"Especially when some jack-crap lunker cut the power to the elevators before the doors opened!" Jenks added, and I swear I saw Dr. Cordova's eye twitch.
"Get a team in the escape tunnel," she said shortly, and the FIB officer looked past her at Glenn for direction. That time, I know I saw her eye twitch, and when Glenn gave the man a slight nod, the officer spun away, calling out names and converging on the hole with flashlights.
The suspects were long gone, though. Their departure had been executed with too much precision, too much . . . polished talent. I'd heard that HAPA had bases hidden in the Smoky Mountains, training areas and breeding grounds for hate cells. They knew what they were doing. And they were using magic?
Turning my back on Dr. Cordova's ongoing harangue, I dropped the wad of my FIB vest and looked past the dead man and Nina, still unconscious but arranged to look like she was sleeping. In the corner, as yet untouched and hopefully a source of fingerprints, was a makeshift kitchen and five cots.
Ivy sighed as she eased up beside me. "Better wake up Nina," she said as she rubbed her scraped elbow. There was an ugly handprint on her neck that I was sure was going to bruise.
Dr. Cordova's voice cut off in midthreat, and she barked out, "Why?"
I looked her up and down. "Because it's polite," I said, pulling out one of my vials and dousing Nina with it.
"Give her room," Ivy said, pulling me back as the young vampire gasped, her eyes flashing open wide to show they were utterly black.
"No!" she cried out in a frightened, high-pitched voice.
The click of safeties going off was scary as people fell into defensive postures, but Ivy put a hand up. "Wait," she said sadly, and Nina's pupils shrank.
Nina sat up, her expression becoming frightened as she saw everyone looking at her. Her roving eyes landed on the body, and her lips parted in horror. "No, no, no!" she cried out, clearly Nina and not Felix, hunching into herself as she sat on the cold floor. "I couldn't . . . stop." Her face wet with tears, she looked at Ivy. "Please. Make it stop," she whispered. "I didn't mean to. It was too much. I couldn't stop!"
The last had been an anguished cry of heartache, and I felt a wash of pity. Ivy brushed past me. Kneeling beside Nina, she took her in her arms and held her as she wept. The FIB officers turned away, uncomfortable and not knowing what to do. Hell, I didn't know what to do. I had a bad feeling that Nina had overpowered Felix, even as the dead vampire had tried to stop her from killing that man. The power had been too much, and she'd lost it, exactly as Ivy had said.
Glenn crouched beside Ivy and Nina, his hand going out in a show of support. "Let me help you upstairs," he said softly, and Nina jumped, shrinking back as he touched her.
"Don't touch me!" she shouted, cutting through the softer conversations. Her voice was panicked, and my sympathy deepened.
Dr. Cordova cleared her throat. "Detective, can I speak with you a moment. You and your . . . team?"
It wasn't a question. Glenn and Ivy exchanged knowing looks over the huddled, shaking woman, and he drew back, standing with a resigned air. Behind him, Dr. Cordova waited, clearly eager to punch him a new one. Behind her, a mix of Inderland and human cops all reluctantly gathered closer.
"I'll take her upstairs," Ivy said. Jenks landed on my shoulder, and we watched Ivy lead the stumbling woman past the plastic sheets still hanging and to the elevator, presumably. If anyone could help Nina, it would be Ivy - and Nina was going to need help.
"Put her in the van," Dr. Cordova said. "She's going into custody for the murder of that man."
"What?" I shouted, spinning around so fast that Jenks took off, startled.
"She murdered Kenny!" the woman tied to the chair screeched, moving the chair as she all but jumped up and down in it. "That clot murdered Kenny! I saw her do it! You all did!"
"You've got to be joking!" I said, aghast, but Glenn was wincing, his head down. Ivy kept moving, her stance at once aggressive, protective, and defiant with her arm over the broken woman's shoulder. Wherever she was taking her, I doubted very much that it was going to be the waiting suspects van. She was going to be halfway to a safe house three minutes after reaching the surface. Nina was going to suffer enough emotional trauma. Putting her in jail wasn't going to help. Was I as corrupt as Trent?
"You're letting her walk away!" the brunette shouted at their vanishing shadows. "Damn clot suckers! You're not going to get away with this," she yelled, spittle flying as she leaned forward against her bonds and raved. "I'll track her down myself and - "
"Will you shut up!" I shouted, having enough of her to last a lifetime.
The woman grinned at me, her mascara running from her sweat. "What's the matter with you, you little chubi?" she mocked, and my breath sucked in.
Jenks's wings clattered, and the murmured conversations suddenly ceased as my face paled.
"What did you call me?" I said, my voice quavering in anger at the crude, vulgar insult aimed at witches that had evolved during the Turn.
