Wild Card

by Mark Henwick

  He did, coming to an abrupt halt. It was like his hands didn’t want to stop. He held his arms out to me.

  “It’s me,” he said.

  I edged backwards.

  “Amber, what happened?”

  “Just stay there!” I said. Speaking hurt. My head swirled with nightmares of the rogue looking like Alex; I could feel his hands on my skin, his breath on my face. My empty stomach churned again.

  Was this him?

  He’d stopped when I’d yelled.

  It had to be Alex. It had to be.

  Wishing wouldn’t make it so.

  It was too far for the eukori to reach. I knew too little about the Call.

  I couldn’t think of anything else. “What did we talk about during our first dance?” I croaked.

  “Nothing,” he said immediately. “It was too amazing to say anything.”

  Tears were suddenly freezing on my cheeks.

  I took one stumbling step to him and he closed the distance, sweeping me up in his arms, his eukori breaking over me like a beautiful, dark wave.

  “What happened?” he said again. “I thought I’d lost you.”

  “Melissa’s dead.” The grief and anger swept over me again. “Killed by the rogue. I got arrested by Griffith. Then I was sprung by my sister and her boyfriend. But they handed me over to some paramedics who knocked me out. Woke up in Aurora Regional Center.” I buried my face against his neck. “The rogue was there. Alex, he can shape-shift faces.”

  “What?”

  “When I woke up, he was there. He looked like you.”

  Alex was stunned to silence by that.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked.

  “Bian’s special phone she gave you? She can track it. You sister must have left it turned on till they got home.”

  Someone else came out of Alex’s SUV. In the weak porch light I recognized Olivia.

  “What happened with you guys yesterday?”

  “Time for that later,” he said, looking around at Kath’s front door.

  “Yeah.” I let go of him. Concentrate. I had business here. “How are we going to get in? Break a window?”

  He smiled. “Nah. If it comes to it, I have a key for the front door.” He reached under his coat and pulled out a crowbar. “But we should just try knocking first.”

  “Why? She—”

  Olivia slipped in next to me and she and Alex hugged me.

  “I can’t believe she knew what was going to happen,” Olivia said. “Please, take a moment. You don’t want to do anything you’ll regret.”

  “She’s not the rogue. If he can do something like change faces, imagine what he could have done to persuade her that you needed to be hospitalized,” Alex said.

  They were right and I hated it. I had a wheeling ball of anger inside me that wanted to lash out violently. Kath was here, that didn’t mean I should go berserk. She hadn’t killed Melissa. She probably didn’t realize what the hell was going on.

  Calm.

  “We’ll back you, whatever,” Olivia whispered.

  The wolf was too close. If I went in there out of control like that, it would have got bloody. Kath was a stupid, spiteful bitch, but she didn’t deserve to die for it. My anger subsided reluctantly.

  “Okay,” I said finally. “Thanks, guys. Let’s find out what we can.”

  Alex pounded on the door and leaned on the bell.

  Five minutes later, when a confused and sleepy Taylor saw me outside, he opened the door.

  “What’s going on?” he mumbled.

  I shoved him out of the way and Alex and Olivia followed me inside.

  I left him to Alex and stormed through the house. In the bedroom I tore Kath’s bathrobe off the hook and threw it at her.

  “Get up,” I yelled.

  “Amber,” Kath gasped. “What…”

  “Surprised? You thought I was safely locked up in an insane asylum?”

  I dragged her into the living room, where Taylor was already sitting nervously, watched by a looming Alex. He didn’t want me to run amok, but he was two hundred pounds of pissed werewolf and he kinda looked it.

  “Wait, we can explain,” Taylor said, holding his hands up.

  “And I’m going to listen. But you can listen first.” I got the crumpled forms out of my pocket. They were the worse for wear, but still readable. “Whatever shit you thought you were doing, you were wrong.” I slammed the forms down on the coffee table in front of them.

  “Who’s this?” Taylor said. The name on the forms was Crystal Vincent.

