Books by Maggie Shayne (239 page)

"You should," Rhiannon told her. She pursed her lips, frowned. "So what's the plan?"

Amber looked at the two women. "Alicia called me on the cell, just after daybreak. She'd driven out to Salem to join me there, and when I told her where we were, she insisted on coming up here. Said she had a feeling we were going to need her. She's on her way. Once she gets here, we have to get inside."

"Amber, we have no way of knowing what sort of security they have," Rhiannon cautioned. "And we can't just show up at the door. If they're tied to Stiles or the former DPI, they would likely recognize your mother and me for what we are on sight."

Angelica nodded. "I've seen the inside of far too many of their prison cells," she said. "I'd hate to end up hurled into yet another."

"And this Brooke person has seen you, Amber," Rhiannon went on.

Amber bit her lip, eyeing the gate, the wall. "Alicia was right, then. We
are
going to need her."

"How far out is she?'' Angelica asked.

Amber glanced at her watch. "She's got her 'Vette, and was driving straight through, so she'll get here a lot faster than we did. A couple more hours, at most." Her throat went tight. Why should the thought of seeing Alicia choke her up so much? She'd only seen her a few days ago. But it felt more like a lifetime.

Her mother read her face. "We'll just wait for her, then."

"Do you think it's too risky, Mom? I don't want to send her walking into a nest of vipers."

Angelica looked just as worried. "I don't know. Rhiannon?"

Rhiannon waved a hand. "Oh, please, what threat is a houseful of mortal women to us? I'll fry up the fat ones for a snack and use the skinny ones to pick my teeth when I've finished."

Amber made a face.

Rhiannon smiled a little sheepishly. "Sorry to offend your vegetarian sensibilities, dear. Can I help it if my mind is on food? I'm famished."

"Me, too," Amber said. She'd been irrationally starved for days now, and her waistline was showing the results all too clearly. "We passed a diner a few miles back. I'll call Alicia, have her meet us there. There was a medical clinic not far from it. Maybe you two can find some sustenance there."

"A blood supply or a nice young doctor," Rhiannon said with a twinkle in her eye. "At this point, either would do."

This is the place. This is it! This is the place. You're here! She's here. She's here. She's here! She's
—

"What do you think?" Jameson asked, staring through the barred gate at the mansion beyond.

Edge was crouching on the ground, holding his hands to the sides of his head, trying to silence the damned voice that had grown steadily louder and more powerful. "I think she must be here. Somewhere." He squeezed his eyes together. "Shut up, dammit!"

Miraculously the voice went silent.

Edge felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Jameson staring down at him, his brows etched into a worried frown. "It's getting worse, isn't it?"

Edge shrugged.

"I could feel the pain from ten feet away," Jameson said. "It's stopped now?"

"Yeah." Edge got slowly to his feet, massaging his temples. "First time it's responded to my shouting at it."

"I'm sorry, Edge. If I knew what the hell this was, how to stop it—"

"You wouldn't do a damn thing," Edge said. "Neither would I. It's the only thing we have to go on."

Jameson thinned his lips but acknowledged Edge's words with a sigh. "I suppose you're right." He looked around. "I don't see Rhiannon's car."

"No. Still… " Edge got to his feet, looked at the stone wall.

Jameson nodded. "Shall we?"

"Let's do it while my head's in between explosions."

The two vampires leaped easily over the wall, strode up the walk to the front door of the massive place, paused outside. "You going to knock?" Jameson asked.

Edge pursed his lips, gripped the knob, gave it an experimental twist. "Doesn't look like it's necessary. Door's open."

He met Jameson's eyes. Jameson gave a nod, and Edge opened the door. Then the two of them stepped inside, Edge looking right, Jameson left, before they both moved silently into a great hall that belonged in a castle.

"I don't feel her," Jameson said.

"Neither do I," Edge whispered. And he should, he thought. If he were this close to her, he should damn well be tingling all over with the sense of her being near him, the way he always did. God, he missed her, and it had only been a matter of hours. What was wrong with him?

That thought was chased away by another. A niggling sense that there was something terribly wrong here.

And then he did pick up someone's energy—but it wasn't Amber's. It was other people, women, many of them, all around him, hiding, watching, waiting.

It sent a shiver up his spine. He glanced at Jameson, saw that he felt it, too, and the two of them turned to slip right back out the door again.

But they never got there.

The women sprang, dozens of them. Blows rained down on Edge's head and body, driving him to the floor like a blade of grass in a hailstorm. The last thing he heard was the voice in his head, laughing like hell.

Alicia arrived at the small all-night diner twenty minutes ahead of schedule. Amber saw her cherry-red Corvette pull in from the window beside her booth, and forced herself not to spring up and sprint across the diner to meet her. It wouldn't do to create a scene, and besides, it would scare Alicia senseless.

