The Order Boxed Set (55 page)

“Get Carl and meet me in my office now.”

He paced the room while he waited for them to arrive. Where the hell had she gone this time? And why? He was betting she was still pissed off with him and this just a way of getting him back for leaving her last night.

But he didn’t know. The fact was—he knew very little about her. Except he wanted her in a way he hadn’t wanted anything or anyone in a long time.

Hell, last night, he’d backed away because it meant more to him than a quick shag. Now he wished he’d dragged her down to his underground lair, fucked her brains out, then chained her to the wall.

He ground his teeth together and smashed his fist into the desk.

“Ouch,” said a voice behind him.

Piers turned to see Carl lounging against the door, arms folded across his chest. He hadn’t even heard the werewolf come in. Graham hovered behind him as if reluctant to join them. “Where the hell is she?” Piers snarled. “You were supposed to go with her if she left the building.”

“Unfortunately, you never told her that. Look, you never said she was a prisoner. She was gone before I knew she was leaving. If you hadn’t wanted her to go out alone, you should have given more specific instructions.”

He was right. That didn’t make Piers feel any better. Maybe she was in danger. Who had she been fighting with last night? Could the demon have found her, taken her? Could he be punishing her even now for failing to get the damn Key?

After last night, he should maybe have considered the possibility that she would run. She hadn’t been particularly pleased with him, but still he thought she would stick around. And he still didn’t believe that she wouldn’t come back. She was just sulking.

“I followed her to The Crooked Hat,” Carl said, “but she gave me the slip. Where she went after that, I have no clue.”

“She went to see Jonas?”

The other man shrugged. “I presume so. He’d left by the time I realized she wasn’t coming out through the front door.”

“Is he in the building yet?”

“Yeah,” Graham replied. “He arrived just before dark. You want to see him?”

“Hell, yes. Get him in here.”

Graham looked relieved to have an excuse to get out of there. “I’ll go find him.”

Maybe Roz had just gone to see the warlock to find out about what she was, but Piers suspected there was more to it than that. What could she have possibly sought from Jonas? Shit, why hadn’t he stayed with her last night?

“There’s something else,” Carl said, interrupting his thoughts.

“And are you going to tell me what that is?”

“You asked me to investigate the woman who was working with the police. The one who helped them find the missing girl.”

“The one at Jack’s house?”

“Well, from the description, I’m pretty certain it was your friend, Rosamund.”

The information should have surprised him more than it did. “She’s a Seeker. She must have helped the police find the girl. She probably even gave them Jack’s description. Why the hell didn’t we put this together sooner?” It made perfect sense now. “Christ, she
does
have the Key.” She’d lied to him. Why did that hurt? Why had he believed her?

She must have found it that night at Jack’s place. But she hadn’t had it with her last night. He was sure of that. So, the question was, where was it and what did she mean to do with it? He was guessing she still planned to hand it over to her demon master and gain her freedom. And could he blame her?

Hell, yes.

She should have brought it to him. He would have kept her safe, found some way to pay off her debt to this demon. And if it was Asmodai—as he suspected—he was going to beat the shit out of him. Or get Tara to do it.

He hated that Roz hadn’t trusted him enough. From what she’d told him, he reckoned she’d gotten too used to taking care of herself. She didn’t know how to ask for help.

Or maybe that whole show last night had been her way of asking. Or her way of saying good-bye. He ran a hand through his long hair, pressing his skull, trying to make sense of it all. To work out what she was doing, where she could have gone.

“I take it you’ve tried her cell?”

“She’s not answering,” Carl said. “I’ve left messages, but so far nothing.”

“We’ll just have to hope that we can find her before she hands it over.”

The door opened, and Jonas slipped into the room, Graham behind him. The old man’s expression was blank. Was he hiding something? And if he was—would he tell? Piers was quite aware that the warlock had his own reasons for working for the Order; it gave him access to things that might otherwise have not been available, but despite that, he believed Jonas wouldn’t work directly against them.

