Lust for Life (23 page)

Elijah’s speaking quietly on his phone, while Henley and Rosso are drinking coffee
and studying a map of Maryland power lines, no doubt trying to narrow down Kashmir’s
daytime location.

“You think they’ll wait until Monday and come for us all?” Jeremy asks me. “Maybe
they’ll try to call you and Shane out by yourselves. Maybe they’ll give one last warning,
like a ‘Surrender Dorothy’ written in the sky.”

Most of us offer a nervous chuckle at the
Wizard of Oz
reference. But something about the Wicked Witch of the West skywriting those words
with her broomstick gives me pause.

“Was she saying, ‘Surrender, Dorothy,’ telling Dorothy to surrender? Or was she telling
the people of Oz that they had to ‘Surrender Dorothy,’ meaning ‘Give her up’?”

After a long silence of maximum awkwardness, Jeremy says, “I assumed it was the first.”

I know the timing of this discussion is weird, yet I
can’t stop myself. “But there’s no comma after ‘Surrender.’ Right?”

“I’ll do an image search.” Jeremy pulls out his phone and brings up a Web browser.
“You’re right.”

“Probably hard to skywrite a comma,” Elijah says.

“It could’ve been done.” Jeremy touches his screen to zoom in on the image. “This
pic shows where the witch finished the
Y
in Dorothy. She was perfectly positioned to add the comma after the
R
.”

The room takes a moment to absorb this, or maybe to figure out how to change the subject.
Finally Shane speaks without looking over at me:

“What if ‘Surrender Dorothy’ was meant to have two meanings?”

Usually that would please me. But now it just pisses me off. It feels like my life
depends on knowing which it is.

Jeremy’s still examining his phone screen. “Huh. There are several bands named ‘Surrender
Dorothy.’ ”

“Folks.”

Spencer speaks quietly, but his voice commands attention, as always.

“It’s five twenty-one,” he says. “Twilight.”

Twilight. Half an hour after sunset. Wherever Kashmir and his pals are, it’s safe
for them to come out.

Monroe steps closer to me, our shoulders almost touching. Instinct makes me lean into
him before I can stop myself. Slowly he puts a sheltering arm around my shoulder.

“We won’t surrender you to no one,” he says. “Not nobody, not no how.”

•  •  •

At five thirty-four, Captain Henley’s phone rings. Though we were expecting it, all
of us here in the lounge jump like a firecracker just went off.

“Sir,” says the voice on the other end. “Reporting in from Ms. Falk’s house. We’ve
got them.”

“All three?”

“Yes, sir. Two have been taken into custody, and we’re staying with the third in the
event Kashmir calls.”

“Good work, Beckett. Let us know the moment you hear from any of the targets or the
other operatives.”

He hangs up, and we let out a collective sigh of relief.

Such bright early progress, unfortunately, is no sign of how the rest of the night
goes. Hours drift by. Henley checks in with Beckett, who is equally bored sitting
with Bonnie at Deirdre’s house. Midnight passes with not a peep from Kashmir.

Shane does his radio show at midnight, then Jeremy at three a.m. Eventually Monroe
and Spencer join the other DJs back in the apartment. Shane and I keep the volume
low as we watch the monitors and listen carefully for any sounds outside.

Just after five a.m. the station phone rings. My direct line.

As I answer, I take a breath to keep my voice smooth so I can pretend it’s just a
regular night.

“WVMP, the Lifeblood of Rock ’n’ Roll. This is Ciara.”

“Good evening. It’s your nemesis.”

Kashmir’s voice pokes a hundred cold needles into my spine. “Sorry, you’ll have to
be more specific.” I mouth Kashmir’s name to Shane and the Control agents.

“I paid a visit to your apartment last night,” Kashmir purrs. “Looks like I missed
you.”

I shiver at the thought of him lurking outside our home, and am ecstatically happy
that we brought Dexter with us to the station. “You must’ve also missed our sign that
says
Absolutely No Solicitors or Assassins
.”

He actually chuckles. “That’s a good one. But before your charm completely distracts
me, I should mention that we found someone there. Someone you love very much.”

I run through the list of loved ones as fast as my panicky mind will allow. Lori’s
at her own home, and everyone else is here. Wait: Where did Franklin go?

Another voice comes on the phone. “Ciara? Sweet pea?” The woman is breathing hard
and fast, making her words shake. “Are you really there?”

