by Rachel Caine
"You've cleared us," he told her in a very quiet tone. "We didn't have anything to do with Ibby's disappearance. You know this to be true. We have somewhere important to go, and you're giving us permission to leave."
I sensed her struggle against him. It was a very close thing, and Luis's strength was very low just now, both in power and in human terms.
I had little enough to add, but I stepped in and added my hand on top of his. He glanced up, acknowledging the infusion of power, and guided it to surgical precision, shaping the woman's response.
Again, it was illegal. The Wardens would have dismissed him for such a use, or taken his powers and left him a crippled shell. But the Wardens had taken their eyes from us, and this was now a fight for more than just survival.
Isabel's life was at stake.
Whatever he did was on too fine a level for me to sense the exact methods, but when he removed his hand, the detective blinked at him, nodded, said, "Fine, thanks for your cooperation. You two can go. I know you're in a hurry."
We walked away together. As we approached the line, one of the officers turned from his post, frowned, and held out his hand to stop us. Luis looked over his shoulder at the detective, who was standing where he'd left her, arms folded. She made an impatient gesture to the perimeter policeman, and we ducked under the fluttering barrier and headed for the street.
We were lucky, I thought, that the news organizations were held back at the end of the street. I saw cameras focusing on us, felt the pressure of their excited attention. It was not pleasant.
I positioned Luis with his back to the cameras, so that he covered me, as well, and said, "You didn't make her trust us?"
"Couldn't," he said. "It's like hypnotism; you can make people follow a path they would have normally gone down, but that detective doesn't trust anybody, and even if she did, she damn sure wouldn't trust me. It was easier to just skip her farther along a track she'd have taken. Anyway, let's get out of here. We don't have too long before she starts looking through her notes and realizes she didn't finish questioning us."
"I could destroy the notes," I offered.
"Cassiel, we want the police to help. Just not to put their sights on us. Destroying their notes doesn't get us anywhere." We had arrived at the parked truck, but it was surrounded by forensic technicians who were taking samples. In case, I supposed, we were all lying, the witnesses were all lying, and Luis had abducted Isabel himself. "Crap," Luis muttered. "Well, they're just doing their jobs. Too many to influence."
"It's a foolish waste of time."
"No, it's not," he said soberly. "Statistically, kids get abducted by family members more than strangers. Makes sense. I got no problem with them following every possible lead."
My motorcycle, I noted, was sitting neglected at the curb not far away. Luis noticed it at the same time, and we exchanged a silent look of inquiry, then moved toward it.
"No helmets," I told him, as I straddled the bike.
"Least of my worries right now."
I felt the shift of mass as he climbed on behind me, and then his hands closed on me, low, near my hips. I started the motorcycle. Something about the low growl of it soothed the gnawing fear and anger within me.
Luis shifted his weight to find the balance point, and I eased the bike out into the empty street.
One problem, I realized: we would have to pass through the gauntlet of press clogging both ends of the neighborhood. In the truck we would have had the advantage of height and sealed windows. On the Victory, we didn't even have the relative anonymity of helmets.
"Alley," Luis said in my ear. "That way."
I leaned the bike the way he directed, over a spray of gravel and behind a neighbor's house, and into a narrow paved street filled with overflowing trash cans and refuse.
"Go!" he shouted. "They'll follow us if they can!" I applied the throttle, and the bike shot forward. Luis's arms tightened around me to hold on, and I accelerated down the alley and into the next at right angles, which spilled into a street. I took the turn fast and accelerated yet again, narrowly beating the light and weaving around a slow-moving van.
"Left here!" Luis shouted, and I crossed three lanes of traffic with the throttle wide open, almost skidding through the turn. "Okay, good, ease off. I think we're okay"
The Victory seemed disappointed to return to its role as mere transportation, but at traffic speeds it glided smoothly, sleek as a shark. We attracted curious glances. I was almost growing used to it.
"Back to your motel," he said. "You get your stuff. I can't guarantee the police won't want to ask us more questions, so it's better we move."
