Dead Witch Walking (15 page)

There was a small click of a latch. Jumping to my feet, I jabbed the eject button.

“Good afternoon, Ms. Morgan.”

It was Trent Kalamack, and I tried not to flush as I slipped the small disc into a pocket. “Beg pardon?” I said, turning the ditzy charm on full. They knew who I was. Big surprise.

Trent adjusted the lowest button on his gray linen jacket as he shut the door behind him. A disarming smile curved over his clean-shaven features, giving him the air of someone my age.

His hair had a transparent whiteness to it that some children have, and he was comfortably tan, looking as if it wouldn’t take much to get him poolside. He looked far too pleasant to be as wealthy as he was rumored to be. It wasn’t fair to have money and good looks both.

“You’d rather be Francine Percy?” Trent said, eyeing me over his wire-rimmed glasses.

I tucked an escaped curl behind an ear, striving for an air of nonchalance. “Actually—no,” I admitted. I must still have a few cards to play or he wouldn’t be bothering with me.

Trent moved to the back of his desk with a preoccupied poise, forcing me to retreat to the other side. He held his dark blue tie to himself as he sat. Glancing up, he looked charmingly surprised as he noticed I was still standing. “Please sit,” he said, flashing me small, even teeth. He pointed a remote at the camera. The red light went out, and he tucked the remote away.

Still I stood. I didn’t trust his casual acceptance. Warning bells were going off in my head, making my stomach clench.
Fortune
magazine had put him on its cover as last year’s most eligible bachelor. It had been a head-to-knee shot, with him leaning casually against a door with his company name on it in gold letters. His smile had been a compelling mix of confidence and secrecy. Some women are drawn to a smile like that. Me, I get wary. He gave me the same smile now as he sat, his hand tucked under his chin as his elbow rested on the desktop.

I watched the short hair about his ears drift, and I thought his carefully styled hair had to be incredibly soft if just the draft from the vent could lift it like that.

Trent’s lips tightened as he saw my attention on his hair, then returned to that smile. “Let me apologize for the mistake at the front gate, and then with Jon,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting you for at least another week.”

I sat down as my knees went weak.
He was expecting me?
“I’m sure I don’t understand,” I said boldly, relieved my voice didn’t crack.

The man reached for a pencil with a casual ease, but his eyes jerked to mine when I shifted my feet. If I’d known him better, I would have said he was wound tighter than I was. He meticulously erased the question mark by Francis’s name and wrote mine in. Setting the pencil down, he ran a hand over his head to get his hair to lay flat.

“I’m a busy man, Ms. Morgan,” he said, his voice rising and falling pleasantly. “I have found it more cost-effective to lure key employees from other companies rather than raise them up from scratch. And where I would be loath to suggest I was in competition with the I.S., I’ve found their training methods and the skill sets they foster are commensurate with my needs. In all honesty, I would have preferred to see if you had the ingenuity to survive an I.S. death threat before I brought you in. Perhaps nearly finding your way to my back porch is enough.”

I crossed my legs and arched my eyebrows. “Are you offering me a job, Mr. Kalamack? You want me for your new secretary? Type your letters? Fetch your coffee?”

“Heavens, no,” he said, ignoring my sarcasm. “You smell too strongly of magic for a secretarial position, despite trying to cover it with that—mmm—perfume?”

I flushed, determined not to drop from his questioning gaze.

“No,” Trent continued matter-of-factly. “You’re too interesting to be a secretary, even one of mine. Not only have you quit the I.S., but you’re baiting them. You went shopping. You broke into their records vault to shred your file. Locking a runner unconscious in his own car?” he said with a carefully cultivated laugh. “I like that. But even better is your quest to improve yourself. I applauded your drive to expand your horizons, learn new skills. The willingness to explore options most shun is a mind-set I strive to instill in my employees. Though reading that book on the bus shows a certain lack of…judgment.” A sliver of dark humor showed behind his eyes. “Unless your interest in vampires has an earthier source, Ms. Morgan?”

