Frostbound

by Sharon Ashwood

  Chapter 25

  “Detective Baines,” she said, her voice tight.

  “Talia Rostova,” he returned. The detective looked tired and cold, but there was triumph in his expression. “I was looking for Lore in hopes that he could tell me where you were. This is even better.”

  He’s going to try to arrest me for murder. How do I play this?

  Mina gave a low growl and blocked him from moving a step farther into the kitchen. Baines pulled his police ID out of his coat pocket, holding it in plain view. “This is police business. I suggest you stand aside.”

  “This is my home. No place for humans.”

  The old woman’s vehemence warmed Talia’s heart, even if it was for Lore’s sake.

  “Then perhaps Ms. Rostova would like to come with me onto neutral ground, like down to the station.”

  “Talia is our Madhyor’s guest. I look after her. You not taking her.”

  It didn’t take a genius to see that this wasn’t going to end well. She wasn’t going to accept Lore’s protection if that meant getting the pack grannies arrested. “Osan Mina,” Talia interrupted. “It’s all right.”

  Mina gave the detective a look that should have flayed the skin from his flesh, but she stood to one side. “I get Lore.”

  Talia gripped the back of the kitchen chair. “That would be a good idea.”

  Pulling herself to her full height, Mina strode out in a swirl of skirts. When the front door slammed, Talia felt the tension in the room spike. She was alone with the cop, and he smelled warmly human. Hunger began to toy with her self-control, a cat flicking at its feathery dinner.

  Baines pulled out one of the kitchen chairs and sat down. The gesture reminded Talia of her father carrying the chairs of his wife and then his daughter to the oblivion of the garage. The table was the battleground for who had the right to eat, much like a lion’s pride crowding in for a share of the kill.

  There was no issue of permission as far as Baines was concerned. He apparently took whatever chair he liked. In his own way, he was an Alpha, too.

  “Sit down,” he said, meeting Talia’s eyes for a microsecond before they slid away. Despite his confident pose, he was wary of her vampire abilities. She was too new to be expert at hypnosis, but he couldn’t know that.

  Talia sat. She was stronger and faster, but she still had butterflies. Baines’s confidence was a weapon all its own. The one thing that comforted her was the conversation she’d overheard when they’d taken away Michelle’s body. Baines had been more open-minded than the others.

  “It was brave of you to come into Spookytown alone,” she said.

  “How do you know that I don’t have backup?” As if to even the score, he took out his firearm and placed it on the table, his hand resting on the silver-plated grips. Silver to indicate it had vamp-killer bullets.

  “An educated guess. It’s too cold to leave someone standing outside, and I doubt too many humans would like to stand on the street in the dark in the middle of monster territory. Not unless they had a SWAT team handy.”

  He made a good imitation of a chuckle. “You’re a smart woman.”

  “It’s just logic. What do you want?”

  “I thought if I could get you alone, you might talk to me.”

  “Isn’t that a bit naive?”

  “That depends on whether or not you answer my questions.” He leaned back in the chair, completely casual except for the weapon. “That’s all I want for now.”

  “Do I get a lawyer?”

  “No. The law hasn’t gone that far for nonhumans. At least, not yet. Did you kill your cousin?”

  She’d seen the question coming, but hadn’t expected it so soon. “No.”

  “Why should I believe you?”

  “There’s evidence that the timeline doesn’t work. I got home too late.”

  “What evidence?”

  “Perry Baker has it.” Talia suddenly realized it was an illegal surveillance tape. She could be getting Perry into trouble. The worst part was that Perry might never wake up to care.

  “Baker’s in the hospital unconscious and flirting with organ failure. Where is this evidence? What is it?”

  Talia shook her head. “If I tell you, you’ll send your men to find it. I know what they think of nonhumans. They’d like to shoot us on sight. Do you think I’m going to turn my safety over to their goodwill and professionalism?”

  Baines gave her a long look. His heart rate was quick, but steady. Alert, but not afraid.

