They both jumped at a soft knock on the door, and she forced her expression to a bland nothing when Pelhan poked his head in, three mugs carefully managed in his long fingers. “Tea and coffee,” he said, ignoring the tension in the room as he came in and handed the tea to her. “And for you, sir,” he added as he gave Ulbrine his mug.
“Thank you, Captain.” Ulbrine immediately set it down on the desk untasted. “I need to make a call. Is there a phone with a direct line out that I can use?”
I am not going to let them blame this on Daniel, Trisk thought.
Pelhan glanced at Trisk, who remained stoically placid. “Sure,” he said. “Trisk, will you be okay here for a moment? I’ve got a room for you across the street at the hotel, but I want you to have an escort over there.”
“Thank you, Captain, that would be wonderful,” she said, thinking it would be easier slipping out of a hotel than a police station.
Pelhan gestured for Ulbrine, and the two headed for the door. “I’m sorry, Trisk.” Ulbrine hesitated at the threshold as Pelhan waited in the hall. “Three years ago, this wasn’t what I envisioned happening.”
Her hands rested stiffly in her lap. “You’re not blameless in this . . . Sa’han.”
She hit the honorific mockingly hard and he frowned, one hand still on the door as he evaluated her mood. “I’ll wait for your answer,” he said, and she glared, silent.
The door shut behind Ulbrine with an obvious click. Immediately Trisk stood, angry and frustrated. Daniel could be dead for all she knew. She’d waited too long, tarried behind walls while people languished.
Leaving her tea beside Ulbrine’s coffee, she tried the door to find it was unlocked. Turning the knob silently, she opened it and looked out into the hall. Pelhan and Ulbrine were still there, lingering at a crossroads and discussing some small point. She froze as Pelhan saw her. But the witch diverted Ulbrine’s attention, ushering him down the hallway and presumably to a phone.
Trisk pulled back into the office, heart pounding. Her eyes closed as she listened at the crack in the door for their conversation to fade. A knot of anger eased; there were people who believed in her. Finally the hallway became quiet and Trisk slipped out into it. She headed for the front lobby, wondering if she should shirk people or pretend she had every right to be wandering around.
“Hi, Trisk,” Officer Randy said as she cautiously peeked into the open office floor before passing it. “Can I get you something?”
Pretend I have every right to be wandering around, she decided upon seeing his helpful smile. “Tea, but I’ll get it myself. Do you want any?” she said, and Randy shook his head, looking back down at his paperwork. “Hey, maybe you could tell me,” she added. “Do you know if they keep records of what person goes to what holding facility?”
“They sure do.” Randy stood and went to the next desk over. No one was at it, but it was covered with stacks of paper. “Gordon is supposed to be filing them, but he went downstairs to catch a few Z’s. Who are you looking for? The guy you were caught with?”
“Yes—” she said, her voice cutting off at a sudden shout coming from the break room.
“What now?” Randy said darkly, then added, “I’ll be right back,” as he wove between the desks to the back.
Before he’d even left the room, she was in the stacks of paper, shuffling down and looking for yesterday’s acquisitions. “Dr. Daniel Plank,” she said in satisfaction when she found him, noting he’d gone to the Chicago Stadium. It was a few miles away. She’d need transportation.
“Get off me!” Daniel’s voice filtered mutedly into the large common office. “You have no right to do this. Where’s Trisk? I won’t let you do this!”
Or I could just go down the hall, she thought dryly, her impetus to run faltering at a familiar clatter of wings. “Orchid!” she exclaimed, then her expression tightened. If Orchid was here, Kal wouldn’t be far behind.
“Hide me!” the tiny woman said, and Trisk started, shocked when Orchid tucked in between Trisk’s damp hair and her neck. “Daniel’s here to rescue you. You have to help him. Saladan and Kal are here!”
Trisk hesitated, then bolted in the direction Randy had gone. “And I should trust you because?” she said as she ran.
“Because Kal’s a slug turd,” Orchid said bitterly. “Who do you think helped Daniel escape out of that human pen? Me. I did. Go faster! I can’t fight Saladan. He throws magic around like Halloween candy. They’re going to kill him, Trisk!” Trisk ran faster, tapping a line as she went. “They want to hang the plague around his neck and let him sink, and they’d rather he be dead when they do it so he can’t complain.”
