Cipher

Chapter Two

Sometimes, Kat was impossible.

They’d already passed Biloxi and she still hadn’t spoken to him, so Andrew took the next exit off I-10 and pulled over at a service station. “Can we talk now?”

“Sure.” She typed a few more words and closed the lid of the tiny laptop balanced on her legs. “My friend wants to know if there’s anything in particular you want him to track down about this lady we’re meeting.”

“I’m not talking about that.” He squinted against the glare of the morning sun and sighed. “Does your cousin know you’ve been turning over rocks, trying to find information on your mom?”

“Derek’s busy being married. And I’m not seventeen anymore. I don’t need his permission.”

“It isn’t about permission. It’s about someone having your back.”

Kat turned away and stared out the window, though there wasn’t much to look at beyond the whitewashed gas station wall. “He practically lives in Wyoming now. Even if he knew about this, there’s not much he can do from there.”

Not much, except help her find a way to navigate the psychological and emotional minefield she was tap dancing on. “Are you sure you want it? Whatever information this contact might have?”

“No, I’m pretty sure I don’t want it. I’m also almost completely sure I need it.” Her voice held a rough edge. “There’s something damn scary inside me, Andrew. You of all people know that.”

His hands twitched into fists on the wheel before he could stop them, a reaction to the flashes of memory that punched him in the gut when he thought about that night.

They’d come for Kat, and he’d tried to stop them. Tried, in his own weak, ineffectual way, and they’d nearly killed him. So Kat had opened herself to darkness to save his life, and it had nearly cost her her sanity.

She stiffened and flashed him a guilty look. “Shit, I’m sorry. That wasn’t—that has to be even worse for you. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

“What happened with the strike team wasn’t your fault.” It was mine.

“It’s not—” She sighed. “I don’t want to play the shapeshifter blame game. You guys spend so much time fighting each other over who gets to be the biggest martyr. Isn’t it exhausting?”

If only that knee-jerk alpha reaction was the only reason he claimed responsibility for that night. “It’s like a marathon that never stops. Now, tell me about this woman.”

“Peace Kristoffersen.” Kat popped the computer back open and lifted one hand to shade the screen from the early-morning sun. “Forty-three, born in Seattle. Her parents dropped off the grid when she was five. Resurfaced in rural Alabama. From there it gets a lot less pretty.”

“Survivalist stuff?”

“I guess. A lot of DHR reports, but I haven’t read them all. That’s most everything until she got a GED when she was twenty-four and went to college. Nothing to say if she’s a psychic or spell caster or what, but that just means if she is one of us, she was smart about hiding it.”

He glanced over as he started the car again. “What’s DHR? Like child services?”

“Yeah. I don’t know how much of use is in there.” She still wasn’t looking at him, though now her body language seemed more nervous than hostile. “Usually I could dig this stuff up on my own, but it’s not as fast as some people think. So I called a friend. He said he could send anything you want, up to her bank records or last dentist’s appointment.”

Having the wrong person digging around like that could spell disaster. One bad move could draw the kind of attention no one wanted. “So she’s involved—or has been—with this cult.”

“I guess. Some of the reports make it sound like there was some crazy backwoods militia stuff going on, but I don’t know what my mom would be doing running with a cult in Alabama. Maybe the growing-up stuff was the normal human variety of crazy and this lady got mixed up with the psychics later.”

She needed to hear what this contact had to say, but she also had to prepare herself for what was to come. “It could be bullshit, you know,” he murmured. “A wild goose chase.”

“I know. It could be bullshit, or she could be crazy. I could be crazy for wasting your time.”

The sadness in her voice made his chest ache, and he regretted his harsh words. “I’m sorry. I just don’t want to see you disappointed.”

If anything, sadness sharpened. “Disappointment’s not the end of the world.”

Plenty of people lived through that and worse every day, but it didn’t ease the pain she’d feel—or the way his own traitorous instincts would react to it. “We’ve got time to stop and eat if you want.”

“If you’re hungry. I’m fine.” She eased the netbook closed and set it on the floor between her feet before rubbing her hands against her jeans. “This is all kind of spectacularly awkward. I’m sorry you got stuck with it.”

