Firewall (Magic Born) (17 page)

Chapter Twenty

Hayes followed the big guy to a small anteroom while Tuyet stayed to talk to Vadim. A slight woman with purple hair jumped into the other man’s arms. Hayes stepped away to give them privacy, setting the duffel on the floor and dropping into a chair.

Channing must have seen them leave through the tunnel. It wouldn’t have taken much exploring and research to find a map of the old subway routes. Hayes had done that himself in a matter of minutes. Channing’s attitude made it easy to underestimate him, but that was a mistake. Hayes could see that now. He’d been more concerned with Tuyet, his head scattered in a dozen directions over what happened in those moments he’d helped her ground. Now he wished he’d killed Channing when he had the chance.

Tuyet would blame herself if the girl was dead, no matter that Hayes was the one really at fault.

Purple Hair offered him a fragrant mug. “Drink some tea. It’ll warm you up and calm your nerves.”

He accepted the cup, raising it in thanks. “Hayes.”

“Calla.” She waved a thumb over her shoulder. “That’s Nate.”

“Didn’t he beat me up the other night?” The tea tasted of chamomile and honey and spread soothing warmth through his body, easing some of the tension that had his muscles in knots.

“Yeah, I did.” Nate took the other chair, Calla balancing herself on his lap. “Sorry about that.”

Hayes made a dismissive gesture with one hand. “No problem. How long will Tuyet be?”

Calla answered, “I don’t know but we have a couple of big problems to deal with.”

It was one thing to see witchlight and charms outside the zone. All these people wounded on the same night as the worst riot the city had seen yet added a whole new level of trouble—local DMS would throw every single one of them in jail and tear the zone apart looking for secret exits. “A cover story,” Hayes said. “You need a cover story for all these people. And a damn good one for the guy who was shot.”

Nate said, “Thank you for helping me bring him back. Mekhi’s a good friend.”

Hayes nodded, drained the mug, and stood. “I can’t just sit here. What can I do to help?”

Calla started to speak but stopped when Vadim burst into the room. Vadim said, “Nate, I need you to help ride herd on the kids. We’re moving everyone into the arcade section of Sinsuality.” He pointed at Calla. “I need you to go round up equipment. Hide the best consoles for trancehacking. Leave out the older stuff.”

“What are we doing?” She took the mug from Hayes and carried it to a table in the corner.

“We’re going to let the kids trash the place. Make it look like a fight broke out and got out of hand.”

“That’s good,” said Hayes. “The perfect cover story for all these injuries.”

“So glad you approve.” Vadim looked him up and down then nodded to the couple. “Go, I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

Nate and Calla left. Vadim called out, “Don’t let the brats in my office!”

Hayes said, “What can I do to help?”

A sharklike smile split the older man’s face. “And you even volunteered. That makes this so much easier. Come on, let’s go find Snow.”

“She lets you call her that?”

“No, but I don’t ask for permission.”

They found Tuyet in another room, talking quietly with a young woman with a tear-stained face. Hayes went to Tuyet’s side and slid his arm around her waist. Until that moment he hadn’t realized how badly he’d needed to touch her.

She moved closer. “They need our help but it’s a little complicated.”

“Good thing we do complicated really well,” he said.

“This is Zinnia.” Tuyet indicated the other woman. “She and Mekhi are handfast. That’s like being married.”

“I know what it means.” He squeezed her hip. Turning his attention to Zinnia, he said, “What can we do for you?”

Zinnia took a deep breath then smoothed her cinnamon curls back from her face. “Vadim came up with a cover story for all the other injuries, but Mekhi is too serious. It’ll be days before he’ll be strong enough to go home, but with everything that went on tonight, they’ll be checking on everyone in the zone.”

Hayes nodded, the plan clear to him. “Okay, so you need me and Snow to be you and Mekhi. I’m guessing somebody’s working on glamours now?”

Vadim spoke up. “Yes, and they’ll be damn good. Zinnia can give you a crash course on personal details. One of us will walk home with you, make it as casual as possible. If you just keep your head down and your mouths shut, this should work.” He didn’t sound entirely convinced.

“As long as no one wants Fake Mekhi to do any magic,” Hayes said.

“That’s where we catch a lucky break,” said Vadim. “Mekhi’s parents were Magic Born but he has no magical ability whatsoever. He’s as Normal as you, not that that got him a ticket out of here.”

“I’ve never heard of that. Is it common?”

“It’s not exactly common, but it’s not unheard of either. The only thing crazier than the Magic Laws are the genetics that make such a crapshoot of our lives.” Vadim paused to rub his temples. “I’m really missing cigarettes and booze right now. Sobriety doesn’t suit me.”

“It suits you better than you think,” Tuyet said.

