Healer's Choice (48 page)

ADDAI watched as yet another naked female rose from her hands and knees and left Allende. Shadowing the Were vice lord was very nearly a punishment, but after thousands of years of waiting, what were a few hours more, a day or week of added torment?

A servant appeared in the doorway as if on cue. “Two of the brothel prostitutes are at the gate, my lord. One of them has her hands bound behind her and is gagged. The other says she has important business with you.”

“Interesting,” Allende said, idly picking up a knife at the corner of his desk and touching the hilt to his lips, half closing his eyes as he inhaled the scent of woman. “Do you recognize either of them?”

“No, my lord.”

Allende stood. “I’m in the mood for exercise, perhaps even a little sport. Have them brought to the courtyard.”

The servant hurried off to do the vice lord’s bidding. Unseen, Addai followed Allende.

Moments later, escorted by bodyguards, Kala and Feliss were positioned in front of the Were who owned their lives. Allende’s eyebrows rose in silent query then abruptly lowered.

He tilted his head, studying Feliss intently as if comparing her to a mental picture. His eyes narrowed and his mouth firmed, the good humor that had brought him to the courtyard disappearing.

“Turn her around,” he told Kala.

The Lioness obeyed, and though Feliss shook with terror, she didn’t resist or try to pull away from Kala’s grip.

Allende lashed out with the knife, a swift, sure strike slicing through the back of Feliss’s dress and bisecting the smooth flow of human skin between delicate shoulder blades, scoring just deeply enough so blood slowly welled to fill the cut.

Allende said nothing. Only when the blood gathered and began to slide downward did he take his eyes off his handiwork and look at Kala.

“This is hardly a matter to warrant coming to my home and interrupting me, even if Rebekka unwisely helped a prostitute who intended to flee and cheat me out of what’s due on a contract.”

“Feliss is not the only one Rebekka has helped. There are probably dozens by now.”

“And you’ve come to me hoping I’ll decide Dorrit or one of the others needs to be replaced as madam?”

Kala had enough sense to be frightened by the silky threat in his voice. But whatever conflicting emotions she might have wrestled with after witnessing what Rebekka was capable of, what Rebekka’s gift might mean for
her
, in the end ambition had dominated.

“The scent doesn’t lie. Rebekka did more than make Feliss look human. She healed her completely. I saw Feliss shift form.”

Something passed through Allende’s eyes. Not disbelief. Not surprise. It made Addai wonder. Speculate. Increased his interest in proceedings with a foregone conclusion.

Allende reached out and cut away the gag, then the leather ties around Feliss’s wrists, before ordering her to face him. “Does Kala speak the truth?”

Feliss didn’t answer. For all her terror and hopelessness, she refused to betray Rebekka.

Allende stroked her cheek with the back of his hand. “It would be a shame to destroy something so beautiful when it’s not necessary.” To Kala he said, “Do you know where Rebekka is?”

“Yes. I can take you to her.”

Feliss whimpered and looked up, eyes filling with tears. Allende’s smile was very nearly gentle as he stroked her cheek again. “There, see what I mean? Violence can be avoided. Capturing Rebekka will be an easy thing. Do you know what they say about healers like Rebekka?”

He didn’t wait for an answer. “To hurt another, even in self-defense, ruins their gift. It taints it so instead of diminishing pain, their touch increases it. Rather than strengthening and restoring a body they try to heal, they turn it against itself, weakening the immune system, allowing infection and disease to spread throughout it.”

Allende cut the material of Feliss’s dress. It fell away, leaving her naked.

He placed the blade tip on a breast, lightly circled the nipple. “How long do you think Rebekka will keep her secrets when faced with the damage a knife can do? Or with the prospect of being taken to one of the brothel dungeons and paying for her silence and her betrayal there?”

He cupped Feliss’s chin and forced her to meet his eyes. “So beautiful. So naturally submissive. There’s no reason for you to suffer. Nothing you can do will change her fate, only your own.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “Show me your other form.”

Crying, Feliss shifted. She stood, a trembling Doe not looking behind her to the open archway or trying to make an escape.

Allende turned toward Kala. “Perhaps you should be made a madam after all. Let’s see what you make of the choice everyone in that position faces.”

He opened his hand, and the knife lay across his palm. “What do you think should be done with this one? Make an example out of her with a punishment that allows her to keep working, paying off her debt? Or kill her, so others will know death is the only way they’ll escape before their obligation is met?”

The choice was offered without inflection. Addai thought that had it been any other at Kala’s mercy, she might have chosen differently. But where ambition dominated when it came to capturing and bringing Feliss to the vice lord, jealousy ruled now.

The Lioness snatched the knife. And for the first time since arriving, Feliss’s fear did something more than hinder her.

She tried to bound away, but it was too late. Kala’s arm was around her neck, long talons digging in, causing the Deer to struggle and rear, providing a perfect target.

With the expertise of an experienced hunter, Kala unerringly slid the blade between Feliss’s ribs and into her heart.

“Not the choice I would have made,” Allende said, as the carcass landed on tiles painted in shades of blue and gold. “But not a waste either.”

He turned to the servant who hovered behind him. “Deliver the Deer to the cook employed by Dorrit. Tell him I want the head and the hide for the brothel wall. He can do whatever he wishes with the rest.”

“Should he be told who—”

“Not until I’ve seen to Rebekka. Take a few men with you and make sure word reaches all the madams and bouncers. Clients may enter and leave but those whose contracts I own may not. I’ll be along shortly and I’ll expect a head count as well as the names of any who are missing.”

The servant stepped forward, picking up and shouldering the carcass. Allende turned his attention to Kala, then to the two bodyguards standing on either side of her. “Take her. Contact me when you’ve collected Rebekka. I’ve got arrangements to make regarding the healer’s fate.”

