“Mississauga and the airport are just on the other side of a highway from Toronto. It’s practically part of Toronto. The boundaries aren’t even marked.” Miranda frowned. Some vampires of the Sabbat dabbled in ritual, and, of course, she had seen Solomon’s human magick at work, but she had never heard of a curse that could be so finely tuned.
“This is Kithain magic. It doesn’t have to make sense
— it’s part of our nature.” Tango pushed her hands through her hair. “Every time I try to get to the airport, I start to choke. I can’t breathe.” She rubbed her neck. “It’s like somebody is strangling me. I can drive past the airport, I can see the signs telling me which terminal to go to, but if I turn off the highway and onto the airport grounds, I feel like I’m going to die. Same if I try to get a taxi — and I have. From the other side of the highway. Driver looked at me like I was crazy when I told him to turn around.”
“Can’t you just get the curse removed? Aren’t there ways to do that?”
Tango shook her head. “The short story? No. I can’t. If I try to, I’m in trouble with the duke of Toronto.” “The duke of Toronto?”
“The Kithain duke. You vampires really are insular, aren’t you? Do you ever pay attention to anything that goes on outside your own dark afterlife?”
“If it’s important.” Miranda looked out along the street. It was quiet and still a little muggy. Occasionally a car would drive past, its headlights blinding, or a knot of people would come out of a bar, breaking up like an amoeba to go their separate ways. “I bet I know more about Toronto than you do.”
“I bet I know more about the world and the way it works. Which is more important?”
“Since you’re stuck here?” Miranda turned her head to regard Tango again. “I’d say Toronto. Like knowing that if you’re cursed to stay in Toronto, you’re lucky to make it as far as the edge of Mississauga. That’s the border of Metro Toronto. The
city
of Toronto ends about halfway there.”
Tango was silent. After a moment, she said, “I’m sorry, Miranda. I shouldn’t have said that.” She sighed. “Kithain aren’t much better. I think I managed to piss off every one of them here before I found out what kind of trouble Riley was in. And humans.... Well, it’s just not the same. Most of them haven’t got a clue about what the world’s like. It’s nice to have someone who I can talk to and know they’ll at least understand.” She stuck out her hand. “Thanks for getting me out of there. I’m a little too edgy for my own good right now.”
“No problem.” Miranda shook the proffered hand.
The changeling’s gratitude felt as warm as her touch. Miranda found herself smiling. “So what exactly is it that you need at the airport?”
“Riley’s luggage. It’s at the Lost and Found. He... well, let’s just say that basically he disappeared after checking his bags at the airport in San Francisco. He may have been on the airplane with me, transformed into a little girl.” *
Miranda’s eyebrows rose. “That’s...”
Impossible
? The word came to her tongue easily, but since her own change into a vampire, she knew that very little was truly impossible. Tolly distorted his body totally unconsciously. Blue knew vampires who could take on the shapes of bats and wolves, and even clouds of mist. Solomon sometimes spoke of learning to shapechange. And there were the Garou, werewolves, for whom shapeshifting was a part of their very identity. “That’s strange. 1 didn’t think it was... easy to transform one person into another.”
“It’s not. I’ve heard of it being done. But not so quickly — it took weeks of sculpting the person’s body and rearranging their entire mind. It must have happened to Riley in the space of about an hour or less.” Tango fiddled with a ring on her finger. “I still don’t know who did this to him. They searched his apartment already and stole the information that might have identified them. There might be something in his luggage. If I could get to it.”
“I could...” Miranda bit off her words. What was she doing? Tango had started out as prey — she should stay that way, or maybe become a distant contact, someone to be exploited when the need arose. She should not become a friend! Miranda was a vampire of the Sabbat.
She chose her allies by what they could do for her, not what she could do for them! “I could get it for you,” she said gruffly, “for a price.”
Tango looked at her. “Could you? I don’t have any money on me.”
“For a favor. You’ll owe me.” A favor owed by a changeling would be good. “I have my own car. Where is the Lost and Found?”
“Terminal two. They’re open until midnight.” Tango’s eyes were alive with hope. “It’s too late now, but first thing tomorrow night? Would you?”
“If nothing comes up that I have to do with the pack.”
