I held my hand out flat as Price started to say something. He must have read the violent fear in my face because he shut up and waited as I hit the speed dial for Taylor. She picked up almost before it rang.
“Oh God! Oh God! You have to come now, Riley!” She was screaming and crying, and I was pretty sure Price could hear her.
“What’s wrong? Where are you?” I asked, forgetting we were trying to make a quiet escape. My heart pounded. What was happening? Was someone breaking in? Trying to attack her?
She gasped and choked on sobs, then she caught herself enough to answer. “I’m at Josh’s. Oh God, Riley. There’s so much blood!”
Chapter 4
I COULDN’T GET any more out of Taylor, except that Josh was missing and there was a lot of blood. I told her to sit tight and I’d be there as soon as I could. I hung up and looked at Price. “Our deal’s off for now. My sister’s in trouble. I’m going to help her.”
I didn’t wait for an answer, more than halfway expecting him to try to cuff me. To my shock, he simply fell in beside me as I headed for the nearest hotel and a taxi stand. I wasn’t going to waste time on the subway. I was grabbing a cab, though in this weather, that might take longer.
“My car’s not far,” he said. “I’ll drive you. It’ll be faster.” At my doubtful look, his brows winged down and his mouth twisted. “I’m not going to stop you. She’s your sister. I may be able to help. I am a cop, and a pretty good one.”
I was surprised and oddly grateful. I nodded and he started off. We’d only gone a few feet when the apartment we’d just fled exploded. Glass and bricks flew through the air like shrapnel.
Price shoved me down behind a dumpster, sheltering me with his body. My ears rang and my body reverberated with the shockwave. Snow soaked through my jeans. Price braced himself over me, his chest and thighs wedging me tight to the dumpster.
When everything had settled, he pulled me up again. “You all right?”
I glanced down at myself. I curled my fingers into fists to hide the fact they were shaking. “Fine. What the hell happened?”
“A lesson. It doesn’t pay to come after me.”
I glared at him, and part of me couldn’t help but feel a stab of disappointment. For a second I’d forgotten he was a Tyet man and a killer. A stupid mistake. I couldn’t let my guard down ever. “You did that? What the hell is wrong with you? Did you even think about who else could get hurt? Or were you only worried about your own skin and your revenge? Your enemies get killed and so do all the Nancy Jane Squires and their families in the whole building?” The words tumbled out in a torrent, partly emotional reaction to the blast and partly fury that he could be so brutally cold-blooded.
“Relax,” he said. “I shaped the charge to blow out the window wall and make a mess of the place. I’d be surprised if the men chasing us got more than a few scratches. Nobody else was in the line of fire.”
The relief I felt had less to do with the safety of the apartment dwellers and more to do with the fact that he wasn’t the monster I’d momentarily imagined him to be. I closed my eyes and bent over, catching myself on my knees. Don’t go there, I warned myself. Don’t let yourself think he’s anything but dangerous. Maybe he didn’t kill anyone this time, but he had before and he would again.
“Are you okay?” He put a hand on my back.
I shook it off and straightened. “I’m fine. Perfect even. It’s almost like nobody tried to shoot at me or blow me up.” I resisted the urge to shove him away. “We should go.”
Price gave me a frowning look, then turned and led the way to the Luna Hotel. It was a small, ritzy place standing only about twenty stories tall. It was one of the first buildings in Diamond City and had been completely renovated a few years back. A night’s stay in a regular room cost five grand. The suites were quadruple that. But it had tight security, luxuries to give even a well-heeled mogul a hard-on, and it was discreet. If you stayed there, no one got into your business. It was owned by Barry Ostrander, a pretty high member of the Thaler coalition—allied with Price’s boss Touray—and working his way to the top, if rumor was correct.
Price led me up past the valet stand. I felt the two nulls I’d activated for Price and me snuff out as the hotel binding ring killed them. It didn’t permit any unauthorized active magic to cross it. My other nulls were fine. Unless they were activated, Ostrander’s suckers couldn’t touch them. Beefy guards in navy blue trimmed in gold stood at careful attention around the doors. There were more than a dozen of them, and they were all armed, and not just with guns. Three of them moved to intercept us as we turned up the sidewalk.
I kept my head down and hunched my shoulders. It wasn’t that hard to look inconspicuous in the snow. It was coming down so heavy now that they probably couldn’t make out much detail anyway. I doubt any of them could have picked me out of a lineup if they tried. Not that they’d need to, but it pays to be careful. You never know when someone is going to decide you’re interesting enough to check out. As a rule, I do my best to fade into the wallpaper in every situation.
“Can I help you?” one of them asked Price in a tone that said “you don’t belong here, get the fuck out.”
One of them got a look at Price’s face. “I got this, Wings,” he told the other man and waited for his two companions to retreat.
The burly guard motioned for us to follow him up under the awning. He fished a set of keys out of his pocket and passed them to a valet, who ran off to fetch the car. He gave me a searching look and then turned his attention to Price. “You need anything else?”
“Might be some characters looking around for me. They shouldn’t head this way, but if they do, I wasn’t here.”
“You got it. That it?”
“For now. Thanks, Ed.”
