CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“We’re going to arrest Arianna Vega.”
I stared at Eli for a second, and then I laughed. “Score! When?”
“Is right now soon enough for you?”
I made a show of glancing at the time on my cell. “Yeah, I happen to be free. So, what’s the plan?”
We were sitting in one of the briefing rooms at HR headquarters. Eli had just explained he’d been called into a meeting with the NHTF earlier, and that they had a warrant for Arianna’s arrest since she was harboring a known fugitive.
“Well, our intel tells us that Arianna has an appointment away from home tonight. We’re going to try to nab her while she’s away. Then, we’ll see if we can pressure her into releasing information about Alexander and your—and Anna.” His eyes darted away from mine at the last part.
I rolled right on past the awkward mention of my sister. “And if she won’t talk?”
“Well, then we have to try to bust into her apartment.” He leaned back casually in his chair.
“You do realize her security system is almost as high tech as the HR’s?”
Eli seemed unperturbed. “We’ve got people with special talents. It shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Alright then. Let’s roll.” We got up and headed out into the hall, where three dozen or so angelic warriors were waiting for us. They fell into line behind me and Eli, and I felt a little like a military leader heading for war.
“Where’s the appointment?” I asked as we piled into big black vans.
“Oh, someplace I’m sure you’ve visited a time or two yourself,” Eli responded, a slight smile on his face.
“You’re not talking about the gynecologist, right? Because immortals don’t have to worry about stuff like that…” I watched his face, a devilish grin on mine.
He blushed, sure enough. “No, not the—just wait and see, okay?”
A few minutes later, after we’d rendezvoused with the NHTF trucks, we pulled up in front of a place in Queen Anne that was indeed familiar to me. “The Eternal Goddess Spa?”
“Yeah. I heard this place is open all night to serve vamps and other supes. Have you been here?” Eli looked over at me.
Only every week…. “Yeah, once in a while.”
The back of the van opened and I jumped out into the street. The NHTF dudes looked classic special ops, all dressed in black, making silly hand gestures as they ran in a low crouch to the front of the building. “You want them to bust in there? Or you want me to take her down quiet?” I asked Eli.
He hesitated a moment. “You can try. We’ve got men around back in case she gets away.” He gestured for the NHTF to hold back.
“Try? Get away?” I rolled my eyes and sauntered up to the glass doors.
“Good evening, Ms. Star,” a melodious voice welcomed me.
I walked across the gleaming marble floor and leaned against the counter. “Hi, Carol. Is it possible for me to get a massage? I don’t have an appointment.”
“Of course, Ms. Star. Let me see who’s available.” The blonde started to flip through her appointment book.
“Oh, and my friend Arianna’s here tonight. Maybe I could get the room next to hers?” I smiled sweetly.
Carol’s eyes clouded with confusion for just a second, probably wondering why she’d never seen me and Arianna here together. But then she smiled and nodded. “Certainly.”
As she searched for an opening, I glanced behind me onto the street. From here, all looked peaceful. You wouldn’t know four vans full of soldiers sat just out of view. Ah, this was going to be good.
“Okay, it looks like Marie is free at the moment. Right this way.” Carol smiled brightly and led me down the perfumed hall. Candles flickered from little alcoves in the walls, and some kind of new-agey flute music played on the surround-sound. It was all quite relaxing.
We stopped before a small private room with a massage table and lots of vibrant looking plants scattered about. “Here you are. Can I get you some water or herbal tea?” Carol asked.
“Tea would be great. Thanks so much.”
As soon as she slipped out, I walked softly around to the room next to me. I opened the door and peeked in. Sure enough, there was Arianna, face down on the table, her long red curls hanging nearly to the ground.
“Just the murderous bitch I was looking for.” I pulled my blade out of its sheath in one silken move.
Arianna flew off the table in a blur of speed, a look of pure rage on her face.
