Poison Tree (6 page)

One problem with SingleEarth hunters was that they tended to start out as vampire hunters, so no matter how long they spent in SingleEarth, they rarely regarded one of Jason’s kind as a serious ally.

So no one objected when he left to work on his own investigation.

Of the three victims, only one had a good, predictable reason to have been outside at the time of the attack. Jason was normally sleeping at that hour, and given the weather and the vampiric ability to travel place to place instantly, no one would have expected him to be outside. Israel would usually have left hours earlier, and while it was possible that someone had waited on the icy roof of the recreation building for that long—a vampire or Triste could have managed it—it seemed like an unnecessary, uncomfortable risk for someone to take.

That left Ben, the tech support guy who had showed up in response to a service request generated by a cyber attack. Ben
had
asked Jason where he could get some sleep, but he couldn’t have known that Jason would show up in the first place, so it was more likely that Ben was a target than a conspirator.

Jason wasn’t entirely dismissing the possibility that Ben was involved, though, for one good reason: Jason had crossed Onyx in the past. If they had found him, he couldn’t predict what they would do. Depending on what Alysia and Sarik learned at Onyx, he would decide what the others needed to know about all that.

A look in Ben’s file revealed nothing obviously strange. He had been in SingleEarth for years, working mostly with computers and usually frequenting the more urban-style Havens and wards. There was nothing to indicate he had enemies, but such things didn’t always make it into the record.

Two birds, one stone
, Jason thought as he knocked on the door of the room where Ben was staying.

Lynzi answered.

“I thought you healed him,” he said, concerned.

“I didn’t have time or energy to fully heal him earlier,” she answered. “I was able to stop the bleeding, but then I had to move on to others. There is still work to be done now to avoid long-term damage.”

Lynzi stepped into the hall and gently shut the door behind her. “He’s sleeping now, though it was a hard battle for me to get him there. He is understandably anxious and wants to get back to Central as soon as he can. He feels safer there. He keeps muttering that this place reminds him of somewhere called Crystal Lake. Have you had any word from Sarik and Alysia?”

“Sarik called when they were leaving Onyx to let me know they were safe. That was almost five hours ago, so they should be back any minute.”

Lynzi nodded. “Diana called to check in, too. She’s swamped following up with that coffee shop event, but she gave me the authority to sign for any resources we need and assured me that if we need her here personally, she’ll be on the next plane.”

“Do you think anyone from Alysia’s coffee shop could be involved in this?” Jason asked.

“Diana thinks not,” Lynzi answered, sounding slightly hesitant. “She says the survivors are mostly coping well, thanks to Alysia’s swift intervention, but she has been fielding calls left and right from the media.”

Jason’s phone rang; he moved farther down the hall, away from Ben’s door, to answer.

“Hi, we’re back,” Sarik said. “Do you know where Lynzi is? Her phone went straight to voice mail.”

“She’s been with Ben,” Jason answered.

“Sarik?” Lynzi guessed. When Jason nodded, Lynzi suggested, “Tell them to meet us in the conference room.”

Jason relayed the message, and soon after, they all gathered in their regular meeting room. The cherry-paneled walls and other rustic accents seemed a good deal less peaceful now that Jason had taken a bolt to the guts on the steps of this very building.

“Alysia was looking pretty ragged by the time we got back, so I suggested she lie down,” Sarik said.

Lynzi nodded. “Did you learn anything?”

Sarik nodded and chewed on her lower lip, a habit she had when she was nervous. “We met someone at the Hall. His name is Christian. I gather he and Alysia have a history of some sort. He seemed happy to see her at first, but then he more or less told us to go to hell.”

“Christian Denmark?” Jason asked.

Sarik shrugged. “Alysia only used his first name. It seemed like the kind of group where asking last names might be a bad idea.”

Lynzi nodded, and asked Jason, “You know him?”

“I’ve heard of him,” Jason said. “Christian is kind of like a foster son to the leader of the Onyx guild. It would probably be for the best if he didn’t see any more of Sarik.”

“Excuse me?” Sarik asked. “Not that I want to make friends with a mercenary, but why me specifically?”

