by Karen Chance
“Dory!”
—searchlight, blinding me as I grabbed Lawrence, trying to drag him into the water because if he was able to disintegrate again he’d have done it already and we needed—
“Take her out!”
—to buy time. But red was blooming on Lawrence’s shirt, two, three, four places, as they concentrated fire on him because they weren’t stupid, no, no, not stupid, just fucking assholes—
“Radu, take her out!”
“I’m trying!”
—and I was out of usable weapons, except for the knife in my boot, which I threw almost blind, just zeroing in on the location of those shots. I heard someone curse—
“Now, Radu!”
—and didn’t hear the sound of another gunshot—too deaf—but I felt when it hit home, shredding my thigh, which hurt less than someone’s boot to my face—
“Radu!”
—and there was no time—
“Dorina!”
—no time—
—“Lawrence—”
Chapter Ten
I ended up back in bed, after all. I woke up sprawled on familiar lumps, pillow gone, sheets gone, quilt wadded into a pillow-like ball that I was hugging instead. It was dark, and for a minute I didn’t know what the hell had happened.
And then I swam back to full consciousness, and I still didn’t.
The sound of water was coming from somewhere nearby…faint, gentle, horrible. I stared around, still half convinced I was being carved to pieces on that bloody wharf. Until I finally realized it was gurgling through the wall behind my head.
I flopped back against the bed, breathing hard.
It was just somebody doing dishes or trying to take a bath. And sounding like they were trying to fill a swimming pool, because it took forever around here for water to heat up. It was a ridiculous waste anytime somebody wanted to get clean, but when this house was built, they hadn’t worried about things like environmental friendliness. When this house was built, they were closer to worrying about Indian attacks and this was Brooklyn.
The Indian attacks had slacked off these days, unless you counted Bawa’s curry at the takeaway place down the road—and having experienced it, I saw no reason why you shouldn’t. But the plumbing remained. Intact and inefficient, it took its own sweet time and probably always would because I lived in a magic house.
Well, technically, it wasn’t the house that was magic, but the ley lines that ran underneath it. Rivers of metaphysical power, they crossed and pooled right under the foundation, providing the juice for a housekeeping spell that kept things exactly as they had been when it was laid, lo these many years ago. I think the idea had been to clean the house and then lay the spell, but I suppose the bachelor who had owned the place had thought it looked good enough.
Of course, good enough meant that the stains on my ceiling were never going to go away no matter how many times I painted over them. The scuffs on the hardwood floors were never getting buffed out. And if I tried doing something radical like changing out the yellowed sheers for something that might actually block sunlight, some of my personal belongings would shortly thereafter end up missing.
The house was vindictive like that.
But the spell also meant that I didn’t need to bother with things like scrubbing the ring in the tub, because it was never going to go away anyway, or sweeping the floor, which always stayed exactly as dusty as it always had and always would. Or fixing the wall that I suddenly remembered was supposed to have a hole in it but which the light of a passing car showed to be as solid and depressingly covered with cabbage roses as ever.
A flash of another scene—crimson and black and blinding, incandescent white—blazed across my eyes for a second. Until I shoved it away, along with the damned roses. And got up so I wouldn’t have to look at them.
The dresser had a heap of bras on it, some complete with grassy bits and sandspurs. I spent a few minutes sorting them out to give myself something to do. To drown out Lawrence’s voice screaming my name on the wharf, its tone saying he already knew there was nothing either of us could do.
I swallowed and told myself the usual crap: Lawrence had been a professional. Lawrence had known what he was getting into. Lawrence had taken what he felt was an acceptable risk.
And as always, it was exactly no damned comfort at all. And neither was my usual postmission dissection, going over every missed opportunity, every tiny mistake, every “should have.” Because this time, none of it would have made any difference.
I should have called in. But we’d only been in that other place for a few minutes, and one vampire power I’ve never heard of was teleportation. Even if I’d called for backup as soon as we set eyes on the portal, they wouldn’t have made it there in time.
I should have prevented Lawrence from going inside in the first place, or followed him quicker. Except that there had been nothing tangible to grab onto once he did his disappearing routine, and going into an unknown portal without any idea of what was on the other side was beyond crazy. It was slightly less so for him, given his ability, but I could have been walking into a volcano or off a cliff.
I should have figured out that, yeah, anybody who bothered to set a trap that carefully might have also designed a Plan B. Except that I’d have acted no differently, even if I had known. In the end, there had been more danger in not closing the portal than in worrying about a possible ambush.
I should have…
Done exactly what I did. It had been textbook. And it had failed spectacularly, anyway.
How do you kill a senior master the easy way? By not killing him yourself. By trapping him somewhere with a hostile atmosphere, where if he stays in one piece too long or hits the wrong patch of air, he’ll burn up without anything attacking him at all. And then by making sure that something damn well does attack him by putting your trap right down in the middle of—what? Those creatures’ eggs?
I didn’t know. But something had set them off, something had made them go for him like a stirred-up hornet’s nest. And how do you fight something you’ve never even seen with all of thirty seconds to figure it out? While you’re fucking on fire?
