by Dean Murray
"What is it, Rach?"
"I'm not sure what I can and can't tell you. You're going into another decision point and I'm not sure what things will help you win it and what things will harm you. The margin of error is as small as anything I've ever seen before."
"Then just tell me the truth, Rach. I'd rather go into it knowing what I'm getting into. I'm tired of running around with blinders on."
"Isaac told you that Branson is pretty much an honorary enforcer for the Coun'hij, right?"
"Yeah, he said that Branson is the one to beat inside of the pack, which I thought was kind of odd. I would have expected for him to be top dog if he's really that tough."
"You're right, it's uncommon, but it's not unheard of. It just means that the alpha has something that the more powerful hybrid wants more than they want to lead the pack."
"You're stalling, Rach. What is it?"
"Branson was one of the hybrids Agony brought with him when he killed my dad and sundered the rest of the pack."
My mouth went dry. Donovan, Andrew and the rest had always been reluctant to talk about that night, the night that the dreams of everyone in the pack had been destroyed. When pressed they had recounted the barest details, but they'd never gone so far as to tell us who else had been there other than Agony. Adri had told me once that Oblivion had also been there, but she'd been pretty evasive when it came to how exactly she knew that.
"You're making this personal."
Rachel sighed. "Yeah, I guess I am. Maybe that will be the extra little push you need to be able to take him down."
"It's not going to make any difference. If I need an extra push to beat Branson then I'm already screwed because it means I'm not going to be able to beat the alpha, whatever his name is."
"Stekensbridge, Samuel Stekensbridge."
"Yeah, him."
"I know things look grim, Jas, just remember that none of them realize that you're a hybrid. If you can use that to your advantage then you have a chance."
"Okay, I've got to go now, Rach. You're screwing up my internal balance."
I hung up on her without waiting for her to say goodbye, and then looked around the room. It wasn't home, there was no reason to dwell on it, taking mental pictures, but I did regardless. A second later Rachel texted me the banking information that she'd promised.
I checked on Ben one last time and then left the room. Geoffrey answered the door within a second or two of my first knock. His sword was unsheathed and for a second I almost thought that he was going to attack me, but instead he turned his back and walked over to the bed.
"Are you and Ben ready to go?"
He picked up a scrap of material that he'd apparently been using to polish his sword, and then sheathed the weapon in a move that looked so easy and natural that I knew he was even better with a sword in his hand than I'd suspected.
"Just me. I'd like to leave Ben here for now. If things go badly then the Duluth pack will rip him apart. It's a small chance, but I'd still like to leave him here so someone else can come get him if the worst comes to pass."
"You're just filling me with confidence."
"That's me, ever the optimist."
I tossed my phone to him. He caught it with his left hand and then looked back up at me questioningly. "What's this?"
"A present from Rachel. She says that you've got some kind of numbered account in a bank near here. I don't know how she set up a fake account for you, or why she did it in your name instead of mine, but it means that we should have enough cash to at least buy Ben a few more nights here."
Geoffrey swallowed a couple of times and then shook his head. "Rachel didn't set it up; at least I don't think she did. I suspect that I set it up before I lost all of my memories. I don't have very many things from back then. This sword, my vendetta with Imastious, and now a bank account."
"I'm sorry, it must really suck not to remember so much of your past."
"Yes, and no. I feel so incredibly isolated from everything that sometimes I just want to scream. I don't have any ties to anyone or anything. I've been completely uprooted from the person who I once was, but it's not all bad. By all indications the man I used to be didn't have a single redeeming quality to him. I'm probably better off without those memories."
"I just assumed that it was something Rachel arranged, but if it's your money then I shouldn't go presuming as to how you'll be spending it."
"No, I think your plan of buying a few nights for Ben is a good one. It's not like you haven't kept me fed and with a roof over my head for the last couple of days. I owe you for that. Besides, I don't want to see anything happen to Ben either."
My nod was choppy and probably revealed more of what I was feeling than I would have liked it to, but at least I managed a response. I left Geoffrey to finish his packing and went back into my room and grabbed my stuff.
Leaving Ben there in the bed by himself was every bit as hard as I'd known it would be. He looked so tiny, like the smallest tremor would shatter him into a thousand pieces. The bubble of calm I'd surrounded myself with earlier helped a little, but it was mostly faith in Rachel that gave me the strength I needed to leave.
I already knew that I didn't have a plan of my own that would save Ben. The only way forward was to trust Rachel and help Geoffrey. I picked up Ben's free hand and cupped my face in his palm for several seconds.
I could hear Geoffrey outside in the hall. He was pacing, which meant I was out of time. I turned my head and kissed Ben's palm as I stood to go. I grabbed my stuff and forced myself to leave without looking back. We put the 'do not disturb' sign up on my room, on Ben's room, and then we stopped at the front desk and explained that we would be calling back in a couple of hours to pay for a few more nights. Technically that put us a bit past the normal checkout time. The clerk seemed like he was going to balk at that, but then suddenly nodded and said that he'd make sure my room wasn't disturbed.
