In Black We Trust

by J. C. Andrijeski

  “Anyway,” he said. “He now has reason to believe this wasn’t a renegade group in the government that tried to pick him up last night… but something that extends across multiple departments. Which means a larger number of people are likely involved.”

  Frowning slightly, he made that shrug-like gesture again.

  “…I admit,” he added. “Much of what he said went over my head.”

  “Why does he think that?” I frowned, wading through Dalejem’s words to what Black actually said. “Did something happen?”

  “He got a few phone calls this morning that concerned him.”

  “Phone calls?” My frown deepened. “From who?”

  Dalejem shrugged, his eyes showing he had no idea.

  “Honestly, your husband hasn’t had much time to catch us up,” he confessed. “I’ve been doing my best to listen in, but I am unfamiliar with many of his references, presumably because things work differently in this world. I didn’t want to interrupt him to ask. He basically gave orders and everyone went and did as he said.”

  I grunted a little, unsurprised by that part, at least.

  Looking at Dalejem again, I gave him a tauter smile.

  “And why are you still here?” I said. “Didn’t you get your ‘orders’?”

  Again, that odd hand-gesture that was almost a shrug, but wasn’t.

  “He wanted me to keep an eye on you,” he admitted. “He seemed to think he’d be distracted, and he wanted another seer here.” Quirking an eyebrow, he gave me a wry look. “Apparently I convinced him I’m not entirely worthless last night.”

  I grunted a laugh.

  His smile faded as he made his voice more serious.

  “I suspect more than anything he’s concerned about what Mika told him last night, about his structure being damaged. He’s concerned he could miss something.”

  I followed his gaze to Black, watching him nod at something the shirtless man was saying. Black cut him off a few seconds later, gesturing in a similar way as the tattooed man, and the man nodded vigorously in return, his eyes widening slightly as he caught on to something Black wanted from him.

  The man laughed then, exposing stained teeth, and clapped Black on the shoulder.

  “What are they talking about?” I glanced at Dalejem. “Do you know?”

  “Routes up the coast,” Dalejem said promptly. “Ways of passage that won’t call too much attention to us. How far offshore and out of the Gulf we would need to travel without being harassed by the human law enforcement group. The U.S. Coastal Guard, I think he called them? He also had some concern about pirates… and drug smugglers.”

  When I gave him an incredulous look, cocking an eyebrow, Dalejem shrugged.

  “That was the gist of it,” he said, somewhat apologetically. “They were discussing whether it made sense to switch boats, and if so, where, and how far they could safely travel up on the Atlantic side without running into a problem. They were also discussing whether the pilot would be willing to trade this boat in for another, newer boat, if Black bought him one––either on the way to the United States or after we arrive there.”

  “The United States.” Turning, I stared at him, that time in worry as much as disbelief. “We’re going to the United States? Now? We just left.”

  Dalejem made that hand-gesture again.

  “Apparently.”

  Scowling, that time at Black, I took another, longer drink of my coffee, trying to wake up for real this time. I listened to Black speak to the man covered in tattoos, trying to get a sense of where his mind was at from his light and his facial expressions.

  Even Black’s accent was indistinguishable from his companion’s.

  Now that I was really looking at our new “captain,” I realized his tattoos were tribal and probably local as well, most of them being patterns of dots and lines woven into images of snakes and what looked like a tree on the top part of his back.

  Scraggly black hair fell to his shoulders, partly obscuring the tree tattoo, and he wore a small, wispy beard on his face.

  A reddish-brown birthmark colored the lower part of one cheek.

  “So we’re arming up, and heading back to the States,” I muttered. “Did Black say where?”

  “No,” Dalejem said at once. “Somewhere in the South, I think.”

  When I gave him another scowling look, Dalejem’s expression grew apologetic.

  “I could try to read the man, if you want to know for sure,” he offered. “I must have been getting coffee when they discussed that part.”

