Department 57: Bloody Crystal

by Lynne Connolly

  He nodded and took her hand. “Until then.”

  He did have a particularly sweet smile. But she’d rather see Rhodri’s dark chocolate gaze right now.

  Chapter Nine

  It took Cerys some time to fall asleep, wondering about the turn her life was taking and if she’d ever know normal again. Worrying about Rhodri. This was worse than believing he’d left her. She’d rather have him alive and with someone else than dead. That puzzled her too, since she wanted him for herself.

  Still fretting, her mind going in circles, she finally fell asleep.

  If not for her mobile phone going off, she’d probably have slept past midday. But she had to get out of bed to find it in the pocket of yesterday’s jeans, and by then she was awake. “Are you ready to receive us?”

  Kai. Ah yes, great. That was the other thing. In broad daylight, she was a mortal, nothing else. She was about to invite two hugely powerful beings into her flat. “Come right over,” she said brightly. “About twenty minutes?”

  “Fine.”

  That gave her time to shower and dress. She glanced out the window. Nice day, fine clouds scudding across the sky, and the sea only slightly choppy. She’d have enjoyed a walk along the promenade today. After giving the view a last wistful look, she crossed to her kitchen area and filled the kettle. She grabbed a slice of bread and popped it into the toaster, only giving a passing thought to the full breakfast her visitors had probably enjoyed. She’d go to the chippie later, get fresh fish and chips. Nothing like fresh fish eaten within sight of the sea.

  Precisely twenty minutes after the phone call, her bell rang. She had to go downstairs to answer it as her landlord hadn’t installed an automatic device to open the door. He’d said it wasn’t safe. Cost too much, more like. But it had never bothered her before. She had friends, but they usually met her elsewhere, so she didn’t have to run up and down stairs too often.

  They didn’t turn their noses up as they entered, even though Kai sniffed suspiciously. Without commenting, she led the way back upstairs and into her flat. Kai grinned. “I like it. A cozy nest. But don’t you own the whole house? I saw your parents’ names on deeds when I did some research into your address last night.”

  She sighed. “No, my parents sold it shortly before they went to London. They were never good with money. If they put the money anywhere, I didn’t find it. I guess I’m not good with money, either. The landlord let me stay as a sitting tenant.”

  Esti frowned, a small crease appearing between her perfectly groomed eyebrows. “They should have had some. Enough to care for you.”

  “I’m doing okay.” She turned around. “Would you like some tea?”

  “That would be perfect.” Belatedly Cerys remembered Esti’s American accent.

  “Or I can offer you coffee.”

  But Esti wasn’t looking at her. She was staring at a spot just above the window. Cerys squinted past the bright sunlight streaming in to see something glinting. A stray sequin from her party dress, perhaps?

  Kai had already left the room.

  They heard a crash, and when Cerys would have gone to see what the problem was, Esti caught her arm. “No, let Kai do this. See that?” She indicated the sparkle. “That, my dear, is a camera lens.”

  Behind her the kettle boiled and clicked off.

  Yells came from next door; then Kai reappeared in her doorway, one large hand wrapped around the scrawny neck of her neighbor. “Talk me through this,” he said. “How does recording your neighbor count as ‘watching out for her’?”

  “I-I—” The man stammered, then choked. “Let me go, you fucking cunt! Fucking bully!”

  “You want to talk about bullies?” Kai’s lip curled. “How about having a hidden camera in someone else’s place?” Holding the squirming man with no more effort than he might have held a stray dog, he addressed Esti. “If you go into his place, you’ll find a laptop hooked up to that camera. If you wouldn’t mind bringing that, and any flash drives or DVDs you might find, that might make it easier for him to explain. Bring his mobile phone, any tablets, anything that connects to the outside world too.”

  The man at the end of Kai’s choke hold didn’t seem impressed, but Esti went past them and reappeared quickly with the required articles. At Kai’s raised brow, she explained, “We’ll get the rest later. I’m sure he’s hidden something under the floorboards or somewhere else.”

  Esti opened up the laptop. Cerys didn’t want to look, and when she moved—despite her better judgment—so she could see the screen, Esti closed it. “No,” she said. “You don’t need to see this.”

