The Taste of Night by Vicki Pettersson Page A

it still felt like there was something missing, it made a sketchy sort of sense. “It’d be more helpful if you told me exactly how he’s planning to do this.”
    She rolled her eyes. “You must not have heard me earlier. I said, Do I look like I’m Light?”
    I crossed my arms, tapping my fingers impatiently. “So what can you tell me?”
    She lit another cigarette, then angled her head up and to the right, blowing smoke that spiraled prettily in the blue light. “You can’t go back to your sanctuary, Archer. We’ve got something big planned for the agents of Light.”
    “But you won’t tell me what.”
    She lifted a shoulder. “What if I’m wrong? What if youstay with those goody-goody losers? Though I don’t think you will. You have two fates spiraling before you, but only one will lead you to true greatness. Eventually you’ll see that.”
    “Don’t count on it.”
    “You’re not even a little curious?” she asked, light brows furrowing. “Don’t you want to know where we live, what it’s like? How we train?”
    “If I knew any of that you’d all be dead.”
    She crossed her feet at the ankles, took a long drag, and blew smoke in my direction. “What about your father? Don’t you want to know what he’s really like?”
    “Uh-uh. You’re not going to tempt me with that shiny red apple.”
    “Oh, a biblical reference. Thanks,” she said, and smiled, serpent-sweet.
    “It wasn’t a compliment,” I said, and I raised my bow, aimed for her heart.
    “I know where Joaquin is,” she said quickly, hands flying up in front of her as if to ward me off. After a few moments of neither of us moving I lowered my conduit. Regan swallowed hard, then licked her lips, eyes still on my weapon. “I’m not going to tell you everything because you just might raise that bow again, but I’ll give you enough to catch him. You have my word.”
    “You are smarter than Butch and Ajax were combined,” I said, unable to keep the admiration out of my voice. Because if there was one thing I’d stop, drop, and roll for, it was information about the man who’d assaulted me when I was just a mortal teen.
    “I know,” she said, relaxing a fraction. “Just think what a team we’d make if we were on the same side.”
    I started to lift my hand again.
    “Okay, okay. No more trying to convince you. It doesn’t matter. You’ll come to the same conclusion soon enough. You’ll see.”
    “About Joaquin?” I prompted.
    “He’ll be at Master Comics tomorrow at four P.M. Helikes to be the first to read the Zodiac manuals, and Zane will sometimes put them out a day early if you go right before the shop closes.”
    “That’s it?”
    “It’s more than you have now,” she pointed out. “And it’s enough. Once you see him you’ll know I’m telling the truth, that I’m really on your side. Then I’ll tell you more.”
    “More about Joaquin?” I asked stiffly. I wanted to know his habits, his haunts, his schedule, down to the food he had for breakfast every morning.
    “More about everything.”
    I sighed. She was right, it was more than I had now. And while it could be a trap, I didn’t think so. As Regan said before, she could have killed me at any time in the past six months…shit, she could’ve handed me over to Joaquin if she’d been inclined. For some reason she wanted me alive—though I doubted that reason was as simple as hope that I’d become the Shadow Kairos.
    Besides, slaying Joaquin was worth the risk.
    I glanced back at Regan, knowing I was walking a moral tightrope here. If Warren was here she’d already be a pretty corpse. But I possessed the aureole. Nothing I did could be tracked, none of my actions would be recorded in the manuals, and this decision was mine alone to make; kill this initiate, or let her live in exchange for intel on my greatest enemy.
    Regan was silent, letting me work all this out for myself, and sensing I’d made a decision, she glanced up, looking almost innocent