Phoenix Born Page 4

‘Is this a bad time?’ I asked. Monroe would never have brought me up without warning his boss, so Dorian had known I was coming and not bothered to get dressed or excuse his guest.

  ‘Not at all, Jacob,’ Dorian said smoothly. The woman lifted her head so Dorian could swing his legs from under her and pull himself into a sitting position. He indicated to the vacant sofa opposite him before lifting a crystal glass of whiskey and tipping the contents down his neck like it was water.

  I took a seat and waited politely for Dorian to finish drinking. His face was a true work of art, everything was perfectly symmetrical and there wasn’t a blemish in sight. I could see why his friend had wanted to paint him all those years ago. A part of me did want to see the picture that hid the real Dorian Gray from sight. I wanted to see the horror of his soul that had supposedly driven men mad. But I knew that I never would. I wondered if the painting was even in the house, or the city for that matter. If it was true that it was the one thing that could kill him then he would surely keep it close. But then, it was impossible to know what was true about the stories revolving around Dorian Gray. There could be no painting at all. Maybe it was a lie he invented to keep people from searching for the real way to kill him.

  I glanced at the woman and then gasped as I realised I knew her. Her name was Michelle Stephens and she was engaged to marry the mayor’s nephew. She gave me a drunken smile before she slumped back against the sofa and closed her eyes.

  ‘I see you’ve recognised my guest,’ Dorian said with a mischievous smile. He reached out and fiddled with a strand of her hair as he spoke. ‘She’s exquisite, isn’t she? Natural beauty is such a rarity these days. Women cake themselves in mountains of makeup and spend thousands on plastic surgery, thinking that all these things make them better. It rarely does. I don’t mind the makeup so much, when applied correctly it truly can compliment a girl’s face. But plastic surgery…’ he wrinkled his nose in disgust and shook his head.

  ‘I thought she was engaged,’ I said. I had recently been in an affair with an engaged woman myself, but I hadn’t known she was engaged until the night that affair ended. I don’t get involved with woman unless they’re single — too much drama.

  Dorian’s eyes flicked back my way and he retracted his hand from Michelle’s hair. ‘She is. But I just cannot resist forbidden fruit. And it was her choice. I’ve never forced any girl to do anything with me.’

  Maybe not directly, but his position, his influence and his power would scare people enough to stop them from refusing him. That kind of influence and power would attract some people too. In this city Dorian Gray was a king, and who had the courage to say no to a king? Of course, I couldn’t say any of this or I’d end up on his bad side. Instead I chose to move the conversation on.

  ‘Who killed Ruby Hassell?’ I asked. My words came out a little more brusquely than I’d intended. I didn’t seem to offend Dorian though. The playfulness dropped from his face and he suddenly looked far more serious.

  ‘Ruby Hassell,’ he said, running a hand through his own dark hair. It fell into a neat side-parting. He shook his head. ‘I don’t know. I know it wasn’t you though. You were out of town when she died. Working.’ He flashed me a knowing wink when he said working.

  There were three people who knew the truth about what I really did for a living. Myself, Drew, and Dorian Gray. Since Monroe was in the room I assumed he knew too. So that made four. I don’t know how Dorian found out but he did. It was one of his many talents. He used people’s secrets to control them. He was using mine now. But I wasn’t going to be shut down so easily.

  ’Nothing happens in Sangford without your say so. So either somebody killed her with your blessing or they acted without your permission. That means either you know who did it or you’ll find out.’ I noticed Monroe tense up.

  ‘Why do you care so much about a dead fuck-buddy?’

  ‘He feels guilty,’ Monroe informed him.

  ‘About what?’

  I sighed and decided to tell him the truth. I couldn’t expect honesty if I wasn’t willing to give it. ‘She wanted more. She told me right before I found out she had a fiancée. After I ended things with her she sent me text messages. Loads of them. Asking me to think about having something more serious with her.’

  Dorian’s eyes flicked to the side as he absorbed the information I was giving. He looked far more interested in what I was saying than I’d expected him to be. ‘And what did you say?’

