Master of None (37 page)

I’d lay odds he didn’t sign on for that when he took up with Lenka.

Trevor grabbed me by the throat. “I want my payment, and I want him gone. You’re the key. You will tell me where it is!”

It was hard to feel sorry for a guy who was treating my windpipe like a tube of toothpaste. I almost did. But not enough to confess.

Someone pounded on the door of the sitting room. Trevor released me abruptly. I dropped forward so hard I damn near
toppled the chair. My head refused to rise again, and my eyes forgot the meaning of focus, but my hearing still worked.

“What?” Trevor snarled through the door.

Leonard replied from the other side. “Found somebody tryin’ to crash the party, boss.”

I felt as if I’d been stuffed in a freezer.
Please don’t be Jazz.

The door opened. And Trevor loosed the most chilling laugh I’d ever heard. “Welcome back, dear lady. How was the afterlife?”

I was beginning to hate being right all the time.

Scuffling sounds. The door slammed. Silence. My name carried on a broken whisper, in the last voice I wanted to hear right now. She should’ve been with Tory and Lark. Should’ve been safe and long gone from here. Fate could
not
be this cruel.

Raising my head seemed harder than cutting concrete with a spoon. I had to inch my eyeballs in the direction of the door. Absolute terror kept me from focusing clearly on her face, but I didn’t need visual confirmation.

The sight of Jazz—handcuffed, under Trevor’s gun, and pissed enough to chew iron and spit out nails—hurt a hundred times more than everything he’d done to me. And it was about to get worse.

Trevor shoved hard against her cuffed hands. Jazz stumbled a few steps and righted herself. “You look like shit,” she said. “And you’re torturing him? Idiot. You know that never works.”

Although she spoke steadily enough, she avoided looking directly at me. It was enough to tell me she cared more than she’d let Trevor find out.

Trevor ignored her admonishment and held up one of the dupes. I assumed it was the one she’d carried. “Are they giving these away at the grocery store?” He tossed it to Lenka. “Considering what happened with the other one, I doubt this is real. But you might as well find out anyway.”

“With pleasure.”

Lenka’s voice came from far away. I knew what came next, so I fixed my blurred gaze in the general direction of Jazz. She stared open-mouthed across the room. Through my pounding head, I realized this was her first eyeful of Lenka. A nasty sight. Almost as bad as Trevor.

Ian’s harsh cry when Lenka tested the dagger made her look away fast.

“You are correct, pet. This one is false as well. Such clever humans.”

“The hell they are.” Trevor moved toward me, dragging a chair with one hand, Jazz with the other. He forced her into it, facing me. “Move, and he dies. Understand?”

Jazz gave a bitter laugh. “I don’t know, Trevor. I might not be clever enough to get it. But I’m smart enough to finish the job I started on your roadster. The rest of your pretty collection, too.” She stared up at him. “Nice wheels you used to have. Oh, and you’re running out of goons, too. I took out three.”

Trevor flushed maroon. He raised a hand but stopped just short of striking her. “Just so you know, bitch, I’ll be taking payment for my cars out of Donatti’s hide.”

Jazz’s lips thinned. She didn’t respond, but I caught the apology in her eyes. And I couldn’t help noticing that Trevor didn’t give a shit about his thugs. Nobody would ever nominate him for a humanitarian award.

“Who is this?” Lenka appeared next to Trevor.

“A good friend of Mr. Donatti’s.” Trevor smiled. “A very good friend.”

It hurt to look at her. I turned away—and spotted something even more painful.
Ian.

How could there be that much blood? It looked as if he’d bathed in the stuff. Blood soaked the carpet under his feet and splattered the wall beside him. Something white stood out in all the red on his left shoulder. Took me a while to realize it was his collarbone.

I closed my eyes and swallowed bile. No wonder he’d wanted me to kill him.

“. . . stimulate his memory.” Lenka’s voice faded in as if someone had just turned up his volume knob. He and Trevor
must have been talking strategy, but I had no idea what they’d said. Jazz’s horrified expression suggested she did.

Trevor picked up the pliers.

“Don’t tell them anything.” Jazz glared at Trevor. “I was going to trim my nails anyway.”

“In that case, maybe we should start with your teeth.” Trevor motioned to Lenka. “Could you hold her down for me, please? Molars tend to be stubborn.”

“
No.
” My mouth finally caught up with my brain. “Keep your hands off her.”