“Not if I can help it,” Trisk said, almost sliding past the open door to the break room. Daniel was on the floor, Randy holding him down with a knee on his back. Kal and Saladan stood over them, the older man looking as if he’d eaten something sour.
“I’m not letting you blame her for this, you bloodsucking hypocrites!” Daniel shouted.
“Then agree to take responsibility,” Saladan said as he leaned over the downed man.
“You son of a bitch,” she whispered, not sure which angered her more, Saladan’s domineering attitude or Kal’s satisfied smile as they used her to blackmail Daniel.
Her hands tingled with the force of the line running through her, hot and demanding to be loosed. Kal looked up, a flicker of fear in his eyes. “Trisk,” Daniel whispered when he saw her. Pox scarred his neck and face, and something in her shifted sideways with a painful realization. He’d come to find her, risked everything—and he was going to die.
But then Saladan pulled on the same ley line she was, and she dropped, four years of demon studies demanding it.
“Hey!” Orchid shrilled in protest, darting to the overhead light. Trisk rolled, instinct and an utter lack of trust saving her as Saladan’s evil-looking ball of purple-tinted energy hit the floor where she’d been, spreading out in a sparkling hiss that smelled of cut chives.
“What the hell?” Randy said, knee still on Daniel’s back, and Trisk stared at Kal, betrayal thick in her. Her eyes narrowed, and that fast, her world changed.
He had callously hurt someone she cared about, and that she would not forgive.
“Look out!” Kal shouted, lurching behind the tables when Trisk rolled to her feet, a glowing ball of energy already tingling her palms.
“Detrudo!” she exclaimed, then shoved it at Saladan, fully expecting him to deflect it.
“Rhombus!” Saladan countered, but his circle wouldn’t form because Randy and Daniel were lying too surely across the proposed barrier, their auras interfering. Her curse sped across the distance. Dark eyes wide, Saladan ducked and deflected it.
The charm ricocheted to hit Randy full in the chest. The officer fell back with a pained moan, collapsing into convulsions. Trisk was already moving, her hands glowing with loosed power as Daniel rolled away, free from the imprisoning weight.
Now Saladan’s circle formed, and Trisk skidded to a halt to keep from running into it. She’d wanted to slip past his forming circle, but having failed didn’t mean she was done.
Shaking, they stared at each other, stray imbalances of force skating like lightning across the molecule-thin barrier humming between them. “You dare to attack me? You little elf whelp?” Saladan said, his face red with anger.
“I’m not taking the blame for this, and neither will Daniel,” she said, her knees threatening to buckle. “Kalamack will.”
“Not likely.” Saladan frowned in disdain. “Even your enclave will look the other way.”
She scowled, knowing it to be true. “Perhaps, but I’m not the one hiding in a circle.” Her smile became wickedly satisfied, and Saladan’s look of confidence turned to affront, then alarm when she placed her palms against his circle, and . . . like a demon, pushed. Daniel has the plague, a tiny part of her thought, her heartache swelling. They must have forced it on him.
Saladan’s eye twitched as he strengthened his
hold on the line. Trisk clenched her teeth at the sudden flash of pain arcing through her as Saladan drew more energy into maintaining his circle. She redoubled her force, a cry of frustration rising with the pain, stabbing knives striking her palms, diving to her core, and turning into glass shards with every heartbeat.
“Trisk, Stop!” Daniel shouted, edging forward with Orchid behind him.
Sweat broke out on her, but there was nothing but the small space between her hands as she forced her will against Saladan’s . . . until a tiny crack of doubt formed within his certainty. He was good, but she was an elf—and he’d hurt someone she cared about.
Screaming in defiance, she poured her will into it, widening the crack until, with a snap, she broke his circle.
She fell back into Daniel’s waiting arms, panting as she scrambled to stand on her own. Furious, she never took her eyes from Saladan. The tall man stared at her in sudden doubt. “You’re going to fry for killing Daniel,” she said again, her voice raw with heartache.
“Trisk, I’m okay,” Daniel said, tugging at her arm. “Orchid pixed me. It’s just dust!”