My stomach tightened, and I wondered if I had enough charms to fight my way out of here. How had Trent found all that out when the I.S. couldn’t even keep tabs on me? I forced myself to be calm as I realized how deep in the pixy dust I was. What had I been thinking, walking in here? The man’s secretary was dead. He ran Brimstone, no matter how generous he was during charity fund-raisers or that he golfed with the mayor’s husband. He was too smart to be content running a good third of Cincinnati’s manufacturing. His hidden interests webbed the underworld, and I was pretty sure he wanted to keep it that way.

Trent leaned forward with an intent expression, and I knew he was done with the idle chitchat. “My question, Ms. Morgan,” he said softly, “is what do you want with me?”

I said nothing. My confidence trickled away.

He gestured to his desk. “What were you looking for?”

“Gum?” I said, and he sighed.

“For the sake of eliminating a great deal of wasted time and effort, I suggest we be honest with each other.” He took off his glasses and set them aside. “Inasmuch as we need to. Tell me why you risked death to visit me. You have my word the record of your actions today will be—misplaced? I simply want to know where I stand. What have I done to warrant your attention?”

“I walk free?” I said, and he leaned back in his seat, nodding. His eyes were a shade of green I had never seen before. There was no blue in them. Not even a whisper.

“Everyone wants something, Ms. Morgan,” he said, each word precise but flowing into the next like water. “What is it you want?”

My heart pounded at his promise of freedom. I followed his gaze to my hands and the dirt under my nails. “You,” I said, curling my fingertips under my palms to hide them. “I want the evidence that you killed your secretary. That you’re dealing in Brimstone.”

“Oh…” he said with a poignant sigh. “You want your freedom. I should have guessed. You, Ms. Morgan, are more complex than I gave you credit for.” He nodded, his silk-lined suit making a soft whisper as he moved. “Giving me to the I.S. would certainly buy your independence. But you can understand I won’t allow it.” He straightened, becoming all business again. “I’m in the position of offering you something just as good as freedom. Perhaps better. I can arrange for your I.S. contract to be paid off. A loan, if you will. You can work it off over the course of your career with me. I can set you up in a decent establishment, perhaps a small staff.”

My face went cold, then hot. He wanted to buy me. Not noticing my slow anger, he opened a file from his in-box. Pulling a pair of wood-rimmed glasses from an inner pocket, he balanced them on his small nose. I grimaced as he looked me over, clearly seeing past my disguise. He made a small sound before he bent his fair head to read what it contained. “Do you like the beach?” he asked lightly, and I wondered why he was even pretending he needed the glasses to read. “I have a macadamia plantation I have been looking to expand. It’s in the South Seas. You could even pick out the colors for the main house.”

“You can go Turn yourself, Trent,” I said, and he looked up over his glasses, seemingly surprised. It made him look charming, and I forced the thought from me. “If I wanted someone tugging on my leash, I would have stayed with the I.S. Brimstone is grown on those islands. And I might as well be human that close to the sea. I couldn’t even bring up a love charm there.”

“Sun,” he said persuasively as he tucked his glasses away. “Warm sand. Setting your own hours.” He closed the file and put a hand upon it. “You can bring your new friend. Ivy, is it? A Tamwood vampire. Quite a catch.” A wry smile flickered over him.

My temper burned. He thought he could buy me off. The trouble was, I was tempted, and that made me angry with myself. I glared, my hands stiff in my lap.

“Be honest,” Trent said, his long fingers twirling a pencil with a mesmerizing dexterity. “You’re resourceful, perhaps even skilled, but no one eludes the I.S. permanently without help.”

“I have a better way,” I said as I struggled to remain seated. I had nowhere to go until he let me. “I’m going to tie you to a post in the center of the city. I’m going to prove you were involved with your secretary’s death and you’re dealing in Brimstone. I quit my job, Mr. Kalamack, not my morals.”

Ire flickered behind his green eyes, but his face remained calm as he set his pencil back in the cup with a sharp tap. “You can trust me to keep my word. I always keep my word, promises or threats.” His voice seemed to pool on the floor, and I fought the idiotic urge to lift my feet from the carpet. “A businessman has to,” he intoned, “or he won’t be in business very long.”

I swallowed, wondering what the hell he was. He had the grace, the voice, the quickness, and the confident power of a vampire. And as much as I disliked the man, the raw attraction was there, heightened by his personal strength rather than a teasing manner and sexual innuendos. But he wasn’t a living vampire. Though warm and good-natured on the surface, he had a very large personal space that most vampires lacked. He kept people at arm’s length, too far to seduce with a touch. No, he wasn’t a vamp, but maybe…a human scion?

