I’D HAVE BEEN too direct, or made it complicated, but Dolph just asked Mona Castel to come and make a formal statement. She didn’t call for a lawyer or see the trap in the request. She went with him meek as a lamb, and he stayed beside her looking pleasant and hiding the wolf in his impeccably pressed suit until she was safely in the back of his unmarked car with Officer Kay Beecher beside her. Dolph told her he had to confer with his colleagues and he’d be right back, and then he motioned McKinnon and me to follow him away from the car. He started to talk to us then but noticed people with their cell phones pointed this way. It used to be that the news media had to arrive before you worried about cameras; now everyone was a potential leak about the investigation.
He started to walk back toward the hotel, and we went with him. I felt a knock at my psychic shields that made me look around. There was the crowd of people being kept back behind the police tape, most of them with phones pointed this way, and uniformed officers doing their best to keep the looky-loos contained. Whatever had caught my attention wasn’t there, so I paused and looked through the more distant part of the crowd and then to the parked cars. There, somewhere there.
Dolph had backtracked to be beside me and asked, “What did you see?”
“Not see, feel.” My phone sounded with my text tone, and because I wasn’t sure what I was sensing I checked it.
It was Ethan texting, We’re parked waiting for you. Claudia ordered extra security.
I texted, Good. Was that what I’d felt? It didn’t feel like Ethan, he was tied to me metaphysically, but he was usually quieter in my head than this. Whatever this was, it was much louder in my head. Who else is with you? I texted.
Ru.
Ru was one of my Brides, designed to be basically cannon fodder for the master vampire that made them. They were all this calming silence in my head because they could feel my emotions, but it didn’t work both ways like it could with Ethan.
I leaned into Dolph with McKinnon joining the huddle. “Ethan Flynn and Ru Erwin are here for extra security for me when I’m not surrounded by cops. That’s who I texted.”
“What, Murdock isn’t with you today?” Dolph said.
“Nicky had something else to do,” I said. If it had just been Dolph I might have explained that I’d made the mistake of kissing Nicky in public, and the image went viral. Speculation was that I was dumping Jean-Claude at the altar for my ruggedly handsome bodyguard. To calm the rumors and to keep the media from swarming me we were rotating my security for a little bit. Since Nicky had become my regular security person as well as my lover and one of the men I was in love with, it felt weird that he wasn’t in the parking lot ready to back me up.
“Everything okay?” Dolph asked.
I nodded, and then there it was again. Something didn’t feel right. “Something feels wrong, like I’m missing something that I should be picking up on.”
“Could McKinnon’s charm have messed with your abilities?”
“Since I don’t know what the charm does, or is, sure.”
“I didn’t mean any permanent harm, Blake.”
“Let’s take this inside,” Dolph said. We went back into the air-conditioned hush of the hotel and found an unused conference room, though the manager had informed us that he would need it for a meeting with the hotel staff to convey the concerns of his bosses and their bosses. Dolph assured him we wouldn’t need the room long. I thought we were going to discuss strategies for the interrogation or the next part of the investigation. What I hadn’t seen coming was Dolph telling me, “There’s no active warrant of execution on this one, Anita.”
“I know that.”
“It doesn’t fall under the preternatural marshals’ jurisdiction.”
“You invite me to come play and now you’re kicking me out?”
“If the hate groups get her a lawyer, you being involved with the interrogation will give them ammunition to say we used supernatural influence to get a confession.”
“When did I start being supernatural influence?”
He gave me a look.
“What?”
“I’ll let you know what we learn.”
“And that’s it?”
“We’ll keep you in the loop,” McKinnon said.
Dolph turned to him with a look on his face that I’d seen before; it did not bode well for whoever was at the other end of that look.
McKinnon knew the look, too, because he said, “What?”
“You don’t get to say to Anita that we’ll keep her in the loop; I could keep you both in the loop.”
“This is connected to my case,” McKinnon said.
“I didn’t say it wasn’t, but it’s still my case right now; me allowing your involvement is a professional courtesy and friendship, but you don’t get to decide how much I read Anita into this case.”
McKinnon looked at him for a few seconds, then nodded. “I overstepped my bounds between you and your colleague, I get it.”
I wanted to say thanks to Dolph for defending me professionally, but it would have been rubbing salt in the wound for McKinnon and I didn’t want to do that. He and I respected each other, even liked each other in that acquaintance/friend-with-similar-jobs-and-mutual-friends sort of way.
“Good,” he said, then turned to me as we exited the conference room. “I hope you understand why I can’t have you there for the interrogation.”
I nodded. “I do, I don’t like it, but I do.”
