Page 25

The IIT—or the Interspecies Investigation Team as they were officially known—dealt with all police events involving nonhumans and had both a day and night division. Which didn’t mean that there weren’t traitors within their ranks, of course, but I knew the two men in charge of both divisions, and they ran fairly tight ships. Ruadhán Dhar-Val—the light elf in charge of the day division and Mathi’s father—did tend to stretch certain legalities when it suited him, and suspects had been killed in the day division lock-up recently, but the main suspect was a lawyer who up until that point had given the division no reason to suspect she might have been doing more than interviewing clients.

Sgott Bruhn ran the night division and was straight down the line when it came to the law. He’d been my mother’s lover for well over sixty years and was the only father I’d ever known, having entered my life when I was barely two, but I wasn’t viewing his actions through rose-colored glasses. Mom had been a powerful seeker. She wouldn’t have spent so long with anyone who wasn’t a decent and honest man.

“Her memories could have been altered at any point in time. They were well aware you and Sgott were looking for her.”

He nodded. “They did call a pixie consultant—”

“Which probably wouldn’t have done any good.” Mainly because it was often difficult for one pixie to undo the commands of another, especially if more than a few days had passed. “I take it they’ve also erased any information about the location of her immediate family?”

“No, because it wasn’t necessary. She rang them after she disposed of Auclair and told them to leave where they were and not, under any circumstances, tell her where.”

“She knew you were closing in.”

“I made no secret of the fact I was hunting her.”

“No.” I loaded a few crackers with hard cheese and munched on them for a few seconds. “I take it you’ve searched the location where her family had been hiding?”

“Yes. Nothing was left behind, but then, that’s hardly surprising.”

Because they’d successfully traded in the black market for absolute eons and “leave no evidence” was undoubtedly a motto they lived by.

I sighed. “These people always seem to be two steps ahead of us.”

He leaned back in the chair and studied me for a second. “Could Vincentia still be in play? I realize she’s been confined, but the connection you formed hasn’t been broken, has it?”

“The red knife should have severed it.”

“And if it hasn’t?”

I hesitated. “She only ever caught snatches of conversation, not my direct thoughts. The distance now between us should have nullified that.”

“What about your aunt?”

I raised my eyebrows. “What about her?”

“She inherited the family second sight, did she not?”

I nodded. “It wasn’t as strong as Mom’s or Vincentia’s though.”

“Is it strong enough to track your location?”

I hesitated. “Second sight doesn’t work on demand like that.”

Scrying could, though, and it was an ability that ran strongly in our family. It was one I rarely used, but I knew the basics of it, having seen Mom and Gran use it many times over the years during the psychic nights they held at the tavern to gain a little more revenue.

“I’m not sure it’s possible to stop her from doing it, though,” I added. “And the red knife forbids any pixie contacting them.”

“But it doesn’t stop non-pixies paying a brief but threatening visit.”

I raised an eyebrow, a grin twitching my lips. “You volunteering?”

“It would seem prudent, and they cannot manipulate me with touch as they could Sgott or one of his people.”

“You wouldn’t happen to enact a little bit of revenge, would you?”

He raised his eyebrow, expression all innocence. “And why would I want that?”

“They did attack us—”