Blood Work (42 page)

A very
reluctant, very hard snort escaped. “You don’t deserve it.”

“Probably not.
So, I go about, just dropping a few questions here and there, and
sure enough I get a nibble on the line. Two Reds. At least, I
assume they were Reds. Two guys, all duded up in their long coats
and mother-effing boots. Before I know it, we’re in the back, on
the way to the toilets. Not a lot of people around, so I didn’t
mind pulling the knife early on. Didn’t want to be brain-raped by
any of them.”

Roberts had no
defence against a psychic compulsion. He’d only been wrapped up
once, by Mercy, but he had no wish to repeat it. I had no wish for
him to repeat it either.

“One tried for
my throat, but I dodged and self-defenced the bloke to goo. Right
in the heart. The other one took off faster than the wind. Sadly,
two girls had come out of the toilets just as I was pulling the
knife from the guy. They screamed and ran back into the toilets, so
they didn’t see the messy end. Several people slipped over in it
though. The cops didn’t know what to make of it. They took the
clothes as evidence.”

“Shit. And it
was the girls from the toilet that shouted murder?”

“Yeah. Though
they were both pretty hysterical. Without a body and no blood at
the scene, and my innocenter than innocent testimony, I should get
off with maybe a charge of carrying a concealed weapon.”

“Is that what
your lawyer says?”

He laughed.
“What lawyer? I learn all my legal jargon off Law and Order.”

“Get a lawyer.
I’ll fund him. I don’t want you paying my debts.”

There was a
lot of noncommittal muttering and mumblings, but he didn’t exactly
object.

I was somewhat
relieved. Roberts was in pretty good spirits, considering. And I
was pretty sure he would get out without too much damage to his
good name. The last of the fright eased out of my aching
muscles.

“So, all that
for nothing,” I said.

“Not nothing.
They mentioned a few things before it got real ugly.”

My heart
skipped a beat. “Such as?”

“Tonight’s the
night, Matt. Big Red is going to gear up and take you out. I don’t
think he cares about keeping you alive for Mercy’s sake anymore. He
wants her like a guy with a foot fetish wants the women’s
basketball team.”

“Good.” A
nasty edge entered my voice. “Cause he’s gonna get me in both
barrels. I found him.”

“How?”

I looked at
the time on the phone. 4:30. Sunset would be rocking around in the
next hour. Barely enough time to get ready.

“I’ll tell you
about it over a beer at the Scarborough tomorrow arvie,” I said
with potentially dreadful irony. Roberts would have to be let loose
first, and I would have to survive the coming night. “Get that
lawyer, get out and go to Gale. Stay there until I call.”

I hung up to
let him know I was very serious.

Before I could
do much more than start a mental inventory of what I would need,
the phone rang again. Another number I didn’t know. I answered.

“Hawkins?”

“Erin.” Surely
she wasn’t ready to have our final meeting. “What’s up?”

“Don’t listen
to her. Just get—”

There was a
savage snarl and the phone bonked around. Then a cool, monotonal
voice said, “Matthew Hawkins.”

Cold fingers
trickled down my spine. “Who is this?”

“You may call
me Heather Veilchen.”

Erin’s mysterious client. And from
Erin’s voice, this wasn’t a willing part of their agreement, on
Erin’s behalf at least. She hadn’t lied to me when she’d said she
wouldn’t give my details to Veilchen. That left only one answer as
to how she’d got my number… and Erin.

“Who are you?”
I asked, feeling the beast stir in the depths again.

The woman
laughed, though it was a brittle, sharp edged thing that cut the
air between us. “You are very good at hiding, Mr Hawkins, but it
works both ways. You hide from the world, and it hides from you. I
am the thing you know nothing about.”

But maybe I
did. I’d been running behind the rest of the pack in the vampire
race for a long time, but I was slowly gaining. Thanks to Aurum and
his pesky Kenobi-complex.

“Oh, I think I
know what you are, Heather,” I said.

“Do you? Then
you understand how unwise it would be to deny me what I want.”

