Catastrophe (15 page)

He gave me that dead glare. “I am not emo. I’m just…” He shook his head.

I nodded. “Okay, well, whatever you want to call it, you have lost that top-of-the-food-chain vampire quality. Am I right?”

“Go on,” he said.

“Well, I’m guessing that was probably what made Paolo a scary son of a bitch. If they crossed him, he unleashed you. But now everyone knows you aren’t seeing eye to eye.” I glanced out the window again. If I was right about what was happening, there was no time for all of this, but Corbin still wasn’t budging. Paolo or his people could get here any moment.

“There have been no challenges to his authority.”

“Yet, but vampires are more openly hunting humans. They aren’t hiding like they once did. As you said, more and more bounties are being put on them. Don’t you see that they aren’t scared anymore?”

“Is that such a bad thing?” Corbin asked dispassionately. “Maybe they’re all sick of hiding. I wouldn’t blame them. I’m sick of all of this too.”

“It’s a change. As far as I can tell, the council opposes any sort of change in the Abyss.”

Corbin leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “The only part of this that truly bothers me is how did they know Thomas would come? He has been anything but predictable in his movements. I’ve followed you for months and he never came. Now suddenly he is exactly where they want him to be.”

“A little too convenient, don’t you think? I’m not pretending to know everything, but it’s finally starting to make sense. That’s why we can’t stay. I have it on good authority that the plan was to give him to you then take him away. The goal is to get you back. If you won’t come back, I don’t know what they’ll do.”

“Time to wake up.” He went to Thomas and slapped him soundly before I even stood up. “Come on, you little worm. Time to talk.”

Thomas’s eyes fluttered and opened slowly. They bypassed Corbin and immediately went to me. So blue and confused. “What happened?” he asked with a groan. “Why can’t I move? Femi?”

I narrowed my eyes. I’d seen the recognition in his eyes when he was in the wolf state. This cool, blue innocence wasn’t going to work. He was too good at playing the victim. He manipulated my feelings…because he knew he could. “He’s working with them. He’s stalling. We have to go. We’ll find somewhere safe and question him there.” I dug out the keys to the locks out of my pockets and offered them to Corbin.

The sound of a car on the street perked my ears up. Corbin moved to the window then was back in a second. “You’re right. We need to move.” I went to undo the chains, but he stopped me. “No time.” He looked at the beam where the loup-garou had cracked it. He kicked it three times until it splintered in half. He tore down the upper half, hitting Thomas several times in the process, and tossed it to the side. The ceiling cracked and sagged.

Corbin lifted Thomas off the rest of the beam and tossed him over his shoulder, chains and all. “Where’s your car?”

“About a block to the east,” I said, handing him the keys and feeling Thomas’s pockets for a cell phone. “Get him there and put him in the trunk. I’ll distract them.” I pulled his cell out and crushed it beneath my boot.

The front door smashed against the wall as four vampires charged through. Corbin moved fast, taking Thomas into a room off to the side as I stepped out to meet them, guns drawn and already firing. Vampires moved too fast. If you waited to see what they were going to do, you were already too late. Bullets weren’t going to kill a vampire, even silver ones, but they would slow them down. The first vampire charged at me low and hard. There wasn’t time to move, so I adjusted, dropped a gun, and pulled the closest knife. He impaled himself on the blade, the force shoving the hilt of the knife into my stomach just above the hipbone. That was going to leave a mark.

I shoved the other gun to his temple and pulled the trigger, knocking him back a few inches so I could move, twisting and ripping out the knife to run it across his throat before knocking him to the floor.

“They’re not here,” a female vampire said. “We need the bounty hunter alive.”

I twirled the blood-covered knife in my fingers and smiled at her. “Give it your best shot.”

She motioned with both hands and the other two vampires charged at me. I threw the knife at the one coming at my left, but he deflected it as I shot the one on the left until the clip had been emptied. The one on the left grabbed me in a bear hug and squeezed so tight that at least two ribs snapped under the pressure. Pushing past the pain, I stretched my fingers to reach another blade I kept at my hip. The tips of my fingers barely brushed against the top of it.

The other vampire came toward us slowly now, carefully readjusting his eye patch. “I’m going to enjoy this,” he said, picking up my knife from the floor. “An eye for an eye.”

“If it isn’t One-Eyed Willy,” I said. “Go ahead, give us the Truffle Shuffle, then.”

