by C. T. Adams
“Live and learn,” was all I would say. She could tell I wasn’t lying.
A ringing made us both reach for our cell phones. It was mine. “Yeah?”
“Done and done,” said Carmine’s voice and I smiled. “Stupid kid hadn’t even told her to hide them. They were right there on the table, in the original processing envelope. I’m pretty sure we have everything.”
“She’s okay?”
“Fine. A little scared, but not a mark. You go ahead and ruin the kid’s day and then we’ll cut her loose. It was a nice try, but he needs more experience. Someone should train him before he does something really stupid.” Carmine’s voice was a warning growl. Couldn’t say as disagreed, either.
I smiled again and hung up the phone without a reply. I glanced over to see the woman staring at me curiously.
“Is there anything I should know?” Her voice sounded very much like a cop.
I smiled and glanced in the rearview mirror before making a lane change. “Nothing that concerns you. A little case of foiling a blackmail.”
“Ah.” A nice noncommitted answer.
We got back to the house in record time. Most everyone who had to go out in the weather had arrived at their destination. The side streets were thankfully bare of traffic. I hurried up the steps with Yvette hot on my heels. I heard Sue tell Lucas, “They’re here. But it’s not your wife with him.”
Lucas met us just inside the door. He stared at the woman in shock. “Amber? What are you doing here?”
She didn’t bother with pleasantries. She was already taking off her coat and following her nose to her patient. She cocked a thumb my way. “Ask him.” But then she smiled brightly and told him anyway. “I was abducted! Nobody has ever dared to put a knife to my ribs to force me to come with them, Lucas. It was…fun.”
I shook my head in annoyance. Wonderful—I was fun. She’s a real ego-builder, that one. Sue had gone to the kitchen to start some coffee. I could use some. I was thankful I had gotten a couple hours of sleep before they’d arrived yesterday, but I was beat.
Lucas turned to me with shock plain on his face, and in his scent. “You kidnapped Amber Monier? Are you insane? Where’s Tatya?”
“Dunno. She wasn’t there. But you said Sazi and doctor, that’s what I got. Is she not a good one?”
The woman—Yvette or Amber—raised her brows in amusement, waiting for Lucas’s reply. She was already pouring green magic into Bobby. I could see the swelling in his tongue start to diminish, but it wasn’t turning back to pink.
Lucas didn’t even glance her way. He clapped me lightly on the shoulder. “You did fine. Amber’s not a good one—she’s the best one. She’s the healer for all of Wolven and the Sazi council. If she can’t fix it, nobody can.”
Her face had taken on a concerned look. “Don’t flatter me too soon, Lucas. I don’t know what’s wrong with him. He should be healing by now. There’s something in him, some sort of drug or toxin. I can feel it, but I can’t seem to counteract it. It’s paralyzing his body. It should have already stopped his heart. I don’t know why it hasn’t.”
I remembered Sue’s heart stopping and how I had kept it beating. I knew from my experience inside Bobby, whether in the past or future, that he and Asri were mated. “Could his mate be helping to keep him alive?”
Lucas looked at me in shock once more. “Mate? Bobby’s not mated.”
The doctor was staring at Bobby and nodding her head. “That could be the exact reason. I didn’t think Bobby was mated either, but it’s the only explanation, Lucas.”
He turned to me sharply, and hot metal filled the air. “Do you know this mate? Has he ever mentioned her name? Have you ever met her?”
“You’ve met her too,” I replied. “I should have spotted it when Asri was slurring her words. We should probably check in with Nikoli and see if she’s in the same shape.”
“Asri? No wonder!” He sniffed in amusement, probably realizing why they didn’t want to sit together in the car. “You’re right that we need to see Nikoli, but I still don’t have a tribute. He’ll make my life hell if I don’t show up with something impressive for keeping him waiting this long.”
Amber spoke up. “You haven’t spoken to Nikoli since you arrived, Lucas? Do you think that’s wise? The weather is going to start getting really nasty in a day or so.” The way she said it made the words seem very important.
Ah. I watched horror slide across Lucas’s face. My bet was that he’d forgotten all about whatever conference was to happen here.
