The Reckoning (28 page)

Except for the altitude, Basilio’s rooftop resembled a courtyard and even had several raised sections of flowers that I suspected his wives tended themselves. I wondered if sometimes they removed their head coverings and lifted their faces to the sun, or if they feared someone might observe them, even here.

Ritter arrived, dressed in a sleek, well-cut black suit, though where he got it I couldn’t say. It fit his wide shoulders perfectly and made my knees weak.

I was wearing my red dress, the one I’d packed without much hope of wearing on this trip. As jeans and T-shirts were my normal attire, I’d of course forgotten the shoes, but Stella proved to have a strappy black pair that were nice, if not perfect. She’d given me a lacy black scarf to drape around my bare arms, for which I was glad. The temperature was mild in Casablanca, even in January, but there was a light breeze up here on the roof.

“How did you know?” I asked Ritter.

“Cort told me the truth.” Stepping closer, his arms went around me. “We’ve been friends a long time. He didn’t want me to show up looking like a . . .”

“A soldier?”

He laughed. “Something like that.”

“But that’s one of the things I like most about you.” Delighting in his combat abilities was somewhat morbid, as was the fact that even when he was covered in blood, I wanted him. But that was who I was now. What I had become with my Change.

He kissed me long and deep, and I lost all sense of which way was up—an unsteadiness that had nothing to do with my fear of heights. I wanted to beg him to run away with me, somewhere Delia would never find us, but I knew that wouldn’t stop her plans for me. Time was running out.

“Where is Cort?” I asked.

“He’s coming, but are you sure about this?” Ritter kissed me again, running his hand up my back.

“I’m sure.”

“What about your parents?”

“They’ll never know.” My mother would still have a church wedding. The man I’d grown up thinking was my father—the man who still was my father in every true sense of the word—would still give me away.

Well, if I lived that long.

I could hide the secret from my family, but I couldn’t risk leaving Ritter to mourn another fiancée. He’d watched the Emporium murder the woman he’d once loved over two centuries ago, and while I might not make it through my encounter with Delia, I would leave him knowing I had taken the plunge. I’d made the commitment.

To be honest, I was scared witless. But I was even more scared of letting him go. What happened with my grandmother proved that waiting too long could cost you everything.

Cort showed up a minute later, also wearing a suit. Stella and Jace were with him to serve as witnesses. Mari was the bridesmaid. The stars winked down as Cort said the words that were by now just a formality. “Do either of you have anything to add?” The way he said it told me Ritter had requested him to ask the question, and I waited for what he might have planned.

Ritter nodded and met my gaze. “Once, you told me you wanted to be loved by someone who would love you with his whole being. Erin, I do. And I will always love you that way. Regardless of what comes in the future, this moment will always be the best moment of my life.”

I believed him. I couldn’t speak, but I opened my mind to his and our thoughts became one. He knew about Stella and my success with the nanites, about my fears, and what he meant to me.

I held only one thing back.

He caught the tear beneath my eye with his finger, rubbing gently before kissing me deeply. When he drew away, the others descended on us with hugs and kisses and silly advice that made me feel almost normal.

Finally, they were finished, and with a quick farewell, Ritter picked me up and carried me downstairs to the bedroom. Neither of us reached for the light. He removed his jacket before slowly unzipping my dress, his finger trailing down my skin, lighting fires along the way. I unbuttoned his shirt, running my hand over his chest. I kissed him there, and he arched against me with a groan.

He laid me back on the bed, slanting his mouth over mine. My flesh sang and my heart pounded. I’d wanted him for what seemed like forever. He kissed my lips, trailing down to the hollow between my breasts, his tongue feeling rough against my skin. His finger came up and hooked the necklace there, the one he’d given me that held our engagement ring and the bands that had belonged to his mother and sister.

His emotions spilled over, mingling with mine until there seemed to be no room to contain them. It worried me to see the blue lights burning furiously, and I had the horrible thought that my unwanted visitor was feeding on our shared emotions.

Ritter’s mouth found mine again as his hands went under me, tucking me against the length of his body. I pushed closer. He pulled away slightly and more of our clothing dropped to the floor. His mouth worked its way over every inch of my body, and his tongue followed, making me tremble with need. I also tasted his skin, wrapping my arms around him more tightly. I deepened our kiss, pressing him on, feeling an urgency to become part of him.

“No way am I going to hurry,” he murmured against my lips. “I’m going to enjoy every second of this. I’ve been waiting too long.”

“So have I.” I hooked my legs and drew him closer.

The blue lights in my mind burst into flame.

Then I was falling away from him. Falling. Falling. Sucked into the raging torrent of blue light. I knew where it was taking me, and I wasn’t about to let it happened.

I pulled back from it, fighting to return to my own mind. From somewhere far away I heard Ritter saying, “Erin? Erin?” His voice was panicked.

I wanted to call out to him, but it was all I could do to gain purchase against the tremendous flow.

Maybe I’d waited too long to excise the snake. Maybe Delia was going to win.

Out over the city my mind was dragged along the path of the light. Through streets and around buildings. To an opulent hotel with bellboys and five-star service. Dragged, fighting and pushing every bit of the way.

I could feel my nemesis on the other end of that light, knew she’d been witness to my intimacy with Ritter. She had enjoyed it, like a voyeur. Maybe some of the pleasure I had given to Ritter came from her.

Feeling sickened, I gathered all my remaining strength, still struggling against the flow, wondering how best to focus my efforts. I didn’t know what would happen if she managed to pull me in. Would she be able to control me completely? Take over my mind? Could she turn me against my friends, forcing me to betray and murder them? Would I become a prisoner in my own mind?

All at once I understood the truth about what Delia had planned all along. It wasn’t just about using me but
becoming
me.

