“Well
I
got to meet Melissa Geyton. She’s the most
beautiful, deadly Assassin on the continent and has a similar personal code that
nothing can sway. Her reputation is that of being one of the pickiest Assassins,
refusing to kill an innocent or those who don’t deserve it. I also have it on
good authority and from personal experience that there’s nothing she won’t do
for someone she has given her loyalty to.”