“He’s already in medical.” Rue didn’t turn her back on us as she used her master keycard to swipe open the lock. “You have thirty minutes starting from the time I shut this.”
The door clanging behind us caused me a moment of blind panic that turned my hands into claws, ready to rake my nails against the metal and scream until Rue released me, but I gritted my teeth and took in our surroundings. This room was more hospital than prison. Stark, bright, and gleaming with stainless surfaces. I was relieved to find that Volkov had been strapped to an exam table facing away from us.
“This is unexpected,” he rumbled, a thick Russian accent rounding his voice. “You came just last month. Are you so eager for more of our conversation? Perhaps tonight you can tell me what purpose my blood serves you.” He settled into the cracked plastic. “Otherwise, I might not be so eager to…” He whipped his head to the side, nostrils flaring, but he couldn’t see me trembling. “You smell like her.”
Ignoring the implied question, Linus strolled closer. “I have a proposition for you.”
“It is maddening.” Volkov sucked in oxygen until his nostrils whistled. “Did you bring me a piece of her clothing? Have I finally bartered enough to earn that small token?”
“There is no price you could pay high enough to deserve that.”
“A shirt is not so much to someone who has the woman herself.” His voice turned sly. “I could ask for something more…intimate. She and I were almost betrothed. One might argue I even have a right to it.”
The mask of potentate was sealed so flush to Linus’s skin, Volkov had no hope of getting a rise out of him. I hadn’t noticed Linus slipping it on, but he was a master at showing the face required to get the job done.
“Give me two pints of blood, and I will give you the time it takes to collect them with Grier.”
The plastic creaked once before Volkov bared his fangs and started thrashing. “She is here. In this room. That is what I smell.”
Unmoved by the display, Linus watched his tantrum with a bored expression. “Do we have a bargain?”
“Yes,” Volkov hissed. “Bring her to me. Let me see her. The smell is driving me mad.”
Boaz tensed when Linus waved me closer, but he didn’t attempt to restrain me, and he didn’t say a word about what I was about to do.
Maybe he was capable of learning after all.
Black edged my vision, thicker with every step closer to Volkov. I steadied my pulse as much as I was able before circling in front of him.
“Grier,” he breathed. “You came.”
“You agreed to cooperate,” I reminded him, and he went still. “Why did you want to see me?”
“I should have refused your grandfather when he confessed his plans for you.”
“You made your choice.” I managed a politer tone than he deserved. “You can’t unmake it.”
Shifting to stand near his feet, I swapped sides with Linus to give him better access to the equipment.
“I did care for you.” He ignored the prick of the needle. “Surely you must know that.”
“You used your lure on me.” The spot between my shoulders twitched with the memory. “You took away my free will whenever it suited you.”
“I made mistakes.” He began to grow agitated. “I am admitting to them now.”
Linus raised his hand just enough to catch my eye to signal he needed more time.
The opening gave me an excuse to ask a question I had been wondering for a while now. “Did you know Odette Lecomte was Lacroix’s lover?”
“I did,” he admitted after a considering pause. “However, I was ignorant of her connection to you.”
“Mmm-hmm.” As a key player, he would have known it all in case he required the ammunition.
“You were promised to me,” he reminded me softly. “When I am free of this place, I will claim what is mine.”
“Lacroix has named a new heritor,” I fibbed. “He doesn’t need you.”
“Lies,” he hissed. “Lacroix promised…”
“Lacroix talks out of his ass. A lot.” I shrugged. “He’s not going to hand his granddaughter over to a prisoner. He’s not much for jailhouse weddings. We never discussed it, but he doesn’t seem the type. He’s big into pomp and circumstance. Probably expects a lot of lace and silk at my wedding, and that’s just what he’ll be wearing.”
“You will wait for me,” Volkov ordered, hurling his compulsion at me. “I will get free, and I will be rewarded, as promised.”
The urge to bend to his desires rolled over me like water off a duck’s back.
