Red Queen

  Yet James hesitated once I was in the backseat. He stopped and looked around. I didn’t know who he was searching for.

  “What is it, James?” I asked.

  He shook his head and climbed in. “Nothing.”

  Frank put the limo in gear and we rolled onto the Strip. It was always busy in witch world, it didn’t matter the time or day. I wondered if the perverse compulsion to constantly gamble came from the gloom that seemed to hang over the city. Were people in this society so desperate they kept searching for one big score? As I had noted before, from the time I had left the morgue, the nights in witch world seemed darker, the neon lights brighter. Even the moon appeared to have a veil over it.

  Frank was taking pleasure in my discomfort at his amazing resurrection. “You’re wondering how I reattached my head,” he said.

  “Something along those lines,” I said.

  “That right there should tell you about the type of people you’ve been talking to. Damn Tar. They lock you in a meat locker so they can turn you into a witch and then they don’t tell you shit. Not even the basics. You should listen to Susan when she tells you that their docile approach is a dead approach.”

  “Speaking of the dead?” I said.

  Frank snorted. “This is witch world! All that crap you’ve been fed about this being a mirror image of the real world is a lie. This is the only world that counts. This is the real world. The other is just a shadow. What happens here is what matters.”

  “So you’re saying if you die in witch world, you automatically die in both worlds. But die in the real world and all bets are off?”

  “You’ve got it, girl. But you should have been told that five minutes after you woke up here. If you’d stayed with us, you’d know what’s real and what’s a lie. Now, I’ve never seen Susan take an interest in someone like she has in you. So don’t go playing any games with her tonight. I can tell already she’s not in the mood.”

  “Something put her in a bad mood?” I asked.

  Frank peered out the window at the moon. It was full. Like the night Lara was born. My daughter was one lunar month old tonight.

  “Something heavy is about to go down,” he said without explaining what he meant.

  Tonight Frank didn’t bother taking any side roads, nor did he backtrack. He hardly looked in his rearview mirror. It was clear he wasn’t worried about being tailed. He drove straight to Henderson, to the north side where the gated community was located, and the guards waved him through. There were six instead of two.

  At the end of the block, before making a left and climbing toward the mansion at the base of the stone-crown hill, we passed Kari’s house and I couldn’t help but notice all the lights were on. The front door was wide open and I saw a guard inside. The fact she had gone missing was no longer a secret.

  I considered pointing out the house to James, so he would at least know where they were keeping Huck, but then I remembered he didn’t know who the boy was.

  James leaned over and whispered in my ear. “What else can you tell me about these people?” he asked.

  “They’re heavily connected. Bad to the bone.”

  “And they took Lara, why?”

  “Because she’s a saint,” I said, the words coming out before I had time to think. A saint? How could I believe in saints when I wasn’t sure if there was a God? Yet when I told him what I did, it felt right.

  The mansion was also well lit, with a fountain out front that was continually fanned with a rainbow of colors. Parking beside the splashing water, we got out and took a moment to drink in the view. James quickly stepped away from the limo and stared out at the night. Perhaps the glow of the moon drew him. I had to admit the light seemed to soften what was otherwise a harsh terrain.

  I remembered the wondrous light I had seen inside my head the first night Jimmy and I had made love. I had seen it with James as well, naturally. Curious how my father had talked about seeing almost the same thing the night Lara was born. And he had spoken of the sound as well, that music that was not the product of any earthly instrument. There was a mysterious connection to both events I wasn’t grasping yet, although I sensed the answer was near.

  We went inside. Susan and her son, Whip—he of the stinger tail—were waiting. Lara was also present but Susan gave her to Frank instead of me, which established who was in charge. My chest physically ached to look at my daughter and not be able to touch her. Frank retreated to a corner, where Lara sat on his lap, his massive black hands holding her firmly.

  While Whip sauntered about the living room, his tail sliding across anything he pleased, Susan ordered James and me to sit on the sofa. She paced in front of us, no longer wearing the blue scrubs of our last encounter but black pants and a red blouse that hugged her toned chest.

