A Perfect Blood

Page 12

 

  Chapter Twelve

  I stood from my crouch beside the warm, ticking car and handed Ivy the night binoculars. The brisk wind tugged at a strand of hair that had escaped my ponytail, and I tucked it behind an ear as I looked at the industrial building across the parking lot. The lights of Cincy were distant, and no moon lit the spaces in between. Deserted for forty years, the industrial area had been left to rot when the world fell apart. Trains still ran through here, but they didn't stop anymore.

  I felt akin to the empty tracks and vacant buildings, abandoned when things went wrong while others thrived. Frowning, I fingered the band of silver around my wrist, thinking. Simply cutting it off would send a burst of ley-line force through me large enough to fry my brain. It was, after all, a piece of the elves' and demons' historic war, designed to make demons almost useless. Being able to cut it off wouldn't be very effective. It had to be disenchanted first. That meant Trent.

  His offer to help me pacify Al long enough to explain had me more than nervous. I wasn't so sure that anything we could do or say would keep me on this side of the ley lines once Al knew I was alive. The ever-after was a hellhole, and despite my earlier thoughts that demons were more moral than HAPA, they were only when they felt like it. It was like trying to play cards with five-year-olds who kept changing the rules and lying. If you didn't have the clout to make them hold to their rules, they wouldn't.

  I'm going to talk to Trent about the options. That's all, I thought, and stomach tight, I blew on my cold hands and shoved the thought away to worry about later. It was above forty-three degrees, so Jenks would be okay, but it was going to get colder the longer this took. Glenn had driven us here, taking the last road with his lights off and the car barely moving, his excitement pushing Ivy's buttons to the breaking point. Wayde had thought it was amusing, but I didn't see anything funny about it.

  That had been about fifteen minutes ago, and I was getting antsy myself as I watched car after car show up and the slow deployment of people and equipment. Wayde was fidgeting by the I. S. van specially designed to hold magic-using criminals. He shouldn't even be out here, but they were cutting him lots of slack. Jenks was somewhere on the other side of the building. I didn't like him being gone this long, especially when it was so cold.

  I grimaced, my low boots grinding into the grit. The parking lot was laced with cracks that allowed grass as tall as my thigh to grow, and the entire area reminded me of the tomato cannery that Ivy and I had once stormed when I'd been interning at the I. S. with her. A Were had died that night - one we'd been trying to save. I hoped it wasn't a premonition. The other Were, though, we'd saved. It bothered me that I couldn't remember her name.

  I half turned when Glenn broke from the FIB officer he was talking to, his motions sharp as he stomped our way, dress shoes kicking up tiny pebbles and his suit jacket open. Ivy stood, exhaling as she handed me the binoculars. "Please tell me that's not the tomato cannery," I said.

  "It's not," she said as Glenn stopped between us. His mood was tense, and I could smell his aftershave on the cool night air. There were two yellow FIB vests in his hand, and I eyed them suspiciously. They were probably ACG, but I still didn't want to wear one.

  "You've been here before?" he asked as he handed one to me, and sure enough, my fingers felt the somewhat slimy feel of material coated with an anticharm spray. Maybe if I put it on they wouldn't give me any crap about being part of the team storming HAPA's hold.

  Shaking my head no, I put the vest on over my thin leather coat. I wasn't wearing leather as a matter of style - though it did look good - but as a matter of my not wanting to leave skin grafts on the pavement. Chances were good I'd go down at least once before the sun rose. "No," I said flatly, not wanting to explain. "Is everyone finally ready to move?"

  His motions holding an excited quickness, Glenn looked at his wrist, the dial softly glowing a faint blue. "No," he said, and Wayde rubbed his beard and edged closer, his hands in his pockets and his shoulders up about his ears. "Someone from the FIB wants to observe. We wait until she gets here. "

  Ivy rolled her eyes, black in the dim light. "Are they questioning your methods?"

  "I've no idea," Glenn said, his low voice going lower. "They've never done this before. "

  A soft "mmm" came from Ivy, and she touched his shoulder. "You've never worked this closely with the I. S. before. "

  Wayde's posture said he wanted to argue with me again, and I turned my back on him, relieved when I spotted Nina striding in from the distant parking area at the head of about six people. "Excuse me," I said softly, then started her way. I could tell even from this distance and in the dark that it was Nina the DMV clerk, not Nina the dead vamp, and I wanted to talk to her.

  Behind me, I heard Ivy say, "I'm not wearing that," and Wayde's nervous laugh.

  Finding a smile somewhere, I pasted it on my face, extending my hand as I approached. The young woman took it, looking a little more unsure than that afternoon in the DMV office. A jumpy wariness had taken the place of her eager, confident excitement, and she looked somewhat wan, even in the dark, her attractive features tight and drawn. Nina the DMV clerk wasn't looking healthy anymore, even if she was better dressed and had a bevy of people looking to her.

  "How are you doing?" I asked, and her eyes jerked to mine, probably catching the wisp of pity that had arisen from nowhere.

  Her hand pulled from mine, and the positive smile returned - barely hiding a flash of fear. "I'm fine, of course," she said, her entourage coming to a halt behind her. "Why would I be otherwise?"

  I shrugged, rocking back to get a glimpse of Ivy and Glenn. "I've seen how hard it is to have a god inside you," I said, and her eyes flashed a frightened black. Her hands trembled, and my old vampire scar tingled as she suppressed a rising hunger, a hunger he had instilled in her, one she didn't have the practice to contain on her own.

  Crap, Ivy hadn't been kidding, and I stifled a surge of fear. This woman wasn't safe anymore. "I'm surprised he's not here himself. It being dark and all," I added, trying to say something to take her mind off her needs while she tried to get a grip on them.

  Nina breathed slow and deep, standing stiffly as she regained control. She looked scared. She should be. "He doesn't come out of the basement much, actually," she said as she pulled her shoulders back to find a stronger posture. "He was - "

  I looked up when her words cut off. Nina shivered, and like magic, I watched the I. S. boss slip in behind her eyes, shake the reins, so to speak, and take control.

