by Ilana Waters
Chapter 2
Come on, come on . . . I stared at the knots around my hands, willing them to unfurl. Meanwhile, the only thing those around me saw was a worried mage watching two quarreling vampires, wondering who’d win and how it would affect his fate. It’s a little trick we call “glamour”: an illusion so real, onlookers can’t tell the difference. It had been difficult at first, what with the gun pointed at my head, the incomprehensible questions, and the presence of deadly supernatural creatures. Plus the chloroform had given me a migraine.
Eventually, I managed to untie the rope from my wrists. Slowly, I did the same to the bonds around my chest, legs, and feet, all the while keeping up the glamour.
“Beverly,” said Jimmy, “obviously this isn’t working, so maybe we should—”
“Should what?” Beverly exploded. She was still facing Jimmy. “Should we just let that mad dog tear us to pieces when he finds out we don’t have it? I don’t know about you, but I’m a little too attached to this life to give it up yet.”
“Mad dog?” The man in the other chair sucked in his breath. “Oh God.”
I doubted Beverly was being literal. She was probably describing their enemy, possibly of the vampire variety. It was time to get some answers of my own.
“Ah, excuse me?” I said. I was completely free of my tethers at this point, but didn’t want to remove the glamour just yet. “Why don’t you tell us a little more about this mad dog, and why he wants what you’ve haven’t got? Maybe there’s some way we can hel—”
Pain exploded across my upper cheek again. I hadn’t even seen Beverly’s hand shoot out; one of the disadvantages of going up against vampires is their speed. The man beside me gave a choked cry, and I could tell he was trying hard not to make more.
“Shut up!” she shouted, her voice breaking a little. “No one can help us, do you understand? Not unless we—”
Before Beverly could finish, I leapt out of the chair, knocked her over, and grabbed her companion by the throat. I held him up to a corner of the ceiling. Beverly gasped. Then she gave an angry roar, flew up, and lunged at me. This time, I was ready. With one arm outstretched and my fingers splayed open, I used air magic to pin her against the opposite wall. The gun fell from her hand and clattered to the floor, thankfully without going off. All she could do was twist and writhe, snarling the foulest curses about what she would do when she caught me.
I tried not to worry too much about that. If the next few minutes went the way I hoped, she wouldn’t feel quite so strongly about the matter. My primary element is air, so holding two vampires up to a ceiling isn’t as hard as it sounds. I just manipulated the air around them to keep them aloft. Like most mages and witches, I can control other elements as well, but it takes more effort. However, I couldn’t hold these two forever, so I had to get the information I needed, and fast.
“Oh God,” I heard my companion say. “I can’t believe it. I’m seeing things.” A sob sounded in the back of his throat. “I knew I shouldn’t have done that line of coke with the janitor in the bathroom.”
Wonderful. My would-be one-night stand was on drugs. Not that I’m judging, but I generally prefer my bedmates to be lucid when I sleep with them. Why hadn’t I realized he was high before? Maybe it had been a few hours, and the effects were wearing off. Whatever the reason, such a mistake was embarrassing. I was glad Colleen couldn’t see me now.
I stared into Jimmy’s panicked eyes as his fingers dug into my forearm, trying to pull my hand from his neck. I knew he wouldn’t choke like a human being; vampires need hardly any air. Still, I set my jaw as I pulsed painful magic into him. It wasn’t something I enjoyed doing, but this was no time to be softhearted. His face contorted as I squeezed his throat—cool and smooth, but tough as granite.
“Stop it, please!” Beverly had gone from rage-filled yowls to anguished pleading. “He didn’t do anything to you. Please stop!”
“That’s right, he didn’t,” I said, not looking away from Jimmy’s face. “You did, and I want to know why. You’re not the only one who can get rough when they need to.” Jimmy’s eyes were bulging, and he swung his legs out, trying to kick me. But I only lifted my body horizontally in the air while maintaining my grip on him.
“But I can’t . . . we can’t . . .” Beverly’s face twisted in confusion and fear.
