Broken Dolls: An Urban Fantasy (The Telepathic Clans Saga Book 3)

by BR Kingsolver

  *What’s that? It looks like an extra trigger.*

  *Yes, it’s a safe word trigger. It shuts both of the compulsions off. I don’t want to get fried trying to rescue you.*

  *Oh, good thinking.*

  *This was a little tricky. I don’t want the compulsions setting off if you fall asleep naturally. And since I don’t know what drug he might use, you can’t test for that. So it will go off if your breathing, heart rate, and neural activity all go outside of certain ranges. Julia’s bright idea. I don’t know enough about physiology to be able to figure that out. I’m also going to place a construct on your first level. You won’t even notice it.*

  *What does it do?*

  *It’s a nine-level construct with an artificial soul. It sits in your first level, and if anyone breaches your shields, it can fool them into thinking they’ve captured your mind. When they relax, it gives you time to gather yourself and hit them back. It works.*

  I wished that I had a few hours to have her explain that to me, but she withdrew from my mind. I felt her gradually grow more distant until her link faded and only mine to her remained.

  I didn’t feel any different, and though I could see the nine-part segmentation on the first level of my mind and the “false soul,” they looked completely natural. I couldn’t tell how it was built or if it was separate from me. But I did know it hadn’t been there a few minutes before.

  I wasn’t going to argue with her. I was absolutely in favor of anything she thought might protect me. I went back to parrying Brendan’s questions.

  “What does your boyfriend think about losing parts of his life?” O’Driscoll asked.

  “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  “You do have sex with him, don’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Doesn’t he work?”

  “Yes.” I was getting confused as hell.

  “Well, doesn’t it bother him that he sleeps for days afterward? It seems you girls never think of the man.”

  He’d been with succubi. Many times. He thought that’s what I was. For some reason, it hadn’t occurred to me exactly what Rebecca’s perfume had done. I’d just accepted it as a means of turning him on and distracting him.

  “It’s not something I can control,” I said in a small voice.

  “But it’s something you love. You get a Glow and all of his energy. You take and take, and all he does is give.”

  I’d heard it said that sex with a succubus is the best feeling in the world. Men do become addicted, as much as a succubus becomes addicted to the energy and the Glow. I realized that O’Driscoll was at least semi-addicted, and he resented the hell out of it.

  “I’m sorry. I’d change it if I could. There are other ways I can pleasure a man.”

  He looked at me, and a small smile grew on his face. “Yes, there certainly are.”

  Damn, damn, and double damn. What a stupid thing for me to say.

  Chapter 27

  I received periodic news bulletins. At one point, Rebecca sent, *Okay, we got a couple of teams out of Wicklow that managed to get ahead of you. If we have to, we can try to break you free on the road.*

  *That sounds like a good idea,* I replied. I did not like the idea of entering O’Driscoll’s home. Staying outside sounded a lot better than breaking out. The thought of being drugged and helpless with that man practically made me wet my pants.

  *It would be a last resort. We’d outnumber them slightly, but a firefight in an open area and trying to keep you safe would probably be a mess. I want to hold the casualties down on our side.*

  She was right, and I was being selfish because I was afraid. If even one of O’Byrne’s Protectors died trying to save me, would I be able to explain to his mother why I was more important than he was?

  I didn’t think I was sending that through the link, but Rebecca sent, *Don’t worry. We won’t let him get you inside. The latest we’ll attack is when the car stops.*

  We were passing Cork, snacking on caviar and fois gras and working on our second bottle of champagne, when Rebecca contacted me again.

  *Everything’s set up. I have an assault force on its way to his estate, and they should arrive about an hour before you do. The commander will assess the situation and decide if they should take the house before you get there or wait for your arrival.*

  *Assault force? How are they getting there so quickly?* I asked.