The answer was, you didn’t. You ran like hell, if you had any brains at all, which is what Lawrence had done. What we’d both done, which is what they’d expected. They’d probably hoped those things would catch us before we made it back into our world, but hey, no sweat either way. Even if we got out, we were sure to be weak and hurting and confused, and a much easier target than should ever have been the case.
I felt nails digging into my palm, hard enough to break skin, and didn’t even try to pull them out. It was what infuriated me the most. Not that he’d died—we’d all known that was a possibility on this kind of thing. But to die like that? Not able to defend yourself, or to get away, or to do anything but lie there and be butchered like an animal by some cowardly sons of bitches who didn’t have the guts to face you—
It was the main reason I worked alone. So if I didn’t come back, there was only myself to blame. And there was no partner to leave on the ground behind me.
I didn’t bother with a bath, since the only place I’d gone was inside my head. I ran fingers through my hair in lieu of a brush, changed to a slightly less rumpled tank top and decided to view the rips in my jeans as a fashion statement. Then I went downstairs.
It couldn’t have been too late, because the kids were still up, and Claire was a stickler for a nine p.m. bedtime. They were on the floor in the living room, wedged between two lumps of troll, since no way was the sofa holding all of that. I stuck my head in to say hi, but didn’t get much of a reply because SpongeBob was on and SpongeBob is the shit.
I didn’t join them—my stomach was starting to protest the lack of breakfast. And lunch. And from the shriveled-up way it felt right now, possibly dinner yesterday, too.
I padded into the kitchen, and found Claire at the stove. She was stirring something in the huge pot she used to cook for her fey bodyguards, who loo
ked like lithe young gazelles and ate like starving hippos. She had her hair up in a bright red ponytail, had a fifties-era apron on and the whole scene looked like I Love Lucy in a domestic mood. It was a charming, old-fashioned picture—or it would have been if a vampire hadn’t been perched on the stool beside her.
“What are you still doing here?” I asked Ray, who was scowling into the pot.
“Trying to tell your friend that that’s too much pepper.”
“It’s chicken and rice,” Claire said, pushing his big nose out of the way so she could stir. “It’s supposed to be peppery.”
“Peppery, yeah. Sear your tongue off, no.”
“What would you know about it? Your kind doesn’t eat.”
“My kind eats just fine, and I’m a master, sweetheart. I can even taste it. Not that I’m gonna taste that because you’re ruining it.”
“You’re just tired of grinding the pepper.”
He didn’t deny it.
Ray glanced at me as I came up alongside, drawn by the wonderful smell. His hands were dusted with little black flecks, like he’d been at the firing range all day. “It’s about time you showed up. I was starting to think you were dead.”
“No, just starved.” I peered over Claire’s shoulder and my stomach growled agreement. “How long till we eat?”
“Not long,” she said, giving me the once-over. I guess I must have passed muster because all she said was: “I’m thinking maybe add some peas?”
“Peas are good.” Right now anything sounded good. I might actually eat almost as much as a fey.
I walked over to the sink to wash up, even though I didn’t need it, because Claire was a stickler for that, too. “Your father asked you to call him when you woke up,” she told me. “You know, if you survived.” A bag of frozen peas hit the counter, a little harder than necessary.
“Here we go again,” Ray said with a sigh.
“He’s a dick,” Claire said forcefully.
“He’s a senator.” Ray shrugged. “They’re all dicks. It’s a job requirement.”
“Well, he should have job security, then!”
“I didn’t notice you throwing him out of the house like the other one,” Ray said archly.
“What other one?” I asked.
“Marlowe,” Claire said, spinning around. “He’s not getting back in here, Dory. I’ve had enough. I mean it. That man is—” She muttered something that I must have misheard because Claire didn’t talk that way.
I blinked. “What did he do now?”
“Oh, nothing! He just wanted to put you back in!”
“Back in?”
“Back inside your memory! After they almost lost you and you were so exhausted you couldn’t even sit up, he wanted to put you back!”
“Why didn’t they?” I asked, because last night had gone a bit fuzzy again, but I knew I hadn’t gotten a look at anyone’s face. Not even the guy who had stepped on mine. That damned searchlight had ensured as much, or whatever they had been using. Probably some new kind of spell that I was going to have to look out for because it might be—
“What?” I asked, because Claire was glaring at me.
“Why not?”
“Claire, we need to know—”
“The dick wouldn’t let him,” Ray broke in. “I guess it’s why he just got escorted to the door instead of thrown out.”
I stopped, my hands all soapy. “Mircea…got escorted to the door?” I repeated, not sure I’d heard right.
“I should have thrown them all out when they showed up!” Claire said severely.
Damn. I would have paid money to see that, I thought in awe. Like, a lot of money.
“You need to stay away from those vampires, Dory,” she told me, scowling. Because obviously I wasn’t taking this seriously enough. “You need to stay away from all of them.”
“That’s a little hard when I’m working for them,” I pointed out.