My eyebrows rose. Trent blinked, seeing the idea crossing me and not knowing what it was. “Yes, Ms. Morgan?” he murmured, seeming uncomfortable for the first time.

My heart pounded. “Your hair is floating again,” I said, trying to jolt him. His lips parted, and he seemed at a loss for words.

I jumped as the door opened and Jonathan strode in. He was stiff and angry, with the attitude of a protector fettered by the very one he has been pledged to defend. In his hands was a head-sized glass ball. Jenks was inside it. Frightened, I stood, clutching my bag to myself.

“Jon,” Trent said, smoothing his hair as he got to his feet. “Thank you. If you would please escort Ms. Morgan and her associate out?”

Jenks was so angry his wings were a black blur. I could see him mouthing something but couldn’t hear him. His gestures, though, were unmistakable.

“My disc, Ms. Morgan?”

I spun, gasping as I realized Trent had come around his desk and was right behind me. I hadn’t heard him move. “Your what?” I stammered.

His right hand was outstretched. It was smooth and un-worked but carried a taut strength. He had a single gold band on his ring finger. I couldn’t help but notice that he was only a few inches taller than me. “My disc?” he prompted, and I swallowed.

Tensed to react, I dug it from my pocket with two fingers and handed it to him. Something swept over him. It was as subtle as a shade of blue, as indistinguishable as a snowflake among thousands, but it was there. In that instant I knew it wasn’t Brimstone that Trent was afraid of. It was something on that disc.

My thoughts shot to his neatly arranged discs, and it was with an incredible resolve that I kept my eyes on his instead of following my suspicions to his desk drawer. God, help me. The man ran biodrugs along with Brimstone. The man was a freaking biodrug lord. My heart hammered and my mouth went dry. You were jailed for running Brimstone. But you were staked, burned, and scattered for running biodrugs. And he wanted me to work for him.

“You’ve shown an unexpected capacity to plan, Ms. Morgan,” Trent said, interrupting my racing thoughts. “Vampire assassins won’t attack you while under a Tamwood’s protection. And arranging a pixy clan to protect you against fairies as well as living in a church to keep the Weres at bay are beautiful in their simplicity. Let me know when you change your mind about working for me. You would find satisfaction here—and recognition. Something the I.S. has been most remiss with.”

I steeled my face, concentrating on keeping my voice from shaking. I hadn’t planned anything. Ivy had, and I wasn’t sure what her motives were. “With all due respect, Mr. Kalamack, you can go Turn yourself.”

Jonathan stiffened, but Trent simply nodded and went back behind his desk.

A heavy hand hit my shoulder. I instinctively grabbed it, crouching to fling whoever had touched me over my shoulder and to the floor. Jonathan hit with a surprised grunt. I was kneeling on his neck before I realized I had moved. Frightened for what I had done, I rose and backed away. Trent glanced up in unconcern from replacing the disc in the drawer.

Three other people had entered at Jonathan’s heavy thump. Two centered about me, one stood before Trent.

“Let her go,” Trent said. “It was Jon’s error.” He sighed with mild disappointment. “Jon,” he added tiredly, “she isn’t the fluff she pretends to be.”

The tall man had risen smoothly to his feet. He tugged his shirt straight and ran his hand to smooth his hair. He eyed me with hatred. Not only had I bested him before his employer, but he had also been rebuked in front of me. The angry man scooped Jenks up with bad grace and motioned to the door.

I walked free, back out into the sun, more afraid of what I had turned down than of having left the I.S.

I
yanked at the pizza dough, taking my frustrations concerning my fabulous afternoon out on the helpless yeast and flour. A crackle of stiff paper came from Ivy’s wooden table. My attention jerked to her. Head bowed and brow furrowed, she kept her attention on her map. I’d be a fool not to recognize that her reactions had quickened with sunset. She moved with that unnerving grace again, but she looked irate, not amorous. Still, I was aware of her every move.

Ivy had a real run,
I thought sourly as I stood at the center island and made pizza. Ivy had a life. Ivy wasn’t trying to prove the city’s most prominent, beloved citizen was a biodrug lord and play head cook at the same time.