“Okay, we’ll get our hero down to make an official statement,” he said as new police walked by us close enough to overhear. I might not have been able to change my words in time. The publicity with Jean-Claude had ruined me for undercover work, but honestly I’d never been that good at it.
“I guess I’ll touch base with my people and get back to wedding stuff.”
McKinnon laughed. “You sound more like the long-suffering groom instead of the bride.”
“Trust me, McKinnon, other than getting to wear the long dress I am the long-suffering groom.”
He chuckled and even Dolph smiled. There were new uniforms at Dolph’s elbow waiting to ask questions before he left the scene, so I left them to it. I actually wanted to see Edward and Asher in their matching best man outfits just to see Edward’s reaction to it. I glanced at my watch and realized that Edward would be back in street clothes by now. Damn it, I’d missed one of the few parts of all this that I’d been looking forward to; I hoped Peter had taken pictures.
I had to walk past the crowd that had gathered with their phones out, and a few real reporters, but most of them were using their phones trying to get me to comment about the case. I knew better and just kept walking quickly like I had somewhere else to be. Never make eye contact, never slow down, never make a single noise that can be interpreted as a comment, because anything and everything will be spun into something you never said.
I didn’t look around for Ethan and Ru, because if security is in a separate car, then if you don’t acknowledge them the reporters and any bad guys lurking around won’t know that they’re on your side. I didn’t have to explain that to either of them, they knew their job, so I just went toward my SUV, ignoring all questions and comments. I had my keys out and was almost to the vehicle when I felt something, someone, whatever it was, and it made me do a quick glance around. I might not be good at verbal sneakiness, but I was good at looking for danger without looking obvious. The parking lot was empty except for cars and empty pools of light. The police were keeping the crowd contained, but most people were probably waiting to have permission to go to their rooms and get their stuff so they could leave. Also, most people wouldn’t leave the scene of an interesting crime; they might get a video on their phones and post it first. Smartphones had raised looky-loos to a whole new level.
There was nothing to see, but the skin creeping between my shoulders and up my neck said that just because I couldn’t see it didn’t mean it wasn’t here. I didn’t call my necromancy because it was always there; all I had to do was stop blocking it and just let it out of the box. It flowed out from me like a breath of wind. I didn’t need much energy to search for undead near me. I had a lot of metaphysical talents, but necromancy was the first magic that had ever come to me, the one that I couldn’t refuse or hide from. Most people spent their lives trying to acquire more magic, more power; I’d spent my life just trying to control mine.
I sent that seeking power outward in a ring around me searching for anything it recognized, but whatever was out there wasn’t vampire, ghoul, or zombie, or any type of undead. One area of possibilities down, lots more to choose from. Oh, and it wasn’t human, or at least not wholly human. Of course, I didn’t hit the radar as human anymore either, and the moment I thought that . . . I searched with a part of me that was newer and less finely tuned. I wasn’t a vampire no matter how many internet rumors said otherwise, but I did have some vampire powers and they were not original to me. I felt down the metaphysical cords that tied me to Ethan and Ru, different kinds of cords, but when I concentrated I could feel the connection. There on the edge of my awareness was something, no, someone else. It wasn’t like Ethan, one of my animals to call, and I’d already ruled out vampires that were connected to me, so that left Brides. I only had three of those. Nicky was helping test Edward’s and Peter’s skills in the workout area underneath the Circus of the Damned, and Ru was with Ethan, so that left . . . “Rodina, I know you’re there.”
“But where am I?” She said it out loud, but she could throw her voice really well, so I knew not to trust that for direction.
“These stupid games really piss me off, you know that.”
She laughed, but the sound seemed to come from more than one place. She’d had centuries to practice her spying and assassination skills.
“As my Bride it’s supposed to cause you physical pain if I’m unhappy; you shouldn’t be able to go against my express wishes.”
“No, I shouldn’t be,” she said, voice coming from an entirely new area of the circle of sound she was bouncing around me.
“Masochist much, Rodina?”
“The pain it causes me is outweighed by the pleasure I take in tormenting you.”
“This isn’t tormenting me, just irritating me.”
“Then I will have to try harder, won’t I?” There was something in her voice that sent a chill up my spine like I was actually afraid of her. I shouldn’t have been; she was bound by magic so that she could not hurt me. She was even bound to give her life to save mine. Yet as I stood there in the dimness of the parking lot I really wanted to know where the fuck she was, just in case. She was a wereleopard and they were fast even for a shapeshifter. If I drew a gun I’d have to shoot her and since she was supposed to be one of my bodyguards that seemed overkill, so I went for a blade instead. If she was close enough she’d magically appear beside me before I could get it drawn and lay her finger beside my throat or something equally creepy just to let me know that she could have killed me.
