Possession-Blood Ties 2 (10 page)

I tried to think of a way to explain our convoluted relationship and came up with nothing.

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“He’s my…lover?”

A weird expression crossed the general’s face, the physical equivalent of the phrase “too much information.” “I see. Please, continue.”

“I went down to the bookstore. It was messed up, and Nathan attacked me.” It hurt just remembering it, phantom pain from the attack, phantom pain where the blood tie should have been.

Breton pushed one of the photos toward me. “He also attacked this young woman. How did you escape when she did not?”

I bit my lip. I assumed the reason Nathan had left me alone was the smell of his blood in me. I couldn’t reveal that to Breton. “I talked to him. I asked him not to hurt me.”

“I see.” The general nodded and reached into the envelope. He pulled a slip of yellow paper from it, and Max took a loud breath.

“What is that?” I looked from the general to Max. “What’s going on?”

“It’s a kill order.” Max’s face was grim.

Before I could protest, Breton spoke. “If Mr. Galbraith could be reasoned with at the time he attacked Dr. Ames, he was not possessed.”

“What about the symbols?” I stammered. “He had symbols carved into his skin.”

“No matter.” Breton waved a hand. “Mr. Galbraith was on probation. He’s killed again, and he must be dealt with.”

“Dealt with?” I stood, knocking the chair back. Max grabbed my arm but I shrugged him off. “I was there. I saw him. Nathan would never do anything like this! Something forced him to act that way.”

“And I’m supposed to take your word for that?” Breton’s eyes narrowed. “The word of a vampire who has never joined the Movement, standing up for a vampire who turned his back on all we stand for?”

My hands shook with anger. “Fine. I’ll join the Movement right now. Where do I sign up?

Because once I get my membership card, I’m going to lodge a complaint against you for being…such an asshole!”

“Harrison,” Breton barked, though his enraged gaze never left mine. “Kindly keep your visitor under control before drastic measures are taken!”

“Calm down!” Max had never used such a tone with me. That he did it now showed how afraid he was of Breton. “General, there has to be some way to fix this so Nathan doesn’t have to die.”

“The decision is final.” The general scraped the photos into a neat pile. I turned helplessly to Max. He couldn’t look me in the eye. I knew then nothing could be done.

I glared at the slip of yellow paper. For a moment, I imagined grabbing the kill order and shredding it into a hundred pieces, but that wouldn’t solve anything. So long as the Movement wished it, Nathan was already dead.

“What about the Oracle?” I asked, hope clutching feebly for purchase in my chest. “What if she—”

Breton’s eyes narrowed. “No one has given you permission to speak to the Oracle.”

“We were going to ask you, General.” Max gave me a frosty glare. “I just hadn’t gotten around to it.”

“The Oracle is useless. I do not believe she has made an accurate prediction to date. And

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she is…unpredictable. We cannot risk a civilian in contact with her.”

“I think I can handle myself!” It was definitely the wrong tactic to take with him. I realized it too late.

The general shook his head. “We are finished here. See yourselves out, please.”

Max put his hand on my arm. “Let’s go, Carrie.”

Before I knew what I was doing, I reached for the kill order. “Fine. If someone is going to kill him, it might as well be me.”

“You’re not Movement.” Breton offered no further explanation.

“I’m his fledgling!” I pounded my fist on the table. There was no sense keeping it secret if he were going to be killed, anyway.

The general looked to Max, an expression somewhere between anger and mirth crossing his face. “Harrison? You told me she was sired by Simon Seymour.”

“I was!” In my anger I’d forgotten the trouble Max would get into for knowing—and not reporting—that Nathan had revived me. “Cyrus tried to kill me. Nathan gave me his blood to revive me. But Max didn’t know.”

“Is this true, Harrison?” Breton looked at Max the way a venomous snake looks at its next meal.

Max nodded, giving me a terse glance. “I don’t doubt it for a minute. Maybe you should let her go after Nathan herself. She’d know best where to find him.”

The general shook his head. “We can’t trust a non-Movement vampire to carry out this kind of job. Especially not if he is her sire. You know as well as I do the kind of pain that causes. She is not likely to inflict it on herself.”