  " . . . waiting for you to arrive," she said, her voice now low and soothing as she eyed my leather with a much darker thought behind her appraisal. She blinked in appreciation, and I felt myself flush.

  "Hi," I said dryly, and she shook her head.

  "I already said hello," she said as she waved her people off and took my elbow to direct me back to Glenn, Wayde, and Ivy. "Are you not listening?"

  "Don't touch me," I said as I pulled out of her grip. "Or aren't you listening to me? I don't like what you're doing to Nina. You need to spend some time helping her gain control of the crap you've been turning on in her brain before she hurts someone. "

  "Nina is fine," she said, smiling even more beautifully as she tugged the lace hem of Nina's shirt out where it belonged to make a more feminine statement in the otherwise business-looking attire. "I've not been at an actual tag for decades," she said as she watched Ivy and Glenn, still arguing over the FIB vest, then turned her attention to the dark building. "You've no idea how odd it feels to be able to use magic openly like this. You will participate?"

  In the tag? I patted my hip, and then my back where my splat guns were. "Don't see why not. " And by God, they were going to let me, I thought, glancing at Wayde.

  The soft popping of gravel under tires became obvious. Ivy, too, looked up, shoving the vest back at Glenn, her posture becoming somewhat hesitant as she took Nina in, evalu
ating her, perhaps.

  "About bloody time. I think they might be ready," I said when the FIB car swung around to park beside Glenn's, and Nina and I started toward it. "Ivy, have you heard from Jenks?" I asked, and she shook her head, clearly as worried as I was.

  "Ahh," Nina said as she gazed at the sleek black car and rubbed her hands together as we walked. "Have you met Teresa Cordova, Ms. Morgan? She's the woman that Detective Glenn probably told you about. She wants to talk to you. Something about . . . a list?"

  My pace bobbled, and Nina smoothly put a hand to the small of my back, propelling me forward. The scent of vampire incense rolled over me, and my pulse hammered as I was reminded of Kisten. "Uh," I said, halting ten feet from the still closed car.

  Nina leaned close, laughter in her voice as she said, "That's what I told her you told me when I brought it up. I don't trust her any deeper than I can bury her. Watch her face when she realizes who I am. She's fun. "

  The car door opened, and Jenks darted out, his dust a bright silver, telling me he was fine. "I could have made better time if I'd flown!" he exclaimed, making bright circles around me. "Tink's panties, Rache, the guns they got over there! You ready? Seen the plan?"

  I held my breath until his dust settled. I had seen the plans - several times, actually. And "fun" wasn't the right word to describe the older woman getting out of the car.

  Impatience colored her motions, making her look jerky as she tugged on her gray business skirt to get rid of the wrinkles. She looked about fifty-something, a very unhappy fifty-something in low heels and hose. It was hard to tell in the dark, but it looked like her hair was an attractive mix of hard black and silver that only a lucky few women get as they grow older. A lined face, narrow chin, and no makeup made her look even more severe. She sent her gaze over the assembled team, her expression looking as if she smelled something bad.

  An aide had his head near hers, and the woman's eyes flicked to mine and held when he said something. Putting a small hand on his arm, she brushed by him, headed for me.

  "Watch now," Nina said as she took a deferential step backward to leave me all alone. "She doesn't know it's me," she said into my ear, leaning forward to whisper it. "You can't pay for entertainment like this. "

  Curious, I thought, feeling vulnerable until Jenks landed on my shoulder. A vampire with a sense of humor? Perhaps the fun-loving, skydiving Nina was rubbing off on him.

  "Teresa," Nina said suddenly, her voice pointedly cheerful, "have you had the pleasure of meeting Rachel and her team yet? They're one of the biggest assets this city has. Look, she brought her own spell pistols. Grand little weapons, those. I wish we'd had them when I was still in the field. They're powered by compressed air and don't need to be licensed!"

  The woman's hand extending toward me faltered, and then she grimaced, reaching out to take mine in a firm grip, warm from the glove she was wearing against the chill. "I see you've met Felix," she said, her aide standing an irritating three feet behind her, talking into a cell phone.

  Nina laughed at her sour expression, and I wondered. Felix? I thought he hadn't wanted me knowing who he was. "Pleasure," I said, wincing when my band of charmed silver slipped down to thunk into my wrist.

  "I've explained this, Teresa," Nina said as our hands parted. "Call me Nina now. That is who I am. " Leaning conspiratorially to me, she whispered loudly, "Felix was the name of the man I did my daylight work through when we first met. I guess that sort of thing sticks with the living. I miss him," she said, and I leaned away as Jenks buzzed a warning that she was too close. "He was very small, but quick. Died of an infected tooth, poor boy. "

  "You don't get out much, huh?" I said as I stood between Cincinnati's head of the I. S. and the head of the FIB, wondering why they were here. Really. Why were they here?

  Nina smiled deviously, and something in me twisted. She looked like a woman, but the arrogant eyes raking over me were very male. "Not that anyone can prove, no. "

  Lips pressed, Teresa brought her attention back from Glenn, waiting a respectful distance away. "Thank you for your help today, Ms. Morgan," she said, a big "however" in her tone.

  From my shoulder, Jenks coughed, saying, "Lame!"

  Her eyes tightened at the corners. "And your help in the past as well," she said, her eye twitching as she saw the tattoo fluff visible on my collarbone. "It's the future that concerns me. "

  I kept my hands in my pockets as my tension rose. "We get the bad guys and go home. What's more to know?" This was taking forever. If it had been just Ivy, Jenks, and me, we would have been in and out by now.

  The woman sighed, and Nina shifted, smiling as if waiting for the expected punch line. "Ms. Morgan, we would appreciate a list of the magic you can do as a demon," she said, and Jenks made a weird, almost unheard whine. "For your own protection. "

  "That's a cap of toad shit!" Jenks said, and I raised my hand as if to cover his mouth.

  "Ms. Cordova," I said firmly.

