Living With the Dead

by Kelley Armstrong

  The door clicked. They both looked over. The knob turned one way, the other, then stopped. Adele began to circle around Hope. She stepped into Adele's path.

  "He doesn't need that shot," Hope said. "He's calm, and I'll make sure he stays that way. You negotiate. Thom will be my responsibility."

  Adele tried sidestepping. When Hope countered, Adele's lips tightened in annoyance. "I'm just going to give him a sedative, let him sleep this out."

  "No, you're not. This isn't a bold move, Adele. It's craz - premature. We haven't even opened negotiations."

  She hesitated. Reconsidering? After a moment, she sighed. "We have to enter from a strong position. Don't you see that? Start by proving we aren't making idle threats."

  "But Thom - "

  " - is the most valuable seer. A huge loss. Enter from that position, and we'll have them scrambling to save the other two."

  She sidestepped again. Hope raised her gun.

  Adele laughed. "You aren't going to use that. You need me."

  "Not badly enough to let you kill anyone else."

  She stepped past Hope. "I gave you a story. Stick with that."

  Hope turned the gun on Adele. "Put the needle down."

  "Relax, Thom." Adele laid her hand on his chest, pushing him back into his seat. "You're just going to take a nap, okay, sweetie?"

  He resisted her push, but didn't shove back, staying on the edge of his seat, fear tempered with confusion, sensing danger, seeing only Adele.

  Hope raised the gun, to her head. "Adele, put down - "

  "Oh, please." She moved the syringe to Thom's arm. "Bold moves, Hope. You have to be willing to make - "

  Hope fired.

  * * *

  ROBYN

  Robyn saw Hope and Adele run from the tear gas fog, Adele escaping, Hope giving chase. She leapt up from her hiding place, thinking,"I have to tell Finn."

  Then she'd seen the gun clutched in her hand and thought what the hell am I thinking?

  Hope deserved someone who knew how to fire a gun, but at this moment, Robyn was the only person close enough to help. So after one last look around, hoping for a glimpse of Finn or Karl, Robyn gave chase.

  Following Hope wasn't easy. They had a huge head start and Robyn would have lost them if Adele's goal hadn't been obvious - a building in the field. By the time Robyn reached it, Hope and Adele were inside. Robyn pulled another mystery show move, sliding along the wall toward the door, her nerves eased by thinking how Damon would get a laugh if he could see her and maybe, just maybe, he could.

  Robyn cracked open the door and peered in. It was a tiny shed, empty, no place to hide. She slipped in. When her eyes adjusted, she noticed a bare spot in the hay and, beneath it, a trapdoor. She opened it, listened and descended.

  There was a second door below. Closed, but not locked, it led into a darkened hall. She made her way carefully down it, gun at the ready. It led to another door. This one was closed and locked. Beyond it, she made out the murmur of voices. One was Hope's. The other, female, presumably Adele's. Robyn caught a word here and there, but not enough to decipher the conversation.

  She pressed her ear against -

  A blast from the room sent Robyn reeling back. She caught her balance, then replayed what she'd heard. A bang. A crash. Something falling. She told herself it was something falling not someone, but she'd heard those sounds too often in the last few days to mistake it for anything.

  A gunshot and a body dropping.

  She flew to the door, grabbing the knob.

  "Hope! Hope!"

  She screamed her name until she couldn't, until her throat was raw, and still she whaled on the door, yanking and yanking and yanking, her shoulder blazing.

  When Damon died, everyone said, "I'm here for you, Rob. Just let me know what you need." Hope never said that. She was just there, making a meal or doing her laundry or working silently at her kitchen table while Robyn sobbed in the bedroom, thankful to be alone yet not alone. Hope hadn't asked whether Robyn wanted her to come out to L.A. She'd shown up. She didn't ask whether Robyn needed Portia's murder solved. She just did it.

  And now, when Robyn could have helped her, she'd failed.

  She kept banging and shouting and then, finally, between pounds, soft as a whisper. "Rob?"

  Her hand jerked back from the door. The gun fell. She let it, and swayed there a moment, before pressing her hands to the cold metal and leaning in until her ear rested against it.

  "Hope?"

  It could be a trick, the voice was too low to say with any certainty that it was Hope's or that it was a voice at all and not just a sound she'd willfully misheard.

