Whisper of Shadows (The Diamond City Magic Novels) (17 page)

I wanted to call her back, but I had to trust she knew what she was doing. After seeing her fighting with Dalton, I knew she could hold her own. Didn’t keep me from worrying.

I held my gun ready as I stood with my back to the wall beside my brothers, who continued to work. I steadily scanned back and forth and upward. I wished to hell we had some bushes to offer us camouflage, which of course was the whole point in not having them. The feds wanted clear lines of fire in case of attack or, more likely, escape.

Movement beyond Leo and Jamie caught my attention. I stepped around them and crouched, bringing my gun up to eye level. Magic throbbed behind me in a sudden burst.

“Dammit,” Leo swore. “What the hell is that?”

“Reinforcement between the cinder-block layers,” Jamie replied. “Probably carbon fibers.”

“What were they expecting? A dinosaur assault?”

“We’re going to need the explosives. Take the rebar out of the walls. Let’s see if we can build something to shape the blast. If we can blow everything out, we won’t have to deal with as much rubble on the inside.”

“It’s not going to be much,” Leo warned dubiously. “We can set up the interior side with a plate, but the carbon fiber reinforcement will probably interfere with the blast. It’s probably pointless to even bother.”

“But it might work. We ought to try.”

I wanted to tell them both to shut up, but they probably wouldn’t hear me. They were too intent on each other. Besides, they had to talk to each other if they were going to do their job.

I was so intent on eavesdropping that I almost didn’t see the shape rushing at me from maybe a dozen feet away. It came out of the sweep of snow and shadows. Despite the fact that I was caught off guard, I didn’t hesitate. Three shots center mass. The woman—I could make out curves now, and the soft edge of her jaw—jerked sideways and staggered as she bent over. She didn’t fall. She had to be wearing a bulletproof vest.

Not giving her time to recover, I bulldozed her shoulder to knock her down, then put one foot on her neck, reaching down to pull her hands up behind her. She fought me, twisting, but her breathing was labored from the impact of the bullets. She probably had cracked ribs. Once I had her arms pushed up behind her back, she went still, except for the harsh drag of her breathing.

I didn’t have anything handy to tie her up with. Note to self: bring zip ties next time I break into a federal building. I could have used my bootlaces, but I didn’t want to let her go to fight them loose.

The crunch of footsteps warned me that someone was coming. I crouched beside my captive, one hand on her wrists. Dammit, I’d dropped my gun. I didn’t dare search for it.

“It’s me,” Taylor called in a low voice as she approached. “Are you okay?”

I let go of the breath I hadn’t known I’d been holding. “I’m fine. I need something to tie her with.”

Taylor went to lean over Jamie and rifled in his coat pockets until she found what she was looking for. She returned with a spool of wire. Of course. Neither of my brothers ever left home without some supply of metal, and wire was handy for a lot of reasons.

She helped me wrap the woman’s wrists.

“What do you want to do with her?” she asked, frowning down at the bound agent.

That’s when I realized I’d almost killed a federal agent. This woman was technically a good guy. Many were corrupt, but how was I to know which weren’t? And who was I to judge anymore? I was breaking a man out of federal custody—a man I knew was wrapped up with the Tyet. I wasn’t particularly clean. If I’d killed her, who would she have left behind? A husband? Kids? Parents? Brothers and sisters?

I clenched my jaw. I’d known what I was doing going into this mission. I’d known I might be killing people, and I’d chosen to come. I hardened myself against the guilt and reminded myself that I was here to save Price and I’d do a lot worse than kill to help him.

“Let’s move her next to the building out of the wind and the snow,” I said. “She’ll be okay until they find her.” I hoped. She could just as easily freeze to death. At least she had on a coat and heavy pants. I picked up the knit cap she’d lost when I knocked her down and pulled it back down over her head. My gun lay on the ground beside it. I retrieved it and rubbed off the snow, checking it over to make sure it was in working order.

She looked up at us, her round face flushed and angry. “You won’t get away with this. I’ve seen your faces.”

“Perhaps we should kill you, then.”

I jumped. I hadn’t heard Dalton approach. He flicked an approving glance at me. Bile flooded my mouth, and I spat to the side. I had to be seriously fucked up to earn that bastard’s seal of approval.

“Kill me if you want to,” the captive agent said to us, though her voice shook. “You will be hunted down. There’s no place you can hide.”

I didn’t know if she was being arrogant or naïve or just plain stupid. Of course we could hide. Or we could buy our way out of the situation if we had enough money and leverage. That was the way this game was played. All you needed was the stomach for it.