  "Doctor, actually. "

  Well, la-di-da. "Dr. Cordova," I started again. "If you want to know what demons can do, then go to the library and look it up. Then subtract ninety percent of it and you'll be close. I'm not going to give you a list so you can blame every demonic act on me. "

  The woman glanced at Nina as if for support, but the vampire was stifling a laugh, badly. Dr. Cordova's finger and thumb rubbed together, the fabric of her glove scratching, and I thought she ought to lose that particular tell. It made her look like a bad movie villain. "We're concerned that - "

  "No. "

  Nina made a dramatic sigh. "She won't give me one, either," she lamented, and I tugged out of her grip when she tried to lay claim to me. What was it with vampires anyway? No sense of personal space.

  Dr. Cordova's eyes squinted, and seeming to give up for the moment, she turned to Glenn. "Detective, I'm anxious to see how you work a team. I suggest you get to it. "

  Jenks hummed his wings as he stood on my shoulder, whispering a delighted, "Ohh, she's pissed, Rache. You made her look bad in front of walkie-talkie man. "

  "Then she shouldn't have asked for something I didn't want to give," I said, but I was starting to fidget, and I wished I could slip out from under her sharp gaze. You don't get to the head of Cincy's FIB division by being nice and working well with others.

  Glenn had shifted closer, his uncomfortable stance melting into determination. "Jenks," he said, and the pixy took off from my shoulder, leaving a softly glowing dust. "We're under radio silence. Will you tell team two six minutes from . . . mark?"

  "Gotcha," he said, and he was gone, his dust dissolving to nothing in time and distance.

  Glenn's dark eyes took in Ivy, not wearing her vest, and me in my stylish, sulfur-coated nylon. Beside the car, Wayde stood in frustrated silence. He wanted me to stay with him at the transport van. It wasn't going to happen. Glenn clapped his hands together once. "Everyone's set. Let's go. Rachel, stay with Wayde. "

  Like hell I am. I shook my head at Wayde, making him grimace. My pulse jerked into a faster pace, and after checking my splat guns, I broke into a slow jog after Glenn, now headed for the building. Ivy was behind me, her footfalls almost unheard over my come-and-go breaths.

  "I am not going to run over there. " Teresa's voice came faintly. "Get in the car, we'll follow at a discreet distance and time. "

  "Rachel . . . " Glenn all but growled, and I smiled slightly at him as I jogged. Dr. Cordova's car door thumped shut, and he winced at the noise.

  Looking back, I was surprised to find Nina tagging along with us, looking especially trim in her suit as she effortlessly loped along. "Storming HAPA with two dozen guns is safer than sitting in a parked car with Dr. Cordova," she said.

  "Yeah!" Jenks was on Ivy's shoulder so his dust wouldn't give us away. "That woman is a pterodactyl. "

  "There," Glenn said, and we angled to the service door I'd seen earlier with the binoculars. There was an FIB man
decked out head to toe in anticharm gear beside it, complete with a helmet, night goggles, and a weapon as long as my arm that looked like it should be in the armed forces, not a residential arsenal.

  We came to a stop, none of us breathing hard. "Did you know he was coming?" I whispered to Glenn, and his eyes flicked to Nina behind him.

  "I didn't know you were coming," he said sourly, looking at the red-glowing screen the FIB officer held out to him. It was a breakdown of where everyone was. I hadn't known the FIB had such technology. Neither had Nina, if her high-eyebrow expression meant anything. The vampire had put on an I. S. armband during our jog here. It looked vaguely like something I'd seen in an old '40s movie, and again I wondered how old this guy was.

  "Rachel, I appreciate your zeal. Go back to the car," Glenn said as he studied the screen, the information electronic, not magic, and Jenks snorted.

  "The pixy is right," Nina said, and Glenn's eyes fixed on hers with a hard intensity. "Rachel is safer surrounded by the I. S. and FIB than sitting in a car, even if she is in close proximity to the very people who would like to see her captured. I'll keep an eye on her. "

  Glenn glanced at his watch, then dropped his head, tired. "You good with that?" he asked me, and as Jenks hummed his approval, I nodded, even as I edged away from Nina. I'd go with a chaperone if it got me inside. Once the fur started flying, it wouldn't matter, and I felt the bumps of saltwater vials I had in my belt pack, nervously counting them.

  For another long moment, Glenn looked at me, his brow furrowed. "You stay behind us," he finally said, and I nodded. "Okay, let's go," he added, and eased to the door, already open and waiting for us. I slipped in after him, immediately sliding to the side and out of the small patch of lighter darkness. Ivy and Nina followed, and the FIB guy eased the door shut and remained outside to keep our retreat open.

  I was in. Elated, I breathed the smell of moldy oil and decayed sawdust. It was a single large room with the ceiling girders glinting softly in the skylights. In the corner came a flash of a penlight, one, two, three.

  "The primary entrance to the lower floor is over there," Glenn whispered in my ear. "Stairs. That's what we'll take. There's a service elevator outside against the far wall where the majority of the men will come in. "

  Ivy took off, loping toward the light when it blinked again. Clearly it was another FIB guy. They had this place stocked with them. I followed her, Nina taking the position behind me, and Glenn bringing up the rear. We said nothing as we passed the man at the top of the stairs. He was suited up head to toe in ACG like the one outside, making me feel naked with only my vest, but Glenn was wearing only a suit. And a pistol. And a really big grudge that Dr. Cordova was here.

  The stairway was painted cement block, and the round pipe railings on either side were cold as I followed Ivy belowground, the air becoming chill and stale as we descended. Another man waited at the bottom. This one was an I. S. cop, which surprised me until I remembered living vampires could see in the dark better than the best night goggles. It was a joint effort in the truest sense of the word, which made me feel good.

  The man respectfully inclined his head at Nina before gesturing Glenn closer. Apparently word of top I. S. brass possessing DMV workers got around. "There's an air shaft not on the plans," the living vampire said softly to Glenn, pointing behind him into the dark. "It vents out into the parking lot. They, however, are over there. " He pointed in the other direction to a hazy light showing the low ceiling, and my teeth clenched.

