Gathering Black (Devilborn Book 2)

by Jen Rasmussen

  But what would happen when they found out we didn’t have the West Seed with us? Talon would cut Cooper’s fingers off anyway.

  Nor would the outcome have been much different if we had brought it. They’d simply have taken it, killed us, and then if I knew Talon Wick, still cut Cooper’s fingers off anyway.

  Which left, I realized, one option: to have the seed, but in some form that would require it to remain under our control. Our possession of it was the only thing protecting any of us.

  Lit by a sudden inspiration, I shot Arabella what I hoped was a play along with me kind of look, and climbed over the seat to grab my bag. It was the same one I’d brought on my travels with Cooper. I only hoped I’d been sloppy enough not to clean it out very thoroughly before I set off again this time.

  I rummaged through it until I did indeed find what I was looking for, at the bottom of a little-used side pocket: the puzzle box Dr. Claus had given me.

  Suppressing a smile, I turned back around and held it up for Michael to see in the rear view mirror.

  “This box is sealed by magic,” I said. “I’m the only one who can open it.”

  I watched his reflection as his eyes narrowed. “And the West Seed is inside?”

  “Of course it is. Did you really think I’d be foolish enough to bring it in some form you could just take from me?”

  “Show me.”

  “Nor am I foolish enough to open it here and now,” I said with what I hoped was a confident chuckle, rather than the shrill, nearly hysterical titter it sounded like to my own ears.

  “Then how do I know it’s really in there?” he asked.

  “You don’t,” I said with a shrug. “But we’ve got the guns, and I’m offering you a deal, so you’d best be grateful and not make demands, don’t you think?”

  “What deal, exactly, are you offering?”

  “You will take us to the house on Fenwick Street,” I said. “And we will come with you willingly, to make the exchange. You can tell your bosses we’re under your control, although of course we’ll be keeping your weapons. You’ll keep that part between us, if you please. As long as Cooper doesn’t suffer further harm between now and then—”

  “Or my father,” Arabella interrupted.

  Still watching Michael in the mirror, I saw a brief expression of calculation cross his face, quickly covered again by his flat robot act. Perhaps he sensed, by my omission and the catch in Arabella’s voice, some discord he could exploit. I would have to see to it that we presented a completely united front from then on.

  “As long as neither hostage suffers further harm between now and then,” I corrected, “I will open the box in the presence of Talon—only in the presence of Talon—and he can have the seed, in exchange for their safe release. Everybody wins.”

  Whether he actually believed my bluff, or just wanted a way out of our stalemate as badly as I did, Michael accepted the deal.

  Arabella looked at her watch. “It’s got to be fifteen hours up to Boston from here. We’re looking at dawn at least, and that’s if we don’t stop to pee too much.” She kicked the seat in front of her. “Keep your water intake to a minimum.”

  “We’ll be just as delighted to have this trip pass quickly as you will, Miss Blackwood,” Michael assured her.

  We didn’t talk more for a while. Joshua kept on sleeping, which given that his arm was broken in two places, and there was no time to stop and care for it, was probably a blessing.

  After a half hour or so, I asked Michael, “How did you find us, by the way?”

  The question had been nagging at me on and off since they showed up at our gate. I knew the Wicks were experts at finding people in general, but nobody ought to be this good at it, every single time. I was beginning to wonder whether there wasn’t more than one spy in our midst. Someone at the hotel working for the Garden Club, maybe?

  But Michael only shrugged and said, “We were the lucky ones, it seems. Mr. Wick had people watching every flight to New England from Charlotte, as well as several smaller flights out of Asheville, Greenville, and Johnson City that you might have used for connections.”

  “He has people covering four airports?” Arabella asked. She gave me what I guessed was supposed to be a meaningful look, although I didn’t understand it. “How did he know we would fly?”

  “He didn’t,” Michael said. “In fact, he didn’t really expect you to. He had the highways under surveillance as well, of course.”

