by Gary Jonas
Since I don’t feel pain, I was more upset about the sliced shirt than my body.
Ben went all the way to the floor, his left hand landing on Amanda’s arm. He clutched her sleeve as he dropped through his own shadow and disappeared, pulling Amanda after him.
With them out of the way, I jumped back, yanked the scimitar from my shoulder and whipped around just in time to parry an attack from another Watcher. They tried to close in on me, and as I wasn’t allowed to kill them, I dropped to my knees and gave that scimitar a swing with as much energy as I could manage. The blade was nice and sharp. It cut through the Watchers’ legs like the proverbial sword through twelve sticks of butter.
It’s hard to fight when you don’t have legs, and it’s even harder to give chase. I grabbed my sword and tossed the scimitar aside then flipped over the man to my left and raced out of the house.
Ben stood there in the driveway holding Amanda. “Bogie saved my life,” he said.
“With a little help from me,” I said as I sheathed my blade.
“Here’s looking at you, kid. Ready to get out of here?”
“Definitely.”
“Kelly, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
“Let’s not get carried away,” I said.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Amanda remained unresponsive.
I paced the floor of the hotel room like a woman awaiting news from the surgeon about her child. I didn’t have many true friends, so I couldn’t afford to lose her. Ben slumped in a chair at the desk with one hand propping up his chin. “Could you please stop,” he said. “You’re making me anxious.”
“It’s nearly sunrise. Are you sure Victor will come back here?”
“For the thousandth time, no.”
“But you said—”
“What I said was he might return. Then again, he may go off with Lenora to make the beast with two backs, or he might go to one of his secret rooms, or he might stay with the Council for a few days talking about the Men of Anubis. There’s simply no way to know what Victor will do until he fucking does it.”
“Don’t get pissy with me,” I said.
“Then just sit down or lie down or go pace out in the hall where I don’t have to see you.”
His reaction was stronger than it should have been. “What’s the real problem?”
He sighed. “Nothing.”
“Right. Tell me.”
“I said it’s nothing.” He waved his hand at me in dismissal.
“When I say that, it’s really something.”
He sighed. “You’re not going to let it go, are you?”
“That’s right.”
“Fine. You’re not going to like it.”
“I don’t like much,” I said. “Spit it out.”
“I’m disappointed, okay?”
“In what?”
“I’m just disappointed. Can we please just leave it at that?”
“No, we can’t.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Ben said and pushed himself to his feet. He started to talk, then thought better of it and turned away, then turned back to me again. “Don’t you get an adrenaline rush in a fight?”
“I’m a magically engineered warrior, so no, I don’t. Fighting is a natural state.”
“Well, I’ve been dead for a couple centuries and I still get that extra oomph when I face danger.”
“So you’re wired?”
“And horny,” he said. “And I thought you might be too. But you’re clearly hung up on Victor.”
“Victor can save Amanda.”
“I just helped you save Amanda from a bunch of Watchers.”
“And you thought I’d reward you with sex?”
“Let’s just say I was hoping.”
“So a ‘thank you’ isn’t enough.”
“When you put it like that it makes me sound like a douche.”
I grinned. “Well you are a bit of a douche.”
“You’re not supposed to agree with me.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re supposed to say something to make me feel better. General rules of conduct and all.”
“Even if you spoke the truth?”
“Especially if I spoke the truth. You don’t kick a man when he’s been knocked to one knee.”
“You kick a man until he’s no longer a threat, and apply a throw if necessary,” I said. “How about this? I’m flattered that you find me desirable even though you prefer men.”
“Honey, I prefer whatever I can get. I keep my options wide open. I can’t get or give diseases as a companion, so pleasure in any form is always welcome.”
“So you want me because I have a pulse.”
He smirked. “A pulse is not required.”
“And I’m back to the truth of you’re a douche.”
“I sleep with a lot of vampires and other companions. None of us has a pulse. You can’t really…” He stopped, shook his head, and broke into a fit of laughter.
His laugh was contagious, and I tried to hold back, but couldn’t help it. I laughed too.
The tension that filled the room dissipated. My worries about Amanda didn’t seem so front-and-center. She still had another thirteen hours until the death spell turned permanent. A lot can happen in thirteen hours.
***
Nothing happened in the next ten hours.
We sat in that hotel room, watching Amanda sleep like a corpse. I paced the floor. Whatever Ben thought about, he thankfully chose not to share.
I stood at the window, staring west at the mountains as the sun dropped behind them.
“Kelly Chan,” a voice said softly behind me.
I spun around because nobody should have been able to sneak up on me like that. My hands darted and closed on nothing.
Victor Pavlenco stood in the room mere inches outside my grasp. “I don’t believe we’ve been formally introduced,” he said as though I hadn’t just reached for him.
How could he have moved so fast?
“Victor Pavlenco,” I said, stopping myself from continuing the attack. “You need to give me the Ring of Aten.”
He smiled. “I need to do no such thing.”
“You have an extra.”
“I could have ten thousand of them, and I still wouldn’t need to give one to you.”
