“You will just kill me.” His voice was a small whisper.
“Yes. You will die. Either with some honor left, or as a shameful disgrace. Help us and your death will be quick and painless. Refuse, and you will be tortured by the Council for all eternity. Now would you like to talk?”
Ren was leaning across the table trying to hear me. I flexed my shield-bubble. The ball of violet light only I could see grew from my hand. A moment later it filled the room, and flowed out into the hall. The mob was still outside the window. I could see them in the violet light as perfectly as if the wall wasn’t there. In fact, I think the group had gotten even bigger. Time for a better show. I slid my hands down his chest. Then unbuttoned his shirt from behind, slowly, making each move very obvious. With his shirt open, I moved to sit down on the table in front of him.
The fear on his face was impossible to miss. He was terrified of me. Good. I pulled out one of the guns from my back. I played with it in my hands. Douglas stared wildly at the gun.
“You’re going to kill me, just like that?”
“No Douggie. You still haven’t answered my questions yet. This is just to help you remember, so you can tell me all I need to know.”
I flipped the targeting laser on, moving the small light purple dot quickly across that pale flesh as I did. His chest split open like I’d cut him -- burned by the ultraviolet laser. The small cut healed almost instantly, but he screamed and thrashed in pain. Ren moved closer trying to see what was going on. I waved the gun back and forth, the laser swiftly dragging across his chest with each pass. If you weren’t paying attention you’d never see the tiny cuts form and heal as he wailed.
“What are you doing to him?” Ren finally asked.
“Nothing, just waiting for him to start talking so I can shoot him.”
He screamed with each pass of the gun. It took a full five minutes before he cracked. “Jacob found me at Targ’s office! I only went with him the one time! I don’t know where he is!”
Finally, progress.
“That’s a good start. Now tell us everything you really know about Jacob and those with him. Tell us what you don’t want us to know.”
“Never! He’ll kill me for talking to you.”
“And you think I won’t kill you for not talking to me? Oh, think about that. You have to ask yourself, who do you fear more, Jacob, or me?”
He roared at the ceiling. Then he began to jerk and spasm in the chair, screaming as he tried to tear his way out of the restraints. I put up my gun and moved off the table. Ren started to slowly back away. It was like he was having a seizure, thrashing around in the chair. The bones popped and broke loudly in the small room.
“Watch out!” I screamed.
Ren turned and scrambled for the door. She wasn’t fast enough. Douglas had broken his bones in order to get out of his restraints. He was halfway out of the chair as he grabbed for Ren’s belt. He held on dragging her back towards his snapping fangs.
I hit him.
I didn’t want to kill him yet, so I decked him with my shields instead of shooting him. The force of the hit threw him into the floor, smashing the metal table and the reinforced chair. He drug Ren down with him.
After I hit him, I rushed to pry his fingers off Ren and help her to her feet. Douglas Adams was out for the count. Uniformed officers poured into the room guns drawn on the unconscious vampire on the floor. Not that their regular ammo would do much against the vampire if he decided to get up and attack them.
“Take him back to containment!” Ren ordered the mob of blue.
The uniforms rushed in and carried him away. There was a deep dent in the concrete floor where I had hit him.
Now that had to have hurt.
“You okay?” I asked Ren.
She blinked at me a second. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
The brown suit stuck his head around the corner to look in the room. I pointed at him. He jerked back like I’d shot him. “You owe me a hundred bucks,” I declared triumphantly.
He ducked out of the room. I heard him running down the hall from us.
What’s the big deal? Don’t make a bet if you can’t cover it. Everyone knows that.
My glasses started to ring in my coat pocket. I went over and put them on. Julie -- my computer generated assistant -- appeared on the display looking as she always did in the same outfit and smiling.
“Good morning Miss Grey, Dr. Grey is calling for you.”
“Put her on.”
The picture morphed from Julie to Emmy. “Hi little sister, what are you up to?”
