"But you know that already, don't you, Chuck? You know this won't end well for her, and you've already taken steps to protect yourself."
The vampire's eyes narrowed. He'd overcome enough of his initial panic to realize I wasn't going to kill him immediately. "What do you want?" he asked again in a stronger voice.
I put my hands on either side of him and leaned down until my cold eyes were level with his. "The flash drive. I want the flash drive. The one Gordon Giles made that contains the information on the embezzlement from Halo Industries. The one your Air elemental boss is so eager to get her hands on. That's your insurance policy, isn't it, Chuck? The elemental gets too wacko, and all you have to do is send the information to Mab Monroe. And she'll take care of the elemental for you." Carlyle didn't respond, but the twitch in his cheek was all the confirmation I needed.
The vampire really needed to work on his poker face.
"He's got the flash drive?" Donovan Caine asked behind me. "You're sure?"
"Oh, I'm positive," I replied, never taking my eyes off the vampire. "Tell me where it is, Chuck. Now."
Carlyle's eyes flicked off to the left, as if searching for an acceptable lie. His tongue darted out to wet his lips. "Say you're right. Say I ... found the flash drive among Gordon's things when I was looking through them for the elemental. What's in it for me if I give it to you?"
"You get to die quickly, Chuck, instead of being tortured. That's all you get." He let out a low snort. "Not much in it for me, then."
I shrugged. "Depends on how much you like pain."
I pulled back and brought the tip of my knife up where he could see it. Then I leaned forward again and drew the blade down his cheek, not deep enough to break his skin, but enough for him to feel the cold metal.
Carlyle let out a soft laugh. "You don't have the balls to-" I cut him.
I carved a line from one side of his jaw, down his neck, and up to the other. The blade didn't sever his carotid artery, but the knife went in deep enough for him to really feel it. Blood oozed out of the wound and dropped like crimson tears onto the vampire's pinstripe suit. I'd just upped the ante in this poker game we were playing.
But Carlyle surprised me. He didn't start begging or pleading or sobbing for mercy.
Instead, the vampire clamped down a scream, his yellow fangs poking out through this lips, before his eyes shifted to the left again. I frowned, wondering why he was looking off to the side, instead of at me or the knife. Wasn't I scary enough for him?
Few things could be more important at the moment to the vampire than the blade I'd just dug into his neck. Precious few. So I turned and followed his line of sight to the fireplace. Hmm.
I used the vampire's pant leg to clean the blood off my knife and stepped away from him. Relief flashed in
Carlyle's eyes.
"Fuck," Donovan muttered, staring at the blood on the vampire's chest. "Did you have to cut him so deep? I thought you wanted answers out of him, not blood."
"I barely nicked him. He'll live. Watch him a minute," I told the detective.
Caine stared at me, then shook his head and took up a position in front of the vampire. Finn followed me back to the fireplace.
"What are you doing, Gin?" he asked in a low voice. "Checking out a hunch." I brushed my fingers against the stone fireplace. Behind me, Carlyle hissed with displeasure, but I tuned him out. Listening. Trying to sense any disturbance, anything out of the ordinary. There was a reason Carlyle kept glancing back here. I wanted to know what it was. But the stone's vibrations were low and muted. Like me, the vampire wasn't home enough to leave much of an impression in his house.
Still, I kept listening. And I realized there was something in the stone. A note of sly satisfaction. Anticipation. Pride. Eagerness. Centered in the fireplace and rippling outward.
Still listening to the stone, I trailed my fingers over the wall and walked closer to the center of the fireplace. It was beautifully constructed, made out of uneven slabs of blue and gray river rock fitted together to form an elegant arch, then the chimney itself. The construction was so perfect, so seamless, it could only have been achieved by magic, by another Stone elemental. It only took me a few seconds to spot the rune carved into one of the bottom corners. Two blocks side by side, with another sitting on top of them-a builder's rune. I made a note of the faint trickles of magic in the mortar that held the rocks together. Stones were the rarest of elementals, and it always surprised me to find another one, to see her work, to feel her power.
Then I concentrated, listening to stone, trying to find the exact source of the vibrations.
And I spotted one rock that was a little lighter, a little smoother, than the others, as if someone repeatedly touched it, rubbing it for good luck-or to open and close a secret compartment. The stone felt smooth and cool under my searching fingers.
There. A small metal button on the underside. I pressed up on it. Something clicked, and the rock shot out, revealing a space about the size of a safety deposit box.
"Got something," I said.
"What?" Finn asked, trying to peer over my shoulder.
I looked inside the space. A blue folder embossed with the words Halo Industries sat inside, along with a small flash drive. There were also some pictures of Gordon Giles naked, posing in various intimate positions with a smorgasbord of hookers, many of whom sported the heart-and-arrow rune medallion of the Northern Aggression nightclub. Black, white, Hispanic, human, vampire. I flipped through the photos.
Whips, leather, masks. Giles had been a little more serious about his prostitute predilection than Fletcher's file had let on. I turned one of the photos sideways. More flexible, too.
"What did you find?" Donovan Caine rumbled. "The jackpot."
I plucked out the flash drive and showed it to Caine and Finn, then stuffed it inside my jeans pocket. I passed the folder to Finn, along with the pictures of Giles.
Finn rifled through them and let out a whistle. "Gordon was into some hard-core stuff. Take a look at this, detective."
Donovan Caine turned away from the vampire and stepped toward us. Behind him, something flashed in
Carlyle's eyes. I felt a small bit of magic spark to life in the room.
And that's when the vampire made his move.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Metal. The vampire must have had a small, elemental talent for manipulating metal.
That was the only way to explain the sudden surge of magic-and why his silverstone handcuffs popped off like they were plastic toys. I'd checked them myself. The chains had been as solid as my knives.