Still, she rose from the booth as Alicia pushed open the glass entry door. Her friend spotted her, smiled broadly and hurried to wrap her in a hug. Amber's arms tightened around Alicia in return.

When they broke the embrace, Alicia's smile was gone and a searching look had replaced it. "Okay, give. What's wrong?"

"What makes you think anything's wrong?" Amber said, sliding into her seat at the table, averting her eyes.

"You hugged me hard enough to crack a rib, and you're shaking. And your eyes are big. And you're not looking at me." She frowned, glancing around the diner. "Where are Angel and Aunt Rhi?"

"They went out to get something to eat."

Alicia lifted her brows. "One of the locals piss them off?"

Amber smiled. "Nah, we passed a clinic ten miles out. We need them strong."

"Okay. So what's got you so off your game?"

"You mean besides the fact that someone I love is dying?"

"Yeah," Alicia said, matching her friend's sad but sarcastic tone precisely. "Besides that."

Amber lifted her head, met Alicia's eyes. "It's a long story, 'Leesh."

"Then talk fast."

Amber nodded. "It's got to do with that dream."

"The recurring one? The one where the vampire with the sexiest, most intense eyes you've ever seen gives you something that scares the hell out of you?''

Amber opened her mouth to object, but Alicia beat her to the punch, holding up a hand. "Hey, that was exactly the way you described it to me."

Amber sighed, lowering her head. "It's actually a pretty accurate description. He's real."

"You met him?" Alicia's eyes widened.

"Gave him a ride to Salem."

"Holy cow. You mean it was Edge?"

Amber frowned.

"Will and Sarafina told me about him. So? What happened? Did he give you anything?"

"You might say that, yeah."

Alicia tipped her head to one side, studying her. Amber met her friend's eyes, saying nothing. Then Alicia clapped a hand to her mouth. From behind it she muttered, "You slept with him."

Amber nodded. "Yeah. And now I'm pregnant."

Alicia frowned. "You're panicking, that's all. You can't be. You know male vamps can't—"

"This one can."

"But… are you sure?''

"I took a test when I was with Stiles, but I couldn't be sure he wasn't faking it for some sick reason. But he wasn't. My mother knew it as soon as she saw me. No test needed. It's for real, Alicia, and I'm scared."

"Does Edge know?"

"No, and I'm not sure I want him to. This is my issue. I don't need him involved."

"Well, he's kind of already involved, sis."

Amber made a face. Alicia smiled a little crookedly. "God, I'm going to be an aunt."

Shaking her head slowly, Amber reached across the table. "I had the dream again, 'Leesh. This time I could see what it was Edge was giving me."

"Was it a baby?''

Amber nodded. A tear surprised her by swelling and spilling over without warning. "Yeah, but… it was… it was… "

"What, honey? It was what?" Alicia slid out of her seat, coming around to Amber's side of the booth, sliding in beside her.

"It wasn't moving or… or breathing."

"No," Alicia whispered.

"I think it's going to be stillborn, 'Leesh. I think there's something terribly wrong with it, and it can't survive."

Alicia wrapped Amber in her arms, held her hard, stroking her hair. "No," she said again. "You're overwrought, you're scared to death, you're confused."

"My precog dreams are always on the money, Alicia. You know that."

"Yeah, well, I also know that male vampires are sterile. Apparently there really is a first time for everything, Amber. A first time for a male vampire to be fertile, and a first time for the Child of Promise to misinterpret a precognitive dream. It's not so far-fetched."

She sat back a little, pushing Amber's hair behind her ears gently. "And I know you. You're afraid to let yourself believe it might be all right. You think you're protecting yourself from being let down. You're being all strong and practical and tough, just like always. God, you're afraid to love a man so much you can't live without him—how much more scary must it be for you to let yourself get attached to your own baby?"

Amber licked her lips. "I suppose you're right."

"Honey, you're carrying a baby. And right now it's alive and well, isn't it?"

"It feels as if it is. My mother… she seems to think it is."

Alicia nodded slowly. "Well, you want my take on this?"

"I need it, 'Leesh. I barely held it together when I found out. I don't know which way is up right now."

Alicia nodded. "For a freaking borderline genius, you can be a real dope, you know that?" She drew a breath, sighed. "Listen, if this baby doesn't make it, you're going to be crushed right to bits. It isn't gonna matter one bit if you let yourself get your hopes up or not, or how practical or realistic you try to be. It'll destroy you. You know it, and I know it."

Amber leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes. "So far, not being so helpful, pal."

"No, I'm being honest. It's not going to make any difference if you let yourself believe or not. It's gonna hurt just as much."

"Still not feeling cheered up."