  Susan wasted no time. She demanded to know where Kari was. I shook my head. “How should I know?” I said.

  “Are we talking about Kari from school?” James asked.

  I found it odd he didn’t call her Karla. That was, after all, her name in witch world.

  “Yes. She’s the mother of your son in the other world,” Susan snapped, her attention still focused on me. “You know how important this meeting is tonight. I’m surprised you would begin it with a lie.”

  “What makes you think I’m lying?” I asked.

  Susan stopped and held up a CD. “A copy of a security tape that was taken this afternoon at one fifty. Kari had a visitor at that time. The guards let her inside because they thought it was me. Of course they were tricked by a powerful witch. But even though this witch has power, she’s still a fool. Because she didn’t stop to think that her spell wouldn’t have an effect on a nonliving camera.” Susan tossed the CD in my lap. “Should we play it?” she asked.

  I shrugged. “You win some, you lose some.”

  “Where’s Kari?” Susan repeated.

  “In a shallow grave fifteen miles from here,” I said.

  Susan smiled coldly. “As I expected. I have to wonder how this murder will influence your future position. You, who always act so righteous whenever we discuss the Lapras and the Tar.”

  I bowed my head in Susan’s direction, as if to concede the point. “If you’re going to learn to kill, you should learn from the best.” I added, “Kari was nothing. Why waste time talking about her?”

  “I speak of her more for James’s sake than your own.” Susan paused. “What do you think of your sweet and lovable girlfriend murdering a lover of yours in cold blood?”

  James appeared guarded, confused. “I don’t believe it.”

  “Then put on the tape, Jessica,” Susan ordered.

  “It’s not necessary.” I put a hand on James’s arm. “I’ll explain everything later.”

  “Be wary of ‘later’ in witch world,” Susan warned. “It often changes into ‘too late.’ ”

  “I came here tonight because I’m interested in the offer you made,” I said. “That’s the only reason I’m here. If you want to discuss trivia then I’ll come back another time.”

  “Well said, Jessica,” Susan replied. “How quickly you seek to regain control. Perhaps you have the makings of a Lapra after all.” She gestured to the mansion. “What do you think of the house? I was thinking this might be the perfect place for you and your little family.”

  I glanced around. “I could get used to it.”

  “Too rich for your tastes?”

  “A little gaudy. But I’m more concerned about you honoring your deal and leaving us alone in peace.”

  “You’ll have peace, I can assure you,” Susan said as she took a step toward Frank and Lara. My daughter looked uncomfortable in his lap but wasn’t crying. She kept looking over at me, I was sure of it. Susan appeared to notice Lara’s attention because she brushed her fingers lightly over Lara’s face as if to distract her. She added, “I’ll only require Lara once a week or so.”

  “For what?” I asked.

  “Study.”

  “It sounds like you?
??re going to perform experiments on her.”

  “Nonsense. The child has been much better behaved since she last saw you.” Susan stroked the side of Lara’s face. “She’s also demonstrated even more potential than I thought possible.”

  “Did she raise Frankie from the dead?” I said sarcastically.

  Susan turned back to me at the mention of Frank. I knew what was coming. “I’m afraid that version of Frank won’t be joining us anymore. But your question does raise the issue of who you were with when you were exploring the sewers. It must have been someone adept with a sword to take off the head of a warrior as powerful as Frankie.”

  “I was taken by surprise,” Frank muttered.

  “Kendor wasn’t my companion,” I said. “He only showed up when Frank threatened to kill me.”

  Susan was unable to hide the effect Kendor’s name had on her. She almost stumbled as she strode toward me. “I hear the two of you talked after he finished saving your life,” she said.

  “We didn’t talk long. But he told me your real name was Syn and that you two were lovers for close to two thousand years.”

  Susan’s lower lip trembled ever so slightly. Again, she tried to hide it but was unable to. “Did he tell you why I left him?”

  “We didn’t get into that sort of detail.”

