Dangerous Calling (The Shadowminds) (4 page)

Chapter Three

We drove up to The Sand Angel Grill in Biloxi, Mississippi three hours later. A line of people waiting to order wrapped around the low building, just like every other time I’d been here, and the smell of frying bacon mixed with salty scent of the ocean just a few yards away. A row of beach towels, painfully bright in the midday sun, hung like flags from the eaves. We were the only people not wearing swimsuits and coverups.

Janine looked at the line and looked back at me again. “You said he was in jail.”

“We’re meeting our escort.” I stood on tiptoe and looked again for Susannah. It had been over twelve hours since Diana had sped off down the road, and anything could have happened to her. I kept thinking of the bruise on her cheek and the fear I’d heard in her voice.

Janine looked doubtfully at the crowd of cheerful locals. I wasn’t sure how she’d take it if I told her this was the plain-sight lair of the winged guardian in charge of Biloxi, who might or might not be entirely stable.

New Orleans hadn’t had a guardian in living memory. Lionel told stories about them, but they were all passed-down tales from other places. Maybe the city had never had her own protector.

“
She knows we’re here
,
right?
” Shane’s voice in my head. He didn’t bother to conceal an edge of annoyance.

“
Maybe she got held up.
”

He gave the mental equivalent of a
humph
and folded his arms. The line moved up, and the freckled, redheaded cashier at the counter, a telepath, greeted the next customer in line while looking right at me. “
Go around back.
I’ll tell her you’re here.
” His mental voice was as clear as if he’d spoken an inch from my ear. Pure telepaths were like that—laserlike mental focus.

I nodded, and Shane said, “I heard.”

We walked past the line of diners and around the side of the wooden building. There was a Dumpster with a smattering of graffiti and, disturbingly, what looked like a paring knife embedded in the side, right in the center of the dot of an
i.

“This had better not be some wild goose chase,” Janine said, staring at the knife.

Before I could respond, Susannah walked out of the back door, and all three of us went instinctually still.

Her wings weren’t visible at the moment. I didn’t know how it worked, but she was able to make them appear and disappear at will. She was wearing cutoff jean shorts and a too-big white T-shirt that said Ocean Grove Casino & Spa. At first glance, she looked like a college kid on spring break, but her slender frame was corded with muscle and her graceful movements were born of prizefighter reflexes. Even the way she stood telegraphed threat.

“Who is that?”

I knew who she meant. Janine glanced at me uncertainly. It was the kindest expression she’d turned my way yet. I decided lengthy explanations probably weren’t necessary. “His mother.”

“No.”

Janine looked at me. “You promised.”

“She just wants to visit him, that’s all.”

“This was not part of our agreement.”

“You never said he couldn’t have visitors.” I was learning how to play her game. Better late than never.

She turned her gaze on me with the slightest narrowing of her eyes. “True.” She glanced back to Janine, looking her up and down. “You won’t like what you see.”

“You agreed not to harm him,” I said.

Susannah inclined her head. “I did. But he never agreed not to harm himself.”

Janine looked between us, back and forth. “What do you mean? Cass, what does she mean?”

“It’s okay. I’m sure he’s fine.” I took her arm and gave Susannah a quelling look.

She flared her nostrils and tightened her lips. “Meet me on the street. Try to keep up.” She turned and walked back into the restaurant.

* * *

I shouldn’t have been surprised to see Susannah tear down the road on a motorcycle. Once or twice, I almost thought I caught sight of her wings trailing behind her in the wind.

Shane drove, keeping pace with her through heavy summer traffic—high school graduates on their first parent-free vacations, tourists, families on day trips. We left the beachfront behind and turned inland, leaving the high-rise hotels for more modest bungalows and then the part of the city the tourists never saw, neighborhoods and grocery stores and gas stations without a gaudy, shell-encrusted advertisement in sight. Susannah turned into the cracked concrete drive of a strip mall that had seen better days.

The parking lot was nearly empty. Susannah managed to take up two spots with her bike, and Shane parked carefully three spots down.

“What is this place?” Janine asked. I couldn’t answer her.

Susannah was already walking to a detached brick building sitting in the center of the lot, as close to the road as it could get. It looked as though it might’ve been a restaurant once—its neon sign was still there, but it was burned out and weathered. Underneath were the words Your Neighborhood Bar & Grill! The windows were covered with plywood and there was a chain securing the door.

The three of us stayed back as Susannah pulled a key ring from her pocket and unlocked the padlock. She turned to Janine. “Never come back here. Do you understand?”

