Tracking the Tempest (19 page)

Despite all that power, he's got very little control,
I realized, my fear sharpening acutely. Even if he
didn't
want to hurt me at the moment, I couldn't trust Conleth not to barbecue me by accident if he got too excited or angry. So I had to placate him, and fast.

Here goes nothing,
I thought as I made myself smile, praying that someone—anyone—would turn around and notice that my face had been commandeered by the enemy.

“There you go. You're smiling! And you're so beautiful.” Conleth grinned, brushing my hair away from my face. I forced down the reflexive shudder that threatened to rack my frame. “I know
he
only goes for pretty ones, but you are perfect.”

I felt a fresh wave of nausea, realizing that by “pretty ones,” Conleth meant the women Ryu must have fed on in my absence. I hated myself for the fact that Con's words bothered me as much as they did, given the circumstances.

“I followed you tonight. They were all so busy watching each other that I could have walked right up to you and said ‘Boo!’” Conleth laughed, his hands moving over my cheeks and chin. It took everything I had in me not to pull away—I'd never realized just how invasive and personal someone touching my face could be.

“But I would never want to frighten you,” he continued. I'm not sure how he was oblivious to my terror, but I guess we all have our blind spots. “I realized how special you were after your bravery that first night. Then you talked to me through those e-mails, and I knew we were meant to be together, so we need to trust one another. Because that's what relationships are all about. Trust.” Con nodded firmly, cupping my jaw in his hands and making me look into his eyes. “I've never been able to trust anyone, Jane. But I know that we understand each other. We're like two sides of the same coin.”

My throat was dry; my lips felt like two desiccated crackers rubbing together. I licked them, trying to find my voice.

“How?” I croaked. I needed to engage him, keep him distracted.
The others will be here soon. They have to be here soon…

“We're so similar, Jane.” His hands were tightening convulsively on my jaw, and I struggled not to flinch. “I know how hard you've had it, living among
humans
. And not being treated like an equal by the
others
.” He said both “humans” and “others” as if he were talking about “shit” and “crap.” Conleth had issues with both sides of his heritage, which I suppose was understandable. “And I know how strong you are. I can feel you when you're near.” He stopped clutching my jaw and started stroking my neck, then my arms. His eyes got a faraway look I recognized: the slightly predatory, slightly desperate look of a horny man. “Your power calls to mine. Fire and water.” He splayed the fingers of his stroking hands, so that his thumbs brushed the sides of my breasts. “Water and fire,” he crooned, letting his gaze drop down to my body.

“Conleth,” I said, a little too sharply. I wanted to keep him distracted, yes, but not through sex. I needed to keep him talking.

“Conleth,” I repeated, more gently. “Why me? I'm not special.”

“Jane, how can you say that? Look at us! Look at me!” His fire, which had begun to bank as he got distracted, flared up again, dangerously close to my hair. “We
are
power. We have all the power of the others, but none of their weaknesses. None. We can do anything we want.”

I nodded, trying to keep my eyes wide, interested. He smiled at my reaction.

“They're corrupt, inbred. Their time is over. And humans are jokes. They wander around like sheep, being fed off of, used, bred like cattle.” He snorted, taking my hands in his. “Both sides will fall. The purebreds are dying off, and the only way they can survive in any way is to keep breeding with the humans. Creating more beings like us. We don't need anyone else.”

He then raised my hands, palms outward, to his mouth. His lips were thin and wet against my skin, and my gorge rose as his tongue brushed against my right palm in a grotesque parody of Ryu's favorite endearment. I also noticed that his shields kept pulsing up and down, along with his fire. I was right; he had no control. Conleth was entirely self-taught, and his command of his magic was more than a little sketchy.

“Think of what our children will be like, Jane. Think of their power. Your water, my fire, flowing through their blood. They'll be able to stop the world spinning on its axis, reconfigure society to their whims. Think of the world we would create.” Conleth was tugging me closer, obviously intent on kissing me, and his lower body was squirming in that telltale way that meant his trousers had just gotten tighter.

I put the brakes on my forward momentum, tugging back sharply. His eyes narrowed, and his mouth hardened, and I knew I had to distract him.

Luckily, I found my voice. Unfortunately, it didn't say what it was supposed to. I meant to murmur something endearing and soothing. Instead I said, “I'd never be safe with you. Silver practically
raised
you. And now he's missing.”

