Quicksilver - Amanda Quick [13]
“What everyone in the family knows,” Aurelia said, “is that you are spending more and more time on the streets late at night. It is one thing to troll for monsters occasionally. In this family, that passes for sport, rather like fishing. But it is quite another to go out alone night after night, searching for your prey. That way lies madness for a Sweetwater man.”
“I am not hunting at night for the sport of it. I have a particular client, J & J, and I have a specific target, a psychical maniac who is murdering glasslight-talents.”
“I realize that you have recently acquired a client, but that is only a short-term diversion. It will not change what is happening to you. Owen, your parents and the rest of the family are starting to worry. If you do not find the right woman soon, you will become a nightwalker.”
“What makes you think Lady Milden can find me a match?”
“I am told she is very skilled at what she does. What do you have to lose?”
“Time,” he said. “Time that I can spend searching for my own true mate.”
“You said yourself this is the modern era. You should take advantage of modern, more efficient ways of doing things.”
“I’ll consider it,” he said, lying through his teeth.
“I will take that as a promise.”
He swung around. “Damn it, Aunt Aurelia.”
“I will ignore the bad language this one time, because I am aware that you are under considerable stress.” She went toward the door. “You have wasted too much time already. You must not wait any longer, Owen. Your family does not want to lose you to the night.”
FIVE
I do not usually report to clients until the job is finished,” Owen Sweetwater said.
Caleb angled his chin in acknowledgment of the great favor that Sweetwater appeared to think he was granting to Jones & Jones. In the few months that he and Lucinda had been doing business at the agency, they had discovered that the only people more troublesome than the clients were the powerful and unpredictable talents the firm was obliged to hire in order to conduct the investigations.
“We appreciate that you are making an exception for us,” Caleb said.
His cousin Gabe, the Master of the Society, studied Sweetwater with a considering expression.
“You came highly recommended, Mr. Sweetwater, but please understand that this sort of business is new to us,” Gabe said.
The three of them were standing in an abandoned warehouse near the docks. Sweetwater had chosen the location for the meeting, just as he had selected the location the first time, when Caleb had contacted him about the possibility of employment. It had become clear immediately that when one engaged the services of the Sweetwater clan, one accepted the arrangements stipulated by the particular Sweetwater with whom one was dealing.
At the first meeting Caleb had been convinced that Owen Sweetwater was a hunter-talent of some sort but not the traditional variety. The psychical abilities of the average hunter tended to be of a more physical nature. Such talents were usually endowed with preternatural reflexes, speed, hearing and night vision. They hunted by detecting the psychical spoor of their prey.
Owen Sweetwater moved with a predatory ease and control that put one in mind of a hunter, but Caleb had grown up in a family that boasted a number of hunters sprinkled throughout the bloodline. He knew true hunters, and he was quite certain that whatever Sweetwater was, he was not a traditional hunter-talent.
“What we want to know,” Caleb said carefully, “is whether you have found any evidence that supports my belief that the two glass-readers were killed by paranormal means. If not, then this case is not J & J’s problem. I will give what information we have to an acquaintance at Scotland Yard. The police can take responsibility for finding the killer.”
“The way they took responsibility for the murders of an untold number of prostitutes in the past several years?”
Gabe frowned. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Tomorrow