The Blood In the Beginning

by Kim Falconer

  ‘She’s drugged up, I’m guessing?’ Rossi interrupted before Rourke could answer.

  ‘To the hilt.’ I looked across at the special units cops. ‘Can you treat her, without the hospital reporting?’

  ‘The hospital has no choice. I can treat her at home though.’

  ‘Is that safe? She’ll make it, right?’

  Rossi put his hand on her heart, checked her eyes, gums, breathing. ‘She needs blood. My car’s this way.’

  I guess blood was something he wasn’t in a short supply of. The ground rumbled, gyrating my back teeth. I hesitated. ‘We cool, Rourke?’ I wasn’t leaving without an agreement.

  He nodded. ‘Go. Take care of her.’ Rourke straightened up and headed toward the cops. ‘We’ll talk later.’

  ‘I have these two,’ Rossi said to the approaching emergency attendant. ‘No more coming out.’

  I caught up to Rossi, but couldn’t see where his car was parked.

  ‘Keys in my pocket.’ Rossi lifted Cate higher, giving me access.

  I slipped my hand in, ignored the feel of his thigh, found the keys and clicked the button. A black SUV winked amber lights at us. How many cars did this guy have? I opened the door to the back seat, climbed in and took Cate, cradling her head in my lap. Rossi opened his med-kit, drew up a clear solution and injected it straight into her heart. ‘Do you know her type?’

  ‘O positive.’

  ‘Are you certain?’

  ‘Yes.’

  He pulled out a packet of whole blood and had the transfusion set up in less than a minute. ‘Rewrap her wrists, and the ankle. Bandages in the kit. Snug, but not constricting flow.’ He pulled a blanket from the back and covered her.

  ‘I’m on it. Drive,’ I said without looking up.

  Rossi didn’t need any encouragement. He jumped in, spun the vehicle around and sped away. In moments we were purring down highway 405. A wave of exhaustion hit me as I wondered how this would go. Cate’s pulse had improved already. I could feel her heart beating strong and steady, but she wasn’t conscious.

  ‘She’ll make it.’

  I believed him, but what about everyone else? Would the Shen Mar be exposed for the murdering demons they were, or would it just be some freak accident that destroyed the most popular nightclub in the city, owner and all? Or would it be me in the headlines — crazed undergrad attacks nightclub, held for grand theft auto, arson and murder?

  I’ll set up a meeting with Jones.

  ‘Hey, doc! Are you ever going to learn to stay out of my head?’

  He cleared his throat and nodded.

  I swept dripping wet hair back from Cate’s face. My ponytail had come down, somewhere along the way. ‘Can I use your phone?’

  Rossi passed it back to me. I swiped through the white pages for Jen Bradshaw, found the number and tapped it in.

  She answered on the third ring, her voice croaky. ‘Who is this?’

  ‘Ava Sykes.’

  ‘It’s a bit early …’

  ‘You want to get your camera crew down to Poseidon. Fast.’

  ‘Now?’

  ‘Yeah, but you didn’t hear it from me.’ I turned the phone off and handed it back. Rossi was staring at me through the rear-view mirror. ‘What?’ I asked.

  ‘Bane let you go?’

  I took a deep breath and let it out long and slow. ‘He didn’t want to.’

  ‘How’d you escape?’

  ‘Dead men don’t have much control over me.’

  Rossi’s eyes widened. ‘Dead? Are you sure?’

  I pictured the pool of blood washing away from the dais. ‘I’m sure.’

  ‘How’d you get past his guards?’

  ‘I killed ’em.’

  ‘All?’

  ‘Pretty much.’

  Rossi’s face went white.

  ‘I had Bane’s blood. Saw it all.’ I wiped my mouth at the thought. ‘He’s the killer. Was. Draining Cate and all the others, even decades ago.’

  ‘You don’t have to justify putting Bane down. I’ve been watching him for longer than you’ve been alive and …’

  It took a minute for his words to register, and then the ground fell out from under me. ‘You knew?’

  ‘I told you he was dangerous.’ Rossi paused. ‘I’m here to observe, not act. You didn’t declare your allegiance.’

  ‘Still haven’t.’ The images of Bane’s countless murders would haunt me forever, and this guy’s idea of a warning was ‘he’s dangerous’? ‘Riding a bicycle downtown is dangerous. Keeping company with Bane was more like swallowing a grenade.’

