Stacia Kane - City of Ghosts стр 7.

Abrams, she said. Any relation to the Grand Elder?

Lauren gave a light, soft laugh. Hes my father.

If Chess hadnt already been sitting down she might have stumbled. No fucking way. They were sending her on a casethere had to be a case here, either that or they were busting her, and she somehow suspected that if thats what was going on they would have done it alreadywith the fucking Grand Elders daughter?

Oh, she said finally, since everyone was looking at her as if they expected her to respond. Okay.

Lauren sat down in Danas empty chair, crossed her legs with a whisper of nylon. I bet youre wondering whats going on.

Chess shrugged.

We have  an offer for you. An investigation we think you could really help us with. Interested?

What is it?

Lauren opened her mouth, but before she could speak Elder Thompson cleared his throat and leaned forward, his heavy brows drawn together in a solid line. His eyebrows fascinated Chess; they seemed to grow wilder and thicker every time she saw him, while the hair on his head grew lighter and thinner, like some sort of migration process. Someday she imagined the brows would simply fall over his eyes in a wiry curtain.

Lauren glanced at him, nodded, glanced back at Chess. Its a very  sensitive case.

All my cases are sensitive. What the hell was this? Why were they looking at her like they expected her to explode? I dont gossip, if thats what youre implying.

Oh, no, no, thats not it. Its justIm not explaining this very well. Lauren looked helplessly at Elder Griffin, biting her lipstick-coated lower lip.

Great. One of those women: tough and authoritative when it suited her, acting like a simpering poor-me baby when it didnt. So they wanted to bring her in on a case with the Grand Elders pampered little daughter, who would expect Chess to do all the work while she batted her eyelashes and took all the credit? Ugh. No, thank you.

But then  how much money was in it? She fully expected shed have to start paying for her own supplies again, once the bag she had ran out and she had to tell Lex she wasnt going to sleep with him anymore. So it wasnt like extra money wouldnt come in handy. The payout on her last case would have been huge, but shed been forced to give it up to save her own skin, so  she was broke. As usual.

Cesaria, the problem isnt that we do not trust you, Elder Griffin said. Its that the sensitivity of this case, the subject of it, makes explaining a little difficult.

Elder Thompson folded his arms. We cant tell you what its about. Not until you agree to take it.

What? I dont

And it will require a Binding Oath.

Her mouth fell open. A Binding Oath? They had to be kidding. No. No way. They wanted her to take a case so serious it required an oath of secrecya form of magical control over her actionsand they werent even going to tell her what it was about first? Not even a hint?

Lex would surely front her. If he was going to stop giving her what she needed for free, she knew he would at least front her until she got a real case, one where shed get a bonus. It wouldnt be long, it never

The case comes with a bonus before you begin, simply for agreeing and accepting the Bind, Elder Griffin said. Thirty thousand dollars. You will be given a thousand dollars a week on top of your salary for the duration of the casewe anticipate a resolution within two weeks, howeverand an additional fifty thousand when it ends.

Her protest died in her throat. Eighty-two thousand dollars. Eighty thousand dollars minimum. That was a fuck of a lot of money.

That would buy her a fuck of a lot of oblivion. And the way things were going these days, oblivion was even more important than usual.

And she still needed a new car.

I assume, she said, pushing the words out through a throat gone gummy, that its a dangerous case?

Lauren Abrams rearranged her legs with another nylon hiss; Elder Thompson and Elder Griffin both watched her like they thought she might get up and run screaming from the room. None of them replied.

Shed just watched two people die. Her hand throbbed where shed sliced it. Her thigh ached. She wanted a cigarette, and she wanted her pills. And she wanted eighty thousand dollars.

No matter what the case was.

Ill do it, she said, and hoped it would be worth it. 

Chapter Three

Elder Griffin stood up. Light from the candles on the floor spilled across his face, cast jutting shadows over one eye. For a moment he looked alien, almost scary; then he turned farther to his left and was himself again.

Chesss heart pounded in her chest. Its just a bit of magic, she told herself. Just an oath, no different from the ones shed taken when she started her training, certainly no different from the ones shed taken when she completed that training and became a full Church employee at the age of twenty-one.

It didnt work, though. This was different, and she knew it. And she didnt like it. Nor did she like the energy rising in the room, sly and intrusive, or the peculiar smile on Lauren Abramss face as she watched the Elders set up the altar.