Winter Halo

  “If it is the project behind the kidnappings, I doubt Sal’s partners would care overly much—not if they achieved their aims.” He took a drink. “Did you get anything else on it? Any mention of links to the missing children?”

  “Nothing I picked up from Charles indicated he had any knowledge of the project beyond its finances. Although funding did begin around the same time the children started going missing.” I shrugged. “Seeking isn’t an exact science, you know, even for someone like me.”

  “Someone who was specifically created to seduce and steal, you mean?”

  “Yes.” I returned his gaze evenly. “You surely can’t have a problem with that, especially when it’s being used to help save those children.”

  “I have a problem with the concept—”

  “And yet you’re using Ela and her telepathic skills in the exact same way.”

  “—of creating life with specific skill sets in mind,” he continued, ignoring my remark. “Life is sacred. It should be a creation of two people rather than one of science.”

  “Being created in a tube doesn’t make me any less of a being, Jonas.”

  A smile ghosted his lips. “Most would disagree with you.”

  “I can’t change what I am.”

  “And I cannot help the prejudices of my past. You, however, are something of an outlier.”

  I frowned. “Meaning what?”

  “Meaning,” he said, draining his cup, “that I have been unfair in treating you with suspicion and distrust—even if it was initially deserved—and I’m endeavoring to rectify that. But you need to stop treating every statement I make as an attack.”

  I half smiled. “I know.”

  He stared at me for several heartbeats, his expression unreadable, then nodded, once. A deal had been struck. Now we just had to both keep it.

  He pushed upright. “Another coffee?”

  I shook my head and watched him walk across to the autocook. Like most cats, he moved with a predator’s grace.

  “When do you meet Charles again?” he asked.

  “Tomorrow for lunch. I’ll try to pin down more information about both Daybreaker and his boss.”

  Jonas crossed his arms and leaned against the tower’s wall as he waited for his coffee to be made. “Has there been any evidence of contact between him and Rath Winter so far?”

  I shook my head. “But as senior financial director for the company, he surely must have.” I paused. “Have you had any luck finding someone for me to replace?”

  “Nuri’s pinned down two possibilities. She’s going to read them today and see if one is a fit. If she’s successful, they’ll be here tonight.”

  I frowned. “I hope she’s careful. Both the corps and Sal’s partners are obviously suspicious of her.”

  A smiled touched his lips again. “They won’t even know she’s in the city. She may not be a body shifter, but magic has many uses.”

  “Including disguises, obviously.” A huge yawn broke free and I waved a hand. “Sorry, it’s not the company. It’s just been a long night and I can’t get downstairs to my bunk until tonight.”

  “You can’t shadow in light?”

  “I can, but it’s physically draining.” Mainly because it involved creating a light shield that blocked all light, providing me with a capsule of darkness in which to shadow. “It’s something I do only in extreme emergencies.”

  “Then sleep here. The air bed is basic but comfortable enough.”

  I frowned somewhat dubiously at the pack near the tower’s door. It wasn’t so much the thought of sleeping rough after all these years, but rather sleeping knowing he was here, watching me.

  The amusement lurking at the corners of his eyes suggested he was well aware of the reason behind my hesitation. “You’re safe enough here. They’ve issued an out-of-bounds alert, so the public won’t come near, and the vampires can’t during the day.”

  Being safe wasn’t the problem. Being too aware was. And he knew it, damn him. But I walked over to grab the pack. “Do you mind if I head up to the top of the tower? I’d rather sleep under sunlight than false light.”

  And well away from you, that inner voice added.

  The amusement increased. No surprise there, given the pheromones stinging the air. But he didn’t say anything and neither did I. He simply shrugged and motioned me on.

  I pushed the heavy metal door open, and then unlatched the silver curtain behind it. There was enough shifter in my blood that my skin tingled, but—like the vampire lights—it didn’t burn me as it would a full-blood like Jonas. I slung the pack over my shoulder and ran up the old concrete stairs, breathing air that was still thick with dust from the explosion. The ghosts dashed ahead of me, their tiny figures briefly finding shape. When we reached the metal exit plate at the top of the stairs, I drew back the bolts and pushed the plate open. Though it was also silver, it was so scarred with heat and blast damage it barely had any effect on my skin.

  The children threw themselves into the bright sunshine, but I followed more cautiously, keeping low so that the building parapet hid me. The museum might have been declared out-of-bounds, but there was still the possibility that someone in Central was keeping an eye on us. The glass dome certainly didn’t offer much in the way of protection when it came to visibility. Not during the day, anyway. When I’d reached the shade of the building’s edge, I rolled out the pack and waited for the mattress to inflate. Then I stripped and climbed in. With the music of the ghosts’ murmurings streaming through my mind, I quickly fell asleep.

  Dusk was rolling in on fingers of pink and gold by the time I woke. Cat and Bear were nearby, but—if the excited chatter drifting up the stairwell was anything to go by—the other ghosts were all downstairs.

  I yawned and stretched, trying to get some of the kinks out of my body. The air bed was comfortable enough, but two nights of vigorous lovemaking had taken their toll—and that was a sad state of affairs. I might have made numerous incursions into Central over the last hundred years to satisfy base need, but I’d certainly never risk staying more than a couple of hours with my partner.

