A familiar stranger looked back. The shape of the face was roughly the same, my brows were thicker. A faint five o’clock shadow was forming. My pageboy haircut brushed at the edge of my chin. (Apparently, the predator didn’t do hair). I gave a hollow laugh. As myself I had always been described as “cute” and “vivacious,” even occasionally “charismatic,” but this new Linnet, she … he was gorgeous. Real vampire and werewolf bait. Add to that the pheromones, which, according to David I was shedding like leaves in autumn, meant any vampire or werewolf who ran across me would instantly want to bite me. I was going to end up like the Bubble Boy living inside an environment suit, assuming the Powers let me live. There was no place I could go and be safe. Then I realized that wasn’t exactly true. I could always go into Fey, spend the rest of my life among the Álfar. It was not an attractive proposition.
I left the bathroom and the detective escorted me through the bullpen. David was nowhere to be seen. “Uh, where’s my boss?” I asked.
“Randal’s getting his story. Why don’t you and I have a talk?” she said. Her tone was warm and friendly.
“I’m sure my boss will answer all—”
“Let’s have a talk.” It was no longer a request and it was no longer quite so friendly.
She led me to an interrogation room and indicated a chair. I sat down. The straight-backed wooden chair was hard and I found it uncomfortable to cross my legs. I was starting to understand the actual importance of which direction a man “dressed.” I eyed the detective warily. She rested her chin on her folded hands.
“I’m Wanda. What’s your name?”
I swallowed a couple of times and wondered what name David had given me. I wondered if he would use the name of the receptionist on the seventy-fourth floor at IMG? Or just say Lynnie, which could also be a man’s name? I just kept staring at her, and she finally said, “Okay … We’ll leave that for the moment, though it seems like an easy one. Why don’t you level with me about what’s really going on? That’s a woman’s sweater you’re wearing. I know ’cause I saw it on the rack at Macy’s last week. And those pants don’t fit you at all.” She glanced down at my tightly clenched hands. “And nail polish. Now maybe those apes who are out there sniggering about gay vampire sex games can be fooled, but I’m not that credulous. Something strange is going on here.”
I sighed and shook my head. “It’s too crazy. No one would believe it. I don’t believe it.”
“What’s clear is that you’re scared of that vampire.”
“Not for the reason you think. He really is … was my boss, and I’m more frightened that I’ll hurt him.”
“And just how would you manage that?”
I closed my eyes and tried to find the strength to explain. I didn’t even know where to start. A knock at the door of the interrogation room saved me. Wanda left the table and opened the door. One of the uniforms said, “That New York cop who called us is here, and he ain’t alone.”
“Oh?”
“Just come and see. I can’t begin to explain this.”
Wanda gave a head jerk that I should accompany her. We stepped out into the bullpen to find Lucius, Hettie, and Jolyon. The Brit was wan and had a bandage on his head, but alive and awake. I gave a sob of joy and relief and rushed to him, knelt in front of his wheelchair, and laid my head in his lap.
“Oh, Jolly, Jolly, you’re not dead. You didn’t die. You’re alive,” I babbled.
For a moment the trio stood in stunned silence as they processed … me. Jolly rose to the occasion.
“There, there, Leonard my lad,” he said as he softly stroked my hair. “No need to carry on so. I’m quite all right. And everything’s going to be fine now.”
“How?” I sobbed.
“Well, we’ll talk about that once we get home.”
He handed me his handkerchief, and I mopped my eyes and blew my nose and looked around. Lucius had gone into a huddle with his Connecticut counterparts. Hettie and David were studying each other. David had that stiff-legged stance of a dog faced with an interloper. Hettie was smiling, fangs exposed, clearly enjoying David’s discomfort. She held out her hand.
“Hello, youngling, sorry we got off to such a bad start at our first meeting.”
David looked confused, but he took Hettie’s hand. “Aren’t you concerned about exposing yourself like this?” he asked.
“I think we’ve got bigger problems than one little female vampire.”
“The Convocation won’t see it that way.”
“Yes they will, when they know about the predator.”
“I’m not going to let them kill Linnet!” David shouted.
“Neither are we, child, so no need to bluster.”
Despite my own woes, I was finding it both amazing and rather delightful to see somebody treating David like a grubby brat.
“We’ll go for the warrant in the morning,” I heard Wanda say, and I turned my focus to the conversation between the police officers.
“So your guy didn’t get into the house?” Lucius asked.
The male detective, Randal, spoke up. “No, he rang the bell at the gate. No answer.”
“You had probable cause,” Lucius objected. “Two people who said they were kidnapped and imprisoned—”
“Yeah, and we’re a small community. We don’t have a damn tank to take down those gates or go through the wall,” Randal objected.
“And he’s a really rich guy,” Wanda offered. “We gotta have a judge on board with this. You understand that. You’re in Manhattan.” Lucius didn’t like it, but he gave a reluctant nod.
Jolly took command of the situation. He pushed me gently aside and rolled his wheelchair forward to the Connecticut cops. “I’m going to take our friends home now. Here is my card. They’ll be available for questioning when you need them. Thank you for your quick response and all your help. Come along,” he said, the order encompassing Lucius, Hettie, and David.
