Department 57: Rubies of Fire

by Lynne Connolly

  Andreas shook his hand. “You know this girl Jenna?”

  “Nah. Met her once or twice, but not what you might say know. It’s more for Ellie, really. She’s a great kid; she deserves some support.”

  So Roz entered the gallery escorted by two fantastic-looking men. She couldn’t remember a time she’d been in that kind of demand, but superficial or not, it made her feel good.

  A woman came to greet them, smart, dressed in a plain white dress with a gold chain around her neck, hair sleekly pulled back in a chignon, bearing a tray with glasses of wine. “Good evening. We’re showcasing a new artist tonight, Jenna Brice. We sincerely believe she’s destined for great things. Do look around.”

  They took a glass of wine each and wandered around. Although they couldn’t drink the wine now, since the sun had set, everyone else toted a glass. They could get rid of it later. Roz glanced up at Andreas, then at Fabrice on her other side. “What do you think?”

  “Very nice.” The works seemed more or less what she’d imagined. Bright colors daubed on large canvases. Roz didn’t consider herself an expert on modern art—or any art at all, come to that—but she wouldn’t have objected to one of these pieces in her house. Not distinctive enough for her to dislike, but neither did she love them. Perhaps someone would. Here and there, what looked like shapeless lumps of plaster adorned various stands. She guessed they were probably for sale too. She would object if she had one of those in her home, probably make sure it met with an accident before it sat in place too long.

  “That’s more or less what I think,” Andreas murmured in her ear. “I see Ellie. Can you spare me for a minute?”

  “Sure.” She watched Andreas walk across the light wood floor to where Andreas’s friend, Ellie, dressed as artistically as the paintings, stood smiling at him. Roz glanced around for a place to dump her wine.

  “Here.” Fabrice leaned over her and deftly exchanged his empty glass for her full one. She smiled up at him gratefully.

  While her attention remained on Fabrice’s remarkably beautiful eyes, a light turquoise as rich as the semiprecious stone, someone cleared her throat behind them. Startled, she almost stumbled, but Fabrice caught and turned her in one deft movement, his hand resting on the small of her back.

  A tall girl with vivid red hair, most likely out of a bottle, faced them, a determined smile curving her glossed lips. “Fabrice, how nice of you to come!”

  He forced a sheepish smile. “I promised Ellie.”

  Roz nudged him.

  “And I’m glad I did. Fantastic work, Jenna.” Roz felt Fabrice’s confusion in her mind. “I’ve only met her a couple of times. Since when did that make her so close to me?”

  She grinned. “Oh, these are just a style I tried earlier in the year. The gallery wanted to show them, though, so who am I to argue?” She gave a comical grimace.

  “Roz, this is the artist, Jenna Brice. Jenna, Roz Templeton.”

  The smile frosted over, and Jenna only touched the tips of Roz’s fingers. “Glad you could come.” She turned immediately back to Fabrice, and her smile warmed once more. “Come see the other work. They’ve put it in back.”

  Roz watched her link her arm through Fabrice’s and urge him forward. Since Andreas was in that part of the gallery, in conversation with Ellie, she followed them

  Whoa! The paintings at the back of the gallery were completely different. Figurative, not abstract. Clearly paintings of people. Lovers, sketched in detail, painted over with glazes of different colors as though surrounded by auras. The lovers had vague faces, and atmospheric color swirled around their embracing forms. A few mortals saw auras, but not many. This woman, although a mortal, could be Talented.

  Roz felt entirely different about these paintings than the ones on the main floor. They made her shiver, and immediately she thought of Andreas naked, his body entwined with hers much as these people surrounded each other.

  Andreas looked up from his conversation with Ellie and winked. It was as if an electric charge sparked between them.

  Andreas gave a small laugh. “Sorry, Roz.” He took the step that brought him back to her side, and he curved an arm around her shoulders. “What do you think of these?”

  “Intense,” she breathed. “Very emotional.”

  “I don’t see it.”

  She looked up to see a frown marring his brow.

  “I like the others better. These make me feel uncomfortable.”

  “Anything wrong?”