“I’m sorry, Carrie,” Max said, taking my hand and squeezing it. It couldn’t end like this. My mind raced. Nathan had given me some training, but I would be no match in a fight with an assassin. On top of that, I had no idea where I’d find Nathan or if I’d find him in time. For all I knew, another assassin might be headed for him this very moment.

“Let Max do it, then,” I blurted.

Max started, as though he’d just woken to find himself in an unfamiliar room. “What?”

“Please, General.” I gripped the edge of the desk until my knuckles turned white, silently willing him to bend. “Max and Nathan were friends. I trust him to get the job done. I know he won’t let Nathan suffer.”

“Your trust in Harrison does not concern me.” The comment seemed even colder in Breton’s crisp, British accent. He took a deep breath, frowning. When he exhaled, his expression lightened. “Fine. Harrison, tomorrow evening you’re on a flight back. But I don’t want her within a ten-mile radius of the final kill. Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal.” Max picked up the kill order from the desk and folded it, slipping it into the pocket of his worn leather coat.

“Good. I trust you both know the way out.” Breton handed the pictures to Max, but I took them.

We were nearly at the door when the general spoke again. “And, Harrison, if you fail to do your duty by the Movement, I’ll send someone who won’t.”

Numb, I followed Max to the hallway. “Don’t do it,” I said flatly, once the door had closed behind us.

Max gripped my shoulders and twisted me to face him. His fingers dug painfully into my

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flesh, and I protested with a loud, “Ow!”

“This is not a game, Carrie.” He held his face inches from mine. “I’m going to have to kill Nathan. I don’t know what you were thinking in there, but I still have a job to do.”

He released me and turned to walk away. I rubbed one sore shoulder. “Yeah, but you don’t know where he is yet. You can stall for time while I figure out what’s going on.”

He laughed, the way someone would laugh at a child’s overly simple solution to a serious problem. “And how do you plan on doing that? You’ve got no resources, no one willing to help you. Even if you can magically cure Nathan of whatever has a hold on him, I’m still under orders to kill on sight. You’re on your own here. Nathan is as good as dead, and you’re fooling yourself if you think otherwise.”

“So that’s it then?” I shook my head in disbelief. “You’re just giving up?”

“I’m watching my own back!”

I closed my eyes. This was not the Max I knew. This was a complete stranger standing before me. “Max, please trust me. Trust that I’m not going to do anything that would put you in harm’s way.”

“You’re going to do what you need to do for yourself, Carrie.” He wiped his sleeve across his forehead. “It’s what survivors do.”

I looked at the pictures he held. Breton hadn’t bothered to put them in an envelope. The cadaver’s empty stare bore into me from the glossy surface of the photo.

“I’m not interested in helping myself,” I said, choking back tears. “I just want to save Nathan.”

“It’s too late for that,” Max said softly. “The Movement has made their decision, and no matter what happens, they’ll just keep coming.”

I shook my head. “Not from the Movement. I want to save him from himself.”

6

Oracle

M ax needed to gather some supplies before we headed out. I had no idea what kind of equipment he needed to kill my sire, but I refused to help him retrieve it. He headed to the armory after giving me strict orders to go directly to the reception area. Not that I had a choice. As soon as he walked away, a guard came from seemingly nowhere and steered me toward the lobby.

“Nothing personal,” he said as he guided me through the doors. “Just can’t have nonMovement vampires roaming the halls.”

Anne had returned to her post at the desk, and she looked up when the doors closed. Her face brightened. “So, how’d it go with the general?”

“Not well.” Normally, I would have resented having to spill to a total stranger, but she wasn’t exactly wheedling me for information. In fact, her casual interest made me want her to wheedle. I’d never realized I was such an attention whore. “He basically shot me down.”

“What a prick.” She sounded genuinely sorry. “That’s too bad.”

I scuffed my toes on the carpet as I went to one of the plush chairs. “He’s a very stubborn man, isn’t he?”