Janine nodded, too quickly, too much, her breath coming fast and her heart pounding. A mix of nerves and misplaced joy and righteous anger came off of her like spilled perfume. Susannah opened the door and led us inside.

Any hint at the building’s former life vanished once we got inside. She must have totally gutted it and rebuilt it from the foundation up. The front door opened into what could only be called a sheet metal cage. It was like being inside a safe, nothing but gleaming silver metal on all sides. The four of us barely fit, and I almost imagined I felt invisible wings brushing my side. Susannah closed the entry door and spent a moment unlocking a second door, this one made of what looked like solid steel. It opened with a hydraulic sigh.

The next room looked like a command center from an eighties spy movie, with its bay of black-and-white video surveillance feeds and panel of lighted buttons. A man—medium build, wavy dark hair, brown skin—sat in a rolling chair in front of the monitors, drinking coffee out of a ceramic mug and reading a paperback novel. He stood up when Susannah walked in.

“David,” she said, nodding.

He sat back down, staring at us. I was too intimidated to sneak into Susannah’s head, but I didn’t have qualms about eavesdropping on this guy. His thoughts were too loud to ignore, anyway.

—never brings people—who the hell—guess she knows what she’s doing—still—need to take off early next Friday—probably shouldn’t ask her now—looks pretty pissed—

Well, that wasn’t much I didn’t already know.

Susannah didn’t speak but led us forward, shoving aside rolling desk chairs as though they’d gotten in her way on purpose. I glanced at the screens and saw images of the empty parking lot, the porch, the back of the building. And then the cells.

Some of them were empty. At least three of them contained people, all of them men. I didn’t see Ryan, and Susannah moved too fast for me to stop and look properly. She opened a metal door at the other end of the surveillance room with yet another key, and we stepped into the hallway.

It was full of cells. Metal doors closed off each one, with tiny, six-inch windows the only way to see in. The plexiglass was several inches thick and shot through with chicken wire. I peered through one and saw a man slumped on a thin cot, eyes open, staring at us. I thought he was dead until he blinked.

“You just keep them in here? Locked up?” Shane’s voice was calm, but I knew him well enough to hear the edge in it.

Susannah kept walking. “What do you think this is? A social club? I use it for short-term rehabilitation. The ones who can’t be saved, I kill.” She said it so matter-of-factly, it made my skin go cold. “It’s not a hotel.”

“It doesn’t have to be a torture facility, either,” Shane said.

Susannah stopped in the middle of the hall and rounded on him. Every muscle in my body tensed, but she only narrowed her eyes and considered him.

“You don’t deserve an explanation, but I will give you one anyway.” She walked forward until she was right in front of him. Shane didn’t budge, but Janine took several steps back. “You can’t know what it means to carry a city on your shoulders. There are more than just lives in the balance. I do what is best for my city. If that means remorseless killers fail to get their daily exercise before I execute them, I cannot say I’m particularly bothered by it.”

A muscle in Shane’s jaw tensed, but he didn’t back away. His mind was a swirl of
wrong
and
inhuman
and
we could do better.

Susannah didn’t wait for any of us to respond. For the best, since I didn’t know what I would’ve said. She turned to the thick door in front of us and rapped on the steel. Inside, someone stirred. The sound of metal on metal set my teeth on edge. Susannah unlocked the door and swung it open.

Ryan was handcuffed to a bare cot. He was wearing a stained white shirt and pale blue pants with frayed hems, and his hair was shorn to his skull. When he saw me, he laughed, and it was a terrible sound, insanity and sorrow.

“Please,” he said, and his voice broke. He held up his hands in supplication, as far as his restraints would allow. “Just finish it.”

I barely had time to close my jaw before Janine pushed past me into the room.

“Ryan, baby...” She knelt in front of him. It took him a moment to see her, and even when he focused on her, he didn’t seem to recognize her, as though her presence was as unremarkable as the presence of any of us. “What have they done to you?” Janine asked, but Ryan didn’t answer.

He was thin—dangerously so—and there were scars on his wrists. A pink, ropy slash ran along the side of his neck. Janine had her hands on either side of his face, but Ryan wasn’t looking at her. I turned to Susannah, eyes blazing, but she shook her head.

“He tried to kill himself. Three times.” She spoke in a low voice. “The last time he attempted to hang himself with the bed sheets.” I looked at the cot. Bare. Susannah went on. “He’s been refusing food for weeks, but we manage to get an IV into him every few days.”

Shane closed his eyes, and I shared his complicated feelings. After everything Ryan had done, it was hard to pity him and yet impossible not to.