“Roz came to see you this morning. Why?”

“That’s between us.”

Piers flung himself into the chair behind his desk and tried to work out the best way to get Jonas to talk. “Are you aware that she has the Key?”

“She does?” Jonas came farther into the room and sat down on one of the upright chairs. He stroked his chin as he considered the information.

“I think it’s time you decide where your loyalties lie,” Piers said. “We employed you here at your own request, but I won’t have people working for me that I can’t trust.”

“I want a place on the Council.”

Piers studied him. He should have known the warlock was after something; Jonas never did anything without good reason. “Swear a blood oath of loyalty to the Order and the position is yours,” he replied.

“Done.”

“Now what did Rosamund ask of you?”

“To make a spell of destruction.”

“And did you?”

“Yes.”

“Maybe she wants to make sure she is free of this demon for good,” Piers mused out loud.

“Well, she’ll certainly be that.”

Piers glanced at him sharply. “What do you mean?”

“She’ll be dead. The only way to trigger the spell is up close and personal. And the spell wasn’t for a demon—well, not purposefully, though it might take one out if he were very close by. It was for a magical object.”

“The Key? But why?”

“Maybe, as you say, she wants this demon off her back. But if she has the Key, why not just hand it over to him and complete the period of debt? It was what she always planned to do.”

“Conscience?”

“Maybe.”

Piers thought back to last night. There had been an edge of desperation to her. Had she known even then what she planned to do? He had a feeling there was more to it than getting the demon off her back. She had lived with the threat of the demon for five hundred years. Why would she suddenly decide to kill him now?

What else had happened last night? She’d left here with the nun and come back without her.

He turned to Graham. “The Little Sisters of Mercy. They have a mother house in Devon. Get them on the phone for me.”

Ten minutes later, he slammed the phone down. He’d been put through to the Mother Superior when he’d said what he was phoning about. She’d asked what he knew about the convent and had claimed that Sister Maria had definitely not turned up last night.

So the sister had vanished between leaving here and when he had picked up Roz.

It had to be Jack.

The vampire must have found them after she had slipped his men. Must have taken the sister and was using her as some sort of leverage. It made sense. The Key for the sister. And he’d no doubt been right about the conscience. She was going to get the sister away from there and then destroy the Key and herself with it. Shit. He turned to Jonas.

“Can you find her?”

The warlock shrugged. “Probably. I have her blood.”

Piers regarded him for a minute. The fact was, if Jonas hadn’t intended them to find Roz, he would never have come here tonight.

“You always meant us to go after her.”

“Of course. I’ve never come across one with such raw power. I’d hate it to go to waste.”

“Is the spell you gave her real?”

“Oh yes. I don’t give out bogus spells; it would ruin my reputation. If we don’t get to her, she will die and destroy the Key and anyone within a ten meter radius.”

“Well, you’d better find her then.” He pushed himself to his feet and strode around the desk to stand in front of the werewolf. “Get as many of your men as you can and meet me in the weapons room.” He turned to Graham. “You get hold of Christian, tell him we could do with his help—sooner rather than later.”

He was going to have to save the stupid little bitch.

And she’d better be suitably grateful.

Chapter Fifteen

The condemned woman ate a hearty meal.

She’d slept for a good eight hours and woken up starving. There was absolutely nothing she was going to even attempt to eat in Ryan’s fridge, but there were cold beers, so she phoned for a pizza and sipped a beer while she waited.

The pizza was delicious, though it was slightly spoiled by the fact that Jack called while she was half way through it. Enough to ruin anyone’s appetite.

“One a.m. On the embankment by Tower Bridge.”

He didn’t give her a chance to say anything, just cut off the call. It was up to her now. She knew they were unlikely to let Ryan or Sister Maria go if they could get away with killing them off or keeping them for snacks. She had to persuade them that course of action really wasn’t in their best interests. Jonas had thrown in what he referred to as “a few cheap tricks” for the price of her spell. She was hoping it was enough.

