Templeton shook his head. I didn’t smell anything but Mark.
Her head tilted to the side. “I could maybe see that if there was blood everywhere, but there isn’t any.”
Right, doll. So you tell me . . . No blood to stink up the air and a killer exerting himself strenuously, but all I could smell was Mark. How is that possible?
“What are you—” Reed’s hand came to rest at the small of her back. She swallowed hard. “Are you saying there wasn’t an Infernal down there when Molenaar was killed?”
Seems that way.
The chill in her gut spread. “Then who did it?”
Templeton’s whiskers twitched. That’s the question, isn’t it?
“Who was the last person tae see Molenaar?” Ken asked, his gaze raking over the other Marks.
They were waiting in the men’s side of the duplex for Gadara to return from Anytown and the tension was thick as fog. Eve stood on the open threshold between the dining and living rooms. Reed leaned a shoulder into the wall beside her, a causal pose she knew was only a facade. She was unusually antsy, with a simmering need to move. The itch to leap into offensive action crawled over her skin like a thousand tiny ants.
The smell of mold and decay in the house was more pronounced now, almost oppressively so. The weak rays of sunlight shining through the windows showcased every flaw the moonlight had concealed: the stained and warped hardwood floors, the crumbling walls, the scuffed baseboards. The air was choked with the proliferation of dust that swirled around them like tendrils of smoke. Eve found herself becoming more agitated by the moment.
Inside her mind, Reed murmured words she couldn’t understand in a soothing tone. Their connection was too weak to convey more than impressions, but she got the gist. He wanted her to take it down a notch. She was hot and irritable, and she wanted to cry but her eyes were dry as bone.
“Well?” Ken demanded, looking oddly fierce in his ski cap, like a bank-robbing felon. “The last time I saw him was when we entered Anytown. I went tae the left. I saw Hollis, Edwards, and Richens go intae the office building. Who went tae the right with Molenaar?”
Claire raised her hand. She stood with feet wide and arm wrapped around her waist in a defensive posture that belied the aggressive tilt of her chin. “I did, in the beginning. We separated when I entered a video rental store. He continued without me.”
“What time was that?”
“Half past eight?” She muttered something in French. “Maybe eight. What does it matter?”
“What about you?” Ken directed his question to Romeo.
“I was with Laurel.”
Ken stared a moment at the pretty Kiwi, who looked chagrined and might have blushed if she wasn’t a Mark. “You two make me sick,” he bit out.
Laurel blinked, then recovered. “Fuck you, Callaghan.”
“Isnae that what he was doing?” Ken jerked his chin toward Romeo. “While Molenaar was losing his head, you two were houghmagandying on a training mission!”
“You didn’t save him either,” Laurel snapped. “What were you doing?”
“Where was Seiler?” Edwards interjected.
“She was following us,” Eve said.
“I was not!” Izzie protested.
“You came onto the scene awfully quick,” Eve drawled, deliberately goading.
“I am fast. That’s all. I do not care about what you are doing. You have problems if you think I would.”
“Since you and Richens keep contradicting each other, it’s clear that one of you is a liar. Which one of you is it?”
“I am confused,” Romeo said, frowning.
Izzie palmed her blade and spoke with dangerous softness. “Do not call me a liar.”
Eve crossed her arms. “We don’t have time for these games you and Richens are playing. Until one of you admits that you told me a lie, I’m not going to believe either of you.”
“Sod off, Hollis,” Richens bit out. “My arse still hurts, you know. I told you to pick the knife!”
“I shot you on purpose,” she said wryly.
Reed’s hand touched her elbow. She caught his frown and shrugged it off.
Ken stepped closer. “What are you talking about, Hollis? What lies?”
“They know what I’m talking about. Let’s go back to what happened to Molenaar. Did anyone else notice the lack of Infernal stench around Molenaar’s body?”
A stillness came over the group, then a cluster of protests. Eve cut them all off with a wave of her hand. “I understand you were all freaked out. I am, too, but we need to stop thinking about how we feel about this and do something about it instead.”
“I didnae smell anything but Mark blood,” Ken said.
The others quickly concurred.
“Right.” Eve’s gaze raked over everyone, searching. “So what does that mean?”
“We weren’t paying attention?” Edwards suggested gruffly.
