“Is it over?”
Curran turned to him. “Yes, it’s over. The People are on their way to clean up the mess. You can bring everyone out, if it will make them feel better. We guarantee your safety.”
The waiter took off. Someone shouted. A moment later the front doors opened and people poured out: an older Korean man, the older woman who had greeted us, a woman who looked like she could be their daughter, and several men and women in waiter and chef garb. The younger woman carried a boy. He couldn’t have been more than five.
The owners piled up into the booths around us. The boy stared at the two vampires with dark eyes, big like two cherries.
I sat into the chair next to Curran. He reached over and pulled me close. “I’m sorry about dinner.”
“That’s okay.” I stared at the dead woman. Twenty years old. She’d barely had a chance to live. I’d seen a lot of death, but for some reason the sight of Amanda lying there on the floor, her boyfriend weeping uncontrollably by her body, chilled me to the bone. I leaned against Curran, feeling the heat of his body seep through my T-shirt. I was so cold and I really needed his warmth.
CHAPTER 2
A caravan of black SUVs rolled into the parking lot, their enchanted water engines belching noise. Magic-powered cars didn’t move very fast and sounded like a rock avalanche hitting a speeding train, but they were better than nothing.
We watched the SUVs through the broken window, as they parked at the far end, killed the noise, and vomited people, vampires, and body bags. Ghastek emerged from the lead vehicle, ridiculously out of place in a black turtleneck and tailored dark pants. He came through the door, surveyed the scene for a second, and headed to us.
Curran’s eyes darkened. “I bet you a dollar he’s running over to assure me that we’re in no danger.”
“That’s a sucker’s bet.”
The Pack and the People existed in a very fragile state of peace. None of us wanted to do anything to jeopardize that.
The People were efficient, I gave them that. One crew went for the vampires, the other headed for the woman’s body, the third for the despondent journeyman. Two women and a man in business suits made a beeline for the booth where the owners sat.
Ghastek came close enough to be heard. “I want it to be clear: this was not an attempt to kill either of you. The journeymen weren’t supposed to be here and the guilty party will be harshly reprimanded.”
Curran shrugged. “Don’t worry, Ghastek. If this was an attempt, I know you’d bring more than two vampires.”
“What happened?” Ghastek asked.
“They were having dinner,” I told him. “They seemed happy together. The boy handed her a necklace and it choked her to death.”
“Just so I understand, Lawrence himself wasn’t personally injured?”
“No,” Curran said. “He’s in shock from watching his girlfriend die in front of him.”
Ghastek looked over the scene again, looking like he wanted to be anywhere but here. “Once again, we’re dreadfully sorry for the inconvenience.”
“We’ll live,” Curran said.
One of the People stepped away from Amanda’s body. “The necklace adhered to her skin. There doesn’t appear to be any locking mechanism. It’s a solid band of gold.”
“Leave it,” Ghastek said. “We’ll remove it later.”
If I were them, I’d cut it off during tech and stick it into a hazmat container.
A middle-aged man shouldered his way inside the restaurant, followed by a young woman and a boy who looked about seven. I glanced at the woman and had to click my mouth shut. She looked to be in her late teens, right on the cusp between a girl and a woman. Her body, full in the bust and hips, slimmed to a narrow waist. Her long slender legs carried her with a natural grace. Her hair streamed from her head in a shimmering cascade so precisely matching the color of gold, I would’ve sworn it was gold if I didn’t know better. Her face, a pale oval, was angelic. She glanced at me in passing. Her irises were an intense deep blue and her eyes were decades older than her face.
She was beautiful.
She was also not human. Or she had bargained with something not human for that body.
Curran was watching her. His nostrils flared a little as he inhaled, sampling the scents and I felt a punch of jealousy right in the gut. Well, this was a new and unwelcome development.
Ghastek focused on the woman as well, with the kind of clinical interest usually afforded to an odd insect. “Here come the grieving parents. I’ve met them before.”
“Is that her sister?” I asked.
“No, that’s Mrs. Aurellia Sunny, her mother. The boy is Amanda’s brother.”
Not human.
The middle-aged man saw the female navigator, whose body the People had just loaded on the gurney. “Amanda! Jesus Christ, Amanda! Baby!”
