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When Kit got to the house, she was pleased to see that the second floor had been entirely wrapped in Tyvek, which was a huge improvement over having the stairs lead up to an empty open box. It looked more like an actual second story now, and not a grievous mistake costing almost as much as Fenwick had paid for the house in the first place. Kit slipped inside as quietly as she could but found Fenwick at the computer. He started to shut it down when she shut the door behind her.
“Did you wait up for me?” she asked, feeling touched.
“I missed you. How was your trip? Did you find him?” Fenwick came over with his arms outstretched as if to hug her, but he backed off, nostrils flaring. “You smell like death.”
“We were too late by several days. It was horrible,” Kit said. She put her gun in the gun safe by the door and locked it. “Let me take a shower and then I want to talk to you.”
It was more than an hour later that Kit got around to telling Fenwick about Norwicki. Fenwick had joined her in the shower, to scrub her back, he said, a lie neither of them believed. By the time she’d washed the stench off her hair and skin, Fenwick was kissing her. She kissed him back, hungrily. She kept thinking of Gabrielle cradling her dead husband, laying Damien’s body in the grave. Kit wanted to wrap herself around Fenwick, to drive away the specter of death that still clung to her after the suds had rinsed off the physical smell. He carried her to the bed, still damp from the shower, and she wrapped her legs around him, kissing him desperately, touching every part of him she could reach. Her desire kickstarted his, and soon Kit was holding a pillow over her mouth to keep her noises from waking the kids. Sometimes married sex felt a lot like sneaking a boy into your room while your parents were asleep.
Afterwards, she thought she could use a shower again, but she felt much better. She told Fenwick about the drive to Spokane, and he murmured sleepily into her hair. “I remember the theater incident. Seems a shame. We went through all that effort to save him, and then we never got to know him and now we never will.”
“I feel bad for Norwicki,” Kit said, glancing at the glowing numbers of the clock across the room. She’d as good as told Carr she’d be there, and then she had to figure out how to pick locks, and then she had to be at the airport by seven. “I mean the other one. Gabrielle. I can’t even imagine how devastated I’d be if you died.”
“I won’t. It’s you I’m worried about.”
“I’ll be okay. I know how to get in, and I can sleep on the plane.”
“What? You’re not going out again, are you?”
“I’m sorry,” Kit said. She really ought to be getting out of bed and packing a bag but it was so comfortable there in Fenwick’s arms. “There’s been a change of plans. I’m going to Arizona after all. I have stuff to do and then I have a flight to Red Rock in the morning.”
“Nope. Not letting you go.” Fenwick pulled her closer and nuzzled her hair. He was spooning her. “Tell Fain he can find his own damn mage.”
Kit’s alarm began to beep.
“Did you set an alarm?”
“Yeah,” she said sleepily.
“For one thirty in the morning?” he murmured into her hair.
“Yeah. I was afraid I’d fall asleep.” Kit felt herself start to drift off. Maybe just a few more minutes to rest.
“You made the bed wet.”
“You were the one too much in a hurry to let me towel off.” Kit should get up. The alarm was really irritating.
“Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
She had to get up. She needed some birch wood and a tool to carve it with to inscribe the sigils for her proto-ward. And how portable was it? She had only moved maybe two feet, but wards weren’t supposed to be portable at all. Why? Why weren’t wards portable? Was it just some kind of narrow-minded thinking that kept people from exploring the extent of what was possible with this magic, or was there a legitimate reason? She wished she could talk to Kier. Maybe she could call him in the morning. She should pack the copies she’d made of Barbara’s notebooks. She’d gotten the idea from those notebooks in the first place. If only Barbara weren’t dead. And an evil witch. Maybe Kit could have learned from her. All the things Sorrow could teach her! Holzhausen still knew much more sorcery than she did, but there was a difference between being good at something and being able to teach it. She ought to pack some stakes too, just in case there were enemy vampires in the house she didn’t know about. Besides Crispin. Have to talk to Carr and see if she knew that name. Wait, hadn’t Fain said she’d have to pick locks to get in a locked door? “Just use your telekinesis” he’d said. Yeah, right. She didn’t have telekinesis; she was an accidental poltergeist. Stuff moved sometimes, and locks unlocked or locked, but she’d never, ever been able to control it. She’d be just as likely to lock herself in as unlock a door she wanted to go through. She should see Chong. Could Chong teach her how to pick locks in three hours? Maybe two hours, she still had that happy hour thing she promised to go to.
“Your heart started beating faster. You okay?”
