The Rhiannon Chronicles

by Maggie Shayne

  * * *

  “I am more grateful to you, my friend, than I can possibly express,” Roland said as Eric drove him in the wretched motor vehicle over winding, heaving roads at sickening speeds. He couldn’t bring himself to watch the passing scenery. It made his stomach heave to see landscapes speeding past. One of the things he hated most about automobiles was that no one seemed capable of driving them slowly. As a rule, when traveling in motorized vehicles, Roland kept his head down, and his eyes on his companions.

  “I’m only going forty,” Eric said to his friend, having heard every bit of that inner dialogue. “You look green around the gills, Roland. I’m sorry you’re not enjoying the ride. It’s not far, I promise.”

  “I’ll survive it. How much farther is this clinic your bride found for us?

  He shook his head as he gazed at the panel on the dash, with its miniature television screen showing a map, and a car shaped icon that represented Eric’s car. Although it was the wrong shape and the wrong color. Eric’s car was red.

  “Just a few more miles. Ten minutes at most. Try to relax.”

  Roland did not try to relax. He knew he never would, anyway. Leaning his head back against the seat, he closed his eyes. “What if the X-ray shows nothing?” he asked.

  “Stop borrowing trouble, Roland.”

  “I need to know. What’s our next option?”

  Eric lowered his head, made a right turn so quickly it caused Roland’s body to lean left, and then picked up even more speed than before. A pair of vampires racing through the rural Maine countryside at four in the morning in search of an X-ray machine. They were ridiculous, the two of them.

  Soon enough, homes with small yards took the place of rolling farmland, and soon after that, Eric brought the car to a stop.

  Roland dared to look up at last. They were parked in a lot behind a donut shop that wouldn’t open for business for two more hours, according to its sign, which looked exactly like the sign on every other donut shop in the chain. Roland preferred independently owned businesses. There was too much cookie-cutter to the world today.

  They opened their doors simultaneously and closed them without a sound. Then in a burst of speed, they moved to the clinic’s doors. Eric opened the alarm system’s panel, pulled a tiny tool kit from a deep pocket, and within a few seconds, the doors were wafting open for them.

  Roland gave his friend a nod of approval, and they headed inside, moving quickly through the place’s square waiting area and into the rear, where a hallway with two right angles moved amid treatment rooms. The fourth door on the right had a yellow and black radioactivity symbol on it, so that was the one they chose.

  Roland stood there feeling less than useless while Eric examined machines, turned dials, caused screens to light up. He seemed almost gleeful.

  “You’re having too much fun at my expense, Eric.”

  “If I were miserable, would your problem magically vanish?” Eric asked. “Come here, now. Stand right here.” He stood Roland where he wanted him, then adjusted a machine’s lens higher until it was aimed directly at his head.

  “Eric, are you sure this won’t...well, incinerate me, to put it bluntly?”

  “X-rays are waves of electromagnetic energy,” Eric said slowly. “They behave like light, but they’re not light, Roland. Their wavelengths are a thousand times shorter.”

  “In layman’s terms....?”

  “Those were layman’s terms. But to state it succinctly, no, it shouldn’t burn you. Now stand perfectly still.”

  “Shouldn’t?”

  He put a weighted vest on Roland, and then pressed small pods over his eyes to cover them. “Just in case,” he said. Which did nothing for Roland’s confidence. Then Eric walked away to the control panel on the other side of a transparent wall. “Be very still now,” he said. And then something buzzed, and there was a snap, and then it was over. “All right, come here.”

  Roland took the pods from his eyes and removed the vest. Then he went to the other side of the wall to look at an image of his own skull on the screen.

  Eric pointed at some shapes that clearly didn’t belong. “There,” he said. “There’s definitely something electronic. And here, look at this, behind your right eye.”

  Leaning closer, Roland tried to see what his friend was pointing at.

  “By God, that could be a camera,” Eric said. “In fact I think it is.”

