Romani Armada (15 page)

Deonne got to her feet, already feeling the wrench of departure setting in. “How long until I see you again?” she asked wearily.

Justin rested his hand against her cheek. “I don’t know. Not in subjective time.” His thumb brushed over her bottom lip. “I think we both need time to figure out a few things, anyway.”

Unhappiness settled in over the top of her tiredness. Not only was she completely alone in China, but her stay there would be further tainted with worry about what would happen the next time she saw Justin.

The door chimed again, forcing her to move away from him. “I’ll get my stuff.”

* * * * *

Kieren heard the elevator working and moved to the corner of the foyer where he could see both the elevator doors and the front door at the same time. It was a precautionary measure. He was confident that the risk to anyone in the building, including vampires, was minimal.

He was surprised when three people stepped out of the elevator. Demyan, the lanky Australian, and Deonne.

Ms. Rinaldi
, he corrected himself mentally.

But as she walked toward the foyer door, between the pair of vampires, Kieren found himself watching the movement of her body and the way her long legs flowed with each step. There was no awkwardness or lack of grace, despite her height and the length of her legs in proportion to her body. She glided, her form elegant and serene.

Kieren shut down the train of thought and moved to intercept the three of them. “You didn’t jump from the apartment?” he asked Demyan.

Demyan gave a small smile. “The lady left some possessions at the branch, yesterday. We’ll have to collect them before she jumps back.”

Kieren glanced over his shoulder toward the car Demyan had arrived in. It was big enough for the four of them. “I’m coming with you,” he told them. “Until Ms. Rinaldi jumps back, I’m staying by her side.”

“Really, that’s not necessary,” Deonne replied. “You should go home and get some sleep, Kieren. I have two Agency people with me…what could you do that they could not?”

Kieren liked her empathy. He’d noted Justin’s reaction to his request to scan the area for him last night, but Deonne’s deft avoidance of the word ‘vampire’ filled in the rest of the story for him. Justin didn’t like being called a vampire. He was sensitive about public perception, at least.

Kieren gave her a small smile. “I’ve seen what Agency people can do, ma’am, but no offense, they aren’t trained for this. I am. Please do this my way.”

Demyan gave a much larger smile. “Or he’ll probably pick you up and carry you to the car and stuff you into the half-square foot of space they have the effrontery to call a boot.”

Deonne gave way with a wide professional smile of her own. “Well, I don’t want to ride in the trunk, so I suppose you had better come with us, Kieren.” She stepped to one side, by half-a-step, giving him room to join them.

“If you don’t mind, I’m going to go ahead,” Kieren told her. “Please stay here in the foyer—all of you—until I signal it’s clear.”

Justin was the only one to react and Kieren didn’t count an eye-roll as anything alarming. His way always caused a fuss, but he’d never lost a client.

Yet.

He unlocked the big plate glass door and pushed the door aside, then stepped out and walked with a leisurely pace toward the car. As he walked, he turned his head, checking every direction for anyone lingering, watching them, or other suspicious changes in the environment since he’d last scanned the area.

It looked clear. He reached the car and turned around to face the building, giving that direction, which had been behind him, a thorough examination. Then he waved toward the three figures he could see standing patiently in the foyer. The early morning sunlight was bouncing off the windows of the building, dazzling anyone who looked up. The additional glare made it hard to see more than silhouettes behind the glass.

They weren’t moving.

Kieren frowned and waved again, but Demyan waved back with a ‘come here’ motion that was clear enough despite the glare.

What the hell
? Kieren wondered.

* * * * *

When Kieren reached the car, he turned and faced the building.

Deonne could see he was scanning the front of the building, which he hadn’t been able to do while he was walking toward the car. Kieren was completely thorough, even pedantic about following protocol, but Justin had learned from Brendan that Kieren was one of the highest ranked Wardens in the world. He had earned his reputation through hard-won experience.

It made Deonne feel much safer, even though she fidgeted at the delay.

Kieren waved toward them. It was clear.