Three days on her own, and Ivy had already got a run to find a missing human. I thought it odd a human would come to a vamp for help, but Ivy had her own charms, or scary competence, rather. Her nose had been buried in her map of the city all night, plotting the man’s usual haunts with colored markers and drawing out the paths he would likely take while driving from home to work and such.

“I’m no expert,” Ivy said to the table, “but is that how you’re supposed to do that?”

“You want to make dinner?” I snapped, then looked at what I was doing. The circle was more of a lopsided oval, so thin in places it almost broke through. Embarrassed, I pushed the dough to fill in the thin spot and tugged it to fit the baking stone properly. As I fussed with the edges, I surreptitiously watched her. At her first sultry glance or overly quick move, I was going out the door to hide behind Jenks’s stump. The jar of sauce opened with a loud pop. My eyes flicked to Ivy. Seeing no change, I dumped most of it onto the pizza and recapped the jar.

What else should go on it? I wondered. It would be a miracle if Ivy let me top it with everything I usually did. Deciding not to even attempt the cashews, I pulled out the mundane toppings. “Peppers,” I muttered. “Mushrooms.” I glanced at Ivy. She looked like a meat kind of a gal. “Bacon left from breakfast.”

The marker squeaked as Ivy drew a purple line from the campus to the Hollow’s more hazardous strip of nightclubs and bars by the riverfront. “So,” she drawled. “Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you, or am I going to have to order pizza in after you burn that one?”

I put the pepper in the sink and leaned against the counter. “Trent runs biodrugs,” I said, hearing the ugliness anew as I said it. “If he knew I was going to try and tag him with that, he’d kill me quicker than the I.S.”

“But he doesn’t.” Ivy drew another line. “All he knows is you think he runs Brimstone and had his secretary murdered. If he was worried, he wouldn’t have offered you that job.”

“Job?” I said, turning my back to her as I washed the pepper. “It’s in the South Seas—running his Brimstone plantations, no doubt. He wants me out of the way, that’s all.”

“How about that,” she said as she capped her pen by pounding it on the table. Startled, I spun, flinging drops of water everywhere. “He thinks you’re a threat,” she finished, making a show of brushing away the water I had accidentally hit her with.

I gave her a sheepish smile, hoping she couldn’t tell she had me on edge. “I hadn’t thought about it that way,” I said.

Ivy went back to her map, frowning as she dabbed at the stains the water had made on her crisp lines. “Give me some time to check around,” she said in a preoccupied voice. “If we can get ahold of his financial records and a few of his buyers, we can find a paper trail. But I still say it’s just Brimstone.”

I yanked open the fridge for the Parmesan and mozzarella. If Trent didn’t run biodrugs, then I was a pixy princess. There was a clatter as Ivy tossed one of her markers into the cup beside her monitor. My back was to her, and the noise startled me.

“Just because he has a drawer full of discs labeled with diseases once helped by biodrugs doesn’t mean he’s a drug lord,” Ivy said, throwing another. “Maybe they’re client lists. The man is big into philanthropy. Keeps half a dozen country hospitals running alone with his donations.”

“Maybe,” I said, unconvinced. I knew about Trent’s generous contributions. Last fall he had been auctioned off in Cincinnati’s For the Children charity for more money than I used to make in a year. Personally, I thought his efforts were a publicity front. The man was dirt.

“Besides,” Ivy said as she leaned back in her chair and tossed another one of her markers into the cup in an unreal show of hand-eye coordination. “Why would he be running biodrugs? The man is independently wealthy. He doesn’t need any more money. People are motivated by three things, Rachel. Love…” A red marker clattered in with the rest. “Revenge…” A black one landed next to it. “And power,” she finished, tossing in a green one. “Trent has enough money to buy all three.”

“You forgot one,” I said, wondering if I should just keep my mouth shut. “Family.”

Ivy grabbed the pens out of the cup. Leaning back in her chair to balance on two legs, she started tossing them again. “Doesn’t family come in with love?” she asked.

I watched her from the corner of my sight.
Not if they were dead,
I thought, my memories turning to my dad.
In that case, it might come under revenge.

