There was little I could say to that. Revenge might be a dangerous desire, but it was one I could totally understand.
The main cavern was still empty of everything but hellhound blood and gore. I stopped underneath the hole in the concrete, and looked up. What I was looking for I had no idea. It wasn’t like Lauren would suddenly appear, thereby making our hunt a whole lot easier.
“What do we do now?” I asked, after a moment.
“You need to rest —”
“I haven’t got the time, Azriel. Mirri’s life —”
“May well depend on you being strong enough to complete the task ahead.” His voice held an edge that was an odd mix of concern and frustration. “You run yourself into the ground, Risa, and that is not good for anyone.”
Not for the hunt, not for those you seek to save, and not for our son. The words echoed through me and made me smile. And yet a vague sense of irritation stirred. He wasn’t telling me what I didn’t already know.
Wasn’t saying what I really wanted to hear.
“I know, and I will rest, I promise, when Mirri is safe.”
“Then at least let us return to your apartment so you can get something to eat.”
“That I can do.” I wrapped my arms around his neck, then, as his arms came around my waist and drew me even closer, added, “Home please, James.”
“Another ridiculous Earth saying, given my name is hardly James,” he said, as his energy snapped us home in no time flat. As we reappeared in the stinking blackened ruins of the living room, he added, “Nor do I actually think I look like a James.”
I grinned. “Agreed. You need a name more befitting of your bright and sunny nature.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “I believe that is what you would term sarcasm.”
“I believe you could be right.”
My phone rang, the tone telling me it was Ilianna. The noise was sharp in the dark and smoky silence. Tao, I realized suddenly, wasn’t here.
Concern surged. I swung around, noting the front door was wide open as I dug the vid-phone out of my bag and hit the Answer button.
“Is everything okay?” I said, the minute Ilianna’s image appeared on the screen. “Is Mirri okay?”
“For the moment, yes.” Her voice was calm but worry had etched fine lines around her eyes. “Both Mom and Kiandra are currently studying all the different threads of magic woven into the energy collar, in the hope it will give them some idea how to dismantle it.”
It was a long shot, but right now, I guess it was the only one we had. “Tell them to be careful, because it’s Aedh magic they’re dealing with.”
“They know, trust me.” She hesitated. “Have you got any idea where Tao is? I’ve been trying to contact him, as we need some fresh clothes. We’re going to stay here for the next day or so.”
I frowned. “He hasn’t called you?”
“Not recently, no.” Meaning he’d disappeared not long after Hunter’s phone call to me. I scrubbed a hand across my eyes and tried to ignore the growing sense of loss. Tao wasn’t lost, not yet, no matter what my inner voice might be saying.
I said, “As to where he is, I don’t know. He was supposed to be home keeping an eye on the place, but the door is wide open and he’s gone.”
“Nor is he in the near vicinity,” Azriel said.
Damn, this is all we needed. Not that it was Tao’s fault. He was trying his best not to succumb to the elemental, but the desperation in his eyes haunted me. He was losing the battle, and he knew it. “Have you tried the café?”
“Of course. And I rang Stane, but he’s not there.”
“God,” I muttered. “I hope the fucking elemental hasn’t gotten hold of him again.”
“How was he when you last saw him?” Ilianna said.
“Jittery.” Scared.
But wherever Tao was, whatever he was doing, I just had to pray he was in control rather than the thing inside of him. Because as much as it tore at me, he couldn’t be my priority. That honor belonged to finding the keys and saving Mirri. “I’m sure Stane will keep an eye out for him.”
“He is,” she said. “He’s aware of the elemental problem, Ris. Tao must have mentioned it.”
He might be aware, but he was as helpless as the rest of us.
“Then there’s nothing else we can do. I’ve got keys to find and the clock is ticking.”
“I know.” She hesitated, her expression suddenly holding a touch of fear. “How is the search going? As badly as I fear?”
“Yes and no. We’ve uncovered a few clues, but they’ve led to dead ends.”
“Well, you are dealing with a dark sorceress. They don’t make things easy for anyone, including themselves.”
I frowned. “Meaning what?”