"We need to go," I said. I heard an echo of the Oracle's voice, back in Sedona. You need to go.
"Yeah, but where?" he asked. I heard the frustration in him, sensed it in the harshness of his grip on my hips. "How are we going to find her?"
"I think I know a way," I said, and guided the bike back to the motel.
I changed my clothing back from funeral black to pale white riding leathers over a pink long-sleeved shirt. I left the pants dark, though I roughened the fabric weave to denim. My shoes took on the solidity and toughness of riding boots.
I did it almost effortlessly this time, upon walking into the darkened, silent room. By the time I closed the door behind Luis, I'd changed completely. If it surprised him--if he even noticed--he said nothing. He sat down on the side of the neatly made bed and said, "What now?"
I opened a drawer near the bed and took out the maps that I had purchased along with the motorcycle. They were tough, encased in plastic, and I had New Mexico and one of several other states, including Colorado.
I unfolded both and flattened them out on the carpet, then took a cross-legged seat on one side. I indicated the other, and Luis folded himself down. "How does this help?" He was impatient and losing his temper. "We don't need maps, we need--"
I grabbed his hand, took a small silver knife from my jacket pocket, and cut his finger with one swift jerk.
"Hey!" he yelped, and tried to pull away. I squeezed the cut. Ruby drops formed and dripped, hitting one map. I moved his finger until the drops were poised over the second drawing. Two drops were sufficient. I released him.
"We need blood," I said. "You and Isabel share a tie of consanguinity. It's not as strong as it would be if we had Manny or Angela's blood, but I think it will do."
He sucked on his cut finger, thinking it over, then slowly nodded. "You're talking about finding similars on the aetheric."
"The Wardens do this?"
"Not with the actual mutilation and bleeding," he said. "Next time, ask before you cut me."
I folded the knife and put it away. "Next time," I said, "I doubt I'll have to ask."
The blood drops were formless blotches on the maps, signifying nothing without the application of will and energy. I held out my hand, and Luis sighed and offered his unwounded one for me to hold.
We focused together on the maps.
What we were doing was, in fact, harder than it might seem; the maps were only a representation of the earth, not the aetheric spirit. If the maps themselves had actually been carried through the distance that was shown, they would appear more fully in the aetheric. In fact, the route I had taken from Albuquerque to Sedona was clearly glowing in Oversight, when I went up to survey our work. The rest of the maps, except for certain parts of the town of Albuquerque, was pale and ghostly--and then Luis touched the map, in the real world, and added all of his experience into its reality, as well.
The map took on depth, dimension, life. A miniature of this section of the world. Luis, like his brother, had traveled widely in this part of the country.
The drops of his blood glowed like fireballs in the aetheric, but their glow would quickly fade as natural decomposition set in. It was an odd thing that the very fuel that drove blood cells--oxygen--was also what corroded them. Already, the iron content was showing a chemical change.
Isabel's connection t
o Luis was, in mathematical terms, a small percentage. She had half of her father's DNA, half of her mother's; of Manny's DNA, half would be identical to Luis's. The best we could hope for would be a 25 percent connection between the two.
It was still a strong bond. Like calls to like. One of the founding principles of the world.
Luis's blood drops glowed brighter, as I bathed them with the essence of the Earth. They rolled very slowly across the plastic, tracing a path in wet trails, from Albuquerque. . . . . . . Heading north, straight north, winding along the highway that led up to Colorado.
The blood drops on the New Mexico map trembled and stopped moving just before the town of Counselor.
On the other map, the drops showed the same.
"Jicarilla Apache reservation," Luis said. "That's where she is."
The drops--only faintly glowing now on the aetheric--nudged forward another fraction of an inch.
"That's where she is now," I agreed. "But she's moving."
We dropped out of the aetheric, and I wiped the blood from the plastic-coated maps before folding them and placing them in the interior pocket of my jacket.
We studied each other for a long, silent moment, and then Luis said, "You going to be up for this?"