My own words drown in my throat as the ice in my gut rises, then melts in the hot
wash of fury.
Kashmir, I will kill you.

I force out the only comfort I can give. “I’m here, Mom.”

22

Bullet with Butterfly Wings

“Who are these people?” Marjorie’s voice rises and falls with her breath. “They’re
so strong and they move so fast, faster than I can—aaah! Oh my goodness.”

I fix my gaze on Shane. “Mom, did they hurt you?”

“No, not yet. They told me they worked with you. That’s why I went with them, even
though I knew I shouldn’t. Their eyes made me stupid.”

“But why are you even here?” It’s an irrelevant question, but I’m still getting a
handle on this horrific new reality.

“I’m sorry, I fibbed to you about when I was being released. I wanted it to be a surprise
when I showed up on your doorstep. Honey, I’m so scared.”

Her words are coming almost faster than I can process them. Kashmir must have found
her waiting outside my door. “Where are you now?”

“I don’t know. They made me lie down in the backseat.” She lets out a sob. My hands
curl into fists so hard and fast, my middle fingernail breaks.

Kashmir comes back on the phone. “So here we have
a puzzle for you to solve: how to get your mom out of here alive.”

“Tell me what you want.” My con-artist caginess has fled me. I’m ready to trade myself
for her, no tricks or double crosses. Just life for life. “Tell me when and where.
I’ll come.”

“We’re at Crosetti’s Monuments off Raleigh Avenue. But I don’t—”

“I know where that is. The headstone makers.” Damn it, Johnny Crosetti’s a double
agent, or maybe just in thrall to Kashmir. “The place with the fake graveyard out
front.”

“Not entirely fake, from what I’m told. As I was trying to say, I don’t want you to
come here. I want you and Shane to send Monroe and Regina in the next hour. Or we’ll
kill your mother.”

In the background, Mom’s voice rises high and sharp. It cuts off suddenly as Kashmir
hangs up.

I take the phone slowly from my ear and look at the time on its screen: less than
an hour until sunrise. Kashmir’s not the only enemy we have to face.

I whisper to Shane, “Did you hear what he wants?”

He nods slowly. “I’m not giving up our makers.”

Luckily they’re not in the room to protest. “What do we do? We don’t have time to
send trained hostage negotiators.”

“There’s the Control Enforcement team at Deirdre’s house.”

“If they bust in there, he’ll kill my mom. Humans can’t be quiet enough.”

“We’ll go,” says a deep voice behind me.

I turn to see Elijah standing with Henley and Rosso.

“I’m coming with you,” Shane says, grabbing a stake from the table.

“Me, too.” I go to grab a stake and realize there are none left.

“No way,” Elijah says. “McAllister, you’re suspended, not to mention unqualified for
this kind of operation. Griffin, you’re not even Enforcement-trained.”

“But this is my mom!”

“Which makes it an even worse idea for you to go,” Henley offers. “You’re too emotionally
entangled.”

“The three of you against four of them, with a hostage?” Shane says. “I don’t like
those odds. You need us.”

Elijah throws up his hands. “What part of ‘unqualified’ do you not get, boy? You’re
not trained in these tactics.”

“What if we don’t go as Control agents?” I take the stake out of Shane’s hand and
lay it back on the table. “What if we go as us? We walk through the front door and
offer ourselves as ransom. While he’s distracted, you rescue my mom.”

Elijah shakes his head. “What makes you think he won’t up and kill your stupid asses
in one second?”

“The fact that he hates us.” I look up at Shane. “He’ll want to hurt us first, especially
since he can’t do it by killing Monroe and Regina.”

Captain Henley widens his stance, arms crossed. “I don’t like it. Not at all.”

“Dammit, we’re running out of time!” Shane grabs his phone and car keys from the side
table. “Let’s quit jaggin’ around and get moving. You can fire us if you want, but
we’re saving her mom. This is the best plan we have right now, and you know it.”

The taciturn Agent Rosso finally speaks. “Sirs, they’re correct. The more we talk,
the more time slips away. There’s a human life to save.”

“Yeah, well, no one asked your opinion.” Elijah pulls on his uniform jacket. “Even
if it’s the right one. Let’s go.”

The three of them walk out the door into the back corridor. Elijah sticks his head
back in the doorway. “I said, let’s go!”