“Veronica,” I said to the masseuse, who stood a couple feet away, shaking with terror, “I’m afraid your client isn’t going to be coming back for quite some time. She’s going to have a little chat with the NHTF tonight about harboring assassins. Plus, she tried to have me killed. Just FYI, in case you guys have a policy about clients trying to off each other.”
Veronica didn’t know how to respond to that, so she just nodded, her eyes bigger than the hot river stones Arianna had clattered all over the floor.
“Oh, and Veronica? Can you run along and tell Carol I’m going to need a rain check on my massage? Thanks so much.” I smiled and waved her on. She darted one look over at Arianna and high-tailed it.
“You whore!” Arianna spat. “Do you really think you’re going to get away with this?”
I laughed. “Blows, doesn’t it? Actually getting called out for breaking the law, like a normal citizen. How bourgeois.” I pointed my sword towards her robe, which hung against the wall. “You gonna go in the buff or make yourself decent?”
She seethed, her green eyes laser points that melted into me. Slowly, she pulled the robe on. Then, of course, she tried to escape.
As she blurred towards me, fangs bared, I brought my fist up in a tight uppercut to her jaw. Her feet left the ground and she hit the floor with a nasty crunch. I leaned over her, the tip of my sword under her chin.
“Thank you. I thought for a moment there you were going to go quietly. How boring that would have been.” I reached down, grabbed a fistful of red curls, and dragged her on her back kicking and screaming out onto the street. “I’ll reschedule for next week, okay?” I called to Carol as I walked past.
As soon as I appeared out on the street, the NHTF ran up and cuffed Arianna. Not with silver—a total myth—but with some high-tech metal the government made that could stand up to a supe’s strength. They injected her with the supe suppressant, too, just to be safe. I watched with great satisfaction as they loaded her into the back of their van.
“Felt good, didn’t it?” Eli asked, coming up behind me.
I gazed at him in puzzlement. “Hell yeah it did. But revenge isn’t very angelic, now is it?”
He shrugged. “Justice. Not revenge.” Then he grinned. “Okay, well the hair pulling thing was probably pure revenge. But she did send nearly two dozen vamps to kill you in a dark alley.”
“Yeah, karma’s a bitch.” I smiled back at him. “So? Are we busting into the penthouse?”
“We can get into position. They’ll need a few minutes to see if she’s in a talking mood. After that they may give her some truth serum, though that often doesn’t work on the older vamps.”
“Sounds like a plan.” I sheathed my sword and followed him back into the van. A short ride later, we were sitting outside Arianna’s building. Hell, I spent practically more time over here than at my own house these days.
The other angels filed out of the van to await instructions. Eli and I were the last to go, and as he got up I grabbed his hand. “Hey. I never got to really thank you for saving Quinn last night.”
He looked uncomfortable. “Like I told Quinn, that’s not really something you should thank me for.” He looked down. “And actually, you were the one that believed I could bring her back, when I was sure it was too late. I should have had more faith.”
“Everybody loses faith sometimes,” I said.
“Angels aren’t supposed to,” he said, his voice just above a whisper.
I looked up at him
. “Remember how you said everyone expected you to be perfect all the time? Well, not me. You don’t have to worry about that with me.”
He gazed at me intently for a moment. “Thanks, Zy.” Then he turned and hopped out of the van.
I sat there for a sec, then followed him. As I gazed up at the building before me, I wondered if Anna was up there in Arianna’s apartment. Did she want to talk to me as desperately as I wanted to talk to her? Did she want to talk to me at all? Or had Alexander poisoned her so completely?
My thoughts were rudely interrupted by the ring of a cell phone. Eli’s.
“News?” He asked the caller. A pause while he listened. “Excellent. We’ll be there momentarily.” He snapped his phone shut. “She broke quickly. I have the code to get inside.”
I felt a wave of surprise. But then, she was a spoiled brat. I bet she’d spilled her guts the second they told her that in jail she’d have to wear those hideous orange suits. Hell, I might cave myself if faced with that murky future. “Sweet. Let’s crack this baby.”
