Tempting Evil (7 page)

Jack grinned. “That’s the plan.”

“And if she decides not to follow your plan?”

“She will. Poppy is exactly what she’s looking for—someone with no morals, who doesn’t care what she does for cash.”

Nothing like being confident in a plan. Maybe it was the pessimist in me, or maybe it was that pesky, emerging clairvoyance skill, but either way, I wasn’t so sure everything would fall into place as neatly as Jack might wish. “And when I get to the estate?”

“Take a day or so to settle in—you’ll be watched fairly closely in that period, at least, so don’t try anything until you think you’re in the clear.”

“And when I think I am?”

“You attract the attention of Starr’s lieutenants, and drag all the information out of their minds that you can.”

It wasn’t going to be that easy, and we both knew it. For a start, I was basically still a novice when it came to mind-reading, and my control wasn’t always what it should be. Though given what I’d done to Quinn this morning, maybe that was more due to an increase in power than any lack in skill. Maybe I was having so much trouble simply because the power I was controlling was greater each time, and I hadn’t the skill to realize it. “What if I can’t read their minds?”

He raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“What I said. You may have been teaching me the finer points of telepathic control, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be able to break through their shields. They might even have electronic shields in place.”

“Then you figure a way around either event.”

Great. Thinking on my feet—or rather, my back. Just what I needed on top of trying to survive these lunatics. “How do I keep in contact?”

“You’ll have a two-way com-link inserted—it’ll also double as a tracker. And I’ll be close enough that you can contact me telepathically, if needed.”

“So if I get into trouble, I can call in the cavalry?”

“You can call. No guarantee we’ll answer.”

I snorted softly. I’d been with the Directorate long enough that I’d known the answer even before I asked the question. Jack wasn’t going to risk the entire mission on getting me out if things went ass up, simply because Rhoan and Kade would still be in there. And unless those two also got into trouble, we were on our own as far as the Directorate was concerned.

“And with operative support like that, you wonder why I didn’t want to become a guardian.”

He chuckled. “Darlin’, you might not have wanted to become one, but you’ll be a better one than your brother.”

“You can play that tune all you like, but you’re not convincing me to sing along.” Which was almost a rote protest by now, but I couldn’t let Jack think he’d won my complete acceptance.

“We’ll see.” He handed me a couple of folders. “Study Poppy’s profile, then look at the details Kade’s been able to provide about Starr’s estate.”

I flipped through the second of the two folders. “There doesn’t seem to be a lot.”

“Because Kade only has access to the outside areas. Still, you need to know security and boundary details, as well as profiles of those who work in those areas.”

“Because you never know who I might have to seduce for the good of the cause,” I said dryly.

He grinned again, and slapped a hand on my shoulder. “Darlin’, you’re thinking so much like me it’s almost scary.”

“The day I think like you is the day I’ll stand in front of a silver bullet.” I waved the two folders. “If you want me to study these, you need not only to feed me, but supply me with caffeine.”

“The pizza and coffee is already ordered.” He glanced at his watch. “They should be here in ten minutes, and if you’re not studying by then, you get nothing.”

“Bastard.”

“Totally. Go read.”

I did.

T
he air in the tram was rich with the overwhelming scent of humanity. I hung out near the back door, desperately trying to get some of the fresh air coming in from the cracks of the bifold doors. I hated trams at the best of times. They were far worse than trains—smaller, more crowded—and always managed to give me that “penned-in” feeling.

I hitched the backpack into a more comfortable position on my shoulder, managing to hit the man standing beside me yet again. He swore, and I snarled right back. Poppy had attitude. Right now, in this stinking, humanity-soaked metal box on electric wheels, I was ready to give it.

I glanced at the windows, studying the night-flooded street, and noted with some relief that we were nearing my stop. Butterflies stirred in my stomach, but I beat them down ruthlessly. I couldn’t afford butterflies, or fear, or anything else. For good or for bad, I was now on the path of no return. What might lie at the very end of that path, no one, not even me, was willing to guess. I could only hope it was a return to normal life.

I flicked the small, skin-toned disk that had been slotted under the skin behind my left ear, and said softly, “Carlisle Street,” as I reached up to pull the cord. The buzzer sounded, letting the driver know someone wanted out at the next stop.

