Thicker Than Blood (2 page)

“You don’t know, so I can’t tell you,” he said with a sad shake of his head.

“Super fucking useful,” I muttered.

“What’s that?” the waitress asked as she passed by me again.

“Nothing,” I said quickly. “I’m good.” I waited until she walked back to the front again before leaning forward and asking, “So how do I find you?”

“If only you knew someone who knows things,” he said. I could see a little of my own face in his, though I hoped my smart-ass smile didn’t look so annoyingly smug.

“I don’t know—” I started to say, then stopped. I did know someone who knew things, someone whose job it was to accumulate knowledge. It was a long shot, sure, but looking at my options, any shot was something.

“Good,” he said. His body became translucent. “Find me, and I will show you who you are.”

“Wait,” I said but he was gone. I went and found the waitress, tipping generously when I paid.

“Hey,” I asked her before I left. “There a library near by? Where I could use a computer?”

“You can catch a bus easy enough to the one at Hillcrest, or go all the way downtown,” she said. “They don’t open until ten, though, I don’t think.”

“Thanks,” I said. I walked out into the winter sunlight with a plan. First step, find a computer and see if the Archivist had a website or phone number. Second step, question mark, question mark, question mark. Third step, magic.

Turns out, Noah Grey, Archivist and vampire, did, in fact, have a website. I had no idea what to Google, but I knew where his warehouse-slash-home was, so I ended up looking at a Street View map until it identified the building. There was a nice blue arrow with a pop-up leading to a website.

I guess you really can find anything on the internet these days.

Leaving the main library, I walked across Capitol and waited until I was in a snowy park near a museum to dial the number off the site. A woman picked up the call.

“Noah Grey, please,” I said, unsure if I should use his name or just call him by his apparent title.

“Mr. Grey is not available, may I take a message?” the pleasant voice on the other end replied.

I pressed my lips together and withheld swearing at her. “He’ll want to talk to me,” I said. I had no idea if that were true, but I could at least try.

“I’m sure he will,” she said, her tone still frustratingly smooth. “If you’ll leave your name and number, he will return your call at his earliest convenience.”

“This is Jade Crow,” I said. I rattled off the number of the burner cell, though I was sure they had it already now that I’d called him on it. “My offer is open for an hour, no more,” I added, taking a risk. “He’ll want to hear it.”

She repeated the number back, confirming, and then hung up on me. I paced the edge of the park, not knowing what else to do. Without the Archivist’s information, for which I had nothing to trade at the moment, I wasn’t sure how I’d even go about finding dear old dad. A father I hadn’t even known I had until this last year.

Worst case, I supposed, would be finding my way back to Three Feathers and asking my mother. She’d banned me from there a second time now, so I could only imagine how
that
reunion would go.

It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered now except getting my magic back, finding Samir, and finishing him. This time without my friends getting killed around me. I’d pack them into boxes and ship them to Australia to keep them safe if I had to. Samir was my problem. I should have faced him on my own.

I should have faced him years ago. This was my failure, and I was going to fix it.

My phone rang and I fumbled it on with chilled fingers.

“Hello?” I said.

“Ms. Crow,” said a cool voice on the other end. Noah Grey.

“I need your help,” I said. I gave him the barest sketch of the events of the previous week, eliding much of it. I finished with, “I have to find someone, and was hoping you would know where I could look.”

“You want to find your father,” he said. I had half expected him to know that, somehow. It was just easier to accept that there was a lot I didn’t understand about the world and just roll with it.

“Do you know where he is?” I asked.

“Yes,” Noah said. “I do. It’s complicated. Plus we have a bargain that must be struck. I do not run a charity. You will come here.”

“To Seattle?” I said, buying myself time to think. He knew where Ash was, which was great. I had nothing to trade, which was not so great. I wondered if the Archivist took IOUs and then decided I really didn’t want to owe this guy anything. Seattle was about seven to eight hours driving from Boise.

“Where are you?” he asked.

I hesitated. The Archivist was, from what Yosemite had told me, an information and magical items dealer. Forbidden knowledge, hidden things, that stuff was his specialty. His information was for sale, and I could think of one powerful dude with deep pockets who would love to know where I was.

“I am not going to sell you to Samir,” Noah said, his voice taking on a weary edge. Apparently my hesitation had spoken volumes.

“How do I know that?” I said.

“He uses my competition. I have no business dealings with him.”

“You have competition?” I asked. That did surprise me. How many people were in this business? Also, Noah hadn’t seemed like the encouraging competition kind of guy.

“I have one competitor. Who enjoys the protection of a very powerful sorcerer,” he said and I could almost picture the vampire’s angular face looking annoyed at me.

“Boise,” I said. Fuck it. I had so few options. I had to trust someone, at least for the moment.

“I’ll have a driver there within an hour. Give me an address.”

I told him the location of the main library and went back to wait. It was one of the longest hours of my life.

The driver the Archivist sent was a short, compact woman with a friendly smile and no small-talk skills. She made it clear with one-word answers and grunts that she wasn’t going to talk to me, not about herself, about Noah, anything. She asked if I wanted music, and when I said no, she went back to driving.

It was a long seven hours.