  “Interesting,” Arabella said, then grinned. “So you were the backup, just in case we flew. Guess that makes you the B-Team. No wonder you got overpowered by a couple of girls.”

  Michael didn’t rise to the bait, only drove in silence until, as the time for his phone call from Number Twelve Fenwick Street approached, he pulled over to the shoulder and turned to the back seat. “I suggest you hide the guns and look morose. I need to send a photo.”

  “Just remember,” Arabella said. “My father worked for Talon, too. I know a lot of your code words.”

  I wondered whether that was true, then decided it didn’t matter. She had a good point. We had to be sure Michael didn’t tip Talon off that things hadn’t gone quite as planned.

  “Do not try to send them a message that anything is wrong,” I said. “If you put Cooper or Dalton in the way of any unnecessary harm—”

  “You needn’t bother,” said Michael. “It’s not in our personal best interests to admit that you turned the tables on us. We’ll be punished, when Mr. Wick finds out. And worse, we’re likely to go unpaid. I’d rather wait until at least the latter is taken care of.”

  “You’re worried about being punished or cheated out of your money, yet you continue to work for him.” I frowned, puzzling for the first time over Michael’s sheer size, his bulging muscles. Surely this was a healthy man, if ever there was one. “You don’t even look like a Wick.”

  Michael smiled at that. “I don’t work for a cause. I work the old-fashioned way.”

  “Meaning you’re only in it for the money,” I said.

  He inclined his head in agreement.

  “Well, then. That means you can be bought. We might have a discussion. I mean, you just said yourself you’ll be in trouble when Talon finds out we disarmed you and broke your friend’s arm, right? Your job security is already in jeopardy, I’d say.”

  Michael’s expression became closed. “I’m not a fool. Now frown for the camera.” He snapped his photo and said, as he texted it, “As long as the West Seed is moving north, we can all be happy.”

  And what happens when we get there?

  Who can be happy then?

  A minute later, Michael’s phone rang, and Arabella gestured for him to put it on speaker. Talon’s rather high, nasal voice sounded downright cheerful. “Good work, gentlemen. Does the witch have the seed?”

  “She has it in a box,” Michael said. “She claims it’s sealed by magic, and only she can open it. Something she refuses to do until she’s in your presence and has confirmed the safety of your hostages.”

  “A lie, no doubt,” said Talon with a bored sigh. “If there was a way to seal up the seeds like that, all the Blackwoods would be using it. Have you tried to open it?”

  “We haven’t been able to,” Michael said, and I couldn’t help but smile a little over the ambiguity between not being able to open it, and not being able to try.

  “Well, I suppose that’s above your pay grade,” Talon said. “I’ll arrange for the agreed-upon bonuses to be transferred to your accounts. When do you expect to be here?”

  “We’re probably twelve to fourteen hours out.”

  “Very well,” Talon said. “I suppose that means no finger-cutting for the moment. And I do so love to feed them their fingernails. Still, plenty of time for that when they arrive. And a bit of time to snack, while we wait.”

  “See you soon,” Michael said, and hung up.

  Time to snack.

  They would feed on Cooper again, of course. Probably mo
re than once, before we got there. I balled my hands into fists and willed myself not to cry. I was doing all I could. I just hoped it was enough.

  Joshua woke eventually, whimpering in pain, and of course he was useless for helping with the driving. That meant Michael needed semifrequent doses of coffee to keep him alert. Orchestrating the stops wasn’t easy; Arabella and I knew how quickly the situation could reverse itself again. It helped that we found some prescription painkillers in a medical kit stowed away in the back, and Joshua was eager to take a handful. They kept him mostly out of it.

  On our third stop, I waited in the car with our captives while Arabella went to use the restroom and buy some coffee. I knew there was no help for it, if nature was calling to her, but I hated being left alone with Michael. I held the gun in both hands, and kept the poppet clearly visible on the seat beside me.

  “You saw what I did to Joshua with that,” I said, nodding at the doll. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

  Michael glanced at the poppet, then at me. “You can tie my hands with my belt, if you like.”

