Cold Moon Rising (35 page)

She shrugged, but smiled. “Two years of drama in high school.”

“Who’s in charge now?”

I didn’t think that was a secret either. “Lucas Santiago.”

She frowned and shook her head. “I don’t know him.”

Wow. How could someone who knew Jack not know Lucas? “He’s old as dirt. They founded . . . oh, wait. He went by another name back then. Enrique?”

Sue provided the answer. “Inteque.”

Now her eyes lit up and the relief was back. “Inteque? Oh, that’s good. That’s very good. He’ll know what to do. But I have to get you out of here so you can get a message to him.”

Sure. I’d listen and participate in my own escape. No problem. “What’s the message?”

Tuli lowered her voice even further and motioned for us to come closer. Just before I did, I let out an angry growl and a sharp swear word and kicked over a chair. She nodded approval. “You must tell him that Ahmad is following in his father’s footsteps. He’s not to be trusted and must be removed from the council immediately. He’s been spying for years apparently and has come to claim Sargon’s crown.”

“Since this morning? What happened on that plane?”

She stopped and reared back like I’d lost my mind. “No, no. This has been for years. The trip here to New Jersey was uneventful, except for Ahmad and Nasil planning their revenge on Paolo. They’ve probably already killed him for removing the queen egg from the temple.”

I sighed, because apparently Ahmad had been playing the part too well. I couldn’t decide why I trusted Tuli. Maybe it was because there was no scent of deceit or maybe I was sympathetic because we . . . well, she and Ahmad, were lovers. Either way—“Ahmad’s no spy. He went undercover down there. He thinks you’re the spy and he knows Nasil was. He’s been reporting in to the council, through me, this whole time. We know everything that went on down there—” And I do mean everything, but I didn’t say that. “So, if you need a confidante, your best bet is the snake king. Trust me. I’m one of the new seers. I’ve been inside his skull and he’s playing straight.”

Her tongue was flicking out rapidly, tasting my every word. When I stopped, she started blinking rapidly, staring at the floor. Yeah, it was a lot to process, so I motioned to Sue to not speak when her mouth opened. But she spoke anyway. “I’ve known Ahmad for nearly a year now. He’s a total jerk—” I looked at her askance. The goal was not to piss off the nice lady with the key. Tuli turned to her with outrage on her face. “But he’s honest and I’d trust him with my life.”

Tuli lost some of the anger in her scent and seemed mollified. “Well, he can be an ass, I suppose.”

Sue smiled. “But he’s your ass, right?”

She smiled almost shyly, but didn’t respond. Instead, she threw herself at me and gave me a resounding kiss on the lips. Sue just sort of sat there looking stunned.

The door slammed open just then and there was Ahmad in the doorway, his face moving from fake furious to very real furious. He took in the loose chains and our rather compromising position in one glance and then slammed the door shut as hard as he’d opened it. “What in blazesss isss going on in here?” He lowered his voice until it was a sibilant hiss and stalked toward Tuli. He grabbed her by the arm and raised her to her feet. That’s when I noticed it. I hadn’t when I was in Ahmad’s head because I was seeing through his eyes. Not mine.

“Well, I’ll be damned!” I forgot to whisper, but at least I didn’t yell. “You’re mated.” Her honey-gold aura was snaking its way up his black-red, turning it nearly back to the color he was a year ago.

The announcement had a definite effect. She blushed wildly and pulled her arm from his grip. He dropped his hand, boneless, his face draining of blood until he was olive-colored chalk. My head turned toward the doorway, because I should have been listening earlier and Ahmad wouldn’t have surprised us. There were distinct footsteps coming down the hall. I pointed at Tuli and made my voice a harsh whisper. “She’s Wolven. Working undercover for Jack.” Then my finger moved to Ahmad. “He’s council, working undercover for Charles.” I moved the finger between Sue and I. “We’re screwed, not under any cover at all and about to get eaten for lunch. We need to get out of here.”

Ahmad can move quickly when he wants to. He barricaded the door with a chair under the knob and Tuli leapt onto the table to yank off the vent cover. I offered my bent hands to step on and she used them. She bounced once while Ahmad held his weight against the door. I also noticed his magic was spreading out, making a shield of sorts that would make it more difficult to get through. Once Tuli was in the duct, she reached for Sue’s hand. I lifted her up by the hips and handed her over, then stood on the table myself and jumped through the hole. Wolf aim is handy for that. Ahmad was last. He jumped from the table to the ceiling like a gazelle. I had to back up for fear of knocking heads. “The seal will last only moments. We need to move. Tuli knows the way. No more talking until we’re there and crawl as silently as possible.”

