Merlin's Children (The Children and the Blood) (39 page)

“I– uh,” Mud tried.

“What are you doing?” Elias asked, covering the cell with one hand as he came closer.

“There’s no way the guards’ll buy that weasel capturing your friend on his own,” Spider told him. “So we’re changing the plan. I’m going.”

Mud blanched.

“No, you’re not,” Ashe retorted incredulously.

“Spider,” Samson said.

“Miss, you aren’t–” Elias began.

“This isn’t a debate,” Spider said over the protests. “You need somebody they won’t suspect, and I’m sorry, but your guy there isn’t it.” She looked to Elias. “You just make sure you get that portal open without hitting me and–”

“I’ll do it.”

Spider turned at the sound of Harris’ voice. “Excuse me?”

The detective looked between them with varying degrees of discomfort. “I said I’ll do it. I’ll get the door open.”

Spider scoffed. “No way. No offense, but we’ve known you for five minutes. And you tried to kill her. So you’re staying.”

“Of everyone here, I’m the least likely to raise their suspicion,” Harris countered. “If for no other reasons than the ones you just named. And I’m not a wizard or a cripple, so it’s not even going to cross their minds that I could be a threat.” He paused. “It never does.”

Spider’s eyes narrowed, but Elias cut in before she could speak. “You said they wouldn’t believe it if you just showed up there,” the councilman argued.

“Alone, no,” Harris allowed with a grimace. “But with Mud…”

Elias shook his head. “No,” he stated. “For
exactly
the reasons she just named. We’re doing this the way we planned. Nathaniel still has the best chance–”

“The hell he does,” Samson interrupted.

“What?” Elias snapped.

Samson strode past him to Mud, and snagged the man by the collar when he tried to flee. “The Taliesin need to see a prisoner. But not your attack dog there; he’ll just get you killed. Even if they buy the cop and that idiot capturing him, you’re still risking everything on the hope your queen’s infallible and the guards won’t just see through whatever the hell she’s planning to do.

“Now, normally,” he added, “I wouldn’t give a shit. But there’s still a chance that king’ll be able to hurt my people just because we’ve talked to you, so we really need to keep you lot alive till we can throw Bloody Queen Ashe at him and let them kill each other.”

He hauled Mud up from the ground, ignoring the man’s indignant squawk. “You told him you needed his help with someone connected to the queen,” he continued to Harris, “and my guess is the twerp here shared that around before leaving. They won’t believe for a minute that he’d bring you with him for no reason, but I doubt they’ll buy him being tough enough to drag anyone in on his own either. So let’s get this over with already. Escort your prisoner back.”

“Sam,” Spider protested.

He glanced to her. “Shoot the bastards if they try anything.”

She paused, and Ashe couldn’t tell if she was breathing. But after a heartbeat, the girl just nodded, whatever she’d been about to say vanishing as though it’d never been.

“Gladly,” she answered.

“You are not deciding this–” Elias started, looking between the two of them.

With a shove, Samson sent Mud stumbling past Nathaniel into the street. Spider’s gun rose instantly, tracking the little man.

“Sorry, wizard,” he replied coldly. He looked to Harris. “Coming?”

Alarm in his eyes, Harris hesitated before nodding. Crossing the distance between them, he took Samson’s arms, pinning them back as though handcuffed, and then led him after Mud.

“This is–” Elias started.

“Elias,” Ashe interrupted tightly. “Just… get ready, okay?”

Incredulity showed in his eyes, but he buried it swiftly and looked to Nathaniel. “Tell me when they get close,” he said, traces of disbelief still in his voice. He raised the phone to his ear again. “Never mind. Get ready to move on our signal.”

He hung up and headed for the door near the end of the alley.

Ashe followed Spider to the entrance. Ignoring Nathaniel’s dark glare, the girl sank down by the edge of the wall, her eyes trained on the men making their way down the street and her fingers playing over the grip of her gun.

“You didn’t have to do this,” she said to Spider quietly, keeping out of sight against the brick wall. “Either of you.”

Spider didn’t answer.

Ashe looked back to the alley. Halfway between her and Elias, Cole was watching them as though he didn’t even know where to begin with all the things that’d potentially just gone wrong.