  Talia picked up the teapot. “Thirsty?”

  “No, thank you.”

  She warmed up her own tea. Not that she wanted it, but she was determined to look as cool and collected as the detective.

  Baines cleared his throat. “You’re looking for guarantees.”

  “I’m looking for fair play.” Talia’s mind felt clear, almost detached. It was the zone she fell into when trying to make a difficult shot, or to teach a class a difficult concept. She could see everything, action and reaction, how each choice would change the pattern of what came next.

  Baines watched her, not moving. “What does fair play look like to you?”

  “If you agree to my terms, I’ll do my best to give you the evidence so that your department can forget about me and move on to finding the real killer. If you don’t want to play ball, leave here now, but you leave alone. If you try to take me with you, you won’t make it out alive. I don’t want to sound ruthless, but you’ve backed me into a corner.”

  “Who is the real killer?”

  “Belenos, King of the East.”

  “Your old sire?”

  “There’s good circumstantial evidence.” Perry had found surveillance tape with Belenos on it, and it had been at the university. If the tape with her arrival back at the condo was in the same place, everything she wanted was in his office at the U.

  “What’s Belenos doing here?” Baines asked. “Is he nuts? This is Omara’s territory.”

  “He is frigging crazy,” Talia agreed.

  “What’s between you two, anyway?”

  Talia looked down at her hands, picking at her chipped nail polish. Memories felt like heartburn, hot and bitter.

  “About a year after I was Turned, Belenos came out here on some harebrained scheme. Omara took Belenos captive for a few months. The high-level vamps are always fighting, but he must have really ticked her off because she played with him in a bad way. When he came back he was crazier than ever. She’d broken his body, but she’d done something to his mind, too.”

  Talia took a breath, trying to steady her stomach. “He slaughtered half his court the day after his return.”

  She closed her eyes, replaying the scene in her head. “His house has this white stone floor. The blood soaked in. Apparently it takes some kind of super-industrial cleaner to get it out, but he won’t let anyone do it. He likes to walk on the stains where he tore their heads right off their bodies and the blood sprayed all over his feet. And over the rest of us who were still standing there, waiting to be next. Anyone who tried to run was next.”

  Her body remembered the moment just as well as her brain, and nausea rose in a sweaty tide.

  “What set him off?”

  “It hurts him that he’s not beautiful anymore. He thought we were mocking him.”

  “Were you?”

  She gave a single, low bark of laughter. “No way. We were terrified. The only good part is that there weren’t enough guards left to cover all the exits from Belenos’s house of horrors. That gave me an opening to beat feet. I bolted and never looked back.” With a suitcase full of cash.

  Baines was chewing his lip. Humans never understood that monsters were people, but also monsters. They were misunderstood, just not in the way the dogooders thought.

  Talia cleared her throat. “Now, do you want the evidence or not?”

  He paled a degree. “I go with you. Otherwise it will be useless in court.”

  “Agreed.”

  �
�Am I safe?”

  She looked pointedly at his gun. “As long as I am.”

  There was every chance Baines could turn on her. He might even have a whole detachment waiting just outside the Spookytown border. She couldn’t know—but this was the best shot she had of getting justice for Michelle and freedom for herself. If she could help nail Belenos’s ass to the wall, so much the better. Humans might be useless against necromancy, but they had the weight of law and bureaucracy on their side. That had its own kind of relentless horror.

  Baines nodded. “When we’re done, we’ll talk about that guy who jumped through the wall.”

  Talia felt a pang, but if this was her night to set things straight, she couldn’t falter. It would break her heart, but she knew she’d have to make Max accountable for what he’d done. He was human. Baines was the human police. “I’ll tell you what I can. In a place of my choosing.”

  The moment she said it, she felt like she was going to throw up.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, real concern in his voice.

  “Let’s just go before Lore gets back.” She cast another glance at the gun.

  If things went south, she didn’t want him in the way.

  This was her risk to take. He had a pack that needed him.

