Boundary Crossed

by Melissa F. Olson

  He wasn’t the only one she was affecting. I was still tired, but after twenty minutes of holding a null, I no longer felt like I was about to collapse into a puddle of ooze. I found my voice. “Tell me about working for Maven,” I said, shifting Charlie to the crook of my right arm.

  Quinn frowned through the windshield for a moment. “She trusts Itachi,” he said after a moment of silence. “She believes he is loyal to her. But she’s also aware of how . . . thirsty he is for power. So just in case, she keeps a handful of vampires who are sworn to her scattered throughout the state. And when I was traded to the two of them, she found out I had a gift for pressing people and a background as a cop”—he shrugged—“so she claimed me for hers.”

  “How did you feel about that?” I asked.

  “I was glad.” He smiled ruefully. “Well, no, I was bitter and angry and heartbroken, but after I got a little distance from my death, I ended up being grateful that I belonged to her instead of him.”

  I nodded. “You could have told me.”

  “I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone,” he said, looking uncomfortable. “Least of all . . .”

  “Least of all an unstable boundary witch who’d swear loyalty to anyone who’d protect her niece?” I said archly.

  Quinn sighed, a very human sound. He was human, I reminded myself, hugging Charlie close.

  “What are we going to do?” I asked. “We have to tell her, right?”

  “I’ll tell her,” he said, nodding. “She’ll decide what to do with Itachi.”

  “I’m coming with you,” I said.

  He looked at me, squinting a little in the light from the car’s dashboard. “I think you should stay with your niece,” he said at last. “It could get . . . confrontational.”

  “That’s exactly why I should come,” I argued.

  “It’s not that,” he said. “If something happens and Itachi gets away . . . he might decide to make one final run at her before he skips town.”

  I considered that for a moment. By “if something happens,” I understood him to mean “if Itachi kills Maven and me.” I didn’t have much hope against Itachi under those circumstances, but as last lines of defense go, I was better than nothing.

  “Okay,” I agreed reluctantly. “But I don’t love the idea of you going in there alone.”

  “I’ll be fine.” Quinn hesitated for just a moment, glancing at the house in front of us. “Charlie’s dad, John . . . Are you in love with him?”

  I blinked, taken aback by the bluntness of the question. Then I took another moment to really consider my answer. “No,” I said at last. “A long time ago I was, but I was just a kid then.”

  Quinn watched me carefully. “At the party, you two seemed . . . complicated.”

  I nodded. “John was my first love, yeah, but he was Sam’s last. He’ll always be family, but I don’t want to be with him.” I shook my head. “I just sort of wish he wouldn’t be with anyone else, either. Because that would mean that Sam’s really gone.”

  Quinn studied my face for a second, then leaned over the baby’s head and pressed his lips to mine in a warm, gentle kiss, maybe the sweetest I’d ever gotten. I kissed him back, my left fingers rising to twist themselves in his shirt.

  It was a little awkward with the baby in my arms, but that was okay. This kiss wasn’t about sex; we weren’t going to go any further right now. It was more like . . . a declaration. He cupped my face in his hands, gently nudging my nose with his own as we pulled apart. We smiled at each other.

  Affinity for the dead, indeed.

  Quinn said he would call me as soon as it was over, and this time I made him promise. Then I crept to the front door, used the hidden key to open it, and slipped inside with Charlie. I snuck through the silent house and put her in her crib. There were still a few things I would need to explain—why I brought her home early, how I got her here without a car seat, et cetera—but I would figure something out.

  Before I got too tired, I dug my phone out of the pocket of the leather jacket and called Lily’s cell to check on Simon. He was in surgery. “They think he’s going to pull through,” she reported. “They just can’t figure out how he managed to lose that much blood and still hang on for so long.”

  I smiled without mirth. “I know the feeling.”

  There was a long, uncomfortable pause from Lily. Then she asked, “Lex . . . what exactly did you do to him? You know he’s going to ask.”