“No one’s better with portals than Elias,” she told Spider. “It’ll be fine.”

“It better be,” the girl answered without looking away from the street, and Ashe couldn’t tell if the threat in her voice was for the wizards or Samson.

Or both.

Ashe closed her eyes briefly and then turned away. Heading toward the door, she stopped a few feet from Elias, waiting.

Silence settled over the alley, undercut by the distant sound of traffic and a tension so thick, she could barely breathe. She wasn’t sure what she’d do if gunfire came from down the street, though probably, that wouldn’t be her first indication something had gone wrong. Her gaze slid back to Spider, watching the girl for any sign of change, while Elias stood nearby, one hand on the doorframe and his eyes locked on Nathaniel for much the same reason.

And the seconds dragged on.

Gripping the young man’s arm, Harris made himself walk down the sidewalk as though he couldn’t feel the gun aimed at his back or the cameras aimed at his front.

For all intents and purposes, he should have died five minutes ago, and the knowledge was disturbing to say the least. It wasn’t really the gunshots or the near miss; those were upsetting, but he’d been shot at before, though never at that close of range. It was the circumstances around it, and the reason it hadn’t gone the way Mud planned.

Ashley’d just saved his life.

He drew a breath, scanning the street and the intersection ahead as cars sped along both. Of course, she could have just reacted to the sight of the gun. Operated on instinct, as it were. That’d be a perfectly plausible explanation, given how tightly wound she obviously was right now.

Except Mud hadn’t been aiming at her. And wizards weren’t threatened by guns anyway. Not when they saw the weapon coming and could block the bullets, to hell with the ricochet.

He’d learned that after he shot her a month ago.

His shoulders twitched involuntarily beneath his jacket. At the motion, the young man glanced over, a question and a glare sharing space in his dark eyes.

Harris grimaced and returned to his surveillance of the street.

She wasn’t a kid. She’d never been a kid, no matter what she tried to pretend. And there wasn’t any way to prove that what she said was true. Blaming the opposition was the oldest trick in the book. She still could have killed her family, and the man at the boathouse could have been her victim, along with all the other bodies that’d littered the floor. For that matter, her cripple allies gave him the impression that, if he ran their prints through state or federal databases, they’d probably have more than a few unsolved murders of their own to their names. And Cole’s faith she hadn’t been behind any of it could simply be a wishful extrapolation from the fact that she did, at least, seem to care about the little girl.

Then again, he had to wonder how much more he was willing to chalk up to Cole just being confused. And that didn’t bring into it the look on her face at the news Malden was alive.

He scowled. She could have been acting. They could have planned it, her and Cole, to allay his suspicions.

And this really was all about him.

He fought off another twitch, cursing himself for being so distracted when there was a gun pointing at his back. Most people, even a fair amount of cops, probably couldn’t have hit him at his current distance from the alley. But there was something in the way the young man’s girlfriend had taken the order to shoot him so dispassionately that left him reluctant to trust she fell into that group.

Besides, anyone could get a lucky shot. He almost had.

Letting out a breath, he pushed the thought away as he glanced to the young man. Everything else aside, ‘allies’ might have been a strong word, at least where this guy was concerned. Anger still etched his face, nearly unchanged since his abrupt resolution to the standoff in the alley, and if his words a few minutes before were any indication, he seemed only a half-step shy of shooting the Merlin queen himself. Given everything she might have done – things Cole swore she hadn’t done – it raised more than a few questions.

And meant he possibly wasn’t as mistaken in this as he was really starting to fear.

“You’re one of the guys who helped Ashley back in Monfort,” he said, keeping his voice neutral for all that he couldn’t quite make his pulse slow down.

The young man ignored him.

“You’re one of her supporters?”

A muscle of the guy’s jaw jumped, but any answer was forestalled by a snort from Mud.

“Weasel,” the young man snapped. “Shut up and hide your hand already.”

A surly expression twisted Mud’s face as he glanced back, but he tucked his burned hand into his coat nonetheless.

“Your name’s Sam?” Harris pressed.

Briefly, the young man pinned him with a glare. “No.”

Mud looked back with a smirk. “It’s
Samson.”