“She’s near Luna Park.” Jack’s soft tone whispered out from the receiver that had been carefully placed into my right ear.

The tram lurched to a stop and the door swished open. I all but fell out, then sucked in several gulps of air. God, even fume-filled, this air felt like heaven in comparison to the tram.

“Your stray vamp on time?” I asked, as I headed up Carlisle Street toward the amusement park. Though the Government had made Luna Park a prostitute-free zone, many of them still plied their trade along the side street that ran the length of the park’s rear.

“He’ll be there in ten.”

“You sure?”

“He wants to live, so yes.”

I snorted softly. A vamp desperate to survive was more likely to run than risk the Directorate going back on its word. And knowing what I knew of the Directorate, that was an odds-on chance.

“And he’s primed to attack, not kill?”

“He was warned.”

“So what did he do to gain the Directorate’s attention?”

“Killed a couple of humans.” I could almost hear Jack’s shrug. “Nothing too extraordinary.”

Unless you were one of those humans. “So why wouldn’t Dia be able to defend herself?”

“She abhors violence.”

“And she works with Starr? That’s highly unlikely, isn’t it?”

“Given we know so little about her reasons for working with Starr, that’s hard to say.”

I fell silent as several packs of humans pushed past, then said, “Assure me again that these things in my ears won’t be discovered once I’m in Starr’s estate.”

The last man of the last group gave me an odd look. I flipped him the finger.

“These are from Quinn’s labs, and there is nothing out on the market like them. And certainly nothing that can trace them. You will have to be careful when and where you contact us, though, because the signal
can
be traced when in use.”

“Kade didn’t say anything about the electronic scanning situation.”

“No. But then, he’s basically restricted to the grounds and scanning would probably be done from inside.”

“How did you get these things from Quinn without him demanding to be in on the mission?”

“We didn’t ask. We took.”

I raised my eyebrows. “When?”

“Two nights ago.”

“And?”

“He came down to Melbourne almost immediately.”

So he
had
been down here, just as I’d guessed. The bastard couldn’t even give me one honest answer.

I was better off without him in my life. Truly.

So why did the thought of never seeing him again hurt so much? It wasn’t as if I had a future with the man, for heaven’s sake. A vampire could never be my soul mate.

“Then he suspected it was us?”

“His security was better than we thought.”

I rolled my eyes. “How often have you told me never to underestimate the enemy?” I stopped at the streetlights and looked around. A tall brown-haired woman in pale gray stood near the park’s famous laughing-mouth entrance. “Spotted my quarry. Try not to jabber in my ear for the next few minutes.”

Jack’s snort was loud enough to make me wince. “I have done this before, darlin’.”

I grinned and crossed with the green light. A quick look at my watch said I had seven minutes to go.

I hitched my pack, took a deep breath, then slipped into Poppy, letting her identity, her attitudes, fill my surface thoughts. Then I strode directly toward Dia.

“Don’t tell me the great Dia Jones has been reduced to hawking her wares on the streets,” I said, voice low and sarcastic. “Always knew you were a fraud.”

Her startled gaze swung around to mine, and in that minute I realized two things. The first was the fact that Dia Jones was completely blind. And second, the unearthly sense of power that had been evident in the photograph didn’t even begin to do justice to the true power of her gaze. Even unfocused, her blue eyes were magnetic, unforgiving. All-seeing.

Which was an odd thing to think about a blind woman.

“Excuse me?” she said, voice soft yet hinting at ice.

Which suited the complexion that lay underneath the makeup.

“People like you make a living from ripping off the gullible. It disgusts me.”

“And is a thief any better?”

I raised my eyebrows, wondering how she’d guessed. Wondering what else she’d guessed. “At least I don’t make a living on the suffering of others.”

She raised an eyebrow. “And you think I do?”

“Well, what else do you call feeding false hope to suckers?”

She regarded me for a moment, her luminous blue eyes seeming to see right through me. Those butterflies stirred again, though I had no idea why.

“And you do not believe in hope?”

I snorted. “Hope is a fool’s desire. I deal with realities.”

“Really?”

With a suddenness, and an accuracy, that surprised me, she reached out and grabbed my hand. My instinctive response was to pull away, but I checked the strength of it almost immediately. Partly because I was curious about what she was doing, and partly because the minute her fingers touched mine, an odd sort of energy seemed to run over them. It felt like the power that caressed the air right before a summer storm.