"Chubi, rhymes with booby, which you don't have, or doodie, which is what your face looks like," she said smugly, leaning back and making her chair squeak.
Appalled, I could do nothing as the men and women behind Glenn retreated farther into the shadows. "Get her out of here," Glenn said harshly, and two men hastened forward to volunteer, living vampires by the look of it, wheeling the woman past the still-standing milky plastic sheets to the distant elevator, eager to get out of Dr. Cordova's sight.
"Get your fucking hands off me, you bloody clots!" the woman was shouting, and Glenn's face darkened.
"If I may speak to you, Detective?" Dr. Cordova intruded smoothly.
Glenn briefly acknowledged her, then turned to me instead, making her angrier. "I, ah, need to tie off a few ends here," he said, ignoring Dr. Cordova for a moment more. "I'll see you upstairs. You did good, Rachel, despite not staying at the car."
I smirked, and Jenks snorted from my shoulder. "Yeah, we all did good," Jenks said tartly. "Can we get out of here? Rache, I'll show you the way to the elevator."
He darted into the dark, and I shook hands with Glenn. Pulling him into me, I whispered, "I don't care what she says, getting a HAPA member alive is more than the I.S. or the FIB has done in forty years."
"That's what I'm afraid of," he muttered back. "I have to keep that foul woman alive."
"Now, Detective!"
Our hands parted, and I gave him one last look before smiling at Dr. Cordova's anger. The adrenaline sparkling through me was wearing off, leaving a pleasant feeling of satisfaction. Past the remaining sheets of plastic, the air was cooler and didn't stink of vampire. Breathing deep, I followed Jenks's fading trail of dust and the distant sound of the woman's continual threats. I'd take the stairs. If I was stuck in an elevator with her, one of us wasn't going to come out alive.
"I've seen you, chubi!" the woman screamed at me, seeing me through the closed doors as I walked into the puddle of light spilling out onto the concrete floor from the huge industrial-size elevator. "We're going to get you. Your clot and rotter can't protect you!"
One of the vampires with her stopped the door from closing so I could ride up with them, and I rocked back with my thumbs in my pockets. "You're kidding, right?" I said, and he shrugged, letting the door go.
"There are more of us than you!" the woman howled as the doors began closing again. "We're everywhere! You're dead."
Jenks landed on my shoulder. "Can't they shut her up?"
"Dead!" she shouted through the metal doors, and the elevator hummed to life, rising.
Behind me, I could hear Dr. Cordova reaming Glenn out. No one would be coming up anytime soon, and I reached for the fire door to the nearby stairway. The stairwell was dark and unlit, but Jenks was dusting heavily enough to see by. The walls were cold and damp, and I wrapped my arms around myself for the first couple of flights, letting go when my exertions warmed me.
"Don't let it get to you, Rache. She's just an ignorant lunker," Jenks said as he rested at one of the turns.
"Person," I said, head down to watch my footing. "She's a person. Scared and ignorant. She doesn't know better." That's what I kept telling myself, but I'd never been called a chubi before, even at school, not even by the mean girls.
The elevator was open and empty when I got to the top of the stairs and left the stairway. It was just as dark in the empty warehouse, but the lighter square of darkness showed clearly where the wide double doors were now flung open. The silhouettes of the two vampires with the woman still handcuffed to her rolling chair showed clearly, and then I jumped at the twin pops of a gun.
"What the hell?" Jenks said softly, banking his dust.
The vampire pushing the handcuffed woman dropped. My eyes widened, and I put a hand to my mouth, my pulse jumping as the remaining one turned to a new figure in a long coat. It was the blonde. I could tell from here.
"Get Glenn!" I shouted at Jenks, and I started running.
The pop of a gun went off again, missing the remaining vampire as he dodged it and the glowing ball of magic the blond woman threw at him. It was her. She was trying to rescue her friend! And nearly everyone was downstairs listening to Dr. Cordova yell at Glenn!
That woman was gleefully throwing spells like it was a carnival game, making me wonder again at HAPA's new acceptance of magic even as they tried to wipe us out. Maybe she wasn't HAPA at all.
Jenks's wings were a clatter by my ear as I pounded to the open door, and I glanced at him. "Go get Glenn!" I told him again, and not waiting for his answer as I spilled out into the lighter darkness and cracked cement.
The vampire ducked another gunshot, then lunged at the woman, his hands outstretched to grab her.
"No!" I shouted in warning, and the woman still tied to the chair spun to me, her expression ugly as she struggled to free herself. But the vampire had touched the blond woman in the lab coat, who laughed maniacally as she coated him in a hazy green glow. He pulled back too late, clawing at his throat and screaming as he went down.
The sound was chilling, his shriek of pain in the black night. "Stop!" I shouted as I ran forward, my hand reaching to the small of my back to find . . . nothing. Damn it all to hell, the I.S. guy took my gun!
