Dark Crossroads by Dunbar Debra

Author:Dunbar, Debra [Dunbar, Debra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Vampires
Amazon: B081FFS2PT
Goodreads: 48835204
Published: 2020-01-10T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

I noticed right away that Buff was no longer lurking outside my door. Instead another man had taken his place—a guy I recognized immediately.

“Answer is still no, Reynard,” I told him as I climbed the stairs.

“See, I’m thinking the answer should be yes.”

There was something about the smug way he’d said it that made me pause.

“Let’s take a walk,” he added.

I debated whether I wanted to stroll down a vacant street with Reynard, or risk Gran hearing what I was pretty sure he was going to say to me. Ultimately I decided to keep this outside.

“What’d you do with Mr. Buff?” I asked as we headed down the chipped sidewalk.

“The meathead guarding your front door? He’s on a wild goose chase. I figure we’ve got about fifteen minutes before he figures it out and comes back.”

We reached the end of the block and kept going. Silence stretched on and the clock was ticking. Might as well get this all out in the open.

“I’m not getting involved in Haul Du’s internal power struggles,” I repeated what I’d told him before. “And as for your threat about civilian casualties, well I’m pretty sure the presence of a Conclave justice will keep things civil between you and this other mage.”

“It’s the Conclave justice that I want to discuss,” Reynard replied. “She’s here looking for Dark Iron. It would be a shame if she knew what happened to him.”

Was he bluffing? I couldn’t imagine he’d found the body, but Reynard was a mage. With appropriate incentive, a demon might have been able to find out what happened, although they generally didn’t just come right out with names and details. Maybe he’d hired a medium to contact Dark Iron’s spirit, although from personal experience communicating with a spirit didn’t often result in much besides odd snippets of not-so-helpful information.

“Would it be a shame? From what I heard the guy stole some other mage’s property, killed two of his own to cover it up, and was up to his neck in that Fiore Noir business.”

“Murder is still murder,” Reynard replied.

“You saying you murdered him? Not that I blame you, but that’s hardly going to convince me to help you fight off this other mage.”

“No, I’m saying you murdered him.” Reynard halted and pulled something up on his cell phone, turning the screen toward me.

The video was grainy, like someone’s cheap doorbell camera, but I knew immediately what I was seeing. I been the only other person there at the meeting up with Dark Iron and I certainly hadn’t filmed anything. I doubted the mage would have wanted video evidence of his theft and a confession to multiple murders. Watching the video on Reynard’s phone, I suddenly realized who’d set this up.

Only one person had known I was meeting Dark Iron. The same person who’d organized the meeting time and place. The same person who’d texted Dark Iron to meet him, then gave me the information to go in his stead. One person.

Chuck.

Bastard. Here I’d been

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