“But—”
He held up a hand. “Stop,” he said.
His voice carried the authority of one who has commanded armies and lived for hundreds of years knowing that if he said something, no one would argue.
I punched him in the face.
“Remarkable,” he said.
I moved to hit him again, but he easily avoided it.
“I need that ring to save Amanda.”
“The ring won’t save her,” Victor said. “Only William can do that.”
“And he wants the ring, and I’ve been commanded to give it to him.”
“And you’re following orders from him? I thought you’d be able to shake that by now.”
“Mostly I just want to punch your face in,” I lied. I wanted to kiss him, but it felt like a dream.
“Perhaps I should try to shift the command spell again. I would enjoy that sort of action a good deal more than having you drive your fist into my face.”
The memory of the feelings I had for him swept through me like an aftershock and my legs quivered. I hoped it didn’t show.
I was about to say something, but the shadow against the far wall swirled and Lenora stepped out, still wearing her white dress. I wondered about her history. From the announcement at the ball, I knew she’d been turned in 1865, which meant during the Civil War. Had she been free? Had she been a slave? Would TJ know? She looked lovely and deadly at the same time. She moved up behind Victor, and said, “Are you sure she’s part of it?”
Victor nodded. “Quite certain.”
“Part of what?” I asked.
“The Event,” Victor said.
“TJ mention
ed something about that. What is it?”
“She doesn’t know?” Lenora asked.
“To her, time didn’t change.”
“Fine,” I said. “I don’t really care about that. I just need the ring.”
“No,” Victor said.
“Without it, Amanda will die.”
“I don’t care,” Victor said.
“But I do.”
“William has been trying to get the ring for centuries, Ms. Chan. He’s killed others to try and get it, and I’ve killed people to keep him from obtaining it. This dance goes on and on through the ages. It won’t stop here regardless of what happens with your witch friend.”
“We need to figure out whether or not we’re in danger,” Lenora said. “We should gather the Council and finish our discussion away from these mortals.”
I drew my sword. “Trust me,” I said. “You’re in danger if you don’t give me the ring.”
Victor sighed and leaned against the wall, shaking his head.
Lenora stepped close. So close the point of my blade bit into her neck. “You are not a threat to us,” she said.
I smiled and whipped my sword around, slicing her throat a bit in the process. As it arced around, I readied a threatening comment to throw at Victor about how his head would join hers on the floor if he didn’t give me the ring. Unfortunately, when I swung the sword at Lenora’s neck, she disappeared, dropping into shadow. She reappeared behind me as my blade bit deep into the hotel wall.
She grabbed me and tried to pull my head to the side. Was she trying to bite me? Snap my neck? I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t care, because I reacted faster than she expected and managed to get a hand on her arm. I dropped to pull her down, intending to spin, slam her to the floor, then rise and hurl her into Victor, but she dropped through shadow again. As I had hold of her arm, I went with her.
We appeared on the other side of the room, and as disorienting as it was, I didn’t let go. The inertia of my initial action continued, and her feet left the floor, but she pulled me through another shadow, and we appeared in a forest surrounded by evergreens with traces of snow still on the ground. We had to be high in the mountains as it was summertime. I held tight to her. There was no way I wanted her to leave me here and slip away through a shadow. We dropped to the ground. I rolled and smacked her head into a tree. I rose and yanked her up, but rather than fight back, she moved around the trunk to stay away from my sword. My grip on her forearm slid to her wrist, and I tightened my grasp.
“Don’t fight me,” she said. “I must talk with you.”
“Don’t even think about leaving me here,” I said.
“I won’t. But we must talk privately.”
I stopped following her around the tree. She stopped trying to get away. The wind whipped through the forest, but neither of us cared. One moment she wanted to gather the Council, and the next she wanted a private word. Did she really want that or was she buying time before trying to kill or control me?
“I’m listening,” I said. I didn’t sheath my sword. I wanted it ready in case she tried to attack me. As she was nocturnal, I figured she had better vision in the darkness, but what she didn’t know was that I could see fairly well in the dark too.
“My companion says good things about you,” she said. “And I appreciate the way you moved through the crowd last night. Very impressive.”
“I don’t care what you think about me,” I said.
“You are a formidable opponent.”
“I am,” I said.
“But this is much larger than you know. You must break the command Sinclair has imposed on you. He must not get one of the rings.”
“Not my problem. I need to save Amanda.”
“Sinclair won’t save your friend. He’ll let her die.”
“I’ll deal with that once I get the ring.”
“Sinclair used you.”
“And he’s using me now, thank you very much. I’m aware of that.”
“He wanted you to flush Victor out.”
“I know.”
“But why should he do that when he knew we’d all be together at the meeting?”
I rolled my eyes. “Do you think I’m stupid?”
“No, I’m simply concerned that you haven’t thought this through because you don’t know what’s at stake.”
“You don’t want Sinclair to walk in daylight.”
“We don’t care about that. He simply needs a way to do that without using the rings. So why flush Victor out before the meeting?”