He regarded her for a moment before nodding. “The healers are saying he needs several days, possibly a week. If you two can pull this off, it’ll keep both of them out of jail.” He placed a hand on Zinnia’s shoulder. “Then we’ll figure out how to get you two out of here.”

Hayes said, “Was that the only tunnel?”

“There’s one other that comes into FreakTown, but it’s in bad shape. We don’t normally use it. There’s another way but it will involve cooperation from some, shall we say, less civic-minded folk.”

“Let me guess,” said Tuyet. “Your unfriendly neighborhood nightshade dealers.”

Vadim quirked his eyebrows. “They’re still supplying product to the dens in Riverside. I don’t officially know how they’ve managed that trick.”

“Or which guards they’re paying off.”

“But the depth and breadth of things I know that I’m not supposed to know would shock even you, Snow.” Vadim winked. “Captain Cream Puff, thank you for your help. I’ll leave the two of you with Zinnia. I have to go help trash my pride and joy.” Tightness around his eyes belied the jocular attitude.

These people were doing their best to get by, but the wear and tear was evident even to someone like Hayes who didn’t know them. He focused on Zinnia, doing his best to absorb everything she told him about Mekhi and the public expectations of him on his own and the two of them as a couple. It kept them all busy for hours. Finally he and Tuyet were in a room alone while Zinnia went in search of new clothes for them.

He sat on the floor beside Tuyet, wishing for some sort of wisdom he could impart, or a bad joke to make her smile. Anything. She looked hollowed out, ready to collapse at any moment.

“Nate got an email from somebody in the PD who’s still willing to talk to him.” She sounded like she’d been chewing gravel. “They’ve sent divers into the river to look for bodies.”

Hayes recalled how long it had taken him and Tuyet to make it through that section of tunnel just days ago. Thought about the timing of their parting ways with Paula Miller and the explosion. It didn’t add up to anything that gave him hope. He took her hand and threaded his fingers with hers. “I’m sorry.”

“So stupid, her ideas about telling stories. Nobody gives a damn about the people who want to keep their kids, or the witches living in pens. They won’t even care about the people who were killed tonight.”

There was nothing he could say that would soothe the hurt she was feeling now; he knew that. And he hated it. He hated the senselessness of what they’d witnessed, the loss of life. The threat to the couple they would soon be disguised as. He would gladly throw his all into helping two strangers, but it didn’t feel like enough. Not near enough.

“Are they treating it like a criminal investigation?”

Tuyet shrugged. “I don’t know. You think it would do any good to tip them off about Channing?”

Now it was his turn to be unsure. “I don’t know this town like you do. Will they try to cover up the shootings?”

“They cover up everything else. Why not that?”

“If they cover up the shootings, it would make sense to fold the tunnel explosion into that and hide it too.”

“I don’t want him to get away with this. I know we were leaving but I can’t. Not now, not after this.” Her voice cracked on the last words and he gathered her in his arms.

“I know,” he murmured, lips against her hair. “We’ll figure out what to do. Right now, let’s get through the next few days.”

Tuyet looked up at him. “Thank you for doing this. Mekhi and Zinnia are good people—they’re friends of mine.”

“We’ll be fine at this. Just another variation of Mr. and Mrs. Jones.”

“Mekhi’s a pretty low-key guy. No enemies. I’m more worried about getting out of FreakTown than passing as them for brief periods in public.”

A knock sounded at the doorframe. Zinnia pushed the curtain aside and entered, a bundle of clothes in her arms. “The glamours are ready and Calla’s here to walk you home. To my home.” She shook her head, curls bouncing. “This is weird. But don’t worry about it, okay? Feel free to make yourselves at home. Eat, drink, whatever.”

Tuyet stood and took the clothes. “We’ll do our best not to invade your privacy.”

“Are you kidding? For what you’re doing for us, invade away.” Zinnia hugged Tuyet awkwardly around the wad of clothes between them. “Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome,” Tuyet said, embarrassed.

Hayes said, “How’s Mekhi doing?”

Zinnia walked back to the doorway. “Stable but weak. Let’s just say I’m feeling a lot better about things than I did a few hours ago.” She left, determination carved into her soft features.

Tuyet sorted the clothes and passed several pieces to Hayes. “You ready for this?”

“I am always ready to get naked with you.”

There—a ghost of a smile. He’d take what he could get.

Chapter Twenty-One

Tuyet walked between Hayes and Calla, eyes downcast. The sun boiled overhead, heat reflecting into her face from the cracked black asphalt below. A guard whistled in the distance, a harmless tune.

A
wolf whistle then
, “
Hey
,
little girl.
Come here
,
little girly girl.
”

A group of kids played soccer at the end of the block, the ball going out-of-bounds after a wild kick. Loud swearing, most of it good-natured, bounced off building walls and echoed through the neighborhood.