Because their relationship for the last year or more had been one of constant awkwardness. Once upon a time, she wouldn’t have hesitated before coming to him for help, and he wouldn’t have felt the bone-deep need to warn her away from potential pain. He would have seen it through and picked up the pieces.

He would have been her friend.

“Don’t mention it.” He pointed the car back toward the interstate on-ramp. “I ate early this morning, and I’d rather have the time to check things out.”

“Sounds good.” Silence fell, and they’d gone five miles before she spoke again. “Is there a reason Julio wouldn’t come with me?”

None he could discern—except that he hadn’t wanted to tangle with Andrew. Not that he was about to try and explain that to Kat. “Busy, I guess. I didn’t ask.”

She blew out a sudden breath. “Damn. You’re still impossible to read.” Sudden color flooded her cheeks. “Not that I was trying, I mean. It’s just…you’ve always been in control, but now you’re stone cold. Are you sure you’re not psychic or something?”

“Nope.” His parents had been remarkable people, but nothing about them had been the slightest bit supernatural. “No psychic powers, just me.”

“Yeah, well, whatever secrets you have, rest assured they’re safe from me.”

“Don’t have any secrets, Kat, least of all from you.”

“A lot has changed since we used to share them.” She hunched down in the seat, her posture defensive even though her next words sounded perfectly casual. “How’s Anna doing?”

Andrew tensed, because there was nothing he could say that wouldn’t piss her off. “Fine. She’s fine.”

He changed lanes and chanced a glance at her. “Is that really what you want to know?”

She was staring straight ahead, expression blank. “I’m glad you’re happy.”

He snorted out a helpless laugh. “You know, you’re so sure of everything, and you don’t even—” He bit off the words. “Ask me if I’m with Anna.”

“I take it back. I was just—I was trying to say the right thing.”

“Ask me, Kat, so I can tell you what you should have already figured out.”

Her sigh sounded equal parts exasperated and annoyed. “Fine, Andrew. Are you and Anna still seeing each other?”

“No.” He clenched his teeth to keep from elaborating.

“I’m sorry.” It sounded genuine. “That it didn’t work out, and that I brought it up. I just… Hell, it’s stupid.”

“Tell me, please.”

The sound of her heartbeat filled his ears, pounding too hard and too fast for her placid exterior. “It’s the elephant in the room. It doesn’t matter if we never dated. Everyone tiptoes around like you left me at the altar or something. I’m not going to make it all the way to Alabama with you, me and a couple elephants squeezed into this car.”

It was the converse of his own experience. The flip side. For every time someone had threatened to kick his ass for breaking Kat’s heart, someone else had comforted her. “Yeah, well. That big-ass elephant you were asking about? We broke up about five minutes after we started dating, and that’s not much of an exaggeration.”

“The elephant was less Anna and more…” She waved a hand in a vague gesture. “I don’t know. The fact that this is the first time we’ve really talked in over a year? If you’re with someone else, or you wanted to be, you don’t need to tiptoe around me. I’m a big girl, even if no one else thinks I am.”

“Don’t worry, I get enough shit for the both of us. I’m the last person who’ll go out of his way to spare you, out of sheer self-defense.”

“It’s not—” Her teeth snapped together. “Never mind. This isn’t what we should be talking about anyway. We need to make plans or something.”

They hadn’t talked in a year, and this was why. There never seemed to be a good time or place to start.

“If it looks like a setup, we can’t stay. And you know why.”

“Because my cousin married the werewolf princess and now I’m good hostage material?”

Because Andrew would get himself killed making sure she escaped any such fate. “You’re not going to argue the point, are you?”

She sighed quietly. “No. As long as you acknowledge that I’m not helpless.”

Andrew fought to hide a smile. “Hell no, you’re not helpless.”

That seemed to mollify her. Her stiff posture eased, though she kept her arms crossed over her chest. “I know I don’t look like I went all soldier of fortune like you do, but I’ve been getting my ass schooled five days a week by Zola and Walker. I’m a ninja with a taser.”

He nodded solemnly. “I’m sure you would be, if you owned a taser instead of a stun gun.”