Lenka pointed at me. Words flew from his mouth and set me on fire.

Someone screamed. Must have been me, because no one else moved. I saw flames engulf my legs and lick at my torso. Saw my flesh blister and blacken. Smelled smoke and cooked meat. Trevor’s Place, now serving well-done Donatti with a side of death.

The back of my head smacked against something solid. The flames vanished, and I found myself staring at the ceiling. Unburned legs stuck out from the chair I’d managed to knock over. An illusion. Only the pain had been real.

“The only thing we want to hear from you, thief, is how to find Gahiji-an’s tether.” Lenka sounded fairly pissed. At least he’d stopped slicing Ian for a few minutes.

Trevor loomed over me. He grabbed my hair and pulled me back up, chair and all. “Don’t bother protesting, Mr. Donatti. You know this game. And you decide when it ends.”

He moved away. I tried to focus on Jazz. She sat as still as a stone, every trace of resolve vanished. Tears slipped from her eyes, one by one, like mourners paying last respects.

“Don’t cry,” I mumbled. “Won’t let him. You need teeth.”

“I’ll get dentures.” Her voice shook hard enough to rattle windows. “You just keep your mouth shut. Please.”

“No. Gonna tell him. Kill me, not you. That’s the deal.”

Jazz opened her mouth, but Trevor’s voice cut in. “I’ll agree to those terms.”

“Please don’t,” Jazz whispered. “You don’t understand—”

“Shut up!” Trevor screamed, lunging between us. Somehow, he’d acquired more rope. “One more word from you, and I will gag you. He’s going to tell me.” He looped a length around her waist and the chair.

“Let her go first,” I said. “She goes, I talk. Way it works.”

Trevor ignored me and finished tying her down. “She goes when I have that tether in my hands and not a minute sooner. I don’t trust you.”

“And I’m supposed to trust you? You’ll just kill us all when you get it.”

“Ah, Mr. Donatti.” Trevor shook his head. “This is a difficult impasse. She won’t be any use to me now, and I have no need to kill her. But you’ll never believe that . . . will you?”

I wanted to. Desperately. “No,” I said weakly. “I can’t believe you.”

He held something in front of my face. Pliers. “Then I suppose we’ll have to revert to the original plan.”

Jazz made a horrible, desolate sound. Everything inside me withered and drained away. I forced myself to look at her—and caught a tiny smile on her lips.

“Cavalry’s here,” she whispered.

A hoarse sob reached my ears. Female. Not Jazz. She hadn’t made the first sound, either. I moved my pounding head in the direction of the cry, the open entrance from the basement hallway. And promptly forgot to breathe.

Akila in person was a thousand times more stunning than her reflection. A goddess. Tory stood beside her and kept her from collapsing at the sight of her brutalized husband. A hawk, bedraggled but alert, perched on Tory’s shoulder. They must have helped Shamil transform. And Jazz had taken on the distraction role for them.

I wanted to cry myself—but not for joy. We were deader than ever.

“Gahiji-an . . .”

Half cry, half moan. Pure pain. Akila’s voice could have melted all of the ice at the North Pole. But I doubted it would sway Trevor or Lenka.

The sound must’ve pierced whatever shell Ian had wrapped himself in. His body heaved against his bonds, and a grating breath exploded from him. “No. Gods . . .
why . . .
”

Trevor grabbed the Luger and thrust it against Jazz’s temple. “She’s first. Then him.” He jerked his head at me. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Stop.” Akila wavered, then seemed to pull herself together. “Lay down your weapon, human. We are here to bargain.”

“Bullshit,” Trevor snapped.

“Do as she says, pet.” Lenka sounded as smug as a gambler holding four aces. “They are powerless. Bahari are weak to begin with, and they have expended themselves healing the
sharmoot.
Let her speak.”

Trevor lowered the gun. With extreme reluctance.

“Akila, no. He will not—”

Ian’s breathless protest ended in a scream when Lenka flung another curse at him.

“Enough!” Akila cried. “If you hurt him again, there will be no bargain.”

Lenka gestured. Ian slumped. “Very well,
rayani.
Let us hear your proposal.”

“Yes. My proposal.” Akila closed her eyes briefly. “Spare Gahiji-an’s life, and I will join with you. My father will have no choice but to allow your clan back into the realm.”