•  •  •

Shane and I drive in my car, while the Enforcement agents take off in their own. Jeremy
and Noah keep an eye on the monitors and promise to call if they see anyone following
us away from the station. But we get no phone call.

Sitting in the passenger seat, I take Shane’s hand. “Want to hear something funny?
I’m more afraid of the sun than I am of Kashmir.”

“With any luck the Enforcement guys will kill Kashmir and the Not-So-Magnificent Three,
and then we can all stay in the room below Crosetti’s for the day.” He squeezes my
hand. “I’m glad we didn’t tell our makers that they’re the ones Kashmir wants. They
would’ve wanted to go in our places.”

“Monroe would. Not sure about Regina.”

He lets out a soft guffaw. “She would, too.”

“In a heartbeat?” I ask him, calling back to his own declaration.

Shane tilts his head, considering. “Maybe two or three heartbeats.”

We review the plan once more. Shane and I will enter unarmed through the front door,
ostensibly surrendering.
Adrian said their weapons are few and unsophisticated: no crossbows, only a stake
or two among them. With their strength, they don’t need weapons. Any of them could
probably rip off our heads in a split second. We’ll need every minute of our hand-to-hand
combat training, if it comes to that.

The X factor is Mr. Crosetti. If he’s in thrall to Kashmir, he might fight on their
side. Or maybe he just gave them the keys and went home, deciding to look the other
way and figuring any blood spilled would flow from dead vampires, which are self-cleaning.

As we wait at the light to turn left on the road to Crosetti’s, Shane simply says,
“I love you.” The finality in his voice snaps my heart in two.

“Don’t tell me that now. It sounds too much like good-bye.”

His silence says,
Maybe it is good-bye.

We pull into the parking lot, where the white concrete glows a deep violet, reflecting
the sky above. I check my watch again. Half an hour until morning twilight. It’s a
ten-minute drive back to the station, so unless we can solve this problem quickly,
we’ll be staying here tonight.

We get out of the car and the yellow porch light pops on. As Shane steps in front
of me, I take his arm. “I love you, too.”

He stops, turns, then brings his mouth to mine. Our kiss is hard, brief, and open-eyed.

The front door creaks. “You forgot a someone or two.”

Kashmir stands with arms spanning the doorway, the top of which nearly brushes the
crown of his head. Though the porch light is the gold of the supposedly bug-free variety,
no warmth touches Kashmir’s visage. His hair is an
unbroken waterfall of black flowing just past his shoulders and covering his forehead
with perfectly straight bangs. His sharp cheekbones seem to slice the air around him.
From here I can barely see the holy-water scar Deirdre spoke of. It truly is the size
of a teardrop.

In almost brutal contrast to his ink-black tresses, his body is clothed in an all-white
suit, not unlike the famous Elvis-in-Vegas outfit. But it lacks adornment, so with
his height and slimness he doesn’t appear ridiculous. Stick a pair of wings on his
back and he’d look like a fallen angel still using heaven’s wardrobe.

“I asked you to send your makers. I asked rather nicely, if I recall.”

“Ciara?”
comes Marjorie’s voice behind him. “Ciara, are you there?”

Perfect, Mom. Make tons of noise so they don’t hear the Control agents who pulled
to the side of the road a half mile away and are hopefully booking it over here right
now.

“I’m here, Mom!” I want to say something soothing, but I’m afraid it’ll work too well
and she’ll quiet. “It’s me they want, not you.”

“You can’t have her, you fucking bastards!”

I’ve never heard my mother say so much as “hell.” I guess prison has changed her more
than I thought.

Despite her yelling, Kashmir’s gaze doesn’t shift from our faces. It’s as if we’re
the only three people in the world.

Mom’s protest pitches up, then muffles, as if she’s been gagged. Damn it.

“Shane’s here, too, Mom,” I tell her. “He won’t let them hurt me, and he won’t let
them hurt you.”

“That’s right,” Shane says. “We’re here to get everyone out safely.”

She says something that sounds like “I’m sorry” but without consonants.

“Have you showed her your fangs yet?” I ask Kashmir softly.

He shakes his head. “Not necessary. All I needed to convince her to get in the car
were these.” He points to his amber-colored eyes. Even on me, a fellow vampire, they
have a mesmerizing effect. I focus on the bridge of his nose instead.

“Please, come in.” He steps back, bowing slightly.