"If they cannot shapeshift safely, then we need to get them to the infirmary," Magda said. If she felt pity for her fellow warriors' plight, it didn't show.
"I would request a stretcher, for I cannot walk," Scaramouche said.
"What have you done to deserve a stretcher?" Nicky asked.
"Nothing, but I would humbly ask of my queen and her princes that they be magnanimous and show mercy."
"I'm not big on mercy," Nicky said.
"Nor I, especially for warriors who keep forgetting about me," Magda said.
Scaramouche swallowed hard enough that I heard it, and he said, "My queen, her princes, and her princess, I beg for mercy and to be allowed a stretcher."
I wasn't sure Magda was my princess, but I let it go. We were winning; never quibble when you're winning. We let him have a stretcher. What the hell? We'd made our point.
18
THE MEDICS INSISTED on Nicky going to the hospital in the underground along with the rest of the wounded. He insisted he was fine. "My mouth has stopped bleeding."
"You could have a concussion," the doctor said.
"Can we get concussions?" Sin asked.
The doctor assured us it was possible, though unlikely, which meant Nicky got to go to the hospital, too.
"I can shift to animal form and heal myself without endangering anyone else," Nicky said.
"But if the concussion is severe enough, the shift won't heal everything. Let's do some tests before you change form and confuse the issue," the doctor said.
Reluctantly Nicky agreed. The four of us were going with him, but my phone rang and it was Edward's ringtone. He was the reason that I'd had my phone with me in the gym in the first place.
"Hey, Edward."
"Pack your bags for Ireland."
"You got them to agree to bring me in on the case?"
"You and some of your preternatural friends," he said, and sounded pleased with himself.
"Take the call," Nicky said, and started to walk away.
"Hang on a second, Edward." I caught up with Nicky, touching his arm so he turned toward me. I'd wanted to kiss him good-bye, but his chin and lower lip were still smeared with blood; the blood combined with the pirate eye patch made him look even more like a Bond villain, but he was my villain, or maybe my henchman.
He smiled down at me and leaned down to offer his cheek for a kiss, which I gave him. "I take it your mouth is hurting too much for a kiss right now."
"I like dishing out pain, not taking it," he said with a grin.
"Don't I know it," I said.
"We can go with Nicky to the hospital so you can talk business," Sin said. I wasn't sure who the "we" included, and apparently neither were Nathaniel and Magda, because they looked at each other.
Nathaniel said, "I know some of the details of the case already, and it may have something to do with what's happening with Damian."
"He's part of your triumvirate, I understand," Magda said. "Stay. I'll go with Sin and Nicky."
"Thank you," Nathaniel said.
"It is not often that you ask for something like this. I am glad to see the three of you working things out," she said, and moved off to go with Nicky.
It was Nathaniel who remembered to ask, "Magda, did you go to Ireland on Harlequin business?"
"No, they were very isolationist for most of their history, and my master, Giacomo, could not pass for one of them."
I felt stupid once she said it, because Giacomo was the exception to the rule about the Harlequin. He went by the name he'd used as an assassin, but he wasn't a pain in the ass. He had been a Mongol, from what would now be considered Mongolia. He lived there when being in a Mongol horde meant that you rode the steppes, conquering or killing everything you met. If you didn't know his ethnic background you'd still never mistake him for Irish; Chinese maybe, or Korean, or maybe even from some island in the Pacific, but he definitely looked Asian and not European. He was also almost as broad through the shoulders as Nicky, and it wasn't from weight lifting. Giacomo's basic framework was just that big.
"That makes sense," Nathaniel said.
"Do you know if any of the Harlequin traveled to Ireland regularly, or at all?" I asked.
"Pierette and her master traveled there more than anyone else that I am aware of." And Magda said it like that because they were spies, which meant that they didn't all know what the rest of them were doing. Spies mean secrets, and the fewer people who know a secret, the easier it is to keep. Only the Queen of All Darkness had been given all the reports, and when she fell into her centuries of sleep, or hibernation, or Sleeping Beauty curse, or whatever it had been, then they reported to the vampire council. They had given reports to different council members depending on what they were reporting on, which made sense but didn't help us. Pierette hadn't liked us before today's "lesson"; I doubted that watching her friends get beaten up had made her like us better.
"Of course it would be Pierette who knows Ireland better than anyone else; perfect," I said.
"Do you have another vampire who knows Ireland?" Edward asked on the phone.
"Wereleopard, but who knows if she'll talk to us after we just beat the hell out of her friends?"
"Why did you beat up her friends?" he asked.
"Long story."
"Order her to tell you, Anita, and she is oath bound to do so," Magda said.
"You're the queen, Anita; act like it. Demand the information," Edward said.
It was a little unnerving that I was getting stereo advice from Edward and Magda, but I guess not surprising. They were both very practical most of the time.
I shook my head. "She's part of the world's oldest and maybe best spy ring ever; if she wants to lie to me, she can."
"You can all control your breathing and heart rate," Sin said, "but I swear that some of you can control your scent, so it doesn't change when you lie."
"Some of us can."
"If we get Pierette alone we can scare her into telling us about Ireland," Nicky said.