  I considered the best way to answer, and finally said, “Just call me when he wakes up, and I’ll come explain it in person.” Lily promised to give him the message, and we hung up. I wasn’t looking forward to that conversation. But it suddenly seemed more important than ever for me to understand everything I could about boundary witches, and Simon was my best resource.

  I needed to stay until sunrise, and John’s couch was studded with half-embedded baby toys, so I wound up sprawled in the same armchair where I’d slept the night after checking myself out of the hospital. I was exhausted, and it was no wonder: over the last twelve hours I’d almost killed a crowd of people, gotten drunk on magic, been heavily tattooed with a funneling spell I still didn’t understand, watched my friend die, and brought him back to life. Oh, and I’d been on a desperate search for my baby niece the whole time.

  But now Charlie was safe, I’d done right by Sam. I wondered sleepily if I should advise John to get a dog, or at least a security system. Could vampires get around security systems? Probably. Could they get around giant dogs? I’d have to ask Quinn.

  My phone began to vibrate ten minutes later while I was still staring into space. I fumbled with the screen and managed to answer it on the third ring. “Quinn?” I whispered. “Are you okay?”

  “Sort of,” he said, his voice heavy. “But Maven needs you at Magic Beans.”

  “Now?” I glanced at the clock. It was a little after five, and I couldn’t remember ever feeling this tired before. “What about Charlie? Is Itachi—”

  “Trust me, Charlie’s safe,” he said. There was a mechanical tone in his voice that suggested there were other people listening in. And it didn’t take a great leap of the imagination to assume they probably drank blood and could hear both sides of our conversation.

  “I’m on my way,” I said.

  Chapter 40

  John kept his car keys in a bowl near the back door. I traded them for a hastily written note and pulled the quiet hybrid out into the night. Maybe it was just leftover adrenaline from the day’s events, but as I drove through the empty, darkened streets of Boulder, I couldn’t push back the feeling that something was very wrong. I kept remembering the coldness in Quinn’s voice—it had felt like a mask for something else. Fear? Worry? For the first time, the possibility occurred to me that maybe Maven just didn’t believe him. No, that didn’t make sense. He was sworn to her, and he was low on the food chain, so he couldn’t lie to her, right? This had to be something else.

  When I got to Magic Beans, I barely threw John’s car into park before I ran toward the door, still in my borrowed clothes. But the front entrance was locked. There was a sign stuck in the glass: “Closed For Inventory. Reopening Sunday.” I circled around to the door at the back of the building that led to the big, auditorium-like room. It was locked, too, but it opened as soon as I rattled the knob.

  Quinn’s head poked out.

  “What’s going on?” I panted.

  “You can come in,” he said. His voice was cool, but his eyes were shooting me a meaningful look. The only problem was that I wasn’t sure of his meaning. I narrowed my eyes in confusion, and he mouthed, “Be calm.” As I nodded, he added, “Maven needs to speak to you right away.”

  He stepped back, swinging the door wide, and I followed him into the building.

  The room was full of people . . . or, rather, vampires. Dozens of them, all of them standing still on the concrete floor
, watching me enter. I blinked in surprise. They ranged in age from teens to maybe early fifties, and there were a whole bunch of races and economic classes represented. They appeared to have nothing at all in common, but there was something just . . . creepy about them. It took me a second to realize that none of them were moving.

  I don’t just mean they weren’t walking around—I mean they weren’t moving, at all. People stand around all the time, but they shift their weight, look around, check watches and cell phones. They fidget. But every single person in the room was perfectly still, except for the occasional blink to keep their eyeballs lubricated. I swallowed, trying to banish my fear.

  “Hello, Lex,” came Maven’s pleasant, perfectly even voice from my right. I turned my head and saw her standing on the small raised stage, dressed in a shapeless hemp dress and ankle-high boots. Itachi stood at her right elbow, a little behind her. The body language was obvious: she was in charge of this situation. “Thank you for coming. There has been a lot of excitement in Boulder this evening, not to mention a flurry of rumors. I thought it prudent to clear the air.”