If I thought we were leaving the casino, I was sadly mistaken. At the first intersection, Tuli took a left. We followed and I suddenly realized we were heading down. “We’re still going with the plan?”

Ahmad gave me an annoyed look and tried to talk into my head. Wonder of wonders! It worked!

I spoke with Charles when we reached the American border, while Nasil was refueling. When we arrived, I made the excuse of going to pick up food and visited your hotel room. I reviewed the plans and brought the swords here through the sewer grates. I found the inner temple before bringing back food. I told Nasil and Tuli about the plans in your room and that I would recognize you if I saw you. It was always my plan to save you, but I thought I was going to have to kill Tuli to do it.

Wow. He was going to kill her to save us? I guess Sue wasn’t kidding about trusting him with her life. It would have killed you too, being as you’re mated.

I looked behind to see his reaction and smacked my head on a support for the trouble. His scent went from a cookie spice sort of warmth to annoyance. I didn’t know that at the time, but I’ve nearly died for lesser causes. Charles insists you’re valuable, even though I think he’s a fool. Now keep your mind on our business.

The next downslope was steeper. It was like going down a water slide with slow people going in front of you. All you can do is grab on with fingernails and heels and pray. It felt like we went down a dozen floors, but it was probably only three. Tuli came to a particular grate and slid her fingers through the expanded metal and shoved hard. The screws weren’t meant to withstand Sazi-level pressure and the grate gave way with a sharp pop. It was sudden enough that she nearly fell in, but Sue grabbed her shirt and yanked her back. She turned her head, let out a slow breath, and touched Sue’s arm in thanks.

Then she lowered herself slowly into a deserted hallway. This part of the building was still under construction. Open wall studs gave way to rough drywall and then taped and sanded walls, ready for paint. Ahmad opened a doorway next to the stub-out where a water fountain would probably eventually be installed and slipped down a dark flight of stairs.

He returned moments later with the two swords. He took the larger and gave me the smaller. Sue and Tuli looked at us open-mouthed with indignation plain on their faces and in their scents.

I looked at Sue and whispered, “You ever killed anyone with a sword before? It’s hard work.”

Ahmad nodded. “The blade often gets stuck in the neck joints or between ribs. If you’ve never done it before, you could easily snap the blade or lose the weapon and leave the attacker alive.”

Sue blanched a little and nodded, but not Tuli. She stared Ahmad down, even though I knew he wouldn’t budge “Well, I’ve used one before. Where’s mine?”

I shrugged. “Frankly, I prefer guns, but I’m not going weaponless. These are all we have.”

Or not. Ahmad pulled a Sig nine millimeter from the back of his pants, tucked under his shirt. “It’s loaded with silver. Will this do?”

I reached for the semiauto with one hand and offered Tuli the sword with the other, giving her a little bow as I did. “The blade’s yours, ma’am.”

Sue and I stepped back as they started swinging the swords, getting the feel of them. Tuli slammed hers into a wood stud and it went nearly clean through. But that wasn’t good enough for her apparently. After she jerked it back and forth a few times to get it out of the wood, she handed the sword to Ahmad and reached for the longer one. The snake king just shrugged and let go. Now she went two-handed and swung at a different stud. This time it sliced completely through. Ahmad did the same one-handed with the shorter sword and shrugged again.

She rested it on the tip and leaned on the big thing like a cane. It came nearly to her chest. But she was happy with it.

“Now what?” I looked around, not really sure where we were in the casino, so it was hard to follow the route of the lower area I’d memorized from the blueprints. “I’d sort of planned on doing this stage with C-Four and a lot more firepower. You really think we’re going to stand a chance with all the guards they’ll have?”

“We have all the firepower we need.” Ahmad swung his sword again and did a fine job looking fierce.

But I liked Tuli’s response better. “I have C-Four.”

All three of us turned to her and spoke in chorus. “You do?”

