Black Of Mood (Quentin Black: Shadow Wars #2): Quentin Black World

by JC Andrijeski

  I nodded, not bothering to comment.

  I didn’t trust him, either.

  Mozar turned his glare between the two of us, his voice even more furious. “Excuse me? Vampires? What the hell are you talking about, Black?”

  Black barely seemed to hear him.

  Then I saw Black flinch.

  Immediately after, he turned, staring Mozar in the face. I saw him glance at Ravi and Efraim, right before something like––panic––darted through his light. It was there and gone so fast, I wondered if I’d seen it at all.

  When he faced Mozar again, his expression was stone.

  “How the fuck do you know Alan Horne?” he said.

  “What?” Mozar blinked at him, completely thrown. “We were roommates in college.” The blue eyes widened. “I didn’t tell Nick that... I didn’t give him any names at all. How the hell did you know I came here because of Horne? Did Alan call you?”

  I frowned. “Who’s Alan Horne?”

  Black continued to stare at Mozar, his eyes slightly out of focus.

  I knew that look. He was reading him again.

  Before I could decide whether or not I should read Mozar too, Black turned.

  “He’s a Wall Street broker,” he told me, blunt. “Does a lot of big trades for overseas clients.” Turning back towards Mozar, he folded his arms. “I competed with his firm on a few bids recently. Not against Alan himself, but one of his partners... a guy named David Garrison.”

  “Bids? On what?” I said, pursing my lips.

  “Oil, mostly.” Black frowned, as if thinking. His gaze shifted back to Mozar, and after another pause, he spoke again, still talking to me.

  “Horne didn’t give him a lot of details, but apparently he’s got a client that’s threatening him and his partners, including Garrison. They think this client might be connected to what happened in Texas last night. Horne wants to know if he can get immunity if he and his friends come forward. They want me to use my military contacts to float the deal.”

  I gaped, staring at Black.

  Then I wondered why the hell he was saying all of this out loud.

  When I glanced at Mozar, he was gaping at Black, too. His blue eyes were so wide they looked like they might pop out of his head.

  “How in the hell could you possibly know that?” he sputtered. “I just talked to Alan this morning! Did he really call you?” Mozar frowned, looking between Black and me. “He told me he was nervous about approaching you directly... he’d heard you had a ‘reputation’ when it came to people asking for military favors.” He paled, looking between us a second time. “Does the government already know about their involvement? Are they moving against him?”

  Black scarcely gave him a glance.

  His eyes returned to me. “I’ve heard Horne’s name before.”

  I frowned. From his expression, I had a pretty good idea where this was going.

  “Charles mentioned him to me. Along with Garrison.” He paused, his eyes still holding an added meaning. “Let’s just say, I have a pretty good idea who his ‘clients’ might be. If so, he’s dabbling in a lot more black market shit than ‘accidentally’ making a bunch of money for some terrorists... or for himself, if they bought up as much oil stock as I think they did.”

  “What?” Mozar frowned. “No. Alan wasn’t doing anything illegal. Not on purpose––”

  Again, Black scarcely gave him a glance.

  His focus remained on me.

  I switched to his mind. Why wouldn’t the Pentagon have moved against them, if they really were brokering deals for vampires? I thought you and the Colonel were shutting down their financial sources wherever you could? I added, And why in the hell would this guy Horne come to you? Wouldn’t Brick have told them to stay the hell away from you?

  “Maybe he did,” Black answered aloud with a shrug. “Maybe that’s exactly why they’re coming to me.” He paused. “As for the Pentagon, I only told the Colonel about them a few days ago, when Charles mentioned them to me. We’re hitting these things where we can, but there’s a lot of them.” Black grunted. “They have to at least pay lip-service to legality, doc. Going after a Wall Street firm isn’t like bombing a terrorist training ground.”

  I frowned, folding my arms. “I don’t like this, Black.”

  “Why would you?” he said, frowning deeper. “I don’t like it, either. But we can’t just ignore it, Miri.”