  I nodded wordlessly, and Maven gestured for me to come toward her. Quinn, who was already at the front of the crowded floor space, gave me a slight nod. I took a deep breath, squared my shoulders, and went to her.

  Maven smiled warmly. Unlike Quinn or Itachi, she seemed to be very comfortable with tossing around human expressions and body language, which for some reason unnerved me. She rested a hand on my shoulder, and I managed not to flinch. “Everyone,” she called out in a “Can I have your attention” sort of way, which seemed ridiculous given that they were all frozen. “This is Allison Luther, but she prefers the nickname Lex. You may have heard a few rumors about her in the last month. It’s true. We have a boundary witch among us.”

  I expected some reaction from the crowd, but they all remained silent, every eye trained on Maven. “Lex,” she began, turning to face me. “Most of these vampires are aware of your involvement in tonight’s events on campus, but I don’t think many of them realize what a boundary witch can actually do. I thought a demonstration was in order.”

  I didn’t understand. My eyes flickered to Quinn, but he had his game face on, giving me nothing. Sensing my confusion, Maven took a tiny step back, revealing Itachi on her other side. “Perhaps you’d like to ask Itachi a few questions,” she suggested.

  My stomach plummeted through the floor as I finally got it. She wanted me to press him, the de facto leader of the entire state, in front of dozens of vampires who didn’t know that I could do it.

  I stared at her, horrified. “This is what you wanted, isn’t it?” Maven said. “To show me what you could do?”

  From the corner of my eye, I saw Quinn take a single step toward me. He caught himself when Maven sent him a sharp look. Conflict warred in his eyes, and I tried not to wince. If Maven hadn’t noticed that Quinn and I cared about each other, she would figure it out any second. I stepped forward. “Of course,” I said. Turning to Itachi, I raised my hands, my tattooed arms still mostly covered by Lily’s jacket. “May I?” I asked.

  Itachi, for his part, looked . . . well, baffled, but with gravitas, like Lawrence Olivier struggling to comprehend a dirty limerick. He obviously didn’t know that boundary witches could press vampires, or he would have torn my throat out on the spot. Instead, he was letting the scene play out, confident that none of us had any evidence on him.

  Which we didn’t, I realized. It was our word against his—everyone else who’d been involved with the kidnapping was dead. Emboldened, I placed my hands on either side of his head, making sure the tips of my tattoos made contact with his skin.

  It took a long time—or at least, that’s how it seemed to me. I don’t know if it was exhaustion, or if Itachi was simply more powerful than either Darcy or Kirby, but opening the connection between us felt like trying to start a sputtering old lawn mower. He opened his mouth twice, probably to ask what the fuck I was doing, but before he could speak, I felt the connection finally lock into place. He had time for a quick expression of absolute shock before his face went slack.

  “Tell me who sent Kirby after Charlotte Wheaton tonight,” I said, careful to use my actual voice.

  He fought me for a second, trying to push back, but it was too late by then. He was mine. “I did,” he replied. The room had been silent before; somehow it seemed to become even more silent.

  “What did you intend to do with her?”

  “Raise her,” he said woodenly. “To worship and fear me.”

  Images of Charlie in servitude flooded my brain, either from my imagination or Itachi’s, and the connection between us almost broke. “Tell me your long-term plan for Charlotte Wheaton,” I commanded, once I’d regained control.

  “I want to train her to kill Maven,” he said, his voice dreamy.

  Now, finally, the crowd did react. Whispers flowed through the group on the floor, but I ignored the sound, clinging to my focus. “Why?” I asked, adding a little extra pressure.

  Itachi hesitated for a second—not because I’d lost the connection, but because he couldn’t find the words. “Because . . . because she is more powerful than I am,” he said. “I knew I needed a new weapon to take and keep control.”

  The whispers increased, and I could feel a tremor running through my hands. I was pushing my body hard. “Maven?” I murmured.