  *I scrambled a hundred Protectors and sent them down by helicopter.*

  *You did?*

  *Yeah. O’Donnell is staging troops at Wicklow as reinforcements for our troops on the continent and England. You do know there’s a war going on, don’t you?*

  *I’d heard something about it. You can command O’Donnell forces? I thought you were just the leader of the security team protecting Seamus’s granddaughter.*

  *The head of our forces at Wicklow likes me.*

  For a girl who likes to work alone, I had over a hundred people engaged in an operation to bail my ass out of trouble. Note to self, try to stay a little more low key.

  ~~~

  We drove through the village of Baltimore, past Fort of the Jewels, the fortified house that was the original O’Driscoll Clan seat. You had to pay attention or you’d miss the whole thing. That late at night, the only thing I saw open was a pub. The smell of the ocean was strong and clean, and a full moon hung large in the sky above us. It looked like a very pretty place. Maybe I’d get to see it the next day. I hoped so.

  We continued on and the road swung away from the coast. After a few miles, we turned off.

  *Rebecca, where the hell are we? Can you show me a map?*

  *Sure, let me grab a flashlight.*

  A few minutes later, I saw a map in a circle of light through her eyes.

  *Flashlight, torch, how the hell am I supposed to know you people call things weird names?* she grumbled. * Okay, we’re here.* I saw a finger point to a place on the map near a spot labeled Baltimore. *And you’re going here.* The finger moved down the coast.

  I looked out the window. There wasn’t a tree in sight. Where were they going to hide a hundred men and a bunch of helicopters?

  *Jared decided against taking the manor house,* Rebecca sent, *though they’re staged to do so. When the car comes to a stop, get the hell out and roll away from it. Trigger your air shield. All hell is going to break loose.*

  I didn’t bother to tell her that I doubted I’d be able to open the door. I was pretty sure I’d have to wait for the driver to unlock it.

  I looked out at the silent countryside, saw cliffs in the distance in the moonlight. We drove past a flock of sleeping sheep. It was so pastoral and serene that it was hard to imagine that soon a small war was going to break out.

  The manor house was foreboding in the moonlight, standing starkly near the cliffs. The smell of the sea was strong, even through the rolled-up windows. The house seemed larger than the O’Byrne manor house, though far smaller than the palace where John Gordon had died. It really was sort of a castle, with a twenty-foot tall crenelated curtain wall surrounding it. We drove up in front, and I heard the car door lock click. I reached out to open it.

  “Welcome to Driscoll Manor,” Brendan said, opening the door on his side. He grabbed my arm and pulled me after him.

  He held me in his arms and looked into my eyes. In heels, I was as tall as he was. “I’ve been looking forward to this,” he said. “You are so incredibly beautiful.”

  Any other man would have tried to kiss me, but Brendan simply turned away, taking my hand in his.

  “Dinner is waiting for us,” he said, pulling me along.

  As long as he was touching me, I couldn’t trigger my air shield without covering him also. I could kill him, but I hesitated to do that. I’d been having nightmares where I saw the faces of each of the men I’d killed.

  *Rebecca. Wait. I can’t get free of him.*

  Through our link, I heard her send a thought, *Hold your fire. Hostage is not clear. Wait for my signal.*
She had to be much closer if she was communicating telepathically with troops close enough to fire on us.

  I breathed a sigh of relief, but then looked at the house and remembered my fear of going inside. Memories of Ramona Fitzgerald as seen through Chantelle’s Healer’s eyes flashed through my mind. Luckily, I do clumsy well. I pulled the same trick as I had in the restaurant, hooking my high heel against the other shoe. I went down, dragging O’Driscoll with me until he let go of my hand. Instantly, I triggered a tight air shield around me.

  *Go.* I sent to Rebecca.

  Brendan stumbled back from me, then turned, his face contorted and red. “My God. You are so fucking clumsy,” he shouted at me.

  A ball of fire appeared out of the darkness, and the van that had been following the limo burst into flames. I rolled along the ground, away from O’Driscoll and away from the vehicles, kicking off my high heels. Another fireball hit the limo, and the gas tank exploded.