He slapped his forehead sharply, just as Sue arrived back in the room with steaming mugs of coffee. The doctor accepted one gratefully. “The council meeting. How could I have forgotten?”
“A touch Freudian, I think,” I said lightly, and the doctor grinned. “Ever meet him, Yvette, or Amber, or whoever?”
“Amber—for this lifetime. And yes, Sigmund was a perfectly lovely, albeit slightly neurotic, man. We had some wonderful talks. I agree with this interesting new agent of yours, Lucas, although I haven’t had the pleasure of being introduced.”
“Joe Giambrocco,” I said while Lucas was stammering and swearing. “But you can call me Tony. The lovely lady with the coffee is Sue, my wife.”
“Charmed.” Amber’s voice was frisky and her eyes twinkled through the steam rising from her mug.
Lucas ran his fingers through his hair and removed his wallet to look inside. “I can’t show up without a tribute. Especially with what all I have to discuss.”
“You’re a council member, Lucas,” Amber replied calmly. “You can do whatever you want.”
“It’s precisely because I’m a council member that I can’t, Amber, and you know it. You know that Ahmad would find some way to make my life hell for not abiding by the very rule that I sponsored.”
Sue spoke up for the first time. She winced a bit when she first thought it, but I approved and urged her to speak. “Would a painting do? I just bought this lovely print in Boulder. It’s very masculine.”
She pointed to the picture of the ducks. Lucas glanced at it, pursed his lips in thought, grasping at straws, but then shook his head. “No, it needs to be flashy or shiny. Something with obvious value that’s not tied to current trends.”
Shiny? I immediately thought of Linda. “Would gold make a good gift? I just happen to have a nice stack of Kruggerands.”
Sue tried to stop me. “Tony, I used most…”
I shook my head. “Not those coins, Sue. I’ve got a bunch more.” Her eyes widened, because she hadn’t known.
“Gold’s good,” nodded Lucas. “Kruggerands can’t be traced and gold has value in all times. Gems would be better, mind you.”
“Oh, really?” I walked back to the entryway where the file box from earlier still sat. I opened it and grabbed three batteries. I shook each one until I was satisfied and returned to the room. I tossed one of the batteries to Lucas. “Open that. It should do.”
He gave me a withering look, but Amber seemed interested. “I don’t think Nikoli will be impressed with a Duracell, Tony.”
“I said open it. Take off the wrapper. It’s not a battery.”
He raised his brows, and the thick anti-freeze of curiosity rose from all three of the other people in the room.
He used his thumbnail to slice open the outer foil. The gold coins gleamed in the sunlight through the open blinds. “Nice. Very nice. Hell, maybe I should give him the battery. He’d enjoy the ingenuity.”
“Open the spacer at the top.” He did so, revealing a small cache of brilliant cut gemstones resting inside a couple of cotton balls—diamonds, rubies and emeralds. I tried not to go for anything gaudy when I was buying, nothing over two carats. Small stones are easier to peddle on the black market.
“Stellar. These will be perfect. How much do I owe you?”
“Normally, I’d say market, but you’ve done a lot for us. Either the stones or the gold, gratis. If you need both, then it’ll cost you.”
“I’ll go with the gems. Nikoli always has his eye out for stones to make jewelry for his ladies. He always goes for flashy when he’s wooing.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say flashy,” Amber commented quietly. “Nikoli really has very traditional taste.” Lucas stared incredulously, but Amber just smiled sweetly and changed direction. “Well, as much fun as this conversation is, it’s not healing Bobby. I’ve got him stabilized, but he needs to be healed. The last time I saw something like this was in the jungle in Africa. Could it be an endemic poison? You know…something from his home that’s getting an allergic reaction?”
Lucas got a strange look on his face and headed toward the phone on the table. “Jungle…you might have something there, Amber. I’ll pay for the toll charges, Tony.”
He picked up the receiver while the rest of us shrugged at each other. He turned his back while he dialed, so we couldn’t see his face.
I heard a muffled voice over the line, but couldn’t make it out. “Senator Simpson, please,” Lucas said calmly.
Amber gasped and stood in a rush. Lucas turned and shot her a dark look and then motioned his head for her to leave. She grabbed both of our arms and pulled us through the kitchen door. She hissed in my ear as she tugged. “It’s not worth your life to have heard that.”
