Arguing with him would have been foolish, so she decide to patronize him. “Fine.”
“Good.”
He followed her inside, tracking her footsteps all the way to her suite. On the way, she considered the wisdom of inviting him inside, but her decision was taken from her hands when she found Joseph waiting for them outside her suite. The look on his face was grim, and his shoulders sagged with weariness.
“What are you doing here?” asked Iain.
“Nicholas said you’d just arrived. I thought you’d want to be in on this.”
“On what?” asked Jackie.
“Not here. My office.”
Jackie followed behind, both curious and apprehensive about what was going on. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good. With every step she took, some of the bubbling energy zinging through her began to fade.
Iain was right. Whatever he’d done wasn’t going to last long.
They filed in to find Joseph’s office already filled with people. Helen and Drake were standing in one corner, their heads close together, in quiet conversation. Nika sat on a corner of Joseph’s desk with Madoc hovering over her. He seemed pale, and, if she didn’t know better, afraid. Tynan lounged in Joseph’s chair, his elegant fingers steepled under his chin. He was by far the prettiest person in the room, including the women, but Jackie admired him about as much as she had the demons who’d held her hostage. Any creature that lived on the blood of others was not to be trusted.
“Shut the door,” ordered Joseph as he walked in.
Iain was the last one in, and he closed the door behind him. Jackie found herself inching toward him, seeking some kind of comfort in a room where none was going to be had.
“Two hours ago, I was contacted by Henry Mason. Synestryn tried to take his ten-year-old daughter tonight.”
Jackie swayed on her feet as the meaning of his words sank in. A child—a little girl—had been attacked by the demons.
Iain’s arm slid around her shoulders, steadying her. She couldn’t help but lean against him. It made her a weaker person, but the horrors she’d seen in those caves came slamming into her, reminding her of just how much danger this child was in.
“Again?” asked Tynan, rising to his feet.
“What do you mean, again?” asked Helen.
Joseph’s nostrils flared with anger as he nodded. “Autumn was one of the girls we rescued the night we found Jackie.”
That little girl had been in that same system of caves? Jackie had probably seen her, though she hadn’t known her name. There had been so many of them coming and going. After a while, she’d stopped wanting to know about them. All she needed to know was that it was her job to keep them as safe as she could for as long as she could.
She’d failed. Over and over she’d let them down. They’d been raped, killed. Eaten. She hadn’t been able to stop it.
“We’re leaving,” announced Iain, his grip tightening around her. “This is too much to ask of her right now.”
Iain was talking about Jackie—about her discomfort. She was so used to being on her own that it felt odd to have someone else defend her.
She looked up at Iain and took his hand. Her fingers threaded through his. They were thick and strong, callused from swordplay, and so incredibly warm. “I’m okay,” she reassured him.
“You’re pale, shaking, and scared out of your mind. I can feel it. And I can’t let it stand.”
“Autumn is smart. She snapped a photo of the Synestryn that tried to take her,” said Joseph.
“A photo?”
“With her phone. Henry sent it to me.” Joseph pulled a folder from his desk and held it out to Jackie. “Will you look at it and tell me if you recognize him?”
Iain snatched the folder away, glaring at Joseph. “What part of this is too much to ask of her right now did you not understand?”
Joseph was not cowed. “I could ask the children we found that night, but the Sanguinar have taken away most of their memories. All it would do is scare them.”
Jackie couldn’t let that happen. “I’ll do it. I’ll look at the photo. If it is him—Zillah—you can’t make those kids remember anything he did to them.”
Iain’s entire posture screamed how pissed he was, but he handed over the folder. Jackie opened it, bracing herself to face the demon that had ended and destroyed so many lives. Instead, the face that greeted her was not Zillah’s. He definitely wasn’t human, with glowing green eyes and thin lips that barely covered his pointed teeth, but he wasn’t what she’d expected.
There was something familiar about him. The candid shot was from a strange angle, pointing up, so that she got a good view of the inside of his nose. The skin of his neck was textured, as if he had scales of some kind. Maybe it was a trick of the light.
His bony hand was held up as if to block the flash, so she could see the veins under his pale skin were black and protruding from his wrists. The expression on his face was one of feral hatred and hunger.
That was it—the clue she needed.
“I remember him. He visited the caves where I’d been held. Zillah let him feed off one of the women as some sort of peace offering.” It had been sickeningly polite, the way one would offer a guest a cup of coffee.
Jackie didn’t care what politics went into the demons’ ability to barter human life. All she knew was that what he’d done had scared her to death, thinking one of the children would be next.
“Murak,” whispered Jackie, suddenly remembering what Zillah had called him.