  Chapter 26

  Friday, December 31, 7:15 p.m.

  101.5 FM

  “And a Happy New Year’s evening to all you listeners out there in Radioland. This is Signy White, your pinch-hitting hostess for tonight on CSUP, your super supernatural station. Errata Jones is off.

  “To begin tonight’s countdown to the New Year, it’s only natural to look at where we’ve been and where we’re going. There’s an election in three weeks that might bring us the very first nonhuman to sit on city council.

  “Speaking as one of the Undead, it’s pretty exciting, but I want to hear from those of you who aren’t vampires. Do you believe that a bloodsucking city councilor will make a difference to Spookytown? Will he represent your interests?

  “Put it another way: Will Michael de Winter be better or worse than a human? The phone lines are open. Cast your vote and let’s have some fun!”

  Friday, December 31, 7:30 p.m.

  University of Fairview

  Not surprisingly, even the die-hard students stayed home from the university on New Year’s Eve. When Talia and Baines pulled up in his unmarked cruiser, the parking lot was nearly empty. A plow had been through, making just enough space for a few cars, but she was glad he had chains and a good heater.

  A flash of the badge at campus security got them into Perry’s building. From there, the security guard led the way while Baines talked to someone on his cell about search warrants and witness statements. It sounded like he was trying to pass off their adventure as business as usual.

  So far he’d been as good as his word. Every indication was that he would keep his part of the bargain. Fine, then Talia would keep hers.

  There was yellow crime scene tape crisscrossing the door to Perry Baker’s office.

  “Have you searched here already?” Talia asked, suddenly cold. Had the videos already been taken?

  “We’ve done the place where he was hit, but there hasn’t been time for anything else. Too little manpower over the holidays. Too much else going on.”

  She breathed a sigh of relief as the guard unlocked Perry’s office. The door had a nameplate and a hazard sign that warned students that their professor really was a monster—in this case, the silhouette of a wolf inside a red warning circle. All the carnivorous nonhumans had such signs on their office doors.

  If Talia had rated a room of her own, her sign would have shown a bat. Stupid, since even the oldest vampires couldn’t fly more than a block or two—something she hadn’t mastered yet—and none turned into winged rodents. Go figure.

  Baines was looking at his watch. Talia wondered if he’d had plans—maybe a New Year’s Eve dinner dance with his wife. If he had a wife. He’d said almost nothing personal on the drive over.

  The security guard retreated, saying he’d check back on his next round. Baines turned to Talia. “Why do you think the professor was targeted?”

  “I’m not sure. He’s not stupid, so I doubt he told many people what he was doing.”

  She followed Baines into the office. He flipped the overhead light on. The fluorescents flickered to life, bathing everything in a harsh glare.

  A laptop sat on the desk, hooked up to a large flatscreen monitor. Other equipment was everywhere—hard drives, a printer, routers, and boxes with blinking lights that Talia wasn’t sure about. It all looked untouched.

  A thick sweater hung over the back of the chair, a tennis racket hung in its case from a hook on the back of the door, a basketball perched on a stack of books. Deli containers filled the trash can. Framed degrees and awards marched in rows across the wall. Young as he was, Baker had doctorates in math and computer science. He must have been a real boy genius, because he couldn’t have been much more than thirty years old. Talia felt a faint sting of nostalgia, thinking of her own years spent in study. Being back on campus made her yearn for the classroom, both as teacher and student. If only I could get out of this mess with my job.

  If only was a dangerous game. She turned her attention back to the desk.

  There was the usual clutter of papers, pens and a Dracula PEZ dispenser. Talia studied the drifts of paper, trying to guess what each heap was about. She picked up a box of flash drives and stirred them with her finger, wondering which one might hold the surveillance video she wanted. This could take longer than she’d thought.

  “Hello, little duck.”

  Talia started at the voice, freezing where she stood. Belenos! Her heart plunged, cold terror folding around her until she was drowning in it.

  Baines took my knife and my gun.

