Jenks zipped through the kitchen, Rex and Belle under him, the cat watching him with her tail up straight. “I’ve got some of that new nectar crap in the fridge,” he said. “If it gets late and I’m not back, just warm it up. And you have to warm it, or it drops their core temp.”
“I got this!” the irate fairy said. “I spent three years tending younglings before I became a warrior. That they’re pixy brats instead of fairy fry don’t mean troll turds.”
Ivy walked in, intent on reaching the blade oil she kept in the pantry. She was in her working leathers, and I suddenly felt underdressed. “Damn, you look good,” I said, ignoring Wayde beside the archway with his arms crossed over his chest.
Ivy looked down at herself, an oil-soaked rag in her hand. “Thanks. You wearing that? You’re going to leave skin on the pavement if you have to run.”
Jittery, I grabbed three pain amulets by their cords, then a couple of disguise charms just in case. I wanted them to recognize me, but someone else might want to use them. My gaze slid to Trent’s charms on the table, and in a surge of decision, I shoved them in there, too. “If we have three minutes, I can get my leather on.” I should have called Trent about that ring. Too late now.
She nodded. “We can wait that long. Glenn is sending a car. Jenks, get your kids to shut up, will you? I can’t think with them yammering like that!”
He rose, his wings a bright silver I’d not seen in almost a year. “Where we going?” he demanded. “Cold? Warm?”
Wayde cleared his throat, and I stiffened. “I don’t think you should go,” he said, and the kitchen became silent.
A pixy giggled. Belle made a weird lisping whistle, and the kids followed her out, teasing Rex by flitting almost in front of the cat’s nose. Ivy gave Wayde a look, then turned on her heel, leaving the kitchen and shouting over her shoulder, “Five minutes!” Jenks trailed behind her, still wanting to know if he needed his cold-weather gear.
Alone in the kitchen with Wayde, I closed my charm cupboard. Amulets clanking as I dropped them into my shoulder bag on the table, I turned to face Wayde. “You’re not my alpha,” I said, then brushed by him headed for my room. Five minutes would give me just enough time. I could even put on some makeup.
“If David was here, he’d tell you to stay,” Wayde said from behind me.
“All David said was for me not to be alone,” I said, then stopped on the threshold to my room. I was never going to have another boyfriend. Ever. “Look, if you want to come along, come along. But I can tell you right now that Glenn won’t let you on-site.”
Ivy brushed past us on her way to the back living room, her unsheathed katana in her hand, and Wayde pressed back to get out of her way. “Ivy? Where we going?” I called, my thoughts on my closet, not the questionable smarts about going after a militant hate group again. This time, though, I had my magic. I had Ivy and Jenks with me, too—as well as a bunch of I.S. and FIB guys.
“Library” came from the back room, and then Wayde pressed back again when she came out. “Downtown Cincy. The one you broke into a few years ago.”
My eyes widened, and I took a step back into my room. “No way!” I said, remembering the locked rooms down in the seldom-visited basement. Trent had said they were downtown. How had he known?
“Yes way,” Jenks said in passing as he zipped over us, a whining preteen following him.
Ivy sent her gaze into the kitchen, shocking the hell out of me when she asked, “Can I have one of your pain amulets? Just in case?”
My mouth literally dropped open and I nodded. It was the first time she’d ever asked for my magic, and I wondered what it meant. “Sure,” I said, and she vanished into the kitchen.
“Two minutes!” she shouted from the kitchen, and the pixies squealed from the sanctuary. She brushed past me in a swirl of vampire incense, and I looked at Wayde.
“I gotta go,” I said, hand on my door to shut it in his face. “If you’re coming, you might want to change.”
“This is not a good idea!” he said loudly, and I closed the door.
No, riding behind you on a bike wasn’t a good idea, I thought sourly. God! You show one tiny slip of softness, and they think you’re a damsel in distress. At least Pierce let me fight my own battles, even if he did mess them up royally. Man, I hoped he was okay. Being Newt’s familiar was not a good thing. At least he was alive. And probably having the time of his life trying to kill her, now that I thought about it.