Well, hell! Until then, I was just going to ignore the call. Now I had to listen. Sue was curious as well and, frankly, so was Amber. We all stood by the door, not listening intently.
“Then tell him to finish his meeting and take this call. Tell him it’s urgent that Inteque speak to him. He will take the call.” There was a pause. “Yes, I’ll wait.”
Amber whispered to us, so quiet it was barely audible. “You two did not hear this. But let me know if I miss anything. My ears are horrible.”
A deep, angry baritone came over the wire. This voice I could hear with no trouble. “Who dares to invoke the name of a friend who is long dead to me! Answer me!”
“I invoke my own name, Colecos,” Lucas said quietly.
“We didn’t hear that either, I presume,” I whispered to Amber. She shushed me with a finger to her lips and put her ear back to the door.
The anger faded slightly, and the voice took on haughty tone. A sharp sniff of dark amusement reached my ears. “And why do you call me now, Inteque—after all these years as enemies?”
“I’ve got a man down. It’s Bobby Mbutu.”
The reply was cautious. “I know him. He was one of mine…before.”
“He’s been poisoned. I’ve seen it, but I can’t remember the cure. It was in your jungle, long ago, Colecos. His tongue is black and swollen, his eyes are dilated and his skin is cold and clammy. Do you remember the girl? The one in the village when you ruled Mayapán? We discovered the cause, but how was she healed? Amber has been working on him, but he’s dying, Jack. He will die if it’s the same poison. You know it.”
Another pause, this one longer. Amber had her ear pressed so tight to the wooden slats of the swinging door that she was either going to have an impression on the side of her face or fall through the doorway.
I thought about what Lucas said. If I remembered my geography, Mayapán was one of the ancient capital cities of the Mayans. Okay, that’s old. I was listening to a couple of the really ancient Sazi.
The voice deepened, became richer and rolling. The words were harsh and final. “The swelling salt from the sacred caves. It is the only cure.”
Shit! There was no time to go on a jungle expedition before Bobby died. The Senator must have heard Lucas’s defeated sigh, because he laughed heartily.
“Do you remember, Inteque? How powerful the magic in the swelling salt—in the sodium bicarbonate?” He laughed again and Lucas turned to stare at Bobby. Then he laughed as well.
“Baking soda. Plain old ordinary soda. It’ll neutralize the acid! Thank you Jack.” Lucas’s voice lowered and became warmer. “Thank you—old friend.”
“It’s been good to talk of days when life was simpler, Lucas. But times have changed. Go save your agent. I wouldn’t suggest you mention who saved him, unless the fair Amber is nearby to treat his heart attack. My regards to her and her sister.” He hung up during his own bitter laughter.
Sue was already rummaging in the cupboards. She whispered frantically. “We don’t have any baking soda, Tony.”
Not true. I moved Amber back a pace. She had winced once during the end of the conversation and a strong scent of embarrassment drifted to me. It had been just about the time he said, “her and her sister.” She was now silently musing, her brow wrinkled into deep furrows. I opened the refrigerator door. All the way in back was an open box of baking soda. God only knew how long it had been there. It was already open and damp when I’d moved in, but it might be enough.
“Baking sod—.” Lucas exclaimed as he burst through the kitchen door, nearly beaning Amber in the face. I handed him the box before he could finish the word. He looked at the three of us suspiciously, but let it go.
It was only a few minutes after stuffing Bobby’s mouth with soda and pouring a drizzle of water onto his tongue to dissolve it, that he was sitting up and spewing it across the room.
“What the hell kind of witches brew are you feeding me?” He retched and spit into a cooking pan that Sue had brought with the glass of water. He reeked of anger’s burning coffee. “Decayed vegetables, rotten meat, spoiled milk. Jeez, guys!”
Amber just watched him swear and sputter with a smile, because his tongue was already pink and his breathing was back to normal. The bright citrus of her pleased satisfaction muted the caramelized coffee.
He got up shakily and headed to the bathroom. “I’ll buy you a new toothbrush, Tony, but I’ve got to get this taste out of my mouth!”
“Okay.” Lucas exclaimed while Bobby was brushing his tongue. He grabbed his overcoat and started to slide his arms in the sleeves. “Now that he’s a little better, I need to see Nikoli. Let’s go, Tony.”
