Authors: Kimberly Frost
“I don’t have the luxury of only worrying about myself,” she said, but he didn’t acknowledge the remark. Instead, he
glanced at the wall and nodded to the empty space as if it spoke to him.
“You’re right, of course. The opening scene drags. I’m going to move the night march to the beginning and cut—”
“Dad, what were you doing outside tonight?” she asked impatiently.
“Tonight?”
“You were outside earlier. That’s what they told me.”
“Was I?” He paused. “That was tonight? Yes, I was working on a scene in the Bosnian woods, and I decided to stand outside without gloves to allow my hands to experience the cold. When I felt I had enough sensory details, I went up to the glass greenhouse to jot down some notes. On the way, I heard a noise. I thought it was an animal, and I wanted to see it, to watch the way it moved in the snow. My foot kicked the rock, and I picked it up. Warm and bloody. I didn’t expect to stumble on a freshly dead body. Shocking,” he said. “Really horrifying. Imagine how Sasha feels when he’s staring at Irina’s brother’s body in the mass grave…terrible. Excuse me. I need to make some more notes,” he said, and bent over his pages, scribbling furiously in the margins.
Alissa stared at her father. She wasn’t even sure that he remembered who Theo Tobin was.
“Did you see anyone other than the dead man, Dad? Did you see the person who hurt him?”
Someone outside the room screamed. Alissa’s head jerked toward the door as the screams continued. The security officers leapt from their seats, and she followed in their wake.
“Lock it down!” someone shouted. “Now! Now!”
Dorie stood in the hall surrounded by ES officers. Her blouse’s torn shoulder gaped open, and she held it in place as she spoke frantically through occasional sobs.
“What’s happening?” Alissa demanded, pushing into the circle.
“—bite me,” Dorie said, tears dripping from round eyes.
No!
“Where?” Alissa said sharply, grabbing Dorie’s hand and pulling it away from her throat and shoulder.
“Stop,” Dorie snapped, yanking herself back from Alissa. “It’s your fault.”
Alissa recoiled, the shock and guilt slicing like a knife.
“It’s your fault for bringing him here.”
Alissa stepped back, her gaze sweeping over Dorie. There was no blood, no wound.
There’s no bite. He didn’t bite her!
Alissa’s hammering pulse slowed.
She’s a lying little bitch.
“Where are you bitten?” Alissa asked coolly.
“I didn’t say he bit me. I said he tried to bite me. He’s a filthy ventala.” She broke down again, sobbing. The security officers fawned over her, and so did Troy and Ileana.
“Cerise!” Dorie said, launching herself at her sister as she approached. Cerise hugged the girl, who was the picture of fragility.
“What’s going on?” Cerise asked.
Alissa walked away from them to the door of the large interrogation room. She pulled the handle, but the door wouldn’t budge.
“Miss North, can you come with me?” an officer said.
“Let’s look at the footage. There’s a security camera in the room, right?” Alissa asked.
“He threatened me! He tried to bite me!” Dorie said shrilly.
A few moments of noisy chaos ensued. Alissa resisted being ushered back to the interrogation room with her father. Instead, she insisted on being taken into the control room to see the surveillance file.
“Something’s wrong. It looks like—”
“What?” Alissa demanded.
“Somehow, the feed from that room wasn’t being recorded.”
“Convenient,” Alissa said, folding her arms across her chest.
Dorie sniffed. “I told you what happened. Cerise, you said—you said he seemed different. That’s why. He’s under a glamour.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Alissa said. “You misunderstood what happened. Or you’re purposely trying to deceive us. Maybe
in another attempt to sabotage my bid for the Wreath. Like kidnapping my father and bringing him here.”
“Kidnapping!” Dorie scoffed. “You said he was fine, then you left him home. I thought you didn’t know families were welcome. I brought him so he could be part of the festivities.”
“Sure, and you didn’t notice anything amiss? You didn’t tell him I was in trouble to lure him into your car?”
Dorie glared at her. “You said he was fine. You lied.”
“His condition waxes and wanes. It’s near the anniversary of my mother’s death, which is always a tough time for us. What I said was that he’s writing again.”
“He’s completely crazy!”