From the other side of my door came Wayde’s exasperated voice, saying, “You’ve already been targeted by them once. You think Glenn is going to let you out of the car?”
I stripped down to my sports bra and socks, then dropped to my hands and knees to look under my bed for my running boots. Low heel, good traction, supple leather. Ivy had gotten them for me for my birthday last year.
“Rachel?”
Grimacing, I threw the boots onto the bed and rose, snatching up my leather pants and shoving my feet into them. My fingertips touched the mended part where the bullet had gone through, and I sobered. “If I’m not there,” I said loudly, “they’ll get away. I know it!” I said, believing it to my core. “They’re just too lucky to be believed.”
A sparkle of dust slipped under my door, and I gasped. “Jenks, get out of here!” I shouted, grabbing my shirt and covering myself.
“Hurry up, Rache! Let’s go!” he said, not caring I was still half naked.
“Get out!” I shrieked, and he blinked, wings becoming red when he saw me.
“Oh, crap,” he murmured. “Sorry. The car is here . . .”
“I still have one minute,” I said, adrenaline making my motions jerky as I gave up on modesty and put my shirt on. What could he see around a sports bra anyway? I felt like Cinderella as I jammed my boots on and opened the door to find Wayde still there, fidgeting.
My boots were still unzipped as I shoved Wayde out of my way and clomped through a cloud of cheerful pixies. Ivy was waiting at the front door, looking like a sexy predator with her leather jacket and sword, and she handed me my shoulder bag, already stocked with my charms, splat gun, and a slew of sleepy-time potions.
“You got your phone?” she said as I looped the bag over my shoulder.
“Yes.” I patted my back pocket and hopped on one foot to get my boot fastened.
“Got minutes on it?” Jenks asked snidely.
“Yes!” I exclaimed, getting the other boot zipped. “Let’s go!”
Ivy reached for the door, took a breath, and opened it. The late sun spilled in around me, and I headed out after her, waving to the pixies that wreathed us, thinning to nothing as we reached the curb. A black FIB van waited, and I looked up when Wayde ran down the steps and reached for the door’s handle. “I’m coming,” he said, and he shoved the wide sliding door open.
“ ’Bout time he figured it out,” Jenks said as he zipped in ahead of me, and accepting Wayde’s help, I got in, settling myself on the far end. Ivy was already sitting next to Glenn, and I smiled at the FIB guy driving us.
Downtown, I thought as Wayde got in and slid the door to a firm, definite shut. How had Trent known?
Twenty-Three
The van was one of those big ones, with half the seats turned to look backward. Glenn and Ivy were sitting next to each other with their backs to the front of the vehicle. There was a faint tension between them, a hesitation that hadn’t been there before, and I wondered if my capture had been the straw that tripped the camel. Or whatever. Wayde sat at my left, currently gripping the chicken strap and looking ill. I couldn’t blame him. The revolving lights were on and we were running red lights and swerving a lot.
A blueprint of the subbasement at the library was spread across our collective laps. It was laid out like a fortress with nested rings connected by the occasional passageway. Not what you’d expect under a city library, but Cincy was one of the oldest cities in the
U.S., and she had more than a few surprises under her skirts. The money for the failed subway had gone somewhere after all.
Jenks hovered over it all as if nailed to the air as we bounced and swerved. “I didn’t know that was there,” he said, his hands on his hips and lighting a small circle of schematic.
The paper rattled as we took a turn and Glenn’s grip on it tightened. “It’s an abandoned military post from the Turn,” he said, leaning so close I could smell his aftershave. “They mothballed it shortly after, but if you know your history or think to look for it, you can find it.”
He looked up when Ivy bumped his knee, and she said, “That was good thinking, Glenn.”
“Thanks.” He didn’t look at her, and she met my eyes and shrugged, her expression sad. Jenks’s wings hummed as he noticed our exchange, and I made a mental note to ask his opinion of Glenn’s attitude when this was over. He was better than a lie detector in finding discrepancies between words and body language. I knew he liked Glenn, but he had liked Pierce, too. Man, I was glad I didn’t need to feel guilty about the man’s death.
