Companions (28 page)

"You do that often?"

"All the time," Siri answered. She was pale beneath the perfect makeup but quite composed. "I told you I had visions."

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"That's happening right now?"

Siri nodded. "The boys seem to be having a good time."

Selena wiped sweat off her brow. Well, that shot her makeup job to hell. "That's a very useful talent.

Can you turn it on and off?"

"No. Sometimes I can focus it. I was trying to find out what the others are doing right now." She glanced toward the bride. "That's what I got."

Selena didn't doubt Siri's vision was completely true. "I only saw four vampires. I know there's more than that."

"Was Rosho in the garage?"

"No." Selena was certain that if the old vampire were there, the good guys would be getting their asses whipped. "Try to concentrate on where he is," she told Siri. Siri touched her again, and Selena did her best to project all of her impressions of Rosho to the other woman.

Siri absorbed what Selena sent but shook her head after a few seconds. "I get darkness. Pools of reflected color on the floor. No. Just darkness. I think it's my imagination. Give it a minute. I have to get some distance from the last one."

That made sense. Selena looked around, her sense of urgency growing. She had no doubt Rosho was nearby. Her aunt's coven had put up a spell wall, but that wouldn't stop him. Lawrence, Haven, and Yevgeny could take out Rosho's nest, and that wouldn't stop him. She had the distinct impression he was out in the shadows, watching every move they made, laughing at them, and wanting Karen.

"He can't have her," she murmured. "He isn't going to have her."

"Over your dead body?" Siri asked quietly.

"Probably," Selena answered. "But I'll do what I have to. Not because Karen's family," she added. "But because it isn't right."

Siri nodded. "My lover didn't give me a choice. I know I would have loved him anyway, if he'd only walked up to me and introduced himself. He should have given me the choice. They have to learn to give mortals choices. You're willing to kill for the right to have a choice."

"Or be killed," Selena reminded her. Siri was looking at her like she was some kind of hero. "Let's not forget the downside to opposing evil. Evil frequently wins."

On the pier, a dog began to bark, its deep voice carrying over the cacophony all around. Selena began to turn her head toward the sound, but the band finished the current song, and the
Queen Eleanor's
cruise director stepped up to the microphone. "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your patience. We're finally about to set sail for the evening. We'll be pulling away from the dock in just — "

Whatever else he might have said was lost when Siri touched her, and the world shattered into a million fragmented shards. Selena fell forward, through a kaleidoscope, into darkness. Then —

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He was nearly out of fuel, and two of them had Haven backed against the garage wall. He
choked on the smoke, fought to see through the blinding fumes. Larry was facedown in the
shallow lake formed by the sprinklers, his back a mass of oozing claw marks. Yevgeny was
nowhere in sight. Another vampire stepped out of the shadows, slender, handsome, cold, and
deadly. "Help! " Haven shouted. "Somebody fucking help! "

"Rosho! Holy shit, that's Rosho!" Selena didn't have time to be disoriented. She fought it off with all the will she could muster. She was left dizzy but in control of her faculties. "They're in trouble!" She discovered that she was holding Siri by the shoulders. "I have to get to them. They're in trouble."

"I know," Siri said. "It was my vision."

"Right. I know where they are." Haven's cry for help echoed in her head. The need to respond was as strong in Selena as any officer-in-need-of-assistance call. "I have to help them."

"But…! The boat's leaving!" Siri pointed wildly. "Your cousin!"

"Stay with her." Selena ran for the gangway. The sense of urgency clawed at her like a wild animal under her skin. She shoved people aside, and shouted at those who didn't move fast enough.

"Me?" Siri stuck with her. "What do I do?"

"You've got a weapon." Selena glared at the crew members that were beginning to detach the stairway connecting the
Queen Eleanor
to the pier from the side of the boat. They halted what they were doing without asking any questions. Selena paused for one last instant before hurtling down the stairs. "Anyone with fangs comes near my cousin," she told Siri, "shoot him in the head."