  “That’s me. Didn’t you know? Committed to the detention wing of the Aurora Center like an insane criminal under another name. Signed off for a transfer,” I jabbed the next form. “Destination unknown. Overdosed on sedatives, barbiturates and hallucinogenics.”

  I leaned over and glared at them until they wilted, and when I spoke again, it was almost a whisper. “All, presumably, set in motion when you signed me off on a court order as mentally incapable.”

  “We…no…not that,” Kath stuttered. “He said—”

  “I can explain the institute,” Taylor said in a shaky voice.

  “I’m listening.”

  Taylor licked his lips and glanced worriedly at Alex, who was looking more angry by the second.

  “Dr. Noble showed us video evidence of your last breakdown—”

  “My what? No, go back. Start at the beginning.”

  “Dr. Noble came to me,” Kath said. “You said you’d been to see him. He told me he’d been treating you, but he said he was very concerned after your recent sessions.”

  The wolf began to pace inside me again. I felt my lips pulling back.

  Alex put a hand on my arm.

  Calm.

  I took a breath, concentrated on getting my neck muscles relaxed. A shiver passed through Alex and Olivia. I realized they’d been keyed up as if they were wired into me.

  We’ll back you, whatever.

  Shit. If I went berserk and killed Kath and Taylor, they’d help. I swallowed. It was a hell of a responsibility to carry, but actually realizing I was carrying it helped.

  Calm.

  “He said he wanted you in the hospital for evaluation and stabilization, but he was worried about your reaction,” Kath said. “He wanted my help to get you in.”

  “He wanted you to trick me. Have me injected with anesthetics and kidnapped off the street.” Saying it like that made it hurt all over again. “Why, Kath? Why would you do this, even if you thought it was legitimate?”

  “You’re out of control,” she said. “At Alex’s house you—”

  “At Alex’s house I did what? I yelled at you?” I was angry again, this time at myself. I had been out of control last time we’d met, but she didn’t know that.

  “You…” her eyes slipped to and fro between me and Alex. “You scared me. And Alex said you were doing something. He told you to stop. Then you just blew up and ran away.”

  It was a long way from justification. It sounded thin and she knew it.

  Taylor fidgeted and came to her rescue. “Dr. Noble showed us the video.”

  “What video?”

  “He said it was from your time in the special forces—” Kath said.

  “Oh. And because he says I was in the army, now you believe it.” That was sweet.

  “He had other evidence, some other pictures of you with your unit, before your accident.”

  “And what accident is this meant to be?”

  “The head trauma,” Kath said. She couldn’t meet my eyes. “The reason you had to leave the army.”

  “Apart from the fact that I was in a special forces unit, that is complete bullshit, end to end.”

  “But why would he do this?”

  “Because I’m investigating him!”

  They looked wide eyed at me.

  I paused. I couldn’t explain the paranormal aspects to them. “Dr. Noble, or someone passing himself off as Dr. Noble, is a suspect in a string of m
urders. He knows I’m on to him. What better way of protecting himself than getting me labelled insane.” I jabbed the forms again. “Or filled with the kind of drugs so I go insane anyway.”

  “But that’s ridiculous.”

  “Like me being in a special forces unit is ridiculous? So ridiculous that you told our family friends that I’d spent the time as a whore? How’s that looking now, Kath?”

  My fists bunched. If I couldn’t take it out on them, I wanted to start breaking furniture.

  “Or like claiming to be a security consultant for Kingslund Group is ridiculous? Until you see me on the news rescuing Kingslund employees and jumping off a building down in Meridian. What did you think? I was having a manic episode? I was being chased by paranoid delusions?”

  “You can’t believe anything I say, but this guy comes along with a story I need hospitalization and the pair of you swallowed the lot.”

  “He seemed believable. He had proof of what he said. You just expect me to believe what you say!”

  “And why shouldn’t you? Have I lied?”

  Taylor’s hand crept over Kath’s to pull her back.