  Fabrice had the power to detect “something wrong” from a fair distance away from the source of the trouble. He could easily be sensing something beyond her capability. “No.” He smiled warmly to reassure her. “But these things unnerve me a bit.” “Can we go back into the other room?”

  “Sure.”

  She was about to follow Fabrice when she heard a shriek behind her and turned just as the tray of drinks tipped toward her.

  All her quickness couldn’t save her. She went down, followed by a tray of red and white wine, and the crash echoed through the large room. Icy wetness seeped through her clothes, soaked her, driving her into instant chills.

  Shit!

  Had she just said that, or only thought it? Glass crunched under her feet when she moved them. She lifted her hand to push herself back to her feet, but found warm flesh beneath it. “Wait, Roz. There’s a piece of glass there. Let me.”

  Fabrice circled her waist and lifted her smoothly up, and by that time, Andreas had reached her side. “Jesus, Roz, are you all right?”

  “Yes, just shaken.” She could hardly make herself heard above the cacophony from the girl who’d tripped and tipped the tray over her.

  “Someone pushed me! Do you think I don’t know when somebody pushes me?”

  Others surged forward to hold Roz, or to shove the broken glasses aside. She should probably have found their concern gratifying, but where she’d felt smug to enter the gallery with two handsome men at either side of her, she wished they’d go away and leave her alone right now. She just wanted to shrink into a corner somewhere and flash out of there. Hair dripping, dress soaked, she was the opposite of the elegant being she’d wanted to appear tonight.

  But she couldn’t flash. Mortals as well as Talents surrounded her. She had to make the undignified exit she dreaded, dripping and sticky and not a little annoyed.

  The men supported her outside, fending off profuse apologies and offers of hospitality. “Please don’t bother,” Andreas told one person. “We live not far from here. We’ll call a cab.”

  Outside they didn’t stop until Andreas suddenly swung into a deep doorway and pulled her against him, pausing to scent the air. She could feel his senses flare and Fabrice’s deep voice saying, “It’s okay. There’s nobody about. See ya.”

  “Thanks, man.” Andreas’s grip tightened, but Roz wanted to go home. Before he could take them to a place he knew, she flashed them both out and into her apartment.

  To him she looked wholly adorable, even with her butter yellow silk dress ruined by splashes of red and white wine. The wet made the thin material cling to her, and although he’d only just released her, he stepped forward to take her again. He could lick the wine from her body. Delicious.

  She held up one hand. “Not so fast. I could have shards of broken glass over me, and in any case, I feel sticky. Let me shower and change.”

  “Can I help you?” he asked hopefully.

  She laughed. “No.” But he heard the shake in the laughter and felt her uneasiness.

  “You’re upset.”

  “Yeah, maybe. I don’t like being the center of attention, and I don’t like young girls getting jealous.”

  “Jenna?”

  “Ellie. She kept you away from me. She knows about us, and she doesn’t like it.” She forced a smile, but there was no warmth behind it. “It’s my problem, Andreas, not yours.”

  He frowned. “I’ll talk to her in the morning.”

  “No, don’t,” she said hastily. “It�
�ll only make things worse. It’s a crush. That’s all. She’ll get over it.”

  “Ellie? I don’t think so. I’m a father figure to her, an elder brother perhaps.”

  This time her smile was pitying. “Oh no, you’re not. I knew what she felt the minute she walked into the boardroom at the Department. She wants you.”

  Maybe Roz had something. Ellie had never known him to have a serious girlfriend, and they were close, so she could have picked up on something. He shrugged. “No contest. She’ll get over it as soon as she meets someone her own age.”

  Roz turned away, crowing with laughter. “Like you did? Andreas, you know the difference in our ages, as if that means anything to a vampire.”

  “Well, it means something to me. Bottom line, I want you, not Ellie, but Ellie still needs somebody to look after her. Can you live with that?” He felt his temper rise and wondered if Roz was the jealous one. He’d never seen any evidence of a crush in his young protégée, but he had no intention of abandoning her. She needed him.

  “Sure.” She walked toward the shower but stopped to glance over her shoulder. “If you’re interested, I’ll be out in a little while. Will you wait for me?”