True immortality.

That was what the snake meant to her. A way to extend her life. At seventeen hundred years old, her life expectancy had dwindled to only a few centuries—a few centuries as her body aged and finally gave out, just like the mortals she detested.

I was the only younger woman with a sensing ability that rivaled her own. I was her future, the vehicle she planned to use to control the world and usher in her Utopia. No wonder she hadn’t told Stefan Carrington that I wasn’t his daughter. Stefan who valued his seed above other Emporium Unbounded, at least as long as they worked for his dream. No doubt Delia planned to take over the role as Stefan’s daughter, the black sheep finally come home, to eventually inherit the Triad from him and from Tihalt, the other member of their unholy alliance. Stefan hadn’t reached the halfway point in his life. With Stefan’s full support, instead of his ongoing rivalry, and Tihalt’s eternal distraction with his science, Delia would have no opposition within the Emporium leadership. The supposed family relationship between Stefan and me might even put her in a position to murder Stefan if her plan didn’t go smoothly.

Delia would become me. Would I stay in my mind as a silent observer as she lived out my life? Or would she somehow be able to murder my consciousness?

No!
I screamed. I sent a flash down the remaining length of blue light.

Abruptly, the connection broke, though not before I heard Delia’s laugh.
Soon,
she promised. I didn’t think she understood that I’d figured out her plan, but maybe at this point her control over me was such that she didn’t care if I did.

Again I heard Ritter calling to me. And shouting to the others for help. I clung to him. My mind was still full of flames. I was burning, burning.

Delia was laughing.

Then I felt Shadrach’s touch and my world went blessedly dark.

I AWOKE TO SEE FAINT
tendrils of light glowing behind the sheer curtains over the tiny window. I was in Ritter’s arms, and they tightened briefly around me as I shifted position. He was sleeping the deep sleep of a man who’d had a restless night, and as I stared at him, I remembered him calling me back. The panic in his voice.

“I’m okay,” I whispered, though it was a lie.

If Delia succeeded, what would happen to me?

I lifted Ritter’s arm and slipped out carefully. That he didn’t stir attested to both his exhaustion and the fact that he trusted me. He didn’t know Delia had been so close to success last night. Could she have filled my body at this distance? Or would she have needed to make me come to her? I simply didn’t know.

Someone had put a nightgown on me, and the silk felt sensuous against my skin. Probably one of Stella’s. I was just as likely to wear an old T-shirt. Maybe that would change now that I was married.

Married.

I almost lost it at the thought of our failed night and Delia’s interference. We’d waited so long.
My fault.
I’d been too hung up on logistics, on the risks to my emotions.

I had to admit Delia’s plan was brilliant. No one would know. If she played her game well, she might even be able to bring down much of the Renegade network before my friends understood what had happened. Or maybe they’d just think I’d turned traitor.

These thoughts only strengthened my resolve. I would face her. I might not win, but she wouldn’t either. Not completely. I wouldn’t let her hurt the friends that had become family. To that end, I typed out a message on my phone, scheduling it for delivery later that day.

Gathering my bodysuit, my weapons, and the tan robes and face coverings Yalda had offered me, I left the room. I didn’t take my phone. Stella could track that too quickly, and if things didn’t work out, I couldn’t have Delia using me to hurt them. Carrying my bundle down the hall, I slipped into Jeane’s room.

“Get up,” I said, yanking open the curtains around her bed.

She yawned, stretching her arms out wide. “It’s not even six.”

“I know where Delia is.” I pulled off my nightgown and began working my bodysuit over my legs and torso.

Jeane sat up. “Where?”

“At a hotel. I’ll know it when I see it.” I felt my arm for my locator chip and used a knife Basilio had given me to extract it before pulling on the rest of the suit.

I checked my knives and guns in each pocket. I would have rather had my own weapons instead of Basilio’s, but any battle between Delia and me would be mental, so I would have to be satisfied with his offerings. I stopped adjusting my weapons to face Jeane. “You can do this, right?”

Her wide eyes stared back. “The question is, can you?”

“I don’t know.”

She scowled as she pushed herself from the bed. “You’d better know. I don’t want to end up in a hole for another twenty years.”

“It will all depend on you.” I hesitated before adding. “But if I try to kill you, shoot me.” I handed her a pistol.

“What?”

I brought my face close to hers. “That thing in my head isn’t what any of us thought. It’s not to control me. Somehow she plans to transfer herself
into
me. Permanently.”

She was stunned into silence, but only for a few seconds. “That explains a lot. All her experiments with that worm of an assistant. I thought it was only for control, but if she’s found a way to move her consciousness, she’d—”

“Be immortal. And I’m not too sure she can’t take over from a distance. Every minute I stay here, I’m a danger to the others. So hurry!”

Jeane yanked on a pair of black pants, followed by an impractical white blouse, her protective vest, and the gray robes from the night before. “Okay, I’m ready.”

“They’ll follow us if they can,” I said, pushing aside her robe to cut out the locator chip in her arm. She grimaced, looking away.

On the lower floor, we found Amina and Yalda already up, still fully covered except their large dark eyes. “Good morning,” I said, trying to hide my anxiety. “We need a taxi.”

“At the bottom of the street,” Amina said in heavily accented English. “Many wait there.” She reached over and adjusted my head covering.

“Thank you.”

Jeane and I hurried from the house. No one stared twice at us as we strode down the walk, except two tourists dressed in jeans and bright sweatshirts. We hailed a red
petit
taxi and slipped inside. “To the best hotel in town,” I said. “Expensive. Great service. Something tall, a white building with an uneven slant to the top floor—or roof, I guess. I’ll know it when I see it.”