"To finding Isabel? Yes." I was no longer holding his hand, and so had only the smallest access to the aetheric, but the darkness in his aura was very clear. "You aren't."
He blinked. "What?"
"You need rest, Luis. You can't sleep on the motorcycle. I need for you to be awake and alert."
He shook his head. "No time. Every minute counts, Cassiel. What if--what if they hurt her--" He did not want to think about all the terrible things that could happen to a child, and neither did I.
"If they hurt her," I said, "we will know." I felt that to be true. The bond we had formed was strong enough, and Luis's Earth Warden powers only amplified it. "Luis, you must rest. If you don't, you won't have any power to give me, and this trip will be wasted. We accomplish nothing."
He didn't want to sleep. When I stretched him out on the bed and placed my hand on his forehead, he still fought against the descending darkness. Something in him was too weary to go on--I could sense it--but some other part refused to let go. He'd spent a massive amount of energy in the past twenty-four hours, and I didn't understand his resistance.
His fingers wrapped around my wrist, but he didn't pull my hand away from his forehead. Even at close range, in the dimness, his dark eyes looked like pools of shadow.
"Promise me," he said. "You promise me that you'll get her back even if something happens to me. Promise."
"I will," I said.
"Again."
"I will."
His fingers tightened. "Again."
"I will," I said. I bent forward to brush my fingers on his parted lips. "Sleep."
His eyes drifted closed, and his grip loosened on my wrist, falling away.
I had meant to give him only the slightest contact, but his lips felt warm and soft beneath my fingers, and I lingered.
I stayed where I was until I was certain he was asleep, and then I moved to the small, stained armchair near the window. I watched the parking lot. There was little activity, and no one seemed to take an interest in our room.
A thief approached my motorcycle once, looking around to see if anyone was watching; when he tried to roll it away, I softened the asphalt beneath his feet, trapping him, and opened the door. He stared at me, struggling to free himself from what must have seemed to him a nightmare.
"Leave," I told him, and restored the ground beneath his feet. "Don't come back." It seemed I should say something more constructive, perhaps. "And don't steal."
He looked down at his oil-stained athletic shoes and ran.
I went back to the chair, and before dawn came, I slid into a light, dreaming sleep.
I woke up to the smell of brewing coffee and running water. The shower. Luis was bathing. I felt stiff and uncomfortable, but warm enough; I looked down and saw that he had given me a blanket sometime during my rest. I rose, folded the cover, and walked to the coffeepot. I poured two cups and carried them into the bathroom.
Luis was a shadowy form behind the plastic curtain. I set the cup on the countertop.
"Cassiel?" The curtain moved aside, revealing only his face. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Bringing you coffee," I said.
"Yeah, okay, thanks, but--" He sighed. "Privacy's not really a concept for you, is it?"
I gave him a slow, thin smile. "Do you imagine I long to see you naked?"
Put that way, he had no answer. He let the curtain drop back in place.
I leaned against the counter and sipped my coffee, watching the shadowy form move, and when the water shut off, I went back into the bedroom.
Luis dressed quickly. While he was doing so, I washed myself in the overheated bathroom. The cooler air of the bedroom felt good on my damp skin when I walked out, my clothing over my arm.
Naked.
Luis looked, a kind of involuntary inspection, but then he turned his back. I made no comment as I dragged on my underwear and clothing, layer by layer, with the leather on the topmost. "I am not shy," I assured him. "It's not a Djinn trait."
"Yeah," he agreed. "I get that, actually." He sounded very odd. He glanced over his shoulder, saw that I had clothed myself, and faced me again. "We've lost a lot of time."
"No more than we would have if we'd gone as we were, faced our enemies, and lost," I said. "I have her trace now, on the aetheric. I won't lose them again."
Not unless they realized the trick I had used to form the link, and found a way to break it.
I had to hope that they had taken the child for a reason, because the easiest possible way to sever the link was by killing her.
Luis drained the last of his coffee. "Let's roll."