  I shook my head. ‘I ignored her.’ The whole point of having purely physical relationships was to avoid getting caught up like this. Clearly I needed to be more selective in future.

  ‘This wasn’t your fault,’ Dorian assured me.

  ‘Maybe it was. If I hadn’t been sleeping with her she might not be dead right now.’

  ‘She chose to sleep with you. She knew she was engaged and she chose to dishonour that commitment.’ Whether it was subconscious or not I wasn’t sure, but Michelle slid away from Dorian on the sofa.

  ‘I think Ethan Spriggs killed her,’ I said.

  ‘The fiancé? Why do you think he is responsible?’ Dorian leaned back and rested his chin on his hand as he listened to me.

  ‘Ruby wasn’t the only one who was texting me after he caught us. He sent me dozens of threats. He wanted me to fight him, all fists no magic. Man-to-man and all that stuff. He told me I was a coward and he was going to make me sorry. He said he’d come for me in any way he could. He told me he would destroy my entire world.’

  ‘Sounds like he’s got a lot of work ahead of him,’ Dorian said with a chuckle. He noticed that I was not laughing and his face returned to a serious composition. ‘You think he killed her to try to set you up?’

  ‘I think he wanted revenge on her too. Killing her and setting me up for it would hit us both. Two birds one stone.’

  ‘Very efficient,’ Monroe said. ‘And if that was his intention then it worked. You are the police’s prime suspect.’

  ‘He was their prime suspect. Now he’s off limits.’ Dorian turned back to me. ‘Jacob, I assure you that I am not going to let this go. My best people are investigating this matter. Like you said, nothing happens in this city without my permission so I am not going to let this lie. But you are. As long as you reside in my domain you, like everybody else, will follow my rules. As far as you’re concerned this matter is closed,’ he said firmly. I knew there was no point in arguing. The conversation was over.

  I left the mansion feeling no better than when I’d gone in. I didn’t have Drew’s ability to know for certain if somebody was telling a lie, but I trusted my intuition enough to know that Dorian was not being entirely honest with me. But what he was keeping from me I wasn’t sure. This whole matter was so far down in the chain of importance that I couldn’t figure out why he was interested in it to start with.

  I was certain of one thing. If Ethan had done it then he was not going to stop coming after me. I needed to handle Ruby’s jilted lover. I couldn’t kill him even if I did have proof that he was guilty, it was against my rules to kill Nocults. Unless I did it the way Ethan kept suggesting — without supernatural abilities. The reason I didn’t kill Nocults was because I had an unfair advantage. It would be like a grown man killing a child, the kid didn’t stand a chance. But if I didn’t use my powers then there was no reason I couldn’t kill him with a knife or something. I’d worry about that later. First, I needed to find proof that he’d actually done it.

  Chapter Six

  ‘No,’ Drew said firmly, slamming his coffee down on my kitchen table. I’d just filled him in on my arrest and subsequent chat with Dorian, before asking him to investigate the matter for me. Investigations were his forte not mine. I did all the manual labour.

  ‘Drew, please. You used to be a PI. This is your area. I just do the killing.’

  ‘You can’t kill him because he’s a Nocult,’ Drew replied shortly.

  ‘If I don’t use magic it will be fine. But first I need proof that he did kill R
uby.’

  ‘Rubbish. This isn’t happening.’

  ‘Fine, I won’t kill him, I’ll turn him over to the police!’

  ‘Do you seriously think that’s what this is about? I don’t care if you kill a murderer or not, Jacob. I care about you putting yourself in Dorian Gray’s bloody crosshairs. And me as well. He told you to drop this so drop it.’

  ‘I can’t. I need to know who did it,’ I said sullenly, folding my arms and staring out the window. The sky was pitch black outside.

  ‘You’re on your own then. I’m not helping you with this, Jacob,’ he said defiantly.

  ‘Why are you so scared?’

  ‘Because I’m not a bloody great moron! Anybody with half a brain is scared of Dorian Gray. With a snap of his fingers he could have an entire pack of werewolves after you. One phone call and City Hall will seize all your assets and freeze your bank accounts. One nod and that pet vampire of his will suck your veins dry. Do not cross Dorian Gray. He has a hundred ways to ruin your life. Do you remember why I’m not a PI anymore? I pissed him off and he got the mayor to make private investigating a licensed profession.’