  She laid a hand on my shoulder. “That is enough.”

  Sighing with relief, I released the connection between Itachi and me, my mind closing off like shutters on a window. Itachi blinked rapidly, his eyes darting to Maven. He tensed and opened his mouth to speak—

  And she reached into his chest and pulled out his goddamned heart.

  It happened so quickly. I heard the snap of his ribs, and his blood sprayed over me and those closest to the stage. But it only lasted a second before there was a crackle of magic, like barometric pressure, and his body began to wither and fade, so quickly it was hard for my eyes to comprehend. Within seconds it had collapsed into a pile of sinewy bone. Maven, meanwhile, just calmly contemplated the heart in her hand as it shriveled into a knotty bit of . . . well, it looked like jerky for a minute before it disintegrated into dust. Distastefully, she brushed her hands off on her ugly dress.

  I glanced at the crowd. Every single vampire, including Quinn, looked completely flabbergasted. It would have been funny, really, if their stares of disbelief and fear had been directed only at Maven. But no, many of them were giving me the same look.

  “That was my own fault,” Maven announced grandly, gesturing at the bundle of Itachi’s remains. “I grew too complacent, it seems. Allowed too much to pass. There will be some changes in Colorado in the immediate future.” She gestured at me, and this time I did flinch a little, my arms going up to protect my chest. “Lex works for me now. She will never press any of you without my express permission,” she added, a warning for me in her voice. “But please treat her with the same courtesy and respect you show Quinn.” She made a show of checking her watch. “There will be much more, of course, but the sunrise is not long off, and I know many of you have traveled far tonight. Please feel free to use my own accommodations,” she said sweetly.

  When they realized they’d been dismissed, the vampires began to shuffle off, looking decidedly uncertain of themselves . . . for vampires. Maven moved into the crowd to coordinate everyone’s daytime resting places, while I stood where I was, frozen in shock. Quinn sidled up to me. “What just happened?” I asked, my voice no louder than a whisper.

  He took my elbow and, after exchanging a glance with Maven, led me across the room and into the tiny office where I’d first met Maven and Itachi. I collapsed into one of the visitors’ chairs. Quinn came over and knelt on the floor beside it, touching my face, my hands, checking on me. “I’m okay,” I mumbled.

  “You need rest,” he said. “You’ve been through
a lot.”

  “Do we have to clean up that body?” I wondered aloud.

  He glanced over his shoulder. “We have a . . . daytime hiding place. It can go there for today, and we’ll take care of it tonight. We need to figure out the logistics for your new job anyway.”

  “What just happened?” I repeated, my brain on autopilot. “Did we win?”

  He sighed. “Yes and no. Itachi’s gone, and you got the job, which means Charlie will be left alone. But Maven has also outed you to every vampire in the state. They’ll be afraid of you now, which means they’ll want you dead.”

  “Then why did she tell them? She could have forced Itachi to confess by herself.”

  “Yes, but this way, she’s tied your fate to hers,” Quinn said, his words oddly formal. “You’re under her protection now, just like Charlie is. As long as you have Maven behind you, everything will be fine. If anything happens to her, the other vampires will kill you.” I gave him a wry look. I wasn’t the type who needed things sugarcoated, but jeez. “Like it or not, Lex,” he said gently, as if needing to make sure I understood, “you work for the vampires now.”

  A giggle escaped my lips, surprising us both.

  “What?” he asked, giving me a small smile.

  “Hazel is going to be pissed.”

  Epilogue

  When I finally drifted to sleep that morning, showered and clean, two dogs and a cat draped around me on the bed, I dreamed of Sam. Or I guess you could say I called her.

  Our old bedroom came into view more slowly this time, my mind struggling to form the meeting room where our essences could talk. Finally, though, the haze cleared away, and there was my sister, sitting cross-legged on her bed with a wide grin on her face.

  “Thank you for saving Charlie,” she said. “I wish I could hug you, babe.”