Born To Be Wilde: Immortal Vegas, Book 3 (16 page)

“Maybe,” Brody said. “Maybe not. According to Dixie, there used to be an entire network of, well, ‘mortal’ supporters for the Council. She referred to it as the house system.”

I set my drink down. “The house system. As in Cups, Wands, Pents, Swords? Those houses? Or houses like Slytherin, Gryffindor, and Hufflepuff?”

He grimaced. “I’m out of my depth here, Sara. All I know is, she thinks he might be recruiting you for one of these houses.”

“By
shooting
at me?”

“It’s apparently gotten your attention.”

“It’s also almost gotten me dead.” I shook my head. “Does he plan to interview me through a body bag?”

“All I’m saying is, if you want those kids back…”

And suddenly, I got it. My eyes widened, and I turned toward Brody. “You
want
me to pay a visit to him, don’t you? Straight up. I’m the
bait
.” I grinned and lifted my glass to him in a mock cheer. “It’s not a bad idea.”

“Viktor wants to talk to you. Urgently and for reasons we haven’t figured out. If it’s merely a matter of him releasing the kids in exchange for a favor granted, he wouldn’t have been playing these kind of games. He’d simply contract with you like anyone else, except for the fact that he committed a crime.”

“That wouldn’t make him unique among my clientele.”

Brody grimaced. “And, if he wanted to kill you, he could probably already have done that.”

“No probably to it.” I shook my head. “Try definitely. I ran into Nigel Friedman in Germany, and his job was to tag me, not bag me. Viktor wanted me alive.”

“That guy,” Brody muttered, pulling out his notebook. “Give me his information—”

I waved Brody off. “Not the point. If Nigel had been instructed to bring me in at any cost, or to kill me, he could have done so pretty easily. I got away because I was supposed to be unharmed. He didn’t understand why, but he wanted his paycheck, so he went along.”

“Sounds like a charmer.”

I grinned. “He has his moments. So whatever Viktor wants me for, he wants me intact. Which means he either wants to harm me himself, or he needs to use me. Either way, he’s already dangled the possibility of finding those kids once. You’ll know he’ll do it again. We might find out where they are, what he’s done to them.”

Brody nodded. “I’m counting on it.”

“When can we get started?”

He shrugged. “Now sounds good. I’ve already cleared backup if we need it.” He shot me a glance that I was fairly sure was intended to be reassuring. “You’ll be wired, of course.”

“Oh, I’ll be better than wired.” I smiled, relaxing the barriers that had become more second nature to me than breathing, the ones that had moved from a furtive defense to a fortified wall. I dropped them away with a mental sigh, letting in the shadow at the door. The shadow that had always been there, watching and waiting, prepared to support, defend, or push me beyond any rational limits. The shadow that I craved more than I should, the shadow I hungered for, though he could never know it.

The shadow I didn’t yet have total faith in.

I felt the touch like rain on a summer day, flowing back to me with an unquestionably sensual thrill. It was right, it was good, and it was about damned time.

“Hello, Miss Wilde.”

Chapter Twelve

“Mental telepathy.” Brody’s face betrayed his skepticism. His derisive tone didn’t help. “Your client on the Council can read your mind.”

“Sort of.” I shrugged. I looked around the bar, vaguely surprised we were still having a conversation. “He’s not the only one with that kind of gift, though. I would have expected Viktor to have put in an appearance already, him or one of his minions.”

“His abilities are more specific than that. He controls by direct and personal contact with his subjects, but within that scope, his control is absolute.”

For Brody’s sake, I didn’t share Armaeus’s response. There was only so much that a cop from Memphis could take, no matter how jacked up his psychic abilities were.

“But, um, since he’s
not
putting in the appearance,” I said instead. “I’m going to walk around and think really positive thoughts. Sooner or later, the guy’s got to show up.”

“I’d rather have you wired. I can’t help you otherwise.”

“You sort of can’t help me period, Brody. These casinos aren’t part of the normal world—your team can’t see them. So where would you and all your backup go if I got into trouble? Up to the rooftop of Paris? This is better.”

He bristled. “I can see it, though. I can go with you.”

