by Kelly Meding
“The lesser of two evils, child.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“It means you’re too young and ignorant to truly understand the scope of my vision. But you will see part of it come to fruition.”
Ignorant my ass. “Not if you’re in custody, pal.”
“The wheels are in motion. Capturing me now doesn’t stop what is to come.”
Oh joy.
“The Coni female and her child were not with the others belowdecks,” Phin said. “Where are they?”
“Alive, for now,” he replied.
“Where?”
“Come now, shape-shifter, I never put all my leverage in one place. By the way, you might want to tell your cohorts to begin abandoning ship.”
“Why is that?”
A distant rumble of thunder caught my attention. I glanced at the sky and saw only cloudless blue. Then a groan of metal joined the thunder. Across the slice of water, on the opposite ferry, Tybalt braced himself on the deck rail with his right hand and was gazing at his feet. He looked up, puzzled. Then concerned.
“Because it’s about to sink,” Thackery said.
Chapter Eighteen
1:20 P.M.
Letting Thackery out of my sight, even in the capable hands of Phineas in full-on protector mode, took a little effort. I trusted Phin to keep a handle on him, but I didn’t trust Thackery. He was slippery, and we could not allow him to get away again.
But knowing that others needed me more had me back on the lowest level of the ferry, searching frantically for a way to open those damned Plexiglas cells. Cold water already swam around our ankles, as whatever backup plan Thackery had rigged allowed the river inside the slowly sinking ferry. It wasn’t deep enough to sink completely, just enough to submerge this entire level—and probably the parking level, too. We had to get the Therians out.
They were still unconscious, although Leah showed signs of waking. Water oozed up through cracks in the floor’s metal plates at a slower rate than in the corridor. At least an inch deep already, the water would either snap everyone awake or quickly drown them.
Baylor, Paul, and bear-Shelby prowled the corridor, looking for a control panel. Shelby even tried throwing his weight against the doors, with no results. We couldn’t risk shooting at the Plexi, for fear of a ricochet killing someone, and I had no doubt it was bulletproof anyway. Thackery built the thing to contain Therians able to shift into bears and large cats.
Others were farther down the corridor inspecting the laboratories, gathering anything they could save. I left them to it, intent on those cells and the lives trapped behind their slick, impenetrable walls.
Impenetrable to everything but me. I pressed my palm against the cool Plexiglas of Joseph’s cell. Goddamn, this was going to hurt a lot.
“Stone?” Baylor asked, coming up next to me. “What are you thinking?”
I looked up at him, forcing a smile. “I’m thinking I’ll be lucky if my brain doesn’t start leaking out of my ears by the time I’m done down here.”
“Huh?”
“I can get them out.”
It took him a moment to catch on. He hadn’t seen me teleport others with me, but I’m sure he’d heard stories. I’d already teleported too many times today. My head ached continuously, and the pain would only increase. Using the magic of the Break often used humans right back. Our bodies were not physically capable of handling the full force of its power. I’d gotten nosebleeds and migraines from it before.
This was going to be a doozy. If it didn’t kill me.
Slowly, Baylor nodded. “We’ll keep looking for a release mechanism.”
“You do that.”
I closed my eyes and took a breath, trying to calm my unraveling nerves. The Break snapped and crackled close by, eager to be used and yet still playing the bashful virgin. I pulled it in and it danced away. I tugged harder, drawing on everything in my arsenal to power it with loneliness—Wyatt drifting away from me, Alex dying, my Triad life gone and taking all my security and acceptance.
I slipped in and through the wall. White lightning struck between my eyes. I materialized in front of Joseph, and before I had time to reconsider, I crouched, looped my arms around his narrow, bony chest, and fell into the Break again. We reappeared in a tangled heap in eight inches of water that stank of river rot. My chest ached and my head throbbed. I let strong arms take Joseph away.
Baylor helped me sit upright. “You gonna make three more?”
