kills him.'
I doubted very much that Sky would be going home. In fact I was pretty certain that she'd be even more eager to go after Peter and dish out some retribution.
'So, Olivia. You dumb fucking idiot. I look forward to seeing you flayed. Maybe they'll put someone with some balls in the position of director now. Maybe someone who doesn't hire unknown cunts like Nathan Garret to do their work, or fuck werewolves and give birth to some half-breed little bitch. I've been waiting for a long time to see you fall. Ever since I was told about the job I had to do. And Nathan, if I see you again, I'm going to kill you. I don't care who you are, no one lies about being Faceless and gets away with it. Although, to be fair, by the time I'm done with you, I'll make sure that the name of faceless really does fit.'
'Who are you?' Olivia snapped, pushing me back against the wall and drawing a dagger, which sat a little too heavily against the skin of my throat.
'A friend,' I said. 'You don't need to know more.'
'Fuck you. A man I trusted turned out to be an evil bastard who has my child. You will answer me, or I will kill you.'
'No,' Sky said from directly behind Olivia. 'You won't.'
Olivia spun round to face Sky, but the necromancer was quicker and had her disarmed and thrown onto the couch in one smooth motion.
'Nate is a friend,' Sky said. 'You can trust him. Maybe he'll tell you the truth, maybe he won't, but if you ever hold a knife to his neck in my presence again, I will gut you.'
Sky casually tossed the knife into the wall, burying it a few inches into the plaster. 'I assume Reid took your daughter and Tommy,' she said to Olivia who nodded, her eyes narrow and angry.
'He blindsided me,' Sky said. 'I didn't expect it. Last I saw was Tommy taking a silver knuckle-duster-aided punch to the jaw. Your boyfriend is a tough son-of-a-bitch, isn't he?'
Olivia nodded.
I left the room, hoping very much that Olivia didn't try to go for round two with Sky, and retrieved the knuckle-dusters which were being bagged up by one of the agents. He didn't question why I wanted them, just handed over the bag and didn't once complain when I washed the blood from them in the kitchen sink.
I took them back to Sky and showed them to her.
'That looks like them. Are they important?'
I shrugged. 'No idea.' I turned the dusters over in my hand. A wolf head motif adorned the sides. Someone had inscribed ' for the pack' on the inside. 'We need to go see the werewolf pack,' I tossed them to Olivia who had remained silent since being disarmed.
'We go there now,' she said firmly.
I glanced down at the sorcerer's band that had been on Sky's wrist. 'I'm going to need you to get someone to bring something to Matthew's for me,' I told Olivia.
She left the room, throwing the knuckle-dusters back toward me without a word.
'You going to tell her the truth?' Sky asked.
'I don't know.' It was an honest answer. If I told Olivia exactly who I was, would it make things worse? I wasn't sure how, but if there's one thing I've learned in my life, it's that things can always get much, much worse.
Chapter 36
I took my bike once again, not really wanting to spend time in an enclosed space with a pissed off LOA director, who would have used the opportunity to ask me some very interesting questions. I arrived at the werewolf Alpha Matthew's house before Olivia and Sky, who had worryingly opted to ride together.
Matthew and Gordon had been informed of my arrival the second I'd been stopped at the main entrance to the land, and they both stood outside of Matthew's house. Gordon wore a dark blue suit; apparently even when it wasn't a pack function, he still dressed to impress. Matthew on the other hand wore jeans and a t-shirt with a picture of Animal from the Muppets on the front.
'What happened?' Matthew asked. 'Is Tommy not joining you this time? Did he get lost?' Matthew and Gordon's laughter ended when I didn't smile.
'What's going on?' Matthew asked, instantly concerned.
'We're fighting a lich,' I told them. 'And it has Tommy and Kasey.'
'Sweet Jesus, no,' Gordon exclaimed.
'We need your help.'
'Anything,' Matthew said.
Olivia's car pulled up behind us, and she got out, her eyes tired and heavy. The previous few hours had taken its toll on her. She appeared exhausted and drained, but she would keep fighting until she got Tommy and Kasey back; I was a hundred percent certain of that.
Matthew walked straight past me and enveloped Olivia in his arms. She went to push him away, but couldn't, and eventually let him hold her as he told her it would be alright.
'I know,' she said, her voice cool and detached. 'Has Nate told you why we're here?'
Matthew didn't even blink as she changed the subject, instead glancing over to me. 'Let's go inside, we can talk in private. In case there are any ears that should not be listening to such things.'
I didn't imagine that anyone would be listening in. I doubted that Matthew kept any but the most loyal members of his pack around during the day, but he clearly saw Olivia's need to sit down, so I wasn't about to argue.
'She's wound up tighter than Demeter,' Sky said as she stood next to me. 'I apologised for disarming her and throwing her onto the couch, but she didn't even seem to care, just kept asking about you, and about how I was going to kill the lich.'
'You think she can hold it together?' Gordon asked as Matthew led Olivia into the house.
Sky shook her head. 'I'm surprised she's not crumpled on the floor crying her eyes out. Hell, that might help. She's terrified for Tommy and Kasey, anyone can see that. But she's angry. Really angry. She's been betrayed by people she trusted, and I think she classes you in that column, Nate. She needs to let some emotion out, or she's going to get herself, or someone else, killed.'
'How do we go about doing that?' Gordon asked as we made our way to the house.
Everyone was silent as we walked down the elegant hallway and stepped into the living room. 'We find out who helped set this all up,' I said.
'Olivia has caught me up to speed,' Matthew said. 'You have something that leads you to believe a member of my pack was involved?'
I drew the silver knuckle-duster from my pocket and threw it to Matthew's open hand. He barely even glanced at it before his lips drew back in a snarl. 'Elijah, what have you done now?'
'You sure this is his?' I asked Matthew.
'He wears a ring that has the same motif. A wolf's head with the same stupid inscription. He's an idiot if he allowed this to be left at the crime scene, and Elijah is no idiot.'
'He wasn't the one using them,' I pointed out. 'Agent R…' I forced myself to stop, Reid was no longer an agent of the LOA, and I doubted Olivia wanted to be reminded about his traitorous status. 'Reid used them on Tommy and another wolf, an Agent Greaves.'
Matthew passed the knuckle-duster to Gordon who examined it carefully. 'This must be met with swift retribution,' Matthew said, speaking slowly as he picked his words carefully.
'Where is Elijah?' Olivia asked.
'In his home,' Matthew told her. 'Probably anyway. I know how we can find out.' He picked up his landline phone and dialled a number, asking for Randal to come to his home and then immediately hanging up.
'There's a small hospital unit about ten minutes from here, we use it for any wolves who get hurt, or when they're first changing. Randal is still there, recovering from his injury at Nate's hands.'