"But…"

Selena didn't wait to hear any more.

Selena could barely see once she reached the ground. Okay, it was night out, but the place was lit up like daylight. There was neon everywhere, and streetlights and lights poured out of the long row of buildings that lined the pier. The nightly fireworks blossomed overhead to the accompaniment of oohs and aahhs from thousands of voices. Everything was bright, sharply lit. She knew it for a fact, but her eyes and all her extra senses didn't perceive the surroundings that way. She didn't get it, she sure as hell didn't like it, but she struggled forward into the growing shadows. She had to get to the parking garage.

She didn't have time for the fear that crawled up her spine and weighed down her limbs. She moved into the crowd, and it was like swimming against a relentless outgoing tide. Someone accidentally hit her in the face with a huge cloud of cotton candy and she tasted spiderwebs instead of sugar.

In the growing darkness, a shadow moved on the edge of her vision. Selena spun to the left and looked up to see a wolf looking down at her from the top of a long staircase. Her muscles tensed and she bit off a cry as she waited for it to leap at her throat, but all it did was sit on its haunches and tilt its head curiously to one side.

Some of the encroaching darkness cleared from Selena's head, and she gave a faint, nervous laugh. It was a big black dog, some sort of sheepdog, maybe. Probably one of the animals from the dog show.

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She really was seeing evil everywhere, wasn't she? Her face was sticky from a combination of cotton candy and tears. Crying? What on earth was the matter with her? Her head hurt, and she suddenly couldn't remember where the parking garages were.

Of course she knew where they were. She'd been in one only a few days ago. With… with… Selena scrubbed her hands over her face. Why was it so bloody noisy? And why were all these people here?

The deep rumble of artillery explosions behind her drew her to slowly turn around. Her gaze was drawn to the sky where great, multicolored chrysanthemums bloomed and vanished one after the other, leaving dissipating puffs of smoke in their wake. "Ooh," she said. "Aahh." She reached out a hand. "Pretty."

What the hell was the matter with her? One glass of champagne and she was acting like an idiot. But when had she had the champagne? Why? She was on duty, right? She didn't drink on duty. She must be working undercover, because she couldn't think of any other explanation for the outfit she was wearing.

How was a person supposed to run in high heels? She was in pursuit of a bad guy, she was pretty sure of that, but —

Selena gave a sharp shake of her head, and tried to regain her focus. On one side of her was a long row of buildings. Some sort of shopping mall? On her other side the hull of a large boat blocked the view.

Where was she and what was she supposed to do?

"Someone," she said, "is messing with my mind."

She did not like people messing with her in any way; it annoyed her. Annoyance helped her remember that she was standing around like an idiot when she had people to rescue. She firmly believed that temper and stubbornness went a long way in keeping Selena Crawford free of psychic influence. Once more she began to make her way through the crowd, muttering, "Some vampire thinks he can just waltz in and take over my head, does he? Who does he think he is, Steve the Enforcer? What's some little fangboy think he is compared to the meanest mother in the — "

Darkness came up and hit her in the face with the force of a tornado. When the light came back, Rosho was standing in it. "I think I have had quite enough of this game."

"Oh, shit." It was not a particularly clever or heroic thing to say, but the words summed up a great deal of shock, terror, and anger. Besides, it wouldn't have been at all in character with her tough persona to squeak "Mommy!" which was exactly what Selena wanted to do. Besides, her mommy might show up, and then they'd both be dead. She didn't suppose running away was an option. Fear, at least, drove away all the sticky mental cobwebs and traps.

Rosho stepped very close to her. He put a hand under her elbow and drew her even closer, another couple in the happy crowd. "You have no options," he whispered in her ear. "You never did."

Okay, she was scared. Definitely. No doubt about it. She turned, very quickly, and head-butted him.

"Oh, yeah?" He only blinked in response, while her forehead hurt like hell, but she gave herself points for making a point.

He changed simply holding her into an embrace, with one hand still grasping her arm, the other pressed into the small of her back. "I think you know I always break my toys before I throw them away." His voice and smile were equally silky. "Hello, Toy."

