Cristos sighed and lifted his hand, forking his fingers as if he meant to run them through his immaculately coiffed silver hair, but dropped it before he made contact. “You have my word, you and all the Talents you represent, that I will withdraw before anyone exposes us completely. If there is a leak of such proportions that I feel we cannot cope, we will go into semiwithdrawal mode.”
Roz felt comfortable enough to ask, “And that means…?”
Cristos met her eyes with a cold, bleak stare. She would get no comfort or easy answers here, and that, perversely, made her feel better. “Obliterating memories, using Compulsion to make politicians and officials forget about us, and starting again as independent contractors. Destroying all official records wherever we find them, killing to protect ourselves if we have to. It’s a drastic step, but one we may have to take. Not a step I’d happily take.”
Roz thought of all the people she’d known, Talents and mortals alike: all the shape-shifters she wouldn’t have met if she hadn’t been able to move around freely, all the mortals who had lit up her life. One in particular. Pain hit her, the familiar wave sweeping through her mind. She suppressed it almost automatically. For all the pain his death had caused her, Roz counted herself blessed to have known and loved John Templeton. Other Talents should have that opportunity. The chance to make a free choice.
For the first time she was totally convinced where her loyalty must lie, at least until this crisis was resolved. “I’m with you. I’ll do whatever I have to to stop the leak.” She paused. “Some of my relatives would prefer to come out. They might want to force the issue. If this gets in their way, I’ll still do it.”
Cristos nodded. “I appreciate you telling me.” But she got the feeling that he knew already.
The others murmured their acquiescence. “One thing puzzles me,” the dragon said. “Why would you send a vampire in to mentally scan everyone in the DIB when you have a virgin Sorcerer available? He could have done the job in a week instead of taking a couple of months.”
Cristos shrugged. “Andreas is a full-time operative. Fabrice isn’t. He works elsewhere, and he’s relatively high profile. He can’t do undercover work the same way someone like Andreas can. And Sorcerers are rare. You can’t always rustle one up at a moment’s notice.”
Cristos crossed the room to the bar and reached inside the refrigerator for a bottle of water. He tossed one to Roz and another to Andreas. She left it untouched.
“Only the people in this room and Candy Irving are totally free of suspicion until we know more. So don’t trust anyone else. Don’t speak of the case to anyone. Keep in touch. I will issue you with your personal objectives in this mission. Roz is here, supposedly an operative for the DIB. I will give her enough information to persuade her boss to keep her here, but none of it will compromise us. Andreas is our operative at the DIB. Candy is also in place as of this morning. Fabrice is our contact man, and Leonide will back him up.”
He sighed and looked away, out of the expanse of glass that separated the Department from the world outside. Across the street, buildings stared back, as blank as theirs would appear from outside. Huge posters of characters from the latest sitcom emblazoned the building a little farther down the road, silent reminders of the world going on regardless.
This time Cristos did run his fingers through his hair before he turned back to face them. “Anytime you need me, come to me. Leaks are dangerous if we’re to remain covert, and this one must be plugged before it turns into a flood that could drown us all. One day it will happen, one way or another, but we owe it to Talents and to mankind as a whole to prepare them first.”
For the first time in many years, Roz knew fear. And she wasn’t quite sure why.
After Cristos left the room, Roz steeled herself, and from the hard look in Leonide’s dark eyes, he was doing the same thing. No one had ever required this of her before. The only people she had let in to her inner thoughts had been family. And John, of course.
And Andreas. He had entered as she had entered him, and she was still feeling a little shell-shocked by the experience. Neither had made a conscious effort, more of a mutual absorption, as though their very souls had required it.
“You can restrict your thoughts if you wish,” Fabrice said, “but I need a hook, a way to find you even when you’re unconscious. I need as close to total access as you can give me.”
“We have been known to use tracking devices,” the Italian grumbled.