  “Thanks, but I’ll stay back here.”

  “Mind if I check my phone, then?”

  “Keep it where I can see it.”

  There were no further communications from Talon. But when he checked with his bank, Michael found that his payment had indeed been made.

  “Five thousand dollars,” I said, looking at his screen. “Not bad for one night’s work.”

  “That’s half,” Michael said shortly. “We get the other half on delivery.”

  “Assuming he’s happy with your service, that is,” I said, and then left it at that. Let him sweat for a while; we had a long drive ahead of us.

  Sure enough, half an hour later, Michael broke the silence with a sigh. “You were right,” he said, meeting my eye in the rear view mirror. “Talon will almost certainly withhold our second payment, when he finds out you disarmed us, and we deceived him about it. I don’t suppose there’s any chance of you giving our guns back, when we arrive?”

  “None whatsoever,” I agreed.

  He glanced at Joshua, who had taken yet more painkillers, and was snoring soundly. “There’s no hiding what you did to him anyway, I suppose.”

  “Well,” I said. “You aren’t entirely without options, you know. Talon’s not the only one who might find your services useful. He owes you five thousand more, right?”

  “Five thousand each,” Michael said.

  Ten thousand dollars was a lot of money, but I had it, thanks to my inheritance from Madeline. Of course, Michael and Joshua were in almost as tough a spot as we were. I could most likely talk them down. But I was in no mood to bargain with Cooper’s life.

  “Let me know if you’d like to rethink your position on making a deal,” I said.

  “As I told you, I’m no fool,” said Michael. “We’ve performed poorly enough to get fired, but not so badly that Talon or his father will want to waste their time with us beyond that. Double-crossing them is another matter entirely. They would hunt us to the ends of the earth.”

  “Yeah,” Arabella muttered. “I know what that’s like.”

  “Only if they knew you double-crossed them,” I said.

  Michael frowned. “You wouldn’t want us to help you fight?”

  “Your fighting skills aren’t all that impressive, mister,” said Arabella.

  I cleared my throat. “I would prefer for you to help us fight, certainly. Or at least walk us in there, pretending we’re under your control, while allowing us to keep the guns.”

  “That’s out of the question,” Michael said.

  I’d figured as much. “But I might be willing to settle for you dropping us off in Beacon Hill and being on your way. Provided you give us some information first.”

  “We’ll be happy to tell them we killed you, if you want,” Arabella added. “To keep them off your backs.”

  Michael didn’t answer for at least another half hour, while we kept our silence in the back.

  Finally he said, “What kind of information? It couldn’t be anything that could be traced back to me.”

  “The house,” Arabella said immediately.

  I glanced at her. “What about the house?”

  “If Talon was covering four airports and every major highway, he had to have been spreading his people pretty thin,” she said. “How many people has he got left in there?”

  “Five or six, at most,” Michael said, and I saw Arabella’s eyes light up.

  Five instead of twenty, and we have weapons now…

  “He’ll have called other reinforcements back to the house, now that the surveillance is no longer necessary,” Michael went on. “But he’s keeping his hostages disabled enough that he doesn’t need a lot of manpower.”

  Keeping his hostages disabled.

  Time for a snack, while we wait.

  I bit back my mounting frustration with just how long this trip was taking, and controlled my voice as best I could. “What about Talon himself?” I asked. “Any weaknesses we don’t know about?”

  Michael chuckled. “I work for the gentleman. We don’t spend a lot of time discussing his weaknesses.”

  “Okay, so what else can you tell me that’s worth five thousand dollars?”

  “Ten,” Joshua mumbled.

  “Sure, he’s awake for this part,” Arabella said, and punched the back of the seat. Only lightly, but it was enough to make Joshua whine about jostling his arm.

  “I can tell you that he almost certainly won’t honor any deal he makes with you,” Michael said quietly.