A quick stop to outfit us both with helmets, and we were on the trail. It was a short enough drive into the Jicarilla reservation. Outside of Albuquerque, the New Mexico landscape edged away into dusty sages, ochers, and reds. There was vegetation, but it was the hardy kind, living on little and surviving much.
I felt an odd kind of kinship with it.
As we traveled, I assessed Luis's condition. He was stronger today, and his reservoir of power had replenished itself. That reservoir, in human Wardens, seeped in from the world around them, a kind of osmosis that I seemed incapable of copying. It would be easier to absorb some of that power through the contact of skin, but I found that if I concentrated and was cautious, I could siphon small amounts even through the shielded contact where his hands held my waist.
I trembled with relief as his warm energy sank through my starved tissues, but I did not think he could feel it. The sensation was likely lost in the road vibration of the Victory as we sped through long, empty miles.
The map had shown us the route that Isabel had followed, but our analysis of alternatives showed us better-paved highways where I could open the throttle on the motorcycle and rocket us along at much higher speeds. Illegal, and therefore a risk, but like Luis, I felt desperate to make better time.
Ibby's captors might be the same who'd launched such vicious attacks against Manny, against me, against Luis. If so, they'd shown little mercy or regard for innocents, and I could not be sure that Isabel's tender age would make any difference to them.
In two hours, we crossed the border into the Jicarilla reservation. There was little to mark it--faded signs and the same harsh country. State Highway 537 led through the heart of it.
I pulled over to the side of the dusty road, into soft sand, to go up into the aetheric. Isabel's position had moved on, but it was not far ahead . . . another two hours at most.
I wondered why our enemies were moving so slowly. Surely a five-year-old child couldn't hold back their progress so drastically.
Unless . . . they meant us to follow. Why attack us, wasting their own energy, when they could force us to waste ours in pursuit, and trap
us in the end?
I didn't speak of it to Luis, but I knew his thoughts would have led him to the same conclusions. The technique we had used to track the girl was rare, but not unknown among Earth Wardens; we had perhaps used a less common tactic, but if our opponents were as determined as I expected, they could have planned against it.
And the Jicarilla reservation stretched across the border, from New Mexico into Colorado.
"What are you doing? We need to get moving!" Luis said. He'd taken care of his call of nature, and mine could wait. "Something wrong?"
"I don't know," I said. "How many Wardens between here and the Colorado border?"
"Zero. We're stretched a little thin, you know, and besides, far as I know, there's only one or two left in the entire state. Most of the top rank went to answer Lewis's call on the coast. They're gone now, out of the country."
I turned my head slightly. "Were you asked to go?"
"Yeah." His tone didn't invite further conversation on the subject. "Why are you worried about Wardens all of a sudden?"
I fixed my eyes on the far, shimmering horizon, where the black ribbon of the road rose up to meet the sky in a vanishing point, and I held out my hand to him. After a hesitation, he took it, and this time, I was the leader rising into the aetheric. We did not go far. We didn't have to.
When we dropped down again, Luis shuddered as he entered his flesh again, and said, "Damn. I was hoping they wouldn't know we were coming."
"So was I," I said. "Helmets."
"Helmets won't help visibility," he pointed out. "You'll be driving blind."
"Put your hand on my back," I said. "On my skin. I can use Oversight if you don't let go."
"You think you can drive like that?"
Blind? Using only the confusing information available on the aetheric to see? Possibly. What choice did I have?
I watched the vanishing point on the horizon grow hazy, then disappear as dirty red smudged the clear blue sky in an uneven, growing line.
What I was showing him in the aetheric was a sandstorm coming. A bad one.
I donned my helmet. It wouldn't keep out everything, but it would do enough to allow me to breathe--unless the plastic broke. I didn't want to consider that possibility. Behind me, I felt Luis adjusting his own helmet, and then his hands slid up under my jacket, tugged my shirt from my trousers, and settled in a warm span on either side of my waist, skin on skin.