That wasn’t a bad idea, but Armaeus shot it down with a hard laugh.
“Viktor used Detective Rooks’s number on those posters. He knows the detective is emotionally engaged. He will accept him. But in so doing, Detective Rooks will be put at risk of Viktor’s abilities.”

“Right.” I looked at Brody. “No. Armaeus will keep you posted. If something happens that needs to have a legit police action, you’ll be tapped in. If not, you’ll wait here.”

Brody frowned. “He’ll, ah…let me know? Mentally?”

I could tell the moment that Armaeus touched Brody’s mind. The detective sat up straight, blood draining out of his face. Armaeus’s touch couldn’t help but be intimate, it was the way his magic worked, but I’d never considered what that would feel like to a heterosexual male. Apparently, it wasn’t super comfortable. “Christ,” Brody muttered.

I patted him on the hand. “I’ll be right back.”

It took me going outside the bar area and into the casino section for Viktor to get the memo, but he caught up with me soon enough. I recognized the stamp of his men as they rounded the corner beside an enormous Wheel of Fortune kiosk. Very Eastern European, very thick. Very no-nonsense. I didn’t touch them, but I didn’t have to. They were low-level Connecteds. Enough to see and believe, but not enough to cause Viktor any trouble. The perfect psychic minions.

They marched me toward the elevators, and I kept my peace, though my mind yearned to connect with Armaeus again. The Magician, for his part, remained silent. He could be totally stoic when he wanted to be.

I knew without the Magician saying so that Armaeus wasn’t happy about my decision to visit Viktor directly, but he wasn’t unhappy either. I wasn’t on the Council, and that gave me the opportunity to do all the dirty work Armaeus couldn’t do, or wouldn’t do. Technically, Armaeus was mortal now, but that didn’t seem to be relaxing his iron hold on noninterference. At least not direct interference. Indirect, he was all good with.

The doors slammed behind us, trapping me with the Euro goons. We shot up with ear-popping speed to well beyond penthouse level, and the doors whooshed open again.

Right about then, I realized my mistake.

Viktor hadn’t been around anywhere near as long as Armaeus had, but he
was
a member of the Council, and he presumably wasn’t an idiot. He knew the skill sets in play. He might not be as strong as Armaeus, but he’d had time to study the man and how he worked. The Magician had limitations. Of course Viktor would exploit those limitations.

The Magician’s ability to read minds was always impaired by water. It was why I’d preferred to keep an ocean between us when I’d first begun working with the Council. Now, as the doors of the elevator opened onto a large penthouse domain, I blinked in surprise. The walls of the Emperor’s domain had been transformed into waterfalls.

“Sariah Pelter, it is so good of you to join me, at last.”

My attention snapped to the center of the room.

Viktor Dal was a tall man, but not as tall as I remembered. He stood maybe six feet, his body whipcord thin, his face lean and weathered. He’d ascended to the Council in his midfifties, and his hair was mostly blond, with a few fierce tufts of white proclaiming his age. It was cropped close to his head and contributed to his hawklike appearance along with his aquiline nose and strong chin. His eyes were a curious shade of gray, so pale that you wanted to look away, but you couldn’t. He wasn’t an ugly man, but he wasn’t attractive either. He was…compelling. I thought of Armaeus’s description of him: a mesmerist. Someone able to persuade others with a glance and a few words to do what he wanted. Looking at him here, I could believe it.

I didn’t see the point in wasting time. “I want those kids back, Viktor. Alive and as whole as they can be.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” His smile was gracious, almost affectionate, and I felt the weight of its warmth as a physical touch. I found myself shifting closer to the man, without any reason to do so, and steeled myself to remain where I was. “I was charmed by your attempts to recover them ten years ago and realized the threat you posed. Had you continued on your journey, you would have found them, and that would have been far too soon. Still,” he sniffed, “how quickly you were able to forget all those poor children once a challenge was put in your way.”

An unexpected wave of shame scored through me. Despite knowing this was Viktor’s modus operandi, I was startled at how rapidly I shifted from angry to embarrassed. Because, of course, he was right. I
had
abandoned those kids. Brody hadn’t, but I’d run and never looked back.