“His powers haven’t returned, in case you were wondering,” Susannah said. “I’m sure he would’ve stopped his own heart if he could.”

I knew the things he’d done better than anyone. Killed his brother, killed his father. Murdered a dozen people, probably more. I shouldn’t have been amazed that those memories were destroying him.

“This is the choice you made,” Susannah said. There was no judgment in her tone, but I heard what she didn’t say. She probably meant me to. —
I
told you that you should have killed him—
She watched Janine stroke Ryan’s shoulders, grab his hands. He didn’t bother to pull away from her. When she managed to get her face in front of his gaze, it was as though he looked right through her.

“That’s enough,” Susannah said. “Time to go.”

“No, please...” Janine grabbed the railing of the thin metal bed. “I’ll stay with him. I don’t care. I’ll stay right here.”

“No.” Susannah lifted her as though she was a pile of unwashed laundry. Janine kicked, but Susannah didn’t even pause. She locked the cell door after us and deposited Janine in a rolling black desk chair in the control room. Janine slumped over, sobbing. David stared at her with something like horror on his face. I wondered if he’d been watching through the closed circuit system.

“Satisfied?” Susannah’s wings were visible now, huge and white with blue-gray tips. She had them folded neatly behind her. Janine didn’t notice.

I looked up at the black-and-white monitors behind her. Ryan was on the one in the bottom right. He was exactly were we’d left him.

“No,” I said. “But I guess it’s the best we can do.”

We left the way we’d come in. Susannah, wingless again, got onto her bike and waited while we got Janine into the car and drove out of the parking lot. She followed us until we got on the interstate out of town. I couldn’t blame her. I wouldn’t have trusted us, either.

Chapter Four

Janine didn’t speak for the entire drive back. Almost two hours of pregnant silence. Shane’s mental state wasn’t much more welcoming. It was a storm of fury over a sea of guilt.

Somewhere a little after the state line, I tried to get him to open a telepathic discussion.

“
If we had a guardian of our own—
”

“
No.
”

I was surprised by the slicing anger in his tone. “
They’re powerful
,” I said. “
We could set up a prison in New Orleans
,
keep him there—
”

“
We don’t need a guardian for that.
” His jaw tightened, and images of the prison filled his head. They were laced with older memories from when we’d first met Susannah, when I’d bargained three favors in exchange for the use of her prison. Shane hadn’t liked her then, either.

“
We could at least ask her how the whole guardian thing works.
I
mean
,
do they just float down from the sky one day?
” I gave a mental chuckle, but Shane only glared at the road.

“
I
doubt that.
”

“
Didn’t Lionel ever talk about it?
”

“
We don’t need something like that in our city.
”

I let it go, but I wasn’t convinced he was right. If we had a guardian of our own, maybe I wouldn’t have to make deals with other cities to handle out-of-control converters.

We spent the rest of the drive in mental silence, but I could sense his frustration. When we got to the outskirts of New Orleans, Janine finally spoke.

“Let’s get this over with.”

We weren’t that far from the place Diana had asked to meet me, but I was betting that wasn’t the right place to look. She’d refused to meet me in the city. She’d been scared—she’d wanted to be far away from whoever was after her. By now, she’d either gone back to him or left the state. My money was on the city itself.

“Start in City Park,” I said. It was a relatively central location—maybe it would give Janine the best chance of finding Diana.

Shane took us down Esplanade to the sculpture garden at the southern end of the park. The lake on our right was low after weeks of summer heat without rain. He pulled into a parking lot just past the museum and stopped the car.

It was still light out—sunset was hours away—and I briefly considered waiting until full dark. Whoever was scaring Diana might not let her go quietly. It would be better to assess the situation first, without the risk of being observed. I didn’t want to cause a fuss.

Then I remembered the bruise on Diana’s cheek. Maybe a fuss was what I wanted after all.

I twisted in the passenger seat to face Janine. She was looking out the window at the rows of dusty cars. In one of them, two women were helping a grinning, overexcited little girl out of her car seat. Janine looked away.

“Are you ready?” I asked her.

“What’ve you got?”

I passed her the sunglasses and the hair tie, and she took them out of the plastic bag, frowning.

“She handled them recently. Less than two days ago.”

“Yeah.” Maybe this meant we had a shot. “Are you getting anything?”

She shook her head. “Give me your memories. I’ll see what I can do.”

I could tell her abilities were rusty. I had to project my memories of Diana—she was too weak to dip into my head and grab them. Not that I had much to give her. Five minutes on a deserted country road at midnight wasn’t much of an encounter to anchor onto.