The car began slowing, and I looked out the front window as the driver stiffened. “Sir?” the man said without turning around. “We’re at the outside perimeter. I was going to go straight to the drop point, but we’re being flagged down.” His voice shifted, and he added, “It appears to be I.S. personnel bumming a ride.”
Glenn looked over his shoulder, and Jenks darted to the front, stopping just short of hitting the windshield. “It’s Nina,” he said, his wings turning a particular shade of orange that meant he had mixed emotions. Ivy, too, looked uncomfortable.
“Pull over,” Glenn said, sounding tired. “We have room.”
“You’re taking her in?” Wayde said loudly, and I winced as Ivy’s jaw clenched. “She killed a man. Why isn’t she in custody?”
Ivy took the map and folded it smaller as the car rocked to a stop. “The vampire she was channeling at the time is high up in the I.S. If he wants to go, she’s going. I doubt very much he’s going to let her take the fall for his error in judgment.”
“Besides,” Glenn said as he leaned over to open the door, “if we don’t pick her up, Felix will commandeer another car. The fewer outside the library, the better.”
I was unable to find fault with his argument even though I was sort of agreeing with Wayde for a different reason. Nina was in over her head, and Felix was dragging her into deeper water. Nina would be a detriment in a fight, but as Glenn had said, if she wanted to be there, she was going to be there. Might as well try to have a say in where she’d be.
The wind from the river was brisk as the door slid noisily open. Nina stood waiting with her hands behind her back, looking professional in her elegant, sharp dress suit, her haunted eyes and posture telling me that it was she alone. Ivy’s words lifted through me, and I hoped we weren’t making a mistake. Both Felix and Nina had failed by murdering that suspect, but that’s probably not how Nina saw it. Behind her was a slew of I.S. and FIB vehicles, officers yammering as last-minute details were hammered out. We were about a mile from the library, and it was still too close for me for the level of activity.
“Mind if I ride with you?” she asked meekly, and Ivy pushed Glenn over to make room.
Nina hesitated, looking for recrimination in everyone’s faces, and from the front of the car, Jenks shouted, “Get in, will you? Were you born in a stump? It’s cold out!”
The light was eclipsed as Nina gracefully entered in a wash of nervous vampire and expensive perfume. My mood worsened as she shunned the space beside Ivy, sitting beside me instead. I found out why when Nina shivered, pulled herself straighter, and turned to beam toothily at me, Felix firmly in control once more.
“Good afternoon,” she said, her voice smoother than before, and now holding the cloying richness of caramel. “What a wonderful day for a procurement.”
My welcoming smile faded, and I said nothing, not happy with the man behind the woman. Slowly Nina’s smile vanished. Ivy wasn’t happy, either, and when the door shut, the car smoothly reentered traffic. The lights were off, and I inched away from her, trying not to look like I was.
“Mmm, is that a schematic?” Nina extended her hand, and Ivy gave it to her. “This is a much better copy than we have,” the vampire admitted, spreading it open on her lap, her knees spaced apart far more than I’m sure Nina normally would allow.
Glenn leaned back into the seat, clearly not liking her on the run, much less in the car with us, even if it was his idea. “It’s the original,” he said.
“The detail is exquisite,” Nina breathed, her finger tracing the circular defenses. “We have nothing like this. You say it was in the FIB files? Ah, here’s the secondary entrance. That’s where I will be.”
“I have a team there, but you’re welcome to observe,” Glenn said stiffly.
Nina looked up from the map as we rocked to a halt at a stoplight. “Observe. Yes,” she said, smiling in a way that said she’d be doing a little more than that if he/she got her way. Glenn was frowning, but I thought it was a good place for an unreliable vampire. She’d be out of temptation’s path unless the excitement came to her, whereupon she’d be justified in letting loose and doing some damage to fleeing felons.
Glenn stiffly took the map up and refolded it. “Your people have a net sink in place?”