"We must do it before her master wakes for the night, because once Pierrot is with his Pierette she will no longer scare so easily," Magda said.
"She's probably still in the hospital area holding Scaramouche's hand," Sin said.
"And the doctor did say I needed to go to the hospital," Nicky said.
Sin smiled. "Can I help?"
"Can you be scary?" Nicky asked.
Sin seemed to think about it. "Yes, but scary enough to intimidate one of the Harlequin? Probably not. Can I watch the two of you intimidate Pierette?"
Magda clapped him on the shoulder hard enough to stagger him a little. "Come watch; maybe we can teach you how to be scarier."
"I'm not sure he needs that kind of skill set," I said.
Nicky gave me a look I couldn't quite read. "It's always good to be scary, Anita; you know that."
"I don't think that's true in the real world for most people," I said.
"We don't live in that world and we aren't most people," he said. I'd have liked to argue with him, but I couldn't.
"If they can learn anything that will help us solve the vampire problem here in Ireland," Edward said, "let them scare the fuck out of her, Anita."
"Do you want me to talk to you, or go help them be scary?"
"I heard Nicky's voice, right?"
"Yep."
"He doesn't need help being scary, and you and I need to start planning your trip to the Emerald Isle."
Sin came back while the others started toward the far tunnel entrance. "My mouth isn't too sore for a kiss," he said.
I frowned at him.
"Stop being a hard-ass and just kiss me."
The comment made me smile, and just like that all my grumpy street cred went out the window. "Hold on for just another minute, Edward."
"Who's asking for a kiss? I don't recognize the voice."
"Cynric," I said.
"My, my, he sounds all grown up."
"I'm putting you on hold, just
so you know."
"I wasn't going to critique the kiss over the phone, Anita."
"Putting you on hold now, Edward." I turned back to Sin, standing so tall, and older just like the deeper voice that had made Edward not recognize him over the phone.
Magda called to him from the hallway. "Nicky says if you're late we start the intimidation without you."
"I'm coming," Sin called back. He turned to me and leaned down for his kiss. I went up on tiptoe to meet all that six-foot-plus height halfway. His lips were soft, gentle, but his hands where he gripped my arms weren't. He squeezed just enough for me to feel the strength in his hands, which could throw a football far enough and well enough for colleges to scout him. Some combination of his hands and the kiss made me a little breathless as he pulled away. He grinned at the look on my face, and he knew he'd made my pulse speed up. He was a weretiger; he could taste my heartbeat on his tongue.
He jogged off after the others. He didn't want to miss learning to be scarier.
19
"YOU BETTER TAKE Edward off hold," Nathaniel said.
"Oh, right."
Nathaniel grinned. "I like that little brother can make you forget yourself like that."
"You calling him little brother doesn't help me with the age gap issues, Nathaniel. Just saying. But let's go into the break room for the call, in case someone wants to use the gym."
"He is my brother of choice, and he is younger," Nathaniel said as he walked toward the small room that Nicky and Jake had come out of less than an hour ago. It had been a busy hour.
"He's your brother-husband. There's a difference," I said.
He held the door for me as I hit the button to take Edward off hold.
"I said kiss the boy, not make out with him," Edward said.
"I'm frowning at the phone, just so you know."
He chuckled; I think I was one of five people on the planet who got to hear that sound from him. "I'm putting you on speakerphone, Edward," I said. I sat down at the four-seater table so we could lay the phone on the table and both of us sit near the phone.
"Who's listening with you?" he asked.
"Nathaniel."
"Since when do you include him on our phone calls?"
I had a moment of not knowing what to say, but Nathaniel leaned into the phone and said, "Are you still wanting Damian to come to Ireland to help you?"
"Yes," Edward said, and that one word was very clipped and not exactly friendly.
"He's still out for the day, so I'm listening for his benefit, so he can make an informed decision."
"Don't you trust me to tell Damian the truth?" I asked.
"You'll tell him your truth, the cop truth. I love you, Anita, but you'll have solving the case as your primary focus."
"Are you saying I'd manipulate Damian to get him to come to Ireland just so I could solve the case?"
"Not in the front of your head, but in the back of your head, yes."
"You're saying I value the case over Damian's well-being?"
"If you can convince yourself that he won't be in that much danger, or that it would be good for him to confront his fears and he can help you stop the killings in Ireland, yes, absolutely."
Edward laughed, and it was a real laugh, the one that said he was truly amused.
"Et tu, Edward?" I said.
His voice still held an edge of laughter as he said, "We're both good at finding reasons to make people do what we want them to do, Anita. He's right on that."
"Maybe. Are you okay with him listening in?"
"If you are," he said, and him taking it so calmly surprised me.
"Yeah, I'm okay with it."
"Fine. Then I'll talk to you like Nathaniel isn't standing right there, and he can interject."
"Interject?" I said.
"I've been helping Peter fill out applications for college," he said.
"So he's not going into the military right away?"
"His mother and I persuaded him to try a year of college. If he doesn't like it he can still join up."
I was pretty sure that Donna had done more of the persuading than Edward had, but I let that go. I actually agreed with Donna on this one. "I'm glad to hear that. It's easier to try college and then sign up for the military than the other way around."