  “The video,” he said, clearing his throat. “It is clearly you. It was…alarming. I said that was why you had to be assessed in a secure facility. In case there was a regression. I didn’t want us to be liable…”

  “Where the hell did Noble say he got all this from?” Alex asked.

  “Amber’s army doctors, of course,” Taylor said.

  There was a moment of silence. Petersen and Noble. Or Petersen and the rogue masquerading as Noble.

  “How ‘alarming’ was this video?” I asked. “What does it show?”

  “A group of orderlies trying to sedate you.” Taylor licked his lips nervously. “He said you put three of them in hospital. The video backs that up.”

  “Neat trick while I was suffering from head trauma,” I said. I couldn’t remember it. Something that had happened in Obs that my mind had just closed over. “What was the rest of the bullshit about cults while I was getting kidnapped, or did you make that up yourself?”

  “He said you’d got in with a cult and they were messing with your head. He said that he’d helped you make an exceptional recovery before that, but it was all being undone.” Kath said. Her eyes slid back to Alex. “We just wanted you well again.”

  Crap, her voice actually caught when she said that. The sound stabbed me in the gut.

  “Why Kath?” I’d heard what they said, but there was something deeper behind this, something painful.

  I waited until she lifted her head. Her eyes came up. They were red from crying. Everybody else went quiet and distant as I focused on her.

  “I just wanted my big sister back,” she said. Tears streaked her cheeks. “You went away, Amber. You left us. You never came back.” Her head dropped. She drew her legs up and hugged them. “I know you’re standing here. You and Mom can’t understand what I’m saying. But you never came back, not like I remember. I’m always scared around you. You don’t talk about anything. You act weird all the time.”

  Taylor put his arm around her and glared at me.

  They’d been stupid to fall for Noble’s lies, but it’s what sociopaths are good at—making people believe them. They’d been callous to just leave me to be driven off to an asylum, but they’d have wondered what good they could have done by trailing along.

  I had to get out of here before I started making any more excuses for them. Just being here was setting my wolf off, and I could feel the Athanate stirring as well. Since Kaothos had closed it, I’d had to open the strongbox a couple of times. And she’d warned me about loosening the lock. I didn’t want it opening again here.

  Calm.

  “You’ve got my things,” I said.

  “In the second bedroom,” Taylor said.

  I found a plastic bag had been tossed on the bed. It had my HK and shoulder holster, a couple of cellphones, including Bian’s encrypting one, my billfold wallet, my credit card and my keys. It looked pathetic somehow.

  I took the chance to breathe deeply for a while before returning to the living room.

  “Give me a minute here please, guys.” I said, looking at Alex.

  Olivia had come down from whatever I’d been using to pull her along with me. Now she was nervous about leaving me with them, but Alex nodded and guided her out. His trust was like a shield around me. I couldn’t abuse it.

  Safety-minded Taylor had unloaded the bullets from the magazine. I sat opposite them and began to methodically load them back in.

  I could feel the fear swirling off them, and the siren song of Basilikos stirred in the depths of my mind. I shoved it down and concentrated on slipping the bullets back in. The sound of them racking in was loud over the background of the wind.

  “Where’s that necklace?” I said quietly. “Great-grandma’s necklace.”

  “How can you think of something like that now?” Taylor said.

  “Because, like I said, it’s important.” I slammed the magazine back in the HK, making them both flinch.

  “I don’t know,” Kath said.

  “You’re lying,” I said. I knew it, and she could see I knew it.

  “I lost it,” she tried. Her eyes were growing wider and more desperate.

  “You’re still lying.”

  “I threw it away!” Her voice was a reedy shriek. “It was just a stupid bead necklace. Are you satisfied now?”

  I let her squirm for a minute.

  “You’re not lying any more. But I’m not satisfied at all.”

  This would just be another example of my craziness as far as they were concerned. And yet it was hugely important. Olivia’s life might depend on it.

  It was the wrong time to take it further now. I felt the wolf as if she had expanded inside me, a frisson that seeped down my limbs until my hands and feet tingled. I wasn’t finished here but I had to go, and I couldn’t afford any more distractions.