Janine gripped the sunglasses and the hair tie, and her shadowmind sparked to life and back out again, stuttering like a corroded battery. She shook her head, scrunched her eyes shut, and tried again. When her powers finally caught hold, she only managed to reach a few hundred yards out before her gift went dark.

“Give me a minute,” she said. I pulled out of her mind.

Janine rolled down the window and lit a cigarette. Shane barely restrained himself from snatching it.

“Could be we need to be somewhere else,” he said, craning around. His knuckles were white on the wheel.

Janine didn’t look at him. “I just need a minute.”

We waited while she smoked the cigarette, tapping the ash into the parking lot. She took a long final drag and flicked the burning butt into the empty space beside us. “I’m ready,” she said.

I took her hand and focused on Diana—tall, cotton shorts, bruise, shifting eyes, dark hair. This time, when Janine reached out, her gift caught hold.

Connected as I was to her mind, I could sense the way she searched. It wasn’t quite the way I’d do it. I could listen for the mental signature of someone I knew, but Janine’s power was different. The space around us went gray and quiet, as though it was covered in ash-laced snow. Her awareness raced out of the park without so much as a pause, and she reached out farther, looking. Lakeview, Old Metairie, Midcity and Carrollton. Nothing. Then we hit Uptown.

I felt it when her powers caught. It was a small thing, like hitting a speed bump in a school zone, but Janine paused, focusing. I waited, holding Diana’s image firmly in my mind. Something flared in Janine’s shadowmind, a spark of recognition, her powers reacting to the thing she’d told them to find. I held my breath.

“Got something,” she said finally. “Could be her.”

“You’re sure?” I didn’t want to make assumptions, but if Diana lived Uptown, I’d expect her to drive a nicer car than the one I’d levitated the night before. Janine shrugged.

“One way to find out,” Shane said. He started the car.

We went slowly, keeping to the side streets. Janine lit another cigarette and smoked it while we drove. Shane didn’t comment. The only conversation we had was
right
,
left
,
keep going
,
slow down
. It took almost an hour before she said, “Stop.”

Shane pulled over to the curb. “Shit,” he said.

I stared out the window. “You’re not serious.”

“You asked me to look, I looked.” Janine blew smoke out the window. “She’s in there somewhere.”

We were in front of the most exclusive gated subdivision in New Orleans. It was surrounded by concrete walls and wrought-iron sliding gates. There was a card reader next to the entrance. And a guard shack.

“Is she there now?” I asked.

“Sure feels that way.” Janine settled back in her seat. “That’s the best I can do, unless you can get past them.” She waved toward the guard shack. Inside, two uniformed men were watching a bay of black-and-white security feeds.

I wished my powers included these-aren’t-the-droids-you’re-looking-for abilities, but changing people’s perceptions wasn’t one of my gifts. I wondered if whatever ability Susannah used to hide her wings could also hide her whole body. Yet another reason we needed a guardian. As it was, it looked like we were going over the wall.

Shane drove up a few blocks and parked the car next to a modest shotgun-style house. We got out and stared at the concrete wall surrounding the subdivision. It was covered with reliefs of stylized cypress trees and flanked by well-watered landscaping, but it was still a wall.

“I’ll lift you over,” Shane said to Janine. “Cass, you want to go first?”

“Makes sense.” I didn’t want to dump her next to someone’s guard dog with no way to protect herself. I used my powers to feel for anyone standing on the other side of the wall, made sure no one was looking, and leaped over with a boost of telekinesis.

I landed in a crouch and straightened, taking in the surroundings. I was in the middle of a landscaped garden that alone must have cost twice the amount of Shane’s condo. A water feature—it was way too fancy to be called a fountain—sat in a focal point lit up with strategic floodlights. It was made of natural stone, or something expensive enough to mimic it. Clear water bubbled over the rocks and cascaded to a pool planted with lilies and tall, skinny reeds. I counted at least a dozen oversized goldfish. Beyond it was a rock garden—complete with a statue of a serene Buddha—and a bed of bushes that looked as though they got trimmed every day with a pair of nail scissors.

“
Clear
,” I sent to Shane, and a few moments later, Janine came floating over the wall, looking like she was about to puke. She staggered when her feet hit the grass. Shane sailed over next, landing so gently he barely made a sound.

“Is this it?” I whispered to Janine. If she noticed we were trespassing on property two tax brackets up, she didn’t comment.

“Uh-uh.”

“Which way?”

She gripped the sunglasses and held them in front of her like a divining rod. “She’s close.”

