“You can’t accidentally turn someone.” Selina crossed her legs, leaning back in her seat.
Apparently, he was in the mood to confess things, now that they’d gotten him talking. “I accidentally almost killed her and turned her to keep her alive. We were having sex and it was just after I was turned and everything was sharper, all my senses, my needs, and I was so hungry. I turned her to save her life.”
“Without her permission.” Obviously. That much hate didn’t come from a mutual experience.
He chortled, and the sound was heartbreaking. “You know how New Orleans was back then. I didn’t need permission. But I ... I couldn’t let the Conclave have her. There was no telling what they’d do to her. Kill her, make her turn tricks for them, anything.” He let his hands drop. “I drove her to Atlanta and left her in an office building owned by the local Conclave. I knew they’d find her and hopefully help her. It was the only thing I could do for her.”
It was ... not evil. Hardly good, but not evil either. The man had a conscience. Sort of. Who knew? She never would have guessed it. She’d have slapped him more firmly in the sociopath category than anything else, but ... well, he was a mercenary, plain and simple. She’d known those types in her life. The profession had been around for centuries. Soldiers of fortune, mercenaries, legionnaires. Their loyalties could be bought, so there was no trusting them. One walked lightly around them, but she knew some of them had wives, kids, families. This vampire was no exception, apparently.
His life seemed to have been one big pile of steaming shit, and she almost pitied him for it. Except he hadn’t come forward about his brother’s sickness. He’d let people be tortured; he’d let people die. He’d let Bess die. He’d let Darren be tortured with silver. For that, she’d never forgive him.
Delta pushed the door open, a thick sheaf of printouts in her hand. Grim bolted through, shouldering the vampire out of the way. Selina and Delta dove to get a grip on his collar while he went absolutely fucking nuts. There was no other way to describe it. He stood himself up on his hind legs, trying to pull against the collar, snapping his jaws, foaming at the mouth, barking loudly enough to puncture eardrums.
After a few minutes, Delta and Selina wrestled Grim down. “My familiar seems to have a particular dislike for you, Gregor. Have you two met before?”
Grim howled while Gregor winced and looked away. “I saw that dog and another one with the same freaky eyes ... they tried to maul us the night I dragged Isaak’s ass out of New Orleans. I told him not to come back or the Conclave would kill him for doing work off the books.”
“Off the books.” A nice way of saying he’d been a ritualistic serial killer on the side.
She looked between the familiar and the redheaded vampire. The last time she’d seen Grim go this wild, barking at shadows and ready to tear into anything that moved was the night she and Theodore had found him, along with his sister, Boleyn, in the alley outside her apartment in New Orleans. It was only a week after Bess had died, and Selina had taken it as a kind of blessing from her cousin that a familiar had landed in her lap. A companion when her best friend had just been taken.
But ... her thoughts spun. Jack had said she was the one who got away from Isaak. If Gregor, Boleyn, and Grim were the reasons she hadn’t been attacked, that meant that Grim had had a run-in with Isaak before. And if Grim had acted this crazy tonight ... shit, she knew where the killer was. Right now.
Waiting for her.
Peyton and Jack stepped off the elevator just as his cell rang and Selina came charging out of an interrogation room, her phone pressed to her ear. His heart stopped at seeing her again. They’d spent so much time together in the last weeks that the past few hours without her around had seemed strange. But it hit him again that she planned to die, and he clenched his jaw to stop the pain. No. It was not going to happen. He refused. She froze when she caught sight of him, emotions he couldn’t decipher flickering across her face. She closed her phone and put it away. His went silent. “You were calling?”
Her chin bobbed in a rapid nod. “I know who the killer is.”
He blurted out his news, too. “I know how he’s overpowering Magickals.”
“And I think I know where to find him.”
They stared at each other for a moment, absorbing that. Adrenaline pumped through him. They had him. They knew who, how, and where. All the pieces were together. Now they just had to make sure he didn’t slip through their fingers again. Easier said than done.
Peyton waved his hand. “Tell us.”
“Isaak Night, Gregor’s Normal younger brother.” She shook her head, repugnance radiating from her. “They both worked for the New Orleans Conclave, and apparently Isaak felt wronged when he wasn’t turned, too, so Delta’s profile was spot-on. Gregor taught baby brother everything he knew about killing Magickals.”
Like her cousin. She didn’t say it, but it was there in her face, in the flash of pain and vulnerability that she tried so hard to hide.
“He didn’t teach him everything.” Jack had to fist his hands in his pockets to keep from reaching for her. How could he ever let this woman go? He couldn’t. He wouldn’t. “He somehow got his hands on the last remaining cursed object. We’ve just spent the past few hours going over everything with the leader of the Elven Assembly, who confirmed it for us. They, of course, insist that we recover the object so it can be destroyed.”
“Of course.” She shook her head.
“You said you knew where he was?” Peyton prompted.
Her face paled a bit, but her chin lifted. “I think he’s at my house.”
Jack’s eyebrows rose, but he felt the bottom drop out of his stomach. If they hadn’t figured all of this out, if she had gone home. Jesus, he might have lost her. Just that quickly. He swallowed hard. “How did you figure that out?”
“Grim.” The dog barked, trotting up to sit beside her. She stroked his broad skull. “He went ape-shit trying to rip Gregor apart, and the vamp said he’d seen him before in New Orleans, the night he’d forced Isaak to leave town. Grim was acting insane at my house earlier, before I went to track down Gregor. The only other time he’d acted that way ... was that night in New Orleans.”
Jack filled the rest of the thought in. “Grim knows the killer.”
“That’s what I think. Which means ...”
“Isaak is at your house.” He nodded, the knot of rage that had formed in his chest when he’d seen his stepfather expanding, hardening to hate. This motherfucker wanted to steal two of the people who meant the most to him. Over his dead body.
“Yep.” Her smile was faint. “Care to put together a little housewarming party for him?”
He stepped forward and slid his hand through her hair and down to squeeze the nape of her neck. “We’re going to get him this time.”
“Damn right.” For once, she didn’t pull away, didn’t remind him that they were in the workplace. Then again, she thought she was going to die, so why did it matter to her now? His jaw clenched at the thought. He didn’t want her willing because she had nothing to lose. He wanted her willing because she was willing. He had to keep her alive long enough to make that happen.
“I’ll call in all our guys, have the house surrounded.” Peyton pulled out his cell and started dialing. He paused for a moment and eyed them. “I’ll meet you guys there. Grim, why don’t you ride with me?”
Her familiar looked at her, looked at Jack, rolled his eyes, and sighed. She rolled her eyes back. “I’ll be fine. We’ll be right behind you.”
Peyton motioned the familiar forward, and the two disappeared, leaving Selina and Jack alone. He reached over and pushed the button to call the elevator. It was still there, so the doors slid open. “You have your car with you?”