She didn’t say anything for several minutes, just gripped my fingers and frowned as the energy of her touch flowed between us. Then she sighed, and smiled as she released me.

“You will save us,” she said softly.

Us?
What the hell did she mean by that? Her and me? Did that mean she knew about the planned attack? Somehow, I didn’t think so, but before I could ask what she actually meant, awareness surged, prickling like fire across my skin. With it came the stench of unwashed, unripe flesh.

Jack’s stray vamp had shown up ahead of time.

And he’d brought a couple of friends along.

Chapter 4

T
here were three of them, all skinny excuses of flesh and bone. The vamp in the middle was the obvious leader—he was two steps ahead of his compatriots, and had one of those perpetual sneers so often found on those who think they’re tougher than they truly are. His two mates were of Asian descent, though the blue eyes on one suggested there was something else in his mix.

“Well, well,” the leader said casually, “look at what we got here, boys.”

“Breakfast,” blue eyes said, expression alight with anticipation.

I slipped off the backpack and placed it in Dia’s hands. “You might have to hold this while I tend to this pond scum.”

“But—”

I held up a finger, realized what I was doing, then touched her arm lightly and said, “It’s okay.”

She fell silent. While these three didn’t look particularly old, they were still vampires, and I was going to need every ounce of concentration against them.

“In case you haven’t noticed, little girl,” the leader said, amusement rich in his harsh, annoying voice, “there’s three of us, and only one of you.”

“Unfair odds, I agree,” I said. “You want me to keep one hand behind my back?”

They glanced at each other, then broke into laughter.

That’s when I dropped my shields and hit the minds of the backup vamps, stripping through their meager shields and ordering them to run away, as far and as fast as they could. Their laughter stopped abruptly and their eyes went wide, the whites seeming to gleam brightly in the darkness. Then they turned and retreated into the night.

Even as they ran, pain lanced through my head, needle sharp and fiery hot. I wasn’t entirely sure why, especially given I’d done similar things in the past and hadn’t felt a reaction like this. But right then, I didn’t have time to worry about it. Even as tears touched my eyes, the air stirred, brushing anger and the force of movement past my nose. I ducked away from the last vamp’s fist, letting it skim past my cheek, then dropped and spun, kicking his legs out from underneath him. He grunted as his rump hit the ground, and his look of surprise might have been funny if it wasn’t for the murderous expression that almost instantly followed.

He snarled, then scrambled to his feet and launched at me. I dodged, but his fingers caught my arm, his nails needle sharp and tearing into flesh. I yelped and he laughed, a sharp sound that was quickly cut off when my fist slammed into his mouth. He staggered backward, arms flailing, spitting out blood and teeth as he did so. I followed the force of my punch with another, this time chopping into his throat, crushing his larynx and dropping him to the ground. He didn’t stay down, but scrambled on all fours toward Dia Jones. Blind or not, she seemed to sense his approach, because she gasped and backed away.

I grabbed his leg and dragged him away from her. He struggled like a madman, his kicks landing heavily on my already bloodied arm and bruising the hell out of my fingers. A growl of fury rumbled up my throat, and without thought, I dropped my shields again and let him have it. His mind fled before mine like a pebble before a landslide, and just as uselessly. Within seconds, I had him still and unmoving.

But, oh God, how it hurt.

I dropped to my knees and, for too many seconds, did nothing more than try to breathe as the pain in my head intensified, and all I could see were pinpoints of bright lights flashing before my eyes. They eased after a few seconds, but the pain didn’t.

Why
was this happening? When I’d controlled the two lab-made werecats in Moneisha, there’d been pain, but nothing as intense as this. Even when I’d attacked Quinn, there hadn’t been a backlash like this—had there?

I frowned, and remembered the wash of pain that had briefly hit before I’d picked my panties up off the floor and stormed into the other room.

Maybe it was a simple matter of being too angry to even notice just how bad the pain actually was.

A hand touched my elbow, helped me to my feet.

“We must go,” Dia said. “Before he recovers enough to attack again.”