  He chuckled. “You’ve got to learn to pay attention. Leaving the door open like that? I thought a Hunter like you would know better. But then, you never were particularly wise.”

  Talia forced herself around, bit by bit, as slow as if she were in a nightmare turning to face the monster. Oh, wait. She was.

  “Where’s Baines?” she demanded, surprised that she’d managed to keep her voice steady. But she could hear the faint rattling of the data sticks in the box as her hand shook with fear. She set the box down. Wouldn’t do to advertise the fact that she was about to faint.

  “Where’s Baines?” Belenos mimicked. “Where’s my money?”

  Talia forced herself to look him in the face. It had been well over a year since she’d seen him, and time had smoothed over some of his injuries. His fox-red hair had grown back to shoulder length, hiding the places where his scalp had been torn away. His face was still scarred, but the lumpy flesh had paled from red to pink. He was healing, but slowly. Whatever Omara had done to him had been from the extra-special column of the torture menu. Too bad she didn’t finish the job.

  “I spent your money,” she said without expression. “All of it. On pretty clothes.”

  He looked her up and down with an angry sneer. “You would.”

  She swallowed hard, both angry and relieved that he believed such a stupid answer. She wanted to keep that money out of pure spite. He owed it to her.

  “Where’s the police detective?” she repeated.

  “What do you care about a human?”

  “He’s just doing his job.” She gripped the back of Perry’s chair, holding herself steady. Part of her was waiting for him to zap her to smithereens, or whip out a sword and take her head. This civilized conversation was just painful anticipation.

  Belenos looked heavenward, as if bored. “For now, your detective is in the hallway. He made a nice little snack. Oh, don’t make that face. He’ll be up and around in a few hours, but he won’t remember a thing.” Her sire narrowed his one topaz eye. “Here you are defending him. He’ll blame you for sure. You’re the only vampire he’ll recall.”

  “Whatever.” As long as Baines hadn�
��t died because of her. “Why are you here?”

  “A little bird told me that you were visiting to look at the poor professor’s things. Such a shame, what happened to him. But then, he shouldn’t have gone snooping in things that aren’t his business.”

  Talia gulped. How had Belenos known any of that? Who was betraying them?

  “Yes, little duck. It’s been like watching you step off a cliff. Part of me wants to cry out a warning, and the rest wants to see blood and bones strewn all over the rocks below. Guess which part of me won.”

  He made a gesture, as if grabbing something from the air. A crushing force slammed into her rib cage and squeezed her skull in an invisible vise. Talia dropped to her knees, suddenly too weak to hold herself up. Help! she cried out in her mind, but the impulse never made it to her lips.

  “You forget that I made you.” Belenos closed his fist, bringing the pain to an exquisite pitch. “I can take back that life just as easily. Good. You’re finally looking at me with the proper respect.”

  She wasn’t looking at anything. Colors floated toward Talia like the bad special effects from a 3-D film. Black spots exploded before her eyes. A human would be dead.

  Just as suddenly, the pressure released. Talia collapsed in a heap. She drew in a small breath, testing her lungs. Everything still worked. I’m going to kill him. I don’t care how ridiculous that sounds, or how afraid I am right now.

  Belenos hauled her up with his good hand.

  When she could pull it into focus, the hallway beckoned like the stairway to heaven. Surely that security guard would be back soon. He’d see Baines, call more cops, who would shoot her sire. Maybe there was a way out of this yet.

  She took a shaky step forward, as if she were going to bolt for the door.

  “Talia,” he said, his tongue relishing her name. “I wouldn’t try anything, if I were you.”

  She froze, her arms held out to her sides a little, letting him think he’d stopped her.

  Now!

  Talia wheeled and lunged for the door, her wordless cry echoing in the hallway. Belenos grabbed her hood, hauling her back. The force of it popped a button. She heard cloth tear, the sound nearly as sharp as a whimper of pain. She fell against him, the weight and smell of him bringing back waves of terror. He kicked the door shut.