Shattered Circle

“Are you certain they are in there?” she pressed, crossing her arms.

“Yes.”

“You get so focused on your stupid phone game, perhaps they have left and you didn’t even notice.”

“Hey. I focus, but that doesn’t mean I’d miss my Haven Master leaving.”

The door opened slightly. Goliath stood in near darkness within, his gaunt features rather terrifying. “What do you want?”

The guard pointed at Ailo. “She is rather determined to see you.”

Goliath’s eyes flicked from the guard to Ailo and back. “Get four Beholders in here for feeding. Immediately.” To Ailo he said, “When the Beholders leave, you may enter.”

“But—”

“Not until.”

The door shut.

Her crossed arms fell into fists at her sides.

The guard retrieved his phone and made a call. Seconds later, a quartet of Beholders hurried into the room and entered the Haven Master’s suite.

As she waited, paced, and grumbled to herself, Ailo gazed up at the entry to the Erus Veneficus’s rooms. Behind that heavy door lay the answer to all her hopes and dreams. Freedom. Splendor. Control of her own destiny. She could live anywhere in the world. She could surround herself with anything and everything she wanted. She’d have vases of the most beautiful flowers in every room. She’d have colorful birds in cages. She would clothe herself in something other than gray. . . .

Maintaining the safety and happiness of the child would be no easy feat, but she could make the child adore her. Fancy gifts would satisfy any child, and when she grew bored of those, Ailo would buy her more. She would spoil the girl so no one else could satisfy her.

The Beholders finally filed out of the Haven Master’s suite, each with gauze pads held compressed to either their necks or their wrists.

Ailo made for the door. The inside remained dark except for a single candle near the door. “Are you here?”

“What do you need, Ailo?”

Menessos’s weary voice emitted from the darkened far side of the room.

She sighed angrily. “Unless your delay has allowed her to complete her scheme, my sister is presently stealing the haven’s money.”

She heard movement instantly. “How?” Goliath demanded.

“She’s been talking to me about trying to find out who manages the finances here. She’s spent the evening stealing touches off people, looking for this information. I saw her following one of the Offerlings. I’m sure she’s mesmerized him, read him.”

“Allow me to handle it, Haven Master. They are both bound to me.” Menessos arrived at the door looking truly dead. Dark circles ringed his eyes. His cheeks were sunken, and a drop of blood lingered at the corner of his mouth. “Where is she?”

Ailo gasped and retreated a step.

He claimed the ground between them without seeming to move at all. His hands gripped her arms like vises. “Where is she?” His voice was low enough to sound demonic.

In her opinion, Menessos needed to feed from a few more Beholders. “I don’t know. I saw her heading up to the first floor with the Offerling. That’s all I know.”

He brushed past her before she finished. “Vinny, get some of the men up to the accounting offices.” He and Goliath were gone in a flash.

With a hidden grin, Ailo followed them.

CHAPTER FORTY

Johnny considered tackling the old man and taking the key by force.

“I’m sure Aurelia a-told you where the locker’s located,” Plympton said. “I mean, that’s why you’re here, isn’t it? You came to get this key.”

Staring, aware that he couldn’t play off his presence here or pretend he hadn’t known Aurelia was dead, he wondered which of the Omori had leaked details to the diviza. Then another thought hit him. “Why did you come to get the key?”

Plympton tossed the key up and caught it in his palm, then tucked it back into his pocket and paced to the left again. He scratched thoughtfully at his chin.

Johnny knew he had the ability to kill the old man and take the key, but having the ability to end someone’s life didn’t mean he had the willingness to follow through. And not just because there’d be another body to worry about.

What he knew of Plympton wasn’t much: W?rewolf. Diviza. Old. Cajun. Enjoyed negotiating. Visited a voodoo priestess who put molten silver inside him. Heard lots of rumors. May never have met Aurelia before today, but she was undoubtedly a source of some rumors he’d heard. She was not, however, his only source.

He asked again, “Why do you care what’s in the locker?”

Plympton spread his arms, posing like the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro. “For thirty years I’ve haggled with w?rewolves and for w?rewolves. I know how they think, how they act and react.” His arms dropped. “I’ve walked the line between our world and the human world so many times that, hell, I know that damn line like the back of my hand.”

Johnny squinted at him, thinking.

“I can see you’re a-running it all through in your head. I’ve achieved a fair amount of rank. Aside from my knowledge of certain sensitive information about the Zvonul, my experience alone makes me a valuable resource.” Plympton stopped and faced Johnny, that one eye scouring him for a moment, then he resumed his seat and continued. “I don’t have a choice now. I have to trust you. I have to believe that when I tell you this, you will live up to your good character . . . and that you will see mine.”

The old man’s dilemma about trust reminded Johnny of his own current difficulty with it. “Tell me.”

“I was approached by a vampire. Over the course of a few months, she repeatedly showed up at various public functions my office was part of . . . then she started showing up at more private functions. Always, there was a hello and a brief, inconsequential chat. Each grew longer, held more questions, offered more details. Then she asked me to provide information about the Zvonul.”

“What made her think you were willing to spy on your own kind for her?”

“I advocate for changes, which means I bitch with style.”

“Did you agree?”

“This is where it gets difficult, John.” He paused. “You see, I contacted the Omori for advice. They wanted me to proceed, pretending to be a traitor. My handler used a voice changer during calls, nothing was done in a manner that was documented. When I tried to record the calls, something about the voice changer scrambled the voice on the recording, so it seems like I’m talking to no one. We never met in person—but I have reason to believe that Aurelia was my handler. Now that she’s dead, my reputation may be at stake.”

“Surely they’ll have a backup plan for situations like this.”

Plympton patted his pocket where the key was. “This is the backup plan.”

Johnny blinked. The information about his son was supposed to be in the locker. Aurelia didn’t mention anything else. “Wait, wait. You think she was your handler, so you’ve come to her rooms, dug through her things to find a locker key, and now you’re certain she’s put info about you in a locker somewhere.”

“I’m a-telling you, this is how my handler operated. Public lockers. When I was given instructions, they were always in a public locker.”

“I thought you said there was no documentation. Written instructions—”

“The paper disintegrated when I touched it. I had to read it in the locker, then touch it to destroy it and