A canine bark startled me. Kyle bounded through the water, shifting from dingo to human even as he ran. He skidded to a hard stop in front of Lynn’s cell. Someone else’s blood covered his hands, chest, and face, and through the gore, love and need shone through.
“Yeah,” I said, “I can.”
Tremors rocked the ferry. A blast of cold water ran in from somewhere down the corridor. Voices bounced and echoed on the low metal walls, only adding to the confusion, panic, and awful noise. The water level in the corridor rose to knee height quickly; in the cells, it was dangerously close to the mouths of those still unconscious.
I got Lynn next, then Dawn. They were civilians, so they got to go first. I was moving on automatic, exhausted, nauseated. My head hurt so badly I could barely see past the red haze over my vision. Teleporting while so disoriented was stupidly dangerous, but I had no choice. No mechanism had been found to open the cells, and the Therians had to come out.
Without my healing ability, I’d have surely passed out. Or simply keeled over dead from the shock of it all. As it was, I’m pretty sure Baylor carried me over to the last cell and put me down as close to the wall as possible. The water was up to my chest while sitting, and the cold shock of it cleared my mind just enough to concentrate.
Had to get Leah, and then I was done. Could rest for a bit. Maybe pass out for a few hours. That sounded nice.
Leah first, then pass out.
“Yeah, you can pass out soon,” Baylor said.
Okay, so I hadn’t just thought that last part.
He squeezed my shoulder. “I think your brain-to-mouth censor is fried.”
Fuck it all. I looked into the cell and picked my spot. Felt for my tap. It danced out of reach, the power teasing me, there and yet impossibly far away. God, I wanted Wyatt. He’d help me. Between the two of us, we’d summoned half a Jeep into a log cabin. Together we could get Leah out of that damned cell before we all drowned in the river.
But Wyatt wasn’t there. He might never be by my side again. My throat closed and my nose stung. I coughed—it might have been a sob. The Break sparked. My tap hit me like a sucker punch, and I was moving. Flying apart. Coming back together. Less water, metal floor. I reached out blindly, flailing for a body. Touched skin. Grabbed hold.
Back in, to the other side. Agony turned me inside out. Freezing water pushed me down, under. I choked on it.
I didn’t want to drown, but I really, really wanted to sleep.
The gentle lull of movement greeted me as I woke. I was on my back, resting on something moderately soft, with the hum of an engine close by. Cymbals still crashed behind my eyes. I was wet, chilled despite the presence of what felt like a blanket.
I grunted something I intended to be “where am I?” and came out a garbled mess of muttering.
“Evy?”
Male voice. I huffed some semblance of response.
“We’re on our way back to Watchtower. Just rest, okay?”
Tybalt. Sounded like him. I tried words again and managed, “Therians?”
“They’re fine, all coming around. Turns out Thackery rigged up an electrified floor to keep them docile. Used it to knock them all out just as we got there.”
The very image of him electroshocking Aurora and Ava made my blood boil. I tried to sit up, and only managed to make my head spin and my entire body spasm. “Fuuuuuuuuck,” I groaned.
“Then keep still.”
“Why?”
“Because sitting up is obviously painful
.”
I almost smiled at his error. “No, why them? What did Thackery do?”
His silence only compounded my unease. I peeked through one eyelid. He was crouched on the floor between the seats of an SUV. I could see Astrid watching us from the front passenger seat, wrapped in loose sweats, her face stony. I didn’t know who was driving; I couldn’t see.
“Leah told us that Thackery was draining their blood a few pints at a time,” Tybalt said. “Because of their accelerated healing, they replenished faster than a human would. He’d use the floor to knock them out, then go in. She said she woke up weak, groggy, and with a cotton ball taped to the interior of her elbow. She put two and two together.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. It was a horrible déjà vu to what Thackery had done to me—drained me to the point of physical death, let me heal, then took more blood. What the fuck was he doing with Therian blood?
“He’ll be telling us shortly,” Astrid said.
I guess the censor button was still broken.
“The what?”
I ignored her and drifted for a while, letting my bruised and mangled brain repair itself. Didn’t wake again until movement ceased and a hand squeezed my arm.