“Is he writing again? Did he bring his manuscript to the retreat center? I bet he edited pages the entire drive.”
“Don’t try and twist things,” Dorie said.
“I’m not the one twisting things.” Alissa turned to security officers. “Unlock the door to the interrogation room. I want to hear Mr. Mills’s side of the story.”
“What’s going on?” Grant asked as he walked into the central post.
It took a few minutes for Dorie to repeat her story. Alissa walked to the console and watched as Grant flicked on the camera.
Merrick, in the Mills guise, sat in a chair, legs stretched out in front of him, arms folded across his chest.
“There,” Alissa said. “Does that look like someone who just attacked a teenage girl?”
“No, but actually, Alissa, he looks too calm. He must’ve heard the commotion in the hall and the doors lock.”
Alissa lowered her voice. “Listen, Grant, I know she’s lying.”
“I am not lying!”
“You are.”
“You weren’t there,” Grant said.
“Exactly. She doesn’t know what happened,” Dorie said.
“I know this much. Other than a torn blouse, there isn’t a mark on her. I saw Merrick slay a demon in 2007. I witnessed a ventala attack at Handyrock’s less than forty-eight hours ago. Ventala are blindingly fast, incredibly strong. If that man
in there was ventala and he’d wanted to bite her, she would have been
bitten
. Period.”
Dorie blushed. “He threatened and attacked me. He reacted to my blood. I’m telling you, Grant, he’s not human.”
“What blood?”
“I cut myself on a rose thorn earlier, and while I was talking to him, it started to bleed again.”
“Just like that? It started to bleed again? Or with a little help from you?” Alissa demanded, rolling her eyes. She would not let Dorie get Merrick arrested. “Open the door, Grant.”
“Open the door to the observation area only,” Grant said to one of the security officers stationed at the desk.
Alissa fell in step behind him.
“No, you can watch from here, Alissa. I’m going to talk to Mills alone.”
“He’s my bodyguard. I’d like to come.”
Grant stopped. “This is an ES matter. Your preference doesn’t enter into it.”
“Grant,” she said imploringly.
He jerked filter earplugs from his pocket and put them in his ear canals, a precaution against her using her power to persuade him. Not a good sign.
“You heard what I said, Alissa. You wait here.”
When Grant Easton came into the observation area, Merrick got up and tried the door. It was still locked. The reinforced steel had a silver overlay. Strong. Heavy. The sort of door that even a ventala couldn’t break through. An interesting choice for a retreat center that was supposed to be remote and completely secure.
“Mr. Mills,” Easton said.
“How are Richard and Alissa North?”
“They’re fine. I was surprised to find that you’d been involved in an altercation.”
“An altercation?” Merrick shook his head.
“What happened with Dorie Xenakis?”
“She talked and left.”
“You didn’t try to prevent her from leaving?”
“No.”
“You didn’t touch her?”
Merrick shook his head.
Grant leaned closer to the thick glass that separated the observation room from the interrogation room. “She says you did.”
Merrick shrugged.
“We have sensors here that pick up magical energy. You set them off. What magic are you using?”
“A protection spell.”
“Contained in an amulet or charm?”
“Magic’s not outlawed.”
“That depends on what you use it for.”
“You know what is illegal? Detaining someone without cause,” Merrick said.
“I have cause. Dorie Xenakis has accused you of assault.”
“So arrest me.”
Grant clenched his jaws.
“I didn’t think so,” Merrick said. “The girl’s a liar. She’s lucky she’s a kid, or I’d see her in court. Now, open the door.”
“Let me examine the magical object you’re wearing.”
“Link it to a crime.”
“There are plenty of judges who will give me a court order based on what I have right now. A dead body. An accusation by a muse. An outsider who snuck into the Etherlin without ES clearance. I reviewed the checkpoint logs, and there’s no record of you entering the Etherlin. If Alissa North didn’t bring you through, how did you get in?”
“Have you finished questioning Alissa and Richard North?”
“Not your concern.”
“I have reason to believe she’s in danger. You can hold them at ES main headquarters in the Etherlin without compromising the investigation. And if you send them down the mountain, I’ll be more cooperative.”
“No one’s going anywhere until things are sorted out.”