I'd expected Conleth to react with anger. I beefed up my shields and put as much physical space as I could between his body and mine. Which wasn't much, considering he was still holding me by either forearm.

Instead of flaring up at me, however, Conleth merely looked confused.

“Doc? Doc is missing?” he asked, his voice small.

“Don't act all innocent,” I snapped, without thinking. But he still didn't react.

“Doc…” he whispered, and I would have sworn on my Julia Child's cookbook that he was honestly horrified by the idea that Silver had disappeared. In fact, he was so surprised that his grip on my arms loosened. I'd been waiting for just such a moment, and I wrenched away from Conleth as hard as I could, just as the cavalry arrived. I'd gotten one arm free when Con was struck full in the face by two simultaneous balls of energy—one a bright white blue and the other a dark swirling green—that crashed against his faltering shields like two NFL linebackers.

Unfortunately, he still had a tight grip on one of my arms, and as the force of the strike catapulted him up and over and onto the terrace, he took me with him. We skittered to a stop against the far side of the iron fencing, just as I saw Ryu and Anyan vault over the fence where we'd been crouched a second earlier.
So close, yet so far away,
my brain sang, rather inappropriately, as Conleth hauled me up like a rag doll to hold me in front of him. I discovered there was nothing like being used as a human shield to give a girl serious doubts about the honesty of a boy's declarations of love.

We were at a stalemate. Balls of energy swirled in both Ryu's and Anyan's palms, but they were unable to let fly due to the fact that Conleth was crouched behind me. Ryu was obviously furious, but Anyan's rage palpably prickled off of his body. Conleth was in big trouble if the barghest ever caught up with him.

My two saviors exchanged glances, obviously communicating, and Anyan nodded as Ryu dropped his own little sphere of power. It fizzled on the ground before winking out of existence. Nell would not have approved of the waste of energy.

“Conleth, you've made your point. We know how powerful you are, how strong you are. But nobody wants Jane hurt, do we? She's shaking, Conleth. She's scared. Don't scare Jane. Let her go.”

I know Ryu was using my name, and Conleth's, on purpose, but I didn't think standard negotiating procedure was going to work with the halfling. Not at a moment like this. He was so angry, so crazy with rage and the excessive torments of his short life, that nothing would get through to him when he was threatened. All of his horrible experiences had combined to make him a survivor, in the worst sense of the word. He would do anything to keep alive, to keep going, no matter how many people got hurt doing so.

“Why?” Conleth snarled, his angry voice loud against my ear. “So you can use her some more? Cheat on her? You don't deserve her, and she knows it as well as I do. She doesn't love you. She loves me.”

“You're right, Conleth. Jane does deserve more than I can give her. And we can talk about that. She can get a chance to know you, properly. Just let her go. Jane won't love you if you hurt her. You know that.”

Out of my peripheral vision, I could see Camille creeping up on one side, while Caleb and Daoud advanced from the other. I didn't know where Phaedra and her lot were, but for the first time ever I hoped they were nearby. Although the Alfar would have no qualms about blasting me away with Conleth, so perhaps I shouldn't have been quite so eager for the bald woman's intervention.

“Stop them!” Conleth was shouting, nearly taking out my eardrum. He'd noticed the others as well. “Stop them! Tell them to come where I can see them! I don't want to, but I
will
hurt her,” he said, as I felt heat at my back and saw flames start to lick up the arms holding me tight. When Caleb and Camille didn't move, Con's hold on me tightened, and I felt the burn of his heat through my clothes. I whimpered and Ryu's face grew grimmer as he gestured for Camille, Caleb, and Daoud to come round toward him. So much for the sneak attack.

Obviously having had enough of playing negotiator, Anyan suddenly strode forward. “Drop her, now,” the barghest growled menacingly. “You
will
die here, boy. If you take Jane first, then you will die suffering. Let her go, give her to us, and you have a chance at survival.” The big man's hard gray eyes stared levelly into Con's, and I knew Anyan was serious. I got my first small glimpse of why the barghest was a legend. He wasn't
just
a killer, like Graeme. But Anyan was no stranger to violence.

Conleth swore softly. He was weighing his options, and he, too, had seen the promise in Anyan's eyes. I felt Con's body tense, and I shut my eyes, not sure if I was about to die. Instead, I felt a jolting pain as Conleth used a combination of his own physical strength and his supernatural power to launch me in the air toward the barghest. The ifrit halfling simultaneously unleashed four bolts of fire-tinged power that crashed into the terrace's four trees, sending them crashing down toward us. As the others swore and fought to catch the flaming trees with their shields, I hit Anyan. It was like hitting a brick wall. Only this brick wall caught and held me. My legs dangled as his arms wrapped around me, and he held me so tightly my vertebrae popped.

