Broken (46 page)

I bounced on the balls of my feet, testing the fire escape for stability and squeaks. Seemed fine.

I shimmied forward, stopping every few inches for a look-and-listen sweep. All stayed silent and still. I’d almost made it to the end when a scent wafted past.

It smelled like…No, that couldn’t be.

I looked down to see Nick glaring up at me, arms crossed.

“Does that seem safe to you, Elena? Crawling on a rusted fire escape?”

“You—you’re—”

“Supposed to be sleeping soundly, knocked unconscious by a blow to the head?” He snorted. “At least you didn’t trick me this time.”

“I’m sor—”

“Get down from there.”

His voice was stern, but he helped me down. As he brushed me off, I tensed, realizing if Nick was here, that meant—

“Jeremy and Antonio,” I said, looking around. “Where are they?”

“Back at the hotel. Hopefully, still busy with Clay and thinking we’re down in the bar, getting some food into you before we leave for home.”

“So I didn’t—?”

“Knock me out? No, I tricked you this time. Seemed fair enough.”

He took my elbow and led me out into the lane. I balked, knees locking, certain he was about to drag me back to the hotel, but he started heading the way Jaime and Rose had gone.

“But how’d you—” I began.

“Know you were going to take off? Come on, Elena. Clay’s in danger of losing his arm—or worse—and you’re both in danger of losing your babies, but you can stop both things by killing Hull. Only Jeremy wants to go home. You overhear that, and overhear Jaime saying she can track down Hull. Then you find an excuse to talk to Jaime alone. You don’t need a college degree to know how to add two plus two.”

We reached the end of the lane. Still holding my arm, he steered me south. I dug in my heels.

“I can’t go back, Nick. I’m sorry but—”

“If I was taking you back, do you think I would have let you hit me in the first place? My sense of smell isn’t as good as yours, but I can still track that zombie, and she went this way.”

He paused, looked around, then started striding down the quiet road. From the smell, I knew we were indeed following Rose.

“If Clay was awake, this is what he’d want,” Nick said. “Well, no, letting you go after this guy is
not
what he’d want, but if he could have done it himself, he’d have made the same choice you did—stopping Hull instead of running—so I guess that’s what we should do.”

“Nick, I don’t want you—”

“Don’t. I’m pissed off enough that you never trust me enough to tell me what you’re planning—” He cut off my protest with a wave. “I know, it’s because you don’t want to lead me into something dangerous, but I think I’m old enough to decide that for myself. Point is, I’m pissed off already, so don’t make it worse by telling me to run along home. I’m here, I’m staying. You need me.”

I looked up at him. “Thanks.”

He nodded, then waved down the street. “There they are. Let’s get moving and find this bastard.”

From the look on Jaime’s face when I arrived with Nick, she was too relieved to question. Probably happy to have someone else on the assault team…someone more capable than a necromancer, a pregnant werewolf and a zombie who was shedding body parts at an alarming rate.

Nick took the burden of Rose, and we carried on.

“Almost there,” Rose cackled as she disengaged herself from Nick’s arm and fairly scampered toward an alley. “ ’e’s down there. I can feel ’im now. Right down there.”

I paused at the head of the alley. It looked…familiar. Halfway down it, I stopped and stared down at the marks in the dry dirt. Footprints showing a brief scuffle. My own footprints, plus a second pair. Boots—short black boots. I could see us there, only a few days ago, me pinning Zoe in the alley.

My stomach flip-flopped. I blamed it on the babies, and told myself this was a coincidence. No, not a coincidence. Danger. Zoe was in danger. Hull had fixed his sights on the one “team member” left outside the circle.

I grabbed Nick’s arm.

“He’s after Zoe,” I said. “The bar where she does her business is right down there, around the corner. She must be inside. He’s got to be waiting somewhere.”

“If he’s waiting for her, he won’t be expecting us.”

I nodded.

