“We’re not going into the mountain with him,” Leo declared. “We’re already looking at running into Tyet soldiers. I’m not going to let us get trapped between them and whoever this guy is.” He jerked a thumb at Dalton.
“She’s not going without my team,” Dalton said, his jaw hardening. His shoulders squared. If he’d had fur, it would be bristling all down his back. My brother and my bodyguard/stalker—a matched pair of macho idiots. If Price were here, I wouldn’t be able to breathe for all the testosterone in the air.
“She is going to do whatever she damned well pleases,” I said. “If necessary, she will scrape both of you off and go in alone. It wouldn’t be the first time.” I gave Dalton a pointed look, then continued. “She is getting pissed off and she is going to kick both your asses if you don’t stop acting like dogs fighting over who gets to pee on a fire hydrant. Is she clear?”
Leo glanced at me. The corner of his mouth pulled up, and his eyes danced. “Yes, ma’am. The fire hydrant is very clear,” he said.
Dalton’s lips may have shaped into a fleeting smirk, but I doubted it.
“You’re an ass,” I told my brother. “So are you,” I told Dalton. “Now, did you get all the gear?”
He nodded, but his eyes narrowed. “You will use the heal-all before we go.”
Before I could say anything, Leo jumped in. “Absolutely.”
I started to open my mouth. My brother cut me off.
“It won’t take much time.”
I blew out an aggravated breath. “I wasn’t going to disagree.”
I flopped into the seat across from Lauren and scooted across to leave room for Leo. “Detective Lauren Morton, this is my brother, Leo Calvert. Or stepbrother, if you want to be more accurate. Leo, meet Lauren. Her nephew is one of the missing teens.”
He flashed his rogue smile and said hello before sliding in beside me. Dalton stood at the end of the table. I about fainted when he offered Lauren a greeting and a slow smile. A real smile, like a real boy. Man. Whatever. And here I thought he was made out of ice and salt.
“May I sit?” he asked in a tone I’d never heard before. Apparently when he wasn’t annoyed with me, he had a sexy growl. Or maybe his Riley voice was also his drill-sergeant voice.
Lauren got a flustered look and moved over. I didn’t blame her. When he smiled, he was dazzlingly handsome. Seriously. He could have been a cover model.
He melted gracefully down onto the seat beside her and began fishing in a pocket. He wore one of those military-style flak jackets with a billion pockets and a Kevlar lining. It was black, which, from what I’d seen of him so far, matched the rest of his wardrobe. He seemed to have taken clothing advice from Johnny Cash.
He pulled out an amethyst crystal about the size of my thumb. A silver cap covered one end and a heavy silver chain threaded through the bale on top. He set the necklace down on the table in front of me. I picked it up, turning the crystal in my fingers. I could feel a heavy power in it. This would easily heal my arm and a whole lot more.
I glanced up at Dalton. “Isn’t this a little overkill?”
He shrugged. “It’s the littlest one I’ve got.”
I lifted one brow. “Again, overkill?”
“Your reputation precedes you,” he said, his expression reverting to his habitual sneer. He voice had also returned to drill-sergeant mode.
I frowned. “What are you talking about?”
He started listing stuff, ticking each off on his finger: “getting shot, nearly freezing to death, getting hit with tear gas, getting yourself diced to ribbons, getting beaten within inches of your life, and now . . .” He pointed at my arm. “You really have to ask?”
His list just about confirmed that Touray or Price had sent him. I don’t know how else he could have learned about all my mishaps.
He pointed at the crystal. “You ought to use that. We’re burning daylight.”
Leo stared at me. “Beaten?” he squawked.
Yeah, because that’s the worst on the list. On the other hand, I’d deliberately left out that detail in recounting my recent adventures to him, since I hadn’t wanted to tell my family that Josh—my sister’s former fiancée—had been the one to beat the crap out of me. He’d been drugged out of his mind, and since he’d totally vanished out of Taylor’s life since his rescue, I figured it was kinder to let her think he was just broken, not homicidal.