“Take your time, love,” I said. “I’ve got all night. Your friend here, on the other hand . . .” I shot another pulse of magic through Jimmy, and his entire body spasmed.
I was lying. I didn’t really have all night; it was actually getting difficult to keep them both in place. Their supernatural strength and magic were fighting mine, making my muscles ache. I could feel my own power fading, and I gritted my teeth, trying not to let it show. This didn’t help my migraine in the least, and I daresay I was in almost as much pain as Jimmy.
“Please!” Beverly begged again. The desperation in her voice reached a fever pitch.
“If I let you down, do you agree to discuss this rationally? Both of you?” I loosened my grip on Jimmy’s throat so he could answer.
“I’m keen if Beverly is,” he rasped.
Beverly hesitated a moment before setting her jaw and narrowing her eyes at me. “Fine,” she said in a low voice.
I let Jimmy fall to the ground. No, he didn’t break any bones. He’s a vampire, remember? They’re not nearly as fragile as mortals. He coughed and sputtered for several minutes, rubbing his throat. Beverly rushed over and knelt by his side. When they both got up, Beverly looked like she wanted to kill me, and Jimmy didn’t seem too pleased either. My companion just leaned his head back in his chair and groaned, probably trying to will away this cocaine-induced hallucination.
“But . . . but how did you escape?” Jimmy panted. His hat had fallen off when I grabbed him. Beverly picked it up, dusted it off, and handed it to him. Jimmy put the hat back on, looked at me, then looked at the chair I’d been sitting in. “You were tied up. We saw you.”
I shook my head. “You saw what I wanted you to see.”
“A glamour,” Jimmy realized, while Beverly continued to glower at me. He took a step closer. “You’re not human, are you?”
“Oh God, make it go away,” my companion mumbled from the corner. “Please just make it go away.”
“Ordinarily I’d take that as an insult,” I said, “but technically, you’re correct. Though I assumed you sensed that from the beginning, especially when the chloroform didn’t have the effect you hoped. It does seem to have given me a splitting headache, however, so thank you for that.” Beverly and Jimmy glanced at each other, then back at me.
“I’ll cut to the chase,” I continued. “I’m a mage. You may have heard of my kind, or you may not. It’s something stronger than a mortal, but weaker than a vampire.”
“Weaker?” Beverly echoed. “Then how did you almost choke Jimmy? How did you fly? How did you hold me against the—”
“Magic,” I explained. “Mages generally have less than a witch but more than a mortal. We can often accomplish physical feats through magic.”
“Vampires?” said the man in the chair. “Witches? I must be losing my mind.”
“Besides,” I said, “it’s nice to know I’m not the only supernatural creature here.”
Beverly and Jimmy exchanged glances again. “So the whole time you knew we were—” Beverly started.
“Oh, come now,” I said. “Even if I had no idea your kind existed, you didn’t do a terribly good job of hiding it. I could clearly see your fangs when you were yelling at me.”
“Did he know?” Jimmy raised his eyebrows at my companion, who was trying not to look at us.
“I doubt he did until now. Me and . . . ah, sorry, what’s your name again?” I asked the man.
“B-B-Barrington.” Then he frowned at me. “The same as my father’s. I told you that when we first met.”
“Right, but what’s your first name?” I asked.
“That is my first name.
”
“Of course it is. Yes, so Barry and I—”
“Barrington!” the man repeated, louder this time.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Barrington and I were just taking a stroll.”
“A stroll through a back alley?” Beverly crossed her arms. “Nice try. Tell us another one.”
“One could just as easily ask what you were both doing in that same alley,” I said, “accosting two nice young men with chloroform rags.”
“We were looking for the artifact,” Jimmy said sharply. “The same as you.” I blinked several times.
“The artifact?” There were artifacts at the gallery opening, but why would the vampires think Barrington and I were looking for them? I could have read their minds for the answer. But I was starting to gather that they were more frightened than dangerous. Asking questions might put them more at ease; presenting facts gleaned from their minds would only startle them. Of course, holding all and sundry up to the ceiling might also be startling, which I supposed I should have thought of before.