I was walking at his side as he headed for the exit. “They’re going to get away,” I said quietly.
“Not for long. We know who they are,” was the serene reply.
Once outside, Lucius ran an agitated hand through his hair. “Jesus Christ, what in the hell is going on? Is this really you, Linnet?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“What the hell happened?”
“It’s a long story.” I touched the left side of my chest. “It’s this thing inside me. It’s trying to make them”—I glanced at David and Hettie—“bite me. I assume this thing’s affecting you too?”
“Not a bit, my dear, but judging from the looks David is giving you, you’re like vampire catnip.”
Hettie looked at Lucius’s big Ford parked out front. “Which means we need another car,” she said. “David and I can drive together and get to know each other. You and Jolly and Lucius should get going before those confused cops inside decide we’re all rather dodgy and they need to keep us here.”
“How are we going to get a car?” David asked. The fact that he’d ask such a dumb question indicated how exhausted and off-balance he had to be.
“Well, we could steal one, but since we’re in the parking lot of a police station that probably isn’t a very good idea,” she said with another of her bright smiles. David gave her one of his patented grumpy, exasperated looks. She sailed serenely on. “And Enterprise Rent-A-Car does deliver, but I think I’ll just call the Order and have someone bring us one.” She patted his cheek. “We have a lot to talk about.” She made shooing motions at us humans. “Now all of you … go.”
Lucius helped Jolly into the backseat of his car and put the wheelchair in the trunk. I slid into the passenger seat. Lucius took the wheel and we pulled away. He kept giving me very nervous and uncomfortable sideways glances.
I sighed. “I know. It’s weird. How do you think I feel?”
We drove in silence for quite a while. The eastern horizon was starting to show a faint line of silver. Lucius glanced over at me. “I understand
this won’t be easy, but I still have a murder to clear. What can you tell me about what happened at that hospital?”
“The guy who killed John is dead,” I said dully.
“How?”
“I shot him. When we were escaping. There was another guy at the hospital. John broke his arm. That guy was on the grounds of the house where we were held. David smashed him in the face. Maybe he lived. I don’t know. We kept running.” Jolly leaned forward and laid his hand on my shoulder. Gave it a squeeze. Unfortunately, he picked my left shoulder. My collarbone objected and I gave a hiss of pain.
“What’s wrong?”
“I broke my collarbone going over the wall,” I said.
Lucius met Jolly’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “Hospital?” the detective said.
“Hospital,” Jolly agreed.
“No,” I said. “Too many questions we can’t answer. I came off a horse jumping a few years ago and broke my collarbone. There’s really not much they can do. There’s a brace you can buy at the drugstore. Just get me one of those.” I clutched at my filthy, oily hair. “Right now I just want a bath … and I want this thing out of my chest, but not until we make it fix me. “
Lucius reached for me again, and I shrank back against the passenger door. “No! Don’t touch me. This thing is attracting you, too.”
Lucius looked confused, then thoughtful, and finally, he nodded slowly. “You’re right. It’s a scent that’s just maddening—”
“Can you control it or do I need to get out and hitch a ride?” I asked.
“I can handle it.”
“You better!”
The silence returned. I watched the sun rise and looked at a life in ashes. I had been transformed and violated in the most shocking and basic way. I was also a threat to large numbers of people, some of whom were friends, colleagues, and my actual father. And a man I had cared deeply about was dead. I fought the tears. The time for tears was over. There were duties to be performed.
“Have John’s parents been informed?” I asked, forcing myself to keep my voice level.
“Yeah, I called them,” Lucius said. “They claimed the body three days ago.”
My eyes stung. I grimly blinked away the moisture. “And his brother?”
“I assume the parents will have told him.”
“No, not him. His changeling brother. The human he was swapped with.”
Lucius looked over at me. “I didn’t know about him. Where is he?”
“In Fey.”
“They got phones there?”
“No. I’ll handle it. I can get a message to him.” I cranked around so I could look at Jolly. “You guys had a man following my dad. Since my dad was at the house I have to assume something happened to him.”
“They ran him off the road when he was following your father.”
“Is he…?”
“He’ll live.” Jolly gave a rather grim little smile. “The other team plays rough.” He gestured at his useless legs.
“Hettie indicated you were aware of this group, knew the members.” Jolly nodded. “So why didn’t you bust in and get us? Why did you leave us there?”
Lucius used the rearview mirror to look at Jolly. “Yeah, good question.”
“If you check the police blotters in a number of cities you’ll see that we were looking. We just hadn’t gotten to Mr. Halcomb’s third house yet.”
“So the cavalry was on the way,” I mused.
“Yes, but we would have gotten there too late. Fortunately, you had already effected your own rescue. How did you do that, by the way?”
I explained. Both of the men looked at me, and I saw the admiration there. “Talk about making lemonade out of lemons,” Lucius said, his eyes drifting down my altered form.
“And you kept your friend from being contaminated, well done,” Jolly said. “Because of course if you had failed he would have had to have been killed before he could spread the contagion.”
“I knew that.”