  Glenn nodded, and we crept farther into the dark. I wasn't used to having this much vanguard on my runs, but there was no such thing as being too careful when it came to black magic and HAPA. My pulse quickened at the growing light, and we slowed. The area downstairs appeared bigger than the area upstairs, a mere eight feet above our heads with thick pylons holding up the ceiling. It looked as if they'd stored huge tooling machines down here at one time, but the space was mostly empty now. My heart hammered when I heard a feminine voice call out, but it wasn't in anger or surprise. It was them.

  We stopped at a thick ceiling support where another I. S. officer waited. His small pistol was holstered, but the look in his black eyes said he was ready for anything. "There," he said as he pointed, and I leaned around him to look. My mouth went dry, and I felt for my splat guns.

  The suspects had hung milky plastic sheets from the ceiling to the floor to make an indistinct thirty-by-thirty room. Fuzzy shadows moved in the bright light behind it. It looked as if the plastic was two layers thick to help retain heat. I could hear the soft droning of a machine, and the easy talk of two people who hadn't a care in the world - and it pissed me off.

  Glenn pulled back into the shadow, and we clustered around him. He glanced at his watch, grimacing. "We have two minutes before they come in the far end through the elevator shaft on the other side. How many people are there?"

  "Two males," the I. S. guy said, glancing first to Nina, and then Glenn. "Three females, one in a modified dog cage. We can't tell if she's conscious, but we're getting good aura impressions from her. We might be in time for this one. "

  God, I hoped so. I thought it odd that vampires preyed on people and yet had a huge drive to protect, but that's the way it was.

  Glenn checked his watch again, and I wiped my hands off on my leather pants. Ivy retied her hair back out of the way. Nina cracked her knuckles and took off her coat.

  Ivy stared at her. "You're not coming any farther," she said flatly. "I'll watch Rachel. "

  Nina stiffened. Silent, she handed her coat to the I. S. officer and commandeered his pistol.

  "You don't have the practice resisting your instincts in a high-stress environment," Ivy said, her voice low but intent. "Felix, listen to me. You will lose control. "

  "You overstep yourself, girl. "

  Nina/Felix's voice was angry, tight, and threatening, and I edged back. Glenn was getting huffy, but the I. S. officer had retreated, too, his eyes going dark as he read the emotions flowing between the two vampires, one dead for at least a hundred years, and the other living, but the epitome of vampiric lust, desire, and restraint all rolled up into my roommate.

  "With all due respect," Ivy said, not backing down an inch, "you've been out of the field too long, and the child you're in has no experience at all. Stay here. Otherwise, I'll be watching you so you don't kill your host and you'll be more of a hindrance than a help. You're more of a liability than Rachel. "

  Glenn's frown deepened, and he turned his back on the room glowing with light and warmth just a few yards away. "If your presence is going to jeopardize a safe acquisition, you will remain here. Sir. "

  Yeah, like that was going to happen.

  Nina sighted along the pistol at nothing. "I'm older than all of you together. I have control. "

  "Your host doesn't," Ivy insisted. "Felix, please. You know who I am. You know I understand what I'm talking about. "

  I held my breath as Nina finally looked at her, eyes squinted in thought. "Aye, you might at that. I'm thinking Nina is tired of her desk job and is impinging upon me more than I'm wont to accept. She's enjoying the adrenaline far too much. You're correct. I will stay and observe. "

  My exhaled breath slipped from me in a slow sound of relief as Nina gave the I. S. officer his gun back. But then Nina's head came up, and I watched her eyes dilate.

  I spun when a high-pitched beeping came from the glowing rectangle of light. It was followed by harsh, feminine swearing, and behind the milky plastic, people moved. Someone had tripped an alarm, and I didn't think it was us.

  "No!" Ivy hissed, her hand outstretched as Nina darted into the dark for the quickly moving shapes behind the plastic.

  "Go! Go! Go!" Glenn exclaimed, and we followed.

  Something had given us away before we were all in position, and if we didn't catch them in the next thirty seconds, there wasn't going to be anything left to catch.

  Reachin
g them long before us, Nina tore a sheet from the ceiling, her trim, feminine outline suddenly sharp against the backdrop of silver machines, lab equipment, and people scrambling. A blond woman in a lab coat sitting on a rolling chair stared at Nina as she ran an arm over a countertop, sending glassware, papers, and samples into a sink. "Accendere!" she shouted, and a ball of flame rose up in it, incinerating everything.

  Magic. HAPA was using magic.

  Nina shouted her outrage and leapt at a military-looking man wearing a beret and a necklace of amber nuggets fumbling at the woman's cage.

  "Ivy! They're hot!" I shouted as I burst in, meaning they were magic users, but she'd probably figured that out. Gasping in fear, a second dark-haired woman in high heels and jeans ran for a desk, and with tiny puffs of smoke, more evidence vanished.

  "Felix, no!" I yelped when Nina yanked the man away from the cage, wrapped her hands around his neck - and squeezed. Ivy ran forward, and I drew my gun, hesitating when she got in my way.

  "Get the women!" Ivy shouted, and I turned back to the blonde, who was laughing manically as she threw everything in the cupboard onto the floor and started another bonfire.

  "Everyone freeze!" Glenn shouted, his stance domineering and his voice hard as he slid in with the I. S. guy behind him, screaming into the radio.

  Dropping the radio in disgust, the I. S. officer ran for a second man in a pair of overalls trying to get that terrified woman out of her cage, and I heard a soggy thump of fists into flesh as they met. The alarm was still beeping. Where was the second team? Were they deaf?

  "Too late, you putrid corrs!" the blonde in the lab coat sang out, smacking her hand into a big button set, then pushing off the counter, rolling her chair to a distant desk and the last set of papers. I shot at her, missing, then dove for the floor when she threw a spell at me, laughing merrily. My arms took most of my fall, and my teeth clicked, just missing my tongue. Why the hell was HAPA using magic?