What? No, of course they can’t read my mind. I have a block on it at all times to prevent such intrusions. What kind of mage do you think I am? Anyway, if these two were indeed in some kind of situation, I might be able to help. I never can resist a soul in trouble, though it has gotten me in trouble many, many times.
“You think the ability to work magic means you can lie to us?” Beverly’s eyes were flashing again, and she stepped forward and put her face inches from mine. “You can’t hold us off with spells forever. We can still torture information out of you. Or maybe we should just start shooting.” With lightning speed, she picked up the gun from where it lay on the floor, and I was back to staring at the business end of it.
“Oh God, please, no!” Barrington cringed and squeezed his eyes shut.
Keep calm, just keep calm, I thought to myself. Even though there’s a gun pointed at you. Again. I decided a straightforward approach was best.
“Your reluctance to engage in any true violence is as plain as day.” I folded my arms. “I mean, really, torture us? There are no torture instruments anywhere in this room. As far as shooting anyone goes, you don’t even know how to hold a gun properly. The way you have it positioned, firing it now would make the recoil knock your arm back into your chest.” Yes, reader, when one’s father is a former Roman general, one tends to know about weapons. Even modern ones.
A flicker of doubt passed over Beverly’s eyes. “We . . . we don’t need mortal tools to hurt you. We’re vampires. We can easily do so with our bare hands.” Barrington let out a choked sob.
I rolled my eyes. “Or you could just tell me what’s really going on here before I lose my patience. For your information, a gun can’t kill me, though I’d just as soon not endure the pain bullets bring. And I have the feeling you’re the kind of vampires who feed only on evildoers, with little experience maiming and killing innocent people. Have I gotten anything wrong so far?”
Jimmy closed his eyes and lowered his head as if in defeat. Then he lifted it again and took a deep breath. “It’s like this,” he started.
“Jimmy!” Beverly turned toward him.
“Look, what choice do we have?” Jimmy took off his hat and slapped it against his thigh. “We’re running out of time, and I don’t know about you, but I’m running out of ideas. I think we should tell him.”
“Good man.” While Beverly was looking at Jimmy, I swiftly took the gun from her and tucked it in the back of my belt beneath my jacket. Beverly gave a cry of outrage, but made no attempt to retrieve it. I kept my eyes on Jimmy.
“We’re looking for a certain statue,” he said, putting his hat back on. “Been tracking it for quite a while, actually. We got word it was going to be at that gallery opening you attended tonight.” He indicated Barrington and me.
“But it wasn’t there.” Beverly went to stand next to Jimmy, still giving me dagger eyes. “And when we saw you talking intently near the display of items loaned from the museum, we knew something fishy was going on. You both kept looking at it, then putting your heads close together and whispering. For months now, we’ve known about everyone who’s been involved with or interested in that statue. Except you two. Neither of us has ever seen you.” My mind flashed back to my conversation with Barrington.
“New in town?”
“Just visiting,” I said. “Here for fun, really.”
“Good to know,” he said. “I only just arrived myself.”
And the way we kept glancing around, usually in the direction of the museum display . . .
I groaned. No wonder they had the wrong idea about this entire mess.
“So you assumed we were discussing larceny?” I said. “Vampires have excellent hearing. Why didn’t you realize you’d made a mistake?”
“Made a mistake?” Jimmy gave me a quizzical look. “We didn’t. Couldn’t have. Anyway, we couldn’t hear a damn thing over the din of that room. Our senses may be keener than mortals’, but you try picking up an individual conversation in such a ruckus.”
“And when you snuck out the back instead of leaving through the front,” said Beverly, “we knew you were up to no good.”
“Unlike you two,” I said, “who clearly want to steal the statue for your own perfectly innocent purposes.” Damn. Why hadn’t I sensed them at the gallery the way I did in the alley? Oh, yes—because flirting with Barrington distracted me.
I sighed. “It’s like this: we weren’t talking about stealing the museum’s artifacts or anything else. We were making plans to spend the night together.” Beverly and Jimmy looked at each other, then at me, then at Barrington in disbelief. Neither of them said a word.