  “What do you want me to do with him?” Kai asked. “I can kill him, put him back, or call the police.”

  “Put him back,” Esti said. “I’ll fix him in place until we’ve had time to deal with him.” She looked up and caught the attention of the trembling man. “You can’t leave your room for the next week. If you do, you’ll have a heart attack and die.” She said it in a completely matter-of-fact tone, but Cerys gripped the chair rail as the back draft of power nearly knocked her down. Fuck knew what the hapless—no, make that utter bastard—felt. He deserved it all.

  Compulsion, officially illegal among Talents, but she wasn’t about to tell anyone. Kai nodded and dragged the guy back to his place. The door slammed, and Kai returned. “Find anything?”

  Esti hadn’t opened the computer again until Cerys moved away. But now she said, “Yes. I’ll fast-forward a lot of stuff. He records all day and then files the recording. Some of them are edited to take out all the shots of a blank room or of Cerys getting herself something to eat, stuff like that. I found the files from the time Rhodri disappeared. Both of you, come and look at this.”

  Cerys returned to stand behind the chair. Kai crossed to her side. “I gave Rhodri a key,” Cerys told them. “He said he didn’t need it, and he could break in too easily. He was supposed to get the landlord to fit a new lock for me.” Then he’d asked her to move into his house. Had he suspected this camera was here?

  Yes, he had. She watched the film of Rhodri entering this room. He put a parcel down on the bed and glanced at the camera. His mouth firmed. That beautiful mouth that had kissed hers so many times. Even seeing this made Cerys yearn for him. Just one touch, one more memory. But she knew that would never be enough.

  He turned as someone entered the room. It wasn’t her sleazy neighbor. It was someone she didn’t know, a dark man. “Oh fuck,” Kai murmured. “I know him. I’ve seen him before.”

  Rhodri waved his arms, advancing on the man. There was a fight, a short one, but his attacker turned Rhodri so he never saw the other man who entered through the main door and jabbed him in the neck with a syringe. The next minute, Rhodri went limp. They propped him up between them and went out.

  Esti stopped the recording and leaned back. “Someone took him. Someone from Wilkinson’s organization.”

  Cerys choked and clapped her hand to her mouth. Kai reached out to steady her. “That means we have to work a lot faster. But he could be anywhere. Or he could be—”

  “Dead,” Cerys finished for him. “He could be dead.” She caught her breath, swallowed back the tears that threatened to choke her.

  Esti shook her head. “Not yet. They wanted him for something. Probably the laboratories. Someone made him as a vampire and came for him. Or recognized him as Rhodri Tryfanwy. Either way, they took him.”

  “Which means Cerys is in danger.”

  “I need to examine her.” Esti turned away from the laptop. “Plug this thing in and watch the films, Kai. I need to study her.”

  “What?” Still reeling from what she’d just seen on the screen, she watched Esti get to her feet and Kai take her place. Numbly she indicated the plug. Esti glanced around and found a scrap of paper, which she fixed over the lens.

  At least nobody could spy on her anymore. She shuddered. “Do you think this guy sent these recordings anywhere?”

  “Honestly?” Kai swiveled in the ch
air and fixed her with a hard stare. “I don’t know. But all these recordings are unencrypted and open. I think he did it because he had the opportunity. Those cameras are remotely controlled, and the battery will last a long time. And they’re too fucking easy to get hold of. Besides, if he could get in, he could replace the battery while you’re out. Easy to install, easy to operate. I’ll look through this crap. Then I’ll send it to one of our experts.” He glanced up and frowned. “They’ll all be destroyed, I promise.”

  A pang went through her when she realized this might be all she had of Rhodri. “Can I have them back?”

  He seemed to understand. He jerked his head in a tight nod.

  “Shouldn’t we call the police?”

  “Do you want to prosecute?” He turned back to the laptop, but he tilted it so she couldn’t see from her seat on the bed.

  “I-I guess I should. I hate to think of all this coming out in court.”

  “Then let us deal with it. The Department. I can promise you he’ll never do anything like this again.”