“Any others out there?” I asked Taylor, surprised at the calm steadiness of my voice.

“We caught a couple coming down off the roof. Knocked ’em cold before they saw us coming,” Taylor said. Then grudgingly, “Thanks to Dalton. He can see a gnat from a mile away, seems like.”

“Nice to have Terminator eyes,” I said.

“Isn’t it?” he said.

“How many more can we expect?” I asked, scanning the snow-blurred shadows for movement.

“That’s it,” Leo said, sounding worn to the bone. “It’s the best we can make it.” He sat back, putting his hand on Jamie’s shoulder. “Let Dalton use the plastics.”

For a long moment, Jamie didn’t respond. Then finally his body jerked, and his shoulders slumped. He twisted so that his back was to the wall.

“We’ve got two layers of cinder-block wall reinforced with rebar and cement. Leo and I removed the rebar from a small six-by-six-foot section. In between the cinder layers is some kind of reinforcement—probably carbon fiber, if I had to guess. There’s also about a foot of cement sandwiched in there with it.” His tired gaze fixed on Dalton. “We managed to put a steel plate on the backside of the blast zone to help focus the energy. We didn’t have any luck getting shielding inside the walls. Can you blow it?”

“Yep,” Dalton said. “Give me a hand.”

I wasn’t sure who he was asking to help him, but I stepped forward. My brothers were exhausted, and I wanted to give them a chance to recover. Taylor could watch for any more attackers.

Dalton squatted down beside one of the big duffels and began pulling things out. He started with a roll of tape and what looked like a bunch of white plastic sausage links all hooked together to make a good twenty-five-foot length. Orange and black lettering spelled out
Detagel, High Strength
. I’d seen the stuff before. They used it in the mines. It was stable and readily available. I hoped it would work. Dalton seemed to know what he was doing. I decided to trust him. On this, anyhow. It’s not like I had a choice.

“Hold this,” Dalton told me as Leo pointed out where they’d removed the rebar and placed the interior steel plate.

I grabbed the end of the Detagel tube-rope and held it in place as Dalton taped it down, following the outline Leo had given. He used the explosives to make an oblong circle about three feet wide and five feet tall. He pulled out another length of explosives and zigzagged down the center, filling it in.

“That seems like a lot,” I said.

“If it is carbon fiber inside, we’ll need it,” Dalton replied, pulling out some other equipment, including a set of sound-deadening earmuffs. He slipped those around his neck, then plugged several things together and fastened them to the explosives. He started walking away.

“Come on,” he said to everyone.

Leo and I grabbed our gear and followed. Jamie and Taylor helped the agent to her feet and hustled her along.

Dalton paced down the length of the building. When we reached the corner, he peered around it, then went around. He stopped and motioned us past. “Get up against the wall.”

We obeyed. Jamie and Taylor pushed the agent down to sit against the wall.

Dalton fished his cell phone out of his pocked and pulled the earmuffs over his ears. He dialed and looked at us. “Cover your ears.”

He did a silent countdown on his fingers. Three . . . two . . . one. The explosion ripped through the night. The building shuddered, and pressure from the blast swept down the side of the building like a hard wind.

Abruptly, it was over. My ears rang, despite covering them.

“Let’s move,” Dalton ordered, yanking off his earmuffs and shoving them into his duffel.

“What about her?” Taylor asked, pointing at the trussed FBI agent.

“Bind her legs and leave her. They’ll find her before she gets too cold,” I said. Hopefully we’d be long gone by then.

I hurried after Leo and Jamie, who’d jogged back the way we’d come. A fog of cement and rock dust filled the air.

“Nice,” Jamie said, sticking his head inside. He started to crawl through. Then, “Ow! Okay, watch yourself. The edges of the carbon fiber are sharp.”

Before Leo could follow, Dalton made a sound and hoisted himself into the wall. I could hear the sounds of kicking and the loud clang of steel hitting the ground, along with the rumble of falling rocks.

“Are you okay?” Leo called in a low voice.

“Come on,” Dalton said.

Leo clambered through. I motioned to Taylor. “Go ahead.”

She climbed through, and I followed, one hand carrying my backpack, the other my gun.

The wall was close to three feet thick. The outer cinder blocks had blown out, leaving a hole a good twelve feet wide or more. The interior cement had held up much better, thanks to the carbon fiber grid layer down the middle of it. The hole in that was smaller, and sharp bits of the grid clawed out from the remaining cement. Rubble filled the hole, and I had to crouch to get through.

On the other side, the cinder blocks had vanished and most of the rubble had blown into small chunks and powder, thanks to the blast shield Leo and Jamie and made. The massive plate of steel lay on the floor, looking as if a meteor shower had pounded it. In the center, a seam had torn open, about three feet long and a few inches wide.