I had the blade in my hand, and she still hadn’t appeared. I was tired of playing with her. “This shit is making me late, Rodina.”
“Then get in your vehicle and drive away,” she said in that bouncing echo of a voice so that I had no idea where it was coming from, but even through the theatrics she sounded pleased with herself. I was suddenly almost sure where she was hiding.
“Get out from under my car, Rodina.”
“You’re only guessing.”
“Let me make this simpler, I command you to come out of hiding right now.”
“You don’t know where I am.”
“I gave you a direct order,” I said.
“I’m coming,” she said, no echoes this time, just a sigh. I don’t know if she rolled or scooted out, but she was suddenly on the other side of my SUV. She was as slender and as five foot six as when I first saw her in Ireland. Her blond hair had grown out a little, just enough to let me know it might have waves if she let it get closer to her shoulders. The temporary dyes that she’d been trying on her naturally yellow hair were gone, leaving it silvery as she stood just out of the direct light from the tall pole above my car. I always parked in the light if I could, a holdover from when I wasn’t one of the things that went bump in the night. Rodina used the shadows and her all-black clothing to hide, except her hair gave her away. Maybe she read my thought, because she pulled a hood up from her sweatshirt and it was just the pale slightly long oval of her face ruining the look.
“I miss my mask,” she said, because she could read my thoughts, I just couldn’t read hers. The idea was that Dracula’s Brides needed to know his thoughts and feelings so they could serve him perfectly, and Drac didn’t need to know anything about them because it was all about him. But I didn’t want Rodina to be all about me, so I was left staring at her across the hood of my car wondering what she was thinking, feeling, and having no idea as if we weren’t bound together by magic for all eternity or until one of us died.
“I’m sorry you miss the mask,” I said finally, because I was sorry that she missed being one of the masked and robed Harlequin, who had hidden their identities so completely that they never took the masks off in public and covered the rest of themselves in all black like she was doing now. If she’d had one of those blank-colored masks on, then depending on the color I’d know if she’d come to kill me (black), to hurt me (red), or just to talk (white).
“I didn’t at first, I reveled in not being forced to hide. I thought I would find myself.” She made a sound that was supposed to be a laugh but was so bitter I wanted a new word for it.
“I’m sorry that you don’t like your new life,” I said.
“I was one of the most feared assassins in the world, and one of the best interrogators among us, and now I’m a glorified babysitter who isn’t allowed to hurt the reporters or the civilians with their phones taking pictures and video and posting them everywhere. No one needs spies anymore because the ordinary people have given everyone eyes and ears.”
“I am sorry that you are this unhappy, Rodina.”
“But you’re also angry with me for being unhappy, I can feel it, hear it. Your thoughts and feelings invade me in a way that being my old master’s leopard to call never did.”
“I’m done apologizing.”
“Good, I don’t want apologies, my queen, I want purpose.”
“You’re stuck like everyone else trying to figure out your purpose for yourself.”
“Well, it sucks. To use one of your favorite phrases.”
“Yeah, existential dread and the search for identity is a bummer.” My voice was casual, but I knew the look on my face and my posture wasn’t. I still had the knife out, because even for Rodina she was being weird. I’d seen her in training with the other bodyguards, I knew what she was capable of.
“You have no idea what I am capable of, my white queen.” My white queen was her newest nickname for me, I guess it beat my dark queen or my evil queen, which she’d used for most of the time I’d known her.
“Nicky can’t read my thoughts as well as you can, he just gets my emotions mostly; why is that?”
“I have had eons to practice my mystical skills and he has not yet seen a century pass.”
“You know that’s not an answer, right?”
“It is an answer, my queen; it’s not my fault if you’re even younger than Nicky and understand even less.”
“Why are you skulking around in the parking lot, Rodina?”
“I was making certain that no one ambushed you.”
“Good, you can go back to the car, and you can all follow me to my next destination.”
“I am ordered to ride in the car with you just in case someone tries to separate you from the security in the other car.”
“Whose orders?”
“Why, your head of security, my queen.”
“Did Claudia order you to ride with me or just one of you to ride back with me?”
“Me; your American press and general populace seem very heteronormative no matter how woke they talk, so she thought a woman riding with you would quiet the rumor mill that has you running away with Nicky and leaving Jean-Claude at the altar.”
I knew that Claudia hadn’t said anything that long-winded and explain-y. She’d have just ordered the three of them to meet me here and given the division of labor, but one of the few good things about being the “queen” was that I could change things without checking with anyone else. I was so not riding with Rodina tonight.