  Cerys exchanged a glance with Esti, who had dragged up one of her two hard chairs to sit opposite her. Esti smiled, but the cold, frosty expression had no warmth in it. It was her attempt to be sympathetic, and Cerys appreciated it.

  “I can promise that,” Esti said.

  Cerys nodded. “Then we’ll do it. He’d probably only get a fine or something, anyway.”

  “One thing’s for sure,” Kai said. “You can’t continue to live here. Do you have anywhere else to go?”

  “I have Rhodri’s house. He wanted to give it to me, but I said no. He gave me a key anyway and offered to rent it to me at the same rate I pay for this place. But when he left, I didn’t want to be reminded anymore, so I moved back here.”

  “I’ll send the shots of the two men who took Rhodri straight to the Department. The Internet connection is still working, so I’ll make use of it.”

  “Make sure there’s nobody leeching off it,” Esti said.

  Kai’s only reply was, “Duh.”

  He got to work, leaving Cerys with Esti. “I want to read you, Cerys. I’d hoped to do this gently, but I need to get inside your head now and fast. I’ve thrown a ring of protection around this place, but before we leave, I want to do this. I need to know more, and it’s probable that you know more than you think.”

  “Okay.”

  “Lean back. Better still, lie down. You need to brace yourself, but when you feel me enter your head, when you feel my presence, try to relax all your safeguards. When I leave, I’ll strengthen the safeguards you have, and I’ll ensure you only let your outmost thoughts go. You need that defense. We won’t leave you unprotected when we leave.”

  She nodded, kicked off her shoes, and did as she was told, shifting back on the bed and then lying full length. If she closed her eyes, she could imagine Rhodri was lying next to her, just out of reach. All she had to do was stretch out her hand and he’d be there.

  A sharp pain lanced her skull. The worst kind of migraine, a stiletto dagger to the brain, slicing through. She cried out, but the pain didn’t stop, and she felt the presence behind it. Frighteningly powerful. She knew this person could destroy her from the inside out, take her brain and shred it into little pieces or excise the parts she wanted to destroy.

  Terrifying. And she had to trust her, had no choice. Because she might hold something that would lead them to Rhodri. The man she—oh why try to hide it? This Sorcerer could see everything she was or had been. Esti would know her desires as well as she did herself. She loved Rhodri.

  At that admission, something inside her relaxed. The pain eased, and now she could feel the other presence moving inside her. She opened her eyes and fixed her gaze on a spot on the ceiling. The paper was that rough kind that had become popular in the seventies. God knew how many coats of paint it held. The gleaming white surface had patterns she could hardly see, and the bare, central bulb she’d covered with a white shade swayed slightly. She’d draft proofed the window, but it still let in the sea breezes.

  Esti moved, worked, and all Cerys could do was take it and wait.

  She had no idea how long Esti worked on her, but eventually she felt the pressure on her brain ease, and slowly she knew she was alone in her head again. She tested her barriers, felt some differences. Fuck, the woman had tidied her up, or that was what it felt like. She’d cleaned, put the deepest thoughts way down, and the memories she didn’t immediately need were packaged away. She blinked.

  “A little untidy,” Esti said calmly, an edge in her voice that Cerys hadn’t heard in their short acquaintance before. Esti was tired—for all Cerys knew, exhausted. She sensed enormous control in the woman, so it was likely this slip meant she was hurting badly, whereas Cerys felt weirdly refreshed, like a plant after rain. Esti had strengthened her and probably depleted herself.

  Kai closed the laptop. “We’ll hear back from the Department soon. They’ll call us.”

  Cerys sat up. Leaning on her hands, resting on the bed, but she felt less vulnerable sitting. “So that’s it?”

  “You’ll have to move out of this place,” Kai said. “We’ll help you.” He pushed back a strand of his glorious hair. While it usually hung in a sheet down his back, now it looked disturbed, as if he’d been running his fingers through it. “You’re not safe here.”

  She sighed. “I know.” And she’d moved out of Rhodri’s house because she thought he’d abandoned her.

  “More than that,” Esti said. “She must come with us. She and Rhodri bonded.”