“Evy?” Tybalt said. “We’re back. Can you walk?”
I wasn’t even sure I could sit up. “Think so.”
By some miracle, I managed to conquer sitting upright. Any other day, I might have been embarrassed into doing it on my own and risk falling on my face. Today I gratefully accepted Tybalt’s help. I leaned on him as we climbed out of the SUV, careful of his arm’s blade attachment, and I may have actually clung a little while we walked out of the parking lot and into the main Watchtower hall.
People were everywhere, chatting in clusters. I spotted Paul and Shelby among them, still bloodstained, but as eager as the rest of us to see this thing finished. The crowd knew we had Thackery. They knew we’d found the missing Therians. Well, most of them.
“Ava?” I whispered.
“Nothing yet,” Tybalt replied.
“Where’s Thackery?”
“Being secured in one of the empty stores, since the jail is still wrecked. They’ll interrogate him soon.”
“Goodie. I want in.”
“You can barely walk.”
“Don’t need to walk to watch.”
“Point taken. You want to change first?”
I took stock. My clothes were damp, but not horribly wet. The chafing I could live with. The front of my shirt was stained with blood—my own and others, I’m sure. I kind of smelled. “No,” I said. If I offended anyone, they could suck it.
Tybalt aimed us toward Operations, which didn’t seem right. “You said he was in a store.”
“Yeah, he is, but you aren’t participating in the interrogation. Astrid’s orders.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes. You could have killed yourself teleporting everyone today, Evy. Relax for ten minutes.”
“Aurora and Ava are still missing, Tybalt.”
“I know that. But you can’t help them if you end up in some sort of magic-overload coma.”
Coma. Wyatt. Shit, I should go see him. But I needed answers, too. Needed to find Aurora and Ava, and to make sure they were safe. I was Ava’s godmother, her Aluli, and I had to save her. Period.
Tybalt steered us through Operations and into the War Room. Some of the seats were already occupied. I ignored exact faces in favor of what was being projected onto one of the whiteboards—Walter Thackery, bound to a chair, in the middle of an empty store.
“Oh good,” I said as Tybalt put me into a chair. “Pay-per-view.” Further proving my edit button was broken, I said, “He’s not going to blow up, is he?”
Someone at the table snickered.
“He was checked out thoroughly before we brought him inside,” Tybalt replied. “No detectable explosives or tracing devices.”
“Detectable.” We hadn’t detected anything on Felix. Then again, we hadn’t been smart enough to check properly that time—a mistake I bet no one was eager to repeat. “Awesome.”
“It is what it is.”
“Evy?” Rufus asked. His voice startled me into swiveling my chair around too fast. My ankle slammed into the footrest of his wheelchair and sent a shock up my leg.
I hissed through my teeth.
“You look lousy,” he said.
“Well, good, because I feel pretty damn lousy,” I replied.
My tone slid right past him. “We watched everything from here. I’m amazed you were able to use your Gift so many times in such a short span.”
“Ditto. I think I lost a few million brain cells in the process, though.” We hadn’t really spoken in almost a month. Since the morning Boot Camp was attacked, and Rufus told me he’d been there eleven years ago when Wyatt’s family was slaughtered by vampire bounty hunters. Rufus admitted to being one of those bounty hunters, young, the apprentice of the man who’d decided that innocent victims shouldn’t be allowed to live to repeat what they’d seen.
He still hadn’t told Wyatt. Now he might never get the chance.
“Have you been to see him?” I asked.
Rufus shook his head, hazel gaze casting downward. “No,” he said, lowering his voice. “There’s no point. You can’t confess your sins to a man who can’t hear you.”
“Might make you feel better.”
“I don’t deserve to have my conscience assuaged by a deathbed confession, Evy.”
Before I could give him a verbal smack-down for several different parts of that statement, someone closer to the head of the table said “Showtime” pretty damned loud. A hush fell over the group, which had doubled in size in mere minutes. Someone even dimmed the lights.