  ‘But you waltzed into Poseidon and took him out like it was no big deal.’

  I held up my left hand to interrupt. It shook like a leaf. Two fingers were twisted at wrong angles and where skin had once covered my knuckles was now a gruesome mixture of blood, tendon and bone. ‘Waltzed?’ Cate shuddered and I tucked the blanket around her.

  ‘Are you absolutely sure Bane’s dead?’

  ‘I pounded his head into the floor until I hit concrete. That’s dead, right?’

  Rossi nodded, his full attention returning to the road. When he glanced back in the rear-view mirror, he looked at me in a whole new way.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  I woke up in the chair beside Cate’s bed. Judging by the crick in my neck, I’d been out for a while. I reached for her bandaged wrist. It was warm to the touch, her pulse strong and steady. Rossi had transfused her with two pints of O positive before straightening my dislocated fingers. After that, he shot off to the hospital. The ER needed him. Rossi said Cate would make a complete recovery, as long as she didn’t have any underlying AADDs — those Aftermath Associated Degenerative Disorders. I didn’t think she did. Relief washed through me as I stood and stretched. Judging by the sounds in the kitchen, or rather, the galley, he was back. The blender whirled at high speed as my stomach growled. I wondered what time it was.

  In the bathroom, I splashed cold water on my face. What looked back at me from the mirror was almost unrecognisable. A mess, certainly, in an oversized tee Rossi had given me and bruises and gashes that were, weirdly, healing even faster than ever. Now that I knew why, or at least part of the why, that Mar have hypermetabolic recovery time, I felt comforted. Empowered. This wasn’t a sign of a deadly blood disorder. This was a part of who I was, alive and kicking — human cells feeding Mar cells in a symbiotic balance. Most of the time, anyway. I tied the tee in a knot around my waist and combed my hair back with my fingers. You’re not a freak, Sykes. You’re just more than you thought. More than human. When I came out of the bathroom, Rossi was at Cate’s bedside.

  Who called you a freak?

  Me. I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him. Please stop listening in.

  Please stop broadcasting.

  Right. I needed to work that out. Rossi and I exchanged a look that was about to end in a smile. I could feel the corners of my mouth twitching, and see his doing the same, until the reality of what he’d withheld returned. Before I could say anything, Cate stirred, distracting us both. Her lids fluttered open.

  ‘Hey, you.’ I sat on the opposite side of Rossi.

  Her smile was contagious. ‘You guys taking good care of me?’ Her voice was sweet and steady. Not as weak as before.

  ‘Sure we are.’

  ‘How’re you feeling?’ Rossi took her hand. ‘Can you squeeze my finger,’ he asked her, not waiting for an answer. She could and did, looking like she was enjoying the exercise very much. That’s my Cate.

  ‘What happened?’ She homed in on my injuries. ‘Was there an accident?’

  The blazing Cortina came to mind. ‘Um … sort of.’

  What do you want her to know, Ava? Rossi didn’t turn his head my way as he asked.

  Is this what you do? Make choices about people’s memories?

  You need to be clear, is all. Will you tell her who you are? What you’ve done?

  A bit hard. I don’t even know who I am. I did, sort of,
and I’d planned to tell Cate, Tom too, but not like this, all at once. Not yet. What’s on the news?

  Nothing about the blood-fest, if that’s what you mean. Poseidon’s been destroyed, obviously. Twenty-three missing, so far.

  Poseidon’s not going to be open for business any time soon?

  The Shen won’t be running so much as a hotdog stand in New LA, not for the rest of this decade.

  ‘I guess by the looks on your faces, I messed up bad.’ Cate hunched further under the covers.

  I shook my head. ‘What happened to you, it wasn’t your fault.’ I thought about that again. ‘It was a bit your fault.’

  She cringed. ‘I got strung out way too much, I know. Do you think this means I’m fired?’

  I tried not to laugh.

  You want to tell her? Rossi asked. Or shall I?

  I let out my breath. ‘Cate, hun, you haven’t been fired, but the job’s ended. You probably shouldn’t count on a letter of recommendation either.’

  ‘Oh, shoot. Why?’

  ‘There was a fire. Poseidon’s been demolished.’