“Anytime.” I could feel him looking at me again and then he turned and returned to his post. A couple of minutes later, Price’s black Camaro emerged from the parking garage beneath the hotel.
The valet held the door open for Price and then came around and opened mine. I stamped my feet and shook off whatever snow I could before sliding into the buttery soft leather seat. I ignored my seat belt and so did Price. Cop habit, that one. You never knew if you might have to jump out and chase someone. Plus, it made it hard to draw a gun. I just liked having a quick escape ready.
Price tossed a bill at the valet and pulled out to the street. “Where are we going?”
“Midtown,” I said. “North side.”
He made a left and navigated his way carefully through the already-drifting snow, staying off the main drag, where traffic was knotting up. We took the Prockney Tunnel up to the Midtown shelf. It took a good half hour to get through the traffic to the other side. I was getting twitchy as hell.
“Who is Josh?”
Price’s question made me jump. I pushed my hair back over my ear. For a second I debated telling him a lie, just on principle. But he was about to find out anyhow. “He’s my sister’s ex-fiancé. They broke it off about six months ago.”
“Ex-fiancé?” He sounded like he was interviewing a witness. Maybe he was. I kept myself from squirming like a first-time nude figure model in a classroom of artists.
“Yeah. My sister is still in love with him.”
“Why did they break up?”
I shrugged. “Josh got cold feet or something. He wanted to see other people.” I snorted. “I’m not sure he actually ever did. Taylor was a wreck. She lost about twenty pounds and looked like she’d just been raised from the dead.”
“But they stayed in touch?”
“Josh kept calling and talking to her. He didn’t want to marry her, but he didn’t want to let her go either.” I shook my head. I’d thought my sister should lose his number and cut him off completely, but despite her anguish, she was too much in love to do that. “I know he
was worried about how she was taking the breakup. Maybe he was afraid she’d do something stupid. Or maybe he’s just a selfish bastard.”
The trouble was, I liked him. I always had. Up until the point he broke my sister’s heart, I thought he was about perfect.
“Was he mixed up in anything illegal? Maybe drugs?”
Yep, Price was doing his cop thing. For Taylor’s sake, I chose not to mind. But accepting his help meant he was going to get a lot more access to my family and to me, to things I didn’t want him to know. I was going to have to be extra careful.
Before I could answer, the phone rang. It was Taylor.
“Where are you?” she wailed. My sister was not a wailer. She did not lose control. Usually she had ice water running through her veins.
“Just coming out of Prockney Tunnel,” I said in a soothing voice. “The snow has slowed everything down. I should be there in ten minutes.” It would be closer to twenty, but she didn’t need to know that.
“Ten?” she said, and she started crying in great gulping sobs. “Can’t you come faster?”
“Taylor,” I said sharply. “Go somewhere away from the blood. Make yourself some tea.” I didn’t think she’d drink it, but it would give her something to do. I considered telling her to leave the apartment and go down to the building lobby, but I doubted she’d go.
“Tea?” she repeated stupidly. “I don’t want tea. How can I make tea when Josh is probably—” She started crying again, and she sounded like she was on the verge of hyperventilating.
I was shocked when Price pulled the phone from my hand. “Hello?” he said before I could grab it back. I could hear the startled silence from Taylor. “This is Detective Clay Price. I need you to take a deep breath and hold it for the count of six. Ready? One-two-three-four-five-six,” he counted off slowly. He sounded like he was talking to a child. “Good. Now again. One-two-three-four-five-six. That’s very good. Once more.”
He did that about ten times. I tapped his knee and pointed where I wanted him to turn. He was keeping her busy, and that’s what Taylor needed—something else to concentrate on. When she had stopped her hysterical crying, he tried to focus her in another direction.
“Now, Miss Hollis, I want you to get up and go in the kitchen. Find the tea.” She didn’t object because he didn’t have to ask again. I don’t know if she was hypnotized by his voice or what, but she simply obeyed.
“Have you found it? Get the kettle and fill it.” A minute later he said, “Now get out the teapot and sugar. Put at least five spoonfuls in.”
I winced. Taylor hated sweet tea. She apparently told him so.
“That’s okay. It’s for me,” he told her. Good call. Taylor would do things for other people she wouldn’t do for herself. “Your sister is pretty wet from the snow,” he said with a glance at me. “Maybe you could round up a couple of towels. You know, I bet she could use some coffee. Maybe you could brew a cup when you’re done with that tea.”
He kept her talking until we were on Josh’s street. He lived in a condo up near the top of one of those steel and glass buildings that look like they ought to be in outer space. I pointed and he parked, still talking to Taylor. I have to admit, he impressed me. He wasn’t dead inside like I’d always assumed he was. Or if so, he faked human kindness well.
The doorman for the building was nowhere to be seen, nor was there anyone in the lobby. My skin prickled warning. I led the way up the stairs. I don’t like elevators, and if I can avoid them, I do. The door to Josh’s apartment was ajar. Josh had enough money to pay for good wards, and he had. He kept them charged, too, so either he’d let his attackers in, or they’d had a null or an unbinding charm. A strong one to eat the magic of those wards. I heard Price calling out a warning to let Taylor know we’d arrived as I pushed inside.