“Or maybe the only thing to smell was Mark. Maybe there was never an Infernal there.”
“You accuse one of us?” Romeo cried, dark eyes wide. “Sei matta! Come puoi dire una cosa del genere?”
“I have no idea what he said,” Laurel snapped. “But I agree!”
Reed’s grip on her arm tightened. “Come with me.” He dragged her toward the door.
“She is lying,” Izzie said with a smile in her voice. “I think it was the faery.”
Pausing, Reed faced them. “Leave this matter to Raguel and his team.”
“If there’s a traitor among us,” Richens said, “we have a lot to worry about.”
Reed snapped his fingers at the two guards standing watch just outside the front door. “No one leaves.”
Without waiting for their acquiescence, he yanked Eve down the steps and away.
CHAPTER 10
Eve stumbled after Reed as they rounded the driveway corner and stepped out of sight. He tugged her around the hedges that separated the duplex driveway from the drive next door and faced her, scowling. “What are you doing?”
“Talking.”
“Bullshit. You’re instigating infighting on purpose.”
“I have a really good reason,” she said. “Maybe they’ll wake up and smell the stench.”
“You aren’t in any position to train others.”
“This is just a game to them. Richens acts as if we’re playing for points and not lives. Ken chose brass knuckles for his weapon. Brass-fucking-knuckles, against Infernals? And Romeo and Laurel were screwing for christsakes—ow!” She glared at the sky and rubbed her mark through her armband. “That doesn’t count!”
Reed’s mouth thinned into a disapproving line. “You should be working together, not fighting among yourselves. You know none of them did it.”
“Says who?” she challenged, spoiling for a fight. “We can’t rule anyone out. We need to be looking very closely at everything and everyone around us. We can’t afford any blind spots.”
“Marks don’t do shit like this, Eve! They’re not capable of it.”
“And demons don’t exist. Sometimes what we think is an absolute truth is completely false.” Eve stabbed a finger viciously toward the house. “They have to step outside of the cocoon they’re living in and face facts. You can’t trust anyone, and if you turn your back, don’t be surprised to find a knife in it.”
He growled. “Not the conspiracy theory again.”
“Gadara has wiretaps in my condo and cameras on every floor of my building. You think he doesn’t have Anytown scoped out?” Eve ripped off the Velcro-secured armband. “We’re all wearing these. They’re supposed to simulate a call, but I would be willing to bet they have GPS locaters in them and maybe bugs, too.”
“Will you listen to yourself? You’re nuts, and you’re driving me nuts, too. Gadara wouldn’t let a Mark die, Eve.”
“Why? Because he’s an archangel?”
“Because losing a Mark during training looks bad,” he bit out, his powerful frame taut with frustration. “Really, really bad. It will take Raguel centuries to regain the standing he lost today.”
Eve’s hands went to her hips. “Then why didn’t he stop it from happening?”
A muscle in Reed’s jaw ticced. He knelt down to get the armband. “You’re leaping to conclusions based on assumptions. Look—” he straightened and snapped the metal plate of the band in half, “—there’s nothing in here. It’s solid. Raguel’s running on full power now; he doesn’t need secular electronics. These are for your benefit. The pressure on your arm keeps you focused and the metal gives Raguel a concentrated area to heat.”
“Are you telling me there’s no way Gadara could have known about the attack and prevented it?”
“He’s an archangel. Not God.”
“I don’t see how—”
“Do you think he’s evil?” Reed demanded, shoving the destroyed band into his pocket. “Is that what this boils down to? You think he watched your classmate getting butchered on a live feed and ate popcorn?”
She rubbed at the bead of sweat that ran down her nape. Said in that manner, it did sound implausible. “No.”
“Everything happens for a reason.” His voice softened. “You have to believe that.”
“I don’t believe, Reed. I’m agnostic.”
“You’re a pain in the ass.” He caught her face in his hands and tilted it up. With his thumbs brushing over her cheekbones, he examined her. “Shit. You’re burning up. Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I did say something,” she groused, “to both Gadara and Alec. One says it’s all in my head, the other says it’s just my body adjusting to the mark.”
He snarled something in a foreign language. Eve meant to ask what it was but was distracted by the feel of his touch, which cooled her. The scent of his skin filled her nostrils, altering the tension that gripped her from anger to something far more dangerous.