Tango’s smile was dazzling and ecstatic. “Thank you, Miranda!” She grabbed the vampire and pulled her into a hug. “Oh god, thank you!” She let her go and stood up. “The luggage is for Riley Stanton, flight 2800 from San Francisco. The person who called about the bags didn’t say what you’d need to pick them up. If you need a letter or something, I can...”
Miranda smirked back. “Getting them to give me the luggage won’t be a problem. Trust me.”
“I don’t suppose it would be a problem, would it?” She dug a card out of her pocket. “This is the address of Riley’s apartment and his phone number. I’m staying there. Bring the bags by as soon as you can. Miranda, you don’t know how much this means.”
“Oh, I do. And don’t think that I won’t collect.” Miranda allowed her smirk to soften a bit, relaxing into a smile. “Go home, Tango. I’ll see you tomorrow night.” Tango shook her hand then, pulled her up into another hug. “Thank you, Miranda.” The changeling let her go and walked away down the street. Miranda watched her walk into the shadows, then turned to go back into Hopeful.
Tolly stood at the top of the steps to the bar, watching her.
Miranda stared at him for a moment, surprised and angry. “Where did you come from?” she spat.
‘“E bafroom,” Tolly mumbled in response. “I forrowe’ you ou’.”
There was something odd about his face, about the way he was holding his mouth — odder than usual, anyway. Miranda looked at him with narrowed eyes. “What have you done to your mouth, Tolly?”
The mad vampire grinned broadly and let his tongue loll out. He had driven a thin spike of metal through it, one of the few pieces of his anatomy that had not been pierced before. Miranda thought she recognized the spike. It had been pushed through the skin just under his chin before. Miranda curled her lips in disgust. “How much did you hear?”
“You’re going ‘o ‘e airpor’ ‘o ge’ bags for ‘e ‘an...” Tolly stumbled over the word. Miranda saw a little trickle of blood as the spike poked against the roof of his mouth, “...for ‘e ‘an-gring....”
She cut him off, barely able to understand what he was saying. “All right. Enough.” She climbed up the stairs and gave him a hard glance. “You didn’t hear anything.”
tcj »
“Don’t talk. It’s disgusting.” She caught his face between her thumb and forefinger, pinching it. “You didn’t hear anything. You saw me feed on the woman from the bar, then send her away. That’s it. Understand?” He nodded. “Good.”
Miranda went hack into the bar. Fortunately, even if Tolly did say something about Tango, neither of the others would be able to understand what he was saying anyway. She didn’t want Matt and Blue to know about the changeling. Tango was her secret, her ally. Her... friend? Miranda clenched her teeth. Whatever Tango was, she was a welcome change from other vampires!
Matt and Blue were still sitting at their table. Wet rings on the table showed that they had at least moved their glasses of beer around, even if they hadn’t actually drunk any. “Well?” asked Matt. “Did you feed well?” “Well enough.”
“What was the commotion?”
“I was playing with my food.”
Blue snorted, then glanced at Tolly. “And you took your time. Did you make it to the bathroom?”
Tolly rocked his hand back and forth. “Yeah an’ no. Ra’ies room.” He patted his face with an effeminate, fluttering motion. “Pow’ere’ my ‘ose.”
“What?” Blue looked at the mad vampire sharply. “What the hell have you...?”
“He pierced his tongue.” Miranda almost smiled as Tolly stuck his tongue out and made Matt flinch in disgust. “What have you two been doing?”
“Waiting for you.” Blue tapped his wrist and the big, heavy watch he wore. “It’s almost one-thirty. Are we going to leave before your bartender or what?”
Todd. Tango knew him. Miranda hesitated. If the pack killed Todd, Tango would be suspicious. But the pack had to kill tonight and satisfy Solomon’s commands. For the first time in several years, Miranda found herself reluctant to kill a human. She made her decision and stood. “He’s off. We’ll go to another bar
and find someone else.”
“What?” Matt’s jaw dropped. “After all the time you took deciding here? What’s the matter with him, all of a sudden? Has he recently acquired a friend? Is he suddenly too big for us to handle?”
Miranda glared back at him. “No. I just changed my mind. Fair enough?”
“No, it isn’t.” Matt rose to his feet as well. “We had him picked out, we had this planned, and you just decide to change your mind? The Sabbat isn’t an autocracy, Miri.”
“Are you challenging me, Matt?” hissed Miranda. “Do you want to lead the pack? You’re welcome to try and take it from me.”