He came at me, and I kicked out my foot, sinking my heel into his throat (some people never learned). I jammed my other heel through the other vampire’s foot. His arms loosened enough that I could finally reach the knife. I grabbed it and brought it up hard, jamming it through my shoulder and into his heart. His skin sizzled and he cried out, letting me go completely. Though it hurt, I tore the knife from my shoulder, spun around, and buried it to the hilt into his chest again.

Then I did the same to the other two vampires just to make sure they didn’t get back up again. Blood ran down my arm as I turned to face off with the older, infinitely more dangerous female vampire. She leaned against the wall, arms crossed, with a slight smile on her perfectly red lips.

“I can see why they like you,” she said, her voice dark and rich. “But I can’t let you leave.”

I pulled out another knife for my bad arm and cracked my neck to the side. “You won’t take me alive.”

She moved so fast she blurred. I braced for impact, but then there was a crack against the ceiling above me and her body fell to the floor hard, skull crushed. Corbin stood in front of me. “You ready to go?” he asked. “The police are probably on their way.”

I stepped over her. “I could have taken her.”

Corbin raised an eyebrow. “Debatable.”

I let him drive my car because my shoulder still burned and the muscles clenched as it tried to heal. Sekhmets healed fairly fast. Not instantly, but the recovery time was definitely less than most races. Vampire blood had its own healing properties, but since the wound had been made with a solid silver knife, it was probably the reason for the burning sensation.

My phone buzzed with a text message. I pulled it out of my pocket, sucking in air between my teeth at the movement. I felt a little dizzy, but I read it. It was a new crime scene picture and an address from Dempsey. This one was more like the originals in the style of the killings. Everything happened at once.

“You know I never had an issue with vampires, but every time I get mixed up with one of you, I always end up the worse for it.”

Corbin laughed. “Maybe you should mind your own business, then.”

I scowled at him. “I was trying to stay out of the Thomas situation. You were the one following me around. He was the one who approached me to begin with. I’m innocent.” I looked out the window and didn’t recognize anything. “It’s the two of you who keep dragging me back in.”

“Where are we going?” he asked.

That was an excellent question. I catalogued all the places I actually knew in the area, and there was really only one that fit the bill, so I directed him out of the city and to Dempsey’s cabin in the swamp.

Thomas didn’t struggle during the boat ride. He sat between us, facing me. His vibrant blue eyes were visible even in the dark, sending goosebumps down my spine. He had always had this effect on me. Half curiosity, half I should know better, and I did, but it didn’t stop the attraction. If anything, it only made it worse. He was dangerous and he was bad, and he took what he wanted without any regard for the people around him. So why did I have the sudden desire to run my fingernails down his back? Oh, perfect. I was a cliché.

Thomas winked at me, looking calm and collected, which I had to give him credit for, considering he was about to be in a secluded cabin with Corbin. Even though I was there, we all knew that if Corbin wanted to kill him, my chances of stopping him were pretty close to nil.

I stopped the boat at the same dock as before and led them inside. Corbin unceremoniously dropped Thomas to the floor with a thunk and redid his chains, not bothering to hook them to anything, then sat him up against the wall, undoing my shirt covering his mouth.

“Why are you in New Orleans?” Corbin asked him calmly.

“He’s going to kill me, Femi. We both know that.”

Being easy or empathetic wasn’t going to get the truth. “Then I guess you better answer his questions.”

Thomas’s pleading look turned sad, and twisted the invisible knife in my chest.

Corbin slapped his forehead with the palm on his hand, knocking his head back against the wall. “Oy! Stop fucking around. You know exactly what’s happening. And you’re going to tell me what that is, or you will learn all about pain today.”

Thomas’s face changed. His upper lip curled, and those eyes became piercing and cold as ice as they settled on Corbin. “Tell me, did you spend more time trying to find me or trying to save that whore Camila? I fucked her for years. Right under your nose, but you never noticed. I half convinced myself you didn’t really care about her at all, and Paolo was crazy when he told me she was the best way to keep you in line. But, as usual, Paolo was right. Getting rid of her made all the difference in the world with you. Really, had I known that was all it would take to break you, I would have done it decades sooner. I never could stand the two of you.”

Apparently he had a death wish. Good to know. This time I hit him before Corbin could. From the look on his face, Corbin was contemplating breaking things, preferably pieces of Thomas’s body. Mine was a gentler touch. We were getting off topic. “Why are you here?” I repeated, like I was talking to a child.

Thomas turned his cold gaze to me. “I should have let them kill you when I had a chance.”

“Why didn’t you?” I asked, even though I knew I shouldn’t open this doorway.