Addai didn’t bother remaining with them. He returned to the harbor and found Rebekka had maneuvered the
Constellation
out to a buoy as a safety precaution.

Addai felt the presence of a Djinn nearby. Rebekka’s father no doubt.

It didn’t take long for a heavily armored car to arrive. It glided to a smooth halt several hundred yards away, hidden from the docks by the jungle of wrecked cranes and cargo containers left from the days of The Last War.

Darkly tinted windows shielded its occupants from view. The back doors opened and Kala emerged, accompanied by two armed men.

They made their way toward the harbor, careful not to be seen. The two men halted behind the last piece of rusting metal while Kala alone stepped from behind it and crossed the open space to the water’s edge.

Addai had to admire her show of courage and confidence. She barely looked at Rimmon’s men nearby, one standing with an automatic weapon while the other did maintenance work on the engine of a speedboat.

Kala waved at Rebekka, yelled, “I saw Feliss in her fur when I was in the woods.”

A laugh followed, amused, believable. “Good thing she changed before she ended up on the dinner table! Help me too, Rebekka. I want more than to spend my life as a whore to humans.”

Addai could read the briefest hesitation in Rebekka before she started the boat’s motor and carefully guided the
Constellation
to the dock.

Kala leapt on board, pausing only long enough to look into the cabin to be sure Rebekka was alone before pulling a knife and holding it to Rebekka’s throat.

“Turn off the engine,” she said, her attention on Rimmon’s men, waiting to see what they would do.

Neither made a move toward the boat until Kala had forced Rebekka off it.

The Lioness backed away, using Rebekka as a shield. She didn’t turn from the dock until it was no longer in view and by then it was obvious that beyond securing the boat, Rimmon’s men didn’t intend to get involved.

One of Allende’s guards stepped forward, locking his fingers around Rebekka’s upper arm. “We’ll take her from here,” he said to Kala. “You’re to return to the brothel.”

Kala’s knife left Rebekka’s throat.

Rebekka’s eyes were wide with fear and the pain of betrayal. “Why?” she asked.

The Lioness gave no answer.

“Where’s Feliss?”

Kala’s smile held vicious satisfaction. “Dead.”

The men led Rebekka away.

As soon as she was out of sight, the Djinn materialized behind Kala. The Lioness had only enough time to register the arm around her chest and a hand across her face before he broke her neck.

Addai manifested in human form, clothed in flesh and dark material, his thumbs tucked into the front pockets of his pants instead of pressed to the hilt of a sword. “You are quick to destroy your tools, my friend.”

Torquel let the body fall to the ground. “This one has served its use. If my daughter survives, I’ll not risk her life and all we’ve worked for by leaving this enemy in place.”

“So I see. I will tell Tir to be ready to finish his part in this.”

THE arrival of the tusked madam cut Aryck’s penance short. She stopped in front of him and spoke as if discussing business with a brothel visitor but her words were directed at Levi. “I smell Jaguar. He’s the one?”

An upward flick of Levi’s eyes answered her question. She said, “Allende knows. His men are here. As soon as one of them finds me, I’ll be ordered to lock down the brothel.”

A brief hesitation and she added, “They brought the body of a Doe with them. Feliss is dead.”

“Come with us, Dorrit,” Levi murmured, lips barely moving.

“It’s too late. Do what you can for those of us trapped here but don’t put Rebekka at risk.”

She moved on, stopping to talk to others, customers and prostitutes alike, as if merely making her rounds.

Regret slammed into Aryck. Shame, for a lifetime of judging those he knew nothing about.

“Let’s go,” Levi said, escorting Aryck along public and hidden walkways until finally reaching an exit doorway guarded by hard-eyed Jackals who let them pass to freedom.

Away from the brothel the scent of grief and fear poured off Levi. Breaking into a run he said, “We may already be too late. The moment Allende learned Rebekka can stand before the ancestors and return an outcast’s eternal soul to the shadowlands, he would have sent his men to capture her.”

Aryck stumbled. Shocked despite having guessed Rebekka was responsible for the change in Levi.

“This is why she left,” he said, feeling the sting of failure as he remembered eyes wet with pain, silently pleading as she asked him to come back to Oakland with her.

“She couldn’t tell you. She shouldn’t have had to.”

Hostility was back in Levi’s voice.

“I won’t fail her again,” Aryck said. “I’ll give up my life before I do.”

The Lion didn’t respond, only continued running. The salt-laden scent and the sound of water lapping against metal and wood and rocky shore intensified as they neared the bay. They entered the metal ruin of what had long ago been a port for container ships from around the world, and soon came upon a body.

Levi glanced down at it, his steps faltering, though he didn’t stop. Aryck followed, dread arrowing straight through him at the sight of the outcast female Lion.

They cleared the last of the metal jungle. A boat bobbed gently where it was tied to the dock. The cabin door stood open. Even at a distance the only feeling emanating from the
Constellation
was one of emptiness.

Agony clawed up Aryck’s throat, making it impossible to call Rebekka’s name. He reached the boat and climbed aboard. The healer’s journal lay on a seat, as if she’d been reading it but laid it aside before she was taken.

Seeing it abandoned nearly drove Aryck to his knees. Hopelessness and failure tried to crush him. He shook them off, refusing to acknowledge the possibility it was already too late.

He’d found her in the encampment and saved her before she could be raped. Against all odds they’d not only left it alive, but because of her, the threat posed to the Weres was over and the slaughter of innocent humans avoided.

This wasn’t a world he could navigate. For a second time Aryck swallowed his pride where the Lion he’d once thought
less
was concerned. “She must have allies who can help us find her. Who do you suggest we approach?”