  “Ah, Jessica, you lie but you also tell the truth. Kendor doesn’t know why I left him.” She paused, thinking, her body swaying slightly. “What else did he say?”

  “He told me about your past. The children you had, and how you both suffered when they were lost.” I paused. “Robere. Era. Herme . . .”

  “Stop!” Susan suddenly cried.

  I stopped—the whole room did. Even Whip sat still on the floor and Lara stopped fussing in Frank’s hands. It was as if the names had swept through the room like disembodied tombstones and had struck Susan like a hammer made of hard memories. The pain in the air was almost palpable, and Susan was supposed to be able to harvest that special form of energy. But I think this sample was even too potent for her to swallow. A minute followed by a second minute ticked by, and none of us dared disturb her.

  Finally, Susan sat down across from James and me.

  She acted like her outburst had never happened.

  “I need to know if your desire to stay here with Lara is genuine,” she said to me.

  “Yes. But you ask for honesty so I’ll give it. I want to be with James and my daughter. I don’t want to be kept a prisoner.”

  Susan shrugged. “You’ll remain here until I’m confident you won’t try to flee. The length of your confinement is totally up to you. Is that agreeable?”

  “You mean it’s totally up to you,” I said.

  “You don’t have a lot of choices, Jessica.”

  I paused. “Then I can live with that.”

  Susan turned to James. “You’re welcome to stay here as well. But it’s not the Lapra way to embrace a non-witch. To stay with us you must become one of us. Do you understand?”

  He nodded. “I have to become connected. I have to activate my powers by dying.”

  “Is that something you want to do?” Susan asked.

  “Yes. With all my heart,” James said.

  Obviously he was as anxious to become a witch in witch world as in the real world. But were his motives the same?

  “No!” I interrupted. “He doesn’t possess the healing gene. Chances are he won’t survive the process.”

  Susan gestured to a bag on the living-room table. “Do you forget I’m a physician? In my little black bag I have plenty of morphine to put James blissfully to sleep. So deep his breathing will cease and he’ll be technically dead. But I also have a large assortment of drugs—adrenaline, ephedrine, and so on—to bring him back to life. And what a life it will be. James, you’ll have access to five witch genes.” Susan paused. “It’s your decision.”

  He nodded firmly. “Let’s do it.”

  Susan clapped her hands together. “I think I’m going to like you, James. Besides being cute as hell, you’ve got balls. I can see us becoming good friends. Maybe something more. How would you feel about that, Jessica?”

  “You’re wasting your time if you’re trying to make me jealous. You’re also picking a bad time to try to connect James. Tonight is about Lara and me. Don’t forget you need me to keep her happy.”

  Susan acted offended. “Are you saying you’re refusing to let your boy have what he wants?” she asked.

  “Let me sting him,” Whip pleaded suddenly, jumping off the floor and approaching James.

  Susan smiled. “I would, dear, except there’s no antidote for your poison.”

  Whip’s tail went before him, coiling and uncoiling in midair, before it found James and wrapped around his waist, stroking his left arm, then sliding toward his face.

  “He’s big and strong,” Whip said. “Will I grow up to be as big as he is?”

  “You’re already a big boy, dear,” Susan said, standing and reaching for her black bag. I jumped up to block her.

  “Stop!” I cried. “This isn’t the place to experiment on him. If you’re going to induce an overdose, do it in the real world. At least then, if he doesn’t make it, he’ll still be alive in witch world.”

  “Don’t fool yourself, that doesn’t matter,” Susan said. “No one can cheat death. It comes when it decides. It’s like a force of nature that destroys all that the rest of nature has given birth to. That’s a gentle way of telling you that you can’t stop what’s going to happen here tonight. Try, and Whip might get the urge to sting you. And I warn you, even with all your powers, you would never be able to recover from that kind of venom.”

  Whip moved onto my foot, where he sat on the floor and let his tail crawl up my leg. I felt as if I stood in a pool of octopuses. I stared at James, heartbroken. Why couldn’t he see the pleading in my eyes?

