Shadow's End

  Only then did he take out his cell phone and scroll through his contacts until he found the right one. He punched Call.

  Voicemail kicked in. It was a robo-message, giving only the number, no name or any other identifier. He hung up without leaving a message and dialed again.

  This time, the Vampyre Julian Regillus, the Nightkind King, picked up. “Graydon. Let’s save some energy and pretend you and I have already had a conversation about what time it is.”

  In the background, Graydon heard a familiar feminine voice. Melisande, the Light Fae heir and Julian’s lover, said, “Did you say that was Graydon calling? Tell him hi for me.”

  “Melly says hi,” Julian said into the phone. “We’re about to go to bed.”

  “Don’t be mean!” Melly exclaimed.

  Graydon bit back a smile. In New York, it was only eight in the morning, which meant that in Lake Tahoe, it had just turned five. For most people, depending on their race and personal habits, it was either too early or too late to be calling, unless the reason was urgent.

  “Are you in New York for next week’s masque?” Graydon asked. “Or are you coming?”

  “No,” Julian replied. “I haven’t talked to Xavier for a couple of weeks, but I think he’s planning to attend as regent. I meant it when I said I’m taking a year off. Melly and I are at home.”

  Graydon leaned back against the brick wall of a building so he could watch the street in both directions. “Sorry to interrupt your vacation.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “Do you remember the conversation you and I had a couple of months ago in San Francisco?” He ran one hand through his hair. The snow had already damped the ends. “We talked about a mutual acquaintance. You shared sensitive intel.”

  Earlier, in the spring, Melly had been kidnapped by one of the Nightkind council, and her mother Tatiana, the Light Fae Queen, had asked Graydon for help in finding her. Julian had actually been the one who found Melly.

  Afterward, he had shared with Graydon confidential information about Malphas. Names of victims. Dates. Graydon’s entire investigation had been prompted by that small, vital list.

  “I’m not likely to forget.” Julian’s voice had gone very alert and crisp. “Have there been new developments?”

  “Yes, significant ones.” Graydon paused as he watched an elderly male cross at the nearest intersection. When the male turned the corner and disappeared from sight, he said, “Do you want to have a say in what comes next?”

  “You’re damn right I do,” Julian growled.

  Graydon nodded, unsurprised. “Things may happen quickly. How soon can you get to New York?”

  “I’ll be there by the end of the day,” Julian told him.

  Melly said, “You’re not going without me.” Something rustled. Suddenly she sounded much closer and clearer than she had before, almost as if she had climbed into Julian’s lap. “While we’re on our way, you’re going to explain how this fits into your concept of ‘vacation.’”

  Julian said, “That’s complicated.”

  “It’s always complicated.” Melly sounded amused.

  Julian said, “Graydon, I’ll call you when we’re in town.”

  “Sounds good. Talk to you later.”

  Once he had disconnected, he continued down the street. In Wembley on that last morning, he had said the war might be a very long one. But not even he had conceived of just how long it would be.

  He had never lain in wait for so long, or hunted with such extreme care. His prey had never been quite as dangerous as it was now, nor had the stakes ever been quite as high.

  The part of him that was a predator had to admit it felt good to take action, good to be moving toward some kind of resolution. Now that he had begun his play, events would escalate. The pace of the hunt would take on its own life.

  Cloaking himself, he changed into the gryphon and launched into a short flight that took him into the heart of Manhattan. Circling down upon an exclusive boutique hotel, he changed back into the man and strode into the lobby.

  His destination was a three-bedroom suite several flights up. He rapped on the door and waited.

  There was the soft sound of muffled movement, then the door opened. The woman who answered it was human, rather tall, dressed in jeans and a black turtleneck, with an athletic build and blond, shoulder length hair.

  She was around thirty-eight or forty, Graydon guessed, or at least she had been when she had become a Vampyre attendant. She was attractive in a clean, spare way, with the sharp, intelligent gaze of an experienced soldier.