“Beating up a vampire, what’s up?”
“Oookay? The Vampire Council is sending you another envoy to meet today. Marsala says they’re bringing more gifts.”
“Goodie. When will they be here?” I asked sighing.
“They want to meet you in the Demonstration Armory conference room at one this afternoon.”
“What is it with that room? Isn’t there another place to meet? I’m in there so much I feel like hanging up a sign and declaring it my new office.”
“They requested it.”
“Fine, I’ll be there.”
“Come early, Marsala said he needs to talk to you before you meet them today. And please dress nice, you need to make a good impression.”
“Okay, bye.”
Emmy said bye, then the picture faded out. Julie was back a second later.
“You have another call. It is from the pediatric ward at the hospital.”
Probably Vicki calling from work.
“I’ll take it.”
Julie’s picture went black with the audio only connection.
“Kieran, you there?”
“Hi Vicki, what’s up?” Why does it feel that “what’s up” is becoming my new catch phrase?
“I was wondering what you were doing for lunch today? I don’t have to be back to work until two. Are you free?”
“Well, I’m never free, but I am easily bought.” I know, bad joke. “Actually I have to head home and change. Emmy says that the Vampire Council is sending another envoy to meet me at one. They’re bringing more gifts. Do you want to meet me at my place? I’m sure Mary can whip something up for us.”
“I’d love to. I’ll see you at your place. Tell Ren “Hi” for me if you see her. Bye.” I swore I could actually hear her smile.
“Julie.”
Her picture faded back in. “Yes?”
“Please call my home, I need to talk to Mary.”
“Of course.”
The picture faded out again.
“Good morning Grey residence,” Mary answered, cheerful as ever.
“Mary, can you pick out a nice outfit for me. I’m on my way home to change. The Vampire Council wants to meet with me again today.”
“Dressy, or business?”
“Business. Oh, and Vicki is coming over. Would it be a problem for you to make us lunch?”
“Not at all. I’ll have everything ready when you get here.”
“Thanks Mary, see you soon.”
I took off the glasses. Ren was the only one left in the room now.
“I hate it when you use those glasses to take calls. It looks like you’re having a one way conversation with yourself. It’s . . . weird. So, what’s up?”
Ha! It’s not just my phrase anymore. Always take pleasure in the little things.
“Well, Vicki says ‘Hi’, and I’ve got to go home and change. The Vampire Council is sending an envoy to meet me at one. Emmy wants me to dress up. I guess the urban warrior look isn’t in this year or something. I’ll ask them what we should do with Douglas. I have a feeling he won’t cooperate much with us anymore. We may need a bigger bargaining chip.”
“Yeah. Oh, the lab boys got an analysis on that fluid from the body last night. They say it was like a puree of all the insides. They found trace materials from every organ and tissue type along with an unknown material. I’ve been promised a result on the unknown by tomorrow. Hopefully
that will be soon enough. They say the body ripped open because part of the skin had frozen to the ground. Also, I went to the morgue earlier. To touch the skin. The images I got were scattered and unreadable. The only thing I could make out was spiders. It looked like lots of spiders. Do you think spiders could’ve done that?”
I shook with the disturbing thought. I’m arachnophobic, I’d avoided anything dealing with spiders if I could. “I don’t know what spider bites look like. I’ll ask Nikolai though. He might know.”
“Who’s Nikolai?” she asked teasingly with a sly smile.
Just what is she thinking?
“He’s a werewolf at the Archives. He works in the Bestiary, it’s like a zoo for strange animals they’re studying. A creepy, disturbing, zoo.” A shiver ran down my spine from the memories of that horrible encounter I had the first time I’d gone through the Bestiary.
“Sounds like fun. Let me know what you find out.”
* * *
Mary had fresh deli-style sandwiches, with homemade sweetbread, waiting for us when I got back to the apartment. Vicki was there and she greeted me with a hug and a deep kiss. It was just the normal way we greeted each other, we were basically a couple after all. We all sat down at the kitchen table to eat. I preferred the small table unless we needed more room for others. It just seemed stuffy to eat in the dining room.