  ‘Did you save me, Ava?’

  ‘She did,’ Rossi said, ‘but don’t worry about anything right now. Your only job is to rest, and heal.’

  ‘I love that advice.’ Her eyes closed softly. ‘Where’s Joey? He’ll be so mad at me,’ she whispered.

  ‘Damn.’ I’d completely forgotten about him. He was probably across the street from Poseidon watching firefighters sift through the ashes, or pacing the hospital wards, searching for his girlfriend’s body. Or maybe he was in a holding cell for breaking and entering my apartment. I knew the last thought shouldn’t have made me happy, but there it was.

  ‘Call him for me, please?’ Cate asked without opening her eyes. She was drifting back to sleep. We sat with her until her breathing changed to soft snoring.

  I let go of her hand and followed Rossi out of the room and to the galley. When we reached the kitchen, he hit the blender one more time and poured me a glass. ‘Drink.’

  I downed it in a few gulps. Thanks. For now, the mind speech was easier than forming words. Why not use it?

  Rossi showed me his tablet. ‘Front page.’

  It had quite a headline. Poseidon returns to the sea. ‘Is that what happened?’

  ‘Read it. The entire building fell into a sinkhole.’ He shook his head. ‘They have it looping on all the news sites.’

  ‘Jen, with LA-Live?’

  ‘You guessed it.’

  At least Jen’s career would skyrocket. ‘So the deaths are reported as part of the disaster, not some crazed attacker?’

  ‘Looks like it.’

  I barely heard him. The second paragraph of the article had me by the throat. A major shareholder, CHI Tech Corporation, say they will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of this disaster.

  ‘Ava?’

  My heart pounded in my ears. ‘CHI Tech,’ I whispered, reading on. ‘You knew about this as well?’

  Rossi took a deep breath, ready to launch.

  ‘Wait.’ It wasn’t like they were standing on the dock, about to arrest me. ‘I have to call Cate’s boyfriend.’ Joey may be a jerk, but nobody should be left to worry like that.

  Rossi handed me his phone. He didn’t let go when I grabbed it. ‘You’re surprised CHI Tech was involved?’

  Heat flushed my face. ‘That’s rich, considering you could have helped, told me things from the start.’

  ‘My hands were tied. Teern would have buried me in Antarctica, if he knew I’d said a thing to you. Under the circumstances, I told you more than I should have.’

  ‘You left me in the dark.’

  ‘I gave you hints along the way. I warned you to stay away from Bane.’

  ‘No one’s nominating you mentor of the year, I promise.’

  He let go of the phone and I took it, turning my back. I tapped in Joey’s number, photographic memory still intact. While it rang, I asked Rossi without turning around, ‘What do I tell him?’

  ‘Say she’s alive and under observation.’ His voice was tight.

  ‘No visitors?’

  ‘None.’

  I heard him walk away.

  After hanging up from Joey, evading his questions about what happened at my apartment, I grabbed my mangled pack and went topside. Rossi was standing next to the mast, staring out to sea. I was about to hand him back the phone when I looked at the time and date. ‘Oh, holy hell. Is this right?’

  Rossi turned to me but didn’t speak.

  ‘Shit, it is! I have a microbiology exam in one hour.’ How would I clean up and find my way to the lecture hall on time?

  ‘Take the Audi.’ He reached into his pocket and tossed me his keys.

  I caught them, too stunned to speak.

  ‘Try to leave it in better shape than the Cortina, will you? I just had the door replaced.’

  ‘Thanks.’ I pocketed the keys and hightailed it down the gangplank.

  * * *

  The next few days fell into a familiar rhythm of study, eat, sleep, exams. Rinse; repeat. Who knew the stress of exam week would be the most comforting thing in my life, ever? Tom and I had one more chat about our lapse into the past and then found the BFF vibe again. It was perfect timing because one of the things we did best was help each other cram. The other thing, we agreed not to mention ever again. Often it was the three of us, Zoe included. She’d learnt the art of the power smoothie, her nurturing nature becoming enjoyable. She also started training at the academy on a regular basis. We were actually on our way to being good friends.