“I’m excited about the trip,” Kit said. “It feels like a competition, where if I execute what I’ve practiced and it goes well, I’ll get the prize of a new teacher.”
“You have the weirdest job.” Fenwick kissed her hair again.
“I have the best job,” Kit said. She kissed his hands. “I couldn’t do it without you. I’m so grateful you’re here to protect the kids. I love you.”
“I love you too,” Fenwick said, tenderly.
And then he put his hand between her shoulder blades and pushed, using his foot to push her the rest of the way off the bed. She shrieked in surprise and fell on the floor, dragging the blanket with her. When she stood up, Fenwick was sprawled across the bed like a starfish.
“And now I get the whole bed to myself,” he said, with a mischievous grin.
“You stinker.” Kit was grinning too, and really wanted to jump on him and instigate a wrestling match and everything that might lead to.
“I was just helping you get motivated,” he said innocently.
She grabbed the blanket by its edges and shook it so that it spread over the bed, covering evenly, including his face. Then she shut off the annoying alarm
Fenwick pulled the blanket down and propped himself up, watching her. “How long will you be gone?”
“Best case scenario, I shut down their ward tomorrow afternoon, they finish the heist this evening and I catch a red eye, if there is one, and be back here Saturday morning. If something goes wrong or it runs later than we’re expecting, I’ll stay the night, but I should be here Saturday evening, so we’ll have most of the weekend together, except for the funeral.” Kit threw some clothes into a bag, jeans, tank tops, more socks and underwear than she probably needed. Shampoo? Nah, didn’t want the hassle. She could go a day without washing her hair. Maybe a backpack, to carry her hammer and star chisel, and she’d need a knife to make the sigils, and then some extra birch wood because birches didn’t grow down there. Which meant probably she’d be checking her bag, because they’d get fussy about the hammer. Or maybe she could ensorcell the TSA to let her through? “Oh, I forgot to ask, did they get the thing worked out with the toilet main?”
“Yeah, they found someone locally who had the coupling we needed and installed it. The plumber said he’d get the shower surround put in this weekend.”
Kit went into the closet and pulled out the Christmas present that she’d not yet had the opportunity to use. Kit grinned. She loved high tech toys. “I’ll put it on the charger before I go.”
Kit crawled across the bed to kiss him one last time. She felt the prickle of his beard against her lips and the dampness of the sheets. Fenwick was already drifting off to sleep, and she envied him. Baby #3 wanted her to sleep more and more these days, not spend late nights running errands to help ex-boyfriend vampires.
But what if Sorrow could teach her how to control her teek? All the doors that had become locked or unlocked around her, the plates that had fallen off shelves, the rattling of cabinets. She’d had it for years, flaring up and dying down again like a case of eczema. What if she could learn to hone this nuisance ability and control it to move things with her mind? If she knew how to control it, she could unlock doors with her mind and not have to sweet talk vampires into a crash course on the questionably legal at—she glanced at her phone—at this point it would be closer to four a.m. by the time she could meet him. Where had the night gone?
The bar Carr had told Kit to meet them at was a very hip and cozy new place that Kit had never been to, not that she and Fenwick got a chance to go out much with the kids. It had a brick wall forming the long part of an L shape, with swooping lines of Edison bulbs lighting the bar and some tables next to it. The tables appeared to be cut from raw lumber, and bright yellow stools had been turned over on top of them forming a forest of legs. The lights near the front had been turned off, and it wasn’t very bright in the back. Was this the right place? She tapped quietly on the door. Maybe she should leave.
Carr approached and unlocked the door for her. “Hey, Melbourne, you made it.” She sounded so surprised that Kit worried it hadn’t been a real invitation, but Carr ushered her in and locked the door behind her.
Soulis sat at a table with his back to her facing Nguyen and Adamiak. Kit frowned to see Soulis, remembering when he’d body checked her in the Guild House. Soulis looked like a guy hired to play a member of a SWAT team on some television show, a steely gaze, square jaw, and close-cropped hair above too thick of a neck and bulging biceps. Chronologically, he was about the same age as her dad. Nguyen was the eldest among them, but only by fifteen years or so. Funny how often vampires, like humans, tended to hang around with people close in age. They were chatting, in that quiet way that vampires had when they were together.
Carr led Kit to the bar, where a tall, dark and handsome young man stood polishing glasses. He wore a pinstriped men’s dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a loosened tie around his neck. “Melbourne, this is Tyrone, my host.”
Kit switched the bag she was carrying to shake hands with him. “Nice to meet you, Tyrone.”