  Fall number one, I thought as I tossed my head to get a strand of hair out of my eyes.

  His gun holstered, Glenn went for her, and my eyes widened. "I said freeze!" he shouted, his expression ugly with frustration. The scent of acid blossomed, sharp enough to make my eyes water, and the irritating beeping emitted a sad wail and died. That last button she'd pushed had fried the computers in a very permanent way.

  "Don't touch her, Glenn!" I shouted from the floor. The plastic behind me was melting. Where was the other team?

  But with a gleeful "Doleo!" the woman met Glenn's extended hand with her own.

  Glenn choked, trying to pull his hand back from what would have been a submission hold, but it was too late, and he dropped to his knees, his mouth open in a silent scream. Holy crap, the woman was packing! That had been a black ley-line charm. I remembered Ceri using it on Quen once.

  Glenn collapsed, and the woman ran for a second desk, littered with papers.

  "You son of a bitch!" I shouted, shooting at her as she laughed and flashed a bubble in place to deflect it.

  "Follow the drill!" the woman said as she stood over the desk, her arms full of notes as the I. S. officer, grappling with the man at the cage, crashed into a machine, out cold. The thick man in the overalls turned back to the cage, yanking the door open. And still, Nina choked the first man despite Ivy desperately trying to pry off her fingers.

  The woman in the cage screamed when she was pulled out, babbling and begging him to let her go. Sitting up, I swung my pistol around. Maybe he didn't know how to set a circle. My eyes were tearing from the bonfire, and I held my breath at the twin puffs of air. "Damn it!" I shouted as they missed, and the man swung the woman over his shoulder and ran to the small row of cots. The alignment was off. This was the last time I trusted assassin weapons.

  "Please! Help me!" the woman screamed, her arm reaching back for me.

  I took aim, but the I. S. officer had regained his wits and darted after them, getting in my way. Glenn was still out cold, and that blonde in the lab coat was still burning everything she touched and laughing. As soon as she was done with the papers, she might start in on us.

  The captive woman screamed again as the man flung open a panel in the floor, and in an instant, they were down it and gone. An I. S. officer followed.

  "Damn it!" I shouted, not knowing who to shoot.

  "Rache!" Jenks exclaimed, and I puffed a strand of hair out of my eyes as he hovered beside me, dripping a bright red dust.

  "Where is everyone?" I griped, then shot at the brown-haired woman chucking paperwork on the bonfire, and she ducked, swearing at me. "This is insane!"

  "Elevator jammed. Someone cut the power before they got out. "

  Swell.

  Nina howled, and Ivy flew through the air, crashing into a pylon, then slumping to the floor.

  Jenks darted to her, and my eyes squinted. I'd had enough. I should've come down here by myself, all quiet like, and just put them all to sleep. "Take a chill pill, Nina!" I shouted, and with everyone out of my way, I sat on the floor, aimed a little to the right, and plugged Nina. Twice.

  The vampire spun: her fingers savagely bent, eyes black, hunched to attack. I could see Felix behind the out-of-control DMV clerk, and with a silent "Thank you," Nina collapsed with a sigh. The man she'd been choking fell beside her without a sound.

  "Damned bug!" a high-pitched voice shouted, and I looked at the brown-haired woman swinging wildly at Jenks. She was bleeding from several scratches, and Jenks was easily staying out of her reach.

  "Just flick the switch and let's get out of here!" the blonde said, standing with a cardboard box of papers on her hip as if I wasn't still in here and it was over. Maybe it was. Ivy was out, Glenn was down. I didn't know what had happened to the I. S. guy in the tunnel. And where was the rest of the team? Taking a friggin' coffee break?

  Head down and one hand waving about as if at random, the brown-haired woman flicked a lever and a hiss filled the air, accompanied by the lightest touch of mist. "Tink's a Disney whore!" Jenks shouted, and dropped.

  Sticky silk, I thought when my eyelashes became clingy, then panicked when the woman in the lab coat started for him. "This is how you take care of bugs," she said, her foot raised.

  Jenks looked up at her, terrified, as he tried to get himself unstuck from the floor. Anger was a hot wash through me, and I shot at her. She froze, a bubble flashing into existence around her, but the air in my gun just hissed and nothing came out. No wonder those assassins hadn't been able to hit anything, I thought as I flung the gun aside and reached for the other one.

  "It's that witch!" the woman shouted, her eyes going wide. "I told you putting the corr on display would get her attention. Get her!"

  My jaw dropped. Get her? I shared a panicked look with Jenks, then lunged to the side as a ball of who-knew-what went hissing past me.

  Suddenly I was dodging spells as the two women ganged up on me. I grabbed a still warm tray from the dying bonfire, trying to use it as a shield. It took a spell, then another. My anticharm vest would go only so far. The blonde came at me, and I spun, kicking her in the middle when she reached for me. She flew back into the labware she'd thrown on the floor, shrieking as she went down.

  Grinning, I looked at the younger brown-haired woman, who abruptly looked scared. I didn't have time for any finesse, and I slammed the tray on her head.

  "Way to go, Rache!" Jenks cheered as the woman dropped.

  I turned, heart pounding at a soft click, but it was only the panel on the trapdoor clicking shut. The blonde had run. She'd left her friend out cold and just run. The sound of excited men grew loud, and I realized why. Finally.

  Jenks rose up, his wings moving fitfully as he continued to dust heavily to get the silk off. "Son of a Disney whore," he swore, face red and head down as he worked at it. "What a bitch! Sticky silk? Who uses sticky silk?"

  I looked at the brown-haired woman, and nudged her with a toe, not caring if
she had a concussion. "People who know we might have pixy backup," I said. "Is Ivy okay?"

  "I'll survive," she said softly, and I turned as she sat up with a hand to the back of her head. "How's Nina?"