  Rossi, on the other hand, remained distant. I had no idea what was up. Well, I had a clue. I was mad that he’d kept so much from me, and that Cate nearly died. He was mad I didn’t understand the meaning of the word observer, and had done so much damage on my own. What was left of the adversary he was supposed to be monitoring — the Shen Mar in New LA — had gone to ground. Vanished. Apparently, Shen were easier to keep an eye on when they were together in one place. There was a lot to work out between me and the doc, my main link to the ‘other’ side of the family. I put it on the back burner until exams were over. It felt simpler that way.

  Cate recovered quickly, though she was shocked to find she was aboard a yacht, not stuck in a hospital ward. Whatever Rossi told her, by way of explanation, must have worked because she didn’t ask me a thing. I’m guessing it was the mention of the quantity and quality of drugs in her system. The hospital would have made a full report, opening a criminal investigation. Cate was so grateful, once healed and more aware of what had been done to her, what she’d done to herself, that she set a whole new intention for the future. When I’d left her yesterday, in her own condo, not Joey’s, she was filling out course applications, ready to start back next term. I put in a good word for her at Lucky’s, which just reopened. They had a spot for a bartender. The pay wasn’t as good as at Poseidon, but she wouldn’t have to worry about being chained in a basement and drained of blood. Some jobs had all the perks.

  I’d have to find work this summer, too, if there weren’t enough hours at Lucky’s, and be ready for the CDC internship interviews, but not yet. Today was my last exam, histopathology, and before I sat it, I had to face Rourke. He’d insisted, though I’d tried to brush him off, or postpone at least. What was there to talk about? He wasn’t keeping me under surveillance any more. Of course, there was no official word on the copycat killer’s demise, but we both knew those murders were solved. It was as dodgy as ever. No denying that. Maybe Rourke wanted to confess? Tell his side of things?

  To be honest, I didn’t want to hear it. I hated that he was crooked, on the take or whatever he was going to call it. It blew a hole in my not-so-unconscious hero worship of the man. Pop goes another weasel. I packed up my laptop, water bottle and the power bars Zoe had set out for me. The to-do list read: Police station, final exam, freedom. I could live with that.

  Rourke sent a beat cop to pick me up. Thoughtful, or scary, depe
nding on what happened next. My guts weren’t roiling, and I wasn’t in cuffs, so it was probably thoughtful. I didn’t have to wait for more than a few minutes either. When Rourke showed me into one of the interrogation rooms, my skin prickled. He wasn’t going to turn on me, was he? Scapegoat? My heart raced as I took a seat. The first thing Rourke did was shut off the camera and sound recorder. It set off a beep, green light flashing, until he swiped it with his security clearance card.

  Rourke eyed me in a way I hadn’t seen before. Couldn’t quite recognise it, which wasn’t adding to my comfort factor.

  ‘I’m going to need a statement,’ he said, holding his tie to his chest as he sat. He was down to his dress shirt, like he’d already put in a full day. It was 10.00 a.m.

  ‘I expected that.’ I guess …

  He pushed a pad and pen over to me, and started dictating. ‘You were at training on the night in question.’

  I stared at him.

  ‘Go on. Write it down.’

  ‘I was training?’

  ‘We both were.’ He tapped the pad. ‘Let’s do this. You have an exam today, right?’

  ‘Last one.’

  ‘Good. Now write.’

  I did what he said, then looked up, waiting for the rest of the totally made up bullshit story to unfold.

  ‘You helped me coach the newbies.’

  That was sort of true, not.

  ‘I led the class from eight-thirty to ten-thirty.’

  It sank in. This was his alibi as much as it was mine. Our academy wasn’t open after midnight, but Rourke was painting a picture, one that didn’t involve him hanging out in the local chain-and-drain, or me stealing Cortinas and driving them into nightclub foyers. Especially, it didn’t involve either of us killing anyone, human or Mar. That night, according to Rourke, we trained, went out to coffee with a few others in our club and were home before 1.00 a.m. Computer IP addresses would show that I was up before dawn at the twenty-four hour internet cafe down the block, taking practice exams until lunchtime. Meanwhile, a deranged friend broke into my apartment. Damn. Poor Joey. The police, responding to complaints, put him in a holding cell until he sobered up. No charges were laid. He was released by 9.00 a.m. Rourke’s IP records had him viewing his bookmarked porn for the rest of the night. Yuk. I guess it was believable.