Touch of Madness (23 page)

“The pass code?” Brooks repeated.

“Yeah, right. Okay.” I shook my head, trying to clear it of the cobwebs that seemed to want to take up permanent residence. “82719.”

He punched the buttons in sequence. Like magic, the gate began to rise. I yawned, my jaw stretching far enough to make my ears pop. I needed more sleep, but even the little bit of rest on the ride home had helped. I felt better. Not good, but functional.

Brooks pulled the Bronco into the empty spot with Tom’s apartment number on it and put the vehicle in park. I reached to unfasten my seatbelt, but he stopped me with a hand on my arm.

“All right, Reilly, this is as private as it gets. I need you to tell me what in the hell is going on. I got your messages, but they didn’t make a lot of sense.”

I leaned back, trying to decide where to start. So much had happened. Fortunately I hadn’t done anything that wasn’t perfectly legal and above-board. One of the great things about honesty is how it really does simplify things. Taking a deep breath, I started with the meeting with Doug and Carlton. It took a while even though Brooks didn’t interrupt. He simply sat there, utterly silent, his eyes getting wider by the minute. When we reached my waking up in the hospital I stopped.

“Jesus. What a mess!” He shook his head, opened his mouth to speak, then closed it without saying a word. We sat in a well of silence so profound that I could hear the traffic outside the garage. I watched as he pulled himself together, putting on his work face piece by piece until, once again, he was the ultimate professional cop.

“All right. I’m still technically on sympathy leave, but I’ll make some calls, check on the other Not Prey, see if you’re right about our being hunted. They could just be dreams, you know.”

I heard sympathy leave, but he didn’t give away any more information, so I didn’t quite feel right about asking. I gave him a long look, but didn’t say anything.

“Amanda isn’t a host, so technically she is responsible for what she did. Warrants will issue. Sooner or later we’ll find her and bring her in.”

“I don’t doubt you’ll find her, but bring her in? Not a chance. At least not if what the queens said is true.”

“They can’t lie. What did they say?”

I concentrated, trying to remember everything they had said. “She’s a monster. What she did to herself has made her powerful enough that the entire collective is absolutely terrified of her. They said she can heal almost any injury, and that her psychic abilities would put Monica’s to shame.”

Brooks shuddered. Neither one of us was liable to forget how the past Thrall queen of Denver had successfully used mind control on an entire mob.

“Amanda will know they’re coming. If we’re lucky, she’ll just disappear. If not—” I left the sentence unfinished.

“So what, you think you should take care of it instead.” He was practically quivering with anger, but he managed to keep his voice under complete control.

I shuddered. “Not if I can help it.”

He was a smart man. He heard the implication behind the words. “You don’t think you’ll have a choice?”

“She’s not sane and she’s fixated on me. What do you think?”

He gave a gusty sigh. “I think I’d better call my wife, let her know I’m not going to be home for a while. Then I’m going to do some research, see if I can find any records of anyone dealing with something like this in the past: what they did, how they handled it.”

“Is your wife going to be pissed?”

Brooks thought about it for a moment, then gave a wry grin. “Probably. But she’ll get over it. She knows the drill.” He reached into his pocket and withdrew his wallet. He took out a business card and passed it to me. “This has my cell number on it in case you need to reach me.”

“Thanks, Brooks. I appreciate it.” I unfastened my seat belt and opened the door. As I climbed out of the Bronco I told him, “Someday I’d really like to meet your wife. She’s got to be one hell of a woman.”

“Yeah.” Just thinking about his wife made him grin. “She’s something all right. Keeps me in line, that’s for damned sure.”

“Good that somebody can,” I teased.

“You telling me that Tom doesn’t do the same thing for you?”

I felt the humor starting to drain away. Tom did that, and so much more. But the way Mary had been acting…well, I couldn’t be sure what the future would hold. Tom was a werewolf. The pack meant everything to him. If he had to choose—

“You worry too much, Reilly.” Brooks spoke gently, his expression softening. “He loves you. He’s not going anywhere.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I’m right. You’ll see.”

I climbed out of the vehicle and grabbed my purse from the floorboard. “When do you think I’ll be able to pick up the Jeep? The lease company isn’t going to be happy. Neither will my credit card company.”