  ‘Yes, and all your applications were denied. I remember the story, Uncle.’

  ‘Not well enough if you’re still stupid enough to disobey him.’

  ‘I don’t get why he wants me to stay away from this anyway.’

  ‘It’s Dorian Gray. He never does anything without having something to gain from it. My guess is that he wants you to stay away from this because he wants you out of the police eye line. You’re the best assassin in the country. He probably wants you for a job in the future and you won’t be much use if the police are following you around.’

  ‘What job though?’

  ‘I don’t know. Maybe he doesn’t even know yet. Maybe he just wants to keep you clean for when the day comes that his own killers aren’t good enough. The point is you don’t go against his wishes and you certainly don’t ask me to.’

  ‘Fine. I’ll do it on my own then,’ I said with the air of a stroppy teenager. I wasn’t going to drop this no matter what anybody said. Dorian was hardly going to ruin my life over such a minor matter.

  ‘You do that. Meanwhile I’ll be focusing on our real work. Work we get paid for. Speaking of work, why did you burn the target’s house down tonight? That wasn’t in the briefing.’

  ‘What are you talking about? I didn’t burn his house down.’ I looked back at my uncle in confusion. I’d killed Kagen and left the property. There hadn’t been any fires burning when I’d left.

  ‘It’s all over the news. The house burned down. The fire brigade has been there all night trying to get it under control.’

  ‘Maybe his death triggered a fire or something. He was a pyromancer. I don’t know how these things work,’ I said with a shrug. ‘The pyromancy research was pretty thin on this job,’ I added scathingly.

  I was tired and really not interested in a random fire. The job was completed and I’d left no evidence of our involvement. That was all that mattered. I needed to concentrate on more important things now, like proving that Ethan killed his fiancée. ‘I’m going to bed. You can show yourself out or crash in the spare room,’ I said before trudging off to my bedroom.

  Drew woke me up a few hours later. ‘You fucked up,’ he said angrily. Get out of bed.’

  A few minutes later I dragged myself into my sun-filled apartment and collapsed onto my stone-grey sofa. ‘What are you talking about?’ I said lethargically, my eyes only half open.

  ‘Kagen Payne is still alive.’

  That made my eyes fly open. All remnants of sleep vanished and I sat up, fully alert.

  ‘No, he’s not.’ I could still remember his lifeless face. He was definitely dead. ‘You saw the picture.’

  ‘Yeah, and so did the client. Do you know what else the client saw? He saw Kagen Payne in his house early this morning. Right before Kagen set fire to his house and left him to burn in it.’

  ‘Is he dead?’

  ‘Obviously not or he wouldn’t have been able to tell me all this,’ my uncle growled. My face reddened in embarrassment. I was tired. I’d just been woken up after only a few hours sleep.

  ‘Why didn’t Kagen kill him?’ I pondered aloud.

  ‘He left him to burn. But the client managed to escape. He’s in Central Hospital now. You can rest assured that we won’t be getting the rest of the payment now. You’re going to have to finish the job and settle for the half we already got.’

  ‘I did the job!’ I protested.

  ‘Oh yeah, and Kagen just refused to stay dead, right? It doesn’t matter. You need to eliminate him before this damages your reputation. Nobody is going to hire the Wraith if they find out that you can’t kill targets properly. The client has promised to keep quiet as long as Kagen dies tonight.’

  ‘Fine. Fine,’ I grumbled, rubbing my messy hair as I tried to pull a plan together. I was going to need to find Kagen if I was going to kill him. Again. This time I’d cut his head off and take it with me to prove that he was dead.

  ‘I need to get to the hospital,’ I said, standing up.

  ‘No. You don’t go near the clients. That’s my job. You need to find Kagen,’ Drew told me. He was looking at me as if I’d gone mad.

  ‘Kagen will go to the hospital to finish the job and when he does I’ll kill him,’ I explained to my uncle, saying each word slowly so he could keep up. ‘You get back to the books and find me a guaranteed way to kill a pyromancer. I don’t want him getting back up again.’