  A wave of nauseating disbelief washed through Roland, and he stumbled, reaching for the chair behind him. “Are there–” He stopped himself there, continued the thought mentally. Are there microphones near my eardrums as well?

  “I don’t see any. Keep your right eye covered my friend. And let’s get a couple more shots so I can make sure.”

  Nodding, Roland returned to his former position, turning sideways this time, as Eric readjusted the apparatus.

  Chapter Eleven

  It was only an hour before dawn, and still no sign of Eric and Roland. The children were asleep. Roxanne, too, had retired. Tamara and I were waiting in the living room, with a clear view through the foyer to the front entrance. She was sitting near the fire, trying to keep from wringing her hands. I was pacing.

  “They should’ve been back by now,” I said, not for the first time. “A simple X-ray at a clinic five miles away should not have taken this much time.” And again I focused my thoughts on my love. Where are you? Why is it taking so long?

  I received no reply, but then I felt his nearness and rushed to the door, flinging it open just in time to see Eric’s sleek red car come to a stop in the drive. The two of them got out and I ran down the steps and across the gravel. “Where on earth have you been? Why haven’t you answered my—Good Lord, Roland, why are you wearing a—?”

  Eric put a finger to his lips, and Roland pulled me into his arms as if he were very tired. “I need to be alone for a bit, my love. I think I’ll walk the perimeter of the grounds, just to be sure all is well.”

  “But....”

  Eric met my eyes and there was a message in his. Why he didn’t just speak it to me, orally or mentally, I could not fathom. I frowned and searched Roland’s face as well, and read his message quite clearly. He wanted me to go along with things, and it was important.

  “All right,” I said, leaning up to press my lips to his cheek. “Go on, take your evening constitutional. I’ll be waiting.”

  His lips pulled upward at the corners, and he bent to kiss mine. “Thank you, love. All is well, I promise.” And then he turned and walked off, moving quite admirably in his new prosthetic. Barely a limp. As he vanished onto the path that wound along between the thicker fruit trees and the wrought iron fence, I turned to Eric. “An explanation, please?”

  “Once we’re inside,” he said very softly, and taking my elbow, turned me toward the house. Tamara stood in the doorway, leaning there, awaiting her man like a devoted wife. But even her welcoming smile didn’t hide the worry in her eyes.

  Eric hurried me inside, embraced his bride while I closed the door behind us. Then he took her by the hand and headed into the living room where the fireplace snapped, filling the place with the delicious scent of burning apple wood.

  “I was correct,” he said, going directly to the darkly stained hardwood cabinet that concealed a mini-fridge behind it, and pouring himself a glass of sustenance. “There’s a device, a complicated one, implanted inside Roland’s head.”

  Relief washed over me. “Thank the gods,” I said. “He’s not losing his mind.”

  “No, he’s not, but he probably feels as if he is.”

  “Why the eye patch, Eric? And why all this silence?”

  “The device is complex,” he said. “I couldn’t tell as much as I wanted from the X-ray so we headed into Bangor to the Diagnostic Imaging Center and I made use of the CT Scanner. State of the art equipment they have there, I must say. Highly impressive.”

  Tamara touched his shoulder before he could wax on. “Eric, if you don’t stay on topic, R
hiannon’s head is going to explode. And mine won’t be far behind.”

  “Of course.” He looked at me. “Sorry. All right, so from what I could tell, this device has some kind of camera feature that is positioned behind his visual cortex. Theoretically, whoever is on the receiving end of its signal can see whatever Roland sees. Now, we’ve fixed that, albeit temporarily with the eye patch. I do not believe there is any audio component to this. Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary in or near the auditory centers. But we can’t be sure he’s not bugged in some way. That’s why I wanted him out of reach when we had this discussion.”

  “So DPI has been watching us all this time?” I asked, suddenly feeling unsafe in my own home. And angry, very angry. “Perhaps listening as well?”

  “Not watching you, per se,” he said. “We don’t show up on cameras. They can see everything Roland sees, except for other vampires.”

  “The children,” Tamara whispered, her eyes widening.

