Page 11 of The Last Slayer
She gave me a smile. A wasted effort. She knew why I wanted to talk to her privately, and I knew why she was smiling. It was a familiar routine. I’d get worked up about something, and she’d calm me down, make me consider the bigger picture. Except this time it wasn’t going to work.
“Excuse us, gentlemen,” she said, and started walking toward the back of the building. Every single male eye followed the cant of her hips.
She took me to her office around the corner. It was one of the largest ones on the floor, and she had a right to it—after Jack, she was the partner who brought in the most business. The oak door had a very powerful amulet and wardings, ones Valerie had designed herself. She shut the door and gestured to a modular white chair across from her elegant black fiberglass desk.
“I’ll stand,” I said.
Her desk held crystal figurines, books on symbology and lots of pictures of herself. I’d have kept pictures of myself on my desk too if I’d looked like her.
She went around the desk and fiddled with a coffeemaker by the window. “Want something to drink?”
“No.”
She shrugged and made herself a cup of steaming coffee. “So? Let’s have it.”
I felt better for having eaten, but the turn of events had left a sour taste in my mouth. “How long have you known about the test?”
“Since they approached me this afternoon.” Valerie wrapped her hands around a black mug emblazoned with the firm’s blue-and-white shield logo. “They knew we had a dragon specialist and wanted to hire us as consultants.”
I did dragons on the side as a secondary specialty, nothing more, but nobody else in the region knew anything about them. “And you said okay?”
She took a sip of her drink. “Of course. They paid us extra for it, they said it was a deal breaker, and out of all the potential clients they offered the most money—”
“Valerie,” I said. The money thing further fouled my mood. “I didn’t become a hunter so you could send me into some trap. I went there thinking that she was a real client. Instead, she turned out to be a demon. If I hadn’t figured it out as quickly as I did, I could have died. Get it? I could have died.”
Guilt flashed in her eyes, but then they cleared. “Ashera.” Her voice was patient, a mother explaining the basic facts of life to an unreasonable child. “You are way too good for a supernatural like that. Are you dead? No. Is there a head sitting out in the lobby? Yes. And don’t worry about the paperwork. I’ll have a firm attorney on it first thing tomorrow.”
It was just a bit too obvious a ploy. “You’re so full of it. Who fed you those lines?”
“Oh, please.” She waved a well-manicured hand. “It’s just this one time. Besides, I gave you Sex right before the hunt.”
“Guess I should thank you for the early birthday present.” I crossed my arms. At least she had the grace to blush a bit. “It was Jack, wasn’t it?”
There was an uncomfortable silence. She obviously didn’t want to rat him out, but I’d’ve bet my hunter’s license he was the one behind this scheme.
Valerie sighed. “How did you know?”
“Because sometimes Jack does things that make no sense. Unlike you.” I stared out the window. “Usually.”
“He said you had to do it. And of course, he didn’t tell me why…even though he made me the messenger.” She sipped her coffee. “You know it’s bad form to shoot the messenger, right?”
“Valerie. My life was on the line. Money’s nice, but it doesn’t compare to breathing.”
“I did meet with Andersen before I told you about the Selena thing. He claimed that the supernatural owed him a favor and promised you wouldn’t get hurt.”
Her mouth was just slightly tighter than normal. She wasn’t happy about the situation either, but it had been an order from Jack. I’d never seen her challenge him in anything, even during her teen years. And if I’d been in her position, I might have done as he asked. He was an unbelievably accurate diviner. As far as I knew, he’d never been wrong. He wouldn’t have agreed to it if he’d Seen anything bad happening to me.
Still, a par
t of me wanted a pound or two of flesh. It was time to channel my aggression into something else. “What about that other demon? What was his deal?”
“Other demon? What are you talking about?”
I know Valerie better than anyone, and I looked at her carefully. She wasn’t lying. So the demon was something Jack had kept to himself…or else it was some kind of coincidence.
I don’t believe in coincidences.
“I’m warning you now, so you can figure out what to say, but Jack and I are going to have a very long talk.” When I caught him in a non-diviner moment.
