Merlin's Children (The Children and the Blood) (17 page)

“Did she put you up to this?” Harris asked, something dark entering his voice.

“I said drive.”

The detective put the car into gear and eased his foot down on the accelerator. The sedan crept toward the exit.

“Faster.”

The car sped up infinitesimally.

Breathing hard, Cole watched the detective as the vehicle climbed the slope to the gate. Muscles jumped beneath the man’s jaw and his hands on the steering wheel were white. As the sedan pulled to a stop beside the small callbox by the gate, the man did nothing but stare at the road beyond the magical barrier.

“Put in your access code.”

“I don’t have one.”

Heart pounding, Cole floundered and then regrouped. “Roll down the window,” he ordered, trying to keep his face from view of the cameras. “Tell them… tell them it’s your partner. Something’s wrong and you need to see him.”

Harris didn’t move.

“Dammit, now!”

The detective’s eyes slid to Cole and then back to the street. Expressionless, he rolled the window down and then reached over, pressing the button on the callbox.

“Harris here. Lower the barrier.”

“Purpose?” came the reply.

The detective paused. “Malden’s in the hospital. I need to see him.”

“Access code?”

Irritation showed on Harris’ face.

Cole exhaled furiously, his hand tensing on the gun. “Enter it or I shoot, Detective,” he whispered desperately.

Harris glanced from him to the weapon. He typed in the code and then pressed his thumb to the scanner mounted nearby.

A moment crawled past.

“Clear.”

The detective sent the car rolling forward.

“Head for the highway,” Cole said.

Harris turned east.

Eyes stinging from the stench of the coat, Cole risked a swift look back as the sedan pulled around the corner. No one emerged from Chaunessy, and the pedestrians striding down the sidewalk were ignoring their car and all the rest of the morning traffic completely.

Returning his gaze to the road, he fought the urge to rip the coat off, knowing it’d just give Harris an opening. A few more miles and he’d throw the damn thing out the window. He just needed to get the other man out of the car first.

“She won’t reward you for this,” Harris said darkly. “Whatever this is about, whatever she promised… I guarantee you it’s not going to end well.”

“This isn’t about Ashe,” he said, scanning the street for signs leading to the interstate.

Harris’ gaze went to him and then back to the road. “Then what?”

“Drive faster.”

Muscles clenched tighter beneath the detective’s jaw. The car accelerated, slipping past a yellow light just before it turned red.

“I didn’t take you for a liar,” Harris said scornfully.

Cole’s gaze twitched back to the man.

“If this isn’t about Ashley, then what?” the detective continued in the same tone. “Did you actually talk to your father or were you just making that up?”

Cole didn’t answer. On the side of the road, a blue sign pointed the way toward the interstate.

“Pull over here,” he ordered.

Harris grimaced, his derisive expression fading as if he’d realized contempt wasn’t changing anything. The car slowed.

“Out,” Cole said, motioning with the gun as the sedan came to a stop.

The detective looked at him consideringly. “This is about the little girl, isn’t it?”

“I said get out.”

Harris’ eyes narrowed. “It is.”

“Now!”

Face darkening, Harris shoved open the door. Keeping the gun leveled at the man, Cole backed out of the passenger side and then circled the car.

“Cole, whatever’s going on, this isn’t the way to fix it,” Harris said, stepping back as Cole gestured him away from the door. “I’m trying to protect that kid too, so talk to me. Or, if not me, then at least go back and talk to your father. You know he wants to help her same as you.”

Despite himself, Cole scoffed as he lowered himself into the car. Tugging the door shut, he glanced up through the open window, and a sickened twist of irony moved through him as his dad’s words were all he could think to say.

“You shouldn’t believe everything you see,” he told the detective as he put the car into gear.

In the rearview mirror, he could see Harris staring after him as he sped away.

*****

“…totally insane! You should’ve seen his eyes. Bloodshot! And his mouth! Foaming! The boy’s gone rabid, I tell you. And now he’s got a hostage. Probably already shot him. I mean, I barely made it out and–”

Harris could hear Mud long before he reached the entrance to the parking garage, and as he rounded the corner, the little man’s face was nothing short of amazed.