A
crowd screaming
,
hungry for blood
,
for violence.
A
teen boy
,
rail-thin and soaked in sweat
,
face a mask of terror
,
tossed into the ring by two older
,
bigger men.
He pissed off the wrong person—now he would pay for it.

Hayes brushed the backs of his fingers against hers. She jumped at the slight touch. Nausea roiled in her belly as more memories forced themselves on her consciousness.

A
meaty hand gripped her face
,
fingers biting into her flesh.
“
That’s it
,
little girl.
Just like that.
”

Bile rose in her throat, coating the back of her mouth with its acrid taste. No one had ever questioned why she restricted her FreakTown visits to the underground and Vadim’s club. Vadim knew more about Gehenna than anyone else, so it was likely he had an idea. The memories came hard and fast now, threatening her equilibrium. Faces, voices. The pinch of the spike sliding into a vein, followed by sweet oblivion. All the ugly things that made her need that oblivion like air.

“It’s not unusual for people to keep to themselves anymore,” Calla said. “Especially after something big happens. Nobody wants to draw too much attention.”

Hayes said, “So no one will think it’s strange if we stay in the apartment?”

“The four of us are pretty tight.” Calla must have meant herself and Nate and the real Mekhi and Zinnia. “It’ll be no problem to work it so that you’re seen with us once a day. Taking a walk. The library. If the four of us are together, Nate and I can run interference for you if necessary.”

Tuyet struggled to focus on the words and their meaning, the positive familiarity of Calla’s voice.

“Just like any other mission,” said Hayes.

She knew his words were directed at her. He was asking her to trade one set of memories for another, to cling to her Ranger training instead of the girl she’d been in Gehenna. As much as it sometimes pained her to admit it, the Ranger memories weren’t bad. Not at all. She’d learned to be strong there, stand on her own feet and fight for what was right. Not all of their lessons had been intentional, but every single one had been valuable. The thing that ate at her, a guilt that never went away, was that she’d learned so much from people who used and suppressed her kind. Because of her Ranger training, she’d been one of the best sojourners on the underground, leading countless people to freedom. Because of her Ranger training, she’d been able to help keep food and medicine coming into FreakTown after the ordinance that turned the zone into a prison, when rations weren’t enough.

With the help of her Ranger training, she was going to make Scott Channing pay for what he’d done.

The nausea subsided enough to let her reach for Hayes, linking her arm through his. “So how are they with PDA?”

Calla grinned. “They happen to be big fans of it.”

“That’s convenient.” Hayes pulled her closer and kissed her cheek. “We’re big fans of making out in public from way back.”

This time the memories that cascaded through her mind were full of sensual heat. She took comfort in them, and strength. They passed a guard shack, two uniformed DMS sitting at a tattered umbrella table outside playing cards and talking. They kept an eye on the soccer game but didn’t seem overly concerned about the kids. It was a marked difference from the behavior of guards in Gehenna.

“They always like that?” Tuyet indicated the guards with a jerk of her chin. “They seem pretty relaxed.”

“They got it out of their system last night. Finished the job of trashing the club that Vadim had the kids start. They’ll be pretty low-key for a while, at least a few days. Mostly it’s the agents who like to be hard-asses. There’s a few in uniform who get off on being dicks but for the most part, they’re just punching a clock. And not getting paid a hell of a lot either. I avoid them, but I don’t worry about them too much unless they’re wound up about something.”

What Calla was implying came through loud and clear. The lower-paid personnel had been the ones in Gehenna more susceptible to bribes and to occasionally treating the witches like they were people. Which way they went depended on the kind of person they were.

If Tuyet and Hayes were going to have to rely on nightshade dealers to smuggle them out of the zone, they might be finding out just who in DMS was on the payroll. Vadim might know some of the names but maybe she could pick up other useful intelligence.

Any way she could think of this as just another mission helped.

They reached a squat five-story building in relatively decent condition. The plaque on the wall by the entrance indicated there were ten apartments. Zinnia and Mekhi lived on the top floor. Zinnia had already given Tuyet a key and the necessary spells to deal with the wards.

Calla said, “One of us will check back with you later, see if you need anything. Vadim and I will be monitoring so try that way if it’s an emergency.”

Tuyet nodded, appreciating Calla’s discretion. Calla and Vadim would be checking often in case Tuyet had to send up a flare for help via trancehacking. Once in the apartment Tuyet quickly reset the wards and added some spells of her own. Hayes checked all the windows just to make sure the place was still secure as it had been when Zinnia left. Tuyet watched him move about the apartment. The dark skin and hazel eyes that spoke of Mekhi’s mixed heritage were a radical change from Mr. Jones. So were the braids that flowed halfway down his back.