“You know this demon?” asked Iain, his words lashing out cold and hard. “Did it hurt you? I’ll tear its fucking head off.”
“He was there only one time that I saw, but there was some kind of dynamic going on between him and Zillah. A power struggle? Negotiations, maybe? I can’t be sure.” Jackie looked up at Joseph. “Where is Autumn now?”
“I wanted her to come here, but her father feared for her mental health if they stayed in the area. Her family took shelter with relatives near Chicago. Only a handful of people know about the move. I’ve got a pair of warriors on their way to guard the family.”
Jackie thought back, trying to remember what she’d seen and heard. Maybe it would help them find this monster before he struck again.
“We could really use your help,” said Joseph, looking at Jackie. “You were held by them for a long time. You know their patterns.”
“Chaos has no pattern,” said Iain. “You’re reaching for something that isn’t there.”
“Maybe,” agreed Joseph. “But we’re doing this. We’re going after him. With or without your help.”
They’d find him underground, where he and his kind lived. The idea of going into those caves made her skin go cold and clammy with fear. “I don’t think I can go back there,” she whispered in shame.
“Of course you’re not going back there,” said Iain. “No one’s asking you to.”
“Actually, we are,” said Joseph. “I am. This Murak is after Autumn because of her age. They’ve done to her what they did to Tori. They’re feeding her their blood in an effort to make her a viable breeding partner. I won’t let that happen.”
Iain’s expression grew grim. “I’ve been hunting for these breeding caves for months, and only found a couple. How would we even know where to look?”
Joseph ignored Iain and spoke to Jackie. “All I’m asking is for you to go scouting. You might recognize something.”
“Back off, Joseph,” warned Iain.
Jackie tried to find an excuse not to do this. She wasn’t strong enough. “They moved several of us, but it was always at night in vans with no windows.”
“Unless they drove the vans into the cave, you might have seen something.”
She had, but she’d been so terrified and weak, she wasn’t sure she even remembered it right, and what she had seen wasn’t any kind of distinct landmark—just tangles of brush and the slope of the land.
Jackie offered what she could. “The trips weren’t long—a couple of hours. The caves were close to each other.”
Iain shook his head. “I’ve searched those areas. The caves are there, and there’s proof of Synestryn activity, but by the time I get there, they’re mostly gone. Just a few stragglers are left.”
If she didn’t do something, more little kids would be taken from their families. More people would be used for food, left to suffer and die in the dark. Autumn’s young life would be destroyed before it was cut short. Jackie had seen it before. She couldn’t simply stand by and ignore the problem. She had to think of something she could do, but something that wouldn’t put her back in the ground.
She hated what she was about to force herself to say—what she was about to force herself to think about—but it was necessary. “All you have to do is catch them at the right time. When they’re unable to move.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Joseph.
“They have these giant creatures. I saw one once. It was bigger than any animal I’ve ever seen.” It was huge, pulsing with movement, like a maggot the size of a bus. “It’s the thing that gives birth to some of their demons. I heard Zillah and his lackey talking about it outside of my cell, when they thought I was unconscious.” She’d been so cold, so weak. Zillah had nearly killed her, taking so much blood her heart raced to keep her alive.
“You don’t have to talk about this,” said Iain, stroking her back with a soothing sweep of his hand. “Not if you’re not ready.”
She was never going to be ready to talk about her time in the caves, but it didn’t matter. If demons were trying to steal more children, she had to help stop them. “It takes these things a few months to produce a litter, but when they’re near the end of that time, they can’t move. They’re too big, and too valuable to abandon. If we can find the nest during this time, then they’ll be trapped. Or at least they’ll have to leave behind that thing for us to kill.”
“How long?” asked Joseph. “Do you know any more details?”
She shook her head. “They were talking about not being able to move for another week. I don’t know how long before that they were stuck.”
“Where was this?” asked Iain.
“The second cave I was in. I was there the longest.”
“Do you remember where it was?” asked Joseph, pointing to the map. “This dot is where we found you. All of the other black dots represent known Synestryn nesting sites.”
Jackie stepped up. She tried to think back, but all she remembered was fear and cold. She hadn’t yet accepted her fate and stopped using what little strength she had to fight them. That had taken her several more months of painful lessons to learn.
She cupped her hands in a circle around an area. “In here would be my best guess. Like I said, we didn’t move far, so it has to be close.”
“That area is riddled with caves, and it’s near the Masons’ hometown. It’s possible we missed another nest. I’ll have Nicholas gather up the images we have of those sites we did catalog for you to look through. He may have a photo of something you recognize. In the meantime, the rest of you need to gear up. You’ll leave in a few hours. We need everyone focused on shutting these demon breeding grounds down.”