“So, tell me about your date with Tanaka. Mary told me you went out with him last night. How’d it go?” There was a tiny hint of jealousy in Vicki’s voice.
“Well, honestly we never got past the appetizer. Ren called me to a crime scene, so we had to skip dinner.”
“Oh, sorry. I hear the food there is good. Too bad you missed it.”
“We could go there sometime if you want. I just don’t speak French, so don’t expect me to order for you. I couldn’t talk to the waiters or even read the menu.”
“I took French in high school,” Mary chimed in.
“Okay then, Mary will have to come with us to interpret.” We all laughed lightly.
“Was the crime scene bad? Was it another Jacob?” Vicki was picking at her food now, thoughts hanging heavy on her face.
No doubt remembering the video of that girl’s rape we saw.
“Yeah, it was another Jacob, but this one was different. Grossly different.”
“How?” Mary asked.
Did she really want to know? We told her what was going on, but she doesn’t know all the details. Besides, it’s not really a good topic for the dinner table. Oh well, she did ask.
“Well, the police are keeping it under wraps now, but the insides of the body were liquefied.”
Mary spoke between bites, “You mean like what spiders do to crickets?”
“Funny you mention that. Ren touched the remains. She never got a clear flash image. The only thing she saw was lots of spiders. Any idea what type of spider could do that to a human?”
“None I know of,” Mary continued. “I studied some spiders in biology class. The ones I know of that liquefy their prey melt all the tissue. The skin is always the first thing to go if you don’t have a hard exoskeleton. It’s like pouring acid on your hand. The venom melts the skin away first then eats the rest of the tissues. That’s why they cocoon their prey. The cocoon holds in the liquid as the prey melts. Like a sack lunch.”
Vicki dropped her sandwich. “GROSS!!! How can you eat and talk about that?”
“Easy, I had lunch right before biology in high school. Either you learned to deal with it, or risk getting sick during dissection.”
“I took geology and astronomy. The smell of formaldehyde made me sick instantly. Still does,” I said eating away.
Funny, but it doesn’t bother me talking with Mary about spiders. I guess maybe because she knows something about them.
“Well I think I’ll skip the rest of lunch, thank you very much.”
“Sorry Vicki. Here, at least eat a ration cube. That way you won’t get hungry during your shift.” I handed her a cube from my belt-pack.
“You know there has to be a market for these things. Like fashion models or something. Small and tasteless, yet fills you up all day. It’s like the ultimate diet food,” she said as she popped the lavender cube in her mouth.
We all had a laugh.
* * *
Mary had laid out a turquoise business suit for me. Like all of my clothes it was custom made out of a special bulletproof spider-silk and fit perfectly. My clothes were the only thing spider related that I tolerated. I dressed up and armed myself. I was almost ready when the door chimed. Mary came in a second later to tell me that Tanaka was here to pick me up.
Great, Tanaka and Vicki in the same room for the first time since they both figured out the old Kieran hadn’t left Vicki for Tanaka because of the reasons they thought.
For some reason I rushed getting ready and ran out to meet them. I had visions of blood being spilt in my kitchen.
Tanaka was at the kitchen table with the others, finishing Vicki’s abandoned sandwich. They were all laughing hysterically.
Did I miss something?
“Wow,” Tanaka said with his mouth full when he noticed me. He looked me up and down, then swallowed his bite. “You look terrific. You sure have caught on to dressing like a girl haven’t you?”
“I had some help.” I was blushing.
Why do I have to blush every time he checks me out?
He popped the rest of the sandwich in his mouth, swallowing without chewing. “That was great Mary. All of your cooking is. We’d best be off. Marsala wants to see you before you go to your meeting.” He stood up stretching like a cat waking from a nap. Every move graceful and with purpose.