Other than Tuyet missing her lover’s face, there was only one problem. “You move like a soldier. You’ll need to be careful about that when we’re in public.”

“Are the wards set?”

She nodded. He braced his foot on the couch and hiked up his pants enough to reach the glamour charm tied around his ankle on a strip of black leather. Magic shimmered in the air around him as he removed the charm and put it in his pocket. The sight of his blue eyes brought a lump to her throat made of too many different emotions all at once. It threatened to choke her, blocked her from speaking. Not that she knew what to say. The past kept folding in on the present and tearing at the foundations on which she stood. Nothing felt real anymore.

Hayes settled his hands on her shoulders, the pressure and warmth of his touch so necessary it felt like breaking through water and taking in a lungful of blissful air. He unfastened the clasp of first one necklace, then another, until he’d removed all of the jewelry as well as the glamour charm. The spell fell away, a silk scarf caught by the wind. They faced each other as themselves, and it was exactly what she needed.

“I never wanted to be in a zone again,” she whispered, leaning into him. “I would stay in the underground and take the passage to Vadim’s club if I needed to see him. Even when FreakTown was still open, I couldn’t walk around in here. I just couldn’t.”

He cradled her face in his hands. “When this is over, when we leave, you’ll never have to set foot in a zone again.” He stroked her cheeks with his thumbs, so tender. He’d always been so tender with her, even when she wasn’t with him. “You’ll be free. We’ll be together.”

And while his touch was still tender, a dark blue flame of pure steel lit his eyes. “Nothing will ever take you away from me again.”

She took the comfort he offered and let it soothe the pain inside.

A knock came from the door, sending a rush of panic through her.

“It’s Vadim. You guys home?”

Hayes replaced his glamour. Tuyet picked up Zinnia’s jewelry and moved out of sight of the door quickly. He let in Vadim then closed and locked the door.

Vadim didn’t waste time. He pulled his phone from a pocket and held it out for them to see. “You two just made the most-wanted list. For terrorism.”

Tuyet grabbed the phone and read the news report. “They’re calling last night a terror action, whatever the hell that means. And they’re blaming us.”

Hayes read over her shoulder. “A witch escaped from another zone and an AWOL military officer who is now wanted for sedition. Fuck you very much for that, Talbot.”

“They’ve set up checkpoints all over the city,” Vadim said. “Every way out is covered. They’re telling the media they’re checking for IDs.” He raised an eyebrow in question.

“They’ll have magic tech,” Tuyet said. “Designed to reveal glamours.”

“Getting you two out just got a lot more complicated.” Vadim took his phone back and swiped the screen several times, then showed it to her again. “Check out the star witness.”

Tuyet blew out a breath, old anger roiling in her stomach like a bad meal.

“Channing, you miserable piece of shit.” Hayes dropped to the couch and removed his glamour. His blue eyes glowed hot. “Now I know he’s reporting to Talbot. He’s gotta be.”

“He caused some of those deaths last night, and now he gets to blame us.” Tuyet joined him on the couch, leaning into him. He draped an arm around her.

Vadim sighed. “Look, I need to go. Lot of cleanup at Sinsuality waiting for me. I just wanted you to know about this as soon as possible.”

“Thank you,” she said.

“Just get some rest, and try to stay out of sight for now. We’ll be in touch later today, tomorrow at the latest.” Vadim left in a hurry, agitated. Like a trapped animal.

Tuyet knew how he felt. Being back inside a zone was making her nerves burn underneath her skin, a phantom itch that couldn’t be soothed. She looked at Hayes and words froze on her lips.

His face was a mask, as much as any glamour, but she could see the truth beneath. He’d spent his entire adult life in service to his country. Now he’d been branded a traitor.

All because of her.

Fear clogged her throat as tears welled. How could he not hate her for this? He had to hate her. And there was nothing to be done for it. Even if she let him march her into police headquarters and turn her in, his life would still be over.

“
Sedition
,” he said. “I was thinking about that word.”

She couldn’t speak so she nodded in acknowledgment.

“It means to incite rebellion. I haven’t incited anything.” He turned his head slightly to meet her eyes. “If they’re going to charge me with it, seems like I should do it. What do you think? How about we do a little
inciting
on our way out of the city?” He winked at her. He
winked
.

Tuyet hadn’t even realized she was holding her breath until that moment. “I could be up for that.” Relief untied all the knots of fear that had sprung up so suddenly.

“A little inciting. Maybe a little payback.” Hayes drew her closer, snuggling her next to his side. “I can’t do anything about Talbot but maybe we can do something about Channing. He doesn’t get to get away with this.”

“We’ll figure something out.” She rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.