I waited until we were back to my car before asking the obvious question. "That was you who convinced him, wasn't it?"
"Yeah. It seemed like a good cause, I just hope he doesn't get into some kind of trouble as a result. That's the problem with being able to play with people's minds, it's too easy to take what you want and not consider the possible consequences to them."
"That's surprisingly decent."
"Just because I'm a vampire doesn't mean I have to be like all the rest of them."
I looked up the address to the bank from Rachel's text and then we set off. The trip to Minneapolis went by faster than I'd expected it to, and almost before I knew it we were pulling into an underground parking structure underneath the bank itself.
It felt like we were entering Fort Knox, although, come to think of it, I wasn't actually sure that they still kept any gold there. With the way that the Federal debt figure had been ballooning for the last decade or so, it was entirely possible that all of the country's gold reserves had been sold off years ago.
The ramp we drove down didn't initially go under the bank. Instead we drove down a series of declines that seemed to put us under the vacant square next to the bank and went through three different check points before we were allowed to enter the main parking area underneath the bank.
Rachel's text had contained three different codes and Geoffrey had to provide the first code before we were allowed into the second checkpoint where they proceeded to check my car for surveillance devices, bombs and weapons. Geoffrey's sword didn't even cause the guards to raise an eyebrow, they simply brought out a long metal canister with a complicated combination lock on one end.
Geoffrey input a code of his choice and then locked his sword up inside of the case and it was taken away for holding with a promise that it would be waiting for us when we left. Once the car was vetted and the guards were satisfied that neither of us had any weapons, we were escorted out of the car into a series of man traps which isolated us from each other and from the guards who'd been escorting us.
Less than three s
econds after I realized the doors on either side of me were locked, a speaker above me clicked on without even a hint of static.
"Good morning, sir, madam. I apologize, but our procedures generally allow for only the account holder to access the deposit vault in question. I've pulled up the physical description of the account holder, which the gentleman matches. The next step in the authentication process is for you to provide the second numerical password and then we'll conduct you back to the vault."
I would have expected for the speaker to talk to us from the anonymity of some windowless control room, but apparently that wasn't classy enough for Credit Suisse. Instead the man addressing us was doing so from behind what looked like a six-inch pane of Plexiglas. While I was busy taking in the luxuriously-appointed room behind him, the bank employee continued.
"I've left the lady's speaker on so far as a courtesy so that she knows what is going on, but in a moment I'll be turning her sound feed off and we'll be proceeding with the exchange of the passcode. Assuming that the gentleman correctly provides the passcode he will be allowed to proceed into a secure area to which his deposit box will be conveyed. The lady will remain in her present location until the gentleman returns."
The thick glass in front of me didn't do anything to hide the determination on Geoffrey's face. "No, you'll see on your screen that there is provision for me to bring one other, previously selected individual in with me. My companion's name is Lucy, and as you've no doubt already determined, she matches the description I left with you at the time the account was set up. Please leave the audio feed on and allow her to accompany me back to the secure area."
The banker nodded, and then Geoffrey read off the second code that Rachel had sent us. A couple of minutes later we were being escorted down a long, stainless steel corridor by a man in a suit whose shoulders were much too broad for him to be anything other than another guard.
We were shown into a six-by-six room that held a table and two chairs and then told that the door would be locked until we were ready to leave. Twenty seconds later the dumbwaiter-like device on the far end of the room conveyed up a metal container roughly the size of a briefcase.
Geoffrey looked at the case for several seconds before walking over and picking it up. Once it was on the table and he was back in his chair, he started entering the final code into the tumblers.
"I don't know what's in here. Maybe it's just money, but I could have left money anywhere. Please remember that I'm not the same person as whoever left this here."
It took me a minute to realize what I was seeing on his face. "You're scared. Is that why you wanted me here with you?"
"I guess. As much as I hunger to know more about my life before the amnesia, links like this terrify me. By all accounts I was everything you hate about vampires."
"Go ahead and open it up. No matter how bad it is you're better off knowing rather than continuing to wonder."
"Yeah, and time's running short. We still have to go buy some kind of prepaid credit card and call back to the hotel for Ben."
Geoffrey slid the release over and opened the case. There was cash, hundred-dollar bills, but Geoffrey simply pulled that out and stacked it on the table. Underneath the money was a series of US Treasury bearer bonds with amounts in the millions, and a single picture of a girl who was a few years younger than me.
"Who's that?"
"I'm not sure, but this face has haunted my dreams almost as long as I can remember. This is what Melody looks like, but I'm pretty sure it's not her. You heard Rachel tell me that the girl I remembered from before, the one Melody reminded me of, was named Lucy, but the clothes are all wrong. The girl I remember lived and died decades before this picture could have possibly been taken. She met her fate on the dusty American Frontier."
"So there are three girls, all of whom look the same?"
"Yeah, three, where up until a few minutes ago I thought there were only two. It's a problem for another day. We need to get moving."
