by Deanna Chase
Luc gave me a cross look which I ignored.
“How did you get away from him?” I asked.
Kemen grinned. “I high-tailed it out of there before he caught me, but not before I saw that he didn’t transmit on I.R.” He swung his hand. “Zip. Zilch. Black space. Like what you said.”
I thought about Billy and started laughing, which was a bad idea because the pain returned with a vengeance. I wheezed, holding onto my midsection. Luc touched my shoulder. I waved him off. “I’m okay.” I waited for the worst of it to pass before I said, “But seriously what caught me was no angel.”
He shrugged. “Just telling you what I know. Anyway,” he stood, “if you guys don’t have any other questions I’m gonna go check this bad boy out, see if there’s anything wrong with it.”
Luc slouched back in the seat, obviously unhappy.
Kemen clapped the door and glanced over his shoulder. “We still got the night off right, boss? Because I’ll probably be tinkering with this thing well into the evening, see if I can’t work out some of the kinks.”
I looked at Luc.
He saluted him. “Yeah, scram. Let me know if you find out anything.”
“What the hell, Luc?” I said once Kemen left. “Who’d you give the night off to?”
“Everyone.” He gripped the armrests and shoved to his feet. “I closed down the carnival. We’re done here.”
It’s not often that I’m shocked, but I was then. “Excuse me?”
His stare penetrated straight through me, made me shiver with its intensity. “Never again will I go through what happened last night. I’m coming with you. One way or another, this ends tonight. I’m gonna call Grace.” And just as he was set to step out my trailer a thought came to me.
“Luc?”
Foot in mid-step, he turned to look at me. “What?”
“Who exactly found me last night? I want to thank them.”
His jaw clicked once to the side. “I don’t know. We didn’t know where you were, we searched for hours. By the time we got back here you were already in your bed.”
With that, he left.
Chapter 23
Later that night Luc and I were walking in silence toward Grace’s brownstone. I toyed with the crumpled wad of paper in my trench coat pocket, trying to understand what was going on around me. The Gray Man had warned me once again of trusting no one and yet he hadn’t said who, or why. This was all beginning to smack of one big mind screw. Somebody was throwing me red herrings, question was, who?
And as if it weren’t already bad enough, Grace had refused to budge on her insistence that I work alone. Stating that the I.R. had detected the presence of a neph, therefore it was more important than ever that we keep a lid on things.
Problem was, and Luc had tried to explain it to her many times, the I.R. was far from trustworthy, Kemen hadn’t gotten back to us with any type of concrete data to state otherwise and none of it seemed to matter to her. So I’d come up with a backup solution.
The second we got to within a hundred yards of Grace’s home I felt the eyes again.
“Someone’s watching us,” Luc whispered, glancing over his shoulder.
He was dressed entirely in black. As was I. Our long hair was pulled back and tucked under ball caps. We wore trench coats, not because it was cold, but to hide the swords we had strapped to our backs. Tonight we came to kill.
“I know.” I rubbed the back of my neck, patting down the fine hairs. I jogged faster.
“I’m going to check it out,” he said.
For the briefest of moments my heart clenched. I wanted to tell him “no, don’t bother”, but it was time I let go. If it was Billy, then so be it. I clipped my head.
“I’ll meet you back in fifteen,” he said, then left.
For the first time I breathed a sigh of relief. I was no longer in this alone. Now if only I could get Grace to commit to my plan, we’d be skatin’ pretty.
I got to her home and bounded up the stairs, knocking on the door the second my feet touched the landing.
Mary answered the door a moment later, swinging it wide, her expression harried and her eyes wide. I frowned, she looked awful. Her skin was tinged gray, her hair dull and greasy, as if she hadn’t washed today. This time there was no animosity in her; she stepped aside and let me in, never looking directly at me.
“Do you need to speak with, Grace?” she asked, voice low.