“Then I should add that if you don’t send them down the mountain, I’ll be less cooperative.”
“Meaning?”
Merrick walked away from the glass divider and sat down.
Easton leaned forward, lowering his voice. “I’ve spoken to Len Mills dozens of times. You’re not him.”
Merrick didn’t answer.
“If you’re ventala, you might as well get used to being in a locked box, because when I prove it, a cage is where you’ll spend the rest of your life—which actually won’t be that long.”
“If you waste your night trying to break me and something happens to Alissa North, you and I are going to have a serious problem.”
“Stop running your mouth about Alissa North. She is not now, nor will she ever again be, your responsibility.”
Merrick turned his head slowly and locked eyes with Grant Easton. The stare was brutal enough to bludgeon a weak man. Easton blinked, but didn’t step back.
“Do your job then. Protect her, Easton. Like your life depends on it.”
“Jesus,” one of the officers at the console said.
Alissa’s heart pounded.
He is going to get himself killed.
Everyone in the room stared at the screen, watching as Merrick leaned back in his chair. Her mind raced until it settled on one thought with perfect clarity. Even with his amazing control, Merrick would not be able to conceal who he was for much longer. He’d been under the thumb of the ultimate brutal authority figure as a child. That struggle to survive had shaped him. His whole identity had been built on his ability to absorb pressure without breaking under its force and on a need to openly defy anyone who tried to control him.
Grant burst into the room, pointing his finger at Alissa. “Did you know?”
“Know what?” she asked. “That Len Mills was tough, ex-military, and intimidating? I did suspect. I assumed that’s why you contracted with his firm.”
“You don’t actually think he’s Len Mills,” Troy snapped.
“Of course I do,” she said.
“Why does he want you off the mountain so badly?” Troy demanded. “He’s obviously infatuated with you and—”
“Can ventala become infatuated?” Dorie asked. “They’re animals.”
Alissa glared at her.
“We’ll find out what he is in the morning,” Grant said. “Merrick is half vampire. When the sun rises, he’ll slide into a comalike sleep. Then we’ll go in and take off whatever magical objects he’s wearing and see what we’re left with.”
No!
Alissa felt ill and swallowed hard against the urge to be sick. She had to get him out of there.
“In the meantime,” Grant continued, “the muses will stay together in the lounge. Troy, you take them there and stay with them. ES has a lot of work to do tonight.”
“I want to talk to him,” Alissa said.
“Absolutely not! Let’s be clear about one thing, Alissa,” Grant said. “Whoever or whatever he is, he’s never getting near you again.”
Cerise grimaced. Troy nodded. And Dorie smiled.
The lounge was quickly arranged to accommodate Troy and the muses. Under ES supervision, the staff swept in, assembled temporary beds, covered them with fresh linens, and left a tray of drinks and snacks, baskets of toiletries, and sleepwear. The staff wanted to make a return visit to bring vases of flowers and some candles to “warm the space,” but ES politely rejected the request.
Alissa sat in the corner, watching the activity, only half aware. The Wreath was lost to her now, but she was numb to that fact. Merrick’s life hung in the balance. Alissa had to get her father and Merrick out of their interrogation rooms and away from the retreat center. It was all she could think about.
Concentrate. There has to be a way.
Grant and many of the ES officers were investigating the site of Tobin’s murder, which allowed her a window of opportunity during which ES presence in the main building would be scarce.
What if Dad resists leaving? If you manage to free Merrick from the room, but Dad draws ES’s attention during the escape…Merrick will be the one who pays the most for any mistakes.
As the others speculated about Tobin’s death, Alissa went into the bathroom to be alone to think. A few moments after
she’d left the lounge, the door opened and Cerise entered, her face grim and concerned.
“You okay?” Cerise asked.
Alissa shook her head, the urgency she felt spilling out. “Did you see what Grant was taking from the case when we left the security center? V3 ammunition. They aren’t going to arrest Mills. They’re going to execute him.”
“If that’s Merrick, then he’s a syndicate assassin. He probably deserves whatever happens.”
“Merrick saved my life twice.”
Silence descended, then Cerise said, “I didn’t know your dad was so sick. I’m sorry about that.”
“Would it have mattered? You seem determined to hold a grudge forever.”