Ruby Fever

Chapter 8

Alessandro had brought the Vault Bus.

From the outside, the massive vehicle resembled a heavily armored truck, but inside, instead of cargo space, the bus featured two rows of seats along the walls, each with an individual harness. It could seat twenty-five, if you counted the four seats in the cab. It also weighed upward of forty thousand pounds, about the same as a fully loaded sixty-foot bus. Even Connor would need an amplification circle to lift it off the road.

As soon as Mom was done, Alessandro and our guards loaded us into the Bus, and we were off.

I rode with Alessandro in the cab while one of our guards drove.

The night outside of our windows was so dark. Deep and stifling despite the streetlights and the glow of storefronts and windows.

Alessandro took my hand. I held on to him. We rode in silence for a long time.

“Talk to me,” he said finally.

“It’s my fault.”

He raised his eyebrows.

“I should have told you about Konstantin as soon as it happened.” He would have known instantly whose skin Konstantin was wearing and would have anticipated the shitstorm that would follow. “Failing that, I should have identified his disguise. I’m supposed to be smarter than this.”

“You were in the middle of an interrogation with an unstable mental mage. I, on the other hand, abandoned you and left to run a political errand. Had I stayed, the outcome of tonight would’ve been much different.”

“What happened with that?”

He shook his head. “We went to the school. Gunderson had mysteriously disappeared, then reappeared by a post office. We went there. He was gone again. Then came a sighting half a mile away. Again, we were too late. I checked the surveillance footage at the post office. The camera should have caught him according to eyewitnesses, but it didn’t. I realized I’ve been chasing an illusion mage, and not a very powerful one at that.”

A Prime would have shown up on the security footage as the person he was mimicking, but a lower-level mage didn’t have enough juice.

“I tried to call you and got voice mail. Then I tried the Compound, and the call wouldn’t go through. I borrowed Matt’s phone and called the Compound again. No answer. I called Linus’ house, then Bern . . .” He shrugged. “Finally, the light dawned. I shut off the phone and went home. I was pulling into the driveway when you called from the ER.”

“Arkan got to Gunderson?” I guessed.

“Most likely. Nothing in our background on either Gunderson or Arkan shows a link between the two. Arkan saw an opportunity, and Xavier must’ve taken it for him. The way Gunderson got out of the lockup suggests a telekinetic interfered.”

“Did Bern restore the phones?”

“Partially. He got the Compound landline working. He was still working on the system when I left. Leon got home about the same time I did. The FBI agents were hit on their way from Cabera’s house to their office.”

Damn it. “Is he hurt?”

“He says he isn’t.”

Knowing Leon, that meant nothing. His arm could be cut off and he would tell you he was “fine.”

“Are Wahl and Garcia okay?”

“They are alive, but according to Leon, ‘not happy.’”

Ugh. “Why go after the FBI?”

Alessandro gave me a dark look. “He’s trying to cut off access to Smirnov.”

“He isn’t sure if the FBI knows anything, so he tried to kill them just in case?”

“That would be my guess.”

“They’re federal agents. He doesn’t strike me as a stupid man.”

“Smirnov must know something. Something so big that Arkan is desperate to keep it quiet.”

I looked at him. “What could it be?”

“It concerns Konstantin. I’m following a trail of bread crumbs.” He faced me. “Catalina, I promise you I will find out.”

“I know.”

I leaned back in my seat. We’d gotten hit on every front. The buck stopped with me.

“Blaming yourself is the easiest thing,” Alessandro said. “Coming up with a plan is much harder.”

I knew he wasn’t telepathic, but sometimes I had my doubts.

“I got complacent.”

“We. We got complacent. Do you understand how cybersecurity works? Could you write code to deal with a network security breach?”

“No.”

“That’s Bern’s job. A job he is very good at. I had an even simpler job, one job, to protect the Acting Warden. I left that job because I judged that doing a favor for Lenora Jordan was in our House’s best interest. You can’t micromanage everyone. You must delegate. You have done that. All of us knew what we had to do. We got outclassed.”

“Not for long.” I gritted my teeth. Magic stirred inside me. Normally it was like a clear geyser bubbling up to the surface any time I lifted the lid. This time it felt different. Vengeful. Vicious.

He leaned over, brushed a tear off my cheek, took my hand, and kissed it.

“I’m not sad,” I told him.

“I know. You’re crying because you’re angry.”

I leaned against him. “Are you angry?”

Orange sparks flared in his eyes. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and squeezed me to him. His magic wound around us, violent and charged with power. It didn’t feel like anger. It felt like wrath.

“Very,” he said.

I laid my head on his shoulder. “Good. Let’s be angry together.”

The hill around the Compound was pitted with large holes, as if someone had tossed a handful of grenades about. A crushed metal wreck that might have once been a vehicle smoked slightly on one side of the road. On the other side, three other wrecks, crumpled and smashed like discarded Coke cans, formed a modern art installation dedicated to House warfare—one on its side, one upside down, and a third torn in half.