“Thanks, Alec Junior. And by the way, I told him the next time he corrected me, I was going to stun gun his balls.”

“Carmen might object to that.”

Kat laughed, a clear sound he hadn’t heard in far too long. “Carmen likes me. Though maybe not enough to forgive me for assaulting her husband, even if he does have it coming.”

He flashed her a grin. “Something tells me she’d stop you, no matter how fond she is of you.”

“Uh-huh. Won’t stop me from doing the same to you.”

The words may have been a threat, but they made him think of her tugging at his belt, passionate fire lighting her eyes. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Good.” Laughter subsided, but the strangling awkwardness didn’t return. After a moment Kat sighed.

“I missed this. Laughing. You always made me laugh.”

“You laughed at me. That is not the same thing.”

“You did your share of laughing, too.”

“Well, it was only fair.”

“Yeah.” She lapsed into silence.

They drove for a few miles, and Andrew tried again. “Derek seems happy.”

“He is. He’s so happy I don’t have shields strong enough to block it out.” She sounded satisfied—and a little sad. “He and Nicole have crazy epic love. I think epic love is an epidemic. Seems like everyone’s coming down with a case of it.”

And it left her feeling lonely. Her isolation prickled at his heart and conscience. “Always when they least expect it. That’s something, anyway. It could happen to anyone.”

He caught her looking at him out of the corner of his eye, but she turned away too fast. “I’m not sure empaths are cut out for epic love. Not the strong ones. It’s not really all that safe.”

Another elephant, this one ten times bigger than the specter of Anna. “It doesn’t have to be too dangerous either.”

“Yeah, maybe not.” It was too fast and too bland to be remotely convincing, and she must have known it. “How far to Mobile?”

“Another hour or so. Maybe less.”

“I should check my email. See if Ben’s found anything else. He’s a technopath—they’re pretty fucking rare, which means no one really knows how to protect against them.”

She had her hair up, and when she leaned forward it exposed a complicated pattern of dark ink on the back of her neck. He reached out before he thought about it, brushing his thumb over the tattoo. “When did you get this?”

Goose bumps rose under his hand, and she shivered, her breath catching in a soft gasp he might not have heard if he’d still been human. “Six months ago. I went to the Ink Shrink.”

“You did not.”

“Did so.” Her T-shirt shifted as she reached for her netbook, proving that the ink continued down toward her shoulder blades. “I got it after I finished my thesis. My life needed punctuation. Or a chapter break.”

“Or a tattoo.” He’d been to see the Shrink himself, several times over the past year. “What’s it mean?”

“Hell if I know.” She sat back fast enough to dislodge his hand. “He twisted a little magic into it for me, and you don’t get to pick those. They pick you, whatever that means.”

“I get it.” He certainly hadn’t wanted a giant flaming bird across his back, no matter what the Shrink said about his totem animal being a phoenix instead of a wolf. “The damn man pretty much puts whatever he wants on you.”

“I suppose shapeshifters don’t have a lot of options. Derek said normal tattoos heal.”

With the attack that had caused him to change, he’d gone from half-dead to prowling around in only a few hours. “That goes doubly so for me, I guess.”

“So you have some? Tattoos, I mean.”

She sounded interested in spite of her studiously casual tone, and he couldn’t help teasing her. “I’ve got a few, Kat. Want to see them?”

Her cheeks turned pink. “No.”

He didn’t blame her for lying. “Let me know if you change your mind.”

The gesture she made was sufficiently rude to end the conversation, and she pointedly opened her computer. “Anything else you want me to look up before we get there?”

“Yeah.” He gave her a mild smile. “What’s the architectural and combat history of the ship? I’m curious.”

“You’re such a freak.” But fondness laced the words, and in a few seconds she’d pulled up a page and started to read. “The USS Alabama’s a South Dakota-class battleship…”

She continued to talk, sometimes reading and sometimes paraphrasing, as they drove. Andrew listened, not so much to her words as to the flow of her voice, familiar and soothing.

In an hour, they’d make it to Mobile. In two, if everything went exactly as planned, the meet would go down, and Kat would get her information. The problem was what he knew—and she did too, down past all her hope.

Things never went exactly as planned.