“I’ll live.” He’d landed on the floor next to the table, and as he stood, Peasblossom’s pink light illuminated his face. The lines around his eyes and mouth were the only indication I had he was in pain. He scanned the room with the caution of someone expecting a man-eating tiger to leap out from the shadows. “Where are we?”
“I don’t know.” I forced myself to sit up, holding my head in my hands so it didn’t fall off. I lowered my voice, both out of respect for whatever brain cells hadn’t died in the fall and in case there were enemies nearby. “But Goodfellows is neutral ground. Shaun Michael Keegan what’s-his-name couldn’t have teleported us into danger, or he would risk angering the witch who runs the place.”
“So we’re in a safe place.”
Peasblossom snorted and widened her circles, casting her light over a greater portion of the room. It reminded me of the old rollercades, with their swirling lights bouncing off the floor and walls as skaters zipped around in circles.
It made me just as dizzy now.
“You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you?” I said. “But no. This is what we were trying to tell you about the sidhe being tricky. Shaun couldn’t put you in danger, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t. All he needs to do to get around the neutral ground issue is make a reasonable argument that he didn’t realize he’d put you in danger when he defended himself against a warrantless arrest.”
The chair groaned as Andy put more of his weight on it. “So we are in danger.”
I didn’t know how to answer that, so I didn’t. Just like I didn’t voice the other concern eating away at me.
Andy stepped closer, Peasblossom’s pink glow illuminating the way his jaw tightened. He leaned between two of the overstuffed office chairs, bracing a hand on the chair to either side of him. “He wanted us out of the way so he could get the kids.”
It was the exact thought I hadn’t wanted to say out loud. “Yes.” I scooted to the edge of the table. As soon as I thought my legs would support me, I slid to the floor. “We need to figure out where we are.”
“I can help with that.” Andy dug in his pocket and withdrew his phone. The feisty piece of technology had weathered the hard landing well. Good thing Andy didn’t keep it in the same pocket as his keys. The screen lit up, casting a white glow over Andy’s features, the crease of concentration between his brows. He thumbed open a map application and studied the screen.
“We’re on Erieview Plaza. Actually not that far from the FBI office.”
My heart stopped, and for a second, I didn’t even trust myself to breathe. Erieview Plaza. No. No, it had to be a coincidence. There were lots of buildings on Erieview Plaza. It didn’t have to be… It might not be…
Slowly, I circled the table, moving to the wall. Peasblossom followed, and her pink light illuminated the window blinds. Electronic window blinds. Electronic window blinds that somehow kept out the blinding April sunlight. Industrial-quality blinds. Expensive blinds.
Peasblossom dropped to her shoulder, and I didn’t even flinch when she leaned into my ear. “We’re in the Winters building.”
I nodded, struggling to find my voice. “This is one of Anton’s conference rooms.” I looked around again, the knowledge of where I was lending new meaning to my surroundings. The long conference table meant Anton, businessman, vampire, and one of the world’s oldest crime lords, had meetings here. If Shaun had teleported us here with a gatestone, then he must have been here before. Which meant Anton held meetings with the Otherworld here.
Which meant this was a secure floor.
I had to tell Andy. I opened my mouth, but before I could form any words, something tightened around my neck. The breath I’d taken to speak cut off with a merciless jerk against my windpipe, and I choked, clawing at my neck, searching for whatever was strangling me. There was nothing on my neck. No rope, no wire, nothing to constrict my air passages.
Andy stared at his phone, studying the map, completely unaware anything was wrong. Instinct stabbed at me, sharp and insistent, warning me I needed to breathe—now. I made a fist, ready to knock on the table to get his attention. Peasblossom grabbed my ear.
“No!” she said. “You can’t tell him. The contract!”
My eyes widened even as the room swam in front of me, grey fog eating the edges of my vision. The contract I’d signed. It forbade me from sharing Anton’s true nature with law enforcement.
