Lore vs. The Summoning (6 page)

My eyes swept back over the pound-for-woman to find that there were five women in the dozen cages the bastards had. They were in varied poses. One had her arms clenched around the bars with her face pressed to it as close as she could get. She stared at me with determination in the pale eyes that peered beneath frizzy wheat colored hair. This was the one that had sold me out and she looked like she was willing to do a whole lot more to get free.

A young woman who couldn't have been legal drinking age cautiously watched me from the side of her cage, one of the cages that had been below mine. I suspected she was the one who had asked me about Tracksuit's death. She'd be the first I'd let out. Another woman sat in the middle of her cage, knees pulled up in a yoga pose with her hands rested on them like a Zen master. She'd be the second to last because I suspected she could handle waiting. The others were understandably freaked and silent. I'd make judgment calls about them later.

I nodded to them all but immediately regretted it. It had hurt. If I got brain damage over this someone was getting resurrected by a necromancer so I could kill them all over again.

I tested my legs to see if they could hold my weight now. The pins and needles sensation would have been harder to bear if I hadn't had worse pain elsewhere. I shook it off, passing my weight from my right hip to my left and back until it was more bearable. Then I started for the Rhino.

The keys were surprisingly easy to find. He'd dropped them on the floor beside the cages once he'd gotten my lock unfastened. My lips turned down when I realized that I could have rested a little longer.
 

To keep the cluttered key ring from making too much noise I stuffed it into the pocket of my jeans. "I'll be right back," I told the women and then I started for the door.

"Don't leave us!" The sell-out shrieked behind me.

I suddenly wished I'd been given the power to make people unconscious because she was going to alert someone before I could get them all out. I hurried through the pound door into an exterior room. There were three narrow windows high on the left wall as if we were below the ground in a basement. Little light was coming through them.
 

It was still night. Maybe I hadn't truly spent two hours in the cage. I'd guessed but usually I wasn't half bad at judging time.

The fact that it was night out wasn't necessarily a good thing. There could be vampires on Chet's payroll. My power didn't work on vampires. Could I get the women out and then stall until daylight?
 

First things first, I had to find the exit.

We were definitely in a basement. The exterior room I came upon when leaving the pound for women was long and narrow, too long to be a residence. It was thankfully empty of everything but old furniture, machinery and canvas-covered items I probably didn't need to know about. From the smell, coating of dust and look of the walls I guessed we were in one of the older buildings in the city. That didn't narrow the location down much.

I crept through the room to the door at the other end. With my hand stretched in front of me, ready to plague at a moment's notice, I whipped the thing open only to find the next room empty. Throwing caution to the wind, I rushed through it to the next door. It too was empty. The door at the other end looked a bit more promising. The casing was made of thick metal, the handle was larger and sturdier, and there were several heavy locks.
 

My hand went to the keys in my pocket in case I'd need them to get the locks unfastened. When the handle turned easily and I stepped out into the cool, night air I thought that this was far too simple.
 

Of course that was when someone proved me right by pouncing on me from the shadows.

CHAPTER FIVE

I didn't scream and it wasn't because of the cool hand muffling my mouth. It took a hell of a lot more than someone jumping out of shadows to frighten me. More than that, I was calm.
 

In fact, I was collected enough to calculate that the person pressed up behind me couldn't be much taller than five foot ten, probably wasn't much heavier than a hundred and seventy pounds, and didn't seem to be all that strong. I decided to attempt to fight rather than plague them. I might feel guilty if it turned out to be a punk kid with circulation problems. One human death on my conscience was enough.

An elbow to the attacker's solar plexus preceded my back kick to their groin. The person behind me grunted, immediately letting go. I whirled around while they were clutching their privates protectively.

"Was that necessary, Miss Denham?"

"Aiden?" The hoarse voice had startled me enough that I'd forgotten to greet him formally.

"Mmm," he purred above a kind of laughing cough.
 