The place was in shambles, and those are the kind words. The furniture was turned over, the cushions ripped apart, and a bunch of holes knocked into the sheetrock. The bookshelves lay topsy-turvy, and the wall of glass overlooking the city was covered with spiderweb cracks. That was all I had time to notice before Taylor slammed into me. She clutched me around the neck in a death grip. I hugged her back.
Price slipped past us and prowled through the rubble of the room, going down the hallway to investigate the bedrooms and the den. He returned, his face that inscrutable mask except for a furrowed line between his brows, like his brain was in overdrive.
I stroked Taylor’s back. “Easy,” I whispered. “I’m here. We’re going to find Josh. But I need you to get it together so we can figure out what happened, okay?”
My sister nodded against my ear. She gathered herself and stepped away. I kept hold of her hand.
Taylor is about my height, with the same narrow face as mine. Her cheekbones and chin are rounder, and her eyes are blue. Mine are green. Her hair is a rich dark auburn streaked with dyed sunshine. I’ve always envied her her hair. Mine is the color of burnished copper. It gets a little more red in the winter, and in the summer it turns brassy blond. I also get freckles, though I tan better than she does. Her skin is porcelain. She also has long, polished nails and dresses in the height of fashion. I cut my nails short and wear whatever happens to still be reasonably clean. I don’t think I’ve ever ironed anything in my life. Taylor shudders in horror at wrinkles.
But now she looked anything but neat and put together. Her mascara had smeared over her cheeks, and her eyes were swollen. Her nose was red, and her face was blotchy.
“Hey,” I said. “Go wash your face, okay?” It would make her feel better and give me a chance to look around.
She gave me a stricken look and nodded. As she went up the hall, I joined Price.
“There was definitely a struggle,” he said. “It’s certain they were looking for something and I don’t think they found it.
I agreed. Why take Josh if they had?
“Come here,” he said and led me down the hall to Josh’s den.
The room was even more of a mess than the rest of the condo. His desk and bookshelves had all been cut apart with a saw. The only thing still upright was an armless chair. Blood smeared the seat and ran down the legs to pool on the floor beneath it. I stared. It was a lot of blood. This hadn’t just been a beating.
“They cut him pretty good,” Price confirmed, looking over everything clinically. “They must have had a tinker to seal the wounds so he wouldn’t bleed out and die before they got what they were looking for. Presupposing it’s his blood.” He looked at me. “Did he have another girlfriend?”
“I don’t know,” I said, my lips wooden. My stomach churned as I thought of Taylor. What if she’d been here? Would they have cut her? Killed her? My hand clenched.
“What can you see?” he asked me.
I gave him a confused look and then opened myself to the trace. I could have kicked myself. I should have begun scanning the minute I walked into the condo. Being personally involved was totally throwing me off my game. I couldn’t afford it. I had to focus. For Josh, for Taylor, and for me.
I could see a weaving of old trace. Most were Josh and Taylor, though it looked like she didn’t come in here all that often. I had a feeling the bedroom would tell a different story.
There were three new tracks overlaid on the old. I crouched and reached through the dimensional plane to touch them. I hissed and jerked erect.
“What is it?”
I didn’t hesitate to lie. Well, not so much lie as withhold some important truth. “There’s no trace of anyone but Josh, Taylor, and three others. One of them is a tinker,” I said, since he’d already figured that out.
The other two were haunters. Haunters were rare enough that most of them worked for one of the Tyet factions. If I told Price they’d been here, he’d be just as likely to protect them than not, and block me from finding Josh. But why the hell
had they come after my almost brother-in-law in the first place? I couldn’t begin to imagine what had been worth sending a tinker and two haunters.
Tinkers weren’t as versatile or powerful in the world of magic as the main five abilities—tracer, traveller, maker, dreamer, and binder. But they could be nasty all the same. They, as their name implied, tinkered with things. They had the ability to make small things move. Not exactly teleportation, more like bending, breaking, mending, and so on. A lot of them were doctors. My bet is this one had been responsible for torturing Josh and making sure he didn’t bleed to death. His track said he was strong.
The haunters were another story. They were a little like dreamers, in that they could mess around in your mind. But mostly they picked up on emotions and could amplify them. They could find your nightmares and make you live them like they were real. They could trap you in a nightmare for a little while. The good thing was that their magic wore off faster than most. Haunters weren’t that powerful, but with two of them keeping a regular vigil, they could’ve driven Josh to insanity pretty damned quick.
“One tinker? The other two weren’t magic users?” Price asked.
“Not that I could tell,” I said, and the lie rolled off my tongue easily.
“And there was no one else?”
“That’s what I said.” It annoyed me that he seemed to doubt me. I know I was pretending to be a hack, but I wasn’t supposed to be that bad.
He nodded thoughtfully. “So they don’t have a second hostage. That’s good. If he can hold off talking, it will give us time to find him.”
Taylor could have been here. She could have walked right into it, and they’d have used her to make him tell them what they wanted to know. Then they’d have killed her.
Trace of Magic: 1 (The Diamond City Magic Novels) Page 5