  "Rob?"

  "Hope! Yes, it's Robyn. Open the door."

  Silence.

  Robyn hammered the door. "Hope? Open the door, Hope!"

  It was a trick. Had to be. Why else wouldn't she - ?

  Robyn remembered what Hope had said about the boy, Rhys's son, that if she saw a vision of his death, that's all she'd see. She'd be lost in it. How much worse would it be to witness a death live?

  Karl would know what to do. She'd get Karl, and he'd snap her out of it or break this door down -

  If she walked away now, there was no guarantee she'd get back before someone else did. Someone just as dangerous as Adele.

  "Hope? I need you to open this door."

  Robyn kept repeating it, as calmly and firmly as she could. After a minute, the door quavered under her hands, jerking back and forth.

  "It... it won't open." Hope's voice, but still with that chillingly flat affect, as if she really didn't care whether she got the door open or not.

  "Are there keys?"

  A pause. "What?"

  "Keys, Hope. Did Adele have keys?"

  "Adele... I shot - I had to."

  That's good, Robyn thought, but said, "That's okay. Did she have a key?"

  "Key? Yes. She... Hold on."

  Getting that key seemed to take forever. Robyn was tempted to bang on the door again. Then a key turned in the lock. The door opened. Robyn pulled Hope out and caught her up in a hug. Hope returned the embrace only a moment, then pulled back with a tired chuckle.

  "No time for that," she said. "I'm guessing the situation hasn't resolved itself up there?"

  "Probably not."

  Hope rubbed her eyes. "Okay. Let's get out of here before someone finds us."

  "Is Adele... ?"

  Hope nodded.

  "You had to," Robyn said.

  "Yes, I did." There was no emphasis in her voice, no need to justify. "

  Is there another exit?" Robyn started reopening the door to look inside.

  Hope backed into the opening and held the door fast. "No."

  "What is - ?"

  "No. Really, Rob." She looked up at her. "On this one, trust my call."

  Robyn stepped back. Hope seemed about to follow, then held up a finger, slid back into the room and closed the door before Robyn could stop her.

  A moment later, she heard Hope's voice. She leaned forward to say she couldn't hear her, but Hope was murmuring, as if talking to someone else. Was Adele still alive?

  Hope came out and lifted her gun. "Almost forgot this. I grabbed Adele's, too. For you."

  "I've got one." Robyn retrieved hers from the floor.

  "Armed to the teeth, aren't we?" Another tired smile. "Who'd have thought?"

  Hope closed the door.

  "Is someone..." Robyn began. "I thought I heard you talking."

  "Hmm? Oh, muttering to myself. Still a bit confused. Don't worry, it's passing."

  Hope checked the door, making sure it was locked, then headed for the ladder.

  * * *

  FINN

  "Karl's in the barn," Damon called as he raced to Finn, striding through the wooded border, Rhys at his heels.

  Finn was about to say, with all respect to Karl Marsten, that he didn't give a rat's ass where the man was. Then Damon caught up and continued. "He's trying to get to Bobby and Hop
e."

  "Where are they?"

  "Hold up a minute so I can show you. Man, you're as bad as that guy from The Fugitive. You've caught Bobby and now you're not about to let her get away, huh?"

  Was there a twist of sarcasm to those words? Before Finn could comment, Damon directed his attention to a tool shed fifty feet behind the barn... and a pair of fake cops standing guard between the buildings.

  "What the hell are they doing in there? Of all the hiding places - "

  "It's a bomb shelter."

  "What?"

  "It leads to an underground shelter. Bobby and Hope were coming out when they noticed those guys making a beeline for the shed. They ducked back down. Those two took a peek inside and didn't see the hatch. But that seems to be their assigned post so they aren't budging. And Karl's getting tired of waiting."

  "Guide us in."

  "This way," Damon said as they slipped into the barn.

  Rhys stepped in the other direction, toward the dark stalls.

  "No!" Damon said. "Stop him."

  "What?"

  Rhys motioned that he wanted to check the rest of the barn, be sure it was clear.

  "Tell him I already got it," Damon said. "He doesn't need to - "

  Rhys was already disappearing into the stalls.