I will not tell Andy about Anton. I will not tell him where we are. I will not tell him what Anton is. I will reveal nothing.
I repeated the thoughts over and over, fighting to stay on my feet as consciousness threatened to dance out of my reach. Finally, finally, the magic eased its deadly grip on my windpipe. Not all at once, but slowly, as if in warning. I turned away from Andy and concentrated on regaining my breath without sounding like a drowning victim freshly pulled from the water. Stay calm. Don’t provoke questions you can’t answer.
“Anton doesn’t mess around when it comes to contracts,” Peasblossom muttered, patting my neck as I fought to regain my bearings.
“I thought it ended when the case ended,” I rasped. “I mean, I knew I couldn’t share information about his business, but I had no idea it would consider my intention to tell Andy this was the Winters building a betrayal of the contract terms.”
“It must be circumstantial,” Peasblossom said. “Andy has already figured out that the sidhe sent you somewhere Other-related. If you told him this was Anton’s building, it’d only be a matter of seconds before Andy realized that maybe part of the reason Anton has been so successful avoiding charges is because he’s Other.”
“We need to get out of here, now.” My voice sounded better, more like I had a cold and less like I almost died. “Before I’m put in a position where I have to lie to Andy or risk being magically suffocated.”
Andy’s phone vibrated, but I didn’t turn when he answered, didn’t ask who it was. I had bigger things to worry about. I braced both hands on the windowsill, forcing myself to take deep, slow breaths.
“We are in so much trouble,” I whispered.
“Anton won’t hurt you,” Peasblossom said, sounding almost convincing. “He hired you for a job. He offered to make you his official witch.” She laughed, a nervous squeak of sound. “You’re practically friends!”
“And how do you think he’ll react when he finds out I’ve brought a human FBI agent into his place of business?” I asked. “Teleported to a secure floor, with no warning?”
“He might not mind,” Peasblossom said weakly.
“Slow down, slow down. I can barely understand you? Are the kids all right?”
I whirled to stare at Andy, my panic ratcheting up another notch as I found him frozen in place, holding the phone as if he wanted to crawl through it to get to the person on the other side.
“Julie who?” he asked. “From where?”
I opened my mouth to remind him to keep his voice down, but when his gaze locked with mine, the words died on my lips.
“All right, calm down,” he said. “Do you have the name of the officer at the scene? Get it and text it to me.”
He hung up, and I leaned against the windowsill, grasping the ledge with shaking fingers. “What happened?”
“Sarah called the director of another youth center to warn her to be on the lookout for any men hanging around the art kids.”
My stomach sank. “No.”
Andy took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Three more kids just went missing.”
“More kids missing?” Peasblossom flew in circles again, the swirling pink light she cast spiraling though the room like we were at an underfunded rave.
Andy’s phone buzzed, I assumed with a text message giving him the officer in charge’s phone number. I tuned him out as he paced the room, his cell phone pressed to his ear as he waited for the officer on scene to answer. Every line of his body sang with tension, and he clenched and unclenched his free hand over and over.
My heart
pounded as questions swarmed my brain. Three more kids Taken. Had they gone willingly? It couldn’t be a coincidence that we’d confronted Keegan not ten minutes ago and now there were more kids missing. We’d forced him to move faster. He knew we were onto him, knew he had a limited amount of time before we were back on his trail. Had we driven him to take them by force instead of luring them away? Were there signs of a struggle? I swallowed, hard. Was there blood?
Suddenly, I remembered the room’s fourth occupant.
“Echo?” I groped in my pocket, and my fingers touched something sharp. I hissed and jerked my hand free. Broken ceramic. I searched the room frantically, even though I knew there’d be nothing to see. Echo had no body, so I had no idea where she might have gone.
She’s a ghost. She can’t die again.
“Echo?” I called again.
I’m here.
I jerked in surprise. You’re in my head?
Yes. I’m sorry, but the skull was shattered. I cannot inhabit an inanimate object unless it is prepared for me.