“I’ll tell you about it later,” I lied.
“Yes, you will,” Leo said, his mouth pulling thin and his eyes glittering fury at me.
Inwardly, I sighed. “It wasn’t that big of a deal.”
“Then you should have no problem telling me about it.”
Dalton snorted softly. I glared at him.
“Is something funny?”
“Most definitely,” he said, and his expression was positively gloating.
I supposed he figured this was karma for me giving him and his team the brush-off this morning. Last night? Sometime between sunset and sunrise, anyhow. “Remember that snort next time you can’t find me,” I said with a sweet smile.
His grin faded. “We made a deal—” he began.
I cut him off. “Our deal says that you won’t follow me home, and I’ll show up for work at the diner so you can stalk me to your heart’s desire. I never promised to make it easy.”
“What the hell is going on?” Leo demanded.
“Nothing.” Dalton and I said it in unison.
I lifted a brow at him, and this time his lips ghosted into a smile before he turned into Mr. Roboto again.
“Are you going to use that or just look at it?”
I thought about making a smart-ass remark, but decided against wasting time. Dalton really rubbed me the wrong way. I settled the necklace around my neck, tucking it under my shirt. Skin contact wasn’t necessary, but I didn’t know if the crystal would light up like a disco ball. Some tinkers liked a little showiness. Maybe they thought it was a way to get free advertising. Or maybe they thought the sick and wounded needed a little light-show pick-me-up. Plus the customer usually appreciated a sign that the heal-all was working. Like flesh and bone knitting up wasn’t evidence enough. At any rate, I didn’t need everybody in the diner rubbernecking to see what was going on.
I touched the amethyst lump between my breasts and activated it. It flared with scorching heat. Instantly I started sweating, making my shower fairly pointless.
The heat spread around me in a sheath before sinking inside. It broke into wormy fragments that oozed and slithered through me, nosing around for something to fix. Maybe I should have put the pendant right over the wound so it would focus on my actual problem. Then again, it wasn’t called a heal-all for nothing. This sort of magic was meant to be thorough. If I had a canker sore or an ingrown toenail, it would fix those, too.
Eventually I could feel it focus on the scalpel wound. I gripped my coffee cup tightly as it burrowed into the wound, summoning reinforcements from the rest of the oozy little bits. It was like having a few hundred maggots wriggling around in my flesh. I was starting to feel really glad that the last time I’d suffered a heal-all healing, I’d been unconscious.
Everybody was watching me. I looked at them, sweat running down the sides of my face, not to mention everywhere else. “Should I do a dance or something?” I asked.
“Watching you squirm is entertainment enough,” Leo said, but he still frowned.
Dalton, on the other hand, was grinning. I gave him a withering look. He only smiled wider.
“What are the eye mods for?” I asked, deciding that I didn’t need to be the only uncomfortable one at the table.
His smiled vanished. “None of your business.”
“I don’t know. Apparently you want to be my bodyguard. Seems to me I ought to know your
skills and capabilities, don’t you think? How do I know if you’re any good?”
“Just who the hell are you?” Leo demanded, glaring at Dalton through narrowed eyes. “Who are you working for? What do you want of my sister?”
I could have chanted the answers along with Dalton, I’d heard them so often.
“I work for someone who wishes to remain anonymous, but wants to see Miss Hollis stay safe. My job is to protect her.”
Leo looked at me. “And you’re okay with this?”
“No. But I can’t seem to do anything about it at the moment.”
He looked back at Dalton. “What have you done to protect her?”
Now that I hadn’t actually bothered asking.
“We’ve blocked three attempts to kidnap her just this week, and two attempts to kill her. We have also captured several people carrying various charms designed to incapacitate her or lure her away.”