It was spitting rain in Seattle, the temperature somewhere in the fifties. We pulled up at the warehouse I’d been to before, but this time I was led through a lower side door into what appeared to be a very normal living room. The two armchairs and the single sofa were comfortable microfiber and modern in their red, grey, and white color scheme. I dropped my bag and waited for my host, trying to contain my nervousness.

Noah didn’t keep me waiting long. He glided into the room, just as eerily still and calm as last time. His eyes were flat silver, inhuman, his face angular and almost pretty. We were nearly of a height and stared at each other eye to eye.

“Ms. Crow,” he said, indicating I should sit.

“Hi,” I said. I picked a chair and sat. I was acutely aware that I was at a bigger disadvantage now than I had been last we met. I had no magic to defend myself, no Wolf, no friends. Just my charming wit and desperation. It was not a great bargaining position.

“We can skip the small talk, if you wish?” he said after a moment when I said nothing else, his lips curving in a self-aware kind of smile.

“I need to know where my father is,” I said.

“That is all you want?” he asked.

I started to say yes, but closed my mouth on the words. This felt like a situation where you are about to use a Wish in a DnD game and the GM asks if you are sure of the wording. I didn’t want to fuck this up. So I sat there and thought about what I really wanted.

“No,” I said slowly, drawing the word out into multiple syllables. “I want to know where he is. I would also like to know where Samir is, what he’s doing, and especially if my friends are safe.” There, that sounded like a good wishlist. I pressed my lips together and wondered if I should have just asked for the moon and stars while I was at it.

“Your friends? Not a very specific request.” Noah tipped his head to one side, the motion studied and precise.

“You don’t know who my friends are?” I asked. I folded my arms over my chest and glared at him. He knew, I was guessing, but was messing with me. Not cool. I realized getting angry with the one person who could potentially help me right now was stupid, but I didn’t care. They say freedom is another word for nothing left to lose for a reason, I guess.

He tipped his head back straight. “I do. I suppose I should not tease. I can do these things for you, perhaps. What will you offer in return?”

“I’ll translate whatever you want,” I said. I’d thought this over in the car. Last time he’d wanted my services as a translator, since I spoke and read literally every language ever. “I’ll give you a month of services after this whole mess is resolved.” It seemed like a lot, and I was going to have fun explaining to Alek why I was going to be living in Seattle translating Universe knew what, but this would be worth it. I hoped.

Plus, it wasn’t like I had a game store to run anymore. I swallowed that lump of pain before I thought about it too hard.

“No,” Noah said. “I cannot accept future service from someone who is planning to take on Samir.”

“Aw, what? You don’t think I can win?” I said.

“I believe you have the best chance of anyone who has ever lived,” he said with what would have been a shrug on a human, but for him was a very measured lift and fall of his shoulders, too planned and precise to look natural.

“But not enough to bet on me coming back,” I said. “Fine, what do you want?” Despair, my old friend, crept back into the house of my heart. I had nothing to give.

“A drop of your blood,” the vampire said.

Yeah, because that didn’t sound dangerous at all. Nope.

“Why?” I asked. Blood was a powerful thing magically, blood freely given even more so. I shuddered to think what this guy would want with mine.

Noah smiled, his eyes mercurial. “I believe there is a quaint human phrase about beggars and choosers.”

“Will you use it to harm me or anyone I care about?”

“No,” he said, his head shake emphatic. “I will promise that much.”

I folded my legs up under me and wrapped my arms around my knees. His offer seemed crazy good. Which worried the shit out of me.

“You’ll give me all the information I asked for, in exchange for a single drop of blood?”

“Yes and no, Ms. Crow.” He chuckled, a dry, soft sound like wind in leaves at his own rhyme. “I will do better than that. I will also give you the help you need to get what you want.”

“To kill Samir?” I asked. I rubbed my talisman, pressing my thumb over the divot.

“As a side effect, yes, I suppose so. I would not mind certain people who enjoy his protection losing it, for example.” No doubt about it; Noah Grey’s full smile was something sharp and white, and terrifying to behold.

I closed my eyes for a moment and saw Harper’s face again, her look of pain and utter betrayal as I left her behind. For her, for Wolf, for Max, for my old family. For everyone I had loved and been unable to protect. I could do a deal with the devil for them. No sweat.

“A drop of blood, then,” I said, opening my eyes.

Noah left and came back with a needle in sterile packaging and a petri dish. I almost joked that he should put on a lab coat, but decided not to push my luck. Taking the drop of blood was quick and painless. I’d been worried that open blood would make him go all psycho vamp but apparently that wasn’t a thing. He stayed utterly calm and professional the whole time.

I stuck my bleeding finger into my mouth. The pinprick wound would close in seconds, but it was instinctive.

“What would you like to know first?” he said, taking a seat again.

“You don’t have to make calls or send out imps to do your bidding or something?” I raised an eyebrow.

“I have had over eight hours, Ms. Crow. There are things I cannot yet tell you, but any information I have at this moment, I will give.”

“One, call me Jade, please. Two, how did you know what else I’d ask for? We only talked about my father.”

It was his turn to raise an eyebrow.

“Okay, point taken. Tell me about my friends.” I sighed. I supposed my questions weren’t all that unpredictable. Who knew what this guy already knew about me anyway? Probably way more than I was comfortable with.