Dust filled the air and clogged my eyes as I stepped down. Leo grasped my wrist to help steady me. I glanced around.

We stood in a nondescript hallway. The floors appeared to be polished concrete beneath the layer of dust and crumbled cement. The only lights were those Leo, Jamie, and Dalton had slid onto their heads. Jamie handed one each to Taylor and me.

“Where now?” Dalton asked.

Everyone looked at me. I was more absorbed in what they couldn’t see. Price’s blue and burgundy trace wrapped around me in comforting ribbons. It was still vivid and bright. I wanted to touch it, to see for myself how he was.

I dropped into trace sight and reached into the bone-chilling cold of the trace dimension to take hold of Price’s trace. Wild rage, pain, hate, and terror assaulted me. It clamped down on my mind, flattening me beneath it. I couldn’t breathe. I heard a deep-throated sound, like a snarl. It came from my throat.

“Riley?” Taylor turned toward me.

“Get away from me,” I snarled. I put my hands up. I’m not sure what I meant to do. I’m not sure
I
meant to do anything. The maelstrom of Price’s frantic emotions twisted around me, yanking me under into a vast ocean deepness. Somewhere within the building, his hands came up, and mine followed suit. Power flooded him and crashed into a wall of pure terror.

He was afraid of himself.

This was seriously bad.

Chapter 13

I SHOOK MYSELF, trying to divide myself away from Price’s emotions. I’d never tangled up in anyone like this before, but then, I’d never been in love with anybody before, either. I didn’t know if he could feel me, but I wasn’t going to let go of his trace in case he could. I didn’t want him to think I’d abandoned him. Right now, that would be worse than anything else I could do. Especially given the fact that he was about to go nuclear. Literally.

“Riley?” Taylor asked.

“I’m okay,” I said. I’m sure they believed that, the way I was standing there all frozen and my voice sounding like my vocal cords had been scraped with a rusty razor. “Price is starting to cascade. I’ve got to help him. I can’t wait for you.”

“Do what you need to do,” Jamie said, and Taylor and Leo nodded, though both looked tense. “We’ll track Mel and Arnow and catch up with you. Be careful. He’ll have guards.”

Dalton scowled at me. He didn’t know my trick for traveling through the trace dimension. He was about to see it. Vernon was going to want me more than ever after this.

“Be safe,” I said, and reached into the trace dimension again, concentrating on Price’s location. Finding him, I let myself tumble into the searing cold.

Inside was a wonderland of brilliant color streamers that went on forever in an ocean of velvet black. I took a second to find my equilibrium. The last time I’d been here, my mother had been waiting for me, wanting to tell me something. I’d been too much in a hurry then to stay and was in the same boat now.

The cold pushed into me. Living things weren’t meant to come here. If I stayed long, I wouldn’t be living. I focused on Price’s trace. I was counting on the fact that I’d nulled the magic out of the building to have gotten rid of whatever barrier had blocked me before.

Relief throbbed through me as I shot through to Price. In just seconds, I pulled myself out of the spirit dimension and into his prison cell. I staggered as my feet found the floor. I caught my balance and turned, searching for Price.

He stood braced in a corner, his face twisted, his teeth bared in a snarl. He was naked. Bruises covered him, and his hands were hamburger—like he’d been punching the walls. Blood trickled from scrapes on his shoulders and arms and smeared his face. I suspected he’d done most of the damage to himself, trying to batter down the walls. He panted, his chest bellowing with the effort.

“Price?” I could barely hear my own voice. The power emanating from him smothered sound and air. Rainbow trails pulled at the corners of my vision. He was in a full-on cascade, and there was no good way to stop it that I knew of.

I’d never witnessed a cascade, but I’d heard enough to know that the end result would be disastrous. Basically, Price’s magic was surging inside him, with no outlet. He’d opened the spigot on it, whether he meant to or not, but he’d also bottled it up. Now it was building, like too much air in a balloon. Or maybe more like Mentos in a bottle of Coke. Sooner or later, he’d pop. Sooner was more likely. That would be ugly enough if he was an ordinary talent, but he wasn’t. The fact that he’d knocked down a mountain as a child meant he had to be something else. Something unbelievably strong and dangerous. The breadth of his destruction could be biblical.

I didn’t have any kinds of nulls here that would suck down the kind of power he was manifesting, plus I’d been in such a hurry to get to Price that I’d left my pack with the others. I needed to help him get it under control before he did something seriously awful, like taking out this part of Colorado. If he even could gain control at this point.

