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“The Alchemists. I do not know their true identities, no one does, but they are humans, as you said. Four friends who stumbled across our world while they were in college.”

“Do you know how they found out?”

He shook his head.

I didn’t know if Emily Argaud and Reginald Hubler had attended the same schools, but they’d hooked up somehow while Reilly Argaud and his twin were still babies. A warden should have made contact with her after they were born and bound the knowledge of the nephilim to her and her babies.

There are ways around a binding, though. Or, a new thought struck, maybe they knew each other before the twins were born. If she had known the father was a Fallen, she coulda told Hubler anytime before a warden showed up.

I made a note to ask Travis to find out when Emily Argaud and Hubler had met, or at least if they’d gone to the same college. Well, ask John to ask Travis. Dragon wasn’t speaking to me at the moment.

Don’t blame him, either.

“They formed a little club, the Alchemists, and entertained themselves with nephilim females,” Kasparian said, and I tuned back in.

“They set up a points system based on many things, including if the girl consented or not. You can guess which earned more points. It was a game to them. A sport. And if the girl did not survive, it doubled the points.”

Power suddenly coated my skin and I had to pull it in tight, coil it up like a spring, to keep from going off. If they hurt Gemma that way, I wouldn’t just kill them. I’d cut their balls off and feed them to them, then kill them good and slow.

“Eventually, they began to dabble in dark magic and sought out ancient relics. They summoned demons and hired magicians. Your Khaydari worked for them. All with one goal, Harker. They want to live forever. And a teuflisch prince convinced them that the secret to immortality is hidden in our blood. To weaken us, I suppose.”

“Yeah, I heard that part.”

“Now they buy or kidnap nephilim and use them to fill their blood banks. When they have been drained beyond usefulness, the nephilim are sent to a laboratory. I imagine the experiments conducted there are the stuff of nightmares.”

“Do you know where this laboratory is?”

“No. What I have told you is all I know. Nothing specific. No names or dates or places or anything truly helpful. I am sorry, Harker. When you speak with Isaac Black and Pepper Crane, ask them, but be careful of anyone else. Otherwise, you may not live long enough to recover your priceless treasure.”

“Have you heard of Solomon’s djinn?” I figured I might as well tap him for all the info I could while I was here.

“ Ja . Controlled by the Alchemists right now. I heard Fire wears the ring. Are they the djinn you banished?”

“Yep. Who leads the clan?”

“His name is Darius. He’s a good man in a bad situation.” “Good man or not, he’s going to be dead if he hurts my girl.”

“He is as much a slave as you are.” Kas raised an eyebrow at me. “If you’ve gained a conscience, perhaps you can find a little sympathy for him.”

I grunted at that.

“Any idea where they hole up when not in Fire’s service?”

“ Nein . Not even any rumors. But djinn in general like deserted places. Wastes and ruins and cemeteries. But if you destroyed them as you say, they are returned to the ring where they will stay until healed.”

We reached the top of the stairs, the limit of his domain, and he stopped walking.

“I owe you one, Kas, and you know I hate having a debt unpaid. What can I do for you?”

He dropped his head until his chin rested on his chest.

“Let me tell you a story, Harker. Once, there was a neph who made many bad choices in his life. Made many, many mistakes.”

Kasparian paused, then nodded to himself, like he’d decided to finish the story even though he didn’t really wanna.

“But he did one thing right. He had a daughter, a little liebling named Astrid, a single star in his dark world. Then, her freshman year at university, she went on a date and never came home.”

“Oh, no.” I knew where this was going.

“ Ja . They extinguished his star for points , Harker. For fun.”

He pulled his wallet out of his back pocket, opened it, and showed me his daughter’s photo. There was a worn spot over the plastic covering her face, right about the size of his thumb, and I scowled.

I didn’t like feeling sorry for him. I didn’t like feeling sorry for her. I didn’t like feeling anything , really, not when numb was so comfortable and kept me semi-sane and from killing anyone.

“It broke the man,” Kas went on. “He retreated into darkness and became little more than a mindless animal. He faded into the wall.”

“Did you ever find out who—”

“The Alchemists’ scoreboard posted her photo the next day.”

Adrenaline shot through my veins as I processed his words. If there was a scoreboard, someone had to be posting to it, and that meant I could find them.

“Where’s their scoreboard? In the War Room upstairs? Is it still being updated?

“ Nein . Not for years now. Ja , it was in the War Room. Zick Black ran the bets on it.”

Oh, I am definitely going to be paying Zick a visit.

I had an ace up my sleeve that he wouldn’t be able to trump. Maybe he still had a contact among the Alchemists. If he did, he was gonna give it to me if I had to beat him to his bony knees—

“They left her body for the rats to gnaw.”

Kas’s words slammed into me harder than a medicine ball to the gut. I cut my eyes over at him, but he’d turned to the wall and studied the old stonework as if he’d never seen it before.

“So I ask you, if you find the Hurensohn who hurt my little girl—”

“Oh, I’ll kill him, Kas.” The monster inside me grinned. “I’ll kill him slow .”