“Jane,” Anyan whispered hoarsely, his mouth pressed against my ear as he squeezed even tighter. His breathing was as ragged as mine, and I realized that hostage situations made for chaotic emotional reactions.

Then I was set down on my feet, gently, as Anyan took off after Conleth, who'd rocketed away as soon as I was out of his grip. I sat down, my shaking legs unable to support my weight, watching as everyone but those still holding the trees off of us with their shields either took part in the pursuit or began furiously glamouring the human witnesses. There was definitely going to be another “gas leak” in Cambridge that night.

I sat down, cross-legged, as my adrenaline rush gave out, and my whole body sagged like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Then I heard Julian swear.

He'd been holding one of the larger trees. Phaedra had finally reappeared and was helping Kaya (or Kaori) lift her flaming burdens up and away from the café. The harpy hovered, pulling with her power from above, while the Alfar pushed from below. Together, they were piling the still-burning trees up in the huge concrete expanse next to the terrace.

But Julian was losing his grip on the tree he held, quivering, above both of us. I didn't yet know how to make my shields solid against physical entities, just magical ones, so I genuinely thought my number was up as I watched the fiery tree sway and then break free of Julian's shields.

It stopped about a foot above me, held in a net of Alfar power. When I looked up through my fingers, Phaedra was staring at me as if she wasn't quite sure why she'd done what she did.

For a second, I wondered whether she'd changed her mind and was going to drop the tree on me. Instead, after a very long pause, she gave a negligent flick of her fingers and a second later the tree landed with a crash next to the others to smolder out of harm's way.

I couldn't believe the little Alfar had just saved my life.

But from the look on her face, I was a lot happier about it than she was.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

I
came up out of the Atlantic, naked and dripping, and walked up to where Ryu sat waiting on the sandy beach with a towel. He held it outspread in his arms, enveloping me in both as I curled up between his thighs, resting my wet head on his chest.

Conleth was still being pursued, so Ryu had felt it was safe to take me for a wee swim. We were all knackered from our latest run-in with Con, but Carson Beach had, once again, come to my rescue.

“I can't believe we let Conleth get to you again,” Ryu's voice rumbled out from where I had my ear pressed against him.

“Don't worry, babe,” I replied, stroking a hand over his ribs. “I totally thought he had to be at the center of that attack in the Pit. He may be crazy,” I conceded, raising my face to look up at Ryu, “but he's wicked strong.”

Ryu inclined his head to kiss my forehead. “Yes, he is.”

“What
I
can't get over is that Phaedra saved me.”

“Well, we may not like her, but she is a member of our team.”

I snorted. “Yeah, right. That's why Jarl sent her. To be a member of our team.”

“The Alfar want this investigation wrapped up as much as any of us do, Jane. None of us are safe until Conleth is caught. Plus, we have to figure out how that laboratory of his was funded, and by whom. If we have a new enemy, we all need to know.”

I lowered my head back to Ryu's chest to hide my frown. I believed the Alfar did want Conleth caught, but I would've bet my life that Jarl's interest meant something more. We didn't know what yet, but it had to be
more
.

In the movies and in the books I read, everything about mysteries or investigations was all linear, and the plotlines progressed neatly from discovery to revelation to ultimate finale. So if you were smart and caring, you'd save the victims and catch the bad guys. But in reality, this “investigation” was a giant clusterfuck where we were all stumbling about blind, being toyed with by Conleth. Either that, or by whoever was behind the Chicago killings. I still didn't believe those murders had been committed by Con. Whoever it was had to be strong and well connected, and aware of what was going on. I believed they'd sent the note to Conleth, telling him about Felicia Wethersby, in order to use Conleth as a decoy to hide his or her own machinations.

And, in the meantime, we were all dancing to this mystery piper's tune.

Is this what my new life will be like?
I wondered.
Continually being shoved around by the Alfar or whoever else is more powerful and scarier than I am?

'Cause if that were the case, I wondered if my new life would be worth the sacrifices. I hadn't had much all those months before, when I'd learned of my mother's supernatural legacy. But I'd been free to do what mattered to me. Even though I'd lived at home all my life, I was, in my weird way, really independent. I'd taken care of my father as much as he'd taken care of me. I'd been the major breadwinner for our family for the past few years. I had made the choices I wanted to make. Even if working at a local bookstore to care for my dad wasn't the most glamorous decision, it was
mine
.