  "Shit! Call him back, Finn."

  Finn wasn't about to raise his voice. He jogged after Rhys, rounding the corner to see the other man dropping beside a woman lying in the hay. Finn picked up his pace.

  It was a couple, a man beside the woman, arms around her, her face against his chest.

  "The gas," Finn whispered. "It must have knocked them out."

  "No." Rhys rose and extended his hand. In it lay two small vials.

  Finn strode over for a closer look. There were no lights in the barn, but a sliver of sunlight through the beams illuminated the face of the young man on the floor. His features were contorted in agony. The woman's face was hidden against him, but Finn recognized her dark hair and blue dress. The girl who'd held a gun on Adele.

  "Hugh and Lily," Rhys murmured, his voice thick.

  Damon murmured he'd go check on the women. As Rhys took off his ball cap, Finn looked around. Deep in the shadows he could make out two more bodies. Rhys hadn't noticed them, and Finn wasn't about to point them out. Whatever Rhys's connection to this place, these people weren't anonymous victims to him.

  Rhys looked up sharply. "The others. I have to - "

  "You have to get Hope, Robyn and Adele Morrissey." Marsten appeared from nowhere. "As for the rest? What's done is done."

  Harsher than Finn would have put it, but Rhys only pulled his ball cap back on and straightened. Then he dropped the vials and crushed them under his shoe.

  "Those are stashed all over the property," he said. "Anyone who hasn't been captured will have already done what they were taught. They'll presume it's a Cabal."

  "But these people had rifles," Finn said. "They could have fought back."

  Rhys shook his head. "Then some could be captured. They wouldn't risk that."

  "It's the Nasts, isn't it?" Marsten said, keeping his voice low. "I believe I suggested we switch cars in case they'd planted a tracking unit."

  "And I said that my car has a device to scramble the signal. They'd be in North Hollywood by now."

  "Whoever is here, I think it's my fault," Finn said. "I called for backup, and this is what I got. I have no idea how or why - "

  "They diverted calls from your radio," Rhys said.

  "That's not poss - "

  "Believe me, it is. Cabal technology. Almost certainly the Nasts. As for why... I have my suspicions - "

  "Unimportant." Marsten walked back from peering out the window. "We have a rescue to launch. Hope, Robyn and Adele's trail seems to lead to that building behind the barn. But the guards have already checked in there, so - "

  "They're underground." Finn explained what Damon told him, as quickly and quietly as possible.

  "Don't worry about Adele," Damon said as he returned. "There was a situation. Hope took her down. Shot her."

  Again, Finn relayed. Seeming less pleased with that than Finn would have expected, Marsten frowned and walked to the window.

  "What we'll do then is create a distraction," Finn began.

  Marsten didn't turn from the window. "At this point, I'm not looking for a humane course of action, Detective. It's too risky."

  As Rhys answered, Finn thought he saw a movement behind the dead couple. He peered into the shadows. A hand moved across the hay. A ghost? Finn took a step toward it. The ghost lay facedown, as if too shocked to stand. His hand was moving toward a rifle. The straw crackled and shifted under the man's fingers... and told Finn this was no ghost.

  Finn slipped up over the man, bent and pressed his gun to his skull. "Stop right there."

  Running footsteps pounded the concrete pad outside the barn. Finn looked up sharply, but the stall blocked his view. Rhys wheeled, gun rising. Two pairs of hands lifted over the stall. Women's hands. Rhys lowered his gun as Marsten strode over.

  "There's a guy in the hay. He's - " Hope saw Finn with his gun trained on the man. "You found him. Good. Rob and I were running beside the barn when I caught a stray thought."

  "Niko?" Rhys strode over, kicked the rifle aside and hauled the middle-aged man to his feet. "Playing possum, were you?"

  "Th-the poison," Niko said. "It didn't work for me."

  Rhys cold-cocked Niko and sent him flying into the hay pile.

  "I'm not going to fight," Niko said, struggling up. "I claim sanctuary."His gaze swung to Hope. "With the council."

  "The same council you've always sworn was in league with the Cabals?"

  "You don't understand, Rhys. You never did. To give clairvoyants the community they need, we lie. It's a blueprint created by bulibas has long before my time."

