Raising Innocence (18 page)

“The other one . . .” I motioned for her to lift her left leg and I strapped the smaller blade to her calf. “Lots of people strap their knives too low; all that does is impede your ability to run.”

Her blue eyes widened. “Run?”

“From the bad guys.”

I finished getting my gear together and then gave Pamela a once over. Bedraggled was the first word that came to mind. Her hair was damp and knotted, her clothes were too big and her eyes too wide. I tentatively Tracked her, getting the gist of her emotions.

Fear was at the top of the list, followed by guilt, and then uncertainty.

The kids were waiting on me, as was O’Shea and Berget.

But Pamela needed me right now. I sat down on the edge of the bed, thinking about what Giselle would do.

“Go in the bathroom and grab my brush and hair elastics, would you?”

She nodded and scampered off. Likely, she thought I was going to show her some wicked way to use a brush to kill someone.

As she came back in, I pointed at the floor in front of me. “Sit; put your back to me.”

I took the brush from her hands and worked my way through her tangled hair. Pamela flinched when the brush first touched her scalp, but slowly relaxed as I combed out the snarls and the rats nests. How long had it been since someone had laid a gentle hand on her? Despite my past, there had been moments of kindness, mostly from Giselle, but even my parents had treated me well before Berget went missing.

“This is nice,” Pamela whispered.

The tension in the air Faris had left behind slowly dissipated. Maybe Pamela wasn’t the only one who’d needed a moment to breathe. To slow down. I so easily got caught up in the rush of doing what needed to be done, forgetting that not everyone could keep up. Even at times, myself.

Her hair was silken under my hands as I braided it, thinking about Berget and the times I’d braided her hair.

“One or two braids?” I asked.

“Two. Please.”

I thought about the picture we made, if anyone had come in. I was decked out in my leather jacket still, the tips of my swords peeking above my head. Pamela sat at my feet playing with the knife we’d strapped to her calf. But still, it was soothing to braid her hair, to let my fingers do something so innocent for once.

Tying off the second braid I patted her on the shoulder. “There, that should be better.”

Her hands went to her head, fingers tracing down the bumps of the braid. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, no problem. Now let’s get going. We’ve got work to do.”

Pamela stood up, faced me, and smiled. Really smiled, and I knew I’d done the right thing. There was my one good thing for the day.

I’d made my new witch smile.

Of course, the smiles didn’t last. Not once we’d made our way back to the police station. No, the smiles were wiped off our faces in about three seconds flat.

It started with Denning.

“Who the hell do you think you are? You were seen fleeing from the scene of an ARSON!” he was roaring by the end of his sentence, his face brilliantly red with fury.

Then Agent Valley jumped in on the act. “God damn it! Did I not say wait for us? Are you incapable of following ANY orders?”

Then it was onto Will. He was the worst. He didn’t say a word, just ignored me and Pamela as if we weren’t even there. I sat in the chair at my desk and Pamela pulled up a chair next to me. I knew a silent treatment when I saw one.

Wouldn’t work though, at least not on me.

“Pamela, what did you think of that vampire?” I asked, pointedly not looking at Will.

Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open, but the girl caught on quick. “He scared the shit out of me.”

I reacted the way Giselle would have when I was young. “Language. You can use whatever bad words you want when you’re an adult. Not when you’re a kid.”

She blushed, and I leaned back in my chair, fingers laced behind my head. I Tracked the missing kids, getting a bead on them almost instantly. They were way the fuck out there now, way far south; we’d scared the bloody Necromancer something fierce. Good and bad. He knew we were coming now, but shit, we needed him to hold out, to stick around in one place for a while.

Will finally took the bait. “What vampire?”

“Hmm? Are you talking to us now?” I fluttered my eyelashes at him.

Pamela twiddled her thumbs all innocence and sugar. “I didn’t think he liked us anymore,” she said softly. Score one for the kid, Will’s face drained of colour.

“Nah, he’s just pissed that we didn’t take him with us. Thinks that we should just trust him implicitly though we’ve known him for less than forty-eight hours.” I gave Will a look, the one that had cowed many a man, many a supernatural, for that matter.

