Of Shadow Born (8 page)

Kade wasn't ready to talk about what had kept him away. It would happen
eventually but the pain of losing his father and brother in one colossal catastrophe still felt raw. He shied away from examining his memories of that night. Replaying them for someone else might cost too much.

Still, Sylvie had been a friend for a long time now and she deserved at least a little courtesy. He summoned up a smile and did all he could to keep the edge of bitter anger out of his voice.
"Had to," he told her. "Better than spinning my wheels, playing what-if for the next fifty years. Besides, he made sure I owed him.” He still hadn’t figured out exactly how they’d tracked him. He wasn’t sure he really wanted to know. He’d been enjoying the illusion of privacy.

She shook her head. "He wanted to protect you. Just like all of us."

Kade held up a hand to forestall more banner waving. "I get it, Sylvie. I do. We're okay."

She studied him a moment, then broke into a bright smile that reminded him just how gorgeous she could be
when she relaxed and was herself. It made him realize too polished and pretty wasn't his thing. He liked his beauty less planned out, more surprising and unexpected. Like Melanie's smile when she'd been caught off guard, sudden but sincere.

He shook himself, dragging his thoughts back to the here and now. Sylvie shook her head at him and backed away.

"Just wanted to say my piece. I'm done and I won't do it again. I can't handle that much fussing over anything. Oh!" She paused before she turned away. "Nice job with the phantoms. I especially liked the exploding."

He laughed,
the sound half a groan. “Why am I not surprised you were watching?"

Sylvie spread her arms. "That's what I do, big guy. I see everything."

"I thought you were crunching numbers and making maps and colored charts."

"That too," she allowed
. "But I can't record it if I don't know about it, and I don't trust anyone's eyes better than my own. Nice job," she said again. "It didn't reconjure in case you were worried. I think you caught our bad guy unprepared." Those words delivered, she waved and turned away, disappearing down a side hallway without the slightest echo of a footfall.

A feat made all the more impressive by the high ceilings and
polished marbled floors. The headquarters weren’t quite an ancient temple, but the halls were certainly very old. The heads of the organization liked preserving tradition as much as training new recruits. Little changed as a result, including the surroundings.

Which meant Kade knew exactly which twists and turns to take as he made his way toward Garamendi's corner office. He took note of those who shadowed in and out of sight around him, nodding to the few who looked his way long enough to acknowledge him. Being tucked deep in the heart of shadow meant there were
no lobby doors to tug open, no street-side delivery entrances. The only way in was to pass through the veil and the only way out was kept secret.

It made the place more than a little surreal, though, Kade had to admit, trying to see the hallway as Melanie might. Indistinct figures appeared and winked away. Some seemed to pour out of the shadows between flickering wall sconces. Others simply
slowly disappeared. Oh yes, this would rattle her scientific mind. She'd gape and stare and he'd try not to laugh.

The same way he tried to ignore the fact that he'd claimed her.
Maybe not in body, but she was his. His to protect. His to convince she could trust him. Kissing her, letting her kiss him, wasn’t the best way to go about that, but it had happened. They would talk about it and they’d move on.

Later.
This wasn't the time. Especially not with a door swinging open beside him, untouched and untested.

"Just the man I wanted to see."

Kade squared his shoulders and cleared his throat. He pushed a hand through his hair out of habit. Straightening his shirt wouldn't make a difference with the cloth not really there, but it was the principle of the thing. "Have I mentioned that's creepy?"

"Probably," came the answer. "Want to ask whether I care?"

Dominic Garamendi stood squarely in the middle of an office too big for him. Longer than it was wide, his desk stood at one end beneath a painting of an outdoor scene that probably didn't really exist anywhere. It gave the illusion of looking through a window pane and that was all that mattered. An escape, an out, somewhere for the mind to soar. Otherwise the room might have been a tomb.

A very nicely appointed tomb, with a thick Berber carpet and cushy, overstuffed chairs. Rumor was the desk itself had been carved from the heart of a single black walnut tree. Kade wouldn't put it past his supervisor. Garamendi liked t
o surround himself with the best. He had high standards and let it be known when he disapproved.

His teams got no free passes on that count.
He was exactly the taskmaster Kade needed and exactly the sort of person he'd been going out of his way to avoid.