And now? Nothing was mine. Ryu was paying for everything at this point, which I hated. Obviously, there was no salary going into my bank account. Somebody else was taking care of my father. I was being chased by a fiery lunatic who wanted to impregnate me with über-halflings.

I just want to go home,
I thought, not for the first time but with a newfound urgency.
This is not how I want to live. The chasing, the running, the constant threat. This is not my life
.

Ryu shifted slightly, repositioning me so that I sat with my back against his chest.

“You okay, honey?”

“Not really. But I'm better than Edie and Felicia.”

“They may still be alive, honey.”

“Do you really think that?” I asked.

Ryu's heavy silence was answer enough.

“We still haven't talked about who wrote that note to Conleth telling him about Felicia. Either Phaedra's been around, or we've been chasing after Conleth, or being chased by Conleth. I think that note is the key to everything.”

Ryu shrugged. “Maybe. But it could be something he found on one of his victims. It's not addressed to him.”

“I just don't think Conleth was ever in Chicago,” I argued. “I think whoever killed the people in Chicago gave Conleth that note so that he'd finally murder someone who would serve as the missing link between the Boston victims and the Chicago victims.”

Ryu shrugged. “If you
are
right, then we have another player in the mix.”

“It's gotta be whoever funded the laboratory. The new sponsor.”

“That would be logical
if
your theory is correct. But that's a big ‘if,' baby.”

“I know it is. For me, though, it's like what you said when we were investigating Jimmu. I can see there's a pattern here somewhere; I just can't quite make it out. But I know who my money's on.”

“Jane,” Ryu said, using his most long-suffering tone. “You can't keep blaming everything on Jarl.”

“Really?” I asked, raising my chin to meet his eyes. “I still believe there was more to Jimmu's murders than we know, and I think that one of these days we're going to discover that it all traces back to Jarl.” Ryu made a noise as if to protest, but I didn't let him interrupt me. “Don't you think it's strange that Jarl sent someone here to keep an eye on us? And why is Phaedra's lot always divided into two groups, one of which is with us and one of which is always missing? It's like one group is spying and the other is on call to act on whatever is uncovered.”

Ryu shook his head, as I knew he would.

“And why
haven't
we talked about the note in front of Phaedra? None of us trust her, Ryu. Not even you. How far does that distrust extend, if not to her boss?”

“There's a difference between not trusting Jarl or Phaedra, and thinking that they committed those murders in Chicago. We have nothing connecting them to anything. And yet, if I'm correct, what you're insinuating is that there's not only a connection between Jarl and these murders, but also a connection between Jimmu's murders and what's going on right now. You do realize how crazy that sounds?”

“Okay, so it's a stretch, but—”

“Jane, what part of ‘We investigated every aspect of Jimmu's crimes' don't you understand? Do you think we're inept?”

“No, I don't think that at all. I just think that our enemies are
smart
, Ryu. Maybe smarter than we are.”

Ryu took a deep breath. I knew he was frustrated with me, but I wasn't going to back down.

“So how
do
you think Jarl is involved?”

I took a deep breath, carefully ordering my thoughts. I knew I had a tendency to spout off and sound like a conspiracy nut, so I had to choose my words carefully. “Because I think Jarl is the mystery sponsor. You said yourself he's the spymaster. What if he was brought a rumor regarding Conleth, but he squashed it and took over the investigation himself? When he found Con already living in a lab, he took it over using magic and money. He's got an instant guinea pig, no muss, no fuss.”

Ryu looked at me like I'd just barfed cockroaches.

“That's so ridiculous I don't even know where to begin. No member of the Alfar would
ever
risk our discovery like that. We've guarded the secret of our existence with an avidity that has been entirely unscrupulous. Any human who discovered us, and attempted to share their discovery, was neutralized. Along with anyone he or she could have told. Back in the day, we wiped out entire villages protecting our secret.” I frowned but Ryu didn't let me interrupt. “I'm not telling you this to debate the moral implications of our actions. I'm telling you because it's the truth. Besides which, what you're saying doesn't make sense. How could he have gotten involved in such an enterprise? And kept it hidden?”