Eli gestured to some of the angels and the NHTF team, and we headed for the front entrance. He flipped something—a badge?—at the doormen and we took the elevator to Arianna’s floor. We paused before her apartment and Eli slid open the metallic cover that hid the security keypad.
“Arianna’s security system requires a code and a full aural scan,” Eli said. “She can program it for her and her staff, and it will only open once the scan is complete. The person must be alive and not be under duress—the aura changes if someone is highly stressed.”
“That’s clever. So how are we going to get in?”
“Well, luckily she can perform the scan remotely with a handheld device. Once I type in the first code—” He quickly typed in a ten-digit number and stepped back as the light on the pad changed from red to green, followed by a click, which I presumed to be the door unlocking. “—she’s supposed to perform the scan.” Eli turned the knob and opened the door.
The foyer stretched before us, and about ten feet in front of us another closed door. The second door had been open the night I’d come for dinner, so the foyer had seemed like any other. Now, without the dazzling lights and food and guests and servants, it looked very austere, like the highly secured penthouse it was. I followed Eli and some of the angels towards the second door, feeling a wave of claustrophobia with all of us crammed in here.
At the second door, Eli punched in another code. Good lord, how did he keep that many numbers in his head? It must be an angel thing. The door slid open, and he motioned for some of the angels to move ahead into the apartment. We were trying to be quiet, on the off chance Alexander or Anna were here. Wouldn’t that be a lucky catch.
As I started to move towards the second door, something flashed right before me. A glowing orb appeared, hanging in midair.
“A portal! Shit!”
I dove for the second door, but didn’t make it. And I didn’t have further time to panic. From within the portal stepped two 10th level demons.
Eli lunged towards me, back into the foyer. The demons looked down at us with unpleasant smiles, then each reached up a clawed hand and made a funny gesture, bringing their fingertips down towards their palms. The doors on each side of the foyer snapped shut. Me and Eli were trapped in a tiny room. Like sardines in a can. With demons.
I launched myself at the demon closest to me. It was all rotting-flesh gray, with hundreds of bulbous glistening eyeballs all over its face. My blade and I sung through the air. And then I was crashing into the opposite wall. I sat stunned for a second. Had it thrown me back? No, it had disappeared. A damp mist hung in the air, with the delightful aroma of putrid fish and sulfur. As I spun around, the demon began to reappear, a wicked, lop-sided grin on its face. I had jumped right through it, into the wall. Fantastic.
I ducked as Eli, now standing opposite me, flung a ball of energy towards the demon facing him. Stabbing upwards from where I lay on the ground, I was almost able to connect with some flesh before the demons dissolved again, moving just out of range. One of the demons whipped its blade-edged tail down, leaving a bloody gash up my forearm. I rolled to the side, but it moved faster. It jabbed its tail down, stabbing the tip into my shoulder. I gasped and tried to scramble back, but found myself trapped against the wall.
Light burst and bounced between the walls, and I couldn’t tell what came from Eli and what came from the demons, who possessed magic of their own. If I was going to survive, I needed to add a little of my own to the mix. Concentrating on the demon before me, I tried to use my power to lock him into solid form, so he couldn’t escape my sword. He started to flicker out of sight, but then wavered and remained solid. All hundred or so glistening eyes looked down at me with a curious expression. Then he blinked out of sight.
I spun around. Where had he gone? I felt a slight pulse of energy behind me and ducked, just as he rematerialized. His grin appeared first, like a really scary Cheshire cat. “You’re going to have to do better than that,” he said in a glass shard voice.
I lunged at him with my sword, but he was already disappearing again, except for his razor blade tail, which shot out and stabbed me in the stomach. Blood bloomed on my shirt. I staggered forward, clutching my abdomen. My hand came away crimson. I’d have to do better than this for sure.
It was hard to concentrate with Eli blasting white light everywhere. But I had to do it, and quickly. I called on my power. It rushed in and flared out against the walls. Focusing, I pulled it in and concentrated it on both demons, on their physical presence, solid, heavy. Both of them turned to look at me, and started to flicker and blink out again. “Now, Eli!” I screamed, straining against their incredible pull on my magic, trying to free themselves.