Her jaw dropped, and she blinked at his wide-eyed earnestness, only now seeing the blisters’ different texture. “You’re okay?” she warbled as Orchid nodded, and he smiled at her.
“Not for long,” Saladan said as he reached out and grabbed her wrist. “A no-account upstart isn’t going to stand between me and what I want.”
Her anger rushed back, and Trisk tucked down and into Saladan, flinging him over her back to slam into the break room floor. Groaning, the man reached for his back, unable to get up. “Me either,” she said, breathing hard but satisfied. Lip curling in disgust, she twitched her fingers into a binding spell, watching Saladan go still as it soaked past his aura and took hold.
Daniel inched up beside her, looking down at Saladan. “I didn’t know you could do that.” He grinned, giving her shoulder a little squeeze as if to test her muscle. “Real ninja-like.”
She gave him a grateful smile, so happy to see him alive and well it almost hurt. “You’re okay. I thought they’d made you eat a tomato,” she said, and then her expression fell.
“Where’s Kal?”
32
“Gone.” Orchid dropped from the light fixture to land on Daniel’s shoulder. “Kal saw he was losing and left.”
Rubbing his chafed wrists, Daniel grimaced at the tables slid out of place, the spilled coffee, and Saladan and Randy still on the floor. “We need to leave.”
“Not without Kal,” Trisk said, and Orchid gave a bark of pixy laughter.
“I’m not going anywhere with that slug snot,” Orchid said, wings moving to make a bright silver dust cascade down Daniel’s front. “No way, no how.”
“We need him,” Trisk said as she picked up Kal’s hat and handed it to Daniel.
“For what?” Daniel held the hat as if not knowing why she’d given it to him. “You going to use him as bait for the Were gangs outside?”
Jaw set, she brushed off the hat and put it on his head. Immediately Orchid hid herself under it. “Kal’s going to testify that you started the plague,” Trisk said. “He can’t do that if he’s with us. We have to find him before Ulbrine does.”
Orchid made a raspberry sound from under the hat. “Fine,” she said sourly.
“Thanks, Orchid,” Trisk said. “Can you do a sweep of the building without getting caught?”
“Duh.” Orchid peeked out from beneath the hat, then jerked back under when a sudden commotion in the hall turned into four officers pushing into the break room.
“It’s okay. We’re all okay,” Trisk said when one of them ran out yelling for Captain Pelhan and the other three went to Randy. “Has anyone seen Kal?” But they weren’t listening.
“We had it in impound” came Pelhan’s irate voice from the hall. “You’re telling me that kid not only got out of his cuffs, but boosted his own van? From impound?”
“We ran out of room so we had to put it on the street,” someone said.
“And why the hell am I smelling cinnamon and wine?” the captain exclaimed as they pushed into the break room. Seeing Trisk, he stopped short and reddened, embarrassed for the mild swear word. “Sorry, Doctor,” he said, and then his expression steeled when he noticed Daniel beside her, his neck and face marked with blisters.
“He’s been pixed,” Trisk said, breathless. “He’s fine, I promise. Did you see Kal?”
“Thank God,” Pelhan said. “You must be Dr. Plank. How did you get pixed?”
“He said I could,” Orchid said from under his hat, and both Pelhan and the officer with him started. “I gave him blisters so he could hitch a ride out of the arena on a morgue truck.”
Pelhan’s eyebrows rose. “Your hat is speaking, Dr. Plank,” he said, and Daniel smirked as Orchid peeked out. The tiny woman looked decidedly embarrassed, brushing her dress smooth before taking to the air. “Well, I’ll be damned,” Pelhan said, clearly charmed as he put his hands on his knees and peered at her. “I haven’t seen a pixy since I was twelve and they cut down the park to put in a 7-Eleven.”
Orchid’s dust turned a dismal green. Any pixies there were long gone. “Are you sure?”
Pelhan nodded. “I’m sorry.”
Trisk pushed between them impatiently. “Kal. Did you see him?” she asked, and Pelhan shook his head, sliding out of the way as his officers hustled a groggy Randy out and to the infirmary. Saladan was next, slung between two men, and Trisk’s need to leave grew when his hand pushed fitfully at the officers carrying him. The binding spell wouldn’t hold him much longer. She’d downed one hell of a witch. She hadn’t known she’d had it in her. Quen would be proud, she thought, even as she worried about him.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Pelhan said, eyeing the dust slipping out from under Daniel’s hat.