His eyes warmed considerably. “I keep trying to figure that out.”

I shook my head and rolled my eyes. “Enough is enough, Thomas. I’m done. Whatever this was has been over for a long time.”

Hurt turned the edges of his mouth down. “I thought I knew you. I thought I had you figured out. I was positive you wouldn’t turn me in. When Paolo told me his plan, I told him there was no way you’d give me over. Just this once, I wanted to be right. You’ve had chances in the past and never pulled the trigger. Deny it all you want, Femi—nothing is over between us.”

“You’ve been in contact with Paolo,” Corbin said, his voice dangerously soft.

Thomas didn’t look back at him. “Paolo said it didn’t matter if you did it of your own free will. Just as long as you knew where I was, they were prepared to go to much greater lengths to get you to tell them everything you knew about me—in front of Corbin, of course—but then you surprised us all and gave me up right away. Why?”

“He’s lying,” Corbin growled.

Thomas laughed. “Have you still not figured it out? Paolo didn’t have me. He never wanted me. I’ve been free the whole time. Did you really think you just kept missing me? You never had a chance. He wanted you submissive. He wanted you unconnected. He wanted you to be his good little soldier.”

Corbin blinked, shaking his head slightly. “Why?”

“You might have enforced Paolo’s orders on the other vampires, but I was there to keep you in line. That was my job. Camila’s whispers in your ear were unacceptable. Had you supported her, Paolo wouldn’t be where he is now. She was in the way. She swayed you. We could all see it. But I couldn’t kill her without killing you, and Paolo wouldn’t stand for that, so we removed her from the equation. I thought you would simply break the connection, but you wore it like a fucking badge of honor, getting more and more unbearable. So you felt a bit of pain. That’s life.”

Corbin’s eyes were so black they looked like empty sockets as he stared at Thomas.

“Then the elf. Dear God. I didn’t think that’d ever end. The last thing we needed was a war with them, but you couldn’t just walk away from her. So, short of killing her too, that left me. We had to renew your interest in finding me. Remind you what I took from you. Fan the flame, so to speak.”

Corbin lunged at him faster than I could possibly stop.

Corbin’s fingers dug into Thomas’s throat. “There are ways to silence you forever. I don’t have to kill you to do it. Keep talking and I will show you.”

I pried off his fingers one at a time, even though it didn’t matter if a vampire could breathe. It did, however, matter that he could still speak. “He isn’t telling you this for his health. He wants something from us. He’s ready to make a deal.”

Thomas smiled. “And the lady gets a prize.”

“No deals,” Corbin said. “He dies.”

“Corbin…” I tried for sympathetic.

He met my eyes. “He dies or I do. Both of us are not leaving this cabin,” he said, his voice tight. “You can’t possibly side with him. So long as he is alive, he is a threat to every creature in the Abyss. You have to see that.”

I nodded. “I do, but we can use him. He isn’t the mastermind in any of this. He’s a tool and we’re the pawns. I want to take down the players.”

“And that’s what makes you special,” Thomas said. “You can see past the surface to the end game.”

“Shut up,” Corbin and I said at the same time.

“No more talking,” I said, retying the piece of shirt over his mouth.

Thomas never stopped playing angles. But why was he so calm and why hadn’t he even tried to escape? When he was the loup-garou, he cracked the beam. He could have gone wolf-like in the boat and there wouldn’t have been much we could have done about it. Quintus’s words came back to me. The loup-garou always killed that which it loved most. What did Thomas love? I pulled the shirt from his mouth. “What do you love, Thomas?”

“Fishing for compliments? Very well. You, of course,” he said in a mocking tone.

I blinked a couple times. It was a lie. I could hear it, feel it. Not the words, but the tone, the whole attitude. “But you do,” I said. “That’s why you’re here. It doesn’t have anything to do with Paolo. That’s why you haven’t tried to run away. That’s why you keep coming back. You know, part of me always thought Corbin was crazy for thinking I would have any idea where you were. You left us in Arizona to fight a pissed-off angel on our own. You might be a coward, and you manipulate everything to get what you want, but the curse knows the truth.” I tapped his chest with my fingernail. “That’s why it wants to be here. It’s here for me. You didn’t run away. You didn’t tell Paolo when I left the house. You were waiting for me.”

Thomas gave me a pitying smile, but I knew in my gut I was right, and I could prove it.

I stood up and grabbed Corbin by the leather jacket, jamming my lips and body against his. It only took him a second to respond, and immediately there was the telltale sign of him sipping from my life force, but I let it go. I was making a point.