“They work, no harm in having them as well,” Fabrice said. “Until recently we managed with them too. But last year we came close to losing several agents because Sorcerers couldn’t reach them to pinpoint their location. Cristos swore it would never happen again, so when we go undercover, a Sorcerer acts as liaison. I’ll pass messages through, coordinate, that kind of thing.”
Leonide quirked a thick, dark brow. “I’d rather be taking action.”
Fabrice sighed, his mobile mouth forming a half smile. “It doesn’t stop me doing that, if I’m needed. Yes, sometimes I would rather be a hero too. But I have to face facts, I’m nowhere near as strong as you people. My strongest skills are all in here.” He tapped his temple. “It’s your choice, of course, but Cristos’s orders. If you don’t let me read you, you don’t get field work.”
Leonide sighed and spread his hands. “Very well.”
Roz nodded. “Go ahead.”
“It won’t hurt if you offer no resistance,” Fabrice said. He took the seat next to her and reached for her hand.
Roz tensed. Her experience with Talents had been almost exclusively other vampires, people of good, though not spectacular, functional psi gifts. No one with the extraordinary Talent of a virgin Sorcerer. Fabrice smiled. “Relax, Roz.”
She felt him invading her mind, creeping in slowly, testing for resistance. She was reminded of the times she’d had an examination, and used the same technique to relax as she had then, counting slowly to ten and breathing deeply.
It must have worked. Fabrice surrounded her thoughts, covered them like a blanket, and before she realized it, completely entered her mind. He felt different from Andreas, his personality evident even in this incorporeal form. Gentler, kinder, but with a sharp edge. Fabrice was nobody’s fool.
He was showing her himself in return. He didn’t have to do that. Sorcerers could demand, take, invade, and keep themselves intact, unlike any other Talent. But Fabrice chose to open himself. This exchange went two ways, and she saw his despair, his yearning to be normal, not to keep himself pure, even his fear that he wouldn’t be special in any way if he let go just once and knew what other men did. Her heart went out to him, and immediately she felt him withdraw. “I don’t need anyone’s pity. I’m fine as I am.”
She just couldn’t imagine what such abstinence would feel like, even for a mortal lifespan. It must make time go much slower.
Back in his sweat-inducing, scratchy, cheap suit, Andreas entered the DIB building and rode up to his floor in solitude. Cristos had given him a lot to think about, not least the way that fucking dragon eyed Roz all the time he sat across the table from them. The anger Andreas had suppressed with difficulty only added fuel to the irritation he felt with himself, showing Roz his doubts about her.
She’d shaken him from the first time he’d touched her here, in this elevator. The link between them wasn’t of his making, so how did she expect him to trust her if she kept secrets from him? Damned woman. He almost wished he’d never met her.
Almost. The incandescent pleasure they found together in bed was completely new to him, and he suspected that had a lot to do with the confusion in his mind, the inability to cope with her in the same way he coped with other people in his life. Roz evoked unfamiliar feelings in him, and he still wasn’t sure what they meant or what to do with them.
But one thing he knew. He had to resolve this case. He suspected Roz stood in more danger than she knew. Two of the dead vampires had been her close relatives, and if they’d featured on a l
ist somewhere, the odds were that Roz’s name appeared on that list too.
The doors slid open at his floor with a slight squeak. The featureless, slightly grubby corridor beyond led to his department. He fumbled for his ID card, stepped out of the elevator, and waved the card vaguely at the reception area. They knew him well enough to let him straight through. He thought with a wry smile of the retina readers at Department 57, backed up with flesh-and-blood mind readers. Who had managed to get beyond that and into the secure computer system beyond? That system didn’t connect to any network, and policy forbade members of staff from moving any data out of the Department. So who had done that? Hard to believe that a Talent was betraying his own kind, but the Department had to face the probability.
One thing he knew for sure—if a traitor came anywhere near Roz, he would suffer for it.
Wondering at his protectiveness, he turned the corner that led into his cubicle and stopped dead.