I had no idea what that meant. But apparently the undead were susceptible to kicks to the family jewels. I'd have to remember that.

"What the hell are you doing here? I could have hurt you," I demanded.

He unfurled to his full height (of five foot ten, I'd been spot on). "I seriously doubt that," he said with a half smile of his ghostly grey lips.

I couldn't see him all that well in the shadows of the alley I'd stumbled into but I thought his long hair was straight tonight. It was darker in color, not black but definitely not honey blonde. It was a good choice because Aiden looked better as a brunette.
 

He was wearing one of his many three-piece suits. I didn't need light to know that it was a garment that was no doubt made of the finest fabric and tailored to fit him like a second skin. These were requirements of
all
his suits.

What little illumination there was allowed me to see that he'd maintained much of the facial features from the other night with the exception of the nose. He seemed to be experimenting with a narrower sniffer tonight. I didn't approve but I'd never tell him so. It would be admitting that I approved of other versions of him.

Focus
, the little voice in my head screamed. There were five females back inside that I'd yet to free. I couldn't be outside debating with a vampire.

"Wait a second," I said aloud as if he'd been involved in my internal monologue. "You said the vampires couldn't be linked to this at all. What are you doing here?"

"Bringing you this," he said simply.

I looked down at the offer held by his delicately formed fingers. It was a gun nearly identical to the piece I usually carried. The only variance was this one's grip lacked a slash mark from a mutated jungle cat.

"You brought me a gun," I said dully. "Out here...wherever I am."

"You're in Jamaican Plain," Aiden said helpfully. "And yes, I did."

Warily I asked, "How did you know where I was when even I didn't?"

"I followed you."
 

There was no compunction to that statement. He said it as if it were a foregone conclusion that he'd do such a thing. I opened my mouth to ask another question but clamped it shut without bothering. There were more important things to worry about than
why
Aiden was following me.

The gun would be helpful. I took it with murmured thanks and tried my best not to look at him. I might do something stupid if I did. Before I could turn back to the door Aiden produced two clips of ammunition from some place hidden within his sports jacket and set those in my hand as well.

"I can't go in with you," he said unnecessarily.

I gave him a sideways look. "What makes you think I'm going back in?"

"You're going to set those girls free. And then I suspect you'll stay to wait for whoever was keeping them." His next statement was spoken as a soft reprimand, "By the by, you haven't told me what you've learned."

The bridge of my nose wrinkled in irritation. "I didn't realize I was supposed to check in with you at every turn."

"Not every turn." Aiden's eyes dropped to my lips.

It flustered me enough that I shifted impatiently toward the door. "Can this wait until after I get these girls out of here?"

He shook his head. It sent the cascade of his hair gently outward. I could smell a slight perfume of cinnamon and spice wafting off him and it was mouthwatering. Maybe he'd come from making breakfast for a lucky lady. I hated that it bothered me that he'd have women.

Aiden's smooth-as-butter tone was matter-of-fact. "After you get the girls out of there I'll be escorting them safely home."

My right eyebrow lifted at him. I let my voice dip into incredulous territory. "You're going to escort them safely?"

He feigned a hurt expression. "You say that as if I have a voracious appetite for young women and can hardly control my urges for the short time I'll be with them."

"I don't know that you don't."

Aiden lifted a hand to his heart. "I am insulted, Miss Denham. Truly."

I felt my cheeks flush automatically. "Sorry." Then I realized how much of a nitwit I was being. "Wait, no. I'm not sorry. You're a vampire. I have every right to think you're a blood-drinking fiend. Gods, why am I even debating with you?"

I turned on my heel and ignored any parting words he had for me. They'd been something said with a laugh, a lovely laugh that made me shiver. He was damn dangerous on too many levels.

But I had a gun now. I was pretty dangerous too.

I ran back through the basement because I'd wasted far too much time dallying with Aiden outside. The girls had stopped screaming. That much was good at least. If there was surveillance, and perhaps the cameras couldn't pick up the lumps on the floor, whatever asshole was watching it might think nothing was amiss now that they'd settled down.