He wasn’t going anywhere until I released him, but given the blinding pain, that was probably going to be sooner rather than later. I stumbled along after Dia, guided more by her touch and the sound of her footsteps than my own sight, which was at best blurry, and filled with heated white spots that danced about crazily. A situation that wasn’t helped when the control I had on the vamp snapped. The pain of it rebounded through me, as sharp as glass. I gasped, stumbling and almost going down. Dia’s grip tightened on my arm, and with almost inhuman strength, she kept me upright and kept me going.

Of course, Dia Jones wasn’t exactly human, so inhuman strength wasn’t exactly surprising. What I really wanted to know was how the hell she was moving so surely when she couldn’t see and hadn’t even a cane or a guide animal to help her.

A car loomed through the blurriness ahead. A man in a dark suit opened the rear door of a car that seemed to go on forever, then I was being shoved inside. I crawled across the soft leather, then leaned my head back against the thick seat cushioning and closed my eyes. Doors slammed shut, twin sounds that seemed to reverberate through the silence, through my head, then the car was moving.

Silence reigned for several minutes. I could feel Dia’s gaze on me—it was a weight that was at once both curious and cautious—but she didn’t touch me. Of that, I was glad. I had a feeling that she might learn far too many secrets if she did so right now.

“Telepathy is new to you, isn’t it?” she said eventually.

I opened my eyes. Even though the limo was dark, the glare of the streetlights as we passed them was a brightness that was hard to stand. My eyes watered, and the ache in my head briefly intensified.

“What makes you think I’m telepathic?”

She smiled. “While I am not telepathic myself, I am sensitive to the use of psychic power. Generally, it feels like the caress of a warm summer breeze that swirls across my skin—something I can sense but never catch.” She paused, tilting her head slightly to one side, her amazing blue eyes seeming to follow even my slightest movement. How was that possible? This woman
was
blind—I was certain of that, if nothing else.

“With you tonight,” she continued, “it was not a breeze, but a cyclone. An overuse of power if ever I felt one. Has no one ever taught you control?”

“I shield. I can protect myself. What else is there to know?” And Jack
had
been coaching me, but I couldn’t exactly admit that.

“Power of any kind should be treated similar to an onion. There may be many different layers, but you should only ever strip away as many as you need to get the job done.” She smiled as she reached forward and took a small cloth from a compartment under the seat opposite, then handed it to me. “The only time problems generally arise for the trained is when the power is still new, or it increases in strength for some reason.”

I wrapped the cloth around my bleeding arm. “How would either of those cause problems?”

She shrugged lightly. “You cannot control something when you do not know its boundaries.”

That made sense. But was that what was actually happening? I’d been telepathic most of my life, and the last test done at the Directorate had not indicated any increase in psychic output.

Of course, those tests had been done several months ago. Who knew what the result would be now.

“But psychic strength doesn’t alter.” At least, it generally didn’t with normal people. “You get what you’re born with, don’t you?”

“Sometimes. But puberty has been known to set off wild changes in psi-skills.”

“Puberty? Do I sound like an adolescent to you?”

But even as I said the words, I had a feeling she’d hit the nail on the head. Thanks to the fertility drugs that had been forced into me by past mates, I’d recently begun menstruating for the first time in my life. Which in turn meant I
was
going through a form of puberty—if puberty was defined solely as going through the change and moving from a child’s body to a woman’s.
Not
that anyone would ever accuse me of having a child’s body. I’d been D-cup since I was sixteen.

“No, you don’t sound adolescent. But that doesn’t alter the fact your power seems very uncontrolled. You are extremely lucky you caught those vamps unawares. Lucky, too, that none of them were particularly strong psychics.”

“Why’s that?” I rubbed a hand across my forehead. The needles were beginning to ease, but my brain still felt like it was on fire. If I didn’t get some pain-relief tablets soon, I was going to have one doozy of a headache.

“Because by dropping your shields as totally as you did, you left yourself wide open for a counterattack.”

“Oh.” I hadn’t even thought of that. Not when I’d attacked Quinn, and certainly not when I’d attacked those vamps. Quinn might have been too much of a gentleman to attack, but those vamps certainly could have.

She tilted her head to the side again. The brown hair fell to one side, revealing slivers of silver running underneath. She wasn’t wearing a wig, because the silver and brown ran into each other. It was almost as if someone had dyed her hair but only done half a job. Odd, to say the least. “Did your parents not teach you to use your gift?”