Anne stood and came around the front of the desk, where she dropped to the floor and sat cross-legged. The shiny buckles on her knee-high combat boots caught the light as she

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made herself comfortable. “Well, you don’t get far in this organization if you’re not stubborn.”

“I don’t know.” I watched her toy with the black rubber bracelets that looped her wrist.

“You seem to do okay.”

With a crooked smile, she rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I’m a great receptionist. Where’s Max?”

“Loading up on gadgets and supplies with which to kill my sire.” I slumped down in the chair. “I’m insane, to be waiting for him. I should be tearing off to the States.”

“Yeah, on a commercial airliner? Good luck.” She shook her head. “Max has to look tough and serious about the job. I doubt he’ll actually kill him.”

“Won’t he be penalized?” The Movement seemed to dole out “probation” like candy on Halloween.

“Nah.” She made a face to accompany the guttural sound. “Max has shirked assignments before. He’ll never come out and actually say, ‘No, I’m not going to kill this vampire,’ but I can tell when it’s going to happen. He’ll call to check in and say things like, ‘No luck yet, but I’ll find the bastard.’ You know, things like John Wayne might say in a movie.”

“That’s how Max usually talks,” I reminded her.

She rolled her eyes. “I know, right? But this is different. He puts up a much tougher front if he’s reluctant to do the job.”

Her assurances made me feel a little better. As much as Max and Nathan bickered, neither of them truly wanted the other dead. Maybe once we were away from the eyes and ears of the Movement, Max would change his mind.

“So,” Anne said brightly, grasping the toes of her boots and leaning forward. “What did you think of the place?”

“I thought it was…nice,” I offered lamely. “Not at all what I was expecting.”

“I know, right? Most people think it’s going to be stone walls and torchlight and guys with long beards, in scary robes. I mean, we have the guys with long beards, but they only wear their robes during a ritual.” She said this with a shrug, as if it was completely normal to deal with occult forces in the workplace. “Aside from them, there’s really nothing that weird here.”

“Well, except the Oracle,” I began casually. “But I guess I won’t be seeing her anytime soon. What’s she like?”

“She’s like…” Anne pursed her lips as she thought. “She’s like a magic eight ball, only she can kill you.”

I straightened a little at that. “Like, she can answer your questions?” The “like” popped from my mouth naturally. I could see how Anne had easily adopted modern teenspeak.

“Like, with her mouth? No. But she talks through telepathy all the time.” Anne shrugged again. “But she doesn’t usually say anything that makes sense. Why, did you have a question?”

I wasn’t sure if I should admit it or not. The notion of “personal boundaries” seemed to have escaped this eternal teenager, and while she was nice, I didn’t feel like examining my deepest fears with her. I settled on a diplomatic, “Yes.”

“That’s cool. I’ve asked her all sorts of questions, but she’s never answered. I mean, one time she did give me a freaky vision of my spine snapping in, like, four places, but she never actually did it so I’m not worried.” After considering a moment, Anne looked up from her bracelets. “And the general wouldn’t clear you to see her?”

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“I got the distinct impression the general doesn’t care much for the Oracle’s knowledge.”

I picked at the arm of the chair, though there weren’t any loose threads or pilled fabric to prompt me to do so.

Anne sighed. “A lot of people here are that way. But you know, any information you could get would probably be helpful, considering your situation. Right?”

“Well, it’s not like it matters now. From the way Max made it sound, you need special permission to see her.” I sighed loudly in frustration. There was a long pause. I’d expected an immediate response from Anne, and when I didn’t hear one, I looked up. She dangled a key card on a black cord from her fingers, smiling. “Or friends with security clearance.”

I hesitated. “You mean, you?”

“Uh-huh. I have clearance to every place in this building. Due to my excellent years of service. And the fact I have to sometimes escort guests around the building.” Her naughty grin reached the corners of her eyes now. “So, you wanna?”

I had the uncomfortable feeling I’d gotten in high school when someone would offer me a joint or ask me to skip school. I was pretty good at resisting peer pressure, but she was persuasive, and the situation was certainly different. “Won’t you get into trouble?”