Keri Arthur - Dangerous Games

None of which changed my determination to walk out now. I glanced around to ensure no one was paying us any particular attention, then got the woman to download onto a disk all the membership files and employee details possible. The gold pass membership files were restricted, and I wasn't about to push my luck by getting her to try and load those. Jack could order one of his tech plebs to do that. Although I'm sure the caramel cow would just wet herself at the thought of showing off her technical skills. She certainly had them. I'd caught her hacking into my files once.

I slipped the disk into my pocket, then erased my tracks in the woman's mind and headed out the door. Once I'd returned my pass to the guard and was safely ensconced in my car, I grabbed my phone and dialed jack.

"She reports twice in a twenty-four-hour period," he said, by way of hello. "This is indeed a time for miracles."

"You've been hanging around the cow too much. You've picked up her smart mouth."

"The only woman in my employ who has the sass to backchat her boss is the one I'm talking to. And it's not nice to call someone a cow."

"It is when they have tits the size of hers. And don't tell me you haven't noticed."

"Are you ringing for a reason? Or do you just want to piss me off?"

Both, usually, but I didn't think it would be wise to admit that. "I think I've found the link between all our victims."

"What? How?"

"All five were members of the gold pass section of the Hunter's Club, the upmarket health and fitness club Jin part-times at. From what I've seen, the gold-pass club is a word-only membership for people with special requirements."

"What sort of special requirements?"

"They need extreme pain to get their rocks off."

"All of our victims had healed scars on their backs and arms."

"They should have massive scars if what I've just seen is any indication of what they go through." I hesitated.

"It's quite possible I've met the woman lined up to be the next victim. Her name is Jan Tait."

"You got all her details?"

"I grabbed everything off their computer that I could. The gold-pass membership files will require hacking skills to get into."

"We'll handle that end. You stay on Jin."

Yeah, right. "Um… there's been bit of a development in that area. I'm afraid I just walked out on him."

His sigh was a sound of frustration. "Can you do nothing the easy way?"

"Trust me, I had no option. But I'll follow him for the rest of the night, see where he goes and who he talks to."

"Good. In the meantime, I'll get Salliane to dig up the dirt on the Hunter's Club and its owner."

"According to Jan, the owner of the Hunter's Club just happens to be the brother of the woman Quinn is following."

"Interesting."

"Why?"

"Because we've been cross-checking the Cattle Club's security tapes, and have discovered Jin talking to a man named John Kingsley on more than a few occasions."

"So?"

"So, he's a very nasty piece of work who's been suspected of several murders. There's never been enough evidence found to convict him."

"That still doesn't explain why he's raised your bad-guy antennae."

"Ah, but see, he also happens to have a half sister by the name of Maisie Foster, who owns a punishment club by the name of—"

"The Hellion Club," I finished for him. "So Rhoan's already checking this Kingsley person out?"

"Yeah." Amusement crept into his voice as he added, "Apparently he ran into Quinn there."

My eyebrows raised. "Don't you think it's a little bit coincidental that Quinn is following the woman who owns the club that is recommending people to the special services of the Hunter's Club? He obviously knows something he's not telling us."

"Which means you need to find out what you can from him."

Yeah, like he was going to tell me anything. He'd more than likely try locking me in a closet somewhere. For my own protection, of course. "You think this woman could be the one raising the demons?"

"I have no idea. Though I doubt Quinn would simply follow her if that were the case."

"He would if he had motives other than finding the person who was raising the demons." And I very much suspected that was the case. After all, the spooky guy in the alley had basically implied there was more to this than just a couple of demons.

"As I said, question him." He paused. "I did a search for that name the souls gave you."

"And?"

"Azhi Dahaki is part of an ancient Persian legend. It's said that he's the servant of Angra Mainyu, who's supposedly the god of darkness, the eternal destroyer of good, the personification and creator of evil, and bringer of death and disease."

"A real charmer in other words." I paused. "That ring I found had Persian hieroglyphic thingies on the back of it."

"Cuneiform inscriptions, actually."

"So you've translated them?"

"Not fully."

His voice was grim, and chills skated across my skin. "What does it say so far?"

"Something about entrusting their souls to the god of darkness."

I rubbed my arms. "But it's just a legend, isn't it? I mean, a god of darkness and lies can't really exist, can it?"

"Humans once believed werewolves and vampires didn't exist."

"That's because we were covering our asses like crazy. And it's also totally different to this sort of situation."

"No, it's not. And there is no reason to believe there aren't things in this world that have chosen to remain hidden while the bolder of our races have stepped out of the shadows."

"Jack, we're talking about an ancient god here."

"Are we? Or are we merely talking about an entity that has bided his time for right moment to come out of hiding?"

"Is there a third option? I mean, those two really suck."

He chuckled softly. "We're still researching the legend. But it's not looking good." He hesitated. "Be wary around Jin. If he is part of this legend, he may have powers we can't even begin to guess at."

That was something I didn't want to think about. "Anything else I need to know about Azhi Dahaki?"

"Well, he's supposedly a three-headed dragon who represented pain, despair, and death."

"Hate to break this to you, but no one I've met is a dragon, let alone one with three heads."

"It could be a figure of speech, remember that. And you're the one who mentioned Jin seems to enjoy pain."

"He seems to feed on it," I said, as I recalled the ring I'd found at Dunleavy's and the ring Jin had been wearing. Remembered the dark room and the two men. One sucking in the sound of pain, the other despair.

Fuck.

Legends could come to life.

"Jin and Marcus," I added. "Pain and despair. Two of the heads."

"Who's Marcus?"

"One of club's employees, and the man working Jan Tait over."

"So, that leaves one more—death."

I hesitated. "Gautier's working for these people. Could he be the death head?"

"It's possible, but Gautier's not sexual, and that seems to be a requirement of the dragons."

"Gautier's been off the Directorate leash for a while. It's possible he's changed or evolved."

"But he would have to change his very nature to become sexual. Activate your tracker, Riley, and keep in contact."

"Will do." I hung up, then pressed the comlink in my ear to activate the tracking. I know Jack's new rules said all guardians had to be traceable twenty-four hours a day, but I'd be damned if I'd follow that particular order unless absolutely necessary. A girl needed some privacy. Especially with the full moon rising.

I started the car and drove around the building until I found the parking lot exit. I parked several spaces down, then hunkered down in the seat to wait.

The phone rang after half an hour. I glanced at the number ID and smiled. Jin had obviously discovered I'd skipped.