“Maybe it’s about to get easier.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” She turned back to the stove. “Just…something your father said.”
“Something like…”
“Like he plans to fire your ass,” Ray informed me, digging through the fridge. “What? You guys got no beer?”
“What?”
“Beer. Alcohol. Booze. Hell, I’m desperate. I’ll even drink that light crap—”
“Not you,” I said, and jerked him out before he found the Guinness. And turned back to see Claire looking mulish.
“Want to run that by me again?”
“He didn’t say…he just agreed with me.”
“About what?”
“About the fact that you could have died, Dory!” she said, slamming her wooden spoon down. “If they can kill a master, they can kill you!”
“‘They’ didn’t kill a master. ‘They’ ambushed us like the pathetic wastes of flesh—”
“They arranged it,” Claire said, thrusting out her chin.
“Yeah. And I’m going to arrange a little something as soon as I figure out—”
“He said you’d say that.”
“Gonna be hard to go on a rampage without backup,” Ray pointed out, climbing back onto his stool with one of my longnecks.
“I’ll have backup,” I said grimly, reaching for my phone before I remembered: mine was currently waterlogged. So I grabbed the house phone off the wall and punched in a number I’m not supposed to have.
“What the hell?” I demanded.
The vampire on the other end of the connection snorted. At least, that’s what the sound would have been called if I had uttered it. But when you wore Brioni tuxedos because Armani was too common, it was called “expressing disapproval.”
“Dorina. How did you obtain this number?”
“I got tired of going through your boys. According to them, you’re always out or you’re always busy.”
“Which is frequently the case. And you did not answer the question.”
“How about you answer one first.”
“Such as?”
“Such as I let you into my head and now I’m fired?”
“Of course not.”
“Good. Because I have a few ideas about—”
“You’re suspended.”
“I’m—what?”
“It is merely temporary.”
“Why?” I asked harshly. “Because I let Lawrence get killed?”
“You didn’t ‘let’ Lawrence do anything. Lawrence was the senior member of that team. If anything, he let you down—”
“How? By dying?”
“By allowing overconfidence in his abilities to blind him to the dangers of the situation,” Mircea said, a little bite creeping into his tone. “Having three master abilities made him unusual, but not invincible. As he discovered—after he put you in the untenable position of abandoning him or rushing in after him. And of course, you chose the latter—”
“What was I supposed to do?”
“You weren’t supposed to be in that position in the first place. And you will not be again, not until—”
“Okay, let me see if I’ve got this straight. I’m being fired for not leaving Lawrence to die?”
“You’re not being fired—”
“Funny, that’s what it sounds like.”
“You’re being suspended until we determine—”
“Determine what?”
“Why you’re still alive!” Mircea snapped.
Okay, that was a new record. It usually took me a full two minutes to get under his skin. Fair enough; it took him about that many seconds to work his way under mine.
“You want to explain that?” I asked, after a pause.
“If you give me a chance,” he said curtly. “However poor Kit’s choice of phrasing may have been, what he said this afternoon had merit—in any scenario I can envision, you should have been killed as well as Lawrence. That was the point, it would seem, of that whole exercise—to deprive us of as many agents as possible
—”
“Like Radu said, maybe they didn’t—”
“—and clearly, we were not likely to send anything less than our best after a witness as important as Varus. Whether they knew what you are or not, you should have died last night. They had no reason whatsoever to keep you alive—and yet they did.”
“Maybe they—”
“And not just bleeding out on the pier. They took you. They picked you up and took you away, to some misbegotten hole in the wall where we could not find you. You are Mine, but not as a Child born of blood would be. I cannot trace you, and I foolishly did not think to put a trace on you—”
“Wait. I don’t remember any—”
“I know that you do not! But I saw. Through Louis-Cesare’s eyes, I saw it all, and it was very clear that they had some sort of plan for you. And until I know what that plan was, it is too much of a risk—”
“Like it’s not for everybody? From what you’re saying, it seems like I’m in less danger than anyone else. Wherever I ended up, I’m alive—”
“And so you shall remain.”
It was implacable—dry, cold, and hard as steel—in the tone I hated most from him. It was the one that said he wasn’t even listening to me, that he never had been, that he wasn’t going to. It was the one that said I might as well hang up right now, because this conversation was going exactly nowhere. But some of Mircea’s ungodly bullheadedness had dripped down the family line to me, and I wasn’t done yet.
“My partner is dead,” I said flatly. “Do you really expect me to—”
“Your partner. Whom you knew for all of an hour, and whose existence you had completely forgotten until this afternoon?”
“You know damned well that doesn’t—”
“Lawrence was Kit’s man. He was only the third Child he ever made. If you think someone will not bleed for this, many someones, you do not know him as I do.”
“Then let me help!”
“No.”
“If you were short on agents before, it’s twice as bad now! Why in the name of—”
“Because you are Mine.” The voice snapped like a whip. “As Lawrence was Kit’s. Closer, even, born not only of blood but of flesh and bone, and I will not risk—”