As a precaution I peered around the last door into the pound-for-woman with the gun held in front of me. It was empty of everyone but the corpse on the floor, the ooze that had formally been the Rhino and the women in the cages. I headed within and was immediately met with the imploring sounds of the chick that had sold me out.

"Oh my god, you came back! Let me out! Let me out! Pleeeeassse! I can pay you."

Yeah, she was totally getting let out last.

I fumbled with the large key ring as I knelt at Bottom-Right's door. She looked up at me with surprise.

"I'm not going to hurt you," I told her softly.

"I didn't think you were," she said in her child-like voice. "I'm just...wondering why you picked me first."

"You were the one that answered my questions." I tried to give her a warm smile but under these conditions, in a room with a corpse, a dozen cages, and my blood on the wall, it wasn't all that easy.

I found the key to her lock on the fourth try. Unlike the Rhino I had no trouble unlatching the door. I blamed it on my smaller fingers.

"There are two big rooms out there, just run straight through them to the outside door," I told her as I moved to the next cage where a soccer-mom in a cashmere cardigan, penny loafers and beige pants was waiting. She looked like she probably had kids. I continued my instructions for Bottom-right while I pushed the same key into the lock. "There should be a guy with long brown hair out there. He said he'd help you get to safety." And for some reason, I believed him. "If there is anyone else besides a guy with long brown hair, you get the hell back here, fast. Do you understand?"

Bottom-right nodded quickly. "What about you?"

"I've got to finish unlocking these. You go on. I can handle myself." I paused long enough to smirk at her.

She took a step back, glancing between the door to freedom and me. "Thank you, so much. What's your name?"

"I'd really rather not say." I gestured above us. "There's probably surveillance."

Bottom-right's eyes rounded a little. "Oh. Good idea. Thanks again. I'll never be able to repay you." She made a move to hug me but seemed to think better of it now that I was unlatching the soccer mom's cage.

"Take her too." I yanked the door open then stepped to the next cage.

"Please," the sell-out pled. "Please, lady, let me out."

I ignored her even after Soccer Mom and Bottom-right had rushed out of the room on hobbling legs. I took pity on Top-right, the shushing girl. She'd legitimately been trying to warn me something bad was about to happen, even if it was for a mildly selfish reason.

I had to help her down from her perch because it was nine feet off the ground and she'd been in the cramped space for a while. She stood working her legs out behind me while I unlocked the Zen master.

"Go on out," I insisted to the two of them once Zen master was freed.

Only after the other women had departed did I kneel in front of the sell-out's cage. She pulled away from the bars, sensing I wasn't pleased with her. I noted her wheat blonde hair was in a rather dated curly style (or frizzy as the case may be) and that she was wearing a sweatshirt that was probably from back when hair bands were big.

"I left you for last for a reason," I informed her with a frown etched into the lines around my mouth. "You sold me out when that guy asked who had done the deed. That was uncool."

"I'm...sorry," she said with a mixture of fear and indignation. "I didn't want to die."

"None of us wanted to die."

"But I wasn't trying to get myself killed by screaming like a mad woman and attacking people."

She was insulting me? Seriously? "Yeah, well who is on this side of the bars now?"

"I can pay..."

I put the key into her lock. "Look, I don't want your money. Just do the world a favor, stop being such a selfish bitch. Because next time your rescuer might not be as forgiving as I am."
 

She scrambled out of the cage as soon as I'd swung the bars aside. The baleful look she gave me on her way out of the pound could have killed a lesser creature. I resisted the urge to sigh. Some people were beyond redemption.

Steadily I followed behind her to the outside door on the off chance that Aiden would still be there. There was a huddle of frightened women standing a few feet to the left side of the door. The sell out hurried to join them. Aiden emerged from the shadows near me.

"That's all of them?" He questioned, but I knew he already had the answer.