  Drew’s cheeks flushed red as he realised that his shoddy research was the reason that Kagen was still walking around. I headed to my room and got dressed before leaving for the hospital.

  I walked the halls of the hospital wanting to get the job polished off quickly so I could get back to exposing Ethan for the murderer he was. I reached the room Kagen’s father-in-law was being kept in and set myself up in the opposite room. Drew had paid the hospital generously for the use of the room. From here I could see into the client’s room. He was asleep at the moment. Heavy bandages had been wrapped around his face. I hoped he wasn’t too badly burned, that would not look good in my portfolio. Failed to kill a target and then said target burned the client in revenge. That sort of rep could end an assassin for good.

  I placed my fingers on the window of my own room. ‘Hivel Carva,’ I said. The window shimmered once as my spell took place. To anybody but me the window would be invisible. If they looked all they would see was wall. I didn’t conceal the door. The staff knew not to come in and if Kagen decided to come in then good. I’d kill him right here in this room without anybody else seeing. Bish bash bong. Job done.

  I pulled over a chair and sat down to begin the long wait for my victim to arrive.

  Stakeouts are a big part of my job. Drew did most of the prep work but I still had to go to the victim’s house, or workplace, or where it was that I planned on snuffing them out, to figure out exactly how I was going to do it. I had to make sure there was nothing that might get in the way. Stakeouts are without a doubt the worst part of the job. They’re so boring. This one was no different. I had expected Kagen to show up pretty early to finish the job but he did not and after a couple of hours my stomach started to growl. I wished I’d brought some food.

  My phone buzzed and I pulled it out of my pocket hoping that it was Drew letting me know that Kagen had shown up somewhere else so I could drop the stakeout. It wasn’t. It was an unsaved number but I’d learned to recognise who it belonged to. I’d had enough messages from Ruby’s fiancé to recognise his number by now. I sighed and opened the message wondering what Ethan had to say this time. It had been so long since he’d sent me a message. I can’t say I missed them.

  You’ll get yours for this. Murderer.

  Brilliant, so we were back to threats. Despite the numerous threats I’d received from Ethan, he hadn’t actually come after me once. It was pretty juvenile really. I assumed that this text was all par
t of his show for the police. He was acting like he thought I killed Ruby even though we both knew it was him. I wanted to text him back and tell him that actually he would get his, but I resisted. When someone threatens you they want a response. They crave your attention. The best way to annoy them is simply to ignore them. I slid my phone back into my jacket pocket and returned to the job at hand. I wanted this done with quickly so I could deal with Ethan. Oh, he was going to get his alright.

  The hours whiled away and I watched doctors, nurses, orderlies, and visitors walking back forth in front of me. Every now and then a doctor would go running past to deal with some emergency and I watched him, envious for some excitement of my own.

  By the time night fell Kagen still had not shown up and I was starting to think that he was dead after all. I got a warning text from Drew letting me know he was on his way to relieve me and a minute later he walked into the room. I noticed that he’d been smart enough to bring a thermos flask of coffee and a bag of food. I hadn’t eaten all day and my stomach was not letting me forget it.

  ‘Weird that he hasn’t shown up,’ he said, glancing across the hall at the bait.

  ‘Maybe he’s expecting me to be waiting for him. He’ll be more cautious now after being attacked in his own home. Speaking of which, did you find a way to keep him down?’

  ‘I went over all my books and pyromancers aren’t difficult to kill.The spell you used should have worked. All the normal methods of killing a person apply to them,’ he said with a small shrug.

  ‘Then why isn’t he dead?’

  Drew shook his head and rubbed at the stubble on his chin. ‘Some sort of magical protection. An amulet maybe. When you do find him take off the head or cut out his heart. There aren’t many things that could survive that.’

  ‘Noted,’ I replied, drawing my mouth into a grim line. This job was proving to be too much trouble. I’d already lost half the payment and I was now having to put in double the work. ‘If you see anything don’t get involved. Just call me,’ I instructed Drew. He threw a sour look my way.