“Finally,” Justin muttered. He strode forward and pushed the door open with one hand, holding it open for Demyan and Deonne.

The three of them moved out onto the footpath. Justin and Demyan had managed to arrange it so that Deonne was walking between the two of them. Demyan dug out the control card for the car from an inner pocket of his green coat….

….and a cuckoo was making his charming little warble in the trees overhead. The air was crisp and smelled of snow, even though the grass at her feet was ankle high. There were huge, jagged snow-peaked mountains all around and from behind the bank of trees just ahead of her, there was the sound of a tumbling, roaring waterfall.

Switzerland
, Deonne marveled. This was one of the few pockets of untouched nature preserve still left in Europe. From the length of the grass, the sun’s position and the chill in the air, Deonne judged it to be early summer.

With growing wonder, she made a half turn, studying the peaks and crags. She knew this glen. It was a good day’s hike away from the little village and her father’s house. She had been here before.

But how did I get here now?

The transition had felt a lot like a time jump, with the momentary deprivation of all sensations, even the ability to breathe. Yet Justin and Demyan were not here with her. So who had bought her here?

There was a rustle in the trees ahead. Someone or something broke twigs and crunched leaves as they moved through the undergrowth. The direction they were taking seemed to be toward the waterfall.

At the thought of all that pure mountain water cascading onto the flat rocks below, Deonne’s mouth seemed to instantly turn dry and her throat parched. A drink would be perfect. She could find out who was in the trees, too. Perhaps it was Demyan. Justin would not bring her here. He knew, after last night, that Switzerland was the last place she wanted to be right now. Justin rarely jumped…and he never time jumped. Ever.

So it was probably Demyan striding through the trees.

Why
? was going to be the first question she asked him. She hurried forward, and plunged into the cooler shadows beneath the giant firs, shivering as the dampness registered on her skin. The muffled quietness of forest closed in around her as she picked out a faint path in the trees. That would lead to the waterfall, most likely.

She stepped over the leaf litter and onto the path, then hurried after Demyan. The path twisted and turned sharply, bending around trees and climbing up and down over fallen logs and other impediments. Her breath was shortening thanks to the altitude but she pushed on, anxious to catch up with Demyan and find out why he had pulled her here.

The trees abruptly halted, like a wall of vegetation and Deonne stepped out into the rocky, spray and rainbow filled gully. The waterfall thundered to her left, barely twenty yards away, throwing up a permanent fine mist as the water barreled onto the rocks from twenty meters above.

There was a flat rock just to her right, smooth and warmed by the sun, that edged out into the swiftly roiling water. The view from there would be spectacular. Deonne hurried over to the rock and stepped up onto it. She turned to face the waterfall, to gaze at the endlessly falling water and breathe in the perfect mountain air.

* * * * *

“Kieren! Snap out of it!”

A heavy hand slapped his face, not lightly. The impact rocked him backwards, making him take a step to recover his balance.

Kieren blinked. Justin stood in front of him. So did Demyan.

He frowned. They had been standing in the foyer, telling him to come to them. “Why are you here?” he asked. “Did you teleport?”

Justin looked offended. “I don’t do that shit,” he said shortly.

Demyan grabbed Kieran’s arm and he could feel the discipline behind the grip. Demyan, like all vampires, had strength to spare and constantly controlled it, or else they would crush everything they gripped. “I think there are psi in the area. I think we were just…brainwashed or something.”

“Where is Deonne?” Kieren demanded.

“I watched her walk away from us,” Justin said, pointing across the road toward a footpath that snaked between two buildings in an undulating curve. “I watched her walk through there and I couldn’t do a fucking thing to stop her. I couldn’t move.” He glared at Kieren. “You were standing like a statue, too. You didn’t even blink when she walked straight past you.”

“I didn’t see her. I was…” Kieren licked his lips. “I was watching the three of you standing in the foyer, trying to figure out why you wouldn’t come to the car. I
saw
you there.”