Though he was going gray, it looked good on Garamendi, just like the three-piece suit he wore. Kade suspected his boss was closer to his father's age, but couldn't be certain. The man gave away as little as possible at a glance. Some people called that careful planning. Others called it artistry. Kade called it intimidating as all hell.

Garamendi gestured toward a chair. "Make yourself comfortable. Want a drink?"

Kade
smirked. Half-shifted into shadow or not, he appreciated the offer. He just couldn’t accept. "This a trick question?"

"
Ah, right." Garamendi moved toward the built-in bar along the wall. "Pity. You look like you could use it. You’re a whiskey man, right?" He poured a glass for himself without waiting for an answer. "You get enough sleep?"

So being watched didn't end when the threat was
resolved. Kade tried not to snort. "Yeah, I'm good. You wanted a status report?"

"I thought we'd talk a little, first." Garamendi
settled behind his desk, looking every bit as comfortable as if he’d been resting at home. Then again, for all Kade knew, the boss had simply moved in. "To getting back into the action," he toasted, lifting the glass before he drank.

Kade unclenched his teeth. "Action," he echoed
, and sank onto the other chair. "If you're worrying, don't. I said I was good."

There was a running poll among the members of the IU about whether Garamendi disturbed more people when he scowled or when he smiled. If he'd been asked, Kade would have voted smiling just now. The ex-military man cracked a grin that sent shivers up Kade's spine
, and leaned back in his chair. "I'm not worried about you."

Kade arched an eyebrow. "Melanie?"

Garamendi lifted his glass again. "The phantoms weren't after you."

It was one thing to know it himself, another to hear it come from
Garamendi's lips. "So they know she's attached to the shipment."

"Which was delivered yesterday. That's not enough time for word to spread unless someone had her under
surveillance."

Kade frowned. "Why? I mean, why would they? Why spend the time to track someone like her? She's not exactly a threat."

"Depends on what's being threatened." Garamendi balanced his glass on the arm of the chair. "If the tablet's in that shipment, phantoms are just the start. And if she's connected in some other way—"

"How?" Kade
frowned. He was holding something back, waiting to see what Kade might confess. "How could she be connected, Garamendi? How could she have something to do with this that you don't know about? Isn't that your job?"

Garamendi chuckled. "You make it sound so easy, keeping track of everyone.
There are a lot of souls in San Francisco. More on the entire West Coast. People slip through the cracks."

"So you're saying you think she's one of them?" The thought alone made his heart pound. It felt wrong, completely wrong. He balled his hands into fists. "No way, not a chance."

"I'm saying I want you to think about why you feel the need to defend her." Garamendi's voice didn't rise above his usual growl. "Tell me why you kissed her."

“She kissed me,” he said before he spotted the trap.
Damn.
Talk about getting defensive. He’d been set up and he was out of practice at getting out of his own tangled mess.

It was that damned
connection he could feel tugging at him even now, urging him back to her side. It’d been there since the first peek through the binoculars and it wasn’t getting weaker, that was for damned sure. He'd protected her with his powers and he'd kissed her because...

A thought snapped into place, plunging quickly into suspicion.
"Are you saying you matched me up with a Siren? And now you think the Siren's a spy?"

Garamendi's mouth twisted wryly. "Been at sea lately, Kade? Nearly been drowned?"

"No and no, but if that isn't what you mean, then just say it. What the hell are you talking about?"

Garamendi
leaned forward to put his glass on the desk. The ice cracked dramatically as if it had been planned. "I'm talking about echoes."

Kade stared. He waited for the punch line that was apparently not to come. He calmed himself, tried to keep his thoughts cool. Casual. Composed in the face of absurdity. "Please tell me you don't believe in those old stories."

Garamendi's expression betrayed not a trace of humor. "As much as I believe we can walk through walls."

Kade laughed out loud, surprising himself. Though Garamendi's eyebrows hitched, the other man didn't crack a grin. "
You really think you just happened to hand me the case with my predestined soulmate? Now?" He shook his head. "Crazy."

Garamendi watched him levelly. "Stranger things happen every day."

"Yeah? To who? Give me a name, someone I can talk to. Not the fairy tales we all hear growing up. Give me someone real."

Garamendi leaned to one side, opening a drawer Kade couldn't see. He could hear the rasp of the sliders clearly enough, though, and the shifting of paper within.

The supervisor held up a single manila folder and tossed it toward him. It stopped neatly at the lip of the desk. Garamendi gestured with his chin. "I can't give you someone to grill. That's as close as it gets. Go on, read it. It'll be enlightening."

