Soul Taken (Mercy Thompson #13)(65)

Tony’s complaint at the cemetery had hit a chord with Adam. How often would knowing just a bit more above his pay grade have resulted in fewer people dying? That was a set greater than none, he thought.

“Tony,” Adam said thoughtfully, “just how far do you want to go down this rabbit hole?”

Tony stiffened, giving him a look. “Is that an offer?”

“You have had our backs for a while now,” Adam said. “I think it’s fair that you know where the bodies are coming from. I think they’re”—he nodded toward the door, where Mercy had stepped back and was watching Zee manage the lock—“not sure what’s going on. But I will tell you when we have a working theory.”

“Catch?”

“You’ll have to lie about it to your fellow officers, knowing that ignorance might get them killed—though maybe slower than actually knowing what’s going on.”

Tony’s eyes narrowed. “You think that’s new to me? I might not have fought in an organized war, but I’ve been in the trenches, where it’s hard to decide who is friend and who is foe.”

“Organized,” said George carefully, “war. I haven’t been in one of those.”

Adam gave a huff of laughter. “Isn’t that the truth.” He returned to the subject at hand. “There is still a hard limit to what I can let you know. Secrets that aren’t mine. I’ll share what I can without regard to your safety—but I will impose silence on you about things that outsiders cannot know. That will mean that sometimes when those bodies fall, you will know that it was your silence that let them die. Your silence, and not just mine.”

Tony met his gaze and held it long enough that Adam had to put a hold on his wolf.

“Fair offer,” Tony said. “Can I think on it?”

“Open offer,” Adam agreed. He waited outside until George’s car pulled out of the lot.





10





I followed Zee into the garage, where presumably he’d tell me all about what was going on. I felt like I had too much information and none of it went together. I had a box of jigsaw pieces, but I felt like I couldn’t tell if they all went to one puzzle or three different ones.

I clutched Adam’s coat around me, probably looking like an idiot. I was tired, sore, and scared—and well beyond caring what I looked like, or at least caring enough to do anything about it.

Aubrey followed me.

I’d quit talking to him, though it was probably already too late. I didn’t know if my paying attention to him affected Aubrey anyway because he wasn’t a typical ghost; I hadn’t really figured that out before I tried to help him “go into the light” or whatever. Ghosts are spirit, what’s left behind sometimes when people die. Aubrey was the whole kit and caboodle minus his body—soul bound to this earth as if he were still alive. And not really without body, either, though that was dead, all right. But when I’d tried to send him on, I’d felt that the ties that bound him to his body weren’t cut the way they should be.

Zee took a seat on one of the short mechanic’s stools, the kind on wheels, arms crossed and mouth set. The unhappiness that had begun earlier today and built into anger through the visit to the grocery store, morgue, and cemetery was still with him. Zee could hold on to rage longer than anyone I knew.

“Mercy,” he began, but I stopped him.

“Could you wait for Adam?” I asked.

He raised an eyebrow.

Adam couldn’t perceive the kind of magic that Zee and I had been wading through all day. I wasn’t sure I was getting all of it. What I did get, I hoped I didn’t understand what it meant—because what I thought it meant was bad. I had the distinct feeling that Zee’s explanation wasn’t going to make me feel any better, any less afraid.

I’d had a spider-fae lay thorns or something that had turned into eggs infesting my hands and feet, and those embryonic creatures had taken control of my mind. The spider eggs were going to give me the willies for days once I allowed myself to think about them. I’d waded through the magical and physical leavings of a killer and viewed the bodies he’d left in his wake. If I was going to get more horrible news—and I was pretty sure I was—I wanted Adam to get the horrible news with me.

I raised my chin in response to Zee’s eyebrow lift to indicate that I didn’t care if Adam added to the discussion or not, I wanted to wait for him. That seemed to amuse Zee—without cooling the rage I could feel radiating off him. He shrugged to indicate that he was fine waiting for Adam even if he thought I was being stupid.

My hands and feet hurt, a dull irritating ache that didn’t keep me from pacing. Pacing meant that Aubrey had a harder time trying to invade my personal bubble. As a bonus, as I walked, the minor pain of my feet distracted me from the worst part of my day so far.

The awareness that I was somehow tied to that dark entity hadn’t faded like it had after I’d dreamt about it. Maybe if I hadn’t tried to send Aubrey to wherever souls go when their bodies die, or maybe if I hadn’t examined Aubrey’s body, if I hadn’t tracked the killer using my ties to that endless darkness—hey, maybe if I hadn’t gotten up this morning—I wouldn’t be noticing that the taste of darkness in my mouth was strong enough to choke on.