Stormrage (15 page)

"My relationship wi
th your brother is a purely financial one of the 'he owes me money' variety," Francois replied. "If we met it was for that reason and that reason alone. I find him as distasteful as you do. As for your victim, I have no idea who they may be or why their head was in my old apartment. I moved out shortly after you killed Strohm. I left only the katana. Again, Ravenel, I am not involved in anything other than trying to save your life. Trust me or not."

With that, Francois stood, bowed to Levac and took his leave.
Raven could hear Thad escorting him to the door. When she was sure he was gone, she lay back in the bed and stared at the ceiling.

"What just happened, Raven?"
Levac asked.

Raven continued to stare at the ceiling.
"Aside from Du Guerre lying through his teeth, you mean?"

Levac leaned on the
bed and Raven met his eyes. "I mean what I just saw. You just lifted a two hundred pound man with one hand and threw him across the room. Earlier you cut some kind of monster's head off with a frying pan. You should be dead from those wounds, but you're healing in just hours. How is that possible?"

Raven didn't answer, she just stared at Levac, a man she trusted with her life,
trusted with almost everything and wondered if she could forgive him this one trespass and really let him into her life.

"Ray…
are you a vampire too?" Levac asked in a quiet voice.

Raven closed her eyes and shook her head.
"No. I'm something different. My father was Detective Wulf Crane, as you know. My mother is Valentina. She's a pureblood vampire, which makes me half-vampire, a dhampyr. To make it simple, I am a human, I can eat food, walk in the sun, do everything you can do. But when I need to…when I need to, I can call on my mother's strength and be more than human. And less. Is that what you wanted to hear? Or were you happier being a mushroom?"

Raven could feel Levac's eyes on her,
then she felt his lips on hers, gentle and tasting slightly of mustard.

"I hate mushrooms," he said, parting the kiss.
"Get some rest, partner. I'll see you in the morning."

Raven opened her eyes and watched Levac leave, wishing he would stay.

* * *

It was late the following evening when Raven woke the second time, part of her hoping it had all been a bad dream.
The single rose on her nightstand with a card that read:

I'll forgive you if you forgive me,

Rupert

Made it clear it had all been real.

She slid out of bed and peeled the bandages off her ribs. The deep slashes were now nothing more than minor bruises. She probed them with her fingers and confirmed that while they were tender, they wouldn't hinder her movements.

In her private bath she stared at her reflection.
She was pale and gaunt, but that was to be expected. Whether she wanted to or not she would have to sup on claret to bring herself back to full strength. Right now her body was busy feeding on itself to keep her breathing. It was sort of ironic that her body killed itself to keep her alive.

She smiled slightly and set about removing the bandage from her throat.
The surgical tape hurt worse than the cuts had, but eventually the bandage was off. The wound beneath had healed completely.

"Score one for M
om's blood," she said to her reflection.

She stretched with catlike grace, w
incing as her freshly healed ribs popped back into place, and then set about getting human. She still had work to do.

Feeling almost human, Raven left her room an hour later dressed in black leather pants, a green sweater and her favorite
over knee boots. Her Automag was concealed in a holster at the small of her back and she had spare magazines, including one loaded with cold iron, in the tops of her boots.

She strode into the dining room in search of claret to help her finish healing.
Like most of the house, the family dining room was decorated in Victorian style, with a twelve place table made of oak, hand-carved chairs that looked heavy, but weren't and paintings of family members in antique frames.

Valentina looked up when Raven entered.
"Hello, my love."

"Hi
, Mom," Raven said, pouring a glass of claret and sitting at the table next to her mother, who unusually was wearing a white nightgown and slippers. She looked as if she'd been crying and her hand was shaking when she reached for her own goblet.

"Mother?
What's wrong?" Raven asked.

"You always could tell my mood, couldn't you
, my sweet one?" Valentina asked. "While you were healing there was another attack on the grounds."

"Why didn't someone wake me?"
Raven asked, her hand tightening on her glass.

Valentina shook her head.
"There was little you could have done, child. You were almost gone yourself. Detective Levac and Lord Du Guerre's men helped to defend the house and all of the renegades were defeated."

Raven shook her head.
"I'm not even going to ask what Du Guerre was still doing here. But I know we lost someone. Who was it?"

Valentina wiped tears from her eyes and sipped from her goblet.
"We didn't lose anyone in the fight. It was before. Your sister Gemma is gone. Her ashes were delivered minutes before the battle."

"Gemma?"
Raven asked in surprise. "Why her? She's harmless! She just came home, for God's sake!"

Valentina shook her head.
"Maybe because she was harmless and I was stupid enough to let her go out alone!"

Raven leaned forward and knelt next to her mother.
"You are not stupid, Mother. Gemma going out by herself was stupid, but you didn't make her go. We have guards, Thad, Pandora, Rieken, Selene, any number of family could have gone with her. She made the mistake, Mother, not you."

"Thank you, Ravenel, but it is
my responsibility as Mistress," Valentina said.

Raven snorted and stood, draining her goblet.
When she was finished she wiped her mouth on a napkin, leaving a smear of lipstick and blood. "Then maybe some of the others need to start taking some responsibility, Mom. They are all of your blood, either pureblood or Embraced. Your blood flows through their veins just like it does through mine, yet they sit back, hide behind you, hide behind me and the guards and wait to see what is going to happen next. It makes me sick."