“Wot are you waiting for?” Rose said. “You—”

I shushed her.

“But ’e’s right ’round this corner a ways,” she said.

“We need a plan of attack.”

“Plan? There’s three of you—”

I clapped my hand over her mouth. A last resort—believe me. Her lidless eyes glared at me, but when I pulled my hand back she only limped away to lean against the wall.

“Before we get too far with our plan, we should find out exactly where he is.”

“You think so, do you, luv?”

Shaking her head, she hobbled to the end of the alley. She peeked out, then pulled back. Another mutter. Another check, leaning farther out. Then she came back to us.

“I thought ’e was right ’round that corner, but there’s an ale ’ouse back there. ’e’s inside.”

“Inside?”

I looked at Nick.

We headed up the fire escape Clay had used earlier. Once inside the second floor, I followed his trail to find the vantage point he’d used to watch Zoe and me below. We ended up at a trapdoor over the bar. Prop the door open a crack, crouch down and you had a pretty good view of the patrons below.

Crouching was easier for Nick, so he looked through. When he glanced up again, I knew our fears had been confirmed.

“She’s there with Hull, isn’t she?” I whispered.

He nodded.

“Talking to him?”

Another nod.

“Not being coerced, not held against her will…”

I tried not to be surprised. I really did. Yet, in my gut, I still felt betrayed.

It was almost laughable. Given four potential allies, we’d batted zero for four. First, Shanahan, whom we hadn’t trusted from the start, who’d turned out to be as innocent as Tolliver had claimed—and as innocent as Tolliver himself. Then Hull. Never trusted, but ignored. His story believed; his presence tolerated; his threat overlooked entirely. Now Zoe. Of all four, this one hurt the worst.

“What do we do?” Nick whispered.

“Don’t fight her unless you have to. She’ll heal faster than you can hit. Disable her if necessary. She doesn’t have any special powers except her fangs. If she gets those into you, she can knock you out. Otherwise—not a threat. We disable her and hand her over to Cassandra for trial.”

He nodded, obviously relieved that I wasn’t going to suggest we behead her ourselves. That wasn’t our place…and even if it had been, I wasn’t sure I could do it.

“I think they’re getting ready to leave,” Nick said, scrambling up. “Hull’s standing and Zoe’s talking to the bartender.”

“There’s only one way out,” I said. “Get back into the alley we came in through. Shoo Jaime and Rose someplace safe, then find a spot as far down as you can.”

“What about you?”

“No way I’ll get down that fire escape fast enough.” I prodded him toward the exit, still talking. “There’s a window around the corner. I’ll watch from there. Don’t attack if you don’t absolutely have to. We’ll follow them for a bit.”

He swung through the window onto the fire escape.

I grabbed his shoulder. “If we have to fight Hull, remember what I said. Stay out of sight for a bit. Let me draw his fire, wear his spell power down. He won’t kill me.”

Nick hesitated—I knew he didn’t like the idea—but he nodded and left.

Control

I FOUND MY WINDOW AND CRACKED IT OPEN
,
NOT SO
much so I could hear—I’d hear through the glass just fine—but so I could yank it open and jump through. A second-story leap was easy enough for a werewolf. It wasn’t something I cared to do when I was pregnant, so if I had a choice, I’d return to the fire escape.

Nick barely made it to a hiding place before Zoe and Hull turned the corner. As they headed into the alley, Hull slowed, chin going up as his nostrils flared. Damn! The alley would still smell of Rose.

After a moment’s hesitation, though, he kept walking. Rose’s stink must have been faded enough that he just dismissed it as a stray “bad smell.” He’d ordered Rose to stay at the hotel, so that’s where she’d be.

“I should call,” I heard Zoe say. “Let them know we’re on our way.”

A shiver raced up my spine. Them? Oh, God, there were more supernaturals involved. Of course there were. Zoe had a whole network of contacts here. When Hull promised to let her in on the “deal,” she’d probably offered the services of others.