  “No,” I said, exhaling as I drank more from the ceramic mug. “I’ll wait.” Still scowling, I added, “I more want to know why he’s risking taking us back to the States… after they just tried to kill him there. And before we have any real idea of who’s after him. Or why.”

  Again, that odd shrug.

  “I don’t know for sure, Mrs. Black.”

  “You can call me Miri.” Turning, I fought back my annoyance and worry related to Black, quirking an eyebrow at Dalejem instead. “Mrs. Black sounds… weird to me, to be honest. And it’s way too formal at this point.”

  “Miri,” he corrected, giving me a nod. “You can call me Jem.”

  I tried to remember if I’d ever called him anything at all.

  The realization made me flush a little.

  “You haven’t,” he said at once. “But I’ve heard you thinking my full name. It’s not necessary to use that. Most people call me Jem.”

  I pursed my lips, feeling a pulse of something else off him.

  For some reason, I commented on it, maybe because he’d already commented on my thoughts.

  “You don’t like it when people use your full name,” I observed.

  He winced.

  I immediately regretted speaking.

  He held up a hand at once.

  “No, it’s okay,” he said. “You are right. I have somewhat… negative associations with it now. Conflicted ones, at the very least.” Hesitating, he added in a lower tone. “An ex-boyfriend, if you’re curious. The emotions there are relatively fresh still.”

  I nodded sympathetically.

  At the same time, it occurred to me that Black would be happy to hear that… that Jem was gay, that is. I realized something else a few seconds later. With him being new here, he might have left someone behind.

  The long-haired seer immediately shook his head.

  “No,” he said, his voice a touch colder. “I did not. I appreciate your concern… but in that regard, I was more than happy to leave my old life behind.”

  That time, it was me who winced.

  Jem sighed. “I apologize. I don’t usually raise such things without the intention of telling the entire story. I do not mean to be cryptic. It is complicated… it would take more time than we have right now to tell you all of it.”

  When I nodded sympathetically, waving at him to not worry about it, Jem jerked his chin subtly towards Black.

  “I will admit, however… it is why it was such a shock when I first saw him. He looks a lot like his cousin.”

  It took me a few seconds that time––to catch up, I mean.

  Then his words penetrated.

  My eyes widened. I couldn’t help it.

  “Your ex-boyfriend was Black’s cousin?” When Jem nodded subtly, again glancing at Black and frowning, I found myself turning over his words. “Wait. I thought the cousin was married. I heard Charles talking about it… that he had some famous wife, a female.”

  “He was.” He glanced at me. “Married. We were together before his marriage.”

  Hesitating, he seemed about to add something more, then didn’t.

  “What?” I said, frowning.

  “Nothing. It is a complicated story, as I said. I was also involved with his wife. That, however, was after they were married.”

  That time, my eyes probably bugged out of my face.

  Feeling a stronger thread of pain off Jem’s light, along with something that had to
be grief, even if it was still mixed with a hotter anger, my shock faded.

  It was immediately replaced with guilt.

  “I’m sorry, Jem. Truly. I never should have asked about––”

  “Please.” He held up his hand. “Mrs. Black… Miri. There is absolutely nothing for you to be sorry for. In all honesty, I am glad you asked.”

  Exhaling in a clicking sigh, he took a sip of coffee, his eyes shifting sideways towards mine.

  “Somehow, in telling you about it, even just the bare bones of the story, I am realizing how ridiculous it all is. I am also realizing how distant it is from me now. However things ended up for the two of them, it is clear I will never see either of them again, not in this life. In truth, that is somewhat of a relief.”

  He looked at me, frowning slightly.

  “It is not entirely a relief… not yet. Yet, in some sense, the very fact that I feel any relief at all makes me feel more confident about letting it go.”

  Looking at him, I found myself thinking again how new all of them were here.

  I wondered what he would be like when he felt more comfortable with all of us. I was beginning to suspect I would like him––that I’d maybe even like him a lot.

  He smiled at me, raising his mug in a salute.