Valentina smiled at her youngest daughter and Raven saw the light come back into her eyes.
"You are so much like him," Valentina said.

Raven frowned.
"Like who, Mother?"

"Your father.
He hated their cowardice as much as you do. But understand, child, they are your elders, but they are not Mistresses or Masters. They are not as powerful as you or I."

"Ugh!
Mother, you know that is sheer bullshit," Raven said. "It is an excuse they hide behind. Maybe if they were watching each other's backs instead of whining about how strong they were, Gemma would still be with us."

Valentina smiled.
"What if the mistake Gemma made was believing she was stronger than she really was?"

Raven gave up.
"Fine, Mother. Let them hide behind levels and protocol. Let them hide behind your youngest child. I've got work to do before I have no one left to protect."

Raven turned and left the room.
She heard her mother say, "I'm sorry, Raven.", but she didn't turn back. It was an argument she would never win.

* * *

The Bass 770 sat quietly in the family garage beneath one of the yellow sodium-vapor lights.
Whoever had parked it had been very careful and the parking job was perfect. Next to the black muscle car was Levac's Nash. He was leaning up against the side enjoying one of his rare cigars. When he saw Raven coming he tossed the butt aside and gave her a charming smile.

"I heard you
were up and around," he said. "I've been waiting for you."

Raven smiled in spite of herself and shook her head.
"In the cold? The house has heat, you know."

"I know, just wasn't so sure you'd let
me in," Levac replied. "And I wanted a stogie."

Raven stopped near him and folded her arms.
"Rupe... I was pissed about what happened, but more at Du Guerre than you. Knowing he still cared and had helped you rescue me didn't change the way I felt about what he did. In some ways, maybe it made it worse."

"What do you mean?"
Levac asked.

Raven shrugged.
"Now I know for sure he threw me to the wolves on purpose basically to save his own neck and that caring for me didn't change anything."

"And me?"
Levac asked.

Raven smiled and stepped closer.
"You saved my life, Rupe. I've saved yours. It's what partners do."

Levac shoved his hands in his pockets.
"Is that all we are? Partners?"

Raven walked around Levac and
toward the Bass, which unlocked as she got close with the key in her purse. "That depends."

Levac followed her, walking
toward the 770's passenger side. "On what?"

"On what you said when you thought I was dying."

Levac looked uncomfortable. "Come on, Raven, that's not fair!"

Raven shrugged and started the car.
"You don't answer my question, I don't answer yours."

Before Levac could answer, Raven put the car in gear and roared out of the garage
, enjoying the engine's throaty growl.

Levac buckled his seatbelt and leaned back.
"I see being unconscious for two days hasn't changed your driving style. Where are we going?"

Raven shifted and began moving through traffic like the other cars were standing still.
"A couple days ago Aspen tipped me off to the possible location of a dark altar out by Sag Bridge. We're going to go check it out before I take everything to Marie for her best guess as to what is going on and what that thing in DeGrey's apartment was."

Levac gripped the armrest again, not caring if he left fingerprints behind.
"I was wondering about that. It said it was hungry, do you think it ate DeGrey?"

Raven shook her head and drifted the Bass through the next intersection, the muscle car's tires leaving a wide trail on the pavement.
"I doubt it. It was more than likely something she conjured. But it had definitely eaten someone, there were bones all over the place."             

"I had Aspen's team gather what she could, they are putting a composite of those remains together as we speak,"
Levac said. "We should know who the victim was by morning."

With the car's engine roaring, Raven climbed the onramp to th
e outer Chicago Loop and headed toward Sag Bridge. "Hopefully the dead guy will provide another lead. If that doesn't work, all I have is to find Riscassi and hang her out a window by her ankles until she squeals."

"I'm not sure how much that would help and I would kind of like to hang on to my badge,"
Levac said.

"It might not help,"
Raven said. "But I'm sure she has it coming."

* * *

The ancient St. James church had once been a peaked-roof building made largely of stone cut and carried in by masons in the mid 1800s. Raven had seen pictures and knew the building had once been beautiful, placed in the middle of the cemetery rather than beside it because the river flowed only about fifty yards from the church's western side. Now, it was a crumbling wreck. The fire that had destroyed a large section of the city had burned everything, but the graves and the stone shell. To this day everything was covered with a fine layer of soot that, when the sun set behind the church, made the building look like it was still burning. Forty-five parishioners had been trapped inside and burned to death in the fire; ghost hunters from all over the country had investigated the site and insisted the spirits were still there, burning.

Raven thought it was a load of marsh gas.

She parked the 770 behind the purple van that was parked in front of the old church and the two detectives climbed out. Aspen Kincaid exited her van and skipped over to hug Raven.

"Hey
, Ray!" she said excitedly. "I knew you were coming here tonight!"

"Hi
, Aspen," Raven said with a smile. "What are you doing here?"

Aspen raised her crime scene kit.
"I have news. That sword you found was definitely not the weapon used to kill Shevlin. The blade is the wrong shape. I'll give it back to you when we're done here."

"That's good to hear, but you didn't have to come all this way for that,"
Raven said. "You could have called me."