I nodded, words on the tip of my tongue to ask her what was wrong but she was gone before I could give them voice.
What was up with Mary? That hadn’t been like her at all. In fact, Mary had looked like a woman scared. Then I got my first good look around the place and saw half filled moving boxes everywhere. The angels on the mantel were gone, as were the drapes and books inside the bookshelves.
Like a tornado had ripped through the house, it was in a minor state of disarray. What was going on here?
Grace’s grunts were followed by the swish of skirts and thumping of her cane as she slowly walked downstairs. Her skin was pale. She too looked changed.
“Grace, what's wrong?” I asked, by her side in seconds and helping her to sit.
She accepted my help gratefully, leaning almost her entire weight on me. “After I talked with Luc,” she said, “I received word from the order that a major parasite disturbance has cropped up in Mexico. Bodies are being discovered at an alarming rate. Local police believe themselves on the hunt for a serial killer.”
I cocked my head. “More vamps? Is this Molech ring spreading?”
She closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “It doesn’t appear so. The bodies have been mangled, chunks taken from them. An arm here, a leg there, a nose, lips.”
I winced. “Zombie?”
The corners of her lip curled with disgust. “Aye. It would seem so.”
“Okay wait,” I held up my hands, closing my eyes for a quick second, “does this have anything to do with the vamps?”
“No.” She shook her head, her gray wispy curls danced around her face. “There’s no connection as of right now.”
“Fine.” I swiped the air with my hand. “One problem at a time.”
Grace gave me a worried smile. “Sadly, lass, I wish I could agree with ya. The order’s sending me to Acuna night after tomorrow. Mary has been packin’ all night.”
I gave a short burst of stupefied laughter. “Do they not know we’re dealing with vamps running wild here? We can’t move on.”
She shook her head. “You won’t. At least not until you’ve dealt with the vampire problem. You have things well under hand here. I’m no longer needed as liaison.”
“Excuse me. Under control?” I threw my hands up in the air. “I. Do. Not...have things under control. Grace, we told you it’s a hive down there. I need back up.”
She shook her head, mouth pinched with anger. “You cannot take any other neph with you, Pandora. It would compromise the mission. You said there was neph down there.”
“No.” I shook my head adamantly. “I said we thought there might be. We’ve told you a million times the I.R. was running defective, to rely on any information we gathered off that is asinine.”
She crossed her arms, bird chest beginning to rise and fall with the weight of her anger.
“I’m taking Luc,” I admitted, notching my chin in defiance.
Grace stared at me; the look was hard and cold.
“Without help I’m doing little more than committing suicide. A lone fighter, even a neph is useless against the might of numbers. I need help. Send me something. Give me something. Send members of the order. Anybody you trust, I don’t care. But I am asking you as a friend, because I cannot do this alone.”
And that was my last ace up the sleeve, plan B. Petition for help—not as the order’s brawn, but as one friend to another.
“We have none to spare.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. Had she heard nothing of Luc’s report? “Grace, I didn’t just stum
ble onto a cult of few, I found the whole lair. Even I can’t promise I’d make it out of there a second time.”
She slammed her hand down on her armrest in agitation. “We have bodies floating in lakes, zombies run amok.” She groaned. “Dear child, I wish it were otherwise. I wish I had an army of angels at my disposal, but I canna spare even one. And even if I tried, the order would overrule me. I am not even captain of my division; my power within the circle only goes so far.” Her eyes pleaded with me to understand.
I shook my head, lost for words. Betrayed, upset; it didn’t even begin to describe how I felt. She reached for my hand, but I yanked it out of reach. “I should leave. I should leave you to clean up your own mess.”
She took a deep breath. “To betray the order’s directives if to forfeit your life. Please, Pandora, don’t make me do that.”
I snorted. “My life is forfeit either way.” The only reason I wouldn’t leave was those kids. Did no one care about them but me?
What the order was doing made no sense and what Grace did, less so.