  "Lies? Like the one about hiding from the Cabals? Protecting the kumpania from them?"

  "We do protect - "

  "You brought the Cabal here, Niko. When Adele told you the Cabal chased her and Colm earlier today, you knew she was wrong. The Cabal wouldn't do that because they own the kumpania. It's not a safe haven. It's a clairvoyant farm."

  "That's - "

  "I've been following the trail for ten years now, and finally figured out where it ended. You tried to stop this - " He waved to the dead young couple. " - from happening by telling the kumpania not to worry, not to panic."

  "Of course, I didn't want - "

  "Because if they killed themselves, it would be your fault. You alerted the Cabal. You told them about me. They somehow linked it all to Detective Findlay's investigation - "

  "Because he visited the Nast offices today," Hope said. "He met with Sean, who went digging for information on clairvoyants to help me, which must have triggered an alert. They found out about Detective Findlay's visit, and put it together."

  "And the Cabal wouldn't want the police descending on their kumpania. They rerouted Detective Findlay's calls, and probably all emergency calls from that motel."

  "Because they wanted to protect us!" Niko said. "As they have always protected us, Rhys. That protection comes with a price. One clairvoyant every ten years. A pittance to pay. But you couldn't leave well enough alone. And look what happened." He pointed to the couple.

  "The Cabal swooped in because of Adele," Rhys said. "Adele was your creation, Niko. Her actions brought everyone to your door step - "

  "Uh, guys?" Damon ran in. Rhys and Niko were still arguing. Damon leapt between them. "Finn, get them to shut up. Now. We've got - "

  Marsten strode in. "They've figured out where we are. Process of elimination or he - " A chin jerk toward Niko. " - alerted them. We have eight armed men heading this way, led by one old man - "

  "Rhys Vaughan? Hope Adams? Karl Marsten?" a voice boomed. "This is Thomas Nast. We have the building surrounded."

  "Come out with your hands raised," Hope muttered, sounding surprisingly calm.

  "Sp
lit up," Finn said. "Take the windows. How many guns - ?"

  "No, Detective," Hope said. "Fortunately for us, this isn't going to end in a hail of bullets."

  "We can negotiate," Rhys said.

  Hope took a deep breath. "Okay, as the council representative and chaos-sensing half-demon, I should be the one - "

  "No." Marsten grabbed her arm. "Rhys wanted to go this alone. I think it's time we let him."

  "Really?" Rhys said. "And I thought you were about to volunteer. Silly me."

  "Stop it." Hope brushed off Marsten's hand. "I'm - "

  "Bobby!" Damon shouted.

  Finn spun to see Robyn disappearing out the barn doors, armed men closing in, eight guns trained on her. Finn broke into a run.

  "Mr. Nast?" she said. "We'd like to declare a truce."

  * * *

  HOPE

  This was one of those cases that happens more often than anyone cared to admit, where the council and the Cabal were not on opposite sides. The council wanted to stop Adele. The Cabal wanted to protect its kumpania. Killing Adele had accomplished both. Now they just needed to tidy the loose ends. So they negotiated.

  It helped that neither side had taken casualties. Even Irving Nast wasn't dead. Karl had tied him up and locked him in a closet, figuring that once they were done at the kumpania, they could notify the Nasts that he'd kidnapped a Pack wolf. The threat of diplomatic fallout would have the Nasts scrambling to punish Irving, a minor and relatively inconsequential family member.

  With Adele dead, there was no way to pin the murders on her, not without the danger of exposing the clairvoyants. The Nasts vowed Robyn's name would be cleared, at their expense - lawyers, bribes, whatever it took.

  In return, the Nasts got Niko, two of the seers and the remnants of his kumpania. Five members were dead, including Neala. Niko would regroup and spin lies, and the kumpania would carry on. Rhys wasn't happy with that, but it was a fight for another day. The Nasts granted him custody of Thom, and that was all that mattered for now.

  Rhys had been right about the Cabal operating the kumpania. That was the real reason he'd taken the job with Irving Nast - hoping to prove his theory. The Nasts and the kumpania had been linked from the beginning, centuries ago in Europe. It was a secret pact between the bulibasha and the Nast CEO, which is why neither Sean nor Irving knew about it, leading Irving to negotiate with Adele.