Tyrone met Carr’s eyes as if asking a question. Carr shook her head. “She’s our Dayrunner. Human, works for the boss.”
There was something familiar about him. Kit thought she had seen his photo when she’d made her Farley file. Kit concentrated, willing the name to come to her. “Wait, didn’t you recently apply to become an initiate? Initiate Carter isn’t it?”
Tyrone nodded, eyes widening with that shocked and pleased look like an actor who had only scored bit parts being asked for his autograph in the streets for the first time. He smiled. “What can I get you, Melbourne?”
“A Coke would be great for me. And if you don’t mind, could I have four empty glasses and maybe a pair of scissors?” She lifted the bag of blood. “I brought this to share.”
“I’ll take care of that.” Tyrone took the bag from her.
Nguyen sat on the far right near the wall, a solid sheet of rusty steel with small iron flowerpots filled with succulents bolted to it. Soulis sat next to him, wearing a grey fleece hoodie despite the summer warmth. Adamiak sat on the end, uncharacteristically casual in a tee shirt and shorts, and Carr, wearing a sleeveless floral top, took a seat opposite Nguyen. Kit climbed on the stool next to Adamiak.
She waited for Soulis to say something rude, and he didn’t disappoint, though he spoke too quietly for her to hear.
“I invited her,” Carr told him.
“Someone advised me that I ought to make more of an attempt to be social with other Guild members. Apparently, I have a reputation as being standoffish,” Kit said, assiduously not looking at Adamiak. “I thought about it, and decided it was pretty good advice. It was nice of Carr to invite me.”
Tyrone brought out five glasses, four lowball glasses each with a generous pour of blood in them, and one her cola, marked by a slice of lime on the side, not that she’d mistake it for blood with her pregnancy-attuned scent. Nguyen turned his head when Tyrone started setting glasses down. “You brought blood, Melbourne?”
“Why do you have blood?” Soulis asked.
“It was for Damian Norwicki,” Kit said. “I went to Spokane today to fetch him.”
“Oh, how is he?” Adamiak asked.
“He doesn’t need blood anymore,” Kit said sadly. She lifted her cola. “If you’ll oblige me, I’d like to propose a toast to Damian, may he rest in peace.”
The vampires raised their glasses. “To Damien.”
“It seems like just a year or two ago that Bernelli got her siring warrant,” Nguyen said. “That was Gabrielle’s maiden name, before she became Norwicki. So confusing, we told her. Just keep your name, but she was traditional and wanted them to have the same name. Have you seen her, Melbourne?”
Kit nodded. “Earlier this evening.”
“How did he die?”
“Fain,” Nguyen said, putting an unexpected amount of vitriol into that one word. “That viper. To think that rat Walker survived but Norwicki did not. Damien had the worst luck. Do any of you remember when he was kidnapped?”
Soulis, Carr and Adamiak shook their heads. They were all Toronto emigres and had come over just a few years earlier.
“Wait, was that in the theater?” Kit asked. “That was my first Guild mission.”
“They sent a human on a squad?” Soulis asked with incredulity. “What’s next, a human on the Council?”
“They needed people who could enter uninvited. This was a few years ago. I wasn’t a Guild member yet. They made me wait a year or so. There was a ton of paperwork, and then that ceremony, you remember,” Kit said. She gave Adamiak and Carr a summary of her first squad mission, when she and Fenwick had helped rescue Damien from the theater. She hadn’t thought of the incident in years, and tonight it kept coming up. “So, here I am in the back of the car, with an ill vampire sprawled across my lap and my boyfriend with a head wound in an ambulance. And keep in mind, I’d only discovered vampires existed a few weeks earlier. And then someone says that Damien needs blood, and everyone turned to look at me. That was not fun. Gabrielle cut my arm with a dirty box cutter and Damien half drained me. I passed out. I couldn’t get out of bed for days. I’m lucky it didn’t get infected.”
“Did he get sick?” Adamiak asked.
“No, no, that was before all that.” Kit waved her hand in circles to indicate all the interactions she’d had with the fey in the years since.
“I still don’t get why she’s in the Guild.” Soulis said.
“She is right here in front of you, Soulis. This bigotry is getting really old,” Kit said. “And no one asked you if it was okay for a human to be in the Guild or not, but it happened, and here I am so it would be nice if you could stop being such an asshole. Not that it’s any of your business, but Holzhausen petitioned the Council to allow it because I have special abilities and he thought it would be safer for the Guild if I were on his side.”