“No!” Aurellia cried out.
He dashed to Amanda. “Oh God. Oh God.”
His wife chased after him, the boy in tow. “Don’t go near her!”
The man grasped Amanda’s hand. The golden band of the necklace popped open. An eerie soft light ignited within the necklace, setting the gold aglow.
“Oh Go—” Amanda’s father fell silent in the middle of the word, transfixed by the necklace.
His hand inched toward it.
“Stop!” Curran barked. The man froze, arrested by the unmistakable command in that voice.
I was already moving.
The golden-haired woman pushed past him, yanked the necklace from Amanda’s neck, spun, and thrust it at the boy’s throat. The gold band locked on the child’s neck, adhering to his skin. I missed it by half a second.
The boy gasped but didn’t die. His father shook his head, as if awakened from a dream.
Aurellia stared at me with her old eyes and smiled.
“Are you out of your mind?” I snarled. “That necklace just killed your daughter.”
“This isn’t your affair,” she said.
“Take it off. Now.” Before it kills again.
She sneered. “I can’t.”
She knew exactly what that necklace did. She had made a conscious choice between her husband and her son.
The boy dug his fingers into his neck, trying to pry the necklace loose. It remained stuck. The skin around the band of gold was turning pink. We had to get that thing off of him.
The man stared at her. “Aurellia? What’s going on? What’s the meaning of this?”
“Don’t worry about it,” the woman told him. “I’ll explain it later.”
“No, you’ll explain it now.” Curran moved next to me.
“I have to concur,” Ghastek said.
The woman raised her chin. “You have no authority over me.”
“Aurellia, what is going on?” her husband asked.
“On the contrary. We have all the authority we need.” Ghastek snapped his fingers. A woman in a business suit and glasses popped up by his side as if by magic.
“The necklace caused the death of a journeywoman in our employ,” the woman said. “We’ve expended a considerable amount of money in training her, not to mention the cost of the two vampires that were terminated as a result of her death. That necklace is evidence in our investigation of the incident. If you obstruct our investigation by withholding this evidence from us, we will obtain a court order requiring you to surrender the necklace to us. Should we choose to pursue this matter further, you will find yourself in a very actionable position.”
Some people had attack dogs. Ghastek had attack lawyers. If he got his hands on the boy, he’d find a way to remove the necklace. Even if he had to behead the child to get it.
I couldn’t let the People get the boy.
“That’s nice,” I said. “I have a simpler solution. Take the necklace off the child now and I won’t kill you.”
“Wait a God-damned minute.” Amanda’s father moved to stand between me and his wife. “Everyone calm down. Just calm down.”
“Give me the boy and nobody gets hurt,” I told them. “Nobody here will stop me.”
“That child is wearing our evidence,” Ghastek said.
Curran’s eyes lit up with gold. He leveled his alpha stare on the woman. She flinched.
“Give me the child,” Curran said, his voice a deep inhuman growl.
“Fine.” Aurellia shoved the boy toward us. “Take him.”
Curran swept the boy off the floor and picked him up. Ghastek’s face fell. We’d won this round.
“Give me back my son!” the man demanded.
Curran just looked at him.
“It’s in the boy’s best interests that he stay in our custody,” Ghastek said. “We have better facilities.”
“It’s not the quality of your facilities I doubt,” Curran said. “It’s your ethics and your intentions.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Ghastek narrowed his eyes.
“It means the necklace is more important to you than the boy,” I said. “You’ll slice the flesh off his neck to get it.”
“That’s a gross exaggeration.” The Master of the Dead crossed his arms. “I’ve never murdered a child.”
“Oh, it’s never murder when you do it,” I said. “It’s a regrettable accidental casualty.”
“You can’t do this!” Amanda’s father thrust himself before Curran. “You can’t take my son.”
“Yes, I can,” Curran said. “We’ll keep him safe. If your wife decides to explain what’s going on, I’ll consider returning him.”
“Go fuck yourself,” the golden-haired woman said. “Crawl back into whatever dark hole you came out of. I have no care for you or your kind.” She turned and walked out of the restaurant.
Her husband froze, caught for a moment between his son and his wife. “This isn’t over,” he said finally and chased after Aurellia.