"Which is one of the reasons I sided with Donna on this." Something about the way he said it made me let the topic drop.
"Have you done any college visits? We did some with Sin," Nathaniel said. He didn't know Edward's tone of voice the way I did, so he'd missed the "this topic is closed" inflection.
"A few, but let's save Old Home Week for later," Edward said.
Nathaniel started to say something, but I shook my head at him. He took the hint and let it go.
"You said something about getting me and my preternatural friends into Ireland; what did you mean by that?" I asked.
"You can bring your deputies like you did on the case in Washington state."
I said, "Outside of special circumstances, in the Preternatural Branch of the U.S. Marshals Service I can't even deputize civilians in the country. How the hell did you get it to work in Ireland?"
"You can't call them deputies here, but you can still bring them."
"To Ireland?"
"Yes."
Nathaniel gave me wide eyes, because I'd discussed with him that no one wanted me to come play.
"How? I wasn't sure you'd get me into the country, let alone me and extra people."
"First, the Irish police are interested in seeing how well the shapeshifters work with us, and them. Bring Socrates unless you think he won't work well with the rest of the group."
"Because he's an ex-cop," I said.
"Yes, I'd go with more ex-military and police if possible."
"I'll do what I can. Will the guards who helped us out in Washington state be okay by you?"
"They'll do, and Nicky can always come play with us."
"He's so not ex-cop, or military anything," I said.
"No, but he's good enough that I'd take him for backup even if you couldn't come with him."
"Wow, that is high praise coming from you."
"Just truth."
I'd have to remember to tell Nicky later, though he would probably just shrug it off and say, Of course, or say nothing. I might not even be able to tell if it pleased him. It had tickled the hell out of me when Edward told me I was good enough for backup, but of course my background and Nicky's were vastly different, and so were our reactions to certain things.
"Okay, Socrates and Nicky. Any other requests?"
"Lisandro, Claudia, Bobby Lee."
"Claudia doesn't travel out of town with me, but the other two, check."
"She came to Colorado."
"She came with Jean-Claude, not me."
"Okay, whatever, you can explain to me why that matters later, but right now just bring a small group that would play well enough with police and military to not make them regret the decision to let us come play."
But Nathaniel felt compelled to answer the Claudia question. "Claudia doesn't want the ardeur to rise with her alone with Anita. That's why she won't travel out of town with her."
I gave him the look that oversharing deserved. It was not a friendly look.
He shrugged and said, "What?"
"I'm beginning to like having Nathaniel on this call," Edward said.
I frowned harder at Nathaniel and then aimed it at the phone, too, as if Edward could see it. Truth was, he wouldn't have been bothered if he'd been there for me to glare at.
"Let's concentrate on business, shall we?"
"I'm all about business, Anita; you know that."
"I don't know how the hell you pulled this off, Edward."
"We got lucky; they're thinking about putting their own preternatural unit together, but they don't want to simply duplicate the British unit. They weren't entirely happy with how the Brits handled the last time they had to call them for help."
"Did
n't they fight to get free of British control for a long time?"
"Yeah, so having to call in the Brits for help the last time they had a preternatural citizen go rogue on them didn't sit well with the government, or the popular vote."
"Ah, I hear elections coming," I said.
"It's not just the politicians, Anita. You have to know more of the history of the country to understand just how desperate they were to turn to their nearest neighbors for help."
"Why didn't they ask Interpol for help?" I asked.
"Interpol's preternatural unit was tied up elsewhere and couldn't get there as quickly as the Brits could. To save Irish lives they let their old conquerors into their country again. The president of Ireland and his party lost the next election because of it."
"Wait. This is like a footnote in something else I read. It was a mixed group of lycanthropes, a human sorcerer, a couple of witches, and some fairies--I mean, Fey, or whatever."
"Important safety tip in Ireland: Don't call them fairies."
"I know that, Edward, honest."
"Just a reminder. Tell all your people to remember it, too."
"Why can't we call them fairies?" Nathaniel asked.
"In old-world Fey it's the equivalent of calling someone who's African-American the N-word, except that Fey have magic to punish you for the insult."
"Wow, really, it's that big an insult?"
"To some of the older Fey in the Old World, yes," I said.
"What do we call them instead?" he asked.
Edward answered, "Fey, the gentle folk, the kindly ones; little people has fallen out of favor, but some old-timers still use it."
"The hidden folk is another one," I said.
"Fey is shorter and more common among the police in most countries," Edward said.
"I know that Ireland has kept the highest concentration of Fey in the world," I said.
"But most of the wee folk are good citizens, or they just want to be left alone to do what they've done for the last thousand years."
"Bullshit, there are still Unseelie Fey over there, and they've always been prone to do bad things."
"They don't see it that way, Anita. They think they're neutral like nature."
"Yeah, nature is neutral, but a blizzard will still kill you, and there are a few types of gentle folk that really do like to hurt people."
"But they don't, because they don't want to be deported," he said.
"I still remember reading in college about what it took for some of the European countries to deport the gentle folk. Massive magic, because they are tied to the land; you remove some of the folk and the land can actually start to die."
Crimson Death Page 21