  Relief was a heavy sigh, and I looked at the downed vampire, slumped over the unmoving man. I thought she'd killed him. "She's fine," I said, glancing at my splat gun. "I'm sorry, but I spelled her. She was out of control. "

  "Tell me about it. " Ivy rubbed her arm, looking up as the first of the FIB guys tore in, their guns out and screaming at us to freeze.

  "We're good!" I shouted, hands high and gun dangling from a finger. "It's over! Don't shoot me, for God's sake! I'm wearing one of your lame-ass vests!"

  Someone took my gun anyway, which I couldn't have cared less about, and after I glared at him for even suggesting I was one of the bad guys, I yanked the vest off and went to Glenn. Jenks was on my shoulder, and we peered down at him as Ivy stumbled closer. The charm he'd been hit with was bad, but it wasn't lethal.

  Around us, the FIB guys were putting out the fire and securing what evidence was left. Someone had gone down the hole in the floor and an unconscious I. S. man was being hoisted up. Shoving aside the FIB guy shouting for a medic, Ivy knelt beside Glenn, gingerly lifted his lids and felt for his pulse. Shrugging, she looked up at me. "He's stable. "

  "Maybe he stepped in some of your potion?" Jenks suggested, and not knowing what else to do, I dumped a vial of saltwater on him to simply shock him awake.

  Sputtering, Glenn came to. Ivy leaned back on her heels, and I sighed in relief. Wiping his face, he lay on the floor and looked up at us, then sat with Ivy's help. Looking angry, he watched Nina being dragged off the body of the unidentified man and the FIB crew yammering. The brunette had regained consciousness, and she was screaming about her lawyer as they cuffed her to that rolling chair. Yeah. Right. Insults were falling from her like prom-date promises, and my gut tightened. I hated the C word.

  "I missed the fun," Glenn said, his breathing shallow as he glanced at her raving in the chair.

  "You're all right," Ivy breathed, and Jenks and I exchanged a look at her worry.

  "I'll live," he said, and we backed up as he got to his feet. "What did she hit me with? It felt like I was going to die. "

  "Pain charm," I said. "You passed out, which was probably the best thing you could have done," I said loudly when Dr. Cordova click-clacked in, her eyes cataloging everything and her lips curled in disapproval. She'd gotten here too fast. Maybe she'd tripped something.

  "Let me go!" the brunette screamed, making the rolling chair jump up and down as she struggled. "I'm a scientist, you rutters! You're nothing but a bunch of four-flusher scabs, working with chubies and corrs! We're going to sweep the world clean from these filthy animals!"

  "My God, the woman has a mouth worse than yours, Jenks," I said, and the pixy darted to her, his hands on his hips.

  "Yeah? Well, you look like toad shit right now, Suzie-Q," he said, and she howled, lunging at him, making the officers laugh when her rolling chair moved a few inches and her hair fell into her face, which made her look even crazier.

  "Uh, you did cuff her with charmed silver, right?" I asked, relieved when Glenn nodded.

  "Goddamn scuppers! Let me go! You don't know who you're dealing with!" she yelled.

  My jaw clenched at the insult. Glenn leaned toward her, eyed her up and down, and whispered, "We're going to find out. I promise you that. "

  The brunette stared at him, her chin quivering in anger. What was this woman on? She looked about twentysomething, but seemed to think she ruled the world.

  Dr. Cordova smacked her gloves together before handing them to an aide, and Glenn straightened, turning on a heel to face her. "We'll be lucky if we get anything we can use in court from this," she said disparagingly, her gaze dropping to the char that was once evidence.

  "Someone broke early," I said before Glenn could say anything. "An alarm went off. We were lucky we even got this much. "

  "Especially when some jack-crap lunker cut the power to the elevators before the doors opened!" Jenks added, and I swear I saw Dr. Cordova's eye twitch.

  "Get a team in the escape tunnel," she said shortly, and the FIB officer looked past her at Glenn for direction. That time, I know I saw her eye twitch, and when Glenn gave the man a slight nod, the officer spun away, calling out names and converging on the hole with flashlights.

  The suspects were long gone, though. Their departure had been executed with too much precision, too much . . . polished talent. I'd heard that HAPA had bases hidden in the Smoky Mountains, training areas and breeding grounds for hate cells. They knew what they were doing. And they were using magic?

  Turning my back on Dr. Cordova's ongoing harangue, I dropped the wad of my FIB vest and looked past the dead man and Nina, still unconscious but arranged to look like she was sleeping. In the corner, as yet untouched and hopefully a source of fingerprints, was a makeshift kitchen and five cots.

  Ivy sighed as she eased up beside me. "Better wake up Nina," she said as she rubbed her scraped elbow. There was an ugly handprint on her neck that I was sure was going to bruise.

  Dr. Cordova's voice cut off in midthreat, and she barked out, "Why?"

  I looked her up and down. "Because it's polite," I said, pulling out one of my vials and dousing Nina with it.

  "Give her room," Ivy said, pulling me back as the young vampire gasped, her eyes flashing open wide to show they were utterly black.

  "No!" she cried out in a frightened, high-pitched voice.

  The click of safeties going off was scary as people fell into defensive postures, but Ivy put a hand up. "Wait," she said sadly, and Nina's pupils shrank.

  Nina sat up, her expression becoming frightened as she saw everyone looking at her. Her roving eyes landed on the body, and her lips parted in horror. "No, no, no!" she cried out, clearly Nina and not Felix, hunching into herself as she sat on the cold floor. "I couldn't . . . stop. " Her face wet with tears, she looked at Ivy. "Please. Make it stop," she whispered. "I didn't mean to. It was too much. I couldn't stop!"

  The last had been an anguished cry of heartache, and I felt a wash of pity. Ivy brushed past me. Kneeling beside Nina, she took her in her arms and held her as she wept. The FIB officers turned away, uncomfortable and not knowing what to do. Hell, I didn't know what to do. I had a bad feeling that Nina had overpowered Felix, even as the dead vampire had tried to stop her from killing that man. The power had been too much, and she'd lost it, exactly as Ivy had said.