  “What are you two talking about?” Mozar said, looking between us. “Alan’s not a terrorist for fuck’s sake. He’s an investment banker…”

  Black barely seemed to hear him. He didn’t take his eyes off me.

  I knew he understood my meaning well enough.

  There were way too many coincidences going on here.

  Agreed, Black murmured in my mind. I’m not disagreeing with you, Miri. At all.

  Are you agreeing with me that this is definitely a trap? I sent, sharper. Mozar must be working for them, Black. He has to be. It’s the only thing that makes sense. That they would come here, out of some coincidence––

  I know. Honey, I know... it’s all right. Calm down.

  I shook my head. This whole thing stinks of Brick. Uncle Charles said vampires love playing stupid head games like this. When I saw Black frown, I sharpened my thoughts. He’s setting you up. Hell, he’s taunting you about it. They want you to take the fall for this thing in Texas... put you in Guantanamo or some other black hole you’ll never come out of.

  Black shook his head. The Colonel would never believe that.

  The Colonel isn’t the only person in the Pentagon, I pointed out angrily. You think Brick would hesitate for a second in taking him out? We already know they can manipulate minds. You can’t guard everyone all the time, Black.

  Still thinking, I shook my head, my thoughts growing angrier.

  You said it yourself. Brick won’t go after you directly, not if you put yourself in the spotlight like this. Well, what if they decided to let the United States government do it for them?

  Black’s eyes remained thoughtful, but he didn’t answer.

  He turned to Ravi, instead.

  “All right. Do it.” He pulled a business card out of his pocket, scrawling something on the back with a pen he carried in his pocket. He handed the card to the other seer when he finished. “When you’re done, tell him I didn’t have time to meet him after the show, but he can come to that address tomorrow night. I’ll leave his name at the door. Got that?”

  “What the fuck is going on?” Mozar snapped. “What are you talking about?”

  Black didn’t look at him.

  Neither did Ravi. Giving Black a grim nod, Ravi made a gesture with his hand that suggested a kind of salute.

  “Got it, boss.”

  When I glanced at Black next, his gold, tiger-like eyes once more focused on me. I couldn’t quite read the emotions there, but whatever I saw, it made my throat tighten.

  Stop worrying about me, Miri.

  He sent it straight into my mind. So soft, I barely heard it.

  You don’t need to worry about me, doc. I heard everything you said, and I agree with you. He sent me a pulse of heat. I’m not going to Guantanamo, doc. I promise you.

  I frowned, not bothering to tell him how not-reassuring that was.

  He continued to watch my face, his thoughts cautious. Brick will come after us no matter what we do. You get that, right? His word isn’t worth shit. Bowing to his threats isn’t worth shit, either. And I won’t do it.

  I nodded. I know.

  This is me getting better. Not worse. I can’t sit by and wait for him to come at me. I can’t fucking do it, Miriam.

  I nodded again. I know that, too.

  His emotions eased, as if he deliberately stripped them from his thoughts.

  I’ll get to Brick. I’ll do it, Miri. I promise you. I know this seems bad right now, but Brick coming after me directly like this is a good thing. It makes everything easier––

  I let out an incred
ulous snort.

  ––It’s better if he’s arrogant, Black said, hitting his words a bit harder. It’s better if he thinks I’m stupid. It’s better if he thinks he has me, Miri––

  Unless he does, I cut in angrily, glaring at him.

  Black shook his head. This will only help us, doc. I promise.

  There was another silence. When it stretched that time, I gritted my teeth, but eventually forced myself to nod.

  There didn’t seem to be much else to do.

  5

  A GULF OF SILENCE

  “WHERE’S BLACK?” ANGEL said, lifting a margarita to her lips and sipping through the salted glass rim, puckering her lips. Lowering her glass to the table, she cleared her throat. “I thought you were going to drag his ass off the phones for a change? Force him to interact with us peons like a regular human? Or... you know. A regular not-human.”

  I forced a smile, rolling my eyes as I plunked down next to her in the leather booth, setting my own, now mostly-empty margarita glass on a black napkin resting on the marble table.