A curious sense of dread swept through Kade as he reached for the folder. He flipped
it open.

Incredulity was replaced by rage. A picture of his father, faintly crooked smile curving his lips, looked up from beneath a single paperclip. Kade's gaze snapped up fast and met Garamendi's. If he'd been able, he would have struck his employer dead with that look. "Screw you. You leave him out of it."

Garamendi didn't apologize. His chair squeaked faintly as he tipped it back, putting a little more distance between them. Not a retreat, just more room to weigh one another. He didn't say a word.

"
Screw
you," Kade said again. "Let him rest in peace." As much rest as his father was going to get, having been killed by the enemy. As much as he wanted to believe echoes were nonsense, Kade wanted to think a soul couldn’t be tortured after death even more. Wanted to. He hadn't yet convinced himself.

"I'm not hurting him. I'm not trying to hurt you. I'm telling you your father had an echo. She married him. She gave him children. The fairy tale was true for them. Why not for you, too?"

"Because I like facts, Garamendi." Kade closed the folder, but didn't toss it down. The thick edge of the paper bit into his fingers as he tightened his grip. His mother and father, echoes of one another? Why wouldn't they have told him?

"Melanie didn't know about the phantoms," he argued. "I had to feed her the words of the dispel. I'm not sure she believes what I told her even now. If she's one of us, she doesn't know it. Either that, or she's one hell of an act
ress."

"And no one can put one over on you, is that it?"

"Not like this," he insisted. There were things he wasn't sure of, and Garamendi's suggestion had his mind churning, but one thing he didn't question, not even for a moment. "Not this woman. I kissed her because she kissed me and I liked it. Free will, Garamendi, not predestined fate. Free will's a human right."

"We're not exactly human."

Kade put his shoulders back. Enough was enough. Now he dropped the folder, letting it slap against the massive desk. "Did you want a report or just to shock me with your theories? If that's it, okay, you got me. I'm shocked. Can I go?"

Garamendi drew the folder toward him with his fingertips. Seemingly un
fazed, he slipped it back into the drawer. "You can go when I dismiss you. Until then, you sit."

Chapter Seven

Zahret hurried through the temple, the damning proof clutched in her hand. The plot to kill the boy
pharaoh was very real.

She'd been patient while the sun set, much too slowly. She
’d kept her peace while her teacher delayed her, as if he knew the task she was meant to carry out. He slept now, as she should have been sleeping, but there'd be no rest tonight.

It was not a secret that there were many who disapproved of the new Pharaoh. They called him weak. Misshapen. Not at all fit to lead. They challenged the pronouncement of the high priest who named him. The loudest questioned the will of the gods themselves.

It wasn't a god who would kill him. It was a man. A cruel, ambitious man who meant to put the crown on his brother instead. He planned to play the humble advisor, never taking responsibility or blame. His brother would be remembered, while he made plans and sealed secret bargains with their enemies. His were the connections that made ideas reality. It was clever. It was perfect.

Nearly.

Zahret's sandals whispered against the marble floor as she passed two more pillars and found Mahmoud's room. She paused a moment to catch her breath, letting nervousness bleed away. A knock on the door and her part of the investigation ended. She closed her eyes and whispered a quick prayer of gratitude.

Mahmoud stood there when she opened them again. The scent of cardamom and saffron wafted past him, inviting. Zahret began to smile. She liked him, despite the way he towered over her and rarely spoke. He was comfortable and comforting.

"How did you know I was here?"

"I've been waiting," he answered, dark eyes scanning the
hall behind her. "You have it?" he prompted when his gaze dipped to her again.

Zahret nodded. She clutched the rolled
-up scrap of cloth with both hands now. She held it tucked close to her heart, hidden by the hunch of her shoulders and the loose folds of her robe. The confession that sealed the assassin's fate had been written there.

Mahmoud smiled and nodded proudly, then offered her his hand. "Come inside," he invited. "We'll have a drink and something to eat. You look like you could use it," he confided as he tucked her against his side. "You are much too small."

Zahret laughed. This was an old game. "If you were not so big you would not notice." His hand rested on her shoulder as they stepped inside.

The moment they crossed the threshold, the door crashed shut behind them, blown by a wind that touched no skin and stirred no
t a hair. The candles he'd left burning flickered with it. Wax spit and spattered, and then the flames went out.