And a bit disappointed too.

“H-he didn’t kill you?” the lump sputtered. “I mean… thank God! You’re alive!”

Harris ignored him. Expressionless as a wall, Brogan stood to one side of the scrawny man with a cluster of very uncomfortable-looking wizards nearby.

“What happened?” Brogan asked shortly.

Harris let the walk down the slope buy him time as he tried to sort out what to say.

He didn’t fare any better than he had the whole way back to Chaunessy.

On the one hand, Cole hadn’t said much. The boy just looked like he’d found the edge and was staring over it. Something had obviously threatened the little girl, but if it’d actually been anything to do with Ashley, or even anyone here, Cole surely would have gone to his father.

So it was something Jamison had done. Something that scared Cole enough that he’d felt the need to go after the kid the moment he’d heard it. Something that made Cole question whether his father wanted to protect the girl at all.

Harris eyed the wizards as he came closer. If anyone had reason to trust Jamison, it was his son.

There could have been a misunderstanding.

He couldn’t make himself buy that. Not with the look in the kid’s eyes.

“Detective?”

“He surprised us,” Harris answered succinctly. “Grabbed my gun and then forced me to drive a few blocks from here before taking the car himself. He didn’t say why.”

Brogan paused, and then turned to the wizards behind him. “Call Simeon.”

Harris glanced after the men as they hurried away. “He didn’t tell us where he was heading.”

The giant smiled, cold humor in his one good eye.

“We already know.”

Her hand gripping Lily’s, Ashe stepped from the portal and instantly the silence of the empty apartment in Banston was replaced by the rush of wind over the airfield. The hot afternoon sun beat down from a brilliant blue sky, glaring off the hangar at her side and glinting from planes parked by the terminal almost half a mile away. Flight crews like stick figures hurried around the planes, and the beeping noises of their vehicles carried thinly over the distance. A barbed-wire fence separated her from the service road and woods ringing the airfield, though for the moment, both the road and the stretches of tarmac were empty.

She glanced back as Elias emerged from the portal. Ignoring the vanishing gray shadows, he looked immediately to Nathaniel.

“Anything?”

She could see the large wizard’s frustration as he shook his head. Wizards they could detect. The Blood were a whole other matter entirely.

Gravel crunched behind them. Her heart hitting her throat, she spun.

Cornelius walked around the rear of the hangar, and then jerked his chin back in the direction he’d come. “This way.”

Drawing a steadying breath, she ordered herself to keep calm as she followed him. Lily didn’t need to see her panicking. The girl was scared enough as it was. And for her part, she needed to stay focused anyway. In a few minutes, when the screaming began, she’d need all the composure she could muster.

Aluminum siding stretched ahead of them, interrupted only by narrow doors and by braces where one hangar ended and the next began. She could hear muffled voices inside, though from the way Cornelius ignored the sounds, she could only assume he’d already confirmed the people weren’t a threat.

She flinched as Lily shifted her grip. She couldn’t bring herself to look at the girl, and the small reminder of Lily’s presence sent her pulse spiking again.

No matter how many times she ran the plan through her head, it never made anything better. She was going to bind her sister. The moment Lily climbed on the plane, just before she realized Ashe wasn’t coming too, she was going to steal the girl’s magic and let Cornelius take her away, hopefully before anyone could hear Lily scream.

And after that, she might never see her sister again.

She wasn’t stupid. In the hours after she’d ordered Cornelius to get Lily away from the war, she’d had to admit the truth to herself. This war could kill her. Probably would kill her, if she wanted to be morbid about it. And if that happened, Lily’s enraged, hurt and screaming face would be the last of the girl she’d ever see.

But there wasn’t any alternative.

She couldn’t keep Lily near her, not when together they made a larger target than they’d ever be separately. And she had to take the girl’s magic. Lily would be furious when she realized her sister wasn’t coming, and because of that, she might lose control. In the past few days, Ashe’d been trying to teach her how to use magic, but Lily was scary powerful and had a long way to go. She couldn’t risk the very real possibility of the girl blowing up the plane and killing herself, just because her anger momentarily overrode her control.