A shadow of annoyance crossed Nina as the map slipped from her, but she stifled it and smiled at the FIB detective. “It took me all morning, but I found three witches in the tower with the skill to set one and the ability to work together.” Her eyes came to me. “Witches are a funny lot, picky about whom they share their minds with. If anyone tries to jump out using a line, they’ll find themselves in a cell.”
I stifled a shiver, and feeling it, Nina said, “How are you doing, Ms. Morgan? I’ll admit I’m surprised to see you after your capture and injury.”
Jenks snickered from the rearview mirror, and Glenn shoved the folded map into his jacket pocket. “I’m not,” the detective said sarcastically.
Jenks flew into the backseat. “You thought she’d stay home and watch my kids?”
Nina ignored the pixy yo-yoing up and down, instead looking at me with a worrisome intentness. “I understood you were shot at close range,” she said, her gaze flicking to the patch job on my pants and back again.
I shrugged, wishing she wasn’t sitting so close. “It was a small rifle,” I said, trying to downplay it. “Algaliarept ran a healing charm. I’m better than before.” My lips pressed, and I didn’t care if my anger pushed her buttons. “Don’t you think it’s odd, how HAPA always seems to get away?”
Nina glanced sidelong at Glenn. “Yes, I do, actually. But very well,” she said as if she had a say in the matter. “If you say you’re a hundred percent, you’re a hundred percent. What concerns me the most is your reputation, Detective Glenn.”
Ivy stiffened, and I wondered if I should ask the driver to crack the window. It was starting to smell really good in here. Which wasn’t good at all. What was Felix playing at? There was no reason he needed to be in Nina right now. He was making matters worse.
“There’s nothing wrong with Glenn’s reputation,” Jenks said for the rest of us as he came to land on the headrest of the empty front-passenger seat.
Nina shifted the hem of her dress coat and smiled, showing no teeth. “I’m starting to wonder if HAPA is even there,” she said, and Jenks made a rude sound, his wings folding, and turning his back on the vampire. “My amulet has failed to ping, and we’re right on top of them. There’s no line to interfere. From all appearances, we are descending upon an empty bunker.”
I felt a stab of worry. I looked at Ivy, who was looking at Glenn. Glenn wasn’t looking at anyone, his jaw set and his focus distant. Crap on toast. Were we out here when my amulets hadn’t worked?
“They are there,” the FIB
detective said defensively as the car eased to a halt at a light and I braced myself. “We didn’t find HAPA with Rachel’s magic. We found them through careful detective work.” Glenn finally met my gaze, and my heart seemed to skip a beat in worry. “Not to say your amulets weren’t helpful, but if HAPA chose their last base knowing they’d have to circumvent magic, their next would be the same. Kalamack told us his intel pointed at the city center. I sent a few people that way in the archives.”
“He told me that, too,” I said, glad now that I had his charms with me.
“I simply matched up city-owned buildings with abandoned medical sites. It wasn’t until I threw in military posts developed during the Turn that I found the lower levels to the library.”
Jenks strutted across the headrest, walking right off it with his wings going full tilt. “You don’t think Glenn would get us out here unless he checked it out first, do you?”
The knot of worry in me eased, and I leaned back into the seat. “I didn’t know anything like that even existed.”
Glenn nodded, reaching out when the van took a corner tight. “You don’t build a library that spans two blocks for no reason. It was set to hide a military base, right in downtown Cincinnati.” His attention going to Nina, he added, “I’m surprised you don’t know of it. It was built under your nose. It’s perfect for HAPA’s needs.”
HAPA’s needs, I thought, frowning. Their need to hold people against their will. A place with electricity and solitude, one with quick access to people and escape.
“The bunker is too deep for magic to easily penetrate,” Glenn was saying, “but your amulet will light up as soon as we get deep enough. We sent a team in this morning. Someone from HAPA is down there. I guarantee it.”
My eyes narrowed, and my gaze shot past Glenn and out through the front window as the van’s brakes squeaked. “Approaching the drop-off zone, sir,” the driver said, and my shot of adrenaline made Ivy’s and Nina’s pupils dilate. Crap, I had to get out from between these two before someone got bitten. Like me.