The young man’s eyes took on a strong tinge of threat, and Mud swiftly turned away.

“Okay,” Harris continued carefully. “Well, Samson, I just ask because, for someone who helped Ashley escape the police, you don’t sound like you care for her that much.”

He let the implicit question hang in the air.

“I never have,” Samson said finally, his voice low as his eyes flicked over the open apartment windows above them. “I’m just here to keep my people from dying. Now shut it. The wizards might have spies in the buildings.”

Harris glanced to him. “But you don’t believe she was behind all those deaths earlier this year?”

The muscles in Samson’s jaw jumped again, and he could see the young man draw a slow breath.

“I said shut up, cop,” he answered shortly.

He studied Samson, his brow drawing down. He couldn’t decide what to make of the response, any more than he could the expression on the young man’s face or his tone. He almost looked like he
wanted
to be angry.

Of course, Ashley could have murdered some of his people. He could just be here to keep it from happening again. And Cole could’ve just been clinging to the hope she didn’t do it because he wanted to save the kid.

And she could have just reacted to the sight of the gun.

He scowled. Four wizards ahead and nearly that amount behind, and he couldn’t stop woolgathering. He’d agreed to do this so he could help rescue that little girl, because regardless, he had to hope an eight-year-old was still an innocent in this mess. But if he kept this up, he’d blow that goal and all the answers to his questions would be irrelevant, because he’d have long since gotten himself killed.

They paused at the curb as a car rolled past, its throbbing bass setting the looser bits of its body buzzing. He glanced over, catching sight of Mud shifting his weight as his eyes darted from the prison to the street.

“Spider
will
hit you,” Samson warned quietly, his mouth barely moving. “And I’m still armed.”

Mud scowled and headed across the road. His hand gripping Samson’s arm, Harris followed.

Tall brick buildings flanked the empty parking lot, and tiny black cameras were mounted high on their corners. Faded yellow lines crisscrossed the cement, and the handicap spots closer to the old store featured only bare posts for nonexistent signs. The road seemed to extend infinitely behind them, and as he glanced over his shoulder, it took him a moment to find the alleyway where the others were hiding.

He drew a breath, moving to keep himself between the cameras and Samson’s unbound hands as he trailed Mud across the lot. Brown paper covered the inside of the windows and door, blocking any view of the interior, and as the little man came up to the entrance, a camera above the doorway turned to track his progress.

Mud paused. His gaze crept toward the camera staring down on them like a glass eye.

Harris’ pulse accelerated and he fought to keep from looking up as well. “You think the Blood will give a rip you don’t want to help the Merlin?” he murmured tensely. “Just standing here means you’re in too deep in their eyes.”

Mud’s beady gaze slid to him and a sneer edged onto his dirt-smudged face.

The door flew open. Harris jumped, his hand flinching for the gun he no longer had.

“What the hell is this?” a bulky wizard demanded, eyeing Mud briefly before turning a baleful look on Harris and Samson. “Who gave you permission to bring them here?”

Mud swallowed, his arrogance vanishing. “Uh, they made–”

“He asked me to come,” Harris cut in hurriedly, jerking his chin toward Mud.

The wizard’s gaze panned to the little man growing steadily antsier on the concrete stoop.

“You think he could bring this one in on his own?” Harris continued with a scoff. “He spent half the trip back panicking that the guy’d get free and kill him.” He glanced past the wizard to the building’s interior. “Come on. Move back so we can get this guy inside. We look suspicious enough without standing out here like kids doing a fundraiser.”

The wizard didn’t move, the muscles in his jaw flexing. “Leave him,” he ordered. “Head back to Chaunessy.”

“And what?” Harris retorted. “Watch you fry him when he tries to escape? We think he’s got information on the Merlin queen; he’s not going quietly. And Brogan’ll like us heading in there a lot more than he’ll like this loser ending up dead.”

For a heartbeat, the wizard eyed him, as though blatantly questioning what Harris could possibly do that he could not. A smirk twitched his lip.

Swiftly, he reached out and snagged Samson’s arm. Magic flared around him briefly, making the young man gasp in pain, and then the wizard flung Samson through the doorway.