Did this mean those others already knew about the babies? I fought a prickle of panic. Handle the immediate threat first.

I’d missed Hull’s response, but it must have been something like “Don’t bother calling,” because she took her cell phone from her purse and waved it at him.

“This little box?” she said. “Great modern invention. Means I don’t even need to stop walking. No time wasted.”

“Do you really think they need any disruptions right now? Why else would they have sent me?”

Sent him? Was Hull working for someone else?

A figure appeared at the end of the alley. The bowler-hatted man, coming up behind them.

Zoe stopped. “Why send someone at all? Why not just phone?”

Hull shrugged. “Perhaps they couldn’t find your code…your numbers. They don’t tell me such things. Now, please, we have to hurry—”

When Zoe still didn’t move, Hull sighed and turned to her.

“This is hardly the best place, but you’re going to be difficult, aren’t you? No matter. I take my opportunities where I can find them, and I can’t ignore a chance at my last ingredient.”

It hit me: Zoe thought
we’d
summoned her, using Hull. Why wouldn’t she? The last time she’d seen us, he’d been in our care.

I remembered Tee telling Zoe she was in danger.

The rare ingredient. The one Rose said Hull had come to collect.

As I grabbed the window sash and threw it open, the bowler-hatted man strode toward her, a huge butcher’s knife in his hand.

“Zoe!” I screamed.

At my shout she turned, but too late. The zombie swung, and the knife cleaved into her throat. She wobbled, eyes wild. Then she fell.

The zombie yanked the knife out of Zoe’s neck, then looked around. Dimly I realized I’d given myself away. I stumbled back from the window, getting out of his sight, my gaze still fixed on Zoe. She lay on her back, head almost severed, held on only by her spine. My nails dug into my palms as I watched her, and willed that torn flesh to mend itself. It didn’t.

In the woods, Hull had crowed about his luck, how he’d happened across not only me, but that rare final ingredient for his immortality experiment. A semi-immortal vampire.

“You might as well come out, Mrs. Danvers,” he called.

It took a moment to realize he was speaking to me. I crept to the side of the window, where I could see out without being seen.

“Hiding is useless,” he said. “All I need to do is cast a spell, and I can find you. Better come out now, while I’m in a good humor, buoyed by my success with your little vampire friend.”

When I didn’t answer, pique flickered across Hull’s face. He didn’t cast a spell, though, probably because he didn’t want to waste his spell power. Instead he motioned for the zombie to start searching for me. I weighed my options. I could jump down, surprise Hull and leave the zombie to Nick. Or I could search for a window farther down the alley, slip out, collect Nick and get someplace safer, where we could talk strategy.

The zombie walked in Nick’s direction first. Excellent. All I had to do was wait until he was close enough for Nick to grab, then jump out—

Nick lunged at the zombie. His aim was perfect. As he knocked the zombie off his feet, he sent the butcher knife flying. When they hit the ground, Nick grabbed him by the hair and smashed his skull into the ground. Not as clean or foolproof as snapping his neck, but it did the job.

I moved to act, to take advantage of Nick’s distraction. But the zombie was already crumbling, and Hull had recovered from his surprise. His hands were going up in a spell—

My mouth opened, the scream still burbling up through my throat, hands still reaching for the window to swing through as Hull launched his spell. My blood turned to ice water, certain Hull had launched a fatal spell, taking Nick out—

Hull’s fingers flicked and Nick stumbled back. Stumbled hard enough to trip, but that was it. A simple knockback spell.

The air whooshed from my lungs, nearly doubling me over with relief. Hull advanced on Nick and I recovered, taking hold of the window again—

“If you get up, I will pick a spell that will keep you down,” Hull said, looming over Nick.

I scrambled back, out of sight. Hull wasn’t going to kill Nick. Not yet. Magic was all Hull had, and a lethal spell would drain his power.