I held up my hands in protest. My eyelids were so heavy they drooped and my arms felt like lead weights. “Whoa, whoa. Why do you need me to go with you?’ I pointed to the northwest wall. “The lair is that way, about six blocks down, in the Volkdom Hotel. I need to get some sleep, which I might mention I’ve only had two hours of in the past thirty. Go see Nikoli. Have fun—bye.”
Sue came over to stand by me, in full agreement. I slid an arm around her shoulder and glared at the frustrated Latino man.
“He’s right,” Amber said quietly. “I can tell he’s a three-day, Lucas. As the Wolven physician, I would recommend…”
“He’s going,” Lucas said sharply. He stared at Amber, but glanced at me and Sue from time to time. “We’ve got a full council meeting to be held in Nikoli’s hotel in four days. It’s filled with three-day dogs and has no security system. Need I say more, Dr. Monier?”
Amber’s eyes widened. “Nikoli doesn’t have a security system in the building? Not at all?”
Ah. I was starting to see my part in this. If Lucas had done as much research on me as I thought he had, he knew about my former career. I got the feeling it was going to be a busy few days. I heard the water shut off in the bath and Bobby appeared in the doorway, looking shaky but standing on his own feet.
Amber stared at me closely and stood. She walked over to me and looked in my eyes from different angles, being careful not to touch me. Then she did the same to Sue, who was a little taken aback. Amber growled, a high-pitched, rolling rrrow that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. She ended it in a quiet hiss, directed right at Lucas. Her scent was boiling coffee in a metal pot.
“Fine, then, Lucas. But you’re going to pony up the power for him to do it. And Sue needs to go to bed right now to rest up. I’m sure that Nikoli will find things for her to do in the next few days, as well, and she’s only human.” I watched a thread of green magic appear at her fingertip. She touched Sue’s forehead lightly and I felt a rolling eddy of warmth fill me. I fought to keep my eyes open.
<
br /> “That’s not helping me stay awake,” I whispered, as Sue slumped against me gently with a sigh. I caught her weight with effort because I was fighting not to fall to the floor beside her.
“Put her to bed for a bit so she can sleep,” Amber said briskly.
“It’s not that easy,” I complained as I picked her up in my arms and held her close to me. I shook my head to try to clear the cobwebs. No good. “I haven’t tried to cut off the magic since we’ve been fully bound. I don’t know that I can. I’m barely able to keep my eyes open from whatever you just did.”
Amber seemed surprised. Even the penetrating scent of her confusion and curiosity couldn’t wake me. “This…this is a mating—a double mating? But she’s human.”
I yawned long and wide. “That’s me,” I said sleepily as I carried Sue to the bedroom. “Breaking all the rules.”
Bobby gave way for me to get through the doorway. I carried her down the short hall to the bedroom. Every step was an effort and the cool darkness of the curtained room called to me. Sleep lapped at my consciousness even as I struggled against it. I laid Sue down on the bed and then couldn’t fight it any more. I collapsed beside her.
Chapter 14
I HEARD MOVEMENT in the darkness and I opened my eyes. I knew it was important I be conscious and alert, but I couldn’t seem to remember why. I could smell Sue beside me, so I reached out and pulled her closer. She sighed and turned so I could drape an arm over her side. I closed my eyes contentedly.
Another noise—the creaking of wood and the rustling of fabric from the corner. My eyes shot open. I concentrated on the input into my nose and ears and tried to focus my eyes in the dark. I turned over casually, as though I was still asleep and then I saw a weak glow from someone sitting in the corner of the room. I inhaled deeply. It was that guy from the forest…Yurgi. What the hell?
Now that my senses were functioning, I noticed other things. The darkened room wasn’t my bedroom. The smells were wrong. This room smelled of dust, stale air, but with overtones of Nikoli’s pack. I also felt something else—an aloneness that transcended the two people in the room. I reached out to try to touch Sue with my mind, but she wasn’t there. It wasn’t the fur covered wall that I was accustomed to when I’d been cut off from her before. This was a black box that closed around my mind like a tomb. Beyond the edges of my head was despair and death.