The quiet sound of clapping came from
the darkness in one corner. "Very good," said the man who stepped out, still applauding. The man whose name was written on the cloth Zahret held. "I feared you wouldn't catch me, but you are a clever little network of spies. You are everywhere, like shadows, easy to ignore and forget."

"There you are. Do you have any idea how worried I was? You just disappeared."

Noura's voice jerked Melanie out of the daydream. Vision? Someone else's memory. She was lost for a moment, mind
scrambling to piece together where she stood. Coffee in her hand, break room, vending machines... A glance at the clock proved she'd been here ten minutes at least.
What the hell was that?

"Where did you go?" Noura stepped closer, touching her shoulder. "I lost sight of you on the way out the door, and then the crowd got so tangled up that you were gone by the time I got free."

Melanie put down the cup and hugged her friend tightly. It reassured her as much, she hoped, as it soothed her friend. Nothing bad would come of a hug. "I'm sorry. For leaving you there," she explained. "Are you all right?"

Noura squeezed briefly, then pulled back and smiled up at her. "Better now that I know you are." A frown flickered through her expression and she drew her hand back to punch Melanie's
arm. "I tried calling you, but you didn't answer. I would have come over if I hadn't remembered your friend at the bar."

Heat seeped into Melanie's cheeks, bringing color with it, no doubt. She watched delight kindle in Noura's eyes.

"You
did
go home with him. I
knew
it!"

Her blush intensified. "Technically, he came home with me." He'd gone home with her and told her things she couldn't possibly repeat. Then he'd made her feel things she hadn't in years. Her mind threatened to wander again. It was all too much.

Noura's eyes widened. She made a high-pitched sound Melanie recognized as muffled excitement and pulled her to one side of the break room, as if they had a reason to confer quietly. They were the only two here.

"Everything," Noura insisted. "I want to know it all. Was he good? Was he
wicked
?
Are you going to see him again?" She bumped her shoulder against Melanie's. "Does he have a friend?"

Of course that's where her mind went. This was Noura, after all. And, she amended guiltily, if the evening had been different, she might have been following the right trail. There was still a tiny part of Melanie uncertain whether she could turn back time and throw Kade into bed or not. Lure him. Invite him. She couldn't throw Kade anywhere. Unless of course, she could make the shadows thin again...

Not here, not now. Focus.
Melanie shook her head. "I have questions too, you know?" Noura's smile faltered a little but Melanie pressed on. "What happened last night, Noura? Did you see any of the fight?"

Her friend made a face and clucked her tongue. "No. That's what comes of being short like me. I heard someone say something about a brawl, but I couldn't see over shoulders. And then we were moving for the door. I missed it all."

"But you heard the gunshot, didn't you?"

Noura's mouth dropped open. "Someone got
shot
?"

Yes
, Melanie wanted to answer.
And no. The bullet went right through me.
She pressed a hand over her stomach, remembering the odd sensation again. Impossible. She wanted to discount it, but with everything Kade had told her, all that had happened last night, how could she? "No," she lied. "But that man fired a gun."

"What man? Did you see him?"
Noura pursed her lips. "Can I borrow some of your height?"

"There were two men," Melanie reported. "Dressed in dark suits." She summoned up a quick, desperate smile. "You must have seen them, Noura. One minute no one and the next they were there? They were after us. Me," she amended. "Kade said they were after me."

"What? Why? Not that I don't want to occasionally shake you, but shoot you? Never. It must have been a very quiet gun."

It roared like a cannon in Melanie's memory. "You really didn't hear it?"

Noura shook her head. "Nope. Do you see what I mean? Didn't see the fighters, didn't hear the shot. All the exciting bits just whoosh!" She swept a hand over her head, indicating her lack of height again. "And you're avoiding my questions. Take pity on me. If I missed out on it firsthand, give me dirty details to console myself."

Melanie laughed, startled and relieved all at once. Not everything about her life had changed overnight. "No offense, but I think I'm glad you missed out on being there for the details."

"But you'll tell me anyway," Noura tried again. She caught Melanie's arm, wrapping both of hers around it in a new embrace. Chin against her shoulder, Noura widened her eyes. "You wouldn't want me to feel left out."

Melanie was absolutely not going to blush again. She had nothing to blush about. One kiss didn't exactly count as hot
-and-heavy action. It was an impulse. It was the adrenaline. They'd both walked away.