She shrugged. “I don’t have much but I never travel without it.” She dropped to her knees and rolled over onto her butt and took off her shoes. I didn’t realize until that minute that they were at least one size too large. She pulled out the foam insole and underneath was a thick layer of creamy white plastic explosive.

“You’re walking on it.” Ahmad’s voice was flat and expressionless, but the surprise of his scent gave him away.

“It’s perfectly stable, and you know it. The detonator isn’t anywhere close to it and nobody looks at a lady’s shoes.

Sue grinned. “Oh, that’s just cute!” I agreed. She did the same with the other shoe and then she molded them back together. It was a nice fist-sized chunk that would easily lay waste to a wall.

But it would have to be the right wall.

As she was getting back to her feet, with the help of Ahmad, and putting on her now looser shoes, Sue reached inside the tight waitress top and pulled a piece of paper from inside her bra. She also shrugged.

“Another place nobody checks.” Tuli grinned at her and she opened the slip to show a series of dots and letters around the outside of a square. “These are the locations of where all the gas and electric lines come in, from the blueprint. I also looked to be sure when we arrived. But I’d hate to blow them with all the people upstairs. The place would burn to the ground if we blew the line and a lot of people would die. There’d be a ton of press.”

Ahmad sighed. “A great many more will die if Marduc is allowed to be born. Even if she never gets her wings, she would be a fearsome creature. And Anu only knows what sort of adjustments Father made in her creation.”

Tuli was gliding her finger over the paper, memorizing the locations. “Nothing to the egg itself. But her first meal will have a number of adjustments. Sargon planned to feed her a concentrated mass of Sazi meat, imbued with powerful magic and any number of vitamins and steroids. It wasn’t still in the meat locker at the camp, so I presume it’s here.”

I grimaced and asked the obvious question while Sue tried to stop looking sick. “Do I even want to know how you imbue meat with magic?”

Ahmad raised his brows. “You probably don’t. But it’s in the preparation. You have to slice the meat off while the Sazi is still alive and lock the power to the meat with ritual magic. One thing we must do is destroy the book my father had been using.”

“So, we have three goals then. Kill the egg, destroy the book, and blow the place? Heck, that’s only three goals and there are four of us. Quick, someone come up with another.” I was being facetious and everybody knew it, but Ahmad answered anyway.

“Very well. Add stay alive to the list. At least one of us should to get word back to the council.”

Well, yeah. That was a point.

Sue looked around and asked the question that I had earlier, but out loud. “Where exactly are we?”

“Basement. Southwest corner. The stairs Ahmad went down lead to the entrance to the subbasement where the temple is.” Tuli answered, stepping behind a half wall of drywall, probably to see if there were any tools left lying around. She came up smiling with a pair of needle-nose pliers and a flat-nose screwdriver. Couldn’t beat those for playing with explosives.

She raised her collar and removed a length of det cord. I smirked. “I can’t wait to see where you have the cap hidden.” It came out of her skirt pocket with a flourish. She let out a low chuckle at my look of surprise and then rolled her eyes. I was expecting something a little more . . . novel. “The idiot guard didn’t know what it was. He gave it back to me after he searched me. It had been in my bra. I told him it was an earring.”

I turned to Sue. I hated to disappoint her about participating, but there was good chance we weren’t going to be good enough to get through this. “I think you know I’d like you to be the stay alive member of the team, right?”

She shook her head sadly and my heart sank. “Actually, I’m probably going to have to be the C-Four gal first. They’re going to be smelling for Sazi, so I can slip through the cracks while they come racing for you guys. So long as I stay to the shadows, I can get to the gas line where I need to plant it, hide it, and get out. But I don’t know how to detonate it.”

I held up the gun with a smile. “You just get the charge to the spot and leave the cap where I can see it and I’ll make it go boom.”

It finally occurred to her and she frowned. “But that means you’ll have to see it. You won’t be able to get out.”

I shrugged and reached for her hand. “Like I said, you’re the stay alive member of the team.”

Ahmad looked at Tuli with an odd expression. He tipped his head and seemed truly puzzled. “I find I would like you to also be a member of the team to stay alive. How very odd.”

Tuli smiled and touched his hand and I watched the color crawl up the arm. He noticed the sensation this time and stared at his arm. “It’s not odd. It’s sweet. But no. I’ve been on this mission since I first met Colecos, who became Jack Simpson, over a thousand years ago. I have to see it through . . . no matter the price.”