The kitchen went silent as I sprinkled a thin dusting of Parmesan on the sauce. Only the clacks of Ivy’s pens broke the stillness. Every single one went in, the sporadic rattles getting on my nerves. The pens stopped, and I froze in alarm. Her face was shadowed. I couldn’t see if her eyes were going black. My heartbeat quickened, and I didn’t move, waiting.

“Why don’t you just stake me, Rachel?” she said in exasperation as she flipped her hair aside to show me irate brown eyes. “I’m not going to jump you. I said Friday was an accident.”

Shoulders easing, I rummaged loudly in the drawer for a can opener for the mushrooms. “A pretty freaking scary accident,” I muttered under my breath as I drained them.

“I heard that.” She hesitated. A pen landed in the cup with a rattle. “You, ah, did read the book, right?” she asked.

“Most of it,” I admitted, then went alarmed. “Why, am I doing something wrong?”

“You’re ticking me off, that’s what you’re doing wrong,” she said, her voice raised. “Stop watching me. I’m not an animal. I may be a vampire, but I still have a soul.”

I bit my tongue so I wouldn’t even mouth an answer to that. There was a clatter as she dropped her remaining markers in the pencil cup. The silence grew heavy as she pulled her maps to her. I turned my back on her to prove I trusted her. I didn’t, though. Putting the pepper on the cutting board, I yanked open a drawer and banged noisily about until I found a huge knife. It was too big to cut peppers, but I was feeling vulnerable and that was the knife I was going to use.

“Uh…” Ivy hesitated. “You’re not putting peppers on that, are you?”

My breath slipped from me and I set the knife down. We probably wouldn’t have anything on our pizza but cheese. Silently, I put the pepper back in the refrigerator. “What’s a pizza without peppers?” I whispered under my breath.

“Edible,” was her prompt response, and I grimaced. She wasn’t supposed to hear that.

My eyes traveled over the counter and my assembled goodies. “Mushrooms okay?”

“Can’t have pizza without them.”

I layered slices of slimy brown atop the Parmesan. Ivy rattled her map, and I snuck an unhelped glance at her.

“You never did tell me what you did with Francis,” she said.

“I left him in his open trunk. Someone will douse him in saltwater. I think I broke his car. It doesn’t accelerate anymore, no matter what gear I put it in and how loud I race it.”

Ivy laughed and my skin crawled. As if daring me to object, she rose, coming to lean against the counter. My tension flowed back. It doubled when she eased herself up with a controlled slowness to sit on the counter beside me. “So,” she said, opening the bag of pepperoni and provocatively placing a slice in her mouth. “What do you think he is?”

She was eating. Great.

“Francis?” I asked, surprised she had to ask. “He’s an idiot.”

“No, Trent.”

I held my hand out for the pepperoni and she set the bag on my palm. “I don’t know, but he isn’t a vamp. He thought my perfume was to cover up my witch smell, not—uh—yours.” I felt awkward with her that close, and I dealt the pepperoni like cards onto the pizza. “And his teeth aren’t sharp enough.” Finished, I put the bag in the refrigerator, out of Ivy’s reach.

“They could be capped.” Ivy stared at the refrigerator and the unseen pepperoni. “It would be harder to be a practicing vamp, but it’s been done.”

My thoughts went back to Table 6.1, with its too helpful diagrams, and I shuddered, disguising it in my reach for the tomato. Ivy bobbed her head in agreement as my hand hovered over it in question. “No,” I said confidently, “he doesn’t have that lack of understanding of personal space every living vamp I’ve met besides you seems to have.”

As soon as I said it, I wished I could take it back. Ivy stiffened, and I wondered if the unnatural distance she put between herself and everyone had everything to do with her being a nonpracticing vamp. It must be frustrating, second-guessing your every move, wondering if your head prompted it or your hunger. No wonder Ivy had a tendency to fly off the handle. She was fighting a thousand year instinct with no one to help her find her way. I hesitated, then asked, “Is there a way to tell if Trent is a human scion?”

“Human scion?” she said, sounding surprised. “There’s a thought.”

I sent the knife through the tomato to make little red squares. “It sort of fits. He has the inner strength, grace, and personal power of a vampire but without the touchy feely. And I’d stake my life that he’s not a witch or warlock. It’s more than him lacking even the barest hint of a redwood smell. It’s the way he moves, the light in the back of his eyes….” I went still as I recalled his unreadable green eyes.