“So what of my family?”
She looked at the carpet, at the wall behind my head, at anything other than me. “We will give them a week to pack up.”
I bit my bottom lip, hearing what she didn’t say. “And me?”
Rheumy blue eyes held mine. “You stay until you are done,” she said, words ringing with finality. Irish brogue barely heard in the steadiness of that voice.
I licked my teeth, strangely calm inside, though I knew it for the disbelief it was. Once I got over the shock, heaven help anybody who stepped in my path. “Then I guess I’d better finish this tonight.”
The phone rang. She sighed, squeezed her eyes shut as it rang a second time, seeming to grow louder and more obnoxious with each subsequent ring.
She stood to her feet, movements slow. “Please, Pandora, if it weren’t such...”
“No. Don’t bother.” The phone seemed to scream this time. “You’d better answer that.” I turned and left, walked down the stairs, keeping my head low and hands shoved into my pocket.
I’d been so sure and so wrong.
Footsteps sounded behind me. I turned, expecting to find anything other than Mary running full speed at me, hugging the beige trench coat she wore tight to her slender frame. I jumped into a fighting stance and with the fluid movement of a trainer killer, grabbed one of many daggers strapped to my arm.
She skidded to a halt, eyeing the weapon with large frightened eyes. She held up her hands. “Please, may I approach ye?”
“What do you want?”
She glanced over her shoulder. “I shouldn’t even be out here. Father be merciful,” she mumbled.
I frowned, relaxing my grip on my weapon.
She licked her lips, opened her jacket and sank her hand deep into a hidden pocket.
I tensed, holding up my knife. “Get your hand out of there.”
Her skin turned a mottled shade of gray and white. “It’s a book. A book. Just a book,” she repeated, voice straining with nerves.
I narrowed my eyes, but nodded for her to continue, wary for any sign of deceit.
She pulled it out. Like the priests book I’d been given this one too was leather bound. She handed it to me. I took it.
“I don’t know why I’m doing this.” She raised her eyes heavenward, crossed herself and then placed her thumb to her lip and kissed it. “Guard it with your life.” She swallowed hard, then turned swiftly on her heels and ran back.
Stunned, I turned the book over. The stenciling was faded and small. “Castel Caudron.”
That was Anglo-Norman writing for: castle cauldron. An old English style of writing that faded sometime after the fifteenth century.
Why had she given me this? I flipped through the book. Was this a clue? Some way to defeat the vamp swarm?
But with each turn of the page my heart sank lower and lower. It was a child’s book, a silly collection of poetry and sonnets depicting the life of a thirteenth century farm boy.
I smelled sulfur.
“What’s that?” Luc asked a second later, peering over my shoulder.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. But we don’t have time to figure out this riddle either. She didn’t budge,” I said, closing the book.
“Unbelievable,” he snarled. “It’s just us?”
I nodded, and started running, he followed. It was five ‘til ten.
“Who was following us?” I finally asked, overcome by curiosity, hoping that maybe he had better luck than I’d had trying to figure out who it was.
“Followed the trail for miles before it vanished.” He shrugged. “Whoever it was is long gone now.”
I was aggravated but tried not to show it, he was right. Whoever that was wasn’t an issue at the moment, getting inside the club was.
I ported to the rooftop I’d been on yesterday and remembered the other book. Luc crouched on the roof’s edge looking like some gothic statue watching the streets below.
I jogged to the vent and my stomach churned with relief when I spied my clothes and the book still tucked inside. I snatched it out.
“I’ll be right back, Luc.”
He looked over his shoulder. “Where you going?”
I jiggled the book Mary had given me at him, keeping the other one tucked behind the safety of my body. “I don’t know why she gave me this, but there must be a reason. I’m going to hide it.”
He eyed me hard, as if trying to decide whether to believe me or not. Finally he clipped his head.