That’s all right. I understand. I paused and cleared my throat. Can you read my thoughts?
It would require some effort. It’s not very tidy in here. There was a short pause, then, How old are you?
Long story. Listen, I need your help. Do you know where we are?
You’re thinking quite strongly about it, so yes. We are in the vampire’s place of business.
I waited for the pain, the sensation of metaphysical hands closing around my throat. It didn’t come. I let out a sigh of relief. Apparently, having a spirit sit in your brain and see information didn’t count as revealing it. Yes, and if he finds us here, uninvited, we’re going to have some ’spainin’ to do. Understand?
He is a vampire. He is dead to the world during daylight hours, is he not?
She had a point. Technically, Anton Winters should be asleep right now. Or dead, as the case may be. But he was also bonded to his rusalka wife, Vera. I don’t know—he might be sleeping, he might not. But either way, he’ll have people here in charge of making sure people don’t get in without permission. People who will be very upset to find we got past them.
I see. But that is not your main concern, is it?
What do you mean?
Something tickled my thoughts, a bizarre sensation I couldn’t have imagined had I not felt it myself.
You are preoccupied with Agent Bradford. You are afraid he will find out that you have a relationship with the vampire.
I stiffened, then forced myself to relax. I have no relationship with the vampire. It was a one-time job. It’s over.
You do not believe Agent Bradford will see it that way.
I concentrated very hard on not looking at Andy. He was in the corner, still talking on the phone, his voice low. For reasons I can’t get into, I can’t talk to him about Anton. And besides, it would be dangerous for him to know that Anton Winters is a vampire. He’s not ready for that.
And how are you going to keep him from finding out? I am not familiar with the extent of this building’s security, but surely you don’t think you can leave without being noticed? Someone here will know what you are.
That’s where you come in. How far can you travel without riding in someone’s head?
Not far. But I might be able to have a look around outside the door, if that is what you’re asking for.
My shoulders slumped with relief. Yes. Yes, that’s what I’m asking for. I need you to see if there’s anyone outside the door, and, if possible, give me a better idea of where we are, exactly. I paused, considering. Can you influence someone if you’re in their mind?
Yes. But not for long, and the extent to which I can influence them is dictated by how strong their defenses are. Humans are easy enough, but I have limited experience with possessing someone Other. And from what I know of the vampire, he will have many Other employees.
She was right. I knew his guards in the subbasement were all Other. I had to assume that the employees on the ground floor could at least pass for human, but if we were high enough up, maybe he didn’t let humans pass that point.
All right, go see what you can find out. Report back as soon as you can.
All right.
And Echo?
Hmm?
Thank you.
A warm feeling pulsed out from the floating sentience in my head, then it was gone. I searched the air in front of me, but there was no sign of Echo, no cloud of smoke or glowing light.
Peasblossom smacked my earlobe, startling me out of my thoughts. “Hey!” I leaned away so I could glare at her. “What was that for?”
“That was for ignoring me when I’m talking to you!” she snapped. “Why did you ignore me?”
“I was talking to Echo. She’s going to have a look outside and see if the coast is clear.”
“The coast is not clear—there’s surveillance cameras everywhere,” Peasblossom pointed out. “Anywhere Anton doesn’t have a camera, you can bet Dimitri will.”
I bit my lip. “We need to consider the possibility that we’re going to be detained here a lot longer than we can afford to. If Shaun already took those kids, then they’re in danger. We can’t risk something happening to us and no one else knowing what’s going on.”
“So who are you going to call? Mother Hazel isn’t going to interfere. And the FBI can’t do anything.” She snorted. “Bet you they’d end up entertainment at a sidhe party if they even tried to question them.”
I fished my cell phone out of the side pocket of my pouch. “I have an idea.” I scrolled through my contacts until I found the number I needed, and I smashed the call button before I could second-guess myself. The first ring jangled every nerve in my body—good preparation for when a gruff male voice answered.