He was a beautiful creature, and he knew it. He took great pleasure in Selena's looking at him, seeing only himself reflected in her eyes. She stared, throat dry with fear, very aware of his thigh touching hers
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as she took in the sharp lines of his high cheekbones and the jaw that narrowed to the sharp point of his bearded chin. His wide mouth quirked in a preening, pleased smile. "Does it bother you," she inquired after a few seconds, "that I'm taller than you are?" His grip turned very painful. Claws bit deeply into her skin. She'd expected it, and she didn't allow him the satisfaction of a physical or mental flinch. She was a daughter of the Bailey
familia.
They did not spoil demons. "If you think I mind having bloodstains on this dress, you know very little about modern wedding customs."

"I think we will go somewhere very private," he said. "No one is looking at us, Toy. Even if they were, calling for help would only result in many deaths."

She didn't doubt it. They were standing in front of the children's museum. Of course he would attack children first. The Enforcer of the City would be very annoyed with Rosho, but that would be later, after the children were dead. "You're betting on my cooperation," she told him. "And my coming along quietly will keep you from breaking any laws."

He didn't bother to answer, and she didn't bother to struggle as he put his arm around her waist and took her along the promenade. It surprised her that he headed them toward one of the doors leading to the indoor shopping arcade rather than toward the entrance. How could he expect to find privacy inside, she wondered. The place was open until midnight on weekends.

But there was indeed one deserted spot in the long hallway full of bustling shops. He took her around a corner, and suddenly they were alone. The sign outside the entrance said Closed. The door was not locked. "I asked everyone to go away," he told her. "I was very polite about it. Most of the staff went voluntarily."

She knew for a fact that magic did not work on everybody. Anyone who used magic had to be really, really good to get the sort of cooperation Rosho was talking about.

"I'm really, really good," he said.

"You probably just bribed the ones you couldn't control or scare."

"Whatever works. Privacy is what matters."

"Why don't we go back to my place?" Selena offered. "I'll put on some Clapton. We can have some wine — "

"Later. I plan to drink quite a bit at your cousin's party."

Rosho pushed her inside ahead of him, into a room full of glass. He pushed hard enough that she ran into a solid glass pedestal with enough strength to knock her to the floor. She rose to her knees on smooth tiles, fighting for breath from the force of the impact. The lights were off, but huge stained-glass windows facing the pier filtered through faint colored light from the world outside. Selena told herself that the rainbow lights in front of her eyes came from the reflections. She was not surprised to look up and find Rosho standing over her.

"I know who you belong to," he told her. "The boy tried to cover the truth that night when he broke my last toy. But I saw the thread between you long before he put on a flimsy show of taking your life.

Pathetic of him, really, trying to protect you from me. I take who I want."

His last words brought the complete situation clearly back to Selena. "I won't let you take my cousin."

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"I never wanted her." He laughed softly. He brushed fingers through Selena's hair. His claws left bloody trails in her scalp. "Playing with you was pleasant. I've always enjoyed creating diversions to mask my true purpose. I sent you the dreams while I watched you at night and dreamed about you during the days.

It's another way of playing with shadows."

And why didn't I figure this out?
she wondered as he spoke.

"Because you're as stupid as the boy who owns you."

Selena surged to her feet. "Don't you call him stupid!" It was a ridiculous reaction, considering the trouble she was in, but she preferred the adrenaline rush of indignation to the terror that was trying to claw its way to the front of her mind. "And don't call me stupid, either," she added. "Because I will kill you."

He was neither amused nor angry at her words. He didn't even look bored, though she half expected him to yawn. She looked around for a weapon or an escape route. There was glass everywhere, beautiful, sparkling hanging and mounted panels that had once been windows in fine old buildings. There were Tiffany and Frank Lloyd Wright designs among the collection, and many modern stained-glass panels as well, plus sinuous glass sculptures in rich colors mounted on marble, glass, and metal plinths.