Nguyen had stepped away from the table and was calling someone on the phone, Norwicki, she hoped. Carr had an awkward embarrassed silence, and Soulis had a look of contempt that she was sadly familiar with. But she had been invited. What was it with invitations that weren’t real invitations? Why couldn’t vampires be honest?
“Special abilities,” Soulis asked skeptically.
“Melbourne, when was Soulis turned?” Adamiak asked.
Kit looked at him. She’d already figured out how old he was, so she just had to count back from the date. “Late August or early September 1996.”
“Where did you—that’s not in my file,” Soulis said, looking shocked. “Who told you?”
“I just know these things,” Kit said. “Carr’s older than you by maybe four months.”
“Five,” Carr said quietly. “That’s astounding, Melbourne.”
“I can spot you instantly. Vampires, I mean. If there’s a crowd I can spot you as easily as people wearing bright pink jumpsuits. It took me a while to get good at judging ages, but I’m pretty good at it now. Younger is easier. Older vampires I’m often off by a decade. I guess that means I’m the second-youngest person here.” Kit turned to Tyrone, who had been sitting behind the bar the whole time and was preparing a second round of drinks. Did he feel left out? Did he feel hurt as well? Or was this just a late-night job for him and not a social thing? “Initiate Carter, how old are you? Twenty-eight?”
“Thirty-two,” he replied.
“I’m the youngest,” Kit said shrugging. “Holzhausen learned about this ability because he knew my uncle, who was a famous witch. He thought this ability would be dangerous in the wrong hands. The Council must have agreed.”
Nguyen came back to the table. “There’s a memorial service scheduled for Sunday evening just after sunset. She’s asking for donations to that children’s outreach organization he worked with.”
“When were you turned?” Soulis asked Nguyen. “Wait, wait. Write it down on a napkin.”
“What’s this?” Nguyen asked, looking at the cocktail napkin and the ballpoint pen Carr had dredged out of her purse.
“My party trick,” Kit said. She took another napkin and reached for the ballpoint pen Carr had set on the table, but just then her teek acted up and the pen rolled off the table in the opposite direction. Adamiak met her eye, and by his slightly widened eyes, he had seen and was even more alarmed by that than her party trick. Kit pulled her lips in, shaking her head slightly and rolling her eyes as if to tell him not to be impressed, it was a nuisance. Carr handed Kit the pen and Kit did the arithmetic to count backwards to Nguyen’s turn date. January 1980
Nguyen flipped over his napkin. 1979. “It was late December. You’re only two weeks off. Very impressive, Melbourne.”
Tyrone put down fresh drinks for everyone. White wine for Carr. Scotch for Adamiak. A pale beer for Soulis and a slightly darker beer for Nguyen.
Soulis exhaled forcefully, learning back with his hands on the table. “Well, you’re no Crispin, but that’s still pretty amazing.”
“Crispin?” Kit said. “You know Crispin?”
“Crispin?” Carr said, her voice gone tight with anxiety. “He’s still alive? How do you know him, Melbourne?”
“Evil never dies,” Adamiak said. “There’s no justice in this world.”
“Fain mentioned that name when I was down there. He’s in Red Rock, they think. I only know that he’s a vampire and he knows how to make wards. Is he from Toronto?”
“He was in Toronto. He wasn’t from there, but he went there when our troubles happened. Evil is drawn to chaos. That devil killed three of my friends,” Carr said. “One of them, he peeled her skin off. The other two he dawned. There was no reason. He just wanted to do it.”
“I hear the Coeur faction used him as an assassin until he got out of hand,” Soulis said. “But still, everyone says the man had dark powers.”
“What kind of powers?” Kit asked, intently.
“He knew when you were coming. You’d go to get the drop on him and he just wouldn’t be there.” Soulis turned to Adamiak. “The Kirsh-Deschaller faction sent that hit squad against him, remember? Killed all thirty of Lovett’s guys but Crispin somehow slipped the noose.”
“Maybe we’ll get lucky and Crispin will get a hold of Fain,” Nguyen said darkly.
“I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy,” Carr said. “He’s pure evil.”
“What does he look like?” Kit asked.
“He looks like a pale, white teenager. Gangly. Protruding Adam’s apple. He’s got a public-school accent, which makes people think he’s civilized, but he’s a total psychopath.” Carr looked down at her white wine as if reliving a nightmare. “You should warn Fain, he should not trust Crispin.”