“I am nearly tempted. However, there is the small matter of your bond for life.”

“There is a way to break it,” Akila whispered.

Lenka laughed. “You would mutilate yourself for him?”

“I would.”

A broken string of djinn fell from Ian’s lips. The translation lurked just beyond my grasp, but I understood the general sentiment. He was begging her to stop, to leave this place before it was too late.

My gut told me it was half past too late already.

Lenka ignored Ian. “Interesting. Give me a moment to consider.” He turned, and a look passed between him and Trevor.

Before I could shout a warning, Trevor fired two shots. One dropped the hawk to the floor in a small explosion of feathers. The other blasted through Tory’s shoulder and drove him to his knees.

Again, Lenka seemed to move instantly. He appeared behind Akila, wrapped both arms around her upper body, and dragged her away from Tory. “I do not agree to your terms,” he said with a nasty grin. “Kemosiri would sooner allow you to remain banished forever than lift the barrier for us. But take heart,
rayani
. I have a proposal for you.”

Akila squirmed in his grasp, ranting away in djinn. Lenka held fast. “Since I have declined your bargain, do you think I will hesitate to hurt your precious Gahiji-an if you make things difficult?”

She went limp.

While Lenka secured Akila in place, Trevor produced his cell phone and called for reinforcements. Within minutes, three armed thugs joined us—four and a half, if you took into account Leonard and the theory of relativity.

“Now, then. Here is my offer.” Lenka pointed to Ian. “Produce his tether, and I will destroy him quickly. And I will also refrain from slaughtering your entire clan when I return to the realm.” A smile snaked across his mouth. “I guarantee this is your best option, and I suggest you take it. You will not like the alternative.”

“She agrees.” Ian’s voice still cracked, but it sounded stronger. Almost commanding. “Swear to return her unharmed, and you will have my tether.”

Lenka smirked. “I swear it.”

“No.” Akila struggled to free herself. “Please. I will bring you to the realm. Somehow. Let him live . . .” She trailed off into sobs. Even she’d realized the futility of reasoning with Lenka.

“Taregan,” Ian gasped. “You must retrieve my tether and bring it here. The thief cannot break the seal.”

Tory groaned and lurched to his feet. “I can’t . . .”

“She must live. Protect your
rayani
. I do not matter.”

Lenka drifted closer to Ian. “Those may be the most intelligent words you have uttered in your entire life. How far is it? I do not want to wait long.”

“Miles. Buried in a garbage dump. If you are in such a hurry . . .” He choked and let out an anguished groan. “Have one of your rats drive him,” he finally breathed.

Lenka turned his vicious gaze on Tory. “No. I have a better idea.”

Trevor had one of his thugs bring a full-length mirror into the sitting room.

“Go.” Lenka shoved Tory toward it. “You have ten minutes. If you are not back, I will start killing them. And hurting the ones who cannot die yet.”

Tory glared at him. “It’s not enough time. I need to lift a couple of cars, and I’m spent.”

“Fine. Fifteen, then.”

For a moment, Tory didn’t move. “You won’t defeat Kemosiri. Our clan outnumbers yours. You’ll be wiped out, just like his.” He motioned to Ian but didn’t look in his direction.

Lenka gave him an ugly smile. “That is why we plan to send the humans first. Did you think us idle for the last four centuries? Our army is poised to invade, once the barrier is broken. We will not fail again.”

I recognized the look on Tory’s face. He and I’d just arrived at the same conclusion. Lenka told us his plans—and that meant none of us would leave this room alive, no matter what promises they made.

“You are down to fourteen minutes, Bahari. I suggest you move faster.”

“Son of a—” Jaw set, Tory positioned himself in front of the mirror. He used blood from the wound in his shoulder to paint a symbol on the glass.

Ian croaked something in djinn. Tory paused, winced. He pulled the dupe he carried from a pocket and dropped it on the floor. “That’s not real,” he said weakly. “Don’t bother testing it.” It took him another minute to gather his resolve, cast the bridge, and step through.

“Lenka,” Akila whispered. “Let me say good-bye. Please.”

“Very well.”

He released her, and she crossed the room slowly. Ian managed to lift his head enough to look at her. She raised a hand, and her fingertips hovered just short of his battered face. “
Ana uhibbuk
,” she said.

One corner of his mouth lifted. “
Ana bahibbik.
”

I didn’t need a translation for love.