Matt bared his fangs in a snarl. “Maybe I am. Maybe...”
Blue reached over and grabbed Matt’s coat, yanking him back into his seat. “Not here!” He looked around. “I don’t think anybody saw that.” The big vampire glanced up at Miranda. “We’re not challenging you, Miri—”
“Speak for yourself,” Matt muttered. Blue gave him a deadly stare, then turned back to Miranda.
“We’re not challenging you, but Matt’s right. We had this planned. It’s a good plan. We should stick with it. Unless you can give us a good reason for dropping it.”
She couldn’t, Miranda knew. She had no good reason except for wanting to hide their involvement in the murders from Tango. She closed her eyes, releasing her anger. She had no choice. “All right.” Miranda opened her eyes again. “The pack has spoken. We take the bartender.”
“Good.” Matt bounced up from his seat again, eager for the kill. Miranda found herself wanting to kill
him.
“Time check, Blue?”
“One-twenty'five.”
“Lots of time.” Matt led them out of Hopeful. Miranda walked last.
She spared Todd a glance as they passed the bar. He caught her eye and smiled at her. She looked away and hoped that Tango never found out. She had tried.
CHAPTER SIX
Backwards up the
mossy
glen Turned and trooped the goblin men
The sudden blare of the television brought Tango snapping out of a deep sleep, her eyes wide and her silver knife already in hand. Stunned by the abrupt awakening, she watched the perky hostess on the screen of the small set atop Riley’s dresser for almost a minute before the time imprinted itself on her brain. Eight o’clock. Riley used his television for an alarm clock. Tango groaned. Her eyelids drooped back down. She’d seen a remote control around somewhere as she'd tumbled into bed late last night. She groped for it amidst the litter of Riley’s dirty clothes.
“...all coming up in the next half-hour,” chattered the television hostess brightly. “But now here’s Oliver with this morning’s news.”
The shot changed to a casually dressed man with a bank of cluttered desks behind him and a serious, deeply concerned look on his face. “Thanks, Jennifer. There’s been...”
The man disappeared into silent oblivion as Tango found the remote and clicked it at the television. She let her knife vanish and collapsed back down onto the mattress. Riley got up at eight o’clock. She couldn’t believe it. Tango closed her eyes and tried to go back to sleep. She, at least, was still willing to sleep until noon. Usually that was a function of the hours she kept working at Pan’s. Kithain tended to be a little more energetic than the average human, but even they needed and enjoyed sleep. Today, especially, Tango had sleep to catch up on. The stress of Riley’s disappearance, of the visit to Duke Michael’s court, of Epp’s
geasa,
of her own abortive attempts to reach the airport... of the entire wearying and maddeningly frustrating previous day, had left her utterly drained.
There was no hurry for her to get up. There would be precious little she could do until the sun went down and Miranda could bring her Riley’s bags from the airport. She might as well sleep. Tango pulled a sheet over her head and buried her face in a pillow. She was glad that she had met Miranda last night. It had been a fortunate meeting. What she had told the vampire was true — it made an enormous difference for her just to be able to talk to someone, anyone, who could understand what was happening, someone who understood what hid in the world’s darkness. It didn’t hurt to have Miranda as an ally, either. She didn’t think any of the Kithain of Toronto would be particularly sympathetic toward her or Riley, even if she were inclined to seek out their company. She had considered going to Ruby, the old gatekeeper, but that would have brought her back to Duke Michael’s doorstep. And that was the last place she wanted to go, right now.
Tango turned her head and screwed her eyes tightly shut, trying to find unconsciousness again. So what was she going to do until Miranda came? The usual tourist attractions came to mind, but they hardly seemed appropriate. Tango couldn’t bear the thought of wandering mindlessly through some museum exhibit or art gallery. She disliked shopping. Maybe she could find a gym and lose a few hours working out. The idea of slamming weights around was satisfyingly physical. Swimming, a run around the city. She almost wished Miranda hadn’t ordered her out of Hopeful last night. She missed the release of her nightly shift at Pan’s.
She peered out from the sheets at the clock on Riley’s bedside table. Eight-oh-eight. Tango closed her eyes again and waited as long as she could, then looked at the clock again. Eight-thirteen. She groaned and pushed herself up. She wasn’t going to be able to get back to sleep. Her mind was awake and demanding that her body follow its example.