My mouth fell open, and my stomach wriggled queasily. Dalton gave me a “so there” sort of look. Because apparently we were still twelve. I, however, did not stick my tongue out at him, though I really wanted to. On the other hand, I felt like I’d been gut-punched. I’d known I’d be a target once word about my skills got out, that and I’d developed some new enemies among the Tyet elite, including Savannah Morrell and Alexander Briandi, both of whom would like to skin me alive for ruining their plans to take over the city. But I’d convinced myself that I was the one who was keeping me safe; that I was being so ultrasmart and careful that they couldn’t get at me. I was an idiot. And now Leo knew it, too.
Leo does this thing when he’s mad where he sucks it all in and turns into something like volcanic ice. I could feel his rage vibrating off him in frigid waves.
“So how did she get knifed?” he asked in a calm, conversational voice. Anybody who knew anything about him would know he was about to come unglued.
“She ducked us and went to the Bottoms by herself,” Dalton said, and he looked like he’d eaten a porcupine. He probably didn’t like confessing that I’d given him the slip.
“Ah,” Leo said, nodding his head. “So what you’re saying is you’re not particularly competent at your job.”
Unexpectedly, I found myself wanting to defend Dalton. After all, I’m pretty damned good at my job, and mine included being sneaky. It was possible he wasn’t incompetent, but I was just that good. I didn’t say anything. The healing sensation was making my stomach churn dangerously. Keeping my mouth shut meant that Lauren stood a better chance of not wearing my last meal.
Dalton’s cheeks flushed brick red, and his mouth compressed into a white line. “It doesn’t help that your sister refuses to cooperate in her protection.”
I couldn’t let that one go. “Excuse me, but I don’t know who the hell you are or who hired you. As far as I know, you’re just trying to lull me into a situation where I calmly walk into your spider web, Mr. Black Widow. No fucking thanks.”
I sucked down some coffee to force my rising breakfast back down. Right about then, the heat of the heal-all intensified, and I started considering stripping naked to cool off. Suddenly it shut off, and the heat began to dissipate. I lifted my arm and rotated my shoulder a little. All that remained was a slight ache and tightness where the cut had been.
“Looks like I’m good to go,” I said. I started to slip the heal-all back over my head to give it back. It wasn’t used up yet.
“Keep it,” Dalton said. “Knowing you, you’ll need it.”
“Like you know the first thing about me,” I snapped back.
His nostrils flared, and his lip curled. “More than you know, Princess.”
Princess? Princess? What the hell was that supposed to mean?
Leo snorted. “Princess, my ass. Or no! I’d say you are Princess Pain In the Ass.” He grinned. “You need a crown, your highness.”
“You need a kick in the balls,” I returned, then looked at Dalton. “Call me ‘princess’ again and I’ll make you regret it.”
He didn’t look cowed in the least. That’s okay. He’d learn different when the time came. If I had to, I’d pay a tinker to make sure he couldn’t get a hard-on for a month. Maybe I’d have them turn his balls blue, too, just for fun.
Lauren had sat through all of this without saying a word. Now she cleared her throat, reminding all of us that we had work to do.
I sobered. Business. Lives were at stake.
I took one last sip of my coffee and nudged Leo to get up. “Let’s go.”
“Where?” Dalton asked.
“Let’s start at Vine and Reeder where Lauren last saw him. I’ll pick up Trevor’s trace there,” I said. “We’ll follow it in.”
He scowled. “We could easily be walking into trouble.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that these kids need help and we’re all they’ve got. But by all means, if you want to sit this one out, do.” I sounded nonchalant, but I have to admit, even not fully trusting him, in the tunnels I’d rather have him at my back than not.
Dalton said nothing, but stood and headed toward the door. Lauren followed, collecting her coat, hat, and gloves. Leo did the same. I ducked into the back to slide on my spare snow pants and grabbed my coat. I drew on gloves, a hat, and a scarf before returning to the others.
Outside, Dalton had a pair of charcoal-gray Hummers waiting. I was surprised. The dealership must’ve been out of black models on car-shopping day. Both were outfitted with studded off-road tires. He motioned for me to get into the first one with Leo and Lauren, while his four-member team climbed into the other.