I wiped my palms on my thighs and stretched out a hand to him. “Price. It’s me. Riley. I’m here. I need you to calm down.”

His dark sapphire gaze flicked around the room and eventually settled on me. His muscles bunched, his jaw jutting. He lurched toward me, fists raised.

“Get the fuck away from me, bitch,” he rasped. “Go to back to hell where you belong.”

I recoiled before I realized he didn’t believe I was actually there. My heart galloped in my chest. His face twisted. His eyes darted and flickered as if he saw things I couldn’t. Probably he could. A dreamer could have locked him into a hallucination. For him, it would feel real.

“It’s really me,” I said. “I’m Riley.” Yeah, because repeating myself was totally a winning argument. I bit my lip. I hadn’t thought I’d have to prove myself to him, which was idiotic. I should totally have anticipated that, given that they’d be screwing with his head. I had no idea how to convince him. Anything he knew about me could have been plucked from his mind by an FBI dreamer, which meant it was impossible to come up with something only he and I knew about to confirm my identity.

He moved so fast I didn’t see him coming. His hand closed around my throat, and he slammed me back against the wall. He held me there, his fingers curling into my windpipe like he’d rip it out. His face pushed close to mine, his nose pressing up against the skin below my ear. He sucked in a deep breath.

My body responded before I could think. Thank goodness for all those training drills when I was younger. I scrunched my shoulders high and pressed my chin hard against his hand. I grabbed his wrist, digging my thumbs into the tendons. He was impervious. Abruptly, I changed tactics. Keeping my chin clamped against his hand, I reached across with my left hand and grabbed his wrist, keeping it locked to me. At the same time, I used my right hand to grab his arm above the elbow, pushing sideways so that the joint strained backward. I pivoted my hips, shoving with all my might. I kicked my leg out to drive his leg out from under him. If he didn’t let go, his elbow would break.

I wasn’t all that sure he was in a state of mind to care.

Abruptly, he released me and staggered sideways. Before he could snatch me again, I attacked. I was too close to the wall to twirl a roundhouse kick into his kidneys. Instead, I punched him there. I heard the breath huff out of him. I kicked the side of his thigh. I was aiming for the knee. Ten pounds of pressure on either side of the joint was all it took to break it. Or would have if I hadn’t missed. Even so, the thigh kick was enough to drop him to the floor. I knew from experience it hurt a hell of a lot.

Unfortunately, Price didn’t give in to his pain. He bounded to his feet and swung around. I held up my hands flat before me to forestall him. Miraculously, he paused.

“It really is me,” I said. “I came through the trace to get you.”

He glared at me from beneath his lowered brows, his black hair hanging across his eyes. His unshaven jaw was dusted black, highlighting the hollows and contours. He looked like he’d lost twenty pounds. His skin stretched tight over the planes of his muscles. Veins and tendons stood out in relief. He took a step toward me.

“Riley isn’t here,” he gritted between clenched teeth. “You are some FBI bitch made to look like her. If you’re even here at all and not just in my head.”

“Why can’t I be Riley?” I demanded. “You have to know I’d come rescue you.”

“No. Riley would never be that stupid. If anybody’s coming for me, it’s Gregg.” He scowled, as if annoyed that he’d been made to talk so much.

“He couldn’t make it, as it turns out,” I said. “Besides, I totally would have come for you whether you or he wanted me to or not. If there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I don’t abandon people I love. Hell, I don’t even abandon people I barely like. Anyhow, I love you and I
am
here. For real.”

“I don’t think so. Get the fuck out of my head!” He balled his fist and punched himself just above his ear. I winced. He did it again.

“And you call me stupid,” I muttered.

“What?”

“I said, you call me stupid, but you’re the one hitting yourself in the head. If you really want to crack your skull like an egg, you probably should get down on the floor and whack it on the cement.” I glanced around. “Or the corner of that table, though from the looks of you, you’ve already tried bashing yourself to death.”

His cell was a square of concrete. All of it looked like it was made to be washed down and disinfected. Smears of blood here and there explained why. A drain in the center of the floor told me I wasn’t wrong. The only furniture was a steel table bolted on one side of the room, about five feet or so off the wall. Underneath was welded a locked steel box. No doubt to keep the essential torture tools handy. Up in the middle of the ceiling was an eye-in-the-sky camera, probably with microphones to catch everything Price said. It was totally blind and mute now, though, thanks to Leo and Jamie.

I fixed my attention back on Price. Luckily he hadn’t taken advantage of my momentary distraction to attack me. I drew in a breath and let it out slowly. Right now he was my enemy, and I had to remember that. He
would
hurt me if he could. Maybe kill me.

