Indigo(79)

When Nora didn’t answer, Selene threw up her hands. “Fine. I’ll look. You try to save a man who’d happily see you dead.”

“He’s tried that twice before and failed. You be careful. I doubt Rafe left only one trap around here.”

Shaking her head, Selene stalked back into the hall.

Nora shed her shadows as she crossed the short distance to Mueller and lowered herself beside him. He didn’t react at all to her emergence from the darkness, only held both blood-covered hands clutched to his chest. When she pulled them away, she saw where that divot of flesh had come from. The magic shrapnel had ripped apart his shirt and the skin beneath.

Nora peeled off the blood-and-gore-soaked tatters of Mueller’s shirt—or what remained of it. She shook her head. The wounds looked bad, and she was no doctor, but it seemed mostly surface damage. She could feel broken ribs, which probably explained the wheezing breaths. Deadly, if one pierced a lung, but he’d survived this long. He could make it a little longer.

She brought ice and wet towels from the kitchen. She cleaned him up, but he continued to lie still, eyes closed while he labored to breathe. She pressed the ice to his chest wound.

That snapped him out of his shock, his eyes rolling as he struggled to focus. “You … Shoulda died twelve years ago. Saved us … getting Bogdani on our backs. I shoulda guessed … Indigo … and the brat that wouldn’t die … were the same.”

“Yes, me. Never thought I’d get tired of seeing your kind surprised, but it’s really getting old. So let’s cut to the chase. You’re in rough shape. Broken ribs. Internal damage. If you get to a hospital in the next hour, you may live. If I walk out of here without the information I want, though, you’re not getting so much as a Band-Aid.”

A bitter, gasping laugh. “Is that how you think this works? I talk, a doctor fixes me up, and everything is hunky-dory? It’s not a lack of medical care that’s gonna kill me, girl. Might as well finish the job and then turn the gun on yourself. That’s all the mercy either of us is getting.”

“You set off a trap, which means you weren’t an invited guest. You came here to confront Rafe?”

Another snort of a laugh. “You’re such a child. Or an idiot. The only way to stop that bastard is…” Mueller trailed off, not quite ready to complete the evolution to traitor.

She leaned into his face and raised an eyebrow. “You want to stop him. How interesting. Did Graham Edwards convince you to take his side, once his kids went missing, leave the Children of Phonos? You see what the cult is doing, and you want it stopped.”

Now she got a long laugh, one that set Mueller gasping in pain.

“Ah, I see. You want Rafe stopped. Not the cult. You want the old order restored. Not Rafe in charge and taking it all for himself. Find information you can take to higher-ups. The European wing? Tell them Rafe has been a bad boy, and they’ll reward you … by getting rid of him? Open fresh new opportunities for your advancement?”

“I don’t give a shit about my advancement. There’s nothing to advance in. Not here. He’s ruined everything. A Johnny-come-lately who thought he could waltz in after the hard work was done and claim the rewards. His cousin brought him in afterward—the great sorcerer to fix our mess. And he lectured us like kids about how we’d screwed up the ritual, how we’d have to reclaim the god, how we’d have to atone, rebuild. He wasn’t even there! Instead he destroyed us. Most of the American wing wiped out, from the highest ranks to the newest warriors. Gone. Dead. And for what?”

The speech drained Mueller, and he slumped, eyelids flagging. Nora pressed the cold cloth to his face, thinking about the way lust for power rotted every organization at the core. The Children of Phonos had been undone by internecine fighting, betrayal after betrayal. The Androktasiai had suffered the same, with the added influence of Caedis. Now there was almost nothing left of either group.

“You’re not done yet,” Indigo said to Mueller. “What were you doing here? What’s Rafe up to? How were you supposed to reclaim the god?”

Mueller rolled his eyes. “You really are a child, aren’t you?”

“Am I?” she demanded, letting the shadows flow over her face, letting the presence of Damastes inside her consume the light around her body as she pushed her dark-wrapped fingers into his wound. “Child of something you should fear.”

“Christ,” he moaned as consciousness wavered. “I’d almost feel sorry for you if I didn’t know what’s inside of you. That’s what he wants. What he needs.…”

Indigo was about to reply when Selene walked in. Mueller frowned and wheezed. Nora saw a flicker in his eyes, as if he might be putting things together. Did he know Selene was an Androktasiai? He’d been inner circle, he must know about the slaughter nuns.

“Did you find anything?” Nora asked. “Like whatever the captain here was after?”

Selene scooped up a backpack Nora had missed beside the couch. “Looks like he’s already done our work for us. Thank you, Mr. Mueller.”

Selene rifled through the bag. Then she cursed.

“Not what you were looking for?” Mueller said with a grimacing smirk.

“He was planting evidence tying Rafe to the child trafficking. Nothing here helps us find out what Rafe is planning now.”