And then she woke up and found him still sleeping. She'd tiptoed through her morning routine. He deserved his rest, she reasoned. She didn't want to start the day by fighting over whether she could walk herself to the bus, and he'd already made it clear he would know where she was. He could find her if he wanted her. She wasn't skipping town. She just had to go to work.

But Noura wasn't likely to let it go until Melanie gave her something. A tidbit, a morsel to feed her curiosity. So how much was Melanie willing to admit to her best friend? She let herself smile just a little, enough to perhaps look slightly naughty. "He has great hands."

Noura's sound of protest was worth the tease
and she let go of Melanie's arm. "That's it? That's all I get? You can't leave it there."

Melanie laughed as she
led the way back to their work room. "I can and I have. I'll introduce you sometime, but for now..." She held the door open. "We have things to do."

Though reaching for a pair of gloves was routine and mostly habit, it didn't feel the same today. Melanie shivered as she fitted latex to her fingers and took her work tray from the shelf. Maybe she was overtired from the long night before, but the sound of ancient pieces of pottery shifting as she moved sent shivers up her spine.

She settled on her stool and plucked out the first piece. It was a tiny amphora, probably used for a perfume of some sort. As damage went, it hadn't suffered much. A few pieces chipped out of what should have been a smooth lip and one long crack in the curved body. She turned it in her fingers, looking for other flaws. Not a tablet, not a piece of one, but everything seemed different now. Full of the potential to reveal secrets.

"Do you ever wonder what we'll leave behind?" she asked suddenly. "What insignificant something we'll throw away that someone, a thousand years from now, will use to build theories and explanations about who we were?"

Noura settled across the table with a tray of her own. She was still pouting, but she answered all the same. "In a thousand years, there won't be much of us left. Everything's disposable."

"Not everything. Paper, certainly, but what about other things? All the hard drives that record the things we
look up and read. Shopping lists and love letters and the pictures of things we probably shouldn't have saved. Those won't just go away, you know?"

Noura paused, tapping the end of a brush against her mouth. "
Mmm. That file of porn-site passwords. Not to mention the used condoms."

"I wasn't going there."

"You didn't have to." She smiled cheerfully. "You can come with me. You're welcome." One shoulder rose and fell. "I try not to think about that stuff. Why wonder about what-ifs? The here and now's more interesting. A
lot
more interesting, in your shoes. Not even one more hint?"

"Noura."

"Okay, okay. But you can't blame me for trying.
I
didn't get to take a handsome stranger home with me."

Melanie bit back a groan. "Next time, you can have him."
Hopefully with less action and adventure
, she added silently. "The question stands, though. If travelers find something of yours three millennia from now, what do you hope it would be?"

Noura paused and studied her across the table until their gazes met. "What's this about, Mel? You don't usually start thinking deep thoughts until after lunch. Did something happen that you haven't told me?"

Melanie hesitated, debating with herself over whether to confess Kade's revelations. He seemed to think finding this tablet mattered a great deal. There was something to be said for keeping confidences, but on the other hand, two sets of eyes were better than one. She set her brush down and cleared her throat.

"Kade's a little bit into Egyptology. He
...heard a rumor that there's a missing tablet. Something someone might have picked up, recently." Lying didn't come easy. Neither did making up stories on the fly. "When I told him what I did, he wondered if I'd seen it."

"A tablet?" Noura frowned. "A tablet about what?"

"That's just it. He doesn't know. It could be anything." She paused again. "I'm keeping an eye out for it, just in case. So if you see something..."

Noura reached into the tray she'd pulled and held up a ragged corner of ancient clay. "Something like this?"

If she'd left a chair faster, Melanie couldn't remember when. She vaguely registered the sound of legs scraping against the floor, but it didn't slow her down. She plucked the piece out of Noura's grasp with a murmur of apology and laid it against her palm.

The carving had been well
preserved, what little there was of it. The jagged edge where the break occurred still felt sharp, even through her latex gloves. It couldn't have been more than an inch thick, the outside edges smoothed, a border clearly set off by a shallow chiseled line.

This wasn't a laundry list or record of crops. This
had been designed for display from the day it was first molded. If there were more pieces and they'd all survived the passage of time so neatly, putting the tablet together would be no harder than a jigsaw puzzle.

"Is that it then?" Noura wondered, climbing to her feet at Melanie's side. "This whole tray is full of pieces. If that's what you're looking for—"