Alicia ran a hand over Amber's hair. "The point is, it's not doing you any good to refuse to acknowledge this baby. It's not doing you any good to refuse to love it, or be happy about it, or excited, or any of those things. It's not doing you one bit of good, Amber. You'll be devastated anyway if you lose it. So what the hell is the point? Let yourself be happy about this. Let yourself be excited, and think of names and sing lullabies and pick out baby clothes. Let yourself be overjoyed. It's not doing you any good to go into mourning nine months early. There will be plenty of time for that later. Maybe. Because maybe there won't be any mourning to do at all. Deal with that when it gets here."

Amber opened her eyes, staring at her friend in wonder. "How did you get to be so smart?"

Alicia shrugged. "I hang out with a really brainy crowd," she said. She pressed a hand to Amber's belly. "Ohh, gosh, I could swear you're swelling up already. I wonder if it's a girl or a boy?"

She met Amber's eyes and smiled so hard Amber couldn't help but smile back. And it wasn't a fake smile. It was an outgrowth of the joy she'd been too afraid to allow herself to feel.

"What would I do without you, Alicia?''

"I don't know. You sure wouldn't have any fun, that's for sure." Then she blinked, and her eyes widened. "Does your father know about this?"

"No. If he did, Edge would be dead by now."

"Oh, hell. We're going to have our work cut out for us."

"You can say that again." Amber saw Rhiannon's Mercedes pull in. "Mom and Aunt Rhi are back."

"Oh, God, does Rhiannon know?" Alicia's eyes were even wider.

"Yes, she threatened to eat Edge's liver, and I told her she'd have to go through me to do it." Amber licked her lips. "I really hurt her feelings. She's still pretty mad at me."

"She'll get over it."

"'Leesh, neither Mom nor Aunt Rhi knows about the dream. I want to keep it that way."

"All right. I'll be really careful not to think about it without shielding."

"Thanks."

"So what's the deal with the cure for Will?"

Rhiannon blew the horn once. Amber got to her feet, grabbed her chocolate milk and headed for the door. "I'll explain on the way. Let's go."

Voices, whispering. Eyes, staring. Women, all of them, all around him.

Edge lifted his head, wincing at the pain that shot through it when he did. He pressed a hand to the most tender spot and blinked his vision into focus.

He was in the center of a very large concrete room. There was a white line painted on the floor, like the boundary line on a basketball court. It outlined a ten-foot square around him.

"What the hell?" He started to get to his feet.

"Don't step outside the line or you'll be destroyed," a woman's voice said.

Edge frowned, staring into the darkness, but the bright light glaring down on him and his little square prison from above made it impossible to focus on the darkness beyond.

He shielded his eyes, looking down, spotting Jameson lying on the floor near his feet. A rush of real concern rose up, catching him by surprise even as he knelt beside the other man, rolling him onto his back, smacking his cheeks.

"What did you use, some of Stiles's tranquilizer?" he asked, his voice flatly accusing them.

"We don't need it," a woman said. "Repeated blows to the head will render a vampire incapacitated just as effectively, but for a shorter period and with far fewer side effects."

"That's real considerate of you, bashing our heads in rather than using that nasty, relatively painless other method. I should probably be thanking you."

"You're welcome."

The woman, whoever she was, didn't seem to have any sense of humor. "So what is this place? And exactly what's going to happen if I step over the white line? Besides my draining you dry, I mean?"

"Sarah?" the woman said.

Another woman stepped forward, into the edge of the pool of light, right up to the white boundary line. She was tall, slender, dressed in a blazer and skirt, with her hair pinned up and a pair of plastic framed glasses perched on her nose. All business. She held a broomstick by its neck. "Watch," she told him.

He watched. She held the broom's business end over the white line, and in a flash, flames shot from both the ceiling and the floor, meeting in the middle. When she jerked the broom back, it was blazing. She lowered it to the floor, dipping it into a waiting pail of water. Smoke rose in ribbons, stinking up the place.

Edge was still swearing under his breath when the one called Sarah explained.

"The nozzles line the entire border, from both the ceiling and the floor. Any movement sets them off, and they go off too fast for even a vampire to beat them."

He lifted his brows.

"Yes," said the other woman. "We know what you are."

Edge swallowed hard. "So I take it you're the headmistress of this… Academy for Brutal Bad Girls, is that it?"

"I'm in charge, yes."

"Do you have a name?"

"Not that you need to know."

"Are you going to tell me what you're doing with us? Why you're holding us?"

She shook her head. "We're holding you because we don't yet know what sort of a threat you pose to us. What we'll do with you—well, we'll let you know as soon as we've made a decision on that."

She remained out of the light. It drove him mad that he couldn't see her face, the better to remember it and exact vengeance later.

"You won't be harmed. Just so long as you don't try to get out, you'll be fine."

"I'm afraid I have urgent business to attend to, headmistress."

"Yes, and I'd like to know what that urgent business might be," she countered. "Why did you come here? What are you looking for?"