“The leader of Onyx is a tiger,” Jason explained. “An old-school heavy hitter with ties to the Mistari high queen, if rumors are to be believed.”

Sarik went pale as a sheet.

According to Mistari law, each tribe was a distinct unit under the absolute control of their current king or queen, who answered only to the high ruler back in the main camps. Thousands of years ago, the tribes had specialized in order to provide for the greater community; some were mostly hunters, some gatherers, some planters, some craftsmen, and so on. In the modern age, that translated into some tribes being splendid examples of democracy and art and spirituality, and some being brutal, ruled by a claw-and-fist autocracy.

Sarik never spoke about her past, except in bits and
pieces—usually when she woke from the nightmares left behind by being regularly beaten within an inch of her life whenever she transgressed.

“That could create problems while I’m trying to find a home for the cubs,” she said, her voice sounding hollow. “I’m still waiting on responses from the tribes I have contacted.”

SingleEarth sometimes interacted with other Mistari, but very rarely with royalty, because Mistari royalty generally disapproved of individuals like Sarik who had chosen to leave their home tribes. If a Mistari king saw Sarik and deduced that she was a runaway, he was likely to report her to her father. Jason wasn’t going to let that happen. Ever.

Lynzi nodded her agreement, though she did add, “Sarik, you know that SingleEarth would never let anyone take you without your consent, right?”

Sarik nodded, but the look in her eyes was blank. After years of fear, and pain, and shame, it was hard to fully believe anyone’s promise of protection, especially when new violence seemed determined to intrude on the peaceful life they had struggled to build over the last six years.

A
LYSIA WAS IN
motion before she knew what had wakened her. She made the first several attacks blind, while still blinking the sands of sleep from her eyes. Her mind registered things like movement, the flash of eyes—and a weapon. By the time she recognized the intruder, she had him pinned to the ground with an arm across his windpipe.

She slapped Christian upside the head as she pushed herself to her feet. He was lucky she hadn’t been able to get a hand to the knife she had glimpsed at his waist.

No, not lucky. He knew her style well enough that he would have been careful to keep her from any weapons until they both knew she wasn’t trying to kill him.

“Jerk,” she said with a smile. “That door was locked for a reason.”

She offered him a hand up, unsurprised by his sudden appearance in her bedroom. She had given him enough information to track her down if he chose, and had suspected he would follow through as soon as he got over being simultaneously surprised and pissed that she had surprised him.

As he rose, he said, “Was it really?” He took a moment to straighten out the leather jacket he wore and to check the security of items beneath. He might have left his crossbow at home, but Christian was never unarmed, not even in the heart of SingleEarth.

Alysia looked at the clock and then turned back to him with a halfhearted glare. “Five in the morning?
Really?
” She sat back down on the bed, finger-combing hair out of her face. There wasn’t even a hint of light outside her windows.

“I didn’t want to stay up much later,” he replied, “and I wanted a chance to catch you alone.”

He reached into his jacket to retrieve a slender package; unrolling it, he revealed the three bolts Alysia had given him at Onyx. “Am I right that these are yours?”

She nodded tiredly. That had been the final joy the day before—discovering that someone had broken into her room. She hadn’t unpacked anything but her laptop before the attack, so she didn’t know exactly when the bolts had been stolen, but the lax security at Haven #4 would have left plenty of predictable opportunities while she was being shown around the campus.

She fished a key out from between the mattresses and tossed it to Christian.

Christian knelt down to open the innocent-looking trunk, where two framed photos lay nestled among sweaters—one of Alysia’s mother in Paris, and one of her father with his girlfriend in Key West. The photos sitting side by side seemed to give the illusion that the individuals within would ever choose to be in the same room together.

Without needing to be told, Christian pushed the sweaters aside to reveal a false bottom, under which were Alysia’s real treasures: an Onyx crossbow, with its arms collapsed for storage; three slender metal stakes, each with its own adaptations to make it better suited for fighting; and a set of daggers. Each weapon represented a hard-earned rank in one of the Bruja guilds.

“You’ve kept them in remarkably good condition for someone living at SingleEarth, but you’re likely to lose them if you keep putting them into other members,” Christian remarked.