  I pushed on Nick’s arm to get him to scoot around, and he accommodated me with a grunt, sliding his meal across the table with him–-a giant plate of oysters nested on a bed of slowly melting ice. He barely gave me a nod of acknowledgment before he downed the next one, sucking it off the shell and then washing it down with beer.

  “You look nice,” he said, motioning towards me with his beer bottle.

  I looked down at what I wore, barely able to remember what it was without checking.

  I still wasn’t used to having someone else pick out the majority of my clothes for me. It was an annoying amount of work, truthfully, to play this part. I increasingly questioned whether having this much money was more of a convenience or a burden. More and more I leaned towards burden, especially since Black decided to thrust us into the public eye.

  “Is that a Jonas ensemble?” Angel said shrewdly, as if reading my mind. “I like it. But it’s not really you, Miri... if you don’t mind me saying.”

  I nodded and sighed to both things.

  I didn’t mind her saying it. I knew she was right.

  The black mesh dress clung to every curve in my body, showing skin wherever the fabric wasn’t covering my flesh in darker black bands. Truthfully, I felt more like I was wearing a bathing suit than real clothes. But it was comfortable, at least.

  “Can I have one of those?” I said, motioning to the oysters.

  Nick slid over the plate, even as he downed another one, slurping it out of the shell.

  The sun was dipping low on the horizon, reflecting against the high-rise buildings visible through the windows of the upper-floor bar. I preferred to hang out by the pool area, personally, which lay a good ten stories above where we sat now, but they had real drinks here, and I knew Nick would prefer that to sitting upstairs, no matter how pretty it was.

  Even now, I saw his eyes dart to the football game playing on the television over the bar.

  “I haven’t seen Cowboy,” Angel observed, glancing around. “I thought he was your bodyguard these days. Is he with Black?”

  I grimaced.

  I hadn’t meant to. The expression came before I could fully block it.

  Unfortunately, Angel caught it, and laughed. “Uh-oh,” she said. “Cowboy causing you grief, doc? What did he do?”

  I shook my head, picking a peanut out of the bowl on the table. “Cowboy’s fine.” Recalling my most recent argument with Black, in the back seat of the SUV on the way from the studio to the hotel, I grimaced. “Sometimes I wonder if I’ve been replaced, though.”

  Angel chuckled. Then, looking at me a little closer, she lost her smile.

  “Oh. You’re not really kidding.”

  I shrugged, plucking one of the oyster shells carefully from Nick’s plate and tipping it over my mouth after Nick squeezed lemon juice over it. The waiter walked by our table and I flagged him down, ordering a second margarita.

  When he walked away, Angel laid a hand on my arm.

  “Where’s Black, doc?”

  Leaning back in the leather seat, I sighed, wishing I’d kept my snide remarks to myself. “Another meeting. Something to do with buying that P.I. firm this time. I have no idea if Cowboy’s with him or not.” I kept my voice neutral, sighing as I crossed my legs under the table. “It’s not a big deal. He said he’d be back for dinner. Of course, with him, that could mean ten o’clock.”

  “You didn’t go?” Angel frowned. “I thought you went to most of his business meetings with him.”

  I shook my head. “Not this one. He didn’t even ask.”

  I saw her exchange a surreptitious glance with Nick, right before she faced me, laying a hand on my arm. “What’s going on with you two? Is something wrong?”

  I shook my head, again wishing I’d kept my big mouth shut. “I don’t really want to talk about that, Ang, to be honest. It’s not you. I’m just not up for it right now.” I looked between her and Nick. “Any news from Charles’ people? About what’s going on in Europe? With the vampires they caught?”

  There was a silence.

  In it, Nick gave me an uncomfortable look, raising his beer bottle and averting his gaze. Noting his expression, I frowned.

  “Let me guess,” I said, sarcastic. “Black doesn’t want me to know.”

  “Miri,” Nick protested. “You’re not allowed to read me.” His eyes turned accusing as he lowered his beer bottle. “Seriously. That’s not cool.”