  “You must be Claudia Hunter,” he said.

  The woman smiled. “I am, and of course you’re Graydon. It’s nice to finally meet you in person. Come on in.” Turning, she raised her voice. “Precious, our visitor has arrived.”

  Noting with approval the businesslike Glock she wore in a holster at the waist of her jeans, Graydon followed her into the living room area of the suite just as another male unfolded his long body off the couch.

  The male was Wyr and young, perhaps mid- to late-twenties, and he carried a canine scent. He had a kind of handsomeness that smoldered, with dark burnished skin, bitter chocolate eyes and rather overlong black hair.

  He was also very large, easily as big as Graydon, and that was not something Graydon was used to running into very often.

  “Luis Alvarez,” said the young Wyr, holding out one hand.

  “Nice to meet you.” Graydon shook hands with him, grinning. “Your partner calls you ‘Precious’?”

  Luis’s dark gaze cut over to Claudia, and his face changed. The difference was at once both subtle and, to Graydon’s experienced gaze, remarkably telling. Inwardly troubled, he kept his own expression neutral.

  Luis said softly, “Inside joke. The first time Claudia and I met, I was injured and in my Wyr form. I couldn’t shift back into a human for a while.”

  Claudia chuckled, her own affection for Luis obvious. She said to Graydon, “He is one big-ass, mean-looking dog. I had to name him Precious.”

  If Graydon was not mistaken, that big-ass, mean-looking dog had mated with his non-Wyr, human partner.

  And Wyr mated for life. Luis would never leave Claudia, never stop in his devotion to her, yet she had a different nature entirely.

  If she ever felt the need, she could leave Luis, and eventually that decision would kill him. Their lifespans were also quite different. She would age quicker than he. When she died, he would too. It was a hell of a thing for a member of another race to take a Wyr as a lover.

  Of course, it was a hell of a thing for the Wyr, as well.

  Belatedly, Graydon caught up with what they had said. He put two and two together.

  “Wait,” he said. “Are you the two that discovered the magic-sensitive silver mine in Nirvana, Nevada? The one where the owner kept slaves in a small pocket of Other land to mine the silver?”

  Both Luis and Claudia sobered, their smiles dying. Luis replied, “Yes.”

  “I’ll get everybody a cup of coffee,” Claudia said. She walked out of the living room.

  Graydon said to Luis, “That explains your Peacekeeper background.”

  Luis nodded. “I was an investigator for the Elder tribunal and met Claudia in Nevada. I was close to death when she found me. She saved my life. After the case was concluded, we took time off. When we decided to look for a job, we had some very specific requirements.”

  “One of my requirements was I needed to become a Vampyre attendant,” Claudia said, as she walked back into the room, carrying coffee mugs. “Short of becoming a Vampyre myself, which I don’t want to do, being an attendant is the only way for a human to significantly improve their health and lengthen their life.”

  Ah. So she knew that Luis had mated with her.

  She handed a mug filled with coffee to Graydo
n, meeting his eyes with a direct, steady gaze, and he realized she had seen how troubled he had become. He murmured a thanks and sipped the hot, black brew.

  She said, “Working for Carling will extend my lifespan significantly. It still won’t bring me to anything near what Luis’s life would have been before he met me, but instead of having thirty or forty years together, we’ll now have eighty. Maybe even a hundred, if we’re lucky, and I’ll be fit and healthy to the end.”

  “You fuss too much,” Luis told her. He accepted a mug too. “Things have turned out better than I could have hoped. I like fieldwork and being independent, so those were my requirements. Long story short, we ended up in Florida, applying for positions at Carling and Rune’s agency. We’ve been working for them ever since.”

  “Well, you know I wouldn’t have trusted you with an investigation as sensitive or dangerous as this if Rune hadn’t recommended you so highly,” said Graydon. “I want to go over everything to make sure it’s in order.”