It worked like a charm. He let out a sigh. “Listen, you just made our job that much harder—you erased evidence, all those kids’ bodies gone.”

I shook my head. “You and Denning and Valley are so busy being angry you didn’t bother to ask if I learned anything.”

Will’s eyes widened, bleeding from brown to green. “Did you?”

I nodded and put my feet up on the desk. I had to play this right or we’d never find the kids, not with half the fucking task force tagging along. Sure, I’d made a mistake. I wasn’t fucking perfect. But now I had an idea of what we needed to do in order to catch the Necromancer.

“You in or out, Will?”

There were no other words needed. He grimaced and then nodded. “Yeah, I’m in.”

“Good, because the first thing I need you to do is find someone who can help us with the Veil. We need to block an exit if we’re going to catch this bastard. He can jump through the Veil without leaving a trace behind. I can’t stop that, neither can Pamela.”

“Block the . . . is that even possible?”

I wasn’t positive, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. “My Shamans back home could do it. You got anything comparable?”

He frowned. “Yes . . . there is someone I know that should be able to help. But we’ll have to get past my Destruction and that could be tricky, they aren’t happy with me right now.”

I stared at him blankly, and then lifted one finger to stop him as he moved to leave. “I’m sorry. Destruction? Are you in a demolition crew that I don’t know about?”

Will laughed. “A group of wild cats is called a Destruction of Cats. Apt, considering just who it’s applying to. Try to stay out of trouble until I get back. I need to check it out with my contact first, and I don’t want them to get spooked by you.”

I laughed and stood as he moved around the desk and headed for the front door.

“You don’t think you’re going without us, do you?”

Will shrugged, and then snorted softly to himself. “Suit yourself, but not all the cats are as sweet as me.”

Touching Pamela lightly on the arm, we headed out after Will. It seemed that London had shown me a lot of the backside of Will, and while it wasn’t a bad view, it did nothing for me. Pamela, on the other hand, seemed more than happy with the view we were given.

“He’s kinda cute, isn’t he?” she said, her voice low.

I had to clamp my teeth hard, remembering at the last instant how fragile young girl’s egos could be. In that moment, I missed Giselle more than ever. She would have known what to say, how to handle Pamela so that she wasn’t completely fucked up by the time she was an adult. Poor Pamela, all she had was me.

“Yeah, I guess. If you like a scrawny kind of guy.”

She giggled into her hand, and I did my best not to roll my eyes. God save me from witches; maybe they were all libido driven? Shit, the only thing I could hope for was that she didn’t turn out like Milly.

T
he boat rolled as they crossed the channel, the waves crashing against the sides, sprays of salty water bursting up and over the guardrails where Milly leaned over, heaving her guts out.

O’Shea smiled, or at least tried to. If he thought he could push her over the edge, he would; if he thought he could get close enough to get some of the salt water on his torc, he’d go for that too. As it was, he’d tried to do both several times to no avail. The witch groaned and started to come back up over the railing, then shook her head and heaved again, long dark hair getting caught up in her vomit. The night sky was brilliant overhead, and it was probably the only thing that kept Milly from completely humiliating herself. There just weren’t that many people up at this hour.

Only two people came by to check on her, but they both took one look at O’Shea standing guard and skittered away. Milly had told him to stand guard over her—to not move—the last words she’d managed before starting her marathon puke session.

The candle maker’s wax was still secure in his waistband, but that too was out of his reach. Milly hadn’t given him leave to do anything other than what he was doing.

Nothing. Just him and his brain scrambling for a way out of this fucking gong show. What he wouldn’t give to be just a werewolf . . .he blinked several times, struggled with the fact that he’d actually thought that. Being made a slave by Milly made his previous issues seem . . . trite.

A snap of wind coursed passed him, and he closed his eyes against the movement and moisture it brought with it. That one blink was all it took, and he and Milly were no longer alone.

The figure in front of him was all too familiar. O’Shea remembered clearly the spell the vampire had put on Rylee, how she’d fought him on her own. His muscles tensed, but he could do nothing. But Faris didn’t even look at him. As if O’Shea wasn’t even there.

“Milly,” Faris said, his tone condescending. “If the baby is giving you that much difficulty, we could correct the situation.”

