That scent, however, suggested Mike himself had come in. It certainly wasn’t a scent I’d come across anywhere else but in his office. And while I would have thought doing accounts a little beneath him, he did seem to think that – because of his past relationship with Mom – he owed it to her to keep a “fatherly” eye on me. Maybe this was his way of doing so.

I switched on the lights and walked across to my desk. The accounts had been neatly stacked, the “done” pile much larger than the “to be processed,” and Mike’s bold scrawl noting receipt numbers was on several of them. I half smiled. In some ways he reminded me of Jak – he’d never entirely trusted computers, and tended to have paper backups of all legal documents.

I once again pushed down the grief that threatened to overwhelm me – grief that came from Jak’s death and the deeper, older loss of my mom – and pressed the vid-phone’s button for downstairs. Margie answered on the second ring.

“Hey, boss,” she said, a smile crinkling the corners of her dark eyes, “when did you sneak in?”

“Only a few minutes ago,” I replied. “I’ll be down later, but right now, I’m expecting a visit from my uncle —”

“If he’s the red-haired gentleman with the thunderous expression, I just sent him up.” She hesitated. “That’s not a problem, is it? He said he was expected.”

“No, it’s fine. Thanks.” I hung up.

Footsteps echoed – Rhoan, taking the stairs two at a time. I swallowed nervously, then squared my shoulders. I could do this. I had to, for everyone’s sake.

“Uncle Rhoan,” I said, the minute he appeared. There was no way in hell I was giving him the opportunity to vent all over me. Not without making him hear me out first. “Sit down, shut up, and listen.”

He blinked. Whatever welcome he’d been expecting, it hadn’t been that. “I’ll listen if it’s the damn truth, but there’s been too little of it coming out of your mouth of late.”

“Rhoan,” I said, more forcefully this time. “Not another word. Just sit. Please.”

He studied me for a moment, then spun a chair around so he could sit with his arms resting on the back. He waved a hand, motioning me to continue.

I briefly met Azriel’s gaze. Am I doing the right thing?

Yes. He has every intention of confronting Hunter if you do not answer his questions satisfactorily.

Something I had to prevent. I’d killed a Cazador to stop Hunter knowing of this meeting. I’d be damned if I’d let that death be wasted by Rhoan marching up to Hunter and demanding answers.

And that, I realized suddenly, was precisely what she wanted. What other explanation could there be for her failing to block the mind of her assassin?

“I’m waiting.” Rhoan’s voice was soft, but held an element of ice that chilled me to the core. This wasn’t the uncle I knew and loved. This was the guardian. Coiled and ready for action.

“Jak Talbott was killed to teach me a lesson,” I said bluntly. “But he’s just the first part. You’re intended to be the second.”

That last bit might be a guess, but the more I thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Hunter wasn’t a fool, and there was no way she’d have allowed that vampire to give us her name. And she’d have known Rhoan would have demanded to be placed on the investigation because of Jak’s links to me. This had to be part of her game plan. She wanted to bring me to heel, and if she had to kill one of the Directorate’s most valuable assets to do it, then she would. As Azriel had noted, Madeline Hunter had abandoned any pretense of humanity. At least when it came to me.

“Why would Madeline Hunter want to teach you a lesson?” Rhoan said, voice still far too cold.

“Because she wants the keys to hell, and she wants me to get them for her. Only I’m not doing it fast enough.”

And if I could get him to believe that was the extent of my relationship with her, then at least I could avoid the fallout that would inevitably follow if I had to tell him I actually worked for her.

He regarded me for a minute, his gray eyes glittering and expression flat. Still the guardian, not the uncle. “Why would she want the keys to hell?”

I snorted. “Because the woman is fucking insane, that’s why.”

“Risa —”

I sighed. “Look, she told me she – and the council – want to use hell as their own private jail.”

“And you believe that?”

“I believe it’s insane. I also believe the council has nothing to do with Hunter’s desire for the keys, and everything to do with Hunter’s desire for power and ultimate control.”

“A comment that suggests you’ve had a whole lot more to do with her than you’ve admitted so far.”

“Given the bitch wants the keys to hell, and I’m the only one who can find them,” I replied, “it would be fair enough to say she’s been in my face recently.”