Having pitted myself against Lacroix so often lately, I could appreciate the nuances of Volkov’s power. He was nowhere near as strong as my grandfather, but he was young. Give him a few lifetimes, and he would mature. So would his lure, until he could have anyone he wanted with the crook of his finger. Unless they had protection against him. Protection Linus would soon make available to the public.
A nod from Linus told me he had what we came for, so I no longer felt obligated to play nice.
“I’m engaged,” I announced with no small amount of glee. “That’s why Lacroix can’t hand me over to you, or anyone else. I don’t belong to him. I never did. I wasn’t his to give.”
Volkov loosed a bestial roar and thrashed against his restraints.
“You are mine.” He gnashed his teeth. “I smell my blood on your skin. It intoxicates, solnishko.”
Tension shot down my spine, but I kept putting one foot in front of the other as I walked away.
Rue waited until all three of us clustered in front of the door before releasing the lock and letting us out.
When Linus excused himself to the kitchen, I stood in the hallway with Boaz.
“You’re Boaz Pritchard.” Rue looked him up and down. “I didn’t put it together at first, seeing as how you’re here with Linus.” A nasty smile cut her mouth. “I should have known where Grier goes, you follow like a dog on a leash.”
Leave it to her to zero in on the one member of our party neither of us had warned her away from.
“You’ve got some chip on your shoulder,” I said casually. The contact lenses made it so that’s all you focused on when you first looked at her, but I was paying closer attention now. “How did it get there?”
“I don’t have to explain myself to you.” Pivoting on her heel, she walked off and left us alone.
“I recognize her.” He kept his voice low. “She went to school with us.”
“Your year or mine?” Public schools hustled a lot of kids through their doors, but I felt confident I had never met her. “I’m drawing a blank.”
“She was younger than me, older than you. There’s no reason why you would remember her, but I can tell she remembers you.”
I watched her go, annoyed I couldn’t pin down the memory. “Why’s that?”
“She came on to me. I politely declined. She wouldn’t take no for an answer. It got ugly. I was forced to break it down for her how I didn’t date girls younger than me. I was into age and experience.” He grimaced. “She left me alone after that, until I hit Cass Manfred’s graduation party. Rue crashed it, and so did you and Amelie. Rue caught me walking your troublemaking ass out the door with my arm around your shoulders so you couldn’t escape. She misunderstood and started screaming at me when I came back in to find my drink.”
“You do tend to have that effect on women.” I shrugged. “Why take it out on Linus?”
“He’s engaged to you?” He shrugged back. “Maybe she wanted to hurt you the way you hurt her.”
Without a scrap of doubt, I could tell him, “Linus would never cheat on me.”
“No, he wouldn’t,” he said with equal certainty, “and that leaves antagonizing him.”
“What you’re saying is, she’s got poor taste in men and a death wish.”
Laughter huffed out of him. “Yeah.”
“You have to apologize to Adelaide.” I bit my tongue, but it was too late.
The damage was done. “Sorry, I have no right to stick my nose in your business if I ask you to keep yours out of mine.”
“I don’t know what to do with her,” he admitted, growing somber. “She cares about me. It’s not love, nothing like that, but she could squeeze out tears if I was found in a ditch one night.”
More than a few, if her earlier display was any indication of how deep her feelings had grown.
“That’s setting a high bar.” I snorted. “Do you feel anything for her?”
“I don’t want to keep hurting her.” His worried eyes found mine. “But I don’t know how to stop.”
That wasn’t an answer, but maybe he didn’t have one, and maybe not blurting out a meaningless sure or of course was a step in the right direction.
“You can learn.” I passed on the best advice I had to offer, given how new I was to being half of a whole. “Take notes from successful couples. Think Neely and Cruz or Lethe and Hood. Watch how they make it work, how they treat each other. Modify their formula to suit your needs. Go from there.”
Linus rejoined us with a cooler in hand, and Boaz tensed his fists at his sides but deflated in the next heartbeat. “I’ll work on it.”