  O’Driscoll sprinted for the open door of his house. He ducked inside just as a fireball hit the front steps. Shouting men were running in all directions. I heard shots, then the chatter of machine-gun fire. I continued rolling.

  When the area around me seemed a little darker, and I couldn’t feel the heat from the flames as much, I climbed to my feet and began running away from the house. Almost immediately, five men materialized, dressed for combat and carrying assault rifles. I stopped and braced.

  *Don’t touch her,* I heard Rebecca’s mental voice, *she’ll kill you. Protect her, but don’t try to touch her.*

  Two of the men passed me, giving me a wide berth. I turned and saw them taking up posts behind me, facing the house, not me.

  “Miss?” One of the men in front of me said with an American accent, “If you’ll come this way, please. Rebecca and the O’Byrne team are waiting for you.”

  I walked with them about a hundred yards to where Rebecca, Morrighan and Peter stood beside a van. Rebecca walked toward me, stopping about ten feet away.

  “What is my middle name?”

  Confused, I said, “Aine. Why?” I wasn’t sure how I knew that. I didn’t think she’d ever told me.

  “Delilah.”

  I started to open my mouth and felt two little ‘poofs’ in my head. Rebecca rushed toward me, grabbing my arms.

  “Are you all right? Are you hurt?” Rebecca asked.

  “Who’s Delilah?”

  She laughed. “That was the safe word to disarm the compulsions. The other question was a passcode, to make sure your mind hadn’t been messed with.”

  I still was a bit confused. “Why did you tell them I’d kill them?”

  “In addition to the compulsions you asked for, I added another trigger. I did it in case O’Driscoll didn’t drug you. If your adrenaline and breathing rates were elevated above a certain point, as they would be if you were terrified, someone touching you would trigger them. Since you’d been running, I figured the conditions were met.”

  Morrighan walked up and pulled me into a hug. “She’s a little obsessive,” she said. “Construct artists tend to be a bit too detail oriented. And Delilah was your great grandmother.”

  “I never met her.” If I sounded confused, it was because I was. Things were happening too quickly.

  “I know, but I did.”

  I took a step and almost fell on my face. I’d stepped on the hem of my dress. “I don’t suppose you brought clothes for me?”

  “Sorry,” Morrighan said.

  “Does someone have a belt?” I asked. “At least I can hike this dress up so I can walk.”

  “A belt that will fit your waist?” Morrighan asked.

  “Mine probably will,” Rebecca said. “My pants won’t fall off.” She helped me gather the waist of the dress and belt it securely, so that the hem fell a little past my knees.

  A young man about my age, dressed like the assault team but without a helmet, walked up. Rebecca turned to him.

  “Status?” she asked.

  “We’ve got control of almost all of it, except for a couple of pockets of resistance.”

  “Casualties?”

  “We have two wounded. Minor, no big deal. They have one dead, one wounded. If the damn fool had any sense, he wouldn’t have died. Tried to fight back and fell off the curtain wall.”

  I waved my arm toward the burning vehicles. “All of this and almost no casualties? Are you blokes bad shots?”

  “We weren’t trying to kill people,” Rebecca said. “This out here was a diversion.”

  “We took the curtain wall when we first got here,” the young man said. “When we lit up the vehicles, my Protectors moved into the house. This far out in the country, none of the doors were even locked. If I could find a couple of people with the O’Byrne Gift, we can probably get the last holdouts to surrender.”

  When he stepped closer, I realized he was gorgeous. As tall as Peter, but more slender, with brown hair and deep blue eyes. I was instantly in love. Or lust. Or both. Maybe I just needed a little stress relief.

  “I’ll volunteer,” I said. Did I sound a little too eager?

  Rebecca shot me a look and then chuckled. “RB Kendrick, may I introduce Jared Wilkins.”

  He looked me up and down. “So you’re the reason for all this commotion,” he said with a grin.

  “Not me. Brendan O’Driscoll. I was just bait. Have you captured him?”

  He shook his head. “We were all shown an image of him, but no one has reported finding him yet.”

  “Have you found the girls?” I asked.

  “We haven’t found any kids at all.” He looked a bit confused.

  “Not kids, women. Probably very young women. His sex slaves. Have you found his dungeon?”

  “We found the basement. Nothing in it I would call a dungeon. Not even a cell.”

  “Not that kind of dungeon. His torture chamber, where he plays his sick, sadistic games with women.”