Big Red and
now this thing—one of Aurum’s Primals. Perhaps I had reached that
saturation point he spoke of. That would explain why they were
converging all at once.

Why oh why
hadn’t I listened to common sense two years ago? Why hadn’t I just
left Mercy at the Mentis Institute where she would either have
remained their problem or died sooner rather than later? In those
early days, when the doubts had been a full force flood, it would
have been easy to end her altered life. Later, when she’d started
to emerge from the savage cocoon, it would have been harder, but
still doable. Now?

“Fuck you,
bitch. I didn’t steal her from you. You abandoned her. You’re a bad
mother.”

A wordless cry
damn near shattered my ear drum. I dropped the phone and could
still hear it crystal clear from several feet away. An answering
scream welled up through my chest and I hurled it right back at
her. I snatched up the phone and yelled right into the mouthpiece,
a senseless string of denial and threats that matched her utter
fury. Somewhere along the way, I hit the end button. At the same
time, I cut off my own voice with a choke almost as final.

I was on my
hands and knees on the floor, nearly crushing the phone under my
hand. Sitting back sent a spear of pain through my leg, and I
involuntarily threw myself onto my arse, legs stretching out. The
phone rang again. I cut it off. It rang again. I cut it off. Two
more times it happened before I felt able to answer it. When I did,
my voice was deceptively calm.

“Where?” I
asked simply.

“Mount
Coot-tha.” Veilchen purred the words. “She dies at dawn.” The line
went dead.

Total white
out for an indeterminate amount of time. When I came back to
myself, the clock read just after five. Two appointments with death
in one night and I had no idea how to handle either of them.

Fuck me.

I dialled
Aurum’s number. He would probably want to know that one of his
grandma vampires was in town. And maybe he would know how to handle
her. Hah. Who was I kidding? He would probably advise running away
in the strongest terms. Maybe he would even suggest driving by
Mount Coot-tha and tossing Mercy out the window on the way. I had a
sneaking suspicion he would chalk Erin up to collateral damage and
move on with documenting the event. He wasn’t a warrior, he was a
scholar. Fine in their place, and fucking useless out of it.

I hung up
before he could answer.

The first
thing I did was put in a call to my supplier, talked down his
protests and set up a meeting. Then I dressed. It was vampire
slaying de rigour; black cargo pants and dark, long-sleeved, heavy
duty work shirt to keep all but the most persistent teeth out. Oh,
and the heftiest knee brace I had. The bastard wasn’t too bad after
a day of rest, but I wasn’t going to take any chances.

Then I loaded
up my pockets with stink bombs and filled the rifle with
ammunition. Unable to delay anymore, I returned to the en suite and
took down the drug kit. One and a half ampoules. I sucked up the
last of the broken vial and injected it. Wrapping up the last
ampoule and a needle and syringe, I put them in a pocket on my camo
jacket.

Niggling the
back of my mind was the fact the morphine had stopped me going
berserk last night. Things might go better if I could ride the pain
into a mind-numbing rage. Or they might not. That was fine against
half a dozen vampires, even including one of Big Red’s power. Going
against an army and then a Primal with the Devil knew how many of
her own brood around? That probably required more wits than brute
force. So the morphine it was.

By the time
that was done, it was almost full dark. With the blurring effect of
the drug in my veins, I walked into Mercy’s room. She was a dark,
unmoving lump in the bed. The complete stillness of the room
unnerved me. She wasn’t done healing, wouldn’t be for a good while.
And here I was, about to prod the sleeping tiger and force her to
her feet. All so she could go against the biggest, baddest threat
yet.

Unlocking the
cage, I went in and rummaged through her wardrobe first, picking
out the most protective clothes I could. Her leather pants were
torn to shreds, so I grabbed black jeans instead. A smaller version
of the same heavy material, work shirt that I wore.

It was hard,
going to the bed to wake her up. She was sick. She should rest and
recover. Drawing down the sheets showed me just how far away from
fighting fit she was. The wounds on her arms had closed but they
were nowhere near healed, marking her pale skin with thick, red
welts and crusted scabs. The slashes across her belly were worse,
still gaping here and there. That great slab of scalp had stuck
closed but even a light brush over her hair revealed that it could
fall free with a careless tug. Her pulse flickered weakly, her
breathing shallow and painfully slow between breaths.