I snorted softly. “My mother was a wolf groupie who considered the half-breed she gave birth to little more than an inconvenience to her sex life.”

“And your father?”

“She never knew for sure who he was. I certainly don’t.”

“Sad.”

“That’s me,” I said sarcastically. “A sad and sorry tale.”

She smiled again. “Do you have a name?”

“Poppy Burns.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Indeed? And what are you doing here in St. Kilda, Poppy Burns?”

Something in the way she said that had uneasiness stirring. I shrugged, and did my best to ignore those damned butterflies. “Looking for work, a place to stay. Usual shit.”

“So where did you live before?”

“You’re getting awfully nosy, aren’t you?”

She shrugged. “Given what you said to me before those vamps showed up, I think I have the right to be nosy.”

I sniffed, and didn’t reply.

“And given your so bluntly put opinion of me,” she continued, “why would you then go on and save me?”

“Who says I was saving you? Those stinkers had me in their sights just as much as you.”

“Maybe.”

“If we’re going to be nosy, then tell me how you can be blind as a bat, and yet can walk around as well as any sighted person?”

She went still, and for a moment I thought I’d blown it.

“How do you know I’m blind?” The warmth that had been in her tones until now was replaced by cold steel, and a chill went down my spine.

It was a timely reminder that this woman—however nice she seemed—was one of the five clones and in league with the man I was trying to bring down.

“Easy. Though your gaze appears to look directly at people, there’s no true life in your eyes, no response to the smaller movements people make, and no real response to facial expressions. It’s like you can see, but only from a distance, so that up close things aren’t clear.”

Amusement warmed her expression. “You are very observant.”

“You have to be when you live on the streets.”

“True.” She paused, considering me. “Are you after work now?”

I shrugged. “Depends what it is.”

“You will earn more in two weeks than you could in a year of regular work.”

“Lady, that sounds a little too good to be true. What’s the catch?”

“You’re being paid to have sex with strangers.”

I raised an eyebrow. “And?”

“No ‘and.’ The resort is owned by my…employer.”

Employer? Starr was more than just that. “So you’re not just a scamming psychic? You’re a pimp, as well?”

She stiffened ever so slightly. “I am
not
pimping you. I am simply offering you an opportunity to make a lot of money.”

“Yeah. By having sex. It’s called pimping, whether you like it or not.”

I studied her for a moment, wondering how fine a line I should walk between reluctance and acceptance. But given Poppy’s supposed history, she wasn’t likely to be trusting
anyone
too quickly.

“This is one of those sex-slave scams they’ve been talking about in the papers lately, isn’t it? You know, lure innocents with the enticement of money, then ship them off to parts unknown, to be held captive and abused. Well, I ain’t interested, lady.” I banged on the glass partition between us and the driver, wincing as the sound echoed through my head. “Hey, you, stop this crate and let me out.”

“I promise, this is no scam.”

“Yeah, right.”

She reached into her pocket and drew out a business card. Only it wasn’t from the employment agency Jack had mentioned, but one of her own cards. And it was her personal address, as well. “If you are interested in hearing more about the job, come and see me tomorrow.”

I looked at her, then the card, and finally reached out to take it. “You never did answer my question, you know. About being blind.”

She smiled again. “No. But perhaps I will later, if you accept the job.”

“If that’s supposed to be an enticement, it ain’t working.”

“If you want an enticement, then perhaps I can teach you to use your telepathy without dropping all your shields.”

The car slid to a stop. I wrapped my fingers around the door handle but didn’t open it. “And why would you be offering to do that?”

“Because you need it.”

“And do you often run around offering psychic training to those who need it?”

“No.” Her gaze came to mine. “Only to those who will save us.”

“That’s the second time you’ve said that, and it’s no clearer now than it was before.”

“I guess it isn’t.” Her gaze fell away as she leaned back in the seat. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

It was a dismissal and a statement of fact, all in one. I frowned, but thrust open the door and climbed out. The night had grown colder in the brief time I’d been in the car, the breeze chill. Goose bumps ran across my skin. Thank God I wasn’t actually sleeping on the streets tonight. I slammed the car door shut and watched Dia’s black limo disappear into the night.