Page 91 of Soul Sucker

“Like the way every culture has similar myths and fairytales?”

“Exactly, a collective subconscious fear.”

He resisted the urge to kiss the top of her head, then stood back to allow her to stand. “What time do we need to be back here tonight?”

“From the security camera log, the culprit tends to appear around 3:00 a.m., so we’d better be in place at midnight.” She went over to the door. “I’ll okay it with Mr. Bonetti and meet you downstairs, all right?”

He nodded his agreement and waited until she left. Was she finding it as hard to be physically close to him as he was to her? She seemed even pricklier than usual, and keen to get away, but then he was hardly his normal, calm self either. He walked out through the restaurant and down the dark stairs to the street. The noise and heat hit in a dirty, dusty wave and he almost recoiled. He didn’t like feeling so on edge. It reminded him of his childhood, when the wrong word could mean death or worse. In order to avoid the vilest excesses of his parents, he’d learned early to avoid antagonizing them, but sometimes that hadn’t been enough. Sometimes he had to stand up and face them with all the weapons of his forebears, both magical and physical, at his disposal. And even then that hadn’t always saved those he loved… But he’d learned from that and then they’d learned to fear him.

And now here he was, the scourge of Otherworld, afraid of being rejected by a mouthy, tiny blonde who ordered him around and never let him know exactly where he stood with her. Somewhere deep in Otherworld, he guessed someone was laughing.

15

“Ah, there you are Ella, Vadim,”Feehan called out to them as they walked past his office. “Have you got a moment?”

She glanced at Vadim but he’d already obediently turned toward Feehan’s open door. She’d have to talk to him about that biddable streak of his. It was so not cool and, she now knew,sonot like him.

Feehan was seated at his desk tapping away at his keyboard. The smell of his tuna sandwiches permeated the air along with the underlying hint of nicotine.

“I have the security footage from last Friday.”

“And what does it show?” Ella perched on the side of his desk.

“Nothing.”

Feehan rotated his screen to show them a view of the SBLE lobby and then one of the white marble foyer upstairs. He clicked again and showed a frozen image of her and Vadim waiting at the elevator doors, and a later one of them both exiting the building at street level.

“That makes no sense.”

“I know. No sign of maintenance, and no evidence that the elevator didn’t behave perfectly.” Feehan put down his pen. “Are you certain you were trapped? You don’t think it might be some…empathissue?”

“Mr. Feehan, I’m no empath,” Vadim said. “We were both there, and we both experienced the same thing. And there is one major problem with those pictures.”

“What?”

“Ms. Walsh doesn’t wait for the elevator. She always uses the stairs.”

Feehan nodded slowly. “That’s true.”

“I suspect someone has gone to a lot of trouble to cover up what happened. I have no idea why, or who would choose to do such a thing,” Vadim said.

“Neither do I,” Feehan agreed. “But I’ll get right on it. What do you think, Ella?”

“It definitely happened. That’s all I have to say about it.” She rose to her feet. “Are we done?” Ever since she was a kid she’d hated it when she hadn’t been believed. It felt odd to have Vadim standing up for her.

“There is one more matter I needed to pass on.” Feehan consulted a piece of paper on his desk. “Sam left me a note to tell me that Fay Roberts died just after she graduated from college. He spoke to her parents, and confirmed her death with Otherworld.”

“Oh great. That leaves three of us.” Ella shoved her hands in her pockets. “I feel like a sitting duck.”

“You’re the safest of the lot,” Feehan said far too cheerfully for her liking. “You are, Ms. Walsh. One of our team will be with you 24/7.”

Vadim held the door open for her.

“Thanks.” Fear always brought out her most pugnacious side. “I need to do some research on small, green spiky things. I’ll be in my office.”

As she left she heard Vadim speaking softly to Feehan. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep her in my sights. She’s just upset you didn’t believe her about what happened on Friday.”

She almost turned around and went back. Who the hell did Morosov think he was, making excuses for her? Just because it was true didn’t mean she wanted her boss to know about it. Had Vadim somehow picked up her earlier thought? This bonding crap could also be a gigantic pain in the ass. No one could be expected to keep her shields up all the time.

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