“Is it helping?” I asked. I waved a hand toward his head. “The whole bashing yourself in the noggin thing?”

“You’ll never get what you want from me,” he said.

“I want to get you out of here where you’re safe,” I said. “And I wouldn’t mind having those two weeks you owe me.” Not that that was going to happen soon. “What about giving me the benefit of the doubt? That I’m really Riley, that I’m really here, and that it’s time to escape? Couldn’t hurt, could it?”

His bark of laughter startled me. “You don’t think I’m that stupid, do you? We escape”—he put air quotes around the last word—“and when we’re supposedly elsewhere, I spill all my secrets to you?”

He had a point. I frowned. What could I do to prove myself?

“Shit,” I muttered. I wanted to pace, but I didn’t dare turn my back on him. I worried my upper lip between my teeth. I still held his trace. Could I do something with that? I ran my fingers down it.

“What was that?” Price jerked upright, his eyes widening. “What did you do?”

I smiled. “What I do. I’m a tracer, remember? I’m touching your trace.”

I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. Immediately, he began shaking his head.

“Right. That tactic is more clever, I’ll give you that. But I still don’t believe you.”

He was bound and determined not to believe me. Not that I could blame him. The FBI was out to break him, and he had to assume everything that came at him was a ploy. I had to do better.

Maybe I should just drag him out through the spirit dimension. Maybe the trip would prove it. And if it didn’t? He was still cruising for an overload, and it was going to happen soon. If anything, the air in his prison cell had grown thicker and heavier with magic.

Well, if just running my fingers over his trace had startled him, what if I . . . ?

I yanked hard on his trace, then jumped back when he jerked toward me.

“Christ!” he yelped, and for the first time, his angry armor cracked and I not only saw but could feel his shock and terrible fear. Immediately, his expression closed up and his emotions shut back down. “I’m done with you,” he said and turned his back on me. “You’re not here and you’re not worth my time or attention.”

I took the moment to scan Price from head to foot. Despite my frustration, I was overjoyed that he hadn’t lost his mind. They hadn’t broken him. Even naked and mentally tortured as he clearly had been, every inch of him oozed pride, toughness, tenacity, and explosive energy. Not to mention incredible stubbornness.

Most of me wanted to take the moment to punch him, knock sense into him somehow. I would have if he wouldn’t have cracked my skull in return.

It occurred to me I could have Leo and Jamie build a cage around him. No, Price was too close to full-on cascade. I needed to get him out of here before he totally lost control. Too many people could die otherwise, including and especially my family. That meant pulling him through the spirit dimension to somewhere he couldn’t do a lot of harm, and where the FBI wouldn’t find us.

The only viable option I could think of was my house. I couldn’t take him out into the wilderness. He wasn’t dressed for the cold. At least at home I had monster nulls that could help contain his power when he went off like Mount Vesuvius. Hopefully I wouldn’t end up like all the statues in Pompeii.

“Have you thought about the possibility that I might really be Riley?” I asked, taking one last chance on convincing him. Having his cooperation would be a lot more helpful than fighting him. “I mean, if I am actually who I say I am, and I’m here to rescue you, then you’re wasting time. I haven’t asked you a single question. I haven’t tried to control you. Think about it.”

He spun around, and his expression was feral. As in, insane rabid wolf. All he needed was a little bit of foam to complete the picture. “I told you to leave,” he said in a flat, implacable voice. “Now I’m going to make you.”

I stepped back. Big mistake. He leaped at me. I ducked under his outstretched arm and jammed my shoulder under his hip. I pushed and rolled around his back at the same time.

One thing about Price is that he’s smart and he’s got crazy good fighting skills. He’d anticipated my move, and instead of losing his balance, he put all his weight on his other leg and twisted out of my way. I crashed through the hold and fell forward, catching myself on my hands in something like a downward-facing-dog yoga pose.

Before I could recover, he picked me up and slammed me down onto the steel table. My head bounced, and the breath whooshed out of me. I jerked my feet up to my chest, intending to jack them into his stomach even as he jammed his forearm against my throat. Instantly, I gagged at the pressure on my Adam’s apple. Panic flared. I clawed at his face.

I’ve got curves. And by that, I mean I’ve got plenty of boobs and what I’ve been told is a luscious ass. At the moment, my boobs were seriously getting in the way of getting my feet up high enough to pry him off. All the same, I levered one of my feet up and got my toe under Price’s jaw. I kicked out as hard as I could. He lurched backward. I rolled off the other side of the table, coughing and gasping and keeping the table between us.