Page 2 of City of the Lost
Who would have thought I’d be living with a Shedim, a demon from another reality who could probably snuff me out with a flick of his talon-tipped hands. Now, Azren, the dragon liege’s pet, was part of our team, helping me on a case completely unrelated to the one his mistress had charged me with. There was no obligation for him to do so, and yeah, he said he was simply protecting his mistress’s interests by making sure I didn’t get killed, but still, there was no stopping the warm fuzzies.
Azren polished off his fifteenth slice of pizza. Thank goodness for the buy one, get one free promotion. I’d opted for two of the deals, and there was still pizza left over.
He sat back and sighed. “I will miss this most of all, I think.”
I rolled my eyes. “Ouch.”
The corner of his mouth quirked slightly. Not a smile, but almost. We were getting there. And why did that give me such a thrill?
He pushed back his chair. “I’m turning in. If we get another hit, come get me.”
The radio crackled, Missy Honour’s voice a steady hum in the background.
“Will do,” Gilbert said from his perch by the machine.
Azren strode from the room, taking his sweet, fresh scent with him.
Gil had agreed to be our monitor. Not needing to sleep meant he could trawl the underground radio stations and black sites on the infoweb for possible Lost sightings and reports that could lead us to the rogue Shedim whereabouts. Trevor combed the local rags, looking for any odd news stories that might link to Lost attacks or sightings. Between us, we’d managed to minimize the damage done by the creatures that shouldn’t even exist, but we’d come up empty on the rogue Shedim—the whole reason for Azren being here.
Noir patted the corners of his mouth with a napkin. “I should go too.”
“Aw, so soon?” Trevor whined. “I thought we were going to play chess?”
Trevor had finally found someone who loved the game as much as he did. He’d even forgiven Noir for being astinking Arcana.
Noir smiled warmly, flashing his dimples. “Trust me, Trevor, my friend, I’d rather be curled up by the fire with a brandy and a good game of chess than be anywhere else right now. But, unfortunately, duty calls. I have an event to attend tomorrow morning, and my date likes to talk and expects me to listen. Sleep is essential.”
My ears pricked up. “Who’s the lucky girl?” Not that I cared, but teasing Noir and trying to ruffle his smooth feathers was always a fun pastime.
He arched a brow, tongue in cheek. “I believe you met her at the charity ball a few weeks ago.”
I tapped my fingers on the table. “Be careful, Mr. Noir, you hang out with a woman more than once and she may begin to think you’re an item.”
“Oh, really?” he drawled. “I believe you and I havehung outseveral times now.”
I smirked. “Fighting off bloodsuckers and Shedim really don’t count as dates.”
He leaned in, his baby blues darkening to wet denim, his expression serious. “It’s certainly more stimulating than polite conversation with the upper crust.”
We locked gazes, and a frisson of familiar electricity bounced between us. It happened when we got close, or when he accidentally touched me. A little fizz and pop, but neither of us had mentioned it out loud, preferring to focus on the back-and-forth banter, teasing, flirty but harmless, because aside from the fact that Noir was Arcana, and Arcana were off limits, we had a great friend-vibe going that I wasn’t interested in messing with.
I was the first to break eye contact. “You hear anything more about the elite team?”
He shook his head, sobering. “The Collective have been close-lipped about any activity of late.”
Unease writhed beneath my skin. It had been three weeks since we’d discovered the breach; surely they’d have acted by now? The Draconi prince had somehow managed to wangle extra time for us with his bone-munching mother. And thank fuck he had, because with this Lost problem to deal with we were stretched thin. We now had until the lunar eclipse to report back to Elora, which was over two weeks away. The reprieve was being rapidly taken up by hunting for the Lost, and I was afraid that by the time we sorted one problem we’d be too late to sort the other. The clock was ticking, and time was still running out.
“I’m surprised your friend Fran knew about the elite team,” Noir said. “Have you spoken to her?”
“No. I tried calling a couple of times but kept getting her busy signal. Eloise thinks Fran may finally have gotten her first assignment outside of Arcana City.”
He nodded. “Well, I’m sure this elite team will surface soon.” He didn’t sound too confident, though.
“And if it doesn’t? What if we’re wrong and the team isn’t even real? What if Fran got her wires crossed and The Collective don’t know a damn thing about the breaches in the Underground? It’s been almost a month. It can’t take that long to get shit done.”
He stared at the empty pizza box. “Then we do what we have to. We recruit neph and we clear the Underground ourselves.”
He’d resealed the breach once we’d escaped from the Underground, and we’d gone back two days ago to find it still sealed up. The two packs we’d taken out since then must have escaped prior to us sealing the breach—at least I hoped they had; otherwise, it meant we had another breach somewhere.