The beast in Thomas roared behind us. I broke free from the kiss and smiled over my shoulder at his glowing bright red eyes. “Would you like to rethink your answer?”

It growled and snarled, trying to move, but failed as the chains dug into its skin.

Corbin gave me a questioning look.

“The whole purpose of the loup-garou curse is to lose what you love the most. I thought that maybe it was different with him because he didn’t love anyone but himself, but then why hasn’t he tried to escape? He had to know that I was bringing you back. Paolo must have told him, but he stayed. Then when you left with him, he didn’t make a sound. And in the boat… He wants to be here, so I had to ask myself why.”

“Because he loves you,” Corbin said slowly.

I nodded. “Because the beast intends to kill me the first chance it gets. The curse is making the desire to be near me harder to resist. He will try to kill me.”

“Interesting,” Corbin said, looking back at Thomas with a slight smile. “And if he doesn’t?”

I shook my head. “No clue.”

Corbin paced away from him. “So what’s your plan?”

“I’m totally winging it right now. The council made me sign a contract that means they pretty much own me if they can prove that I broke it, which I have in so many ways. I need to figure out exactly what their angle is in all of this. I still need to stop whoever is doing the other killings in New Orleans, and I guess now I have the vampires to deal with, because there’s no way we are giving him to Paolo in the next ten hours.”

Corbin stared at the ground.

“Right? I mean, you don’t really want to go back to how things were, do you? I know you said you did, but look at the evidence, Corbin. Paolo has been using you all these years. You aren’t the same person you were then, whether or not you want to be. Camila is gone. They took her. If you go back, what do you think will happen to Selene? They are going to use her the same way. She’s your weakness, and Paolo knows.”

“Have I really sunk so low that I need a pep talk?” He laughed to himself. “I don’t know what I want to do yet, but you don’t need to concern yourself with me. What is your plan for him?”

That was an excellent question, and one that I didn’t quite have an answer to. Partly, Corbin was right. Thomas was a danger to the people of the Abyss because he was a narcissistic psychopath. But he also had moments (very few) of good. Maybe I had trouble reconciling both sides of him because I knew other people, Corbin included, who were also a lot like that, but still managed to be productive members of society. Also, it wasn’t my job to make these decisions. Sekhmets were neutral. We tried to avoid swaying the tides too heavily in favor of any side, but again that was a rule I’d always struggled with. When something felt wrong, it was hard for me to ignore it and continue on—much to my family’s consternation.

“When I was young and in school, they would make us do drills. Basically, war scenarios would be laid out for us and then we were assigned sides. We should have been able to support whatever side we fell on, because that was what we were expected to do as a race. I never could support the side I didn’t agree with. I was whipped and lectured and failed over and over again because I would not submit to their rules and allow them to think for me.” I clicked my teeth as an image of my grandfather came to mind. “The only person in my entire family who would sit with me on the days I was being punished was my grandfather. He’d tell me that it was okay not to understand why I felt so strongly about an issue. The important part was that I did feel that way and I stayed true to it. That was heroic, and those feelings were a gift from the goddess. She was guiding me and I was the only one smart enough to listen. Maybe he was trying to make a rebellious kid feel better, but it really stuck with me. It’s how I have lived my life.”

I rolled my hurt shoulder to keep it from getting stiff. “I don’t know why I think we should let him go, but I do. I know that he deserves punishment for his crimes. I do know that logically, but something in my gut tells me that Thomas has a role to play and it isn’t over yet. Killing him now will change all of our futures.”

Corbin shook his head. “That’s the biggest load of crap I have ever heard.”

I crossed my arms. “Then what’s your plan, Count Dracula?”

“We store Thomas somewhere miserable until his curse ends, then kill him. You could put him in Hollowfield. You have access, or at least know people who do. Meanwhile, we kill Paolo because that’s the only way either of us will ever get any peace after all of this, and you’ll have it worse than me. Paolo knows he cannot kill me without killing Selene.” The way he said her name, it was obvious it cost him something to do it. “So it will be harder to come after me. That’s why he’s exploiting Clara and Camila’s deaths. It’s his only hope without having to go into open war with the elves, and if what you say is true then he won’t have the support of the vampires behind him. It’s risky move. Especially since I have Frost.”

Frost was a fellow bounty hunter who was a human necromancer and witch. “I don’t think anyone has Frost,” I said. “I don’t think she likes other people.”

Corbin gave me his typical smug smile. “She likes me.”

“You’re delusional, but whatever. So basically your plan is to kill Thomas and Paolo. What about the council?”