I hoped no one was looking out a window as we walked up the side of the house to the street. It didn’t seem like a street people generally walked on. We passed a pale stucco thing with lots of odd angles and no landscaping, a three-story red-brick federalist and a whole series of classic old New Orleans mansions with double-tiered front porches and square wooden columns. Janine stopped in front of one of the least ostentatious places on the street.

“
SUV in the garage
,” Shane said in my head.

“
She was definitely driving something smaller when I saw her.
”

“
Maybe she’s not home?
”

The house was bland beige-pink brick, and the landscaping was just azalea bushes with neatly kept monkey grass around with edges. Three stories, with picture windows on the first two and dormers on the third. Blinds were drawn on all of them.

I thought about Diana’s beat-up car. I peered at her sunglasses. They looked as if they’d come from a drugstore, but what did I know?

“You’re sure?” I asked Janine

Janine looked at the sunglasses too. “I’ve never met her. This is the best I can do.”

It didn’t seem smart to stroll up and ring the doorbell. I shifted so Janine and I were facing each other. “Pretend you’re talking to me. Recite the alphabet or something.”

“Why would I recite the alphabet?”

“Just look talkative.”

Janine launched into a description of a vacuum-sealing freezer bag kit she’d just purchased at a garage sale for a third of what it was worth. I tuned it out.

“
Feel anything?
” I asked Shane.

“
Three people.
Maybe a fourth...hard to tell.
I
keep losing my grip on one of them.
” He frowned. “
Do you recognize any of them?
”

I didn’t want to dip too deeply into anyone’s head. If I’d been sure everyone in the place was a normal, I could’ve gone hunting through the occupants’ brains and figured out everything from their mothers’ maiden names to what they’d had for lunch, but shadowminds would pick up on that kind of invasion, so I kept my mental touch light and glancing, just looking for a headcount.

I only counted three people, one on the top floor and two on the bottom. Whoever was on the top floor wasn’t moving around much, maybe even sleeping. I was almost positive it was Diana, but I couldn’t risk pushing deeper to find out. The ones on the ground floor were a lot more active, almost as though they were pacing. Their movements were oddly regular, and I realized why when one of them opened the front door and walked out. Security guard.

“Shit,” I said. He was headed right for us, black uniform, gun, walkie-talkie and all. And he was suspicious. It wouldn’t make much sense to run. I walked right for him instead.

“
Cass—
” Shane tried to pull me back, but it was too late. I opened my mouth to play dumb and ask for directions, but the guard spoke first.

“You here with the delivery?” He looked at Janine and Shane and frowned.

“The what?” I said.

“What are you doing out here in the street? Didn’t they tell you to ring the doorbell?”

“Uh...” Screw caution. I dipped into his head.

—the blonde and the guy will do
,
but the fat bitch is way too old—last time they sent someone over forty she nearly killed me—fuck me what do I do now—

I considered playing along with the guard to find out. Shane didn’t so much mindspeak a
no fucking way
as yell it with his entire brain. He’d clearly been listening in too.

“
Don’t worry
,” I sent him. I turned to the guard.

“I think you must have the wrong person, sir, we are just plumb lost!” I put my hand on his arm for good measure. “Could you tell us how to get to St. Charles Avenue?”

His face hardened
—fucking tourists—how the fuck did they get in—where the hell is our order—
and he stepped away from me, breaking contact.

“This is a private community. I’m afraid you-all need to find your way out, now.”

“Oh! Oh my goodness!” I turned a surprised look on Janine. “Mom, did you know we weren’t supposed to be here?”

Janine gaped at me. It was possible I was overdoing it.

I turned back to the guard. “We’re so sorry! We’re from North Carolina and we just don’t know our way around!”

He softened, ever so slightly. “Back that way,” he said, pointing. “How did you even get in?”

Better not to answer that question. “Oh, thank you so much.”

Shane and I each took one of Janine’s arms and tugged her back up the street, toward the guard shack. The guard in front of the house wasn’t moving—he was going to make sure we left. I could hear the resolution in his head. We hurried Janine down the street and took the first turn we could to get out of sight.

“What the hell was that?” Shane said.

“I have no idea. Nothing good.”

Janine fumbled in her pocket and took out a cigarette, lighting it while we walked.

We left through the pedestrian gate, and the guards gave us respectful little nods. I guess they weren’t so worried about people getting out.

We brought Janine back to her apartment complex in silence. In her head, she wondered about the house, what it was, and why we’d been looking for Diana, but she didn’t voice any of her questions. We pulled into the parking lot and stopped as close to her unit as we could.