“To get the ring before then.”
“He believed Victor had the rings on his person, but that he would leave them in shadow for the meeting as it would not be wise to bring rings that can allow us to walk in daylight to a meeting of vampires.”
“So?”
“Sinclair’s plan was to have one of his agents get the ring while Victor was with us.”
“Again, who cares?”
“You should.”
“Why?”
“Because Sinclair’s companion, Geoffrey Windsor, retrieved the rings. All three of them.”
“Excuse me?”
She nodded. “I added my ring to the box for safekeeping so I could attend the ball.”
TJ stepped out of the shadows carrying the body of a black woman. The body was dressed in a white dress, exactly like Lenora’s. TJ set the corpse down. “We good to go?”
“I haven’t reached that point in the discussion yet,” Lenora said.
“Shit,” he said. “Guess I timed that wrong.”
“Early is better than late.”
“What the hell is going on?” I asked.
“I need you to do me a huge favor,” Lenora said.
“Hear her out,” TJ said. “I vouched for you.”
“I barely know you, TJ. For all I know you’ve never been to DGI, much less interned there. Why should I believe anything either of you say?”
“Don’t cost nothin’ to listen,” TJ said. “And I really did work at DGI. I didn’t make that shit up.”
“You two can discuss all that later,” Lenora said. “We’re nearly out of time.”
“Hell, he’s probably already there.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Sinclair was on his way to Victor’s hotel room,” Lenora said. “We extended the invitation when we discovered the rings had been stolen during the meeting. We figured he’d accept because he knows Victor cast a binding spell on the box.”
“If he has the rings, he should release Amanda.”
“Don’t count on that,” TJ said.
“He’s not the least bit worried about you,” Lenora said. “He’ll simply command you to forget it ever happened.”
“That won’t work,” I said. “Will it?”
“How do you feel about Sinclair?”
“He’s a total prince,” I said. “Damn it!”
“Victor might be able to save Amanda, but it’s unlikely. Regardless, we need your help to deal with Sinclair.”
“What can I do? I can’t move against him.”
“You won’t have to. You need to take out his men. Victor will deal with Sinclair.”
“I can’t kill his men. I’m under strict orders.”
“You can incapacitate them.”
I smiled. “That I can do.”
“We’re out of time,” TJ said.
“A few seconds here or there, won’t be a problem,” Lenora said. “It will make it seem like Kelly is a better fighter if we don’t return as quickly.”
“I’ll try to ignore the insult,” I said.
“I want you to cut off my head in front of Sinclair.”
I grinned. “Happy to oblige,” I said. “But somehow I think you want me to use the corpse TJ brought.”
“Bingo,” TJ said.
“Victor knows about this?”
“Victor would never go for this,” Lenora said. “He wants to keep all the rings in that box, and thinks he should
be the caretaker because he’s the oldest. I think I should have the box because I’m the most intelligent.”
“What makes you think that?”
“I got you here alone, didn’t I? Look, Sinclair can’t open the box without the right spell. He needs me and he needs Victor. If he thinks I’m dead, he’ll believe my spell is gone and he’ll need only Victor. While those two are dealing with each other, you’ll fight off the companions, and TJ will abscond with the box and bring it to me.”
“So you’ll be the only one with the power to walk in daylight.”
“I’ve had my own ring for a century, but if it makes you feel any better, as long as Victor is alive, I can’t open the box without him. None of us can use the rings without the Men of Anubis knowing, and after the Event, we really don’t want them to pay any attention to this time period. Nor should you.”
“I’m still not clear on that,” I said.
“You’ll have to trust us that it would be bad. Once this is over, we can tell you what we know. But you need to go back now or they’ll know this is a set-up. Even a Sekutar warrior such as yourself can’t stand toe-to-toe with a vampire for this long.”
TJ picked up the body and carried to me. “Lenora will send you through shadow with the corpse. Just cut off the head and make sure it don’t land where anyone can see the face.”
I had to make a quick decision.
“Can you save Amanda?”
Lenora shook her head. “The spell is designed to be removed by the caster, but as Victor created it, he may be able to remove it, but you really need William to do that.”
“And I should trust you, why?”
“Because I’m being up front and honest with you. Victor and William won’t do that.”
“Victor might,” I said.
“You believe that because you desire him,” Lenora said. “And I’ll grant you that he might not lie to you, but I’m definitely telling you the truth as I know it, and if I learn more I’ll share. Are you with us or against us?”
I hated to make a decision without time to consider the ramifications, but maybe I could work all this out to my advantage. I nodded. TJ shoved the corpse at me, and I had to let go of Lenora to catch it.
Moment of truth.
“Are you ready?” Lenora asked, moving behind me.
I held my sword ready in one hand and the corpse in the other, my fist wrapped in the hair of the dead woman. Lenora was true to her word. She took hold of me, pushing forward. I felt one hand on my shoulder and one on my back as she steered us through darkness. Then she shoved me out of the shadow into the hotel room where Ben sat at the desk, while Victor and Sinclair stood in the hallway arguing.