“Neural overlay,” Demyan said shortly, looking at Justin. “He’s human. They can fuck with him all they like.”

“So is Deonne, for Christ’s sake!” Justin whirled toward the path.

Kieren shot out his hand. He knew exactly what Justin was going to do. “Let me come with you,” he said. “Let me keep pace. You don’t know what you’re going to find at the other end.”

Justin drew in a slow, deep breath. Then he nodded. “Demyan, rouse the agency people still in the city. We’ll need them.”

Kieren wondered how Demyan would do that without a communications device of some sort, but dismissed the question as unimportant. The vampires had ways and secrets he was still uncovering, months after he would have completely profiled and got bored with any normal client.

Right now, Deonne was his priority. He took off running, heading for the path between the houses. Justin kept up with him easily.

The path, like so many public facilities in the city, had been glorified with flowers and plantings along its edges. No litter dared spoil the view. The residents of the neighborhood would see to that.

They sprinted down the path, heading for the street at the other end that Kieren could just spot between the vegetation and fencing on either side. They burst out onto the street and Kieren stopped, scanning the area, looking for Deonne. The street they were on was a narrow, ancient suburban lane. Small houses, very close together, lined the side of the street where they had emerged from the footpath. Despite their small size and the age of the street itself, all the houses were tidy and well maintained. Their gardens were tended and just now starting to show the blooms of early summer.

It was quiet, with the odd person walking along the narrow sidewalk in front of the houses. It was so quiet that Kieren had no trouble hearing soft alarms bells. He turned toward them.

The other side of the street was taken up by a very modern g-train station that nevertheless had been made to blend into the streetscape. It looked old and settled and reminded Kieren of the train stations of a couple of centuries before. Most of the pedestrians were heading toward the entrances of the station.

Kieren let his gaze slide along the track that emerged from the station and found Deonne.

His heart squeezed. There was a pedestrian crossing thirty meters from the end of the station, for travelers to cross the track in order to access the right platform. The gates guarding the crossing were down. Lights were flashing and the alarms were ringing, alerting any sane human to stay clear. The g-trains reached speeds of four hundred kilometers an hour and didn’t stop for anyone. In the city, so close to a station, they would be slower, but no one survived an impact with a g-train. No one ever had.

Deonne stood in the middle of the track. She must have been standing there for some time for the gates had come down on either side of her. She was reaching out with her arm, turning her hand over and back. It made Kieren think of children playing with running water.

He could hear the thunder and vibrations that heralded an oncoming train. Fear washed through him and he grabbed Justin’s sleeve. “I won’t reach her in time. Go!”

Justin moved.

Kieren had seen vampires in overdrive before, but it never failed to impress him. This time he felt a brief, fierce satisfaction, knowing that Justin’s abilities would help save Deonne.

Justin was sprinting, heading for the gates.

Then Kieren spotted the train, approaching along the big, wide curve that straightened up just where the pedestrian crossing began. The pilots wouldn’t see Deonne until they were almost on top of her, and even if they spotted her now, they wouldn’t be able to stop the train in time.

Justin wasn’t going to reach her in time.

Horror swept through Kieren and it was a thick, hot and sour soup that halted his thoughts and speared his chest. Kieren threw his hand up in a useless gesture, willing Justin to move even faster, to reach Deonne and snatch or push her out of the way. He leaned forward with the motion of his hand, a cry erupting from his throat.

And he felt something leave him. It ripped out of his head and his torso with the velocity of the wind in the heart of a tornado, a force that moves everything in its path out of the way.

Deonne didn’t stagger. She leapt for the far-side gate…but she didn’t leap, either. It was as if an invisible, giant hand had shoved her off her feet and sideways, through twelve feet of air, to slam against the iron glass gate.

Kieren saw her begin to crumple toward the ground, then the train bulleted through, blocking his view of her.

Justin gripped the top of the gate on this side of the train, watching the elongated and articulated vehicle rocket past him. The wind from its passage was lifting his hair, because he stood so close.