  “I didn’t need to read you, Nick... it’s written all over your face.” Folding my arms, I stared at him. “I know they caught some, all right? Have they found out anything useful? Or not?”

  Nick exhaled, exchanging a pointed glance with Angel. “I told Black. Didn’t I?”

  “You did,” Angel affirmed. “More than once.”

  I bit my lip, trying to control––or at least hide––my anger that both of them had clearly been privy to this information and I hadn’t. I suspect I didn’t do a very good job. Before I could speak, Nick sighed, scrubbing his fingers through his short black hair.

  “Sunlight hurts them,” he said, blunt. “But it doesn’t appear to kill them... which we already more or less knew. Charles is trying to coerce them into using some of their other powers now, bribing them with blood mostly, but from what Black said, it’s slow work. They’re also trying to figure out how they reproduce, but so far it’s mainly been a process of elimination. Their sexual organs don’t work...”

  When I frowned at him, remembering what Black told me about Puzzle, Nick clarified,

  “...In the reproductive sense, doc. They function in terms of arousal, stimulus and orgasm much like humans, but the males seem to be shooting blanks. It’s less clear whether the females can reproduce, but I guess Charles’ people think no. They have roughly the same parts as human women, though.”

  “Are they human?” I said. “I mean, were they... once... human?” I glanced around our booth, making sure no one was in earshot. “You know. Like in the myths?”

  Nick shook his head. “That’s not exactly clear yet, either, doc.”

  I pursed my lips, but nodded. “Anything else?”

  “They have to feed on us to read us, which we also knew. They can’t read seer or human minds at all once our blood is fully assimilated into their system... but there still seems to be some kind of residual effect. Like an imprint. Or a connection, maybe. It seems to allow them to feel some things, even afterwards.” He paused, giving me a cautious look. “Black said that effect seems to be stronger with seers.”

  Alarm prickled my skin. “So Brick can feel Black? Puzzle, too?”

  Nick pursed his lips, glancing at Angel.

  “Nick?” I said, sharper. “That’s something I need to know.”

  “I don’t have an answer for you, doc. I really don’t.” He gave me a more pointed look. “I’m not even supposed to be talking to you about this, Miri. Black was pretty adamant about that. He also said he had a g
ood reason... and frankly, I believe him. It was pretty obvious he wasn’t keeping you in the dark because he wanted to. It seemed to frustrate the hell out of him.”

  I gritted my teeth, but didn’t answer.

  After our argument in the SUV, I had a pretty good idea what Black’s “good reason” probably entailed.

  Turning, I looked through the tinted windows at the reflected sunset colors on the adjacent buildings. I tried to clear my mind, but I couldn’t do it. Instead, I found myself replaying the conversation between me and Black on the ride back to the hotel.

  It hadn’t been one of my finer moments. Or his, for that matter.

  Doc, just say it.

  I’d frowned. Say what?

  Whatever it is that’s knocking around that big brain of yours. Turning, he’d met my gaze. From the way his shoulders went back, hands gripping the leather seat, he looked like he was gearing up for a fight. Or maybe just to be yelled at. You knew this would be rough. I warned you. When I asked you to come with me to New York... I said it wouldn’t be easy.

  He had warned me.

  I guess I thought it would be different. I thought we’d be different. I also thought we’d be together. Not just with sex. With his light, his heart, his mind––all of him. Instead, I felt like I sat on the sidelines, watching, while he followed his single-minded obsession to take down the entire vampire race. I helped him where I could, but in most ways, I felt superfluous.

  Worse, I felt like I was in his way.

  Black might have heard some of that, or he might have heard none of it. Either way, he’d stared at me in frustration, frowning.

  Where is this coming from, Miriam? he sent. You know what we’re up against. When I looked away, pressing my lips together, his thoughts grew quieter. Is this really about Brick? Or is it about me? Are you still pissed off at me from last night?

  I’d turned at that, staring at him. I was never pissed off about last night, Black.

  I hadn’t been, either.

  From his expression, I wondered if he believed me, though.

  Thinking about that now, I rubbed my belly absently, wincing.