I walked across the room. Mary stopped me to adjust my collar and remove a stray hair. Then I leaned down and kissed Vicki fully on the lips like a lover should. I had to kiss her. I was just drawn to her. Tanaka played the gentleman and simply coughed to signal that he’d seen enough.
Spoil sport.
I said my goodbyes and left with him.
Chapter 4
I hated going to Marsala’s room. Memories of that giant TV in Targ’s office spying on me made me uncomfortable to be in there. The more than twelve-foot-tall Marsala sat on the end of his oversized bed as the doors opened for me. The giant vampire dwarfed me even while sitting. Tanaka had left us to go get Emmy. I was now alone with the other man in my life that could be a traitor.
“Good to see you. Are you doing well? You haven’t been around much lately.” Hurt was evident in Marsala’s voice.
Damn! Why can’t this be easy? Why can’t one of them stand up and say, “hey over here, I’m the traitor you’re looking for.” Why must my life be so damned complicated?
“Sorry, I’ve just had a lot to adjust to is all.”
“Targ told you I was a traitor didn’t he?” he blurted out the question.
My jaw hit the floor. Like they say, “Watch out for what you wish for, it could come true.” Let’s not beat around the bush, just dive right in. Fine by me.
“Yes, actually he did. He said that you reported to him. That you told him about our plan so he had time to move Jacob.”
He let the hurt show in his eyes. My body reacted, not wanting to see him like that. I crossed the room to him. He stood up and moved out of reach with only one step.
“Do you believe him?” There was anger in his voice now as he showed his fangs. An angry vampire over twelve-feet tall was not a pretty sight.
“Honestly, I’m not sure. There is some evidence that points to you, but some that points to another as well. It’s possible that one of you, or both of you acted against me. Or, Targ could’ve just made it all up based upon circumstantial evidence, in hopes of driving a wedge between us. Trying to break up our team, by destroying the trust between you and I.” I left out suspecting Tanaka on purpose.
“What happens now?” he finally asked after an agonizingly long silence.
“Nothing,” I shrugged. He glared at
me. “We do nothing different. If there is a traitor, then in time I’ll learn the truth and deal with it in kind. Otherwise, I just want to focus on getting by day by day. I still have a lot to learn about being Kieran and I need all the help I can get. I need your help, your knowledge. Please Marsala, things are hard enough as it is. Just tell me that you’re not a traitor, and I’ll believe you, unless you ever prove me different.”
“I would never turn against you,” he said through clenched fangs.
“Good enough for me.” I went to him taking his giant arm and hugging it. “Thank you. I can’t imagine my world without you in it.” He relaxed finally.
I’ll have to remember to ask him about the surveillance cameras in his room sometime later though. Do I really trust him? No. I don’t trust Tanaka either. I’m just waiting until one of them prove themselves one way or another.
“The Council has sent you a new gift. Please, accept it graciously.”
“Don’t worry. After these past weeks, nothing they can give me will surprise me. But, we’ll have to have a discussion if they give me something that could eat me alive. I’m not into man-eating pets right now.”
He laughed. That deep laugh filled the room. It sounded good and warm. Just sounded so right.
I sure hope he doesn’t ever turn against me.
We met Tanaka and Emmy in the hall outside his room. I barely had time to notice the metal briefcase Emmy carried before Marsala started walking away.
“I will meet you there,” Marsala said heading for the Bestiary.
“Hold up, I’ll come with you. I’ve got a question for Nikolai if we run into him. And don’t worry, I promise not to freak out like I did last time.” Everyone just shrugged and joined us.
At least I hope I won’t.
* * *
Nikolai met us at the cargo elevators in the Bestiary. Tanaka had called ahead to have the werewolf meet us. The others went ahead of us so we could talk. As soon as they were out of sight, Nikolai produced a small three inch jamming cube from nowhere, and activated it.
Revenge's Web (Kieran Grey Psionic Hunter) Page 3