Fallen

Chapter 25

Gavin

I won't lie, I was more than a little sick to my stomach after meeting Alexi Cowl. The man was so perfectly at ease and cocky with his position and his mission that it made me perfectly nauseated. I was more than sure that Alexi was the grandmaster of the Order of Rasputin, I knew it in my gut, and the fact that a man at the head of an organization that was bent on handing mastery of the human world over to the demons probably slept like a baby at night in silk sheets made me want to hurl.

"Toby, take us to the station. I need to take another look at the facts," I said, masking my frustration as best as I could. Toby didn't question my request and merely flipped on his signal. Good, I wasn't in the mood for questions. My brain had an itch that I couldn't seem to scratch, and I had the feeling that I was missing something that should have been blindingly obvious. Gaius was probably out there somewhere laughing his ass off at me, and that thought alone was almost enough for me to kick a hole through Toby's Mustang again.

"What do you think you're going to find this time?" Eliza asked curiously. God, was there no end to her questions?

"I don't know!" I shouted angrily, setting her back into her seat. I calmed myself down as much as possible before saying anything more. "I don't know, but I'm hoping that there's something that will provide us with some options, because we're running low on that particular commodity at the moment."

"We should put a tail on Cowl," Toby suggested, pulling up to the police station. "If he was cocky enough to slip up as much as you say he did, then he just might give us something."

"It's possible, but we'll have to be careful who we send," I answered, thinking the suggestion over. "Alexi may be a bit arrogant, but he's not an idiot. He'll be able to detect a careless tail."

"Good point," Toby replied as we got out of his car. He led the way into the station and back to his office, stopping to tell another office to have all of the evidence we needed brought to his office.

"We'll need a board too!" I shouted after the officer before following Toby into his office. Toby tossed me a case file, which I immediately began flipping through, scanning page after page and picture after picture. None of it told me anything I hadn't known until I'd gotten to the cases of the burn victims. There was something there, definitely, but what? "These sites were definitely used by Gaius for rituals, and they are all associated with gates around the city. But what kind?"

"Wouldn't he just be summoning more pets?" Toby asked, with Eliza nodding in support. For somebody who'd been so anxious to skip town, she was taking a pretty big part in this thing. I shook my head.

"It's possible, but I don't believe for a second that was his only goal," I replied, continuing to look over the files. "Gaius was never that simple in the past, and he's had plenty of time to plan this event. He's up to something, and if I'm right, it's much bigger than bringing up a few dozen blazes, and more destructive."

"Why do I get the feeling you're hiding something from us?" Eliza asked. I smiled coolly.

"I hide things from everyone, doll. Don't take it personal," I said frigidly, something still nagging my mind. It wasn't the rituals any longer, but something more subtle. At that moment, the officer came in with the board I'd requested, which a map of the city had taped to one side. I studied it for a second, once again feeling like I was overlooking something trivial.

"And you think that's a good thing?" Eliza asked, again sparking annoyance in my already troubled brain. "I mean, aren't we supposed to trust one another?"