  “Of course,” said Luis. “Since we didn’t know what you might choose to do, I’ve created files that meet Elder tribunal litigation requirements. It’s kind of my thing.”

  Graydon glanced at Claudia again. The twinkle had returned in her eyes. She said in a gentle voice to Luis, “I get all hot and bothered when you talk about files and litigation requirements.”

  The younger Wyr laughed a little under his breath, and his skin darkened.

  Watching them, Graydon’s sense of discouragement turned to hope. If anybody looked mismatched at first glance, it had to be Luis and Claudia, yet they appeared to have found a solution that allowed them to be together in the best way possible.

  Maybe he and Bel really could find a way to be together. Of course, they might not, but at least it looked more possible than it had earlier at Ruby’s Diner.

  “I want to have a meeting on this sometime later tonight,” he told them. “I would like for you both to attend, if you would.”

  “Of course,” Claudia said. “Rune and Carling are in town, and they wanted to be kept updated. Is it all right if they attend too?”

  “I would prefer it.” Rune was one of the most formidable fighters Graydon had ever known, and as a Powerful witch and Vampyre, Carling had once fought in a war against a first-generation Djinn—and won. Her input would be invaluable.

  “I’ll let them know,” Claudia promised.

  Luis led him to the dining table and logged him onto a laptop. Once Graydon had taken a seat, Luis handed him something square and black. It was an external hard drive.

  “The laptop’s Wi-Fi capability has been disabled,” Luis told him. “The only record of the files is on that hard drive. This is as secure as we could possibly make it.”

  “That’s terrific.”

  Plugging in the drive, Graydon explored the contents.

  The files were massive. Neatly labeled, each folder contained copies of financial records, photos, and extensive notes, each document logged with the date and time. There were also interviews in audio files.

  The other two left him to his reading. It took him several hours, but he reviewed each file thoroughly. He worked through lunch.

  Silently, without interrupting him, Luis set a plate stacked with roast beef sandwiches beside his elbow. Graydon nodded his thanks and, without taking a break from reading, plowed through the food.

  Finally he closed the hard drive, unplugged it from the laptop and slipped it into his pocket. Looking for Claudia and Luis, he followed the sound of a TV and found them in one of the bedrooms.

  They hadn’t bothered to close the bedroom door. On one side of the bed, Claudia had propped her back against some pillows. She was reading a thriller. Luis lounged beside her, watching ESPN. They looked relaxed, like a dangerous pair of cougars stretched out after a long hunt, and just about as domestic.

  “Damn fine, meticulous work,” Graydon told them. “I’d offer you a job—I can match or beat whatever dollar amount Carling and Rune are paying you—except I can’t help you with the Vampyre attendant issue.”

  Both Claudia and Luis’s expressions lightened with pleasure at his praise. “Thank you,” Luis said. “Is there anything else you want us to do before this evening’s meeting?”

  “Can’t think of a thing,” Graydon said. “Get some rest. I’m going to go home, shower and take a nap myself.” He hefted the external hard drive in one hand. “Again, you’ve done a great job, and it’s not that I don’t trust you, but I’m gonna keep this with me now.”

  “Sounds good,” Claudia said. She swung her legs off the edge of the bed, stood and walked with him to the door of the suite.

  “Until tonight, then,” he said. He met her gaze. “Be careful. Lay low.”

  She smiled. “Don’t worry about us. We’re good at laying low.”

  He returned her smile, but it died quickly as he stepped into the hall.

  They were good. They appeared to be competent warriors, and were some of the best investigators he had worked with in a long time, but going to war against a first-generation Djinn was one of the most dangerous things anyone could do. The casualty count was invariably high.

  People were going to die due to the decisions he made over the next several hours. One way or another, he had been in command of other soldiers for a very long time, so he was no stranger to seeing it happen. He had experienced that particular kind of loss before.

  That never made it any easier.

  TWELVE

  After Graydon left the hotel, he shapeshifted and flew back to Cuelebre Tower.