Arabella must’ve been furious. There was plenty of that to go around lately.

Patricia met us at the main house, flanked by a medical team and my younger sister. The moment the Bus doors slid open Arabella bounded inside.

“Mom!”

“I’m fine,” Mom answered. “It’s minor. Don’t freak out.”

“You smell like blood and smoke!”

I turned to Patricia. “Casualties?”

“None on our side.” She turned and pointed to the left.

A row of bodies lay on the ground, sealed in body bags. One, two . . . Nine. An enormous metal club, covered with dark stains, rested next to them. Connor had given it to Arabella for her eighteenth birthday. That explained the ruined vehicles. Good. I was afraid she might have stomped on them. The last time she went on a stomping spree, she cut her monster foot, and after she reverted to human form, we had a devil of a time making her get the tetanus shot.

“Arkan deployed a pyrokinetic and a psionic, backed by a few professional killers,” Patricia reported. “Your sister informed me that she would handle it. She did.”

It would have taken a better psionic than anyone Arkan had to panic Arabella. When she raged out, there was no room in her for anything except fury. Trying to induce fear would have just pissed her off more.

Alessandro finished helping my mom out of the Bus and handed her off to the medical team. His phone rang.

His face snapped into a harsh mask. He took the call and walked away. Italian again, too low for me to hear clearly.

The dead bodies lay in a neat row, like matchsticks in a box.

“What about the three guards who went out with my mother?” I asked.

Patricia’s face was a professional mask. “An SUV rammed into them on Sam Houston Tollway at ninety miles per hour. The vehicle rolled. The first responders had to use the jaws of life to get them out. Katrina is fine, except for the concussion. Mohan has a broken leg, but Lex is in the ICU in critical condition.”

Lex, tall, funny guy with an easy smile and a sprinkling of freckles on his broad face. He had gotten married six months ago. His wife was pregnant.

Nausea came, sudden and overwhelming. I felt so ill.

My sister had to kill nine people today. My mother had a hole in her leg. Cornelius had needed eighteen stitches and I was bandaged like a mummy. I had no idea how injured Leon was. Lex was in the ICU clinging to life. Both the Office of Records and the Harris County DA were involved in this mess, not to mention the FBI, which “was not happy.” I knew exactly whom to blame for all of it. Anger wrapped around my head like a vise and squeezed.

“Where is he?” I asked through clenched teeth.

“In the armory.”

I turned and marched back the way we’d come, heading to the wall, and left, to the squat building that served as our armory. Patricia tried to keep up with me. Her legs were longer, but I was younger and a lot madder.

“Prime Sagredo was extremely specific that no harm can come to the Prince.”

“I won’t kill him. He’ll just wish he was dead.”

“Catalina . . .”

I pushed the armory door open and barreled inside. The armory was a bunker, a rectangular concrete box of a building bathed in harsh electric light. Metal cages lined the walls in neat rows. Most held weapons. One held Konstantin. There were no guards. Patricia had locked him in and watched him remotely.

He looked the way he’d looked when I first met him in Linus’ house: blond, blue-eyed, breathtaking. A picture of urbane elegance with sunlit charm.

I stormed toward the cage. My magic whipped inside me, bucking and straining to break free.

Konstantin gazed at me from inside the cage, a small smile on his lips. “I tried to warn you.”

My anger was threatening what little restraints I had left. He was a threat. People I loved were hurt because of him. I had to kill him now, so nobody else would get hurt.

“I never wanted any of this to happen.”

“Bullshit. This is exactly what you wanted to happen. You set us up. You made Arkan think that his best friend betrayed him and asked us for asylum. You knew Arkan would retaliate. You ensured that he and the Office of the Warden would collide.”

My voice was rising. Magic vibrated in it. I hadn’t aimed it at Konstantin, not yet, but I was so angry. Somewhere deep inside a voice warned me that this wasn’t me, but the flood of magic inside me drowned it.

“You started a war, which my House will have to fight. You made us bleed.”

“You left me no choice.”

“Oh, that’s good. I’ll remember that phrase for when your family comes looking for you.”

Patricia stepped forward. “Catalina . . .”

Black wings tore out of my back, the tips of my feathers bright red. I hissed at her. Patricia stumbled back and jerked the phone to her ear. “We need you in the armory! Right now!”

I turned toward Konstantin. He stared at me, open-mouthed. Alarm flickered in his eyes.

“Now, your Royal Highness . . .” My voice wasn’t the beguiling song of a siren. This was the voice of a monster, harsh and suffused with power and menace. “Tell me again how it was all my fault.”

Alessandro sprinted into the armory, picked me up, and carried me toward the door.

“Put me down!” I snarled into his face.

“No. Not until you’re yourself again.”

How dare he? I hissed at him.