  Glenn crouched beside Ivy and Nina, his hand going out in a show of support. "Let me help you upstairs," he said softly, and Nina jumped, shrinking back as he touched her.

  "Don't touch me!" she shouted, cutting through the softer conversations. Her voice was panicked, and my sympathy deepened.

  Dr. Cordova cleared her throat. "Detective, can I speak with you a moment. You and your . . . team?"

  It wasn't a question. Glenn and Ivy exchanged knowing looks over the huddled, shaking woman, and he drew back, standing with a resigned air. Behind him, Dr. Cordova waited, clearly eager to punch him a new one. Behind her, a mix of Inderland and human cops all reluctantly gathered closer.

  "I'll take her upstairs," Ivy said. Jenks landed on my shoulder, and we watched Ivy lead the stumbling woman past the plastic sheets still hanging and to the elevator, presumably. If anyone could help Nina, it would be Ivy - and Nina was going to need help.

  "Put her in the van," Dr. Cordova said. "She's going into custody for the murder of that man. "

  "What?" I shouted, spinning around so fast that Jenks took off, startled.

  "She murdered Kenny!" the woman tied to the chair screeched, moving the chair as she all but jumped up and down in it. "That clot murdered Kenny! I saw her do it! You all did!"

  "You've got to be joking!" I said, aghast, but Glenn was wincing, his head down. Ivy kept moving, her stance a
t once aggressive, protective, and defiant with her arm over the broken woman's shoulder. Wherever she was taking her, I doubted very much that it was going to be the waiting suspects van. She was going to be halfway to a safe house three minutes after reaching the surface. Nina was going to suffer enough emotional trauma. Putting her in jail wasn't going to help. Was I as corrupt as Trent?

  "You're letting her walk away!" the brunette shouted at their vanishing shadows. "Damn clot suckers! You're not going to get away with this," she yelled, spittle flying as she leaned forward against her bonds and raved. "I'll track her down myself and - "

  "Will you shut up!" I shouted, having enough of her to last a lifetime.

  The woman grinned at me, her mascara running from her sweat. "What's the matter with you, you little chubi?" she mocked, and my breath sucked in.

  Jenks's wings clattered, and the murmured conversations suddenly ceased as my face paled.

  "What did you call me?" I said, my voice quavering in anger at the crude, vulgar insult aimed at witches that had evolved during the Turn.

  "Chubi, rhymes with booby, which you don't have, or doodie, which is what your face looks like," she said smugly, leaning back and making her chair squeak.

  Appalled, I could do nothing as the men and women behind Glenn retreated farther into the shadows. "Get her out of here," Glenn said harshly, and two men hastened forward to volunteer, living vampires by the look of it, wheeling the woman past the still-standing milky plastic sheets to the distant elevator, eager to get out of Dr. Cordova's sight.

  "Get your fucking hands off me, you bloody clots!" the woman was shouting, and Glenn's face darkened.

  "If I may speak to you, Detective?" Dr. Cordova intruded smoothly.

  Glenn briefly acknowledged her, then turned to me instead, making her angrier. "I, ah, need to tie off a few ends here," he said, ignoring Dr. Cordova for a moment more. "I'll see you upstairs. You did good, Rachel, despite not staying at the car. "

  I smirked, and Jenks snorted from my shoulder. "Yeah, we all did good," Jenks said tartly. "Can we get out of here? Rache, I'll show you the way to the elevator. "

  He darted into the dark, and I shook hands with Glenn. Pulling him into me, I whispered, "I don't care what she says, getting a HAPA member alive is more than the I. S. or the FIB has done in forty years. "

  "That's what I'm afraid of," he muttered back. "I have to keep that foul woman alive. "

  "Now, Detective!"

  Our hands parted, and I gave him one last look before smiling at Dr. Cordova's anger. The adrenaline sparkling through me was wearing off, leaving a pleasant feeling of satisfaction. Past the remaining sheets of plastic, the air was cooler and didn't stink of vampire. Breathing deep, I followed Jenks's fading trail of dust and the distant sound of the woman's continual threats. I'd take the stairs. If I was stuck in an elevator with her, one of us wasn't going to come out alive.

  "I've seen you, chubi!" the woman screamed at me, seeing me through the closed doors as I walked into the puddle of light spilling out onto the concrete floor from the huge industrial-size elevator. "We're going to get you. Your clot and rotter can't protect you!"

  One of the vampires with her stopped the door from closing so I could ride up with them, and I rocked back with my thumbs in my pockets. "You're kidding, right?" I said, and he shrugged, letting the door go.

  "There are more of us than you!" the woman howled as the doors began closing again. "We're everywhere! You're dead. "

  Jenks landed on my shoulder. "Can't they shut her up?"

  "Dead!" she shouted through the metal doors, and the elevator hummed to life, rising.

  Behind me, I could hear Dr. Cordova reaming Glenn out. No one would be coming up anytime soon, and I reached for the fire door to the nearby stairway. The stairwell was dark and unlit, but Jenks was dusting heavily enough to see by. The walls were cold and damp, and I wrapped my arms around myself for the first couple of flights, letting go when my exertions warmed me.

  "Don't let it get to you, Rache. She's just an ignorant lunker," Jenks said as he rested at one of the turns.

  "Person," I said, head down to watch my footing. "She's a person. Scared and ignorant. She doesn't know better. " That's what I kept telling myself, but I'd never been called a chubi before, even at school, not even by the mean girls.

  The elevator was open and empty when I got to the top of the stairs and left the stairway. It was just as dark in the empty warehouse, but the lighter square of darkness showed clearly where the wide double doors were now flung open. The silhouettes of the two vampires with the woman still handcuffed to her rolling chair showed clearly, and then I jumped at the twin pops of a gun.

  "What the hell?" Jenks said softly, banking his dust.

  The vampire pushing the handcuffed woman dropped. My eyes widened, and I put a hand to my mouth, my pulse jumping as the remaining one turned to a new figure in a long coat. It was the blonde. I could tell from here.

  "Get Glenn!" I shouted at Jenks, and I started running.