“I didn’t—” Alysia drew a deep breath, biting back her defensive retort as someone knocked on the door.

What now?
She was halfway across the room before she thought to glance back to confirm that Christian was swiftly concealing the weapons again. “I’m coming,” she called out.

She opened the door prepared for the worst and found Lynzi there, wearing pajamas and an assortment of jewelry that seemed at odds with her appearing otherwise recently awakened.

Her gaze went instantly to Christian as she asked, “Is everything okay here?”

“Yeah,” Alysia answered, struggling to both wrap her brain around why Lynzi was there and come up with a good excuse for Christian’s presence.

“Morning. I’m Lynzi,” she said, offering her hand.

Christian glanced at Alysia as he shook Lynzi’s hand and said, “Nice to meet you. Alysia, are all your friends such early birds?”

It was a struggle for Alysia to keep her face straight as she realized that she could at least cross Christian definitively off the list of possible shooters. As she had told the others, any Onyx member planning that hit would have done research first.

Christian had obviously forgotten to do his research.

“I sleep lightly,” Lynzi explained with a gentle smile. Her tone was still utterly modest and sweet as she added, “I also sleep across the hall, and your veiling is terrible.”

Christian pulled back his hand abruptly, his eyes focusing on Lynzi for the first time as he realized she was more than the kid she seemed.

“Your veiling is very good, I gather,” he replied.

Veiling was a technique used by witches to make their aura look like something else—usually human. Mortal witches could veil to an extent, but Tristes were the best at it.

“You’re Alysia’s friend who was training with Pandora?” Lynzi asked.

Seeing Christian’s normally impeccable cool broken was fun—and useful, since it was solid evidence that he wasn’t responsible for the recent carnage—but it still left Alysia watching the conversation fatalistically.

SingleEarth was all about forgiveness and new beginnings. Lynzi didn’t need to believe Alysia had
always
been innocent—just that Alysia’s life in Bruja was
over
. And she would believe it, unless Christian said something to contradict Alysia.

I know you’re angry with me, Christian
, she thought desperately, trying not to fidget,
but please don’t screw this up
.

As if he had heard her thought, Christian glanced at Alysia again, this time to check what to say. When she nodded slightly to confirm that she had in fact told Lynzi about a Triste friend, he said, “She knew Pandora had offered to train me. I hadn’t made the decision before the last time we spoke.”

“So it’s been a while,” Lynzi surmised. “I gather you’re the friend she ran into at Onyx?”

“I was shocked as hell to hear her say she was with SingleEarth,” Christian admitted, “but Alysia has always been full of surprises. I gave it some thought and decided I might as well look into this attack she mentioned.”

Lynzi nodded. “I’m going to get dressed,” she said, “and then I would be happy to show you around the attack area, to see if you have any theories.”

“Alysia could do—” Christian broke off in the face of Lynzi’s even, determined gaze. “Sure,” he said instead.

“I’m right across the hall,” Lynzi said before stepping back out of the room.

Alysia snickered as the door closed behind Lynzi, and started rummaging through her bags for clean clothes. “How much would Pandora kick your ass for that mistake?” she asked.

Christian had been human when she’d seen him last,
but even then, he would have kicked himself to next Sunday for making such a stupid assumption. Just because someone looked young and harmless didn’t mean she was either of those things.

Christian turned away as Alysia changed from sweats and a T-shirt to dress pants and a chrome-blue button-down. They had lived in close enough quarters that she didn’t have a lot of modesty around him, but the fact that he looked elsewhere said a lot. There weren’t many people Christian would turn his back for.

“Are you here on a job?” he asked.

“Not a Bruja job,” she answered. “I know it’s hard to believe, especially since the circumstances make me look guilty as sin, but I’m here as exactly what they think I am.”

“A SingleEarth mediator?” Christian asked, incredulous, turning back toward her. “You expect me to believe that? Alysia, you eat adrenaline for breakfast and commit felonies for an afternoon snack. At least, that was the you I knew two years ago—before you disappeared. In the middle of the night. While I was sleeping. I thought you were
dead
, Alysia.”