Chapter 14

“So,” Tera said as they walked down the hall. “What’s the deal with this FBI person?”

Megan hesitated. She glanced at Nick, walking beside them, but he just raised his eyebrows. No help there.

“I don’t know,” she said finally. This, more than the bickering, was the one thing she truly hated about being friends with Tera. Tera worked for Vergadering. If Tera had any proof that Greyson or any of the other Gretnegs were involved in criminal activities, she could haul them off to prison. And from what Megan understood, a regular human prison was Club Med compared to Vergadering prison.

She couldn’t allow that to happen. Not simply because she couldn’t but because if she did, her life wouldn’t be worth a dime. Demons may have devoted a lot of their time to figuring out how to cheat people, but they took honor very seriously. A demon’s word meant a lot; a demon’s silence was something worth dying for.

So as much as Megan would have liked to have told Tera what Agent Reid had said to her and what the woman’s suspicions were, she couldn’t. Mentioning that the FBI was investigating Greyson and the others wasn’t proof of a crime, of course, and wouldn’t exactly surprise Tera, but Vergadering could get all sorts of information. As Tera had pointed out the night before, witches were powerful. Any one of them could dig into the FBI’s files and find who-knew-what.

“She’s just here as a guest, I guess. I only know she’s FBI because we were behind her when we checked in.”

“And she got attacked last night?”

Megan gave her a carefully edited version of the story. “There was blood all over,” she finished. “Bloody towels . . . it didn’t look like she’d just cut herself shaving or anything. But when I read Walther, she looked just fine, at least to him. So I don’t know where all the blood came from.”

“Huh. Weird. How are you feeling? Still woozy?”

“No.” The betchimal Tera put on her had sent her running for the bathroom, certain she was going to be sick. She hadn’t been, but it was a close call.

The nausea had only lasted a couple of minutes, though. And the spell certainly worked; Megan could feel Tera beside her, like a spot of heat seen through infrared goggles. “Just wishing we didn’t have to do this.”

“Yeah, I guess this isn’t how you want to spend your birthday, huh? Maybe it will all be over by then.”

Megan blinked. She’d forgotten about that.

“It’s your birthday?” Nick asked. “I didn’t know that.”

“Not for another couple of days. It’s no big deal.”

“Why do you think someone is trying to kill you?” Tera asked, as if birthdays and murders were normally part of the same conversation. “I mean, have you thought about it?”

Megan shook her head. “I can’t imagine. It’s not like I’m particularly important or anything.”

“Probably something to do with Greyson.”

“Hey!” Nick said. Was it her imagination, or did he sound nervous? An edge seemed to lurk behind his voice that she’d never heard before. “You don’t know that.”

Tera shrugged. “What else could it be? You heard her. She’s not important. Nobody seems to be after her little demons, but as far as I know, you guys are always trying to kill each other for one reason or another, and with Greyson being in charge now—”

“All the more reason why this probably has nothing to do with him. What could anyone possibly gain if Megan died?”

“I am still here,” Megan said. “I’m walking right between you.”

“Who knows what they might gain? But it’s hardly possible someone wants to kill Megan just for herself. It’s got to be connected to Greyson somehow.”

“You act like he set this up or something. Don’t you think—”

“What I think,” Tera said, “is that being with him puts her in danger, and she should get out. Out of this whole thing. It’s not like they’re going to get married or anything. She—”

“Stop it!” Megan grabbed them both by the arms and forced them to halt. “Just stop it. Tera, what the hell is with you? Why do you keep picking fights?”

“I don’t want to see you get hurt.” Tera’s cheeks were flushed; Megan had never seen her so emotional. “You’re my friend, and I don’t want to lose you. And you wouldn’t be in this situation if you hadn’t gotten so mixed up with them.”

“Them?” Nick’s expression was close to a snarl. “Mixed up with them? Jesus. You witches are all the fucking same, aren’t you? Thinking you can just order us around, telling Megan she should leave—”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Megan said, loudly and slowly. “Except on to this woman’s room. And you two are coming with me, and you will keep your mouths shut, or I’ll— I don’t know what I’ll do, but you won’t like it. Okay?”

Pause. Then they both nodded. Megan would have laughed if she hadn’t been so angry. “Good. Now, let’s go.”

She’d taken about two steps down the hall when it occurred to her to wonder why Tera had sounded so certain that she and Greyson weren’t going to get married. Not that she expected to—well, no, that was a lie. She did expect to. Hoped to. At some point, not yet; they hadn’t even been seeing each other a year, but then she was going to be thirty-two in a few days, and he’d be thirty-eight a few weeks after, they weren’t getting any younger . . .

Whatever. If it happened, it would happen. She wasn’t getting younger, no, but neither was she in a hurry, and she refused to start worrying about a subject she could honestly say she rarely thought about. They were happy the way things were, and she looked forward to the future but wasn’t in a rush. Period. So she was not going to start wondering why her best friend seemed so damn confident that she was going to be single forever.

Besides, what did Tera know? Her longest relationship had lasted a month.

Perhaps it was a little mean of her to think that way, but Tera was the one who started it. And after the way they’d behaved, both Tera and Nick deserved to have some mean thoughts being thought about them. So she kept doing just that, focusing on Tera’s pickiness and Nick’s buffet approach to women, until they reached Agent Reid’s door.

The woman who opened it looked like Agent Reid. Sounded like Agent Reid. But Megan had the unsettling sense that Agent Reid had in fact left the building; emptiness haunted the woman’s eyes. “Yes? Dr. Chase, can I help you?”

Okay. For a second Megan had considered the possibility that Agent Reid was possessed. It didn’t happen a lot, but it certainly did happen, as she knew for a fact, having been possessed herself at the age of sixteen. But she didn’t feel like a demon to Megan; since the consolidation of her powers, she’d been better able to—wait. No, she could feel demons.

She’d thought the thing outside in the hall, the thing that had attacked the agent, was a demon. It had felt like a demon. And yet it had been able to perform witch magic.

Fuck, that could not possibly be good.

“I wondered if I could come in and talk to you.” Megan kept a bright, vacant smile on her face.

Elizabeth’s face didn’t even change. If Megan hadn’t already known in every cell in her body that something was wrong, that would have told her. The Elizabeth Reid who’d come to her office had been bright and driven, so much so that she’d taken an enormous risk like tipping off the subjects of an investigation. Now here Megan was, and for all Elizabeth knew she was ready to spill her guts or snitch or blab or whatever the terminology was these days, and Elizabeth looked as if she’d unwrapped a Christmas gift and found a pair of old sweat socks inside the box.

But at least she was still herself enough to shrug and step back, admitting them to the room. “If you like.”

Megan lowered her shields and reached out as she passed Elizabeth, steeling herself for whatever darkness she might receive.