Blood Trinity (Belador #1)(66)
Tzader handed off his mug. “While we were investigating in Charlotte, we caught someone stealing from the Alterant’s booty stash. Someone with the ability to change his physical appearance.”
“A troll?”
“You got it. When Quinn figured out about the weather, we mapped an area where the thefts took place and drew lines until we figured out a general area where they intersected. Once we had that, we started shaking down Nightstalkers and found the Alterant’s hideout in a derelict auto repair building. Before going in, we spent a week watching the hideout to see if someone was connected to him in any way. What we found was a troll who showed up on the sunny days while the Alterant was out and took a couple things like jewelry or motorcycle chrome. Never enough to make a huge dent in the pile we found, but consistent.”
“What was the Alterant doing with the stolen goods?”
“Looked like he was pawning most of it and stashing the cash in a wall air conditioner in his hideout. He had a newspaper folded to a section on custom vans, as if he was trying to get enough money to buy one.”
Evalle understood immediately why someone who couldn’t take rain the way she couldn’t handle sunlight would want a low-profile vehicle he could live in when need be. She’d have loved to own a van like that instead of traveling in late-night buses on the trip she’d taken across the country. “What happened with the troll?”
Tzader accepted his beer from Quinn, then eyed the smooth foam. “No clover?”
Quinn released a put-upon sigh and opened a supersized Mr. Goodbar she’d splurged for, because that was his favorite confectionary indulgence. He told Tzader, “No little paper umbrellas either. You were telling her about the troll.”
Swallowing a drink of beer first, Tzader continued. “We caught the troll and threatened to alert VIPER that he had not declared his residence in Charlotte. He swore he was leaving that day.”
Evalle snorted at that. “To go home and take care of the elderly sick mother he didn’t have, right?”
“Close enough to the lies he spewed,” Tzader agreed. “We told him he wasn’t going anywhere unless he could bring us information on the thief he was stealing from within twenty-four hours. If he did and the intel was confirmed as usable, he could leave. He came back nine hours later with two pieces of intel. The troll said someone was looking for the Alterant.”
Feenix padded over and climbed onto Evalle’s lap, gurgling noises on each breath. He was a heavy little guy. Once she had him settled, she clarified, “So the troll knew the thief was an Alterant?”
Quinn cut in. “Not until after he’d spoken to others in his underground community and put it together. The troll was pretty shaken up to realize he’d been stealing from an Alterant, especially after word circulated about the thief killing nine Beladors.”
Trolls fearing Alterants. Now that cheered her up, except for the downside of Sen figuring a way to use that against her. “You said two pieces of intel. Who’d the troll say was looking for the Alterant?”
“A Rak had feelers out for the Alterant.”
Just add that to the list of today’s demons, Sen and the Tribunal. She felt like the baby in a Mardi Gras king cake.
Eventually something with teeth would get her.
“What’s a Rak?” Now that she had a computer, any waking minute when she wasn’t working at the morgue or running down VIPER leads Evalle spent studying websites Z and Quinn had given her. Still, her working knowledge of preternatural beings, supernatural abilities, entities and anything related was pretty limited compared to Quinn and Tzader’s expertise.
“Rak is a slang term for a Rakshasas, a malevolent being or demon who can shift into any form, not just human,” Quinn explained.
“Another demon?” Was it a slow news week? She could hear the six o’clock anchor now. Alterant becomes dinner at demon convention. Film at eleven. Three demons in ten days and two of them had been hunting for an Alterant. “What happened to the Rak?”
“He fled to Atlanta,” Quinn told her. “The second thing the troll told us was that the Rak had left a cryptic message for a Belador. The Rak is the informant Tzader came back to Atlanta to meet with.”
Yet another demon in Atlanta. Three in one day had to be a record. And this one had been looking for an Alterant, too.
Coincidences were for people with a normal life, not her.
The walls of her world started closing in, and for the first time in two years she had serious doubts over how much Tzader and Quinn could do to help her if someone was targeting Alterants … and knew where to find them. Them? Her.
But this many demons popping up in the southeast was not coincidental.
With the Tribunal breathing down her neck, Evalle needed anything this Rak demon could provide, like who knew how to find the Alterants. And maybe the origin of Alterants. Brina didn’t know how to find or identify them in human form or she’d have captured the one in Charlotte before it had a chance to shift and kill Beladors.
Evalle’s skin pebbled with excitement. This could be the key to providing the Tribunal with answers.
If anyone could pull information from a snitch, it was Tzader. Her gaze slid over to Tzader, who still hadn’t said what had happened to the Rak.
She squeezed a hand full of beanbag, using it like a stress-relief chair. “Tell me you found this Rak guy, Z, and got the information you were after.”