  It had stopped snowing, but the snow hadn’t yet lost its newness. The city looked pristine and sugarcoated. Even in the daylight, Christmas and masque lights twinkled along the streets.

  He arrived at Cuelebre Tower quickly enough. His apartment was on the seventy-eighth floor of one of the most stringently guarded buildings in the city, so he never bothered to lock his balcony doors. That meant he could come and go with a decent amount of freedom.

  Aiming carefully, he executed his shapeshift as he landed, with a sense of timing built on years of experience. Once he strode inside, he went into his bedroom, stripped and stepped into the shower.

  Call him obsessive, but he set the portable hard drive on the bathroom sink where he could keep a visual on it, and he stayed under the jet of the showerhead for a long time, letting the hot water ease cold, tired muscles.

  A sound came from his living room. He lifted his head out of the jetspray. He had company.

  Grabbing a towel as he stepped out, he took a quick swipe at his dripping hair, then wrapped the towel around his waist and went to see who had invaded his apartment.

  As he entered the living room, Constantine closed his refrigerator door. The other gryphon looked a little windblown, and his color was high underneath his tanned skin. His handsome face wore lines of tiredness.

  All four gryphons were some version of tawny and brawny. Rune and Constantine were the two most handsome, and while Bayne had a certain ruggedness to his good looks, Graydon had always been comfortably aware that he would only be considered handsome through the gaze of someone who looked at him with true love.

  Constantine said, “You’ve got no food in your fridge. What’s the matter with you?”

  Graydon suppressed a sigh. Leaving his balcony door unlocked meant, of course, that other avian Wyr who had security clearance could enter his apartment too.

  He replied, “Since I didn’t know when I would be coming or going over the next few days, I threw things out. What are you doing here, Con? I’ve been up all night and I’m tired.”

  “I’ve been up all night too.” The other gryphon inspected the Keurig on Graydon’s counter, selected a cup and started the machine. After giving Graydon a quick once-over, Constantine said, “From the look of things, I probably had more fun with my night than you did with yo
urs.”

  “I’m not available to talk about work stuff. You’ll have heard I’m on leave right now.”

  “Why, yes. I did hear that. I thought it was interesting, since you never ask for a leave of absence. I mean, sure, you take your vacations when it’s your turn, but you don’t ask for time off. Like, literally almost never, which makes it memorable when you do.”

  He stared pointedly at the mug Constantine pulled from the machine. Not that Constantine chose to pick up on it.

  The other man blew on the hot liquid in his mug. Then he took the bottle of scotch Graydon had left on the counter and splashed some liquor into his drink. “In fact,” Con said, “I’m pretty sure this is the first time you’ve asked for a leave in, oh, let me think . . .”

  Graydon watched the other man without moving. Damn him, Constantine was sharp as a whip, stubborn as a bulldog, and he had a memory like a computer—he just wouldn’t give up or stop piecing things together. His personal life was a mess. He catted around compulsively, and he was always wrecked and hungover, but he was a vicious, talented fighter, and his mind never, ever shut off.

  Constantine gave him a gentle smile. “If memory serves, wasn’t the last time you took a leave of absence when we went to London all those years ago? And wasn’t that right after you’d had a private conversation with the Lady of the Elven demesne, at the Vauxhall masque?”

  Exasperated, Graydon said, “Now, why the fuck would you remember something like that?”

  “I watched you walk away with her, and you didn’t reappear until the next day. I remember it so clearly because afterwards, you were uncommunicative and withdrawn for weeks. Gray, that’s not like you. You’re usually a laid-back, friendly, cheerful kind of an SOB.”

  Sighing, Graydon pinched the bridge of his nose. “You’re not going to go away, are you?”

  “Nope, I don’t think I am.” The other man turned back to the Keurig machine. “Why don’t I make you a cup of hot chocolate or coffee while you get dressed? Then we’ll chat.”