“My point exactly.” He carried me outside and called over his shoulder. “That door stays shut. Nobody goes in unless I’m with them.”

“Put me down!” Struggling against him was like trying to stop a train.

He kept carrying me up the driveway past the Bus. We caught up with Arabella.

Her eyes widened. “What?”

I hissed at her.

“Your sister is a bit upset,” Alessandro told her.

I beat my wings, but my feathers had no substance.

He kept going, through the main house, past the kitchen, the living room, out the back door. The pool glinted in front of us, reflecting the moonlight. He took another step and jumped. Water washed over us and closed over my head.

I sank like a stone into the cool depths.

He let go and I clawed blindly, kicking and flailing, until my brain finally realized my feet touched the bottom of the pool. I straightened and realized I was standing in four feet of water.

The water drained from my hair, hot, almost boiling. The rage drained down with it.

I took a long shuddering breath.

The sky above me was studded with stars, their light cold and soothing. I let myself fall on my back. The water picked me up and cradled me, soft and gentle. I floated as the last traces of heat and anger washed away, dissolving. The wounds on my legs burned.

“How did you know?” I whispered.

“Linus told me. He said that if you ever get out of control when your wings turn black, salt water would help.”

“I hate him.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“He didn’t even have the guts to tell me in person. He left a recording on a USB.”

I pulled the USB out of my pocket and showed it to him.

“That probably shouldn’t be in the water.” He plucked it from my fingers and placed it on the coping.

“He’s my grandfather and I hate him. You knew he was my grandfather and I hate you too.”

“You don’t mean that either.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It wasn’t my place to tell.”

The stars winked at us.

“You can’t kill Konstantin, Catalina. You would bring the entire weight of the Russian Imperium down on our House.”

“My mother almost died.”

“I know. You still can’t kill him. If you do, everything that happened today will be a pleasant memory compared to what follows. The Imperium trained Arkan. They taught him everything he knows before they turned him loose. They have others like him.”

Alessandro . . . The source of my fear and worry. Now he was trying to keep me from killing the man who hurt us. I had to nip this in the bud. I let my legs sink, swung myself upright, and turned to him.

He was in the water up to his chest. His skin glistened. His wet brown hair clung to his head in short locks, and his eyes were molten honey.

Oh . . .

Oh wow.

Mine.

We looked at each other across the water. I smiled at him. He blinked, his eyes stunned.

I sank a little. My hair swirled around me. I tilted my head and turned slowly. He reached for me, but I kicked away, floating just out of his grasp.

Come away from the wall, Alessandro. Swim through the water to me. We can stay here together forever, just us, the water, and the stars. You will be mine, all mine. Only mine.

He shook his head. “Now I know why so many sailors drowned.”

I laughed softly.

Alessandro studied my face. His gaze slid over my eyes, my mouth . . . I had to lure him in.

I submerged, letting the water float my hair, brushed it back, and resurfaced. He reached for me again, but I slid away. Little amber lights swirled in his eyes.

“How are you feeling?” he asked. “Still full of homicidal rage?”

“I’m going to kill Konstantin,” I told him. “And then I will kill Arkan. You will help me kill Konstantin, won’t you?”

“No.”

“Alessandro . . . You know you want to.”

“No. We are not killing Konstantin.”

“Why do you have to be so unreasonable?”

“I’m the only reasonable person in this pool. This isn’t you. Not the real you.”

I leaned back and looked at the moon. “You keep saying that. ‘It’s not like you, Catalina. You don’t mean that, Catalina. This isn’t you, Catalina.’ This is me. The real me. The one who loves you. I would do anything for you, Alessandro. Stay here with me.”

He lunged across the water. His warm hand locked on my right wrist, and he pulled me to him and spun me around, trapping me between the pool wall and his body.

He’d caught me. I looked up at him and smiled.

“There are stars in your eyes,” he whispered.

“We don’t have to leave,” I told him. “We can just stay here forever.”

He grabbed me and kissed me. It wasn’t just a kiss, it was almost an assault, a mad crazy claiming, born from lust, need, worry, and most of all love. I wrapped my legs around him and sank my hands into his wet hair. He was hard like a rock, and he was gripping me to him with those strong arms. My whole body sang.

He kissed me again, his tongue thrusting into my mouth. Delicious shivers ran through me. I closed my eyes. I wanted him so much . . .

We were moving. Water was draining from me, and my magic drained down with it.

He was carrying me out of the pool.

“Traitor!” I hissed.

His voice was almost a growl. “We can’t stay in the pool. I’m only human.”

We were halfway up the pool stairs.

My magic thrust a fantasy in front of me: the dark pool, the moon above, the silver light reflecting on the placid surface, and Alessandro’s body floating next to me, his final expression frozen on his face. I was smiling. He was all mine. He would never leave.

No! I ripped the vision apart in my mind. I would never hurt him.

Unstoppable forces clashed inside me like two opposing waves, and everything went black.