Eager to get while the getting was good, I started toward the exit.
We found Rue propped against the reinforced door, playing an app on her phone. “You’ve got three minutes left.”
“I’m afraid a new clock is ticking.” Linus hefted the cooler. “We need to go.”
“You never leave early.” She kept pressing buttons, but the jaunty music had died. “Why break tradition?”
“Open the door.” Mist swirled across the surface of his skin. “Or I will open it for you.”
Panic thrust its balled fist down my throat, cutting off my air, and I sucked in a whistling breath between my teeth.
I was back in prison.
The way out was blocked.
The guard had the key in her pocket.
We were stuck in here, with the inmates, with Volkov.
Trapped, trapped, trapped.
A sour taste coated the back of my throat, but the convulsive swallowing wasn’t helping.
Linus brushed his fingers across my cheek, his fingers icy, his nails gone black as midnight.
The cold shocked me back to my senses, and I rallied as Rue glanced up at us.
“Give me a minute.” She took her time turning off her phone and situating it just so in her pocket. The keycard she pretended to have misplaced until Linus bared his teeth. “Found it.” She swiped it through the lock, but he was done waiting and yanked the door open. “Hey, you need to step off me. This is my job.”
“What was so important about those three minutes?” He swept past her, into the living room, searching for danger. “Rue?”
“I have my orders.” She thrust her shoulders back. “You ask for a slot, you use it.”
“Wrong answer.” Boaz captured her wrist and twisted her arm expertly behind her back where he secured her with a zip tie. “Looks like you’re headed for a time-out.”
Outside, Hood laid on the horn in one long bleat, a signal it was time for us to go.
“Have a seat.” Boaz shoved Rue down into a wingback chair and secured her ankles to its legs. “Comfy?”
Dread pooled in my stomach, but there was no time for an interrogation. “What will you do with her?”
“I’ll call this in.” Boaz stood and dusted his hands before pulling out his phone. “Let someone else get to the bottom of it.”
Across the room, Linus stood looking out onto the street, his expression tight.
Windows down, Hood yelled, “Move your asses.”
A prickling sensation stung like bees across my nape. “Vampires.”
“Get to the van.” Linus thrust the cooler into my arms then nudged me out the door. “I’ll be right behind you.”
The tattered wraith’s coat unfurled across his shoulders, and midnight pooled at his feet.
“I’m not leaving you.” I regained my balance, handed the cooler to Boaz, then shoved him toward the van. “Go.”
Planting his feet, Boaz refused to budge. “I’m not leaving either.”
And neither, it seemed, was Rue. Calling for a sentinel to escort her to their base would have to wait.
The moonlit scythe glinted in Linus’s fist, and I couldn’t see his face beneath his cowl as I cut my palm.
“Hand,” I demanded, and he offered me the one not holding an instrument of death. “Don’t give me the look just because you know I wouldn’t be able to see you giving me the look. Two sigils never hurt anyone.”
“Grier.” He caught my fingers in his. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” I wriggled free. “You’re still getting another sigil.” I drew it on his wrist, where his wraith’s cloak might offer some protection. “Boaz, you’re next.”
While Linus watched our backs, I drew several on Boaz in the hopes at least one wouldn’t smudge.
Outside forces might not budge the design, but even an impervious sigil could fall victim to the wearer’s sweat or a careless itch that got scratched all the same.
“You really do love him,” Boaz murmured. “You’re not afraid of him.”
“I really do, and I’m really not.” I finished with him then started on myself. “Did you think he was using his scythe on me behind closed doors?”
“Pretty sure he does, yeah.” He scrubbed his palm over his hair, awkward in a way he never used to be with me. “You were running around in a sheet after spending the night with him.”
The joke came too soon, but it still forced a mortified laugh out of me. “Do not say that where Lethe can overhear.”
Is that a scythe in your pocket, or are you just happy to see Grier?
Did Grier help you sharpen your scythe last night?
Did you scythe Grier last night?