“I dunno. I’ll make some calls. See what I find out.”

“I hate to pay for a car when I can’t even use it.”

“Yeah, well, all I can say is I hope you got the supplemental insurance.”

18

« ^ »

I slept until nearly noon. I might not even have woken then if Blank hadn’t jumped onto my chest and started nagging me about giving him a can of soft food. Despite an acute lack of coffee, I felt good physically; better than I had in a while. My head was clear. My body wasn’t hurting. I fed the cat, set the coffee brewing, and ran a bath. Sunshine flooded the apartment, and it lifted my spirits. Nobody had died. Yes, things were pretty grim on a lot of levels, but there was hope.

I felt even better when I checked my messages. Tom had called. The district attorney had decided not to press charges against Rob or Dusty. They were on their way back, but it would be a few hours. The only food in the house for humans was cold pizza, and not much of that. I really did need to go to the store soon. If I managed to get through the next two or three hours without a life-threatening disaster I’d try to get that done. I snorted, amused at my own joke. It’s good that I amuse myself, because half the time my sense of humor just annoys the hell out of everybody else.

Speaking of pissy, my brother Joe was due back from his business trip in a couple of hours. I knew I should probably give him a call later, invite him over to watch a movie, find out how the trip went. But if I did he’d ask me about my life. I didn’t want to talk about my life right now because it would start a fight. My new goal as of this moment was to get through an entire day without a major argument or physical fight. I was sure I could do it—but it would be a hell of a lot easier if I didn’t see Joe. How sad was that?

I heard a horn out front and wandered over to the windows. What I saw made me choke on the last bite of pepperoni. A familiar green Hummer pulled to the curb, and Tom was in the passenger seat. I dropped the pizza crust and dashed to the door. Vampires and werewolves hate each other. What in the hell was going on?

I thundered down the narrow staircase, my bare feet slamming against the cold metal as my mind sought Tom’s. I panicked when I couldn’t feel his presence. Shit. My hands slammed against the bar to operate the fire door on the first floor and I dashed through and across the lobby. I was on my way through the front door in time to see Carlton helping Tom up from the seat.

He’d been beaten badly by somebody who knew what they were doing. His hair was matted with blood. One eye had swollen completely shut. His lip had been split. It was obvious that even the slightest movement was causing him pain. He couldn’t even stand up straight on his own. The beating wouldn’t kill him, but even a werewolf can only heal so much. He’d be miserable for days.

I rushed outside and moved next to them, sliding my arm around Tom’s waist and his around my shoulder until I was supporting most of his weight. Carlton took the other side.

He kicked the car door closed and the three of us staggered into the building.

“What happened? Shouldn’t we be taking him to the hospital?”

“No,” Tom answered. There was force behind the word. It came out clearly, despite the split lip.

“Tom—” I put a pleading note in my voice. This was bad. He could have internal injuries.

“No!” He growled, and it wasn’t a human sound. I turned slowly, my eyes inches from that mouth. Up close the damage looked even worse. I was scared, but more than that I was angry. Who in the hell had done this to him and why?

“People are staring. We’d better get him upstairs.”

I looked around. Carlton was right. It was Saturday, so there weren’t as many people on the street as usual, but there were plenty of spectators just the same. Most were staring at us as if we were putting on quite the show. I glared at one or two, and they quickly averted their eyes.

The three of us made it into the building and across the lobby. We were moving as carefully as we could, but even then there were moments when Tom would give an involuntary gasp of pain. I reached awkwardly with my left hand for the elevator button, with Carlton supporting most of Tom’s weight as we waited for it to arrive.

“What happened?”

Tom was being stubbornly silent, so it was Carlton who answered.

“He defied his Acca. She said you were a threat to the pack, told him he had to give you up. He said he wouldn’t, that he’d leave the pack first. So she pulled over, beat the shit out of him, and left him on the side of the road in a snow bank.”

I stated, openmouthed with shock long enough that the elevator arrived. The doors slid open and Carlton lurched forward.

I hit the button for my floor and the doors whooshed closed. “Mary did this?” My words were dangerously soft. Anger is hot. Rage, for me at least, is cold. At this moment I felt an icy fury. She could have killed him, wolf or not, he could have died, right there by the side of the road.