  Jared shook his head.

  “There have to be dozens of hidden rooms and holes to hide in,” I said. “The place probably has hidden passages, escape tunnels, rooms that only the family knows about.”

  Jared and Rebecca looked at me with wide eyes.

  Morrighan looked back and forth between the two of them.

  “Didn’t you think of that?” she asked. “The older servants probably know all of them.” She pointed to the house. “When you’re inside, doesn’t it feel small compared to what it looks like from here? Just like O’Byrne does?”

  “We didn’t grow up with castles,” Jared growled, wheeling away and taking off at a run toward the house.

  I followed him, but in just a few strides, Rebecca passed me. They ran in the front gate, then Peter passed me as well and followed the two O’Donnell Protectors.

  I slowed and stopped. Behind the castle, the land sloped toward the ocean. The original builders put the place out there in the middle of nowhere for a reason. Defense, but also escape. They probably also made a decent living smuggling. The farthest southern point in Ireland. Perfect for the Spanish trade. I headed around the outside wall.

  In the back, there was another, smaller, gate. A sally port, used to let fighters or foragers out without opening the main gate. Most medieval castles had them. This place was built much later, but many of the old concepts had been incorporated in its design. The gate was open. But I didn’t think that was how Brendan would have escaped. Especially since O’Donnell Protectors probably used it to get in. I started trotting outward from the gate toward the cliff.

  *Rhiannon. If you take the right side, I’ll take the left.*

  I turned and saw Morrighan, standing beside the wall. Dressed in blue jeans and a sweater, she looked a lot more comfortable out there than I felt.

  *You know what I’m looking for?* I asked.

  *The smuggler’s tunnel.*

  I smiled to myself. Morrighan’s mind held ancient memories. *Okay, I’ll take the right.*

  I moved out farther to the right of the sally p
ort and began casting about, looking for a hidden opening in the ground. Morrighan did the same on the other side of the castle, both of us moving away from the walls toward the cliffs. We could see each other in the moonlight and feel each other through our link. I hoped what we were looking for didn’t come out of the cliff face itself. That was a possibility.

  We searched in an ever-expanding radius as we moved away from the house. Rebecca contacted me, worried about where I was. I told her what we were doing, and she said she’d send some more people to help us.

  *Rhi,* Morrighan sent, *I see him. He’s coming out from the rocks by the wall in front of me.*

  The whole peninsula was crisscrossed with low stone walls defining pastures. The wall she indicated had incorporated several large rocks, twice as tall as a person. I took off running toward her.

  *Don’t try to confront him,* I sent.

  *Don’t worry. I know I can’t defend a fireball.*

  Morrighan’s Gifts didn’t include Aerokinesis. In a close confrontation, she could take O’Driscoll, but at a distance, he had the advantage.

  She was crouched by the wall when I reached her. I looked beyond and saw him about fifty yards ahead of us, walking down a path toward the cliffs. In his dark suit, he wasn’t easy to see.

  *We found the girls,* Rebecca sent. *He’s holding five of them here, all very young s-gene carriers. We also found the dungeon. It’s pretty bad. And we found his books on a computer. Transactions, contacts, lists of girls he’s trafficked. There’s enough to justify a mindwipe.*

  I was still covered by my air shield. I locked down my mental shields as tightly as I could, then climbed over the wall and started jogging after him. Morrighan followed me.

  He was walking quickly, but conserving his energy. I slowed, trying to be quieter. He must have heard me, though, because he looked over his shoulder and saw me. He whirled around and hurled a fireball at me. It hit my air shield and splattered. Seeing that, he turned and started running. His initial burst of speed opened a lead, but soon he slowed and I began to gain ground on him.

  The path led straight on as far as I could see toward the cliffs and the ocean. We crossed another wall, and the slope down to the cliffs steepened. The path began to switch back and forth. More large rocks littered the landscape, and the path curved around some of them. We were nearing the cliff and the last wall, the one that would keep the sheep from going over the edge.