“A conscience.”
He blinked, then roared with laughter.
I waited until he settled down before I said, “They call themselves the Alchemists.”
That sobered him up right quick, and his brown eyes sharpened on me.
“What did they take?”
“A treasure.” I had to swallow against the twisting knot in my throat. “A priceless treasure.”
“And what will you do when you find them?”
“Whatever it takes to get her back. No matter how heartless. No matter how reckless. No matter how ruthless.”
“They are cruel men with bottomless bank accounts. They are a little empire.”
“I’m gonna burn it all down. I already started. Ever hear of their blood bank in Pennsylvania?”
“That wasyou?” He barked out a laugh. “What were you doing, anyway?”
“Destroying djinn. Nearly forty of ’em. All at once.”
He took a step back.
Yeah, old man. I’mthatpowerful.
The fear didn’t stop him from talking, or else it encouraged him to hold nothing back.
“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 twinswere 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, askJohnto 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 ateuflischprince 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 PepperCrane, 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.