  It may have been the first real smile he aimed in my direction.

  If anything, it only reaffirmed my impression.

  “Thank you.” Exhaling, he glanced at me, that warmer smile lifting his lips. “I appreciate that… more than you know.”

  I smiled back, and realized it was probably the most real smile I’d given him, too.

  After a pause, I found my mind and eyes returning to Black, however.

  “So what do you think he’s up to?” I said, my voice more normal that time, and a lot less guarded. “Black. What’s going on in that brain of his?”

  Sighing, Jem took another sip of his coffee, then shrugged.

  “As I said, I don’t know what your husband’s goal is exactly. I don’t believe he’s shared his reasoning with the captain, either. If he has, I missed it. That being said…”

  He hesitated, then glanced at me.

  “…I believe he’s looking for someone. He’s mentioned places in a way that gave me the impression he’s looking for someone or something in particular.”

  “Looking for someone?” I pursed my lips, my eyes returning to Black. “What places has he mentioned?”

  “New Orleans,” Dalejem said at once. “Shreveport. Los Angeles. Miami.” Frowning towards Black, he added, “Atlanta was mentioned, too. I sense a kind of map in his head. That map has an order of priority assigned to each location. New Orleans was definitely at the top of that list. New York was somewhere towards the bottom.”

  Quirking an eyebrow at me, he added,

  “He’s very methodical, your mate. And quite single-minded.”

  I gritted my teeth.

  “You have no idea,” I muttered.

  I wasn’t sure about all of those places, but a few of them were red flags, for sure.

  They were all heavy vampire cities.

  “Looking for someone,” I grunted, glaring at Black’s muscular back. “Jesus Christ. Of course he is.”

  It was mostly a rhetorical mutter that time, but Dalejem answered me anyway.

  “Do you know who he would be so determined to find, Miri?”

  “I have a couple of guesses, yes.” Feeling puzzlement off him, probably from the anger that was likely flaring off my light, I glanced at him. “You wouldn’t know any of them, Jem. But if this is about who I think it’s about, I might have to kill him.”

  Jem’s eyes widened. “The person he’s looking for? You would kill him?”

  “No. Black.”

  Jem grunted a laugh, half in surprise.

  I found myself grunting humorously in return, more because Jem did it. Even then, I couldn’t really bring myself to feel all that amused.

  Folding my arms, I stood beside Jem and waited for Black to finish, drinking down the coffee steadily as I watched him wrap things up with the captain. When the other man finally walked away, bouncing down the wooden gangplank on bare feet towards his ship after giving Black a cheerful wave, Black turned to me and Jem, a frown on his lips.

  “Hey,” he said, that frown deepening. “No coffee for me?”

  Jem didn’t roll his eyes, but I felt a whisper of that sentiment.

  “I asked you,” he said, his voice patient. “You never answered.”

  “Well, I want one.” He glanced at me, his mouth still hard. “Bring Miri another one, while you’re at it. She’s almost done with hers.”

  Realizing he wanted to talk to me alone, that he was sending Jem off not just to be a dick, but to get a few minutes alone with me, I felt something in my chest relax.

  From next to me, I felt Jem pick up on the same thing.

  “I’ll be back,” he said, quirking an eyebrow at me as he took my near-empty mug out of my hands.

  “Do you need any money?” I asked him, remembering suddenly that he wouldn’t have any.

  “No, no… I was given some this morning. And this is just a local’s house. Her main concern was that I get her mugs back to her.”

  I returned his smile, sending him a whisper of apology.

  He seemed to feel that, too, since his smile widened.

  I watched him walk away.

  My gaze returned to Black when he reached my side. His arm snaked around me before I could speak, yanking me up against him. I felt him wince as he did it, and realized he’d just pulled me up against the gunshot wound from our time in New Mexico.

  “Stop looking at that fucker,” he muttered, gazing down at me with his gold eyes. “You’re making me paranoid.”