  “If I hadn’t escaped, I’d be dead, or as good as. Think about that. I can’t tell you what I’m doing at the moment. Maybe, sometime, I will be able to. It’s dangerous. Meantime, just leave me alone. Don’t even talk about me.” I holstered the HK and stood up. “And keep the hell out of my way.”

  “Just go,” Taylor said defiantly.

  I stared at him until he lowered his eyes.

  I paused in their open doorway, and looked back. The cold wind trailed in ribbons of snow across their floor.

  “I had a little sister once,” I said. “I loved her with all my heart.”

  Chapter 64

  We drew away from the house, Alex steering the SUV carefully down toward Speer Boulevard, where the snow had been cleared. I felt too tired and sickened to want to talk.

  The necklace was gone. I’d made an oath to help Olivia. I couldn’t even think how to tell her that my best lead had vanished into a dump somewhere, let alone what I was going to do about it.

  Alex broke the silence.

  “Tell me what happened,” he said, slowing the SUV gently as we came to the end of the road.

  The difficulty he was having driving got my head working again.

  “Make for the stadium parking lot,” I said. “I want to pick up the truck.”

  The Hill Bitch might be cold to drive, but she’d laugh at the snow.

  “Got it.” He turned north onto Speer. Snowplows had been out here and the way was easier, although the snow was already drifting back across the road.

  I gave them the short version, but there was no way of hiding the effect it had on me. At the end, reliving the terror of being helpless and imprisoned set my Athanate off. I had to stop every few sentences to calm myself down.

  “Noble,” Alex said, his voice tight with anger. “I can’t believe it. I’ll…”

  I put my hand on his arm, trying to short-circuit both his rage and my memories.

  “We need to be sure,” I said. “We’re only going to get one chance at this. Melissa was righ
t; one of the first things she said to me was that he’s leaving. All the years of hiding have been thrown aside. He’s left clues because it doesn’t matter anymore. But that’s not the same as telling us who he is. Or she is.”

  “But you saw him.”

  “I saw Noble. I saw you, too. And think about why Melissa would leave the house? Maybe she got a call and thought she saw José outside. Maybe I saw Noble’s face only because the rogue needed to use that to move around in the prison. What if he, or she, showed up at Noble’s house earlier looking like me, killed him and took all his IDs?”

  “He knew things that you’d talked about with Noble.”

  “Maybe the rogue tortured that information out of him.”

  “Shit!” He hit the wheel with his hand. “It’s a freaking nightmare. How the hell are we supposed to prove anything?”

  “If we get close enough, I can tell from the eukori.” I shuddered. “I won’t forget that feeling.”

  He was shaking his head, but I pressed on. I felt as if my investigation had been blown apart, but I had the one strong gut feeling on this—that it was one of the pack. I needed to know what had been going on.

  “Alex, what’s happened to the pack? What were you doing to Larsen?”

  “We were up at Bitter Hooks. It’s his trial,” Alex said quietly.

  “But he’s not the rogue,” I said. “We’ve got to call and stop it.”

  “No, not that.” Alex ran a hand over his face, looking tired. “Larsen can’t change. His wolf never comes through. But the wolf keeps trying more and more. We call that the trial, when someone who can’t change is forced by the wolf to make the last attempt.”

  I’d gotten it completely wrong. Larsen was like Alex’s old girlfriend, Hope. Condemned to die by the transformation they couldn’t complete, their last minutes a torture as the body fought to change to wolf, and failed. The same thing that would eventually happen to Olivia unless I found some way to help her. I thought I’d been so close to the necklace. If I’d got it, maybe I would have been able to help Kyle.

  The anger that boiled through me was useless. I had to let it go. I couldn’t mention the necklace to Alex with Olivia in the back. She was keeping it quiet, but I could feel her. Like the snow had blown into my sister’s house, gray strands of grief weaved around me in the car from both of them. The Call or eukori? I didn’t know. Olivia wasn’t meant to be able to use the Call until she changed, but I had.