A blast of white power shot out of him and enveloped the two demons. For a moment they just stood there illuminated, their tails swishing around, looking for a victim. Then they burst into dust.
I fell forward and Eli grabbed me. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” I swallowed, my throat tight as my wounds healed up.
The doors opened and we were rushed by the others from both sides. “We’re good,” Eli said. “Finish checking the apartment. I’m going to call the NHTF and tell them about the slight demonic detail Arianna forget to mention.”
I walked over and sat down in one of Arianna’s fancy chairs. As an afterthought, I wrung my blood-soaked shirt all over the upholstery. The lying hag seemed to like making me bleed, so she could have a little souvenir.
Then I felt something. Someone. Anna. Here, in the apartment. I don’t know how I knew, whether it was an Anam Gatai thing or a sister thing. But she was definitely here.
I stood back up and followed the feeling like a divining rod to some stairs, which led up to an outdoor observatory on the roof. Outside, a cold night air carried promises of winter. And sure enough, a shadow stood a few feet away, at the corner of the building. “Going somewhere?”
She jerked her head around, and I saw her eyes glint in the dark. Warily, she stepped forward into the light. “Actually I just got here. But it seems I’ve come at a bad time.”
“They’ve arrested Arianna. You need to make a deal Anna, before you get in too deep.”
She laughed, though her body was rigid with tension, ready to flee at any moment. “I’m already in too deep. You know what I’ve done.”
“Because of Alexander. But it’s not too late to get free of his influence. I’m your sister. I want to help you.” I tried to keep my voice level and calm, but it wasn’t easy. I kind of wanted to cry, and scream, and shake her a few times.
“What makes you think any of this is because of Alexander?” Her tone cut through me. “Maybe I want to be a vampire. Maybe I want to kill the HR. Don’t try to assume you know me just because we have the same blood. It’s been over two hundred years. I’m different now.”
“You’re still my sister,” I said.
Her eyes met mine for a brief momen
t. And then Eli stepped out from the stairwell. Anna went into a low crouch. “Wait—”
She was gone.
Eli spun on me. “What the hell was that?”
My eyes widened. “I was trying to get her to make a deal. You know, turn in Alexander.”
“You don’t need to be negotiating with an assassin! You should have taken her into custody, and asked questions later!” The veins in his neck popped out everywhere.
“She’s my sister! I thought I had a better chance with a softer approach.” I crossed my arms over my chest, staring him down.
“A soft approach? We don’t have time for that with the HR’s life on the line.” He spun and jogged back down the stairs. “If you can’t be impartial…”
“Then what? I’m fired?” I raced after him, wishing I could shove him down face first.
“Yes!” He turned around and I ran right into him. “I need you to be on your game. That’s what we hired you for.”
“Oh, so now I’m just the hired help? The obedient robot?” I yelled in his face.
“Yeah, what else? You’re here for a job. That’s it!” He sucked in a breath, and then his face went still, emotionless. “You’re off the case, Zyan. Things were already tenuous with the history between you and Alexander, but now that your sister is involved… it’s too much.”
His words cut into me. They shouldn’t have hurt, but they did. He was right—things had gotten too personal. But not because of Alexander and my sister. I’d let my guard slip. “Good luck on the case, Commander Whitesong,” I said, my words blades of ice.
I strode past him and kept going until I was out on the street. And then I ran.
Countless minutes later I stopped and looked around me. I stood on the outskirts of the city, looking east over Lake Washington. Thoughts began to filter past the black storm of my emotions. I didn’t know what it was about him that got me so unsettled. Maybe… maybe because he was everything I couldn’t be. A savior, when I was damned. Light, when I was dark. No matter what good I did, I would always be eternally condemned. Nothing could change that. Nothing. And he contrasted with that reality more than anything else could.
I took in a deep breath of cold air, then headed back to my apartment. I had some decisions to make.