I thought about Ryu's words. There'd been something Morrigan said to me months ago, when we were at the Compound, that had been really important at the time in terms of the murders we'd been investigating. I'd gone over and over everything that had happened, almost obsessively, because I still didn't get why Jimmu had done what he'd done. The other supes seemed happy to write the nagas off as mad racists who took advantage of an opportunity to kill halflings. But I knew there was more to their murders than just hate. I felt it in my little half-selkie bones.

Anyway, Morrigan's fateful words had obviously stuck with me because they helped me figure out that I'd seen a disguised Jimmu in Rockabill. But now they took on an entirely different connotation.

“Ryu,” I interrupted, twisting my neck around to peer up at him. “Remember how, way back when, Morrigan tipped me off about where I'd seen Jimmu by saying that thing about ‘teams of scientists'? ”

“Yeah, 'course.”

“Well, think about it for a minute. I mean, even at the time I thought it was weird that she'd say
that
. We're talking about supe fertility, and she brings up the fact that they don't do things like humans with science. There's a million different things she could have said, so why that?”

Ryu thought about it a second and then nodded, albeit grudgingly, as he followed where I was leading.

“Like she had it on her mind,” he replied.

“Exactly. And now we're suddenly investigating a laboratory that tested on a halfling. What if it was something that had been brought up to her and Orin by Jarl? They would obviously dismiss the idea; she said ‘science' like it was the craziest thing she'd ever heard.”

“But she still had it on the brain.”

“So, what if Jarl brought up using human science to Orin and Morrigan, and they immediately pooh-poohed his idea? Jarl's not the type to let something go. What if he decided to do everything by himself? If he
was
trying to start up some fertility experiment using halflings, that would explain Peter Jakes's assignment…”

“But even if Jarl
did
want to experiment on halflings,” Ryu broke in, “why kill them?”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“Shit.” My brain shut down as it crashed headlong into the brick wall of reality. “Yeah, that makes no sense. Why kill your lab rats?”

Ryu reached under my towel to stroke a hand over my belly. “It was a clever idea, baby,” he murmured, his lips following his words, pressing into the soft lobe of my ear.

Which only reminded me of the bloodied ears Jimmu had collected, and I shuddered.

Ryu pulled away, frowning at me as I started to apologize. “Sorry, Ryu. I was thinking of the ears Jimmu hacked off of those bodies…”

And with that, my brain leaped gracefully, like a gazelle, right over the top of that pesky old brick wall. I made a weird, low noise that sounded like a barn owl hooting. Ryu blinked at me and I blinked back, startled by my own noise before I remembered what I'd just thought.

It's a long shot, but worth looking into…

“Ryu, what happened to the bodies of Jimmu's victims?”

“Sorry?”

I sat up in Ryu's arms, feeling my towel slip but not caring.

“What happened to the bodies of Jimmu's victims? Were they buried, cremated, what?”

“No idea,” my vampire breathed, his eyes now focused on my bared breasts. I pulled up my towel and, hopefully, his attention.

“We need to find out what happened to the bodies. Can we find that out?”

Ryu's eyes flickered to mine before he reached out to tug at my towel. I held on to it, waiting for an answer.

He sighed. “I'm sure we've got all of that information with each victim's file. We can check as soon as we get home…”

I stood, eager to check out my hunch. Ryu looked up at me and then reached out a hand as if he wanted help getting up. But when I took it, he pulled me down hard and we were again lying on the soft sand.

“Snack first,” he murmured, as he flipped me over effortlessly so that I was lying beneath him. His mouth found my nipple as his hand dove between my legs, causing me to yelp.

“Files later,” Ryu mumbled into the soft flesh of my breast.

I was about to protest when I remembered that this was as much about keeping Ryu's power topped up as it was about getting nookie. He'd been throwing a lot of mojo around this afternoon, so he was just as in need of a power fix as I'd been. And we needed every member of our team at top spec.

So I let the pleasure wash over me even as I tamped down my impatience to get home and look at those files, tightening my body around his fingers so that I would come more quickly. Ryu's tongue was already at my throat, preparing me for his bite.

I gotta admit, it felt really fucking good.

But I'd never felt so much like a goddamned granola bar in my entire life.

“Ryu,” I called, three and a half hours later. We were back in Boston and I was huddled over Ryu's desk with all of his files on Jimmu's halfling victims. He'd told me numerous times that he'd gone back and investigated each of the halfling murders, but I hadn't realized he'd been
this
thorough. Everything was in these files, including what happened with the corpses of the deceased…