A Glimmer of Hope (The Avalon Chronicles #1)(79)

“Also, we looked into your ex-boyfriend’s murder, along with that of his new partner. You were right: Elias framed another man for those crimes. A man he also killed. Unfortunately, that went to the human police, and Olivia tells me that reopening the investigation as an Avalon case will cause no end of trouble. Turns out Robert, the man Elias framed, was a nasty little toad at the best of times, and had managed to walk away from two serious assaults in the last few years. It’s not ideal, but he’s going to have to stay the killer.”

“I don’t understand Avalon politics. Human crimes are dealt with by humans. But this isn’t a human crime.”

“That’s true, but in this case we had no idea it wasn’t a human crime until you told us. By that time the police were actively investigating. Avalon involving themselves at that stage just to change the killer from one piece of crap to another isn’t something they’d bother doing. If Rob had been a saint, or at least a good person, they might have, but he was a nasty little man, so Avalon doesn’t care. It’s not exactly ideal, but we will get Elias, I promise you that.”

“He doesn’t strike me as an easy person to get.”

“No, he’s a slippery little devil. Been after him for a while now, and his boss Nergal since what happened in London three years ago.”

“The dragon landing on the Millennium Bridge? Chloe told us.”

“Yes, well, Nergal was involved in the whole mess. Had been for centuries leading up to it. No one even knew he existed, and that’s the way he likes it. So the fact that we found him and went after him is something that he finds most vexing. We have no idea where he actually is, and America is a big place, but we’ll find him. Eventually. Hopefully before whatever insanity he calls a plan comes to fruition. But one step at a time, and Elias comes first.”

“When you go after him, I want in.”

Tommy paused, before taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “That’s a bad idea. You haven’t even accepted your spirits yet. You could go off and hurt people. You could go off and hurt yourself.”

“I need to look him in the eyes and tell him he will never hurt anyone I care about ever again.”

“You’ll get your chance, but leave the actual capture to us. We’ve been at this a long time and we know what we’re doing.”

The two chatted for a while longer, although they stayed away from conversations about powers and monsters, sticking to more pleasant topics.

Suddenly, Grayson burst through the front door, half carrying a heavily bleeding Jared, with Kasey following.

“What happened?” Tommy asked, dropping his plate of food on the floor and helping Grayson carry Jared into the medical room.

“Where are Chloe and the others?” Kasey asked.

“In a minute, Kasey,” Doc Grayson told her, moving Jared onto a bed before beginning an examination.

“What happened?” Kasey asked, aware that Tommy had just asked the same thing, but needing answers.

Grayson cut through Jared’s bloody shirt, revealing a dozen puncture wounds. “He’s been badly cut,” he said. “Silver blade, judging from the burns around the wound.”

“What happened?” Kasey demanded again, shouting.

“Leave if you can’t keep your cool,” Tommy told her. “We have more important things to do.”

“I asked Grayson a question,” Kasey snapped. “I want to know what happened.”

“Leave. Now.” Tommy’s words were spoken with complete authority and were to be obeyed without question. Kasey stared at her dad in disbelief, before turning and storming from the room.

“They found us,” Jared managed to say. “They found us.”

“Goddamn it,” Tommy snapped.

“Don’t you bloody well start,” Grayson told him, his voice cold.

“I don’t know how. We were on the motorway, when we got shunted, spun around. Kate was driving. She . . .”

“Where’s Kate?”

“Dead.”

There was a moment of silence in the room at the news that one of their own had died. Layla hadn’t spoken to Kate much, but the short, blonde woman had always appeared to be happy and easy to talk to.

“Where’s Chloe?” Layla asked, her voice breaking.

“They took her. I’m so sorry, Layla. They took her.”

Elias had Chloe. Elias and his people had taken her friend. Elias and his people would hurt her, would do awful things to her. Anger built up inside of Layla the likes of which she’d never felt before; a fire of pure unadulterated rage. But when she spoke, her voice was calm and betrayed no hint of the emotion she was feeling. “Then we’d bloody well better get her back.”

“We will,” Tommy assured her.

“Why were you all out of the mansion?”

“We needed supplies,” Jared said, before screaming in pain as Grayson began to cauterize the wounds in an effort to stop the effects of the silver poisoning.

Tommy helped hold Jared down. “Silver kills most things,” he said. “Many die because they can’t stop bleeding. We need to stop it.”

“Can I help?”

“No,” Grayson said. His tone wasn’t unkind or sharp, but it was all business. “I need to save this young man’s life.”