“Oh, for pity’s sake,” I said. “He’s not a thief, he’s just gay!”
“I told you not to tell anyone!” cried Barrington.
I turned to him. “My dear man, you’re being held hostage by two vampires in an abandoned building, probably on the wrong side of town. I don’t mean to be insensitive, but I think coming out is the least of your problems right now.”
“He’s . . . you . . . what?” Jimmy finally stammered.
“We were making plans to spend the night,” I repeated. “Apparently, Mr. Barrington values his privacy on the matter, so we were speaking in whispers and glancing around to make sure no one overheard. Although it might have been better if you did, since we could have avoided all this disagreeable kidnapping business.”
Beverly didn’t seem completely convinced. “So he really didn’t steal anything?” She pursed her lips.
I placed one palm on my chest. “Only my heart.” Beverly gave me a look. “Oh, come now,” I said. “You practically handed me that one.” She continued staring at me, her mouth set in a line. “Fine,” I muttered. “ ‘Tie up the libertine in a field of feasts.’ Oh, wait.” I held out my hand to the ropes on the floor in front of my chair. “You already did.”
“If you two are . . . together,” said Jimmy, pointing from Barrington to me, “then how do we know you’re not just protecting your lover out of loyalty?”
“Oh, for Christ’s sake!” I flung my arms out. “We only just met. The sole thing I was being loyal to was my libido, which I was attempting to gratify when I was so rudely interrupted.” It actually might have been helpful if they could read my mind; then they’d know I was telling the truth. I could always remove the mind block, but they might accuse me of magicking my thoughts to seem like truth. Though if they were the sort of vampires who could read thoughts, they probably only took a cursory glance at Barrington’s. Otherwise, they’d know he hadn’t the faintest interest in stealing statues, and that we weren’t in anything resembling a long-term relationship.
Beverly snorted at my last comment, then looked at Barrington. “Nice. You always go around looking for younger men to sleep with?”
“It’s a free country. I can do what I like,” Barrington shot back, but with a tremor in his voice.
Actually, we were a
bout the same age, even though Barrington did look ten years older than me. It’s just that I stopped myself from physically aging at twenty-five or so. It’s something both mages and witches can do. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to keep it up forever, though. My abilities in that area aren’t at the same level as those of witches. It’s entirely feasible that I won’t turn out to be immortal, as they are. But all this was more than my kidnapping, gun-slinging new friends needed to know.
“Look,” I said. “Barrington and I may be recent confidants, but clearly there is something more than mere acquaintance between you two.” I raised my eyebrows at Beverly and Jimmy.
“What makes you say that?” asked Beverly quickly.
“Call it a mage’s intuition. I knew this wasn’t just a casual, tie-people-up-and-demand-answers fling you had going. And your reaction when I held Jimmy up to the ceiling confirmed it.”
“That was your plan all along?” Jimmy held his hand up to his throat.
“Oh, I think you’ll find I’m rather good at coming up with plans,” I said agreeably. Executing them, however, is an entirely different matter.
“What we have together—or don’t,” Beverly said, “is none of your concern.”
I held up my hands in surrender. “Fine. I’m only trying to discern if your common enemy knows any of your weaknesses, like feelings, that he might exploit. And you do have a common enemy, don’t you? Don’t you?”
This time, when Beverly looked at Jimmy, she swallowed hard, and he cast his eyes down. Beverly took off her hat, smoothed her hair, and peeled off her gloves. Placing these accessories on my former chair, she now looked smaller, naked somehow. Even her lipstick seemed to have faded in the last few minutes.
“It’s no use,” she said in a heavy voice. “If you don’t have the statue, and you don’t know where it is, then we’re as good as dead anyway.” Jimmy made a motion as if to put his arm around her, then stopped.
“Now, hold on a minute,” I said. “I may not have what you need right now, but I know a little something about running around after ancient relics. What is it exactly that you’re looking for?” Jimmy took off his own hat and turned it around in his hands several times.