“Detective Sergeant Osbourne.”
The werewolf’s voice tagged a memory, and, for a second, I had an image of him as I’d last seen him. Stripping out of his clothes, getting ready for a fight. Thick muscles bunched with tension, his aura so hot it marched over my skin like fire ants in a sensation that should have been unpleasant, but…wasn’t. Heat rose in my cheeks and I shoved the memory away. “Hi, Liam, it’s Shade. Shade Renard.”
Silence followed my words, long enough that I almost asked if he was still there. “Shade. Now is not a good time.”
“I’m sorry, but…” I stopped and took a calming breath. “I’m calling because I need your help. Kids have gone missing.”
“Where?” he asked sharply.
“From a couple youth centers in Cleveland. Six kids total between last year and today, and one of them has already turned up dead.”
Liam was silent for a second. “My jurisdiction is limited to the reservation. The local police station will have a canine unit.”
“True, but they don’t have a werewolf canine unit.”
His chair creaked. I knew he was leaning against the back of the chair and not sitting in it, because I’d seen how he used the chair for storage. “I see. Then these kids are Other?”
“Not the kids.”
Something thudded in the background, as if he’d slammed down his cup of coffee on his desk. “Explain.”
“No time to explain everything. I need to make you aware of the situation because I find myself in a precarious position, and if something happens to me, I need someone else to know what’s going on. You need to talk to Sarah Hatchet at the Constellation House youth center. Last year, three kids were Taken from their art program. Taken with a capital T.”
“Sidhe,” Liam growled.
“Yeah. And they just took three more kids from the Memorial Youth Center. I confronted the scout luring the kids away, Michael Keegan, a.k.a. Shaun, a.k.a. who knows. He had a gatestone and he teleported me into a…developing situation.”
“You need me to come get you?”
I paused, surprised by the offer. If it had been an offer. It was possible he wasn’t offering to help so much as trying to wrap his mind around the concept of m
e calling to ask for help after the…unpleasantness of my last case.
“No, I don’t need you to come get me. It might be nothing. But if you are willing to lend a hand, could you send someone to the Memorial Youth Center? The kids were Taken in the last hour, so there might be a trail to follow.”
“I’ll send Blake and Sonar. They can be there in thirty minutes.”
Relief trickled over my muscles, and I slumped against the chair in front of me. “Thank you. I’ll call as soon as I can.” I hesitated. “If you don’t hear from me by sunrise tomorrow, contact Mother Hazel. Tell her my first job might have come back to bite me.”
“All right.”
I said a small prayer of thanks for werewolf cop efficiency and hung up the phone. Liam hadn’t seemed the least bit fazed by my cryptic message for Mother Hazel. I chose to see that as efficiency and not an indication that the werewolf didn’t care what happened to me. No one likes to feel they’re expendable.
Andy had finished his phone call at some point, and now he stood beside me, close enough that a hard breath would have made us touch. Peasblossom’s pink glow illuminated his expectant expression.
“Liam?” he asked.
I hesitated, but only for a second. “Detective Sergeant Liam Osbourne of the Cleveland Metropark Rangers. Werewolf.”
Andy’s face went blank in that complete way I’d come to understand meant he was shutting down to turn something over before reacting. That was a skill I needed to learn. My eyebrows had a nasty habit of giving away my thoughts, always touching my hairline or arching on one side or the other. They got me in trouble.
“And he can track the missing kids?” Andy asked.
“He’s sending a detective with the canine unit, so we’ll have a werewolf in human form, and a werewolf in wolf form. With any luck, they’ll be able to track the missing kids, and the sidhe who took them.”
“All right, so if he’s handling that, then we can concentrate on getting out of here.” He studied each wall. “The windows along that wall are covered by electronic blinds. They’re thicker than I’ve ever seen, not even a sliver of light coming through around the edges even though I know it’s still daylight out.”
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