“Norwicki said Damien died in transit. I hope this Crispin finds Fain, if he’s as evil as you say.” Nguyen looked colder and angrier than Kit had ever seen him. “That son of a bitch hit him in the head and stuffed him in a box. He was still alive ... Tell Fain if he ever shows up again in this town, I’m going to dawn him.”
“Hey, guys?” Tyrone said. “Sorry to cut this short, but I gotta close up here.”
Everyone settled up their tab, and Kit made sure to tip Tyrone (Initiate Carter, she had to remember) extravagantly, in a fit of human solidarity. She thanked Carr for inviting her, promised Nguyen she’d be at the memorial, and suggested only half-jokingly to Soulis that maybe he could be slightly less of an asshole to her now that they were drinking buddies. Adamiak insisted on walking her to her car, which she took to mean he wanted to say something to her privately.
“Thanks for defending me,” she said quietly, as soon as the others had gotten into their cars and started the engines. “I guess people like Soulis are part of the reason I don’t go to vampire events that often. It hurts. I should just let it roll off, but the constant contempt hurts.”
Adamiak shook his head. “Don’t go to Red Rock, Melbourne.”
Kit swore. “I have a lot to learn, don’t I? What was it that gave it away that I’m going to Fain’s city? Was it the questions about Crispin?”
“I don’t know what kind of hold Fain has over you, but just wait a few months and Crispin will kill him for you and you’ll be free.”
Kit shook her head. “Fain doesn’t have a hold over me, and it’s more complicated than that. I’m only going to do one thing. Well, two things, but it will be over in a few hours and then I’ll be home in time for the memorial service.”
“Why are you so stubborn?”
“Why are you so bossy? And telling me that Crispin is going to kill Fain just strengthens my resolve. Fain is my friend. I don’t abandon friends.”
“If you see Crispin, run. If you can’t, kill him. Take stakes, Melbourne. Take stakes and carry a big gun.” Adamiak held both of her shoulders. He looked pained. “Please don’t go, Melbourne. I’ve heard the rumors. Crispin is evil. He can see the future. He will know you are coming.”
“I’m going,” she said gently, feeling touched by his concern. “It’s an easy job, Adamiak. I practiced it loads of times. I won’t even see him.”
Adamiak didn’t respond, but fixated on her face, as if he knew it was the last time he would see her alive and wanted to cherish the memory. She felt spooked, and when a car pulled into the parking lot, Kit jerked in surprise before recognizing Chong’s beater. He pulled up next to her.
“You wanna learn how to pick locks in three hours,” Chong said as he got out of the car. Chong looked like a typical college kid, with a University of Seabingen tee shirt, a backpack, flip flops and desultory grooming. “Melbourne, you ask the weirdest favors.”
Kit turned to introduce him, but Adamiak had left.
“Yeah, how hard is it?”
“Bad news is, you can’t learn it in three hours. Good news is, I had a spare set of bump keys. I’ll give you these and you can figure out how to do it by watching videos on the internet.” Chong handed her a set of perfectly ordinary looking keys, cut down just a little bit thinner than typical. Each one had a tiny rubber gasket threaded over the teeth. “These are for the most common kind of locks. You said it was a house?”
“Yeah.” Kit looked at the keys. There had to be a dozen of them, easy. Why did Chong have these just lying around? Well, good thing he did. “You are a good man to know, Chong.”
“Yeah, yeah. You say the sweetest things. Say, Melbourne, you got any blood?”
“Yeah. Just one now, but I’ll get you more later.” Kit went to fish the last unit out from the tiny Yeti cooler Fenwick had bought. “Don’t worry, it’s not mine.”
“Where do you get it?” Chong asked, looking at the unmarked unit. Kit had only one left in her mini fridge in the garage. Like the stakes, you had to constantly replenish them. Unlike the stakes, blood never went wanting.
“People,” Kit said evasively. Friends and family. “I’m not poaching. I have my own sources.”
“You have your own sources? Damn, girl. You an initiate yet?” Chong asked. “I bet you could court a sire pretty easy. Seem to have this vampire thing down pretty well. Everything but the fangs.”
Kit reflexively rubbed her lower abdomen. “Fenwick and I are expecting another baby.”
“Huh.” Chong bit into the sack and chugged it like a can of Nattie Light. He sucked out the last dregs of red from the plastic and wiped a drop off the corner of his mouth. “Yeah, guess you can’t do that if you’re vampire. Where’s your little B&E gonna take place?”
“Fain’s city,” Kit said. “And he assures me it’s totally legal.”
“Yeah, right,” Chong said, rolling up the plastic to stuff in his pocket. “Anyone asks, I have no idea what they’re talking about.”