She whirled, her face an odd mixture of green and white under the starlight. “Faris, you shouldn’t sneak up on me like that. I could have killed you!”

He laughed, the bastard just laughed at her. “Oh, please. Don’t be stupid.”

Her face went from white and green to just white.

Please let them kill each other.

If only it were that simple. Faris walked to Milly and tucked her arm in his, an old fashioned gesture that forced her to his side. “Come now, let’s have a chat, shall we?” They were facing him now, walking his way.

“No, I said I’d help you, it didn’t work. I’m free of any obligation,” Milly said, her voice gaining confidence as she spoke. O’Shea took it all in, attempting to memorize everything he heard and saw. There was no telling what would be useful later.

Faris smiled down at her, his fangs just peeking out past his lower lip. “Now, what would make you so foolish as to think you can take care of yourself now? Surely not your FBI agent-turned lobotomized wolf over there?”

O’Shea watched in fascination as Milly stiffened. “He wouldn’t hurt me, not while I’m pregnant.”

Faris’ eyebrows lifted. “Really? I think you should ask him—and make sure you tell him to be truthful about it.”

O’Shea knew a trap when he felt it tightening around him.

“Liam,” Milly said and Faris’ eyes snapped wide, staring hard at him.

“Stop. This is . . .Liam?”

Animosity flowed off the vampire; O’Shea could smell the anger and jealousy as if it were a fine bouquet. Fuck, what had he done to piss off the vampire?

Faris stepped close to him and took in a deep breath. “Oh, I see, you aren’t
just
a werewolf, are you?”

Liam felt the rage in the pit of his belly bubbling up and he fought to control it. Nothing he could do about it anyway.

They stood like that, toe to toe, nearly nose to nose. The scent of blood and death rolled around the vampire like incense coiling through a room. That wasn’t what got his attention though.

The smell of Rylee on Faris’ breath lit a rage in him he didn’t even try to hold back.

The fury broke up and through the hold Milly had on him; his arms twitched despite the torc. O’Shea wanted nothing more than to rip the smug vampire’s head from his shoulders, bathe in his blood, and . . . the images assaulting him stopped him cold. Not that he’d moved more than a twitch, but it was enough.

“I think you should let your” —Faris made air quotes with his fingers— “wolf,” then he laughed and went on, “go. I’d like to see what he kind of damage he could do on his own.”

Milly made eye contact with O’Shea. “Tell me the truth; would you protect me and the baby from anything?”

He snarled his answer, not caring if it damned him. “No. I’d let whatever monster wanted a piece of you take you and your god forsaken soul to hell along with whatever devil spawn you carry.”

She gasped and reeled backwards, a hand to her chest. As if she was truly shocked.

Faris laughed and patted O’Shea on the shoulder. “I think maybe I like you a little more. Agent Wolf.” The vampire leaned in and spoke softly. “But you should know, Rylee will be mine.”

He lifted blue eyes to his, the depths of them glittering with hatred.

“All of her will be mine.”

The rage spilled out of O’Shea, and with it he spoke of his own volition. “We’ll see about that.”

*-*-*-*

Will drove us out to the countryside. That was not terribly exciting; thank the gods for small mercies. I slept most of the way, the chatter of Pamela nattering at Will a good bit of background noise. My dreams were disjointed and disturbing. Milly killing Eve, Alex biting Pamela, O’Shea pinioned by stakes. That last jerked me awake with a gasp. I had never been a Dreamer, one of those people who prophesied via their nightmares. No, but that didn’t mean I didn’t take my dreams seriously. Sometimes they were trying to tell me something.

Like maybe I needed to go after O’Shea first. He wasn’t dead, the kids were.

Jack Feen’s’ voice seemed to drift over me.
You made me a promise. Now fucking keep it.

Yeah, there was that. I did my best to push the dream away and looked around where we were. The rain sleeted sideways and gusts of wind actually pushed the car around on the dirt road. Add that into the dark night and it was a picturesque scene straight out of a horror movie. Fantastic, just what I wanted for night number two in London.

“Are we almost there?” I stretched my arms above my head and felt my spine pop from sleeping hunched over.