Her appetite had gone with the phone call, and she put the rest of the pizza in the fridge. Maybe Ryan would be hungry if—or preferably when—he got home later.

She decided to walk to the meeting. It was a good hour, but really, what else did she have to do? It was a beautiful evening, warm and balmy, and at past midnight, the streets were quiet. She headed toward the river and then walked along the embankment, remembering her walk with Piers the previous evening. She’d never do that again, and regret niggled at her mind.

The water looked deep and dark, and the occasional boat chugged past her on some pleasure cruise or heading back to its moorings. Everything seemed so ordinary.

It was hard to believe anything bad could happen on a night like this. Though it had been July when her mother had died. A beautiful summer evening. Not a good month for her.

The tall towers of the bridge loomed just ahead. Glancing at her watch, she realized she had fifteen minutes until the meeting. Perching on the wall that ran along the embankment, she went over in her mind one last time what she would do. What she would say. She’d always reckoned she was a good actress—in fact, back in the nineteenth century, she’d been pretty famous for a short while, before she’d had to change her identity. Now she was going to test that acting. There were a few holes in her story, but if she was convincing enough, she might just avoid slipping through them.

She felt their approach before she saw them, like the threat of an electric storm. The atmosphere prickled with energy, throbbing with power. Asmodai had told her that it took an enormous amount of energy to open a portal between the Abyss and the Earth. That was no doubt why the Key was so valuable. She fingered it in her pocket. Such a little thing to hold so much power.

To the right of her, the air shimmered as though the world was splintering. She’d seen it a few times now—first when Asmodai answered her prayers—but the sight still filled her with a sense of awe. For a second, the black gaping maw of the portal stood empty, and then Jack stepped through. He appeared way too happy for Roz’s liking, a smarmy smile pasted on his face as he caught sight of her. Maybe tinged with a little relief. He hadn’t been entirely sure of her. That fact might help her later.

He was followed by a clutch of demons, similar to those that had attacked the convent. Half-man, half-beast, with very little intelligence reflected in their crimson eyes. Soldiers, she guessed—just hired muscle.

Through the swarm, she could make out Ryan and Maria. The breath she hadn’t realized she was holding oozed out of her in a sigh; they were still alive. Then her teeth clamped together as the group parted and she got a better look at them.

Ryan’s face was a mass of bruises, one eye almost shut, and he was holding his left arm clutched against his chest. The other wrapped around Maria’s shoulders, supporting her. He caught sight of Roz, and relief flooded his face. Another one who hadn’t been entirely sure she would turn up. He’d probably put his keen detective mind to work and deduced that if she had failed at her side of the bargain, their end was likely to be messy and unpleasant.

Roz turned her attention to Maria; there was no sign of any damage, but despite that, she looked worse than Ryan. Her shirt was ripped, so she clutched it to her chest, and her skin appeared pale, almost white. Bloodless.

“Bastard,” she muttered under her breath.

Without giving herself time to think, she stalked toward Jack. He just stood there with that asinine grin on his face as she pulled back her fist and punched him in the nose. She put all her strength behind the blow, but he hardly swayed under the force. She did manage to split his lip, though, and a bead of blood welled up. He licked it slowly, and his eyes narrowed.

“I told you not to touch them,” she said.

“It was just a snack. She’s alive isn’t she?” His tone was laced with amusement.

She wanted to rant at him. But what good would that do?

Maria’s eyes held a blank, dead expression, and black hatred welled up inside Roz. Sometime very soon, she was going to make Jack pay. She was just sorry that his death would be a quick one and she wouldn’t be around to gloat afterward.

She turned away from him as a wave of power rippled through the air. A woman stood poised in the entrance to the portal, pale against the darkness.

Her head rose as though she was sniffing the night. Long blond hair, eyes so dark they appeared black, and pale, pale skin, almost luminescent and marked with swirling runes that pulsated with power. She was both beautiful and repellent. Roz’s skin prickled and she had to fight the urge to shuffle back as the woman stepped out.