Both vampires were down, one still, the other writhing madly, clawing at his throat and leaving bleeding gouges. I hesitated over him, unable to do a thing as he died. The blond woman was kneeling behind the woman in the chair, the keys to the cuffs from the first vampire catching the faint starlight. "You stupid bitch!" I shouted as I lunged for them. The blonde was still working the cuffs. I had seconds.
"Turn me!" the woman in the chair screamed, and I jerked back as she kicked out at me, her tiny feet thumping harmlessly into my leg. I drew back and pulled myself together to give her a quick front kick and snapped her head back, but with a howl of revenge, she exploded out of her chair before I could recoup, her little fists flailing. She was out. I couldn't bring them both down unless I moved fast.
"Rache! Look out!" Jenks shrilled.
Shocked, I spun to him, then cried out as the rolling chair Suzie-Q had been in hit me square on. It took my knees out from under me, and I fell, hitting the cold pavement and yelping as soft body parts met hard, angular chair bits. Fall number two, I thought, holding my elbow as I sat up and kicked the chair away. Great.
"Where did they go?" I whispered, then jumped when someone grabbed my arms and shoved me down, face-first, onto the cement - again.
"Hey!" I yelped when my arms were yanked behind me and someone else jammed a sweet-smelling rag in my mouth.
I bit down hard, and a woman hissed as the rag was yanked away. "You Inderlander bitch!" the blond woman said, then smacked my face.
"Jenks! Get help!" I shrieked, then winced when something hit my head. I think it was a size 6 shoe, brown leather with a little rhinestone bow. More pissed than hurt, I wiggled, snarling up at the woman.
"Try her gut, Jenn," the blonde said, and my eyes widened as the brunette wound up and kicked me right in the solar plexus.
My air puffed out, and I curled in on myself, face grinding into the pavement. I couldn't breathe. Oh God. It hurt, and I struggled to hold on to my lunch, my arms pulled behind my back and my face bruised. My splat gun was long gone, and there was a wet spot on my thigh that I think was my broken vials.
"Get the bug," I heard the blond woman say matter-of-factly, and her lab coat came and went before my eyes. "Damn it, get the bug before he scratches my fucking eyes out, Jennifer!" she said again, louder.
Jennifer? That crazy woman in the chair was named Jennifer?
"Sons of bitches!" Jenks shrilled. "You friggin' sons of bitches!"
I had no magic. I was down. Despite all my preparations, I was helpless. Wayde was right. Trent was right. I was wrong, and now I was going to pay dearly for it. The blonde held my hands behind my back, and the familiar feeling of plastic went around my wrists. "Stop," I gasped as my air finally came back, and my fingers cramped when the strip was tightened too far.
The smell of propellant hissed into the air. Jenks hit the ground, struggling to run so they wouldn't step on him. His wings were glued shut. Oh God. Run, Jenks!
A car was coming from the distant parking lot, its headlights shining on me. Hope leapt in me. They'd heard the noise and were coming. "Over here!" I shouted, then grunted when Jennifer kicked me again. I squinted as the car pulled up to the warehouse door, its tires screeching. But my hope vanished when the window was rolled down and the man who'd run out with the woman who'd been in the cage shouted for the women to get in. Oh God. I was in trouble. From the trunk, thumps and screaming sounded.
Bobbing flashlights were coming closer from deep within the warehouse, and I frantically kicked out, fighting. If I could keep from being put in that car, I'd be okay. "Over here!" I shouted, squirming. "We're over here!"
In the glow of the headlights, the blond woman stood confidently, her fingers moving in a charm I recognized. Panic filled me. "Down! Everyone get down!" I shouted, but it was too late, and with a victorious glint in her eyes in the bright light from the car's headlights, the woman clapped her hands.
"Dilatare!" she shouted, and I cowered as a boom of sound pushed from her. The officers cried out and the lights fell and rolled as the force hit them. My eyes clamped shut, and my ears began to ring.
"That should do it," the woman said in satisfaction, her voice muffled to my spell-stunned ears; then she turned to me. "This is for hitting Jennifer," the blond woman said, her foot pulling back.
Her boot met my head, and I felt myself move, my body sliding across the cement a few inches. My head felt like it was exploding, and my breath eased from me in a soft sigh. A pair of masculine arms went under my arms, shortly followed by the pinch of being lifted and half dragged to the running car. I barely recognized the wonderful smell of fine leather car upholstery as my face hit it, and then the car light went off as the doors thumped shut.
"Suck it up, Gerald! I'm not going to sit in the back with that animal!" the woman said. "Drive!"
The engine thrummed, and my eyes shut, and I felt unconsciousness, creeping out from the pain, take me. But before I passed out completely, I had one last thought.
Five cots. But we had seen only four captors.