“Meaning dark magic is usually based on the strength and the blood of the practitioner. To summon as she does would take a toll on her physically and mentally.”
“Meaning if she summoned enough demons to protect two different places, she’d have to lie low for a few days and recover?”
“Definitely.”
Which was more than likely why the second key hadn’t yet been used. It wasn’t just that they hadn’t found the correct one yet, but one or both of them hadn’t the strength to actually get onto the fields. And that meant how much time we had left very much depended on when they’d summoned the demons. Lucian had died three days ago, and Lauren had been packing before then. The days I’d spent trying to drown my sorrows might have given her all the time she needed to recover.
“Does that sort of rule apply when you’re creating something like a protection circle?”
“Not really. It’s a different type of magic to summon.”
“But what if you’re trying to protect and hide something large? Something like a gateway onto the gray fields powered by the ley-line intersection?”
“It’s still the same magic, just a larger scale.” Her expression was a little bemused. “As I’ve already told you, the amount of magic needed should produce a magical ‘hot spot’ that would enable us to pinpoint its location.”
And the sorcerer would know that, I suddenly realized. “And have you?”
“Well, no. But I did ask Kiandra about it —”
“And she said they haven’t noticed any such hot spots,” I cut in.
She frowned. “Yes. How did you guess?”
“Because it suddenly occurred to me that any sorcerer worth his salt is going to know just how trackable his magic is. So either the magic concealing and protecting the ley-line gateway is Aedh based and therefore untraceable via human means or —”
“Or,” she cut in, “he’s not using magic. Not to protect the intersection, anyway.”
“Exactly.” I began to pace. “There was a small protection circle around the cuneiform-etched stones Jak and I found in the tunnels under that warehouse near Stane’s. Maybe we should be looking for something along those lines on or near the intersection.”
There was also the other tunnel, Azriel commented. You did not examine that.
No, I hadn’t, mainly because I’d sensed something evil down there. I’d been right, too, because that was where the hellhounds had come from.
But why have the hounds down a completely different tunnel from the one that held the cuneiform transport stones? Had they been protecting something else entirely – like a gateway onto the gray fields? Had the hellhounds only been unleashed when we’d sprung the trap by falling through the floor?
And was that trap – as well as the cuneiform stones – the only way into those tunnels? Given how tight the tunnels were, I couldn’t imagine someone Lucian’s size actually using them with any sort of regularity. Not without doing himself major harm, anyway. And while it was easy enough to get into the warehouse via the broken loading-bay door, the building was surrounded by a barrier that prevented energy forms from entering – and he had been energy, even if he’d been forced to remain in flesh. Still, how hard would it have been for someone – be it Lucian himself or Lauren – to have woven exceptions into the spell? Not very, I’d imagine.
And that meant that maybe there was another entrance into that other tunnel somewhere inside that building.
All that is more than true, Azriel commented. But if that barrier is still active, neither of us may get back in.
I frowned. Why would the barrier prevent me from entering again?
Because we now share a life force and it altered your genetic makeup, Azriel commented. You may technically be flesh-based, but my life force now runs within you. That fact may make the shield react.
There’s only way we can test that theory.
Yes. But not before you eat.
Don’t nag me, Azriel.
Someone has to. His mental tones were grim.
“I’m gathering,” Ilianna said, her voice dry, “that given the silence and your sudden, somewhat annoyed expression, you and Azriel are having a telepathic spat.”
“Sorry, Ilianna,” I said immediately. “And yeah, we were.”
She smiled. “Tell him I’m on his side.”
“Hey,” I said, feigning hurt, “you’re my friend, not his.”
“Yeah, but if he’s telling you off, it probably has something to do with you not eating or looking after yourself. And that’s good, because you don’t.”
“Thanks, friend,” I muttered.
“No problem at all.” Her smile faded. “You’ll keep me updated on any progress?”
“As much as I can, Ilianna.”
She nodded and hung up. I rang the local pizza place, ordered a large with everything, then shoved my phone away and said, “Happy?”
“When you actually eat it, yes I will be.”
I got out some cash and handed it to him. “I’m going for a shower. If the delivery guy gets here before I’m done, give him this.”