“Why?” she asked.
“Why I’m pleased or why you came?”
Laura frowned. “Both.”
“You came because you need money. I’m pleased because I need help. Your employment will solve both our problems,” he said.
She sensed truth in his words but didn’t see the point. “Why do you need my help?”
He peered at her from the dimness beyond the desk lamp. “I need a druid on staff.”
“And Corman Deegan shot you down.”
Blume nodded. “Yes. We did not have mutual needs.”
“Why me?”
Blume glanced at Gianni before answering. A flutter in the air meant he’d projected a sending to him. “I have heard about this mission you were on. I am impressed with your ability to think on your feet. From what I understand, you are no match for an Inverni fairy, yet you managed to survive his attack.”
“So if I’m no match, what do you need me for? Hire someone with power.”
He smiled. “That I can do. What I can’t do is be assured of someone’s fortitude, of the commitment to a task. I need someone who will put herself on the line and follow through despite personal jeopardy. You’ve proved you can do that.”
She nodded. “For the right reason. Money isn’t always the right reason.”
His lips quirked in amusement. “True. The reason has to come first, not the money. I can provide you with an opportunity to help me ensure a better future for the world.”
“Sounds like political bullshit,” she said.
He chuckled. “If this is an example of your interview skills, I am not surprised at your lack of work.”
“I asked for a job, Blume, not a lecture. Give me a reason not to walk out of here.”
He nodded. “I have many businesses and many friends. We hope to bring our abilities together to end the strife between human and fey, even between the Celtic and the Teutonic fey. Some of our ideas will be perceived as radical. We need protection from people who might seek aggressive means to stop us.”
She forced herself to smirk. “You think you can accomplish what High Queen Maeve and the Elvenking have been trying to do for a hundred years?”
He stared directly into her eyes. “Yes. Do you think that’s enough motivation to keep what you see and hear to yourself?”
She suppressed a shiver. He believed he could do it. “Sure. More power to you.”
He nodded. “You have a job.”
“I have one condition,” she said.
“Name it.”
“I’m not a merc. I won’t kill someone on orders.”
“I wouldn’t ask that,” he said.
She had a moment of confusion. He wasn’t lying. Gianni was right by the door, and he had tried to kill her and probably Sanchez on someone’s orders. Either Blume hadn’t ordered it, or he was saying he wouldn’t use her in that way. Yet.
“I’m in,” she said.
CHAPTER 27
“IN,” LAURA DISCOVERED, meant boredom. Gianni did put her on the door, checking IDs. She knew it was a test, to see how she would handle it. The irony, she thought, was that acting as a bouncer brought a welcome relief from the reality of her job. Tiring on the feet, but at least no one tried to shoot her.
When she came on shift, she saw Sinclair in company with several other security guards in the back of the bar. He gave her a subtle wink when their eyes met, but she didn’t see him again after that, which meant he was working in one of the private areas of the club.
As the evening wore on, the club reached capacity, and a line formed on the sidewalk. Tedium set in. She wished she could skip the ID checks and confirm ages by using her truth sensing. At least she was allowed to let obvious adults in without checking. In fact, most of the clientele was older, and a good segment of it had the privilege of not waiting in line. She didn’t know all the players, but the other bouncer seemed to know everyone. She tried to pump him for information at first, but he didn’t have much to say about anything.
The meeting with Blume ran through her head. She had met his type dozens of times-the self-assured power broker with grand plans. His notion of solving the animosity among the fey and humans spoke to his enormous ego. It was no surprise that Blume’s desires echoed the manifesto Terryn found on Alfrey’s USB drive. Maybe the two had gone their separate ways, but they still were in basic agreement.
Gianni came outside and tapped Laura’s door-security companion. “Take five minutes.”
The other bouncer went inside. Gianni made no move to check anyone in line. Laura clicked departing patrons off the tally counter in her hand and let more people in. As she leaned over to check a young-looking woman’s driver’s license, someone cut the line and brushed against her back. The hair on the nape of her neck bristled as she recognized the essence. She returned the woman’s license.
When she turned, Gianni was lifting the velvet rope to let Simon Alfrey pass through. She pretended not to take any particular notice. Gianni replaced the rope. When the other bouncer returned, Gianni disappeared inside.
Laura waited a few minutes before turning to her companion. “I’m taking a bathroom break.”
Alfrey just arrived. I’m checking it out. Where are you? she sent to Sinclair.
Third-floor meeting room. Sinclair’s sending was faint, as if he were calling from far off.
Patrons packed the bar lounge. The music was louder than earlier, not dance-club level, but enough to prompt people to raise their voices. In the close quarters, species essences mingled in a confusing concentration. Someone with a more fine-tuned ability might be able to pick Alfrey’s signature out of the crowd and follow it, but Laura had to rely on her eyes.
She didn’t see him. She slipped into the back corridor and called the elevator. When the doors closed, she shot a burst of essence into the override lock and pressed the button for the next floor. With a momentary hesitation, the locking mechanism malfunctioned, and the elevator rose. Alfrey’s body signature hovered in the air around her.
When the doors opened, she held them with her foot while moving her hands in the air. Essence trailed from her fingertips in faint amber light that formed ogham runes-a long line with hash marks. The line coiled and stretched, then faded. She saw it still, invisible to the naked eye, but not her essence sensing. With a gentle nudge of thought, the spell floated out of the elevator and down the hall. Seconds later, it passed across the open elevator in the opposite direction. A few seconds more and it returned to her, spent and unactivated. It had found no living essence. The hall sentries were gone.
Alfrey’s body signature trailed left toward Blume’s office. As the runes dissipated in front of her, she decided against her initial plan to disable the cameras. Doing so would raise an alert and decrease her already limited time. Instead, she activated her body shield and tuned it to reflect her surroundings. Her body faded from view, not disappearing, but taking on the colors and patterns of the environment around her. The spell worked much like a glamour, but rather than a fixed template in stone, it fluctuated like a reflective veil.
She moved into the hall, her silhouette a rippled distortion against the wall, and followed Alfrey’s essence path to Blume’s office. Residual essence pooled in the air outside the door, layered over her own from her earlier visit as well as Gianni’s and Blume’s. Alfrey’s essence continued farther up the hall, a single sinuous line that meant he hadn’t returned. Yet. Either he’d left by another exit, or he was on the floor still.
She froze as an angry voice penetrated the quiet.