I choked down a laugh and he raised an eyebrow at me, a small grin tugging at his lips.
“Have you ever met the Magister?”
“No,” I said. “But I’ve heard enough.”
“What’s the impression you get?” Costa switched the car off and turned to face me, pulling his sunglasses down.
I shrugged. “He doesn’t come off as all that impressive from what I’ve been told. But he has to be pretty powerful to hold three states. As far as I know, vampires don’t run democracies.”
“True. Anything else?”
“I’m told he seems pretty levelheaded. A bit of a politician, I guess.” I pulled down the sun visor and opened the mirror. Quickly, I smoothed my hair and applied a fresh coat of lipstick. I slipped my jacket off and set it carefully between our seats. Sex appeal was unlikely to influence someone as powerful as the Magister, but it was worth a shot. “Ready?” I gave Costa my charming smile.
His eyes lingered on my bright lips for a second then he frowned and put his sunglasses back on. “Let’s go.”
I followed Costa over to a group of men. One was pointing at blueprints while gesturing at the building.
Several others were gathered around him, most in suits, one in Carhartts that were well-worn. To my surprise, the man who had been gesturing directions from the blueprints walked to meet us, after giving the large papers to one of the suits.
He nodded to Costa and then me. His eyes only passed over me for a moment, a quick flick of his gaze, but I felt suddenly like I’d been weighed, measured, and cataloged.
“I’m Luc Chevalier. Thank you for agreeing to meet here, detectives,” he said, as if we’d had a choice in the matter. “How can I help the OWEA today?”
A slightly better than average-looking man, he stood around five foot nine and had wavy brown hair and brown eyes. He was attractive, but not striking and I didn’t feel the aura of fear coming from him that I usually sensed from vampires. We could have been standing outside with a regular construction foreman for all I could tell.
It was unsettling.
“Thank you for meeting with us on such short notice, Magister,” Costa said. “I am Agent Costa. This is Detective Whitman from the Chicago PD’s paranormal unit.”
“Nice to meet you both.”
A strong breeze whipped my hair around my face, and a whiff of Costa’s aftershave touched my nose. I fought not to step closer to him. A man should not be allowed to smell so good.
“We’re here to talk to you about one of your companies.” Costa flipped open a small notebook and glanced at the first page. “NMR Real Estate, to be precise.”
“I am not normally involved in the day-to-day operations of my companies, you understand. I am more of a high-level manager, but I will of course help you if I can.” Chevalier’s French accent coated his words, making the English sound more musical.
“Do you recall an incident in St. Louis, nearly a year ago now, where a kidnapped woman was held in one of your company’s warehouses?”
Luc glanced at me. “Yes, the succubus. I remember.
I never spoke with the police about it. My son, Nicolas, oversees my holdings in St. Louis. He handled the situation.”
I frowned. I’d never met Nicolas Chevalier but Mac said something was off about him, and that he was quick to anger.
“Is Nicolas available?” I asked. “It would be helpful to speak with him, too.”
“I’m afraid not. He left last night for Europe. He won’t be returning for a few weeks.” Luc offered me an apologetic smile.
“It would really help us out—” I began.
“I’m sorry, but it’s impossible. He’s there for important business negotiations and will not return until everything is settled. You’ll have to discuss this with me.”
Pressure built in my chest and I wanted to shriek and rage so badly—tell him exactly how important I found his business negotiations compared to my sister’s life—that I had to close my eyes for a moment to get a grip. I filled my lungs with a deep breath of air and tried to push the thoughts riding on the tip of my tongue to the back of my throat.
“Well, then you are aware that someone at your company rented out a warehouse—with no paper trail— to an individual who used the building to keep at least one woman prisoner. An individual who then tried to ship her out of the country?” Costa asked, giving me time to compose myself.
I opened my eyes to see that Luc’s attention had shifted from me to Costa, and some of my embarrassment faded, lifting a small weight from my chest.
“Yes. We had a manager trying to make some money on the side. He’s been eliminated—from his position—for his actions.”