I ported to my trailer, sailing on the breeze faster than I’d ever gone before. I took a second to gather myself after materializing, tamping down the vertigo before I trusted myself to walk.
I shoved the books under my mattress and just as a precaution set a quick ward over it, and then I ported back to Luc. But even I wasn’t used to moving so fast, my molecules buzzed angrily, bouncing against one another so violently it was making my stomach roll. If I continued porting I’d puke. I had to stop.
Spying an empty alleyway I jumped behind a dumpster a full block away from where Luc waited. I was still weak from the stabbing last night. Though the wound was no longer visible, my insides still ached and I felt at less than full speed.
I leaned against the large metal garbage bin and greedily sucked in air, wiping my hand down my sweat slicked neck.
Lungs still heaving and insides screaming I knew I couldn’t chance another port. I took two more breaths then started jogging, paying my surroundings little more than a cursory glance when I saw something that triggered a memory.
Have you ever glanced at something without really looking at it? But then you do a double take and realize here was the clue you’d needed all along?
A small white sign hung over the door of a nondescript building. Staring back at me was the image of a Chinese dragon and the black lettering of a single word: Neo.
I ran, pumping my arms and legs with a burst of newfound adrenaline.
“I knew it,” I growled between clenched teeth. Vyxyn hadn’t returned last night and I bet I knew why. She must have been the black robed figure from last night. I’d broken its leg; she wouldn’t want to return until it had healed fully. She knew I’d know.
Not even breathing heavy, I finally got to the building where Luc still crouched. I cupped my hands around my mouth and trilled a long birdsong.
“Dora?” I heard his harsh whisper a second before he ported.
I turned on him. “It’s Vyxyn, Luc.”
His brows gathered into a sharp vee. “What?”
I gathered my glamour, wrapping my body tight in it. Like second skin, it clung to me. I was invisible to any I chose to be invisible to. The problem with using this much glamour is any parasite sensitive to the use of power would sense me, but stealth no longer mattered. I needed inside. After that, the walls would come tumbling down.
Luc followed my lead and cloaked himself as well. He kept my pace.
“The other da
y I was at the chow hall when I overheard Vyxyn talk her nonsense. I didn’t think anything about it until I saw the sign.”
“Sign?”
I breezed past groups of people headed for the club, many of them turned, a startled look plastered on their faces as they felt me brush by them. But they couldn’t see me and I didn’t slow.
From the opposite end of the street a line formed behind Sanguinary. Some of the people held children, others didn’t. I gritted my teeth and ran with an extra burst of speed.
My hope was to sneak inside with the group.
“Neo,” I said, finally answering Luc’s question. “A restaurant one block from here. It’s her, Luc, without a doubt.”
He didn’t speak again until we’d reached the door. It’d already opened and bodies were piling in. Children were screaming and trying to get away. Much more chaotic than last night. As if the kids themselves sensed the inherent danger of this full moon.
I shoved more glamour down my body, thralling anyone who looked at me to not see me.
My heart raced as I reached the door. I hugged the frame, and hunched, I did not want to expose myself until the door was secured and everyone was trapped inside.
The Vamp with the scarred face stopped talking; the hooded head turned my way and he narrowed blood red eyes. He was an elder and probably very good at sensing dark magick.
“Who goes there?” he asked, voice deep and laced with the hint of a growl.
I glanced at Luc and shook my head. He nodded. He wouldn’t attack until inside.
I scooted past the vamp; all the while his dead eyes followed me. I knew he couldn’t see me, but he knew I was there.
Luc entered next, but the Vamp was so intent on finding me he didn’t pay him any notice. When the last client entered, the Vamp swung the door shut; the metal rang with a shivering note of finality.
The elder reached into his robe and pulled out a Smith and Wesson automatic then twirled on me.
“Come out and show yourself, Cheri,” he muttered with a slight trace of French-Cajun. “I promise I’ll make this painless.” The silky sweetness of his voice dripped with ironic intent.