Geoffrey walked over to the door and pushed the call button.
"Yes, sir?"
"We're ready to leave."
"Very good, sir, we'll have someone down shortly to escort you back to your car."
We stuffed the money into our pockets and the bearer bonds disappeared underneath the front of Geoffrey's shirt, but he left the picture of the girl out, holding it in his left hand. I saw him stealing glances at it when he thought I wasn't looking, but I didn't say anything. He deserved at least a measure of privacy.
Our escort arrived a few seconds later. He was another big guy, blond this time, dressed in a suit and wearing a wire in his left ear.
"Right this way if you please."
We started down the hall, headed towards the opposite set of doors, with our guide a few steps ahead of us.
There was no way of knowing what caused our escort to stumble, but it was a spectacular trip. I started towards him, thinking that I would be able to catch him, but I'd spent years learning not to move with my full speed when there were normal humans around.
That hesitation was all that was required to make it so that even I couldn't catch him, and the blond guy crashed into the wall on our left. His arms had been flailing in an effort to catch himself, but all he got from that was a long slash on his left arm where it ran into the metal frame that held the 'occupied' sign next to the closest door.
The wound wasn't immediately life-threatening, he hadn't opened up any of the major blood vessels, and for a second I thought the worst of the damage had simply been done to his pride. That stopped as soon as I looked over and saw Geoffrey's face.
Geoffrey had gone completely rigid as though every muscle in his body was fighting every other muscle. It took me only a heartbeat to realize that it was the sight, possibly even just the smell of the blood that had hit him so hard.
My beast screamed nine kinds of rage at him as she tried to break free and force a transformation. Both she and I knew just how messy things were about to become if Geoffrey couldn't get himself back under control.
Geoffrey was unarmed, but he was still going to be faster and stronger than any normal human. I could stop him, but not without changing and if that happened every single person watching the cameras pointing at us would get a show that would blow their minds.
I watched as Geoffrey's nostrils flared and his jaw dropped slightly, no doubt giving his teeth room to lengthen. He was in full-blown predator mode, as dangerous as he could possibly be, but I couldn't just sit there and do nothing.
I grabbed Geoffrey's arm and stepped between him and the guard.
"Fight it."
My words came out as something less than a whisper. They were too faint for a human to make out, but I was pretty sure that Geoffrey's hearing would be keen enough to pick them out.
"It's hard."
"I know it is, but you have to fight it or we're both as good as dead. If you lose control they'll seal this place up and we'll be stuck rotting here until some government agency comes to collect us."
Geoffrey brought himself back under control with a visible effort that left him wrung out and shaking. I waited a heartbeat to make sure that he really had himself pulled back together and then let go of his arm and looked over at our escort.
The poor guy had his right hand clasped tightly over the wound and had gone bright red out of embarrassment.
"My apologies, I'm not usually so clumsy."
I managed what I hoped was a winning smile. "Not at all. We're just fortunate that the damage was limited to your suit jacket. Hopefully the rest of your day is less fraught with peril."
My words brought a relieved smile to the face of the guard. He had no idea how close he'd come to death.
Chapter 12
Jasmin Bianchi
I-35
Duluth, Minnesota
"So what else should I expect from this challenge match?"
Geoffrey's tone was casual, but I knew he was worried. If I failed to win there was a very go
od chance that he wouldn't make it out either. Shape shifters hated vampires, and him having arrived with me wouldn't make them like him any better.
"They'll either honor my challenge or they won't. If they do then you'll have to just stand there and watch while I work my way through the pack, fighting anyone the alpha has been able to intimidate into standing between him and me. If they don't then all bets are off. Bring your sword and be ready to try and cut your way free if that's the case."
"How will I know they aren't honoring the challenge match?"
"They'll probably say something to that effect, but if all else fails more than one person attacking me is a pretty good sign that they aren't holding to the challenge rules."
"What about if someone attacks you from behind?"
"That too, probably. Unless my opponent is dead and I'm in the middle of whatever they are using for a circle, then it's still part of the challenge."
Geoffrey nodded and leaned further back in his seat. I waited for a few more minutes, but he didn't seem ready to volunteer anything else. We'd made it safely back to the car, purchased the prepaid credit card we'd needed, and called the hotel to pay for a few more nights.
We'd done everything we needed to do, including stowing away all but one of the bearer bonds inside a safety deposit box at a much less prestigious bank than the one where they'd been secreted before, and then we'd climbed back in the car and started for Duluth. Things hadn't necessarily been strained between us, but the events inside of Credit Suisse hung between us.
I'd been hoping that Geoffrey would broach the subject on his own, but apparently that wasn't to be. I took a deep breath and then asked the question that had needed asking for the last hour.
"So what happened back there at the bank? It looked for a second like you were going to rip that guard's throat out."
"It looked that way because I very nearly did lose control."
"It couldn't have just been the blood. You bandaged me up without losing control of yourself, and I saw you run a new IV for Ben."
"That's different."