  “Can you doubt it? Sure you don’t want any help?”

  Her smile was a little warmer. “No, honestly. I really want a few minutes to get clean and get my head together. I was close to losing my temper there, and I don’t like it.”

  He should probably give her a bit of breathing space, but Andreas still wanted to spend the rest of the evening with her. And the night. He left the room, but not for long.

  Neither Nancy nor Don seemed surprised to see him entering the living room from Roz’s bedroom. He hoped that didn’t mean they had grown used to seeing men enter in that way, but even if they had, he didn’t care. She belonged to him for now, and he intended to keep her exclusive. He would fight for her. He paused, taken aback by the intensity of his emotion, warning bells ringing in his head. Slow down!

  His mind told him one thing, his body another. When he thought of how she looked, gleaming hair spread across the pillow, mouth slightly open, lips full and red with desire, his body responded, readying him for love.

  Or sex. Sex, he firmly corrected himself. He’d never allowed his emotions to get too deeply involved in an assignment, and he’d had to fight for that control in the past couple of days, but he’d gotten it fixed. He found in Roz a great partner, good in bed, and that was it. Period.

  Yeah. He’d keep telling himself that, and it might turn out true.

  Nancy smiled sweetly. “You and Roz are quite an item, aren’t you?”

  He let her think so. “Sure.”

  Don sprawled on the sofa, watching a ball game. He flashed Andreas a grin and made space. “Hey, how’s it going?”

  “Okay, I guess.”

  “Roz is impressed by Department 57. She says they have the latest technology.”

  Andreas shrugged. “Well, it is a research facility. The devices it produces are pretty awesome.” He took what would look like a handful of peanuts from the bowl Don offered him and pretended to munch on them. He couldn’t resist peanuts, but he’d be sick if he had them now. Young vampires had to fight to control their appetites. When they didn’t have control of their full powers during the day, they could eat and drink, but taking in anything but blood after sundown made them sick, and this being February, sundown had arrived just as he was leaving the office. Something warned him against showing any vulnerability, probably his years in the field, so he made the play with the nuts.

  Nancy came over, carrying two coffees, and put them down. Andreas eyed his warily, and Nancy laughed. “Too much caffeine?” He nodded, glad of the excuse. He was still battling the scent of the peanuts, but he couldn’t risk it.

  “I’ll drink it instead,” Don said. “Move up a bit.”

  Andreas made room, and Don put his arm around the back of the sofa, encircling Nancy with it when she sat between them. He touched the edge of Andreas’s shoulder with his fingertips. Andreas didn’t know if he liked it, but drawing attention to it by protesting would have been stupid, so he stayed still. The touch made him edgy. Where had Roz got to? How long could a shower take?

  Then Nancy moved closer and stretched out her hand, seemingly absently. She rested one hand on his knee for balance, and on the way back stroked her hand against his upper thigh. Andreas began to feel distinctly uncomfortable. When the knock came at the outer door, he almost started in surprise. Unusual for him to behave so jittery.

  He wasn’t the only one feeling like that. Nancy leaped to her feet and went straight to the small hallway to open the door. There seemed no pause. That meant she’d read the person outside and knew him or her. No sensible person would open a door in New York without checking, even in this relatively decent area. He glanced over to the door that opened into Roz’s room, hoping she’d be ready soon. Then they’d talk.

  The tingle in his nerve endings warned him before the new entrants came in. Andreas straightened, watching as Nancy returned with two figures looming over her.

  Two large, strongly built men of indeterminate age, both dark-haired, one with an aggressively short style, one with long hair touching his shoulders. Neither of the lean faces smiled. Blue eyes bored into them and focused on Don. He smiled easily. The hand touching Andreas’s neck tensed.

  “This him?” one asked.

  These beings were Talents, but not trained like him to keep all their senses neatly locked away, to pass as mortal, even to other Talents.

  “Don’t you gentlemen have any manners?” Andreas asked.

  That turned their attention back to him. Andreas deliberately relaxed, leaning his head against the soft pillows on the back of the sofa.

  “Who are you?”

  He bared his teeth in the smallest of smiles, careful to keep his fangs hidden. “Someone.”