  “Indeed.” Eric nodded. “And then there is the mental aspect. Somehow, part of this implant allowed someone at DPI to give Roland a direct command, which he was compelled to obey.”

  “He was under hypnosis. Highly suggestive.” I paced to the mantle, bracing a hand on the cool stone and staring into the flames. “I don’t think he would have obeyed otherwise.”

  “But you can’t be sure. Just as I can’t be sure there aren’t other aspects to this device. There is definitely more.” The word “more” sounded dire. I was afraid to ask what else he thought there might be, and then he went on before I could. “Perhaps they can monitor his thoughts, mental communications, and possibly location as well. We won’t know until we get the thing out of him. If we can remove it. And that is one of our top priorities.”

  I lifted my gaze to meet Eric’s. “It’s our only priority.”

  “There’s one other,” Eric said softly. He came across the room to me, setting his now empty glass on a table as he passed, and put his hands upon my shoulders. “Rhiannon, I have to believe the DPI’s true goal here is to retake the children. If they’d wanted Roland, they would have made it much more difficult for you to rescue him.”

  I nodded slowly. “I knew our escape was too easy. They didn’t even give chase. Now we know why. They wanted Roland with us, so that they could use him to monitor the children.” I backed away, shaking my head. “But then why haven’t they moved on us yet? Why are they waiting?”

  “There are other children, aren’t there?” Tamara asked.

  I looked at her swiftly. She shrugged and said, “Maybe they’re hoping to get you all together.”

  “Or perhaps they wanted to observe for a while. See how the children act in a different setting, test their skills from a distance,” Eric said. “Scientifically, it would make sense.”

  I nodded. “The children knew intuitively not to reveal their powers to their captors,” I said, recalling what the children themselves had told me. “They were too cautious to even test their own limits while in captivity. They felt they needed to keep their secrets to themselves.” Then I lifted my head, looking from one of my dear friends to the other. “What are we going to do?”

  Tamara and Eric exchanged a knowing look. Eric sighed heavily and said, “You’re not going to like it, Rhiannon, but I do not believe the children are safe here.”

  “He would never hurt the children.”

  “He hurt Christian.”

  “I’m telling you, Eric, that would not have happened if he hadn’t been under hypnosis! How can you doubt him this way? He’s your best friend. You know him.”

  “Wait, wait,” Tamara said, moving between us and holding up her palms. “I don’t believe for one second Roland would be capable of harming a child. Any child, under any circumstances. But Rhiannon, DPI is keeping tabs on those kids through him. Watching them through his eye, maybe listening to them through his ears. Maybe even through his thoughts. We don’t know if there’s a GPS component to this thing. They could be on your front lawn with tanks and guns at any moment.”

  Everything in me rose up like a cobra, ready to strike down her arguments. Except that she was right and I knew it. The children would not be safe with us until we removed the device from Roland’s head.

  “You’re not safe here, either, Rhiannon.”

  I shot the well-meaning and gallant Eric a glare. “My Roland and I will be together even when all that remains of us is dust.” I turned away, paced to the window and parting a heavy drapery, gazed out at the night. “But you’re right. We need to send the children away.”

  Tamara said, “Maybe you can have Roxy and Christian take them–”

  “The last time I left them with Roxanne and Christian, the children stuck them with DPI tranquilizer darts and ran away. They need...stronger hands.” I thought of Roxanne’s granddaughter, Charlotte, and her husband Killian, who, along with Charlotte’s mother, had taken the eleven-year-olds DPI had referred to as the Betas to Portland. But they already had four Offspring to contend with.

  “I imagine Maxine and Lou Malone know how to reach Vlad and Stormy,” Tamara said softly. “I can’t imagine a better pair to keep track of the children.”

  “You want me to hire Dracula and his bride as babysitters?” I’d have laughed at the irony, but if I had, it would have sounded maniacal. “The children don’t even know them.”

  “But Christian and Roxy will be with them too,” Tam said. “They’re not going to like it, but until we get this thing out of Roland’s head...”