  “He’ll drain you dry,” Joshua said, in a voice that was thick and hazy with the painkillers. “That’s his plan. Once he gets what he wants from you, he’ll drain you all dry.”

  Well, I couldn’t say that bit of wisdom was worth its weight in gold. But at least Michael told Arabella where she could find a hunting knife and an extra pistol, both hidden beneath the back seat. I guessed it was a good thing we hadn’t put our prisoners back there instead.

  We spent much of the rest of that long night questioning them on various logistics, like which rooms Cooper and Dalton were being kept in (both were in the front parlor), and whether any rooms were being used to store weapons or other resources (not that they knew of).

  “What about Dalton?” I asked finally, avoiding Arabella’s eye. “He’s a… genuine hostage?”

  “If he’s not, he’s a very talented actor,” said Michael. “His pain seemed genuine to me.”

  I pretended not to see Arabella flinch.

  The sun was coming up as we navigated the narrow, maze-like streets of Boston. Michael wound his way to the intersection of Charles and Chestnut, then pulled over. “I imagine this is far enough.”

  “Well then,” I said. “Thanks for the ride.”

  “Enjoy your day,” said Michael. “Oh, and happy Halloween to you.”

  “Likewise,” said Arabella. “You guys have been a lot of fun, thanks.”

  She kept a gun on both of them while I got the bags. Then we got out of the SUV, and Michael sped away.

  “Weirdest road trip ever,” said Arabella when they’d gone. “I can’t quite work out who was hostage to who that whole time.”

  But I was already walking down Charles Street. “The only hostages who matter are this way.”

  “You’re right.” Arabella fell into step beside me, looping her arm through mine like we were best friends setting out for a day of shopping. “Come on, damsel. Let’s go rescue some gentlemen in distress.”

  “So, do we stick to the plan, or do something different, now that we know there are less people inside than we thought?” I asked.

  We stood in an alleyway a block down from Fenwick Street, beneath a string of orange plastic pumpkins that stretched between the buildings, alternating with other garlands of black witch’s hats and purple bats. It seemed that each window we’d passed on the way was decorated more elaborately than the last, as Beacon Hill made ready for
Halloween. In a few hours, children would be passing back and forth in front of Number Twelve Fenwick Street, giddy and laughing.

  Would Cooper still be suffering inside? Would we all be dead?

  “We could try going in shooting,” Arabella said, but even she didn’t sound convinced. “If we believe Michael’s information. And if we don’t think Talon will have called too many of those patrols back by now. They have hostages, but we have the seed.”

  “Talon knows I’m bluffing about the seed.”

  “No, Talon thinks you’re bluffing about the seed.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” I said. “He’ll threaten Cooper and Dalton, and since it’s Talon, we’ll know he means it. So rather than let either of them die, we’ll give up our weapons, give up the box that supposedly has the seed in it, and let them do whatever they want.”

  “Geez, when you put it that way, it almost sounds like we’re a couple of idiots on a suicide mission,” Arabella said. “Oh, wait. We are a couple of idiots on a suicide mission.”

  I nodded. “You’re right. It is a suicide mission. An act of desperation committed by people without options. Which is exactly what we want them to think.”

  “Well, then,” Arabella said. “I guess we stick to the plan. And just hope we can make this magic work.”

  I almost vomited, right there in the alley, because I knew that we meant me. “I was afraid you’d say that.”

  “Cold feet?”

  “Cold body. Cold everything.”

  But it was much too late for that. We’d already tread this ground many times, and the number of lackeys Talon was surrounded by didn’t change the landscape one bit, not when he had a gun—or worse—to Cooper’s head. Our best option was still magic.

  And we’d come this far. Cooper was only a block away, now. It was time to go and get him.

  “Where did you hide the knife?” I asked.

  “In my bra, right between my boobs.”

  “Sounds dangerous.”

  “Don’t worry, I’m experienced at this. There’s a chance they won’t find it there, if they pat us down quick. And I’ve got the second pistol in my sock.”

  I nodded. “All right. Let’s go.”