I slid into the front seat. I didn’t buckle. I figured I’d rather be able to jump out if necessary. Dalton started the engine and touched his fingers to the dashboard. Instantly magic enclosed the vehicle.
“What was that?”
He looked at me. “What was what?”
I almost backpedaled. If he didn’t know I could sense magic, then maybe it should stay that way. Then again, he wasn’t stupid, and he’d figure it out soon anyhow. “The magic you just activated.”
He looked away, scowling. “Shielding. It’ll keep us safe from magic attacks and it also nulls us out.”
“Nice,” Leo said.
“Expensive,” I said.
“The trucks are reinforced against bullets and explosives,” he added. “You are safe inside.”
“Uh-huh,” I said. I could shred the magic shields if I wanted. At least I was pretty sure I could. After escaping a powerful null cage a month ago when I was exhausted, breathing tear gas, and bleeding, I felt pretty good about being able to take down the Hummer shields after having just benefited from a heal-all. If I could do it, chances are others could too, even if they had to work together to do it.
I opened myself to the trace of the shield. A shimmering sheath of pale blue encompassed the truck. It reminded me of light reflecting off a swimming pool. I couldn’t touch it without rolling down the window or putting my hand into the trace dimension. I wasn’t going to try either in front of an audience. Instead I let my eyes unfocus, trying to get a sense of the spell’s nature. It was binder magic, for sure. Not a surprise. Most shields were. Binder spells could deflect attacks, and occasionally absorb them. Not a lot of people could make magic-absorbing spells. I was the only one I knew who could, though I’d seen evidence of other magic workers who could do it. The few absorbing spells I’d seen were at Tyet fortresses.
Just looking at this spell, I couldn’t tell what it could do. I blinked and closed off from the trace. I settled into my seat and turned to look out the window. Snow lay thick over everything. Dirty mountains of it filled alleyways and formed ranges on sidewalks. On roofs, it lay in tall slabs, glittering like diamonds in the sunshine. Luckily, most people reinforced their roofs with magic, otherwise the buildings might have collapsed un
der the weight.
We drove through the center of Downtown. The high-rises loomed over us. The streets were pretty drivable down here. Money’s got to get made, after all. We crossed the river, where a long line of dump trucks dropped snow into the fast-running water. You’d think that someone would figure out a magical solution to clearing snow, but there wasn’t a good one. Melting it would only cause floods, and you couldn’t make it move itself.
Dalton turned off onto a side street. The Hummer’s engine roared as it bounced over ruts and trenches in the snow. I had a feeling we were going to have to start slogging on foot soon. Sure enough, he pulled over into an empty parking lot and shut the truck off and disabled the shields. He hopped out, and we all followed, as the other Hummer pulled in beside us.
I retreated to the back, where Dalton unloaded snowshoes and backpacks. He handed them out. I buckled the aluminum frames over my boots. Magic tingled in my fingers as I did. My guess was that the snowshoes would repel snow a bit, keeping them from getting weighed down, and also lend a little lift to my strides. I put on my backpack and fastened it around my waist. I didn’t bother to ask what was inside. I was pretty sure we had the basics—lights, food, water, rope, first aid, nulls, possibly weapons, and some sort of emergency beacon. The latter wouldn’t do much good in the mines if we got ourselves lost unless the searchers got close, but it was better than nothing.
Dalton passed out walking poles next. I extended mine and tightened the nut to keep the length where I wanted it. Leo had just finished getting ready and turned to help Lauren get her gear sorted out.
“Walking isn’t that tough in these,” he assured her. “Lift your foot and turn your toes out. Use your poles for balance. I’ll warn you, though, you’re going to feel it in your butt and hamstrings later.”
“I’ll be fine,” Lauren said, putting her hands through the pole straps. “Let’s get going.”
“The carabiners hanging on the front of your packs are shield nulls. Activate them now,” Dalton ordered.
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