“So why not come to me or Riley? We could have —”

“You could have gotten dead,” I cut in, voice flat. I met his gaze, and I had no doubt the anger and frustration so evident in his was just as fierce in mine. “Didn’t you hear what I said? Jak was just the start. You, and then Riley, and then maybe even Quinn would have all followed —”

Rhoan snorted. “Do you honestly think she would be fool enough to hurt Riley? In any way? She knows Quinn’s vengeance would be swift and deadly.”

“But she doesn’t have to physically touch Riley. Killing you would effectively do that for her.”

Rhoan accepted that with a grunt. “Even so —”

“Even so, you’re talking about a woman who has every intention of challenging a Mijai warrior, and who fully believes she will best him.”

Rhoan blinked and glanced at Azriel. “Seriously?”

“She is delusional, but not stupid,” he replied. “She would employ fair means and foul to assure victory.”

“Foul meaning what? She’s a vampire – a very old vampire, granted – but what fear would any vampire hold for the likes of you?”

“Mijai can be killed, and not just when in flesh form. Hunter knows that.”

“Besides,” I added, “she’s never been just a vampire. She’s far more. And she knows magic.”

Rhoan met my gaze again. “And Jack?”

Jack Parnell was senior vice president of the Directorate and the man in charge of the entire guardian division. He also happened to be Hunter’s brother. “I’m not involved with either the Directorate or Jack. How much he knows about Hunter and her plans, I have no idea.”

“He’s her half brother, so one would imagine —”

“Not necessarily,” Azriel commented. “While Jack has some tolerance for Hunter’s more excessive nature, he would not condone what she is currently attempting if he knew about it.”

Both Rhoan and I glanced at him. “When did you read him?” I asked.

Azriel’s gaze met mine. “When you were brought in on that Directorate case. I read the minds of all you meet. It is always better to know who and who isn’t a potential threat.”

“So how much does he know?”

“He knows what she is, and tolerates her excesses in that regard —”

“And what, exactly, is she?” Rhoan cut in.

“A Maenad,” I replied. “Or so we’ve been told. They’re supposedly the female followers of the Greek wine god Dionysus, and have the whole orgasmic-rites and tearing-people-apart deal going.”

“Huh.” His gaze came to me again. Though some of the anger had fled, it still glimmered in the background, ready to erupt at a moment’s notice. “So perhaps our next step would be to talk to Jack —”

“You can’t,” I said, alarmed. “She will kill you if she thinks you’ve discussed this with me in any way. I don’t want —”

“Give me a little more credit than that,” he cut in. “No one at the Directorate knows I contacted you. I made the call in a secure dead zone.”

Meaning secure from both electronic and psychic intrusion. “Even so —”

“No,” he said bluntly. “I’m paid to do my job, and do it I will. However, no one needs to know I’ve already talked to you. I will take this to Jack, and see what he says. What happens from there very much depends on his reaction.”

In more ways than one. “Be careful, that’s all I ask. And watch your damn back. Jack may hold to the middle ground when it comes to his sister, but she has plenty of support in the Directorate —”

He snorted. “I’ve been traversing Directorate politics for a while now. I know who to trust.”

“Yeah, but there’s a whole lot more on the line with this. You mustn’t tell anyone about my involvement with Hunter or mention the key hunt to Jack. Promise me you won’t.”

“You can’t deal with Hunter alone —”

“She isn’t alone,” Azriel cut in. “Hunter won’t ever touch her. I promise you that.”

She didn’t need to; all she had to do was hurt the people I loved. But both men were aware of that fact, and that wasn’t the point Azriel was making anyway.

Rhoan met Azriel’s gaze for several moments, then nodded once. An agreement reached, I suspected. Rhoan returned his gaze to me. “We’ll know soon enough where Jack stands. As for Hunter —” he hesitated. “I’ll hold my tongue for the moment. But if anything else goes wrong, if anyone else dies, then she has to be confronted. And, one way or another, stopped.”

“If you do have to confront her, don’t do so alone. Promise me that much.”

Just for a moment, the need to fight, to act, flared in his eyes. Rhoan, like Riley, had never been one to give up or back down, and it very obviously grated to do so now. And yet, he’d become second in command of the guardian division precisely because he didn’t often act without first thinking through the consequences.