  “What’s happening downstairs, Cat?” I flipped off the cover and began getting dressed.

  Two images immediately flowed into my mind—Nuri and a stranger with orange hair and a pinched, worried face. Both were downstairs with Jonas.

  Meaning, I hoped, that Nuri had found someone in Winter Halo whose position I could take. I shoved on my sandals, then deflated the mattress and rolled it up. I doubted Jonas would want to sleep up here, given that he was being employed to monitor the equipment.

  I snuck across to the hatch, keeping low again even if it was probably unnecessary with night closing in so fast. Once the bolts had been shoved home, I clattered down the stairs, making just enough noise to warn those below. Jonas would have heard me stirring, but I didn’t want to do anything to frighten the other woman. If the images the ghosts had shown me were anything to go by, she was the flighty type. Which was odd, considering she was a guard—I’d have thought they’d at least make some effort to employ people who weren’t likely to run at the slightest threat.

  Of course, given the attacks on the guards, maybe it wasn’t just a specific look they were after, but also a specific blood type. They were experimenting on the children because they were either rift survivors or the children of survivors, so anything was possible.

  Jonas handed me a coffee as I stepped out of the tower, then took the pack from me. I gave him a smile of thanks, but my attention was on the woman sitting close to Nuri at the table. She was about the same size as me—the real me—but her eyes were yellow-brown, her nose broad, and her orange hair long and pulled back in a ponytail. Worry and fear oozed from her, and her body seemed to hum with the effort of remaining still. I suspected it was only the fact that it was almost dark outside that prevented her from fle
eing.

  “Ah, Tig,” Nuri said, giving me a broad but decidedly false smile of greeting. “This is Sharran Westar. She has kindly taken up our substitution offer for the next couple of days.”

  Sharran looked me up and down, and the worry ratcheted up several notches. “Are you sure she’s going to pull this off? I don’t want to lose my job, even after last night.”

  I sat on the opposite side of the table and nursed my coffee in both hands. “What happened last night?”

  She tapped her fingers on the table—nerves, not impatience. “The ghost got me, didn’t it? Felt me up good and proper.”

  “Did you report it?”

  She snorted. “There’s no point, is there? No one ever does anything about it.”

  I wondered if Charles knew anything about the attacks—and whether they were the source of the staff problems he was having—or if it was something else. We knew about the high turnover of guards, but it would be interesting if there were something else going on as well.

  “And this is the first time you’ve been attacked?” I asked.

  She nodded. “I’ve been assigned to that floor before and never attacked. I guess my luck just ran out.”

  “So everyone assigned to that floor is attacked?” Kendra had certainly implied that they were, but it was odd it took longer to happen to some than others.

  Sharran hesitated. “It seems to happen to the newer recruits more often than those of us who have been there longer. But we’re not immune. Not now.”

  Intuition stirred. “Was there any specific time you noticed it happening more to those of you who’ve been there awhile?”

  “Well, it’s definitely gotten worse in the last week or so.”

  A time frame that meshed with Penny’s escape and my emergence. I glanced at Nuri.

  “Hence the lack of time we now have,” she said. “We have them worried.”

  “Which might just result in them shutting down the projects and erasing the evidence,” I said.

  “I doubt it. They have too much invested in all this now.”

  I hoped she was right, for the sake of the kids still missing. And if her expression was anything to go by, she was hoping the very same thing.

  Sharran’s gaze was moving between us, her expression confused. “Look, what else do you need to know? Because I start work soon, and if this is going to happen—”

  “It’s okay.” Nuri’s voice was soft, unthreatening. Yet her energy fell like a cloak around the other woman, the feel of it soothing, calming. Sharran relaxed almost immediately. “Just tell us everything you think we’ll need to know about Winter Halo and your position within it.”

  “But first, give me your hand,” I said, holding out mine.

  “It’s okay,” Nuri repeated, again in those soothing tones. “She’s a seeker, like me. She’ll get images of the places and people you know in Winter Halo as you tell us about them. That way, no one will suspect she isn’t you.”

  Sharran grunted and somewhat tentatively placed her hand in mine. Images and emotions instantly began to flow, thicker and stronger than such a touch usually allowed. She was, I thought, either a latent seeker or an untrained, unregistered psychic.

  She took a deep, somewhat shuddering breath, then began. As she spoke, images flowed into my mind, crisp and clear. I saw the people she liked and those she didn’t, the places she could go and those she couldn’t, the various codes she needed to know—everything. It took about twenty minutes and by the end of it, my body was trembling and my head booming with both the intensity of the connection and everything I’d learned.

  When she finally stopped, I pulled my hand free and leaned back in the chair. For several minutes I didn’t speak; couldn’t speak. Every part of me felt drained and weak. Fighting vampires, I thought, wasn’t half as exhausting as reading this woman.

  Of course, fighting vampires was a whole lot more dangerous.

  “We really appreciate you doing this, Sharran,” Nuri said into the silence. “Hopefully, by the time you return, we’ll have sorted out the source of the attacks and eliminated them.”

