I’m not like this. He felt positively amoral. His libido was healthy enough, but he didn’t mix business and recreation. I’m not going to start, either. He caught and held her gaze. Like being held in the gaze of the snakes in the reptile house…without the safety of the glass.
“What do you want?” he asked.
She handed him a picture. “This is Eavan.”
Eve.
Cillian kept his face blank. “And?”
“The girl, my cousin Eavan, is getting mixed up with a man I’d rather she didn’t. You’re stalking him, so I thought we might help each other.” Nyx folded her legs up on the swing, angling her body so she was facing him. “I’d rather Daniel Brennan die. I find him…unpleasant, but Evvie would be cross with me if I killed him.”
“Do you often murder people you find unpleasant?” The words were out before he could think better of them. Despite looking like an ingénue, Nyx spoke with a callousness that made Cillian certain that the woman beside him was, indeed, capable of murder.
Nyx laughed. “I think we’ll both be happier if you don’t ask too many questions like that, Cillian. I know who you are. I know about the C.D.A., and I know that Mr. Brennan is a person of interest to your organization.” She lifted a folder from the floor and extended it to him. “Here’s a list of others you might want to investigate.”
She held it there while he reeled from how casually she listed top security clearance C.D.A. information.
Cillian reached out and took the folder. “Do you have any idea what sort of trouble you’d be in? We’re talking about treason.”
She waved away his remark with a flick of her wrist. “Your government isn’t a concern of mine. I know what I know, and you’ll not let anyone find out about me. Do you think that there aren’t people who would erase the entirety of your organization if they realized that your superiors know about…people that treasure privacy? History is filled with stories of strange groups of people, secret societies if you will, vanishing. Your sort exist only because we’ve yet to decide how much of a threat you might be. I believe you can be harnessed and made useful. I need my cousin looked after, and you are getting nowhere with Mr. Brennan. It’s a simple business exchange.” She ran a finger absently through the beads of sweat sliding down her glass and licked a droplet from her fingertip before adding, “I’m trusting you, Mr. Owens.”
In seven years for the C.D.A., he’d never experienced anything quite as surreal as this meeting. Admitting that he understood that she was Other was a breach of several papers he’d signed under strictest security. She’s not human. She’s just admitted as much. That didn’t mean he could admit it though. He tucked away the questions he wanted answered and focused on the issues he could address: “A single phone call and you’ll be in jail or worse for the rest of your life. You can’t summon a government agent to your house and just…” He shook his head.
“I trust you because if you expose me or reveal the other unusual things you learn by accepting my offer, I’ll kill you, your sister in Miami, your nephew in Chicago…and your dear sweet father in”—she paused and tilted her head—“where was it? Phoenix, I believe?”
Cillian had his hand on his 9mm before she was halfway through the threat.
“Lower your hand, boy.”
He did, not by choice, but he lowered his hand as obediently as the women addicted to Brennan’s drugs. He couldn’t disobey. “Wha—? Who are you?”
Nyx sighed. “The answers to that don’t matter to you today. What you need to know right now is that neither you—nor your loved ones—would stand a chance if I asked you to obey me…and no, you may not ask why just now. Put your hands out here where I can see them.”
When he did so, she nodded placidly as if he’d hadn’t been seconds away from trying to shoot her—and he couldn’t force the questions of how and why from his lips.
“I can be a great ally. You want to stop Brennan’s drugs. I have reasons to want you to succeed at that,” Nyx said.
Cillian opened the folder and glanced at the sheets inside. Charts, account numbers, passwords, maps, key codes, names, aliases…it was far more information than he’d seen on Brennan after months of workups and considerably more detailed than anything he’d gathered in the six weeks he’d been in Raleigh.
Nyx pinched it closed. “You mustn’t tell Evvie that you know me. I’m hiring you as her bodyguard as far as she knows…well, will know.” Nyx’s mouth curved in a wry expression. “Evvie will object. She’ll attempt to evade you. She’ll…be difficult.”
“I’ll need to talk to my supervisors—”
“Talk to them, so they can verify the value of that data…but I am an anonymous source.” She stood up and stretched her arms over her head, making her sheer top lift up and expose her bare stomach. This time, though, Cillian wasn’t even slightly tempted.
“Or what?” he asked.
She laughed, a husky bedroom sound that made him swallow hard despite his utter distaste. “Or I’ll slaughter everyone who sees this data.”
He stood and faced her, still holding the folder. It was foolish, but he had to say it: “You’re not human.”
She put her hand on the folder, pressing it against his chest, leaned in, and kissed his cheek. “If you’re interested in my help, take the folder and be here tomorrow at seven sharp to be introduced to my cousin as her new bodyguard. If not, leave the folder and walk away. I’ll give you an out this once.” She kept her hand on the folder, holding it between them as she invaded his space. “If you accept my offer, please do understand that I’m quite serious about the terms of our contract.”
Then she turned and left.
Cillian sat silently in the dark for several minutes, debating the consequences of both actions. If he took the folder, he’d have resources the C.D.A. needed, resources that would enable him to do his job better. If he left it behind, he assured his family’s safety; of course, they were only endangered if he couldn’t keep silent. That wasn’t an issue. The things Cillian had learned in his job weren’t things he shared with his family. This was no different. If Nyx was honest, he and his loved ones were endangered only by violating her privacy. If she wasn’t honest, they were already in danger. Either way, taking the folder didn’t change anything critical. All it really meant was that he was becoming personally involved in the world of the Others.
Which has been inevitable since I took the damn job.
He’d expected his overt knowledge of the not-humans to come through official routes, but he’d still expected it from the beginning.
What difference does it make?
He took the folder and walked away. Now he just needed to figure out what to tell his supervisors—and protect a woman who was some sort of Other, and, if he was lucky, stop Daniel Brennan. All told, he was more excited about his job than he’d been in months.
4
Eavan hated family meetings with a passion she reserved for…actually, a passion she reserved for family meetings. She stood in the street, staring at her home and trying not to fall under the sway of the neighborhood. Oakwood was a little bit of heaven—houses that weren’t prefab monstrosities, people who sunk their roots into their city, a community whose collective energy made this part of the city something pure. Her family always lived in such areas. Unlike the subdivisions that cropped up everywhere, Oakwood and its neighboring Mordecai had personalities, histories, and dark whispers. More than a few of those whispers were tied to the women in Eavan’s family. Sometimes an unfaithful husband vanished. Once in a while, a wayward family member returned home meek and eager to be forgiven. Drug traffic never took hold in the several blocks surrounding their home. No one in their immediate area was ever robbed. Of course, no one would speak directly about the belief that Nyx’s influence was what kept them safe in home and family. Secrets were all the more poignant for the fact that they were openly known, but never spoken. It was enough to keep the neighbors from looking too closely at the family.