“My choice.” There was pain in his voice, but determination as well. “Not yours.”

Carlton gave me a look over the top of Tom’s bent head. I recognized it as a warning. I just wasn’t sure whether I was ready to heed it. Because while it might have been Tom’s choice, it was my fault. Oh, he’d defied her all right. But she’d been pissed at me and had taken it out on him.

“There’s always a price for defying the boss, Reilly,” Carlton said. “It was his choice, his price to pay. Just like I’m going to pay for this.”

“You’ll catch hell for bringing him here?” It made sense that he would. But then why had he done it? Even after having seen into some of his thoughts, Lewis Carlton just confused the hell out of me.

“Duh. No shit, Sherlock. They’re our enemies.” He gave me a look that said as clearly as words that I was being naïve to the point of stupidity. “But the trouble I get into for this is nothing compared to what’ll happen if they find out I told you what I’m about to.”

“I thought they knew everything you did?” The tone of my voice made it a question. He shook his head and smiled, baring his fangs. “Eventually I’ll be strong enough to pull out by myself, but not yet. Still, having Fido here with me cut me a break. It’s helping me block them out.”

The elevator jerked to a stop. Tom gave a small moan of pain and I flinched in sympathy. The three of us shambled forward. Lewis supported most of Tom’s weight while I opened the heavy steel apartment door, then the two of us helped him over to the couch. Tom collapsed onto the soft surface. Groaning, he turned and lay down, closing his eyes. I went to the walk-in closet and retrieved one of my mother’s old knitted afghans and used it to tuck Tom in. Kneeling by the couch, I stroked his blood-matted hair and fought down alternating waves of rage and sadness as he drifted into sleep. His chest rose and fell in an even rhythm, a soft snore passing his lips.

“You really love him, don’t you?”

Carlton’s voice startled me. I’d forgotten he was there. It was a stupid mistake to make. Under different circumstances something like that could get me killed.

I kissed Tom’s forehead and rose to my feet. “Yes. I do.”

“If you try to deal with his Acca on this behind his back you’ll be handing him his dick on a platter.”

“Poetic.”

He grinned. “Maybe, but I know you. You’d ignore subtle.”

I couldn’t argue. He was right. But it was a little alarming that he understood me that well. He really shouldn’t.

“So, I’m supposed to just—”

“Let him handle it. He’s a big boy. It’s his business. Let him deal with it. It’s not like you don’t have enough problems of your own.” Carlton walked over to the recliner and took a seat. I hadn’t invited him to, I’d hoped he’d say his piece and leave. It was ungrateful of me. He’d saved Tom after all. But even though I liked him, I couldn’t trust him. I sighed. “I’d offer you something, but I haven’t had time to go to the grocery.”

“Not a problem.” Using the lever on the side of the chair, he pushed it into a reclining position. I fought not to laugh. Big as the chair was, he dwarfed it. The foot rest hit him mid-calf and his head stuck up above the back.

“So what did you want to tell me?”

“We’re setting you up.” He turned, looking me straight in the eye. His expression was serious enough that. I forgot all about the chair.

“Excuse me?”

“Your ex-girlfriend is an abomination. She can’t be killed with a bullet. I knew that when I pulled the trigger.”

“So what does it take to kill her?”

Carlton settled himself deeper in the chair, his eyes scanned the apartment, taking in everything. “You ever watch the old vampire movies?”

I just stood there staring at him for long moments. I’m sure my jaw had dropped. I could almost feel the breeze on my tongue. “A stake in the heart? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Not just a stake, Buffy. Once you stake her, you take her head. And, if you can arrange it, you cremate the body.”

He’d taken off his sunglasses. Looking into his eyes I could see that he was deadly serious.

“Sweet Jesus!”

“I was supposed to let her kill you, then take her out.” Carlton closed his eyes. He seemed perfectly comfortable, utterly relaxed. He’d been wearing the same clothes for more than twenty-four hours, but they didn’t look particularly rumpled. Nor was he half as tired as I would have expected.

“So why didn’t you?” I was honestly curious. As he’d said before, disobedience always has consequences, generally severe ones. “She was ready to do the job, and I couldn’t have stopped her.”