  Staring at Kai’s face, Cerys realized for the first time how serious a step Rhodri had taken by bonding with her. “It was one blood exchange, once,” she hurried to explain. “It was so he could assure himself I was safe, he said. He was worried about me, but he knew he’d have to leave to find this Wilkinson man.”

  Kai sighed. “Bonding is bonding. Further blood exchanges deepen the bond, but you will always be able to reach him at a deeper level than anyone else. And separation hurts. He must have planned to take all that burden himself and ease it for you.”

  Again, to protect her. Everything for her. Rhodri humbled her, made her realize how much she didn’t know.

  “It seems they wanted him, not you.” Kai glanced at Esti. “We don’t know if your security has been compromised. It’s likely that they were after Rhodri all the time. The camera here was a lucky fluke.”

  Cerys snorted. “That pervert wanking over my pictures? You call that lucky?”

  “We wouldn’t have known about Rhodri without them. But I’m taking personal control of this machine and I’ll do a search of his room. When I get to the Department, I’m sending his electronics to one specific tech. When he’s done with it, it will be destroyed. I promise you that with everything I am.”

  She believed him.

  “And I want to stay at the house with you tonight. I’ll see you to work tomorrow, and I’ll stay close, though not in the bar. Esti will keep a channel open to you.” He glanced at Esti, who nodded.

  He wasn’t giving kind requests anymore. He was giving orders.

  So she had guests that night at the house, and she wasn’t living at the flat. She’d held on to that with everything she had, taken the first opportunity to move back in. One day, she’d promised herself, she’d buy it back. Make it hers again. Her parents should never have sold it.

  She’d buy it back, and when she did, she’d fumigate it.

  *

  The next day, Cerys found her charming guest had made her breakfast. She hadn’t realized there was any fresh food, had planned to pick some up later, but Kai had already done it. She was on the four until ten shift, this being Tuesday, not one of the late nights at the bar. Tonight she’d be off at eleven, after cleanup. That suited her fine.

  They had been busy, but they hadn’t discovered who had taken Rhodri yet.

  “I want to learn more about being a Talent. My parents taught me what they knew, but I need more now, don’t I?�
��

  “You might not have had to know. If you hadn’t met a member of the Department, that is.” Kai rubbed his jaw. “You could have lived quietly here for a long time. You know how to change lives, don’t you?”

  She raised a brow.

  “Aging and dying,” he explained helpfully.

  “Oh, oh that.” Yes, she knew. “I’ll age a little, let people say I look young for my age, then I’ll disappear, be in a ‘car accident.’ I know how to do that. Then I’ll come back as my own cousin. I have the identity set up already. They did that for me years ago.”

  Kai grimaced. “It’s easier than it sounds, but it’s usually better if you move away.”

  “I might want to by then.”

  She probably would. She loved her life here, but she was well aware she couldn’t live here forever. And she understood why her parents had preferred to move on and leave their belongings behind. It was so much hassle, all the legal concerns. Otherwise they could neatly package one life away and move on to the next. Papers were fairly easy to come by on the black market, or they could create their own.

  With a melancholy certainty, she knew that the day she’d met Rhodri, her life had taken a new turn. She could never go back. Not now.

  She wasn’t sure she wanted to. And that, more than a lot of the other things, put her on edge.

  Chapter Ten

  But they wanted her to behave normally, to go to work and ask Dave about taking time off. She was owed some vacation time anyway, so this might be a good time to take it. Before the season got into full swing, when Dave might be more reluctant to give her the time.

  Kai escorted her to work, but he did it discreetly. He employed a technique Cerys had never heard of before, something he called “fuzzing.” She guessed it was akin to the technique she used to distract people when she was feeding so they wouldn’t remember. She didn’t realize it had a name. It confused the mind, made people see what they expected to see rather than what was actually there. So they didn’t see a tall man with eerie light blue eyes and long, silver hair—they’d all see someone slightly different. Anyone watching her would describe the man she was with differently. She guessed that meant he was in secret agent mode. Because call it what they liked, that was what he was. Some kind of Talented Bond.