  “Please don’t do this,” I begged.

  James stood in front of me. “This had to happen, Jessie.”

  Susan suddenly frowned. “What did you call her?”

  Before he could respond, we heard a knock at the door.

  Susan ordered me to answer. Not knowing what else to do, I obeyed. A figure dressed in black leather stood on the porch.

  “May I come in?” Kendor asked, his ancient power clear in his voice and visible in his stance. Of course, the fact that he held an unsheathed sword in his right hand, one soaked in blood, didn’t hurt matters.

  Susan set down her doctor’s bag and spoke from the far side of the room. “Why not?” she said.

  Kendor strode into the house. Frank retreated to the corner, where he held Lara in front of his chest, using her as a shield. My daughter didn’t cry out, but stared silently from his massive hands, as if lost in her own unfathomable thoughts. Susan stood beside me and James, and all the while she stared at Kendor with wonder. No, it was Syn who stared, and the voice inside my mind was no longer able to think of her as Susan.

  “How have you been?” Syn asked.

  “Fine. You?” Kendor asked. His sword continued to drip bright red drops on the wooden floor.

  “The same.” Syn paused. “You look well.”

  “So do you,” Kendor said. “I’ve missed you.”

  “You should have cleaned up before coming. You’re making a mess of my floor.”

  Kendor didn’t sheath his sword. “You have so many guards. I recall the time when you couldn’t stand having others watch over you.”

  “Did you dispatch them all?”

  “Yes.”

  “There are always more where they came from.”

  Kendor raised an eyebrow. “Do you need them?”

  She shook her head. “You must know by now that if your blade were a mile long, it couldn’t touch me.”

  Syn was speaking of bafflement, I thought.

  Kendor glanced around the living room, studying it, perhaps searching for the best angle of attack. “That’s why I brought more than a physical sword,” he said. r />
  “A fusion?” Syn asked. “From your fractured Council? I’m sorry but I’m not impressed.”

  “You should be. We’ve settled our differences. We’re all of one mind.”

  “When it comes to me?” Syn said.

  “Yes. You have to go.”

  Syn acted amused. “Oh, dear. Now I suppose I should run and hide.”

  Syn was an excellent actress. However, the implication that Kendor had the entire Council at his back worried her. She didn’t show the fear in her face or voice; nevertheless, I felt it.

  It was only then that I realized the Council had lied to me when we had met earlier in the evening, probably to throw me off guard so Syn herself would be unable to read my mind and know what they had planned.

  I didn’t know how the fusion worked but the fact that Kendor had come alone implied it only needed one member of the Council to be physically present to transmit its power. I also suspected that Kendor had finally revealed the true nature of Syn to the Council, probably in a final bid to get Cleo’s support to attack the woman.

  These things I didn’t have to be told. My intuition gene was active. The facts seemed obvious to me. Just as it was clear that Kendor was willing to sacrifice his life to protect Lara and me.

  “But I’ve been told to make you a final offer,” Kendor said. “If you agree to release Jessica, James, and Lara—you can leave here unharmed.”

  “So after all this time they resort to a threat. Well, you know me. You know how I respond to threats.” Syn hardened her tone and gestured to Frank, who continued to hold Lara tight. “If the Council should so much as force me to blink, I’ll signal Frank to tear the child in two.”

  Kendor shook his head. “Frank isn’t going to hurt Lara.”

  “You’re fast, brother,” Frank warned Kendor. “But not that fast.”

  Kendor seemed to consider. “You’re right.”

  Behind me, it seemed as if the air suddenly thickened. There was a subtle stir, a wavering of the oxygen molecules we breathed. For some reason I could no longer see the white curtains that covered the windows, although they were only a few feet away. Something was blocking my vision, something invisible, which made no sense because if it was invisible I should have been able to see through it. Whatever was manifesting appeared to have the power to disconnect our brains from our eyes, or else our minds from our bodies. There followed a sudden flash of light that was probably more a product of shock than anything else.