  Unlike Jem, I didn’t bother to hide my eye-roll.

  “You’re ridiculous,” I said. “Utterly. Ridiculous.”

  “Am I?” His lip curled. “What the hell is going on with you two? Every time I turn around, you’re talking to him. Is he really that fascinating of a conversationalist?”

  “What’s going on with us?” I frowned, looking back towards Jem, in spite of myself. Instead of blowing off Black’s words, I frowned, thinking about them instead.

  “…I think we’re becoming friends,” I said, after a pause.

  Surprise tinged my voice.

  “Yes,” I said, more decisive. “Yes, I think that’s what’s happening. Jem and I are becoming friends, Black. And you need to get over it.”

  “Friends, huh?” Black grunted, staring past me at where the other seer was walking in the direction of town. He gripped me tighter. “I don’t like it.”

  I laughed, unable to help it.

  When he gave me a wan smile in return, I shoved lightly at his chest without pulling out of his embrace.

  “Stop distracting me,” I scolded. “Tell me what we’re doing.” I leaned into him when he tightened his hold, letting him pull me flush against his body. “Are you seriously taking us back to the United States right now? After what happened last night?”

  That tauter scrutiny faded from his eyes.

  A more worried look replaced it.

  “Miri, I have some bad news.”

  I tensed, losing my grin at his tone.

  Seeing his gold eyes watching mine, I bit my lip, waiting for him to go on.

  “I got a call from Dex last night,” he said. “They heard on the wire that there was an incident moving a prisoner from somewhere in Virginia down to Florida. The whole thing was supposed to be way under the radar. The only reason we heard about it is that Atlanta P.D. found the truck after it was dumped. Because of that, and the dramatic nature of their find, it went out on a regular channel before the involved parties quashed it.”

  Pausing, he continued to watch my eyes, his own cautious.

  “The prisoner escaped, doc. He had help. They think someone posing as private-sec who managed to get the jump on the military personnel they had guarding him.”
<
br />   Feeling me stiffen, he clasped me tighter against him.

  “They didn’t just escape the guards, Miri,” he explained. “They murdered them. All of them. They killed the driver and his gunman as well, so six in total. All but one was found completely drained of blood. They think that one was dead more or less instantly. The exsanguination occurred to the other five while they were still alive.”

  I grimaced. That cold feeling in my gut grew harder, like a piece of cement.

  Black waited a beat, then went on, his voice still careful.

  “Some of my people are already out there, on the East Coast. Most were there looking into the Colonel’s death, so further north, but I had a few who were pretty close to Atlanta. They got there early. I’ve had a keyword tap on law enforcement for months now. Words like ‘exsanguination’ tend to stand out.”

  Pausing, he seemed to be waiting for me to comment.

  When I didn’t, he added,

  “My people managed to get out without being ID’d by the F.B.I. or Home-Sec. From what they tell me, we’ve got reason to believe the prisoner was heading further south.”

  I felt that pit in my stomach grow colder still.

  “How much further south?” I said.

  Black sighed. “Miri––”

  “We’re going after him?” I said, my voice hard.

  I didn’t bother to say his name.

  Black sighed a second time, gripping me tighter in his arms and hands.

  Wincing a little, that time from the gunshot wound in his arm, he only held me tighter, coiling his good arm around my waist and squeezing me against him. When he loosened his hold, he kissed my face, pulsing heat into my chest as he pressed his cheek against mine.

  “Miri, honey,” he said, soft. “I don’t know what’s going on right now, but I don’t think we’re going to be able to figure it out where we are now. We can’t trust Charles. We don’t have the Colonel anymore, or the Pentagon. We’ve lost access to pretty much all of my contacts from the military. We don’t have access to our databases in San Francisco right now… much less satellites or intel from other sources. From what Elspeth told me, they’re currently ripping apart my offices in San Francisco. We’ve got a handful of refugee seers, and whatever people of mine are dumb enough to risk ending up in a black site to help me.”