“That’s right,” Frankie agreed.
“We’ve never seen anything move like that,” Leah added with a touch of fear. “It was horrible. He tore that vampire apart and then set him on fire with his mind.”
“The hunter ran into the bar after that,” Frankie finished.
There was a pause as the harpies shared a look.
“What is it?” I prodded, knowing there was something they weren’t telling me.
“When he was done killing that vampire, he looked right at us,” Frankie confessed. “He didn’t speak, but we heard his voice in our heads. He told us to leave unless we wanted to die too.”
“We didn’t stick around after that,” Leah said.
Then we were right. Ahrun killed both the hunter and vampire. But why? That was what I didn’t understand. It couldn’t have been to protect me. For one thing, he couldn’t know who I was.
Although his stalking might contradict that.
Still, going by his advanced stage of decomposition, he was only recently awakened from his long sleep. It was unlikely that he’d have known what the vampire and human were up to.
Then was it instinct?
Nathan came back over the phone. “You want to tell me how you knew there was a bomb under Aileen’s car? Because I’d really love to know what the fuck is going on.”
sixteen
Astormwasgatheringin Liam’s eyes. It was made all the more frightening because of his utter lack of expression.
“I’ll explain later. For now, watch yourself.”
“Yeah. Yeah. I always do,” Nathan said. “What should I do with this bomb?”
That was what I’d like to know too.
He’d better not say set it off. I hadn’t had Gwyneth 2.0 nearly long enough to part with her under these circumstances.
“The djinn should have a method for handling this,” Liam said.
“She’s not going to be happy about that.”
Our altitude began to drop as the harpies arrowed toward the Gargoyle’s roof.
“Remind her that the bomb is an attempt to kill her patron and its placement happened on her territory,” Liam bit out in a loss of patience. “Then get back to the Gargoyle.”
There was a click as he hung up.
Rather than aim for the ground, the harpies deposited me on the only flat part of the roof. A narrow ledge between two stone arches that was no more than a couple feet wide and about six feet long. The ground was three stories below, the stone steps leading to the mansion’s entrance promising a painful death if I fell.
I caught my balance as Frankie and Leah set me down.
“You can handle it from here, right?” Frankie said with a twisted smile as she stepped off the ledge without waiting for me to answer. Her wings snapped out to carry her away.
Leah waved, following her friend into the air.
“Is this payback for Alches?” I shouted after them as their friends deposited Liam next to me and took off without a word.
Alone, I grumbled to myself, eyeing the steep, upward slope of the roof behind me and the long drop in front. “How are we even supposed to get down from here?”
If I jumped, I’d break bones but probably live. Not an appealing option unless there was really no other way.