I opened my mouth to ask for more details, but Costa shot me a warning glance.“We believe that something similar may be happening in Chicago as we speak,” Costa said. “We can’t say for sure that this person is using one of your buildings again, but it is possible, considering how much property you own through companies in the area,” Costa said.
“I find that unlikely, but you can trust that I will review my records and let you know if I see any rentals that are out of the ordinary,” Luc said.
“It would be better if we could go over those records ourselves.” Costa smiled, and the expression was somehow predatory.
“I don’t think so, Agent.” Luc’s smile was just as wolfish.
“What about the manager who rented the unit in St.
Louis? You said he was fired, but maybe you know how to find him,” Costa shot back.
“He seems to have disappeared.”
Yeah, of course he had. I didn’t particularly care about the Magister’s staff or how he handled his business. Right now, all I cared about was finding Elaine.
“Look.” I swallowed hard as both men broke eye contact to look at me. “I understand why you wouldn’t want us in your records, Magister. And really, I don’t see this twisted son of a bitch going through the regular channels like that anyway. What would be more helpful is a list of the properties that you show as currently vacant that meet our guidelines.”
“I’m not just going to hand over—”
“This asshole has my sister, Magister.” I stared down at my hands and suppressed the urge to rub my temples.
I had to convince him. For Elaine. My pride didn’t mean jack right now. “I know that this isn’t something you’d normally allow, but I have to find her. Please. She’s been through enough.”
He rocked back onto his heels and crossed his arms, a thoughtful expression on his face. I met his gaze, knowing how desperate I must look, but not caring. Elaine was more important than my pride.
“Okay,” he said finally. “But only the buildings that fit your criteria.”
Hope filled my chest, and I opened my mouth to thank him, but the Magister held up his hand.
“Don’t thank me, Detective. My people learned from the last incident. I don’t think you will find her in one of my buildings.” He gave me a small smile, and for a second the average man appeared almost human. “But I do hope you find your sister.”
It took less than an hour for Luc Chevalier’s office to send us a list of the warehouses that met our criteria.
Then another half hour back at the office for Costa and me to plot the thirty locations on Google Maps. Forty-five minutes to settle on which ones fit what we were looking for the best—far enough away from populated buildings, in areas that were run-down and not highly populated.
Fifteen minutes to convince Vasquez to send a set of uniforms to check out a few of the warehouses for us.
The clock on the dashboard in Costa’s rental read two by the time we headed out of the office. My stomach rumbled, but I ignored the sound. We’d already wasted too much time getting on the road. Costa didn’t mention lunch, either, and though annoyed, I was grateful for it.
“So we should be able to get through two or three pretty quickly,” I said. “These three are all within a mile or so of each other. I hope Chevalier’s man isn’t late.”
Chevalier had promised that one of his employees would meet us at the first location, and then travel to the other two to unlock them for us as well.
Costa grunted. I hadn’t expected much more of a response. We’d been through this already, at the station.
For some reason, saying it aloud made me feel better, calmer. I could deal with this so long as I had a plan.
“So your sister,” Costa began.
I winced. “I’m not sure this is the best time to talk about her. I need to keep my focus.”
“I get that. I know she went through some stuff— you don’t have to rehash that if you don’t want to. It’s just… Where are your parents?” He glanced at me before returning his gaze to the road.
“We don’t know who our dads are.”
His eyes widened.
“Yes. We have different dads.” I turned my head to face my window, and watched the gray buildings slip past us. “My mom enjoyed being a succubus. She wasn’t exactly the marrying kind.” My voice faded at the end, and I clenched my teeth together. It shouldn’t bother me. “She passed away when Elaine was still a teenager, a couple years before...” I cleared my throat and willed the image of Elaine, so broken and damaged after her attack, from my mind. “Anyway, it’s just been us ever since. I mean, we have some extended family, a couple of aunts. But they don’t live around here, so we don’t see them that often.”
My voice broke, and I blinked back tears. “Elaine is all I have.”
“Like I said, I read her file. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
But suddenly I did want to talk about it, and the words felt as if they would burst from my chest if I didn’t get them out. “She was so damaged after the attack, I wasn’t sure I’d ever get her back.”