A vision confronted him. A vision of shining blonde hair, cut into a jagged-edged style, and an elaborately made-up face, slanted dark eyes lined with black, and very strange, though undeniably expensive, clothes.
“Hi,” the vision said, getting to her feet. Beyond her, his computer was up and set to one of the lists he had to check through. “I’m Candy Irving. You must be Andreas Constant.”
“Can we talk?”
“Are you set with the new sonic blocker?”
She smiled and nodded, putting out her hand. Andreas stared at it, forgetting his manners entirely. Candy wore a black long-sleeved sheath, outrageously molded to her body. The top was heavily embroidered in some pink design. Andreas stared at her long pink fingernails with the tiny jewel embedded in each nail and the little chain provocatively dangling from the pinkie.
Candy burst out laughing. “You’ve never seen a manicure before?”
“Not like this.”
“Well, you’re honest anyhow.”
He looked up, grinning. He couldn’t say he liked the manicure, because he wasn’t sure he did, but it did appear different. “Pleased to meet you.” Not to say relieved. His computer skills bordered on the basic. “When Cristos called you a techie, I hadn’t imagined anyone quite like you. I’ve seen your picture, but the reality is something else.”
She blinked, revealing her carefully applied eyeshadow. Three distinct colors, if he wasn’t mistaken, but he’d bet more existed that he couldn’t see. Pink, a pale green, and some kind of soft brown. Wow. Makeup wasn’t something he usually noticed on a woman, but he found it kind of hard not to notice Candy’s.
“Computer geeks come in all shapes and sizes. I get that a lot. But I do have one geeky characteristic.” She pulled on a chain looped around her neck and lifted the spectacles suspended from it to perch them on her pert nose. “Better?”
The eyeglasses were gold with tiny jewels embedded in the bows. The rectangular shape added piquancy to her face. “Oh yeah.”
They shared laughter, and Andreas felt warmth toward this woman who dressed as she chose. He liked a woman who pleased herself, but he felt no sexual draw to her, nothing like the heat he felt whenever he sensed Roz nearby. It surprised him. A woman like Candy would normally appeal to him, but the quieter Roz had captured him.
He resigned himself to the commitment but refused to admit it could be anything but the wild attraction he always felt at the start of an affair. He conveniently forgot the two months of interest and liking that had preceded it, even before he knew her for a vampire.
“I hope you don’t mind.” She gestured to his computer. “Bernard is getting a station set up for me, but he said I could use your computer this morning. I’ve not altered the way you do things, although you don’t go in for customizations, do you?”
He smiled ruefully. “No. Computers just don’t do it for me. They’re part of my job, and they help it go faster, but I don’t see the appeal they have for some people.”
“Including me.” She glanced up, and Andreas turned to see who had captured her attention.
Bernard Knox stood just behind him, and they exchanged a hard glance before Knox turned all his attention to Candy. “We’re so pleased to have you here, Candy. If you come with me, I’ll show you to your station.”
Andreas blinked. He’d never heard quite so much warmth in Knox’s tone before. The difference became even more obvious when Knox turned back to address him. “You’d better get going, Constant. Work’s piling up. I hope your teeth are better?”
Andreas nodded. “It was supposed to be a checkup, but I ended up with a new filling.” He ran his tongue around his perfect, unfilled teeth. As an excuse it sounded feeble even to his ears, but that was all to the good. Knox wouldn’t complain when Cristos transferred him back to Department 57.
He sat at his desk, trying not to groan. He found this job truly tedious, at least the job he was supposed do. He pulled up the first file and set to work, ignoring the trills of laughter coming from the cubicle previously occupied by Roz, now Candy’s station.
Then Knox returned, leaning against Andreas’s desk and folding his beefy arms across his massive chest. “Did Roz get to her new job all right?”
“Yes, she went early this morning. I took her to the office and left her at the door. The security system is very sophisticated, so I couldn’t go any further.” His cover as her lover meant Knox would assume he’d tried to get a look.