“And I expect would have done the deed yourself had it proved necessary,” Jolly said.
“Not something I like to think about. When did I become the person who can kill other people?”
“When they were fucking trying to kill you,” Lucius said firmly. “You’ve got nothing to feel guilty about, but saying that doesn’t fix anything. That’s why we send cops for counseling after a shoot. Even a righteous shoot. You should talk to somebody.”
“If only shooting somebody was my biggest problem. Lucius, if I talk to somebody I’m afraid I’ll completely go to pieces.” I gritted my teeth against the pain and turned around to look at Jolly again. “Jolly, what is this thing? How could it do this?”
“Well, it’s not from around here.”
“And what the hell does that mean?” Lucius asked before I could.
“We think they’re from another dimension.”
“Fey?” I asked.
“There are more dimensions than just the world of the Álfar. That’s the problem with magic. You muck about with reality and probability and you can cause big and very real problems. We think some ancient magus cast a line and hooked one of these things.”
“Well, can a modern magus throw it back?” I asked rather acidly.
“That’s what we need to figure out. And I think it’s time we come out of the shadows and involve the Convocation as well as the Álfar. You have become the bridge between all these disparate groups, Linnet. Fostered by vampires, ruler of a territory in Fey, human but more.”
“I’m probably not all that popular with the werewolves,” I said.
“You might be surprised. You exposed a renegade,” Lucius said. “Believe me, we don’t love the reputation we get for being violent assholes.”
“And you didn’t have any problem with Stan Brubaker, that werewolf lawyer in Los Angeles,” Jolly added.
“God, you really have been watching me,” I exploded.
“Yes.”
“Then why weren’t you there when it counted?” I yelled through tears and rage. “You let them kill John and get me.”
Jolly looked devastated and older than his forty-six years. “I’m sorry. We were so busy looking to the outside threats, we didn’t think about a betrayal from within.”
I fell silent, fighting for control. Eventually I said thickly, “I know I can’t but, damn, that is somebody I wouldn’t mind killing.”
Jolly shook his head. “Unfortunately, we need Ken. His research on the predator is vital. Hopefully he has the brains to realize his new compatriots will view him as a liability now, and he’ll run. We’re looking for him and with luck we’ll find him first.”
23
Lucius dropped us off at Jolly’s house at the riding stable. The stall cleaners were at work picking out the stalls while the horses ate. I didn’t see Kim’s car and I was relieved. I didn’t want to see anybody I knew. Not for a while. Actually, maybe never again. I didn’t want to be a bridge, the consolidating force to unite the Powers and humans. I just wanted to be Linnet again. I wanted to practice law. Argue a case before the Supreme Court and win. Love. Marry. My brain shied away from that line of thought like a terrified horse. That line took me to John. And to what had happened to me.
The front door lock was still broken. Jolly and I both studied it. “Well, let’s hope the bad guys don’t come calling,” he said only half-humorously.
“We can put a chair under the knob,” I suggested with more than a touch of irony.
“Well, at least we’d know they’re coming,” Jolly said.
“Do you have a gun?” I asked.
“You’ve changed,” he said.
“No shit,” I said.
There was a moment when we both stared at each other in a “Doh” moment, then the absurdity of it all hit both of us. I started to giggle. Jolly began to snort with laughter and then we were both whooping. A few minutes later I caught my breath and mopped my streaming eyes. Jolly gave me a questioning look. I shrugged. “What else
can you do?”
“You’re going to be fine,” Jolly said gently but firmly and pushed open the door. “And by the way, several of our members are keeping watch. We won’t let them take you again.”
Once inside, we discovered that someone (probably Kim) had made an effort to straighten up the mess left by the cabal. The furniture was still a wreck, but the cushion stuffing had been cleaned up. Jolly pointed me toward a guest room and the attached bathroom. I was relieved to see it had a big bathtub.
“My clothes will be too big, but I’ll lay out some for you. Take your time. They did rather destroy my kitchen so we’ll order delivery Thai. If that’s okay?”
“Sounds wonderful,” I said.
He rolled out of the bathroom. I closed the door and ran scalding hot water into the tub. I stripped off my tattered and filthy clothes, balled them up, and threw them into the trash. I kept my focus on the edge of the old claw-footed tub and the beckoning water and tried not to look down at my transformed body.
Step one—don’t drown yourself out of desperation. Step two—get clean. Step three—find a solution.
And if you don’t? a horrid little voice asked.
Accept, I answered firmly. These bastards had been damaging me from the time of my birth. I wasn’t going to let them win now.
I slid into the water, took a deep breath, and studied my new taller, broader body. I was no virgin and certainly no prude, but it was hard to do. One thing I noticed right off—not only did the parasite not do hair, it apparently didn’t do circumcisions either. I gave a strangled, embarrassed sound and after that kept my eyes focused firmly on the far wall as I got clean. As promised, there was underwear, including a pair of really thick wooly socks, jeans, and a sweater laying on the bed when I emerged from the bathroom. I was wrapped tightly in a towel and discovered that breasts really do help secure a towel. I dressed quickly and went in search of Jolly.
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