Blood Trinity (Belador #1)(41)

But with her level of power, she could give a Nightstalker human form for ten minutes with a five-second shake.

“Ready?” she asked, glancing around to make sure they were still alone. The only living thing anywhere close to this dark stretch was some poor old vagrant across the street covered in newspapers and sleeping shoved up against the hospital’s back wall.

Grady’s hand trembled when he started reaching for hers. He licked his lips, anticipation blooming in his sagging gaze until he paused and pulled back. “What’d you bring me?”

She shook her head, refusing to tell him what was in her shoulder bag. “Not until we shake.”

“Should have made that part of the deal,” he grumbled and stuck out rough fingers that had fought to survive. “Do it.”

When her hand touched his, heat spread across her palm with the energy flowing from her.

The exultation on his face always plucked at her heartstrings. His life had come down to ten-minute visits to this world. She could go to other Nightstalkers, who would agree in a snap to anything she asked, but Grady was far more intelligent than the rest when it came to information, and the grouch behaved like a grandfather who gave unsolicited advice.

Her fantasy of a grandfather, since she’d never had one she knew of.

Within seconds, Grady’s body turned completely opaque, his dark flesh hung loose with age, but the old coot’s body emitted a quiet strength.

She withdrew her hand. “Start talking.”

“What’s my surprise?”

Evalle sighed and dug into her shoulder bag for the McDonald’s sack filled with a hamburger, French fries and a bottle of water she lifted into view.

“You’re kidding, right?” The look he gave her questioned her ability to chew gum and walk.

She ignored the hiss of irritation that slipped from his lips and pointed out, “Last time you said how much you miss the taste of hamburgers.”

He rolled his eyes to the heavens as if someone up there would explain demented women to him, then swung around, searching the other side of the quiet street. Grady limped over to the homeless guy asleep.

Evalle would have zapped him with a lick of power if not for her aversion to hurting Grady in any way. Especially during his ten minutes of Nightstalker nirvana. “You forget you owe me information and that I’m on a tight schedule?”

He slipped a half-drunk bottle of wine from the bony fingers of the comatose bum and limped back. “I agreed to talk after we shook, but not how soon after.” He downed a swig of wine and jerked the bottle away. “Lord Almighty, that sucks.”

“What? Is your palate spoiled by Mad Dog 20/20?” She grabbed the bottle away from him. “I need answers.”

He sighed as he stared longingly at the bottle. “The Cresyls were on a leash, part of a spell. What were you doing with the Birrn?”

Figures that Grady would know about her fighting the Birrn. “Where’d you hear about that?”

“Those two junkyard heathens.”

She rubbed her hand over her forehead. “I’ve got to find those twins and shut them up.”

“They’ll sure as hell spill their guts if someone grabs ’em and plays hard.”

She didn’t have a nurturing bone in her body, but if someone hurt either of those two teenagers, she’d make that person beg for death.

Grady reached for the wine. “What have you got on the demons?”

She pulled it away again. “One of the Cresyls killed the human, then the Birrn ate the Cresyl. The Cresyls set me up, but I don’t know if it was to bait me into a trap or any Alterant who happened to be here.”

“You’re the only one I’ve ever heard of that ain’t caught yet.”

That was the unfortunate part. But she could hope there were more, couldn’t she? Just one more would shed doubt on the death being related to her powers. “Oh, and here’s the kicker—the Birrn had Celtic markings.”

Grady shook his head. “That don’t make sense with the Birrn bein’ Nigerian.”

“Yeah, I know. So where does a Celtic connection come in? Every way I look at this, I still come up with someone out to set me up by making the mauled human appear to be an Alterant attack.”

“Here’s what I got.” Grady finally turned serious. “The Cresyls were on a spell leash connected to the Birrn. That would mean the Birrn’s master was controlling all three demons.”

She handed him back the bottle. “I’ve never heard of that, but we could fill a library with what I don’t know about demons. What about the Celtic link?”

Grady turned the bottle up, swallowing a long gulp. “The majik holding the Cresyls was Noirre.”

That sent a shiver through her. Tzader’s lead for the traitorous Belador had something to do with Noirre majik. But Tzader was too involved in something to break free or she’d have heard from him telepathically by now.

“Any idea who conjured the majik?” Evalle glanced up when Grady didn’t speak, and she caught him considering his answer. Oh, she knew that look, and it was trouble. “Don’t even think to negotiate a new deal.”

He covered his heart with the bottle in his hand. “I’m hurt that you’d question my integrity that way.”

Nightstalkers had no integrity or loyalty as a rule, willing to sell the same information over and over as soon as they could shake again. But Grady had been different, an exception to the rule, and he’d protected intel in the past.