I’d abandoned them.

As if he could read my mind, Viktor continued his genteel condemnation. “Imagine my delight at finding Detective Rooks here as well. Now he I have to commend. He continued to look for the children, to maintain ties with the parents. Ties that grew ever more strained over time, of course, but he persevered as long as he was able.”

I hadn’t known about the parents, Brody had never told me. Still, I could see him doing something like that. All those years. All those birthdays come and gone.

While I had done everything I could to forget.

I tried to regain control of the conversation. “You killed my mother.”

“Oh please, Sariah. We both know she wasn’t really your mother. Surely the detective ran to you with that news the first time he saw you again. He took that death harder than most, felt responsible. And he was. Had he kept Sheila Pelter out of the investigation, she never would have died. Not by any direct attack anyway. Eventually, the alcohol and prescription drugs she was taking would have done her in, but she wouldn’t have been bludgeoned to death and dumped in a river.”

His gaze flickered over me as I blanched.

“Oh my. He didn’t tell you that either? That must be challenging. Knowing that all this information is out there and yet being unable to do anything about it…and knowing that the information you require is being willfully withheld from you. Makes it difficult for you to do your job, I should think.”

I folded my arms, his censure finally reaching the tipping point where it couldn’t hurt me anymore. He seemed to recognize that as well and flashed me another smile. “You must be wondering why I’ve brought you here. Not to torment you with the children you let slip through your fingers, I assure you. As enjoyable as that is for me.”

“Are they dead?”

“Of course not. There would be nothing of value I could offer you if they were dead. And I want to be of value to you, Sar—oh, but it’s Sara now, isn’t it? I may call you Sara, can’t I? It’s such a well-suited name to you.”

Once again, I found myself slipping into the cadence of his words. They created a sort of walled space around me, one filled with comfort and security, keeping everything that was dark and awful out…

I shook my head, forcing myself to stay focused. “I don’t care what you call me. What’s your price to release the children?”

“It’s a tricky subject, that. You see, I can’t release them myself. I can see them, ensure their safety, their growth. But I can’t quite
get
at them. It was something I didn’t realize, ten years ago, but I was too hasty in my preparations. I didn’t account for the nuances of where I was placing them.”

I stared at him. “What are you talking about?”

“Forgive me.” He seemed to come back to himself. I had no idea if he was acting or not, but if he was, he was doing a good job of it. “They are quite safe. But also quite trapped.”

He turned to the side, and the panels of the wall split apart to reveal a large-screen TV. The image that immediately came to light brought me up short. Six teens at what looked to be some sort of boarding school, interacting with other students, each other, all of them laughing and carefree. “They believe they survived a terrible accident while on a class trip together when they were children,” he explained glibly. “They were all from the same general area, so their accents and mental touch points were quite similar, which made the frame easier to accept. Their parents were killed and the state placed them in this school. Distant relatives visited for a while but then flowed away. Now, they have only each other.”

I snapped my gaze to him. “That’s the load of crap you fed them?”

“We all tell ourselves stories, Sara.” His smile remained gracious, but he regarded me with shrewd focus. “Think of the stories you willfully believed your whole life.”

Another queasy burst of shame slid through me as Viktor kept talking.

“This story, however, served its purpose. It kept their minds whole and healthy until the anomalies of their new existence became accepted fact. It was a far more humane approach than letting them believe they were abducted from loving homes and thrust into an alternate universe guarded by demons.”

Oh, for the love of...
“Demons.”

Viktor nodded. “Six of the most powerful entities that ever walked this earth. They were banished when Atlantis fell.”

“What?” I blinked at him. “Atlantis?”

He waved his hand. “Yes, I’m aware that you’ve met Llyr. These creatures are nowhere near his level, but they are powerful in their own right. Should they return to this plane, they would infuse the world with magic once more, down to its very core.” His smile flashed. “It will be glorious. You will see.”

“Right. Because everyone associates demons with good times.” I jabbed my finger at the screen images of the children. “Explain to me again why you can’t get them out. You put them there. It shouldn’t matter who you signed up to guard them.”