“Your problem, not mine.”

“And the other killer, not your problem either?”

He nodded. “Exactly.”

I shook my head. “What if the council decides to make you its problem? Then what? You can’t defeat them.”

“Then I guess I’ll die, but at least I will die with the satisfaction of having killed both Paolo and Thomas. And again, they will have to be willing to kill Selene. I know your friends, Femi—they will never stand by and let that happen.”

“They could put you in Hollowfield.”

“I could use a rest.”

He was impossible. “Let’s say I agree to this. Then what?”

“Thomas won’t be a problem—I could kill him now if I wanted to. Paolo will, though. He’s old. Older than me. Older than all of us. If he at all sees it coming, we won’t have a chance. We need to take him by surprise. He needs to think he has won.”

“If he has the council backing him, all the plans in the world aren’t going to make a difference.” I shook my head. We needed to know more, and the best way to do that was to solve the case that they’d sent me to solve. The council wasn’t out to kill me, but I had no doubt I would be an acceptable casualty in getting whatever it was that they wanted. And if that was to stabilize the vampires and Corbin wouldn’t play along, then the shit was about to hit the fan. “We need to talk to Holden.”

The council’s reach was obviously wide, but I knew so little about them that I couldn’t say how wide. I slapped my hands together in front of my chest and said a quick prayer directed to Olivia.

Corbin stared at me as if I’d lost my mind. “Suddenly feeling religious?” he asked.

“Shh,” I said, waiting for Holden to arrive. It took several super-awkward minutes, but at last he came.

He nodded to Corbin and gave Thomas a look that probably should have made him crap his pants. While he didn’t release his bowels, the loup-garou disappeared completely, leaving only the traitorous vampire. Not only had he betrayed me in Arizona, he’d betrayed all of us. Holden was the sort to take that very personally. Oh, and Thomas had tried to turn Holden’s only living relative into a vampire.

I launched into an explanation about everything I suspected was happening.

Holden sighed. “Leilah has been the driving force in all of this, but I don’t see the council rallying behind Paolo.” He shifted his face slightly toward Corbin. “They will support whoever they think can keep the vampires in line. If another vampire steps up, no one would object.”

Corbin’s lip curled. “Not interested. Never have been, or I would have moved against Paolo years ago.”

Holden shrugged. “Then you can’t kill him.”

Corbin crossed his arms. “The hell I can’t. I don’t remember you asking for permission before you freed the jinn and turned the entire world upside down to get what you wanted.”

“What do you want?” I asked him. “Because if it’s Selene, she’s not in the cards.”

He rolled his eyes. “I want to be left alone.”

Holden nearly smiled. “Good luck with that.”

I shook my head. That wasn’t what he wanted. It might be what he wanted right now, but all of this was being driven by something else, whether or not Corbin chose to see it. “What do we do, then? How does all of this end?”

Holden rubbed a hand over his jaw. “I don’t know.”

“I don’t know why we are discussing this,” Corbin said. “We kill this asshole then take out Paolo. Someone will fill the void. That’s life. Someone always steps up.” Thomas said something through the gag that I couldn’t understand. “We’ll let you know when we want you to talk.” Corbin kicked his leg.

I went over and untied the gag. “You have an opinion?”

“Never come between an idiot and his plan,” Thomas said, casting a hooded glare toward Corbin. “I can be killed with no fallout. I agreed to be the villain in this drama because a villain was needed. Paolo, though, is a symbol. Take him out and he becomes a cause, a cry of war. But by all means, you should have your revenge.”

A thin smile stretched over Corbin’s face. “He’s right.” My eyebrows shot up. I didn’t quite believe what I was hearing. “No one will care if we kill him. Let’s just get that out of the way before he finds a way to betray us.”

I shook my head, sighing noisily. “Okay, whatever. I have to get back to the city. I still have a killer to deal with. You guys figure this out.” I started for the door.

Corbin grabbed my arm and Thomas growled. “You can’t go back there. He’ll be looking for both of us.”

I pulled away from him. “This is my problem, not yours. Remember? You see, I actually care about people dying, whether or not it has anything to do with me. I’m going to find out what’s happening.”

He shook his head. “If he captures you, Femi… I don’t do suicide missions.”

I nodded. At least he admitted these things up front. “I wouldn’t expect you to.”

“I do them,” Holden said with a wink. “Olivia is quite fond of them. You know how to reach us if you need us.”

I laughed. That was too true. I closed the door behind me and carefully climbed in the boat.