The detective stared at the gun in his hand. He didn't meet my gaze. "Part of me wants to," he admitted. "For everything you've done. For all the people you've killed. You deserve to die."
"Probably," I said. "But if you kill me, Roslyn Phillips dies too. Alexis James will flay you alive with her magic before you even get close to saving the vampire. Her blood will be on your hands. Finn's too."
"That's what you say."
"That's what I know," I said. "Those guns of yours might be nice, but you don't have any magic, detective." His eyes narrowed. "And you have so much? I've seen your Ice magic. It's not that impressive."
"No, it's not."
I didn't mention the fact I could control another element, Stone, far better. That Jo-Jo Deveraux had always told me I had more raw power than anyone she'd ever seen.
That sometimes the knowledge of what I could do with my Stone magic, what I had done with it, even scared me.
"But I'm not worried with morals the way you are. I don't care what's right and wrong. I'd be perfectly happy to stab Alexis James in the back the first chance I got." Donovan Caine didn't disagree with me.
"Just ... just tell me this. Why did you do it?" he asked in a rough voice. "Why did you kill Cliff Ingles? Who hired you?"
Ah, there it was. The question he wanted an answer to. The one I knew he'd ask me sooner or later. The one that those left behind always asked. The only one that could maybe ease his guilt over f**king me.
"You don't want to know."
"Tell me," he demanded. "I need to know. I have to know."
For all his toughness, for all the things he'd seen in his life, Donovan Caine was still very idealistic. Still hoping, still wanting to believe in the inherent good in people.
Because of that, because of this softness I felt for him, I didn't want to tell him how perverted his precious partner had been. Didn't want to tell him about the little girl's brutal rape and beating. Knowing what Cliff Ingles had done would shatter any remaining illusions Donovan Caine had about his partner. And probably people in general. If you can't trust the guy you're riding with in the squad car, then who can you trust? The knowledge would harden something inside of him, the way my family's murder had done to me seventeen years ago.
"Somebody wanted Ingles dead, so I made him that way. I don't kill and tell, detective. Not now, not ever," I said. "I know you think your partner was a saint, but Ingles had his secrets, just like the rest of us. You want to know why I killed him, figure it out for yourself."
Donovan's face tightened. He didn't like my stonewalling him, but I didn't give him time to think about it.
"Now are you going to put that gun away and help me? Or are you going to do something stupid and die on my floor?"
Caine sucked in a breath, then let it out. His eyes flashed gold, and his hand clenched around the gun. For a moment, I thought he'd made the wrong choice. A fatal choice.
But the detective raised the weapon and stuck the gun against the small of his back.
"I'll help you," he said. "I owe you that much for saving me that night in my cabin.
And I can't leave people to die, no matter who they are."
Caine didn't say what he would do afterward. I didn't ask. "Good," I said. "We've got less than an hour. Let's move."
We got back into the car I'd stolen, and I checked the clock on the dashboard. Forty-five minutes and counting. An icy hand crept into my chest and wrapped around my heart, holding it tight as a lover, whispering of all the bad things that could happen.
There was no fear for myself or the fact I might die tonight. A very real possibility of that. Alexis James was an Air elemental who enjoyed using her power to kill. She was every bit as dangerous and deadly as I was. Even worse, she was high on her magic, coming apart at the seams, like a rag doll slowly losing her stuffing, one puffy piece of fabric at a time.
No, my fear wasn't for myself. It was for the others. Fear for Finn, even Roslyn. And what the elemental might have already done to them-or would do. Despite her promise, Alexis James might decide to have a little fun with her food. And I wondered whether or not they could survive it until I got there.
Carved out of one of the taller mountains in the area, the Ashland Rock Quarry squatted like a leper on the edge of town. At one time the quarry had been one of the focal industries in the city, employing thousands of folks.
But whatever rock or ore or gemstones had been hidden under the earth had long been exhausted, and now the quarry stood empty, with only the murmur of the stones to break the silence. The only people who came here these days were dwarves who tapped into the sheer walls of the quarry with their small pickaxes, looking for something sparkly to take back home to the kids.
We arrived at the rock quarry fifteen minutes before our time was up. I approached the area from the south, taking a little-used access road I remembered running across more than once as a kid. The same access road Bria and I used to hopscotch down as children.
"Have you been here before?" Caine asked. The first words he'd spoken to me since we'd left the apartment. "Not many people know about this road."
"When I was a kid, I used to come out here and play sometimes."
The detective gave me a strange look, but he didn't pry. I didn't offer any more information, like the fact I'd also come to the quarry to listen to the stones talk to me.
To attune myself to the different vibrations they gave off. To practice my magic. To find a bit of peace in a world that had been turned upside down.
"What about you?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Just for the occasional body dump. It was a popular site a few years ago. We still come out here several times a year. In the spring, Cliff and I-" I never learned what Cliff and he did in the spring. Caine shut up and stared out the window. Brooding. About me, about us, about the fact I'd hadn't told him why I'd murdered his partner. And that maybe, just maybe, Cliff Ingles had gotten exactly what he'd deserved.
A few minutes later, I slid the car into a stand of maple trees about a mile out from the quarry, parked it, and got out. So did Donovan Caine, who turned to face me across the hood.
"Why are you stopping?" Caine asked. "We're not that close to the quarry." "Because you're not coming in with me."
"Why not?"
"Alexis James is an Air elemental," I said. "You won't stand a chance against her."
"And you will?"
I nodded. "Like it or not, I can do things you won't let yourself, detective. Besides, Alexis is expecting me to come alone. She won't like the company. It will make her twitchier than she already is. I'm going to get her attention, have her focus on me.