On-screen, we had a wide, slightly downward angle of Thackery. Three figures entered the frame, easily identifiable from the backs of their heads: Phin, Astrid, and Baylor. Phin was still streaked in black paint, his majestic wings out, Coni blade in one hand. He flanked Astrid on her left; Baylor was on her right. As an interrogation squad, they were an impressive trio.
Thackery remained stone-faced.
“He won’t talk,” I said. My voice was loud in the hushed room.
“They dosed him with Sodium Pentothal,” Tybalt said.
Truth serum meant little to someone with a strong enough mind, and Thackery had that in spades. I guessed we’d see how it worked itself out.
“Walter Thackery,” Astrid said, her Command voice sharp and furious, “you are wanted by the Assembly of Clan Elders for the kidnapping of seven Therians, as well as the murder of Michael Jenner. You are also wanted for the kidnapping and torture of Phineas el Chimal.
“You are additionally wanted for innumerable crimes against humankind, including the murder of Rhys Willemy, the deaths of thirty-one humans one month ago at the facility known as Boot Camp, and the infection of dozens of humans with the vampire parasite. You are wanted by the vampire Families for the foreign illness plaguing their membership. How do you answer?”
Thackery looked right at her. And yawned.
A few people in the War Room hissed. Someone growled.
“You are very cavalier with your life,” Astrid said.
“No matter what I say to your charges,” Thackery replied, “you will sentence me to death. I prefer to not answer.”
“This is no human court. There is no right to not incriminate yourself, nor is there a right to a speedy trial. You are guilty of these crimes, whether by your own word or by mine. The question you must answer is how quickly you wish to die.”
“I wish to go free.”
Laughter rippled through the room. I didn’t laugh, because I knew Thackery was dead serious. He still had two people very dear to me, and three Lupa were loose in the city. He hadn’t played his last card yet.
“What makes you think that’ll happen?” Baylor asked.
Thackery turned his head, aiming his quiet smile at Phineas. “The child is adorable.”
I
started to stand, my only thought to wrap my hands around Thackery’s neck, and was pulled back into my chair. I wasn’t even in the same room with him. My heart pounded in my ears. My face flushed with fury.
Phin’s only sign of emotion was the slight arching of his wings. He had one of the most impressive poker faces I’d ever seen, and it was on in full force right now, even though his emotions had to be churning like a cyclone. “Where are they?” Phin asked, each word a bullet of hate.
Thackery blinked slowly, likely forcing away the effects of the Sodium Pentothal. I’d felt its effects before; it wasn’t easy to fight. “They’re safe. They’re with my boys.”
Shitfuckhell.
“The Lupa.”
“Yes. Always have a contingency plan.”
“Let me guess,” Astrid said. “You in exchange for them?”
“Not quite. Myself in exchange for the child.”
“And her mother?”
He pressed his lips together, thoughtful. “I believe the mother’s life is a fair trade for all of the Halflings you slaughtered today.”
Phin’s knife hand jerked. Even through the camera’s lens, his control was obviously slipping. My own hands were fisted in my lap, fingers numb, my entire body vibrating with hate for the man in that room.
“Those Halflings, as you call them, were dead the moment you allowed them to be infected,” Baylor said.
Thackery clucked his tongue. “You forget your old Hunter friend. They were not like the half-Bloods who roam the streets and mindlessly infect and kill. My Halflings were controlled. I found a way.”
How do you control the bloodlust, Felix? What’s Thackery giving you?
“You call emotional blackmail control?” Baylor asked.
“Felix was a special case. He had unique insight that I found valuable. As for the rest, if they didn’t wish to earn the right to their stability by joining us … well, they were dealt with.”
“They were executed.”
“I couldn’t allow them free to mindlessly infect others. I need them to stay close, controlled, until I can cure them.”
Goddamn, the nutjob still thought he could cure the vampire parasite. Thackery had moved beyond obsession to absolute fanaticism—a perfect belief in his own superior intelligence.
