“Doug Jones. Different name.” Kingsley lifted a brow. “I wonder if we got his real name or the NYPD did? Obviously one is fake.”
“Or they’re both aliases.” David cursed under his breath. “How could this have slipped through our protocols?” David dropped the file on King’s desk.
Kingsley glanced at the file and back to the screen. “He’d worked here before she came to us. Maybe we just lost track of him after his debriefing. With the name change, we wouldn’t have realized Aura had any ties to his previous alias when we were completing the clearances. She told us her partner had been Doug Jones, not Thomas Mamon.”
David ground his teeth. He was missing a piece here, and time was running out. “Dig into his debriefing materials. I want to know who cleared this guy to leave the department.”
Kingsley cracked his knuckles. “This will take a little time.” He looked over his shoulder. “If they debriefed him correctly, he won’t recall his time with Department 13.”
“But if he stole the Tyrfing…”
“He might not have understood what he had, sir.”
David shook off the questions that were forming in rapid-fire in his mind. Focus. “I need facts, and I need them fast. If he’s the one selling the sword, then Aura’s in danger.”
He left Kingsley and headed for his office, taking out his phone as he walked.
He had one last trick up his sleeve.
Chapter Nineteen
Aura left Greyson with the rental car outside the warehouse and walked toward the street as she pressed Agent Bale’s number and waited for him to answer.
“This is Bale.”
“Hey, it’s Agent Henderson.” She filled him in on the meeting and the werewolves. He didn’t seem surprised until she mentioned that a demon had their Alpha.
“Is the pack sure about that? He’s a demon?”
“Yeah. They seemed pretty certain.” She nodded, staring at the bound werewolf’s feet poking out the back door of the rental car. “Apparently, their Alpha owed him a favor. I’ve got an hour until the rendezvous, and I’m hoping you can dig up some information on the demon in our case files. Lennox said he calls himself Mamon. Any ideas how I can trap him or immobilize him?”
The line went quiet.
She frowned. “Are you still there, sir?”
“Yes.” He cursed under his breath. “See if you can delay the meeting until I can get there.”
Her brows pinched. “I can handle this.”
“I’m not sure you can.” A door closed on Bale’s end of the call. “I reached out to Angus Crawford a couple hours ago. I guess this explains why he didn’t return my call. He’s the Alpha of the Glasgow Pack, and he’s helped us before. I was hoping we could count on them again.”
He paused, sighing. “Look, King and I have been going through all the personnel records of anyone who entered the vault and had contact with the storage quadrant that housed the Tyrfing. We discovered an Agent Mamon. He left the department and was debriefed eight years ago.” He lowered his voice. “It appears he changed his name and joined the NYPD. The picture on his Department 13 identification matches the photo of your partner in your file.”
A tremor went through Aura’s hands as Jones’s face filled her head. Memories of clicking her beer glass against his mutated into his eyes glowing red and a forked tongue sliding past his lips to burn her skin.
Her partner’s hiss echoed from the depths of her memory.
You were worth the wait, chossssen one.
She cleared her throat struggling to keep her voice even. “A demon walked the halls of Department 13? How is that possible? We have bio scanners.”
“I don’t know yet,” Bale answered. “It shouldn’t have escaped our safety protocols, and knowing that, I can’t in good conscience let you go to that meeting without me. This demon knows you. You could be the target.”
Aura lifted her gaze to Greyson. He leaned against the rental car, watching her with an intensity that grounded her when all her moorings seemed to be coming loose. “I know.”
“What?” Bale’s shock was plain in his voice. “Did you know what he was when you were in the police department?”
“I saw him one night. His true face.” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “He was the reason I resigned. He called me the chosen one.” She steadied her voice. “I need to retrieve this sword. I might be the only one who can.”
Agent Bale cursed under his breath. “Wait for me to back you up. That’s an order.”
“We both know we could lose the Tyrfing if he realizes we’re onto him.” She shook her head. “Greyson will be with me, and the wolf pack is going to watch the perimeter. I’ll let you know when I have the blade in my possession.”
She ended the call before he could respond and stuffed her phone into her pocket.
Greyson straightened as she approached. “Was Bale a fan of this plan to hand yourself over to a demon?”
“I think it’s safe to say, my hunch about the demon was right. He’s my ex-partner. It appears he stole the Tyrfing from the vault and left the department. When he found me in the police department, I resigned and fell off the grid until I joined Department 13. Looks like he’s been looking for a way to lure me out ever since.”
She cut the bindings from Shaw’s wrists and ankles, and Greyson helped the werewolf from the back of the rental car.
He rubbed at his raw wrists as he glared at Greyson. “You never told me what you are. How did you heal like that?”
Heal? She looked over at Greyson, seeing the blood and the hole in the bottom of his shirt for the first time. She’d been so intent on retrieving the Tyrfing, she hadn’t noticed it before.
“Long story.” Greyson glanced her way and back to the copper-haired shifter. “I’m a quick healer.”
Lennox came out of the warehouse and stopped beside Shaw. “My pack will be surrounding the rendezvous. Once we have my father, we’ll cover you.”
If his father was still alive. She kept the thought to herself, but if the demon knew the listing on the dark web worked and she was in Scotland, he didn’t need the pack’s help anymore. The pack Alpha was probably dead and possibly devoured.
She turned to Lennox and nodded. “Thanks. I’m going to need to know why he owed a debt to a demon, too.”
Lennox and Shaw shared a look before the Alpha’s son met her eyes. “I think we all need some answers.”