  The pop of a gun went off again, missing the remaining vampire as he dodged it and the glowing ball of magic the blond woman threw at him. It was her. She was trying to rescue her friend! And nearly everyone was downstairs listening to Dr. Cordova yell at Glenn!

  That woman was gleefully throwing spells like it was a carnival game, making me wonder again at HAPA's new acceptance of magic even as they tried to wipe us out. Maybe she wasn't HAPA at all.

  Jenks's wings were a clatter by my ear as I pounded to the open door, and I glanced at him. "Go get Glenn!" I told him again, and not waiting for his answer as I spilled out into the lighter darkness and cracked cement.

  The vampire ducked another gunshot, then lunged at the woman, his hands outstretched to grab her.

  "No!" I shouted in warning, and the woman still tied to the chair spun to me, her expression ugly as she struggled to free herself. But the vampire had touched the blond woman in the lab coat, who laughed maniacally as she coated him in a hazy green glow. He pulled back too late, clawing at his throat and screaming as he went down.

  The sound was chilling, his shriek of pain in the black night. "Stop!" I shouted as I ran forward, my hand reaching to the small of my back to find . . . nothing. Damn it all to hell, the I. S. guy took my gun!

  Both vampires were down, one still, the other writhing madly, clawing at his throat and leaving bleeding gouges. I hesitated over him, unable to do a thing as he died. The blond woman was kneeling behind the woman in the chair, the keys to the cuffs from the first vampire catching the faint starlight. "You stupid bitch!" I shouted as I lunged for them. The blonde was still working the cuffs. I had seconds.

  "Turn me!" the woman in the chair screamed, and I jerked back as she kicked out at me, her tiny feet thumping harmlessly into my leg. I drew back and pulled myself together to give her a quick front kick and snapped her head back, but with a howl of revenge, she exploded out of her chair before I could recoup, her little fists flailing. She was out. I couldn't bring them both down unless I moved fast.

  "Rache! Look out!" Jenks shrilled.

  Shocked, I spun to him, then cried out as the rolling chair Suzie-Q had been in hit me square on. It took my knees out from under me, and I fell, hitting the cold pavement and yelping as soft body parts met hard, angular chair bits. Fall number two, I thought, holding my elbow as I sat up and kicked the chair away. Great.

  "Where did they go?" I whispered, then jumped when someone grabbed my arms and shoved me down, face-first, onto the cement - again.

  "Hey!" I yelped when my arms were yanked behind me and someone else jammed a sweet-smelling rag in my mouth.

  I bit down hard, and a woman hissed as the rag was yanked away. "You Inderlander bitch!" the blond woman said, then smacked my face.

  "Jenks! Get help!" I shrieked, then winced when something hit my head. I think it was a size 6 shoe, brown leather with a little rhinestone bo
w. More pissed than hurt, I wiggled, snarling up at the woman.

  "Try her gut, Jenn," the blonde said, and my eyes widened as the brunette wound up and kicked me right in the solar plexus.

  My air puffed out, and I curled in on myself, face grinding into the pavement. I couldn't breathe. Oh God. It hurt, and I struggled to hold on to my lunch, my arms pulled behind my back and my face bruised. My splat gun was long gone, and there was a wet spot on my thigh that I think was my broken vials.

  "Get the bug," I heard the blond woman say matter-of-factly, and her lab coat came and went before my eyes. "Damn it, get the bug before he scratches my fucking eyes out, Jennifer!" she said again, louder.

  Jennifer? That crazy woman in the chair was named Jennifer?

  "Sons of bitches!" Jenks shrilled. "You friggin' sons of bitches!"

  I had no magic. I was down. Despite all my preparations, I was helpless. Wayde was right. Trent was right. I was wrong, and now I was going to pay dearly for it. The blonde held my hands behind my back, and the familiar feeling of plastic went around my wrists. "Stop," I gasped as my air finally came back, and my fingers cramped when the strip was tightened too far.

  The smell of propellant hissed into the air. Jenks hit the ground, struggling to run so they wouldn't step on him. His wings were glued shut. Oh God. Run, Jenks!

  A car was coming from the distant parking lot, its headlights shining on me. Hope leapt in me. They'd heard the noise and were coming. "Over here!" I shouted, then grunted when Jennifer kicked me again. I squinted as the car pulled up to the warehouse door, its tires screeching. But my hope vanished when the window was rolled down and the man who'd run out with the woman who'd been in the cage shouted for the women to get in. Oh God. I was in trouble. From the trunk, thumps and screaming sounded.

  Bobbing flashlights were coming closer from deep within the warehouse, and I frantically kicked out, fighting. If I could keep from being put in that car, I'd be okay. "Over here!" I shouted, squirming. "We're over here!"

  In the glow of the headlights, the blond woman stood confidently, her fingers moving in a charm I recognized. Panic filled me. "Down! Everyone get down!" I shouted, but it was too late, and with a victorious glint in her eyes in the bright light from the car's headlights, the woman clapped her hands.

  "Dilatare!" she shouted, and I cowered as a boom of sound pushed from her. The officers cried out and the lights fell and rolled as the force hit them. My eyes clamped shut, and my ears began to ring.

  "That should do it," the woman said in satisfaction, her voice muffled to my spell-stunned ears; then she turned to me. "This is for hitting Jennifer," the blond woman said, her foot pulling back.

  Her boot met my head, and I felt myself move, my body sliding across the cement a few inches. My head felt like it was exploding, and my breath eased from me in a soft sigh. A pair of masculine arms went under my arms, shortly followed by the pinch of being lifted and half dragged to the running car. I barely recognized the wonderful smell of fine leather car upholstery as my face hit it, and then the car light went off as the doors thumped shut.

  "Suck it up, Gerald! I'm not going to sit in the back with that animal!" the woman said. "Drive!"

  The engine thrummed, and my eyes shut, and I felt unconsciousness, creeping out from the pain, take me. But before I passed out completely, I had one last thought.

  Five cots. But we had seen only four captors.