Daniel took a breath, his expression cross, and Trisk silenced him with a soft touch on his arm. “I’m sorry, Pelhan,” she said evenly, ready to fight her way out if needed. “I can’t let them do this. They want to blame Daniel for everything.”
“And if I don’t agree to take it, they’ll blame her,” Daniel said.
“You misunderstand.” Pelhan glanced at the open hall. “You can’t stay here. Ulbrine is still on the phone, and I’d rather you be gone by the time he’s done. I don’t like his plans to make science the enclave’s scapegoat.”
Relief buoyed her up. “How did you know they were blackmailing us?”
Pelhan’s expression became sheepish, his hand on the small of her back as he ushered them into the hall. “I put a bug in my office last year when someone kept using my phone to make long-distance calls.” He held up his hand, showing her a wooden ring that was probably an amulet. “I can hear everything that happens in there.”
“You can do that?” Daniel whispered, and Pelhan’s eyes flicked to him. Looking uncomfortable, the captain hid his hand behind his back.
“Dr. Cambri . . .” Captain Pelhan said, his voice pained and clearly worried as they continually broke the silence in front of a human.
“I’ll deal with it,” she said, and Pelhan’s hand on her back pressed tighter as he hustled them forward.
“You had better,” he said softly as he leaned closer. But then he pulled away, and she breathed easier. “Daniel, I’m sorry for putting you where I did, but I’ve gotten word that no one new is coming down with the plague at the Chicago Stadium. Thank you for that. In this town, a rumor is as good as a public service announcement.”
Daniel met the captain’s grin with his own. “Once I convinced them I wasn’t a nutcase, the rest was easy.” His smile faded.
“I wish I could take you to the TV station,” Pelhan said as he snagged a blue police department jacket from a desk they were passing, then another. “But even if it was working, I don’t dare. I have very little wiggle room with the enclave here. I can blame Saladan and Kal for you slipping me, but if you’re caught again, that will be the end of th
e rumor, and I want it to keep spreading.”
Trisk took one of the jackets and gratefully shrugged into it. “That’s why we need Kal. We can’t let him make an official statement.”
“Way ahead of you.” Pelhan scuffed to a halt at the back door, reaching in a pocket to bring out a metal ring. “God, this is weird,” he said as he pulled the pin from it and a faint glow swelled and then vanished to a little dot that seemed to hang in the air, just off center of the open space. “Daniel, if you ever breathe a word . . .”
“I know.” Daniel stared at it in fascination even as he put on the second jacket. “I say anything, and I’m dead.” He looked up, expression placid. “The threat has lost its meaning, but I’m not very eager to tell anyone now.”
“Don’t worry about Daniel” came Orchid’s voice from under his hat. “I’m his watchdog. I’ll make sure he dies if he ever makes a peep about us,” the pixy said.
Pelhan cocked his head, his amused expression vanishing when Orchid looked out and touched her hip where a sharp spike of metal hung. “I feel safer knowing that,” he said, and she beamed. Daniel rolled his eyes, clearly unaware that the pixy’s threat was real and utterly enforceable.
“So . . . what is it?” Trisk said, and Pelhan’s attention shifted to the ring of metal in his hand
“A tracker. My aunt makes them. We use them with missing persons. Ulbrine had me sensitize it to Kal.” Pelhan shifted it slightly as it lay on Trisk’s palm, and the bright dot moved. “He’s in the streets. I’d say . . . walking.” Pelhan pulled back, his gaze going to the closed door and the night visible beyond the thick glass. “Try not to get caught by the Weres,” he added. “There’s a lot of action on the street, even accounting for the unrest.”
“Thank you,” she said. She knew she had to go, but was suddenly reluctant to leave.
Pelhan shifted from foot to foot, clearly uncomfortable. “I wish I could do more. I’d give you a pass for the Weres, but . . .”
“But then there’d be a paper trail to you,” Daniel said as he peeked out the window at the dark street and the three-story parking structure empty and silent behind it. “Don’t worry about it. We can slip a pack of Weres.” He hesitated. “It looks clear. Ready, Trisk?”