Ivy slipped off the counter, pilfering a pepperoni off the pizza. I casually moved it to the other side of the sink and away from her. She followed, taking another. There was a soft buzz as Jenks flew in through the window. He had a mushroom in his arms almost as large as himself, bringing the smell of dirt into the kitchen. I glanced at Ivy, and she shrugged.

“Hey, Jenks,” Ivy said as she moved back to her chair in the corner of the kitchen. Apparently we’d passed the “I can stand right next to you and not bite you” test. “What do you think? Is Trent a Were?”

Jenks dropped the mushroom, his tiny face shifting with anger. His wings blurred to nothing. “How should I know if Trent is a Were?” he snapped. “I didn’t get close enough. I got caught. Okay? Jenks got caught. Happy now?” He flew to the window. Standing beside Mr. Fish with his hands on his hips, he stared into the dark.

Ivy shook her head with a look of disgust. “So you got caught. Big freaking deal. They knew who Rachel was, and you don’t see her whining over it.”

Actually, I had thrown my tantrum on the way home, which might have accounted for the odd noise Francis’s car was making when I left it in the mall parking lot in the shade of a tree.

Jenks darted to hover three inches before Ivy’s nose. His wings were red in anger. “You have a
gardener
trap you in a glass ball and see if it doesn’t give you a new outlook on life, Little Miss Merry Sunshine.”

My bad mood slipped away as I watched a four-inch pixy confront a vamp. “Knock it off, Jenks,” I said lightly. “I don’t think he was a real gardener.”

“Really?” he said sarcastically, flying to me. “You think?”

Behind him, Ivy pretended to squish Jenks between her finger and thumb. Rolling her eyes, she returned to her maps. A silence grew, not comfortable, but not awkward, either. Jenks flitted down to his mushroom and brought it to me, dirt and all. He was dressed in a loose, very casual outfit. The flowing silk was the color of wet moss, and the cut of it made him look like a desert sheik. His blond hair was slicked back and I thought I smelled soap. I’d never seen a pixy relaxing at home. It was kind of nice.

“Here,” he said awkwardly, rolling the mushroom to a stop beside me. “I found it in the garden. I thought you might want it. For your pizza tonight.”

“Thanks, Jenks,” I said, brushing off the dirt.

“Look,” he said as he backed away three steps. His wings were a confusing flash of motion and stillness. “I’m sorry, Rachel. I was supposed to back you up, not get caught.”

How embarrassing,
I thought. Having someone no bigger than a dragonfly apologizing for not protecting me. “Yeah, well, we both screwed up,” I said sourly, wishing Ivy wasn’t witnessing this. Ignoring her puff of noise, I rinsed off his mushroom and sliced it. Jenks seemed satisfied and went to make annoying circles around Ivy’s head until she swatted at him.

Abandoning her, he came back to me. “I’m going to find out what Kalamack smells like if it kills me,” Jenks said as I placed his contribution on the pizza. “It’s personal now.”

Well,
I thought,
why not?
I took a deep breath. “I’m going back tomorrow night,” I said, thinking about my death threat. Eventually I was going to make a mistake. And unlike Ivy, I couldn’t come back from the dead. “Want to go with me, Jenks? Not as a backup, but as a partner.”

Jenks rose up, his wings shifting to purple. “You can bet your mother’s panties I will.”

“Rachel!” Ivy exclaimed. “What do you think you’re doing?”

I tore open the bag of mozzarella and dumped it over the pizza. “I’m making Jenks a full partner. Got a problem with that? He’s been working too much overtime for anything less.”

“No,” she said, staring at me across the kitchen. “I mean going back to Kalamack’s!”

Jenks hovered next to me to make a united front. “Shut your mouth, Tamwood. She needs a disc to prove Kalamack is a biodrug runner.”

“I don’t have a choice,” I said, pushing the cheese so hard it spilled over the edge.

Ivy leaned back in her chair with an exaggerated slowness. “I know you want him, but think it through, Rachel. Trent can accuse you of everything from trespassing to impersonating I.S. personnel to looking at his horses cross-eyed. If you get caught, you’re toast.”