“Retina scanners. I’ve been meaning to get them in here, but the budget won’t allow it.” He grimaced, one corner of his thin mouth turning up. “You’d think Department 57 wasn’t high enough, either. It’s only a research department, and they don’t hold sensitive information there. Do they?” His grin definitely seemed on the cynical side.
“I wouldn’t know. Probably not.” Andreas tried to sound careless. “Do you still want me to report to you every day?”
He didn’t need telepathy to read the jaded nature of Knox’s thoughts toward him. Fuck knew he’d worked hard enough to earn that attitude. In Knox’s position, he’d feel the same. He’d want to keep tabs on someone like his persona here, a man determined to get by with the least possible effort. “Yes. Call in my office as soon as you arrive every day.”
“Yes, sir,” Andreas mumbled, showing the disappointment. That would mean he’d have to arrive on time every day, not shave his day by the few minutes that probably took better timing than punctuality would have done. He hated himself, or rather he hated the person he had to pretend to be. Shirkers probably worked just as hard at shirking as they would doing the job properly.
“You could win a promotion from this, Constant, if you play your cards right.”
He brightened. “That would be good. I could do with a car.”
He watched Knox’s face darken. An employee’s first thought shouldn’t be of his private life—at least, not to his boss. Then he tried a gentle probe.
Andreas would have sighed in relief when the probe worked without any alarm sounding in his mind. If he could have done this two months ago, he would have been out of this place in a month. At last the new device developed to counter the detector meant he could do his job properly.
Red tinged Knox’s mind, which didn’t surprise him at all. He would have been angry in Knox’s place. He found a strong desire there as well, but it wasn’t aimed at him. Candy. Knox wanted Candy. Andreas almost laughed aloud. He had no doubt Candy had already read her boss and knew for herself.
“You bet.”
The sassy voice sounded clearly in the forefront of his head. She knew all right.
He probed as deeply as he dared. Everyone was psychic, but at birth most mortals developed a strong barrier, locking themselves off from the outside world. Most of them didn’t even realize they had telepathy. Talents knew about their psi senses and were encouraged to develop them. Otherwise, how could dragons communicate with vocal chords not developed enough for speech?
Andreas examined Knox’s barrier. Strong, so he wouldn’t have feelings, or “intui
tion” as some mortals called it. He’d locked his secrets away. It would take some distraction to sneak in behind.
Well, he couldn’t take this man out for a convivial drink, and he drew the line at flirting with him. That was how he’d scanned most of the other members of the DIB.
“Leave him to me. I’ll handle it.”
Andreas breathed a sigh of relief. Candy had more chance than he did.
“Trust me, boss. I’ll make sure Roz finds something.”
“Yeah. She’s a clever woman. She should find out what I need to know pretty darned quick.” Knox straightened and strolled out of the cubicle.
Andreas went to work. After reviewing enough personnel files to make it seem like he’d put some work in, Andreas cruised the office. He flirted with the women, joked with the men, and read all of them. Nearly all the personnel were present in the office today. He checked two months’ work in the space of an afternoon.
He winked at Candy as he walked past her cubicle to leave the office at five.
“See you, toots.” “Love the disguise. The pink was a wonderful touch.”
“What disguise?”
He felt the indignation in her mental voice, and he chuckled.
“See you, Andreas. Don’t work too hard.”
He left with a casual wave of a hand, slinging his jacket over one shoulder. It itched less that way.
Chapter Seven
The gallery was a small one, situated close to the Metropolitan Museum. Outside, pasted to a board, was a poster.
NEW ARTIST, JENNA BRICE. EXHIBITION TONIGHT.
There was no queue, no throng of people waiting to see this exciting new artist, and when they entered, only three or four people stood inside, studying the works of art on the walls.
“Hey.”
Roz spun to face the voice behind them but relaxed when she saw Fabrice Germain. He gave them an easy smile. “Looks as if Ellie’s been busy. A few Talents promised to drop in tonight.”
Department 57: Rubies of Fire Page 7