And it wouldn’t be forever. It probably wouldn’t even be for a day. Once the plane landed and Cornelius called to say they were safe, she’d let the girl’s power go. She wasn’t going to leave her sister defenseless. She was just trying to make sure Lily stayed alive.

The aluminum siding came to an end. Turning the corner, Cornelius dropped the magic around himself between one step and the next, bringing him instantly into human view.

Her breath caught, the small shift of energy snapping her back to the present. Regrouping swiftly, she followed suit, trying not to let on how much she wished she could hang onto even a shred of defensive magic, as Elias and Nathaniel were doing. But that wasn’t the plan. And the pilot would probably have a problem taking Cornelius and the little girl with him if he had to watch Lily scream at thin air.

Swallowing, she shoved the thoughts aside as they reached the edge of the hangar. Hesitating in the shadow of the building, Cornelius scanned the area, and then continued around the corner into the sunlight. Keeping Lily behind her, Ashe followed.

“Hey there, Mike!”

At the disembodied voice, she froze. Metal jangled on asphalt and then footsteps clunked down the ladder on the other side of the small plane in front of the hangar. Stained work pants hurried along the length of the aircraft and a moment later, a bald head popped into view.

“These them?” the man called cheerfully, a bright grin on his glistening face.

Lily ducked behind Ashe.

“Yep, these are my stepdaughters,” Cornelius replied easily, all traces of formality gone. He nodded to Ashe and then to Lily. “Sarah and Emily.”

Wiping his hands on an oil-smudged rag, the man continued around the nose of the plane. Twisting slightly, he shoved the rag into his back pocket and then extended a grimy hand to Ashe.

“Jerry,” he said, shaking her hand. Still grinning, he bent to catch Lily’s eye. “Shy, isn’t she?”

Ashe tried to give him something approximating a smile, though the expression couldn’t quite get past her discomfort at his proximity. Pulling her hand back, she fought the urge to glance over her shoulder to Elias and Nathaniel.

“So what’s the deal?” Jerry continued, turning to Cornelius. “When you called, you didn’t mention you were bringing two gir–”

“I didn’t think it’d be a problem,” Cornelius interrupted smoothly while Ashe’s heart jumped.

“It’s not. There’s just only so much fuel and if they’re both–”

“It’ll be fine.”

Jerry paused. At her back, Ashe could feel the confusion radiating off Lily.

“Okay…” the man allowed. “Then, uh, I’ve just got a couple things to finish up and we can be on our way.”

Hesitating a moment more, the man glanced between the girls and the plane as if trying to calculate how to fit them and Cornelius together, and then gave up and headed back toward the ladder.

“What’d he mean?”

Ashe froze at the sound of Lily’s voice. Possible answers raced through her head, though from the mixture of suspicion and uncertainty in Lily’s tone, she wasn’t sure any of them would work.

“Huh?” she tried, turning back with a baffled look.

“Hey, Mike?” Jerry called, clambering back down the ladder. “I wanted to say how much I appreciated that thing you did for me in Baltimore.”

She glanced over as the man jogged around the nose of the plane.

The gun went off before she could do more than register it was there.

Cornelius stumbled back, his hands clutching at the blood soaking his trench coat.

Jerry smiled. “But they paid me a hell of a lot of money to tell them where you were.”

Magic burst from the forest on the opposite side of the field.

Striking Elias and Nathaniel, it hurled them into the hangar and tore through the plane. The metal body disintegrated as the fuel tank exploded, engulfing Jerry and hurling fire into the air. Cornelius staggered away, his magic rising, and then flaming shrapnel drove him to the asphalt, where he didn’t move again.

The blast wave punched her shields, throwing her down and sending Lily tumbling to the concrete. Without hesitation, Ashe scrambled toward her.

“Watch out!” Lily cried.

She looked from the girl to the forest, and then flattened herself to the ground. Magic streaked over her head. Beneath the protective cover of her arms, she twisted and then gasped.

Elias was rising to his feet. Energy burned the air around him as debris rained from his shoulders and Nathaniel struggled up at his side.

Magic slammed into them, hit the hangar wall, and then exploded, shredding the siding and sending the roof down on the wizards like molten tinfoil.