  “Leave him alone, boys.”

  Damn, he hadn’t felt her come in or heard the snick of her door. He wished Roz had chosen to stay in her room, perhaps call for help. “Roz, stay out of this. I’ll handle it.”

  “The hell you will.” He felt her presence behind him before he felt her touch on his shoulder. Light, just to tell him, not to restrain him.

  “What do you want?”

  “Tell us about him.” The short-haired one jerked his head at Don. “And him.” Andreas received the same treatment.

  One concentrated on him while the other concentrated on Don. Careful to retain his focus, so Don would catch nothing, Andreas responded.

  He opened his mind and sent a pure, concentrated needle of pain into the Talent’s brain, closing down so fast afterward the other had no chance of discovering who had done it.

  When the long-haired Talent closed his eyes and shouted in pain, Roz increased her grip on his shoulder. “What did you do?”

  Andreas glanced at Don, whose eyes went wide in query. Roz sighed. “It’s all right. He’s mortal, but he knows. Otherwise he wouldn’t be marrying Nancy, would he?”

  Andreas let out a single breath of relief. “I sent out a quick probe.”

  Don chuckled. “What it is to have gifts like that.”

  Immediately he felt a responding query in his mind, and he allowed it, but not too deeply. The Talent was searching for an identity. And he got a sigil from them, unmasked. Ah, well that explained a lot. Vampires.

  Andreas bared his teeth and let his fangs extend this time, then withdrew them so he could speak. “That answer your question?” Don’s suppressed exclamation was the only sound in the room for a bare moment. Nancy put her hand over his and squeezed gently.

  The other narrowed his eyes. “No. You have no sigil?”

  “No.” He didn’t see why this intruder deserved any more than that. The man had the manners of a pig, and Andreas didn’t need to enter Roz’s mind to feel her distress. Her hand tensed on his shoulder told him. He seethed with anger to think that anyone should upset her, and wanted to tear the intrud
ers limb from limb. “Your turn. Who are you?”

  “We’re here to look after Roz.” The long-haired one glanced at the other woman. “And Nancy too. You don’t think we’d send them into danger on their own, do you?”

  “You don’t seem to be making a good job of it.” Gently, Andreas dislodged Roz’s hand and got to his feet. “You plan to flash into her presence when she gets into peril? During the day? Come on, who are you? What are you doing here?” He took a step toward them and saw them tense, then retain their stance. He’d intimidated them, very slightly. Good.

  The short-haired one farthest away from him spoke. “Marshall and George Gardiner, vampires of the Gardiner family. Protectors. We’ve come to take our women home.” His mouth turned up in a slight sneer. “Your turn,” he said, deliberately echoing Andreas’s words.

  “Andreas Constant, vampire. I have no family.” He ignored Don’s start of surprise that rocked the cushions under them.

  The long-haired one, Marshall, shook his head. “That’s not possible.”

  “Yes, it is. Here I am, waiting for you to talk to me.” He spread his hands in a taunting gesture. “What makes you think you can march in here and take over? Are you tracking Roz during the day? What do you expect to do about anything then?”

  The vampire blushed, his high cheekbones reddening.

  Andreas watched, savoring the moment. The flush was gone almost as soon as it arrived. Marshall could call it righteous anger or anything else he wanted, but Andreas knew better. That was a blush.

  He allowed a corner of his mouth to quirk and caught Marshall’s gaze, a flash of understanding passing between them. Before he could respond, Andreas turned to George, the one with short hair and blue eyes blazing with anger. “I’m not only a vampire. I’m a field operative for Department 57. I can shoot straight, engage in hand-to-hand combat, fly most small aircraft, and set a bomb to hit a target precisely and cleanly. I can hide in plain sight. I can survive on very little—even less than the Company thinks—if I have access to fresh blood. I can protect Roz day or night if she needs it, but she’s shown precious little need of any skills I can offer her.” He firmly suppressed the thought of her sweat-sheened body lying beneath his. That skill was mutual and could wait until a better time. Despite his concentration on the task at hand, he felt her presence in him, warming him with approval. He hadn’t said that to please her, but he was glad he had.