  “If they could see through Roland’s eye, then they must know Maxine and Lou helped us. They’re human and would show up on camera. Not to mention that DPI is familiar with them, has tried to hire them to help hunt down the Undead.”

  Eric frowned. “If that’s the case, one wonders why Max and Lou haven’t been arrested already.”

  Tipping my head to one side, I thought back, and then it came to me. “His eye was swollen and watering for days after we rescued him. It didn’t heal with the day sleep. He complained he couldn’t even see from it.”

  Nodding slowly, Eric said, “If he couldn’t see through his eye, then the camera couldn’t either. When did his vision begin to clear?”

  “Not until after we’d settled in here. And he hasn’t been anywhere since, until you took him last night.”

  “He kept his head down most of the way, complaining about my speed and his hatred of motor cars,” he said. “It was dark, as well. Perhaps they still haven’t figured out our location.” He was clearly deep in thought for a moment, then he said, “I honestly don’t recall any signs we might have passed or seen on our way into the clinic that could’ve given them a clue.”

  “Unless there’s a GPS,” Tamara said.

  Eric nodded hard. “Yes, but as investigators, our friends the Malones are apt to be in possession of a device that can easily detect the presence of a GPS. I’ll borrow it when we take the children there, use it, and then we’ll know for sure.”

  I felt my heart twist into a knot in my chest. I did not want to be separated from my precious Nikki, nor from sweet natured Gareth or his stubborn and aptly named brother Ramses. I loved them.

  “I’m so sorry, Rhiannon. I’m so, so sorry,” Tamara said. “I’ll stay with the children myself, if it makes you feel better.”

  The children had warmed to Tamara right away. She was that kind of an individual. In fact, seeing her with them, a young modern woman, made me feel a bit jealous. She related to them in a way I could not equal. I nodded, holding up a hand because her sympathy made me feel worse. “Once we’ve secured the children, then what is our next step?” I asked, needing desperately to change the subject.

  Eric said, “The pieces in his head are in extremely delicate areas. We need a skilled surgeon to remove them. Preferably, the one who put them into his head in the first place.”

  “Are you saying you can’t do it yourself? You’ve been a physician, a surgeon, for two hundred years.” He nodded, and again, I sen
sed something dire in his demeanor. “Just tell me. What do you suspect, Eric?”

  He met my eyes, then closed his slowly and when he opened them again, I saw resignation in them. “There’s something attached, something that doesn’t seem to serve any purpose. It’s a vial of some kind of liquid with apparent sensors attached to it from every other piece of hardware in his head.”

  “A vial of liquid. With sensors.”

  He nodded.

  I looked from him to Tamara and back again, but she seemed as confused as I.

  And then Eric said, “It appears that if any of the other components are removed, a signal is sent to the vial.”

  “A signal?” I frowned.

  Tamara gasped and whispered, “You mean this device is booby trapped, Eric?”

  “I can’t be sure,” he said, “But I can’t think of another reason for that kind of engineering. There is a chance that if we try to remove any part of this device from Roland’s brain, it could set off some type of a reaction.”

  “What type of reaction?” I asked, my entire body going cold.

  “We can’t know that unless we know what’s in that vial. That’s why we need the surgeon who installed it before we can risk trying to take it out.”

  I pushed my devastation down, squared my shoulders, lifted my chin and felt my eyes flash with determination. After all, the sort of action we needed to take was my specialty. “Then that is precisely who we shall have.”

  * * *

  Roland returned and I rushed into his arms, holding him tightly, kissing his face and neck. Dawn was approaching, and all of this was more than I could bear. Not talking to him, not even exchanging thoughts just in case DPI was somehow listening, that was all too much.

  And yet, he was there with me. He was not losing his mind. There was a solution in sight. We might have to walk barefoot over burning coals to reach it, but reach it we would. Together. No matter what. I tried to convey all of that with my eyes, and the love he sent back into mine was powerful and needed no words, nor even thoughts. I felt it. I basked in it. It was as powerful, as essential to me as the sun to the planet.