God. I
couldn’t do this to her. She would never survive it. I should leave
her here and go it alone. Do the best I could and most likely die
and then she would be left here to go insane with hunger and commit
involuntary suicide throwing herself against the inside of the
cage.

The best
chance either of us had was to get up and start moving.

While she
slept on, I bound her middle in tight bandages and then put a
bandana around her head. She stirred throughout the ministrations,
her voice weak and pleading for peace. I hushed her, guts twisting
with disgust for myself as I did so. But I went on and dressed her.
She woke up more fully as I was tugging up the jeans.

“Matt?”

“Shh. It’s
okay. We just have to go somewhere.”

She protested,
which was about as effective as a day old kitten going up against a
lion. Her utter weakness scared the hell out of me.

“Do I have to
go?”

Fuck. I was
such a bastard. “Yes, baby, you do. Don’t worry, I’ll be with you
the entire time.”

Mercy let me
finish in silence, then she gamely tried to stand for me. That
nearly did me in. I was ready to chuck it in right then. I had no
right to do this to her. Human or vampire, this was cruelty in the
worst measure. But I slipped an arm around her shoulders and led
her out to the car.

I got behind
the wheel before I could lose my nerve and roared out into the new
night.

First port of
call was the dark corner of the hospital car park. Not so many good
memories, but a necessary stop. My guy from the lab was there,
jumpy and ready to run out on me. I handed over the cash and took
the esky without a word and got back into the car. Pulling out one
of the four bags, I handed it to Mercy. It wasn’t that cold so
Mercy chowed down immediately. I left the esky on the seat beside
her. No rationing tonight.

There was an
accident on the Gateway and we sat in a used car yard on the
motorway for half an hour before I could get us off and onto the
smaller roads heading south. The entire time I kept a feeler out
for a rampaging horde of Reds. Not a flicker, which made my guts
twitch between relief and frustration. Come on, Big Red. You’re
supposed to be coming for me. Where are you?

Taking a
circuitous route, it was close to eight p.m. when we turned onto
Airport Drive. Like the Gateway, this was choked with traffic and
our progress slowed. Mercy had chugged down three of the bags and
had perked up. Nowhere near fight ready, but she could sit up on
her own steam and look out the window. She didn’t ask any more
questions. My bleak thoughts were pouring down the link and she
knew what we were facing. Her only reaction was a terse agreement
that my half-arsed plan was about as good as we would have.

Which also
meant my roaring fears of her ability to survive the night were
battering her mind as they battered at mine. I wanted desperately
to block that from her, but it was impossible. What she felt about
that I had no idea. All that came back to me through the link was
an echo of my grim determination. It tore at my already shredded
conscience.

Halfway along
the drive, I wound the windows down. Chilly, late autumn night air
rushed into the car. Mercy leaned into it, eyes closed, drinking in
the flavours of the world. We went with the flow right up to the
domestic terminal at the very end of the drive. Mercy made no
indication she’d sensed anything, so I swung us around the parking
area and back onto the road. We made it back to the Gateway
overpass without a hint of the Reds I’d felt here earlier.

Had they
already moved out? But Big Red would concentrate on the places he’d
encountered me before; the ’Cliffe and the Fringe. If he was
determined to take me out and grab Mercy, he’d come in force and
unless they moved in small groups, Mercy should have picked them up
as we went south and they came north. Presumably, they were also on
the alert for us and should have sensed us on the road.

I slung the
car around the roundabout and headed back to the airport. If this
pass revealed nothing, we’d head into the Valley and swing by the
Fringe.

Nothing on the
way in, and on the way out, I took a chance and turned off the main
road just after the international terminal. We cruised into the
international export park, filled with logistics and small
airfreight companies. Trawling the side streets got us nothing, so
we headed past the park and followed a long, winding road around to
the back of the airport. A landing jet blew by overhead.