  “You can really get rid of ghosts?” Sharran said, doubt in her voice.

  “Yes.” Nuri once again sent out those reassuring vibes. “Ah, here’s Ela now. She’ll take you down to Crow’s Point, where we’ve arranged accommodation for you.”

  I forced my eyes open and watched Ela striding toward us. She was a strong-looking woman with brown skin, brown hair, and the most intense blue eyes I’d ever seen. She met my gaze evenly and gave me a polite nod, which was more than Branna had ever done. Maybe he was the only sourpuss in the bunch.

  “Is it safe to leave now?” Sharran’s jittering returned full force. “It’s dark and all, and the vampires—”

  “Have no hope against a fully armed ATV,” Ela cut in, her tone warm and rich. “And if the bastards do get too close, we’ll just run them over. They crunch rather delightfully, let me tell you.”

  Sharran’s expression suggested she wasn’t a fan of macabre humor. “But we have to get out of here first—”

  “The ATV is parked right outside the door,” Ela said, and unslung the rifle sitting at her back. “And I have Boomer with me, just in case.”

  Nuri reached out and clasped Sharran’s hand. As she did, energy surged, fierce enough that my breath momentarily caught in my throat.

  “It’ll be all right,” Nuri murmured. “Just relax and enjoy your time in Crow’s Point. You won’t remember your problems or any of this when you return, that I promise you.”

  Sharran opened her mouth, as if to protest, and then the cloak of energy settled around her and she froze, her expression briefly blanking. Then she smiled and nodded. “Thank you,” she said, rising. “I appreciate everything you’ve done.”

  “No problem, my dear girl,” Nuri said.

  Ela caught the other woman’s arm and escorted her out. Jonas closed the doors, then walked over to the autocook, collecting several waiting plates. One he gave to Nuri, and the other he handed to me. Hers was rice and stew; mine was not.

  “You have steak in the autocook?” I said, surprised he’d take creature comfort that far. The portable units tended not to have a lot of refrigeration space and meat was generally reconstituted rather than fresh. And this was definitely fresh.

  “Only a couple,” he said as he walked away. “But you looked as if you needed decent sustenance.”

  “I did. I do.” I plucked some cutlery from the container in the middle of the table and tucked in. “Is Sharran really being taken to Crow’s Point?”

  Nuri’s smile was wry. “What do you think?”

  “Then where is she going?”

  “Up to my kin in the Broken Mountains.” Jonas deposited another plate of stew and rice as well as a loaf of bread on the table, then sat down. “They’ll keep her sedated and under watch for however long we need.”

  “It would have been too risky to send her anywhere else,” Nuri commented. “Especially as we don’t know who else might be involved in this crime.”

  I pushed the cutlery container toward Jonas. “What hours is she supposed to be working tonight?”

  “From ten to six.” Nuri hesitated. “Did you pick up much information from her?”

  Surprise rippled through me. “You didn’t?”

  “No, but I’ve always found it more difficult to read those who are psychically gifted, even if those skills were latent.”

  “And yet you can read me.” Both my ability to see the ghosts and to create a shield out of sunshine were psychic abilities, even if the latter had been enhanced in the lab.

  She smiled. “Not as well as I would like.”

  And probably a whole lot more than I’d like. “Whatever her psi skills are, they made the connection stronger than anything I’ve experienced via that sort of touch. As lo
ng as you managed to download her RFID information, we should be set.”

  “We did. And the bioscanners in the foyer shouldn’t be a problem—they check the external digital markers that are scanned in when everyone is first employed. The guards will only pull someone up if there’s a marked difference from what is on record.”

  Meaning I’d better be very precise when I took on Sharran’s shape. “And will there be a problem if I am pulled up?”

  “Probably.” Nuri reached for the bread and broke off a chunk. “If what Kendra told you holds true, you’ll be attacked tonight.”

  Meaning she didn’t want to elaborate any further on what might happen if the bioscanner did raise the alarms. Or maybe she simply didn’t know. Even a witch and a seeker of extreme power couldn’t see every thread of the future. “Did you manage to track down any of the favori?”

  Nuri shook her head. “We have a list of names, of course, but none of them remain in their homes.”

  I frowned. “Then where are they now living?”

  “In Winter Halo.”

  “Why would they do that?”

  “That I don’t know. But their families are being well compensated for their absence and aren’t complaining.”

  I snorted. “Because money always compensates for absence, doesn’t it?”

  “It’s all very well to be critical of such a decision,” Jonas murmured. “But you do not live in Central, and you have no experience of trying to exist in a city that basically worships the almighty dollar.”

  “But I do have experience of living without it.”

  “You are able to conceal or alter your appearance, which means theft is not such a problem for you,” Jonas said. “Those in Central don’t have those sorts of skills to fall back on. And it’s not like they can choose to live elsewhere, because there are few who could cope with life beyond the walls these days.”

  Because of the vampires. And because most of them could no longer see in the dark, thanks to their cities of endless light.

  “It does mean,” Nuri said, “that if you do become one of the favori, we may lose contact.”