And so on.
I would never hear the end of it. Ever. And forever was a long time for folks like us.
Cursing the three of us soundly, Hood let up on the horn and exited the van while cracking his knuckles.
The wash of red magic as he assumed his gwyllgi form reminded me to close my own ward. A quick swipe of my wrist sent magic humming as a wall of compressed air formed a hard shell around me.
No sooner had my ears popped than a group of six vampires rounded the corner with crowbars, sledgehammers, and bats in hand. They looked ready to smash the heck out of something, but that something wouldn’t be us.
“Good evening, gentlemen.” Linus strolled toward the vampires. “Can I be of assistance?”
“Ain’t you heard?” the one on the far right drawled. “Savannah belongs to the vampires now.”
“I’m afraid we’ll have to agree to disagree.” Linus swept the scythe in a warning arc in front of him. “Savannah is under Society protection.”
“Hey.” The third one wedged in between the others. “That’s her.”
“Grier something,” the fourth one agreed. “Lacroix’s granddaughter. He said you might come after Volkov. Guess he was right.” He smiled, fangs on display, and ran his tongue along one point. “This night just keeps getting better and—”
A dull thud preceded his head hitting the pavement and rolling into the street.
“You might not be scared of him,” Boaz muttered next to me, “but I might need fresh boxers after this.”
Ignoring the carnage, Linus kept his tone polite. “Leave, and the rest of you will be spared.”
“You killed Dan,” Number Two bellowed. “What the actual fuck?”
With Two’s eloquent battle cry ringing in our ears, Number One charged us. He must have been an older vamp. The way he swung his sledgehammer reminded me of a Viking wielding an ax. He used the shaft to absorb the scythe’s blows, his movements practiced and brutal.
That left Boaz and me with Two, Three, Five, and Six.
“I can already smell the vampire BBQ,” I taunted. “I hope someone brought side
s.”
Squeezing my hand, I coaxed fresh blood into my palm that I used to draw sigils on my ward. I lined up a row of four and slammed my palm against the wall of air. Magic blasted out in a wave, striking two out of the four before they could dodge.
Unlike last time, when I was protecting my friends, these vampires didn’t crisp on the spot. They hit the pavement and rolled, the wind knocked out of them.
Well, that was embarrassing.
“Make up your mind,” I grumbled at the seeping cut. “I can’t invite them to a vampire BBQ if I can’t ignite the grill.”
Two shots fired behind me, the proximity causing my ears to ring. Boaz had winged one of the remaining vampires, but the other was bulling straight for us, and the two I had knocked down were getting to their feet.
More blood, more focus. Less fear, less doubt.
Teeth gritted, I slammed my bloody palms against my ward and sent a blast of energy hurtling toward my targets.
Impact stunned them, and panic tightened their eyes. Then it was over. They turned to ash and swirled away on the breeze.
A shocked gasp punched out of Boaz, and when I turned, the gun wilted in his hand. “How did…?”
There was no time to fill him in, and I preferred to keep the scope of my emerging powers to myself and Linus, who remained locked in combat with Number One.
I couldn’t blast the vampire without risking Linus, and I couldn’t join the fight either. Not only did I not have a weapon, but getting too close to Linus while he did his thing was a recipe for decapitation. All I could safely do was stand there and feel like a total—
A deafening shot rang out, and Number One hit the ground with a clatter of his hammer.
Linus whirled toward us, scythe raised, but I didn’t have to turn to know Boaz had taken the shot.
“Thanks,” Linus panted.
A shrug rolled through Boaz’s shoulders. “Don’t mention it.”
Before I finished marveling over their cordiality, I realized we were a man down. “Where’s Hood?”
But neither Linus nor Boaz had an answer for me.
Eight
About the time my heart lodged in my throat, Hood trotted around the corner of the neighboring house with an arm dangling from his mouth. He wagged his tail at me and kept going, finding a comfy spot on the lawn to dig into his treat.
How to Wake an Undead City Page 14