Blood Bonds (35 page)

“Fine.” She stood up, and Garrett stepped in front of her.

“You don’t have to do this.”

“I won’t hang you out to dry, Garrett. I won’t run.”

“I’m afraid that’s what he’s counting on, Haley.” His jaw tightened. Next to her ear he said, “Listen to me, fight this. Buy some time for me. I’m in contact with some people,
our
people. I’m working on this, but I need a few days.” She knew he was competent, and if anything could be done he would make it happen. But if he failed, it was more than her. It was him, and it was Farley. They’d all face punishment because she didn’t make things easy for Dobson.

“I’m sorry.” Haley stepped around Garrett and looked at Dobson. She nodded once. “I’ll be here.”

Haley stared at her desk for a very long time. It was an old wooden piece she’d been assigned way back in the twenties. As the office modernized, she’d kept it and now it was a beautiful antique in a building full of plastic dipped pressboard on chrome legs.

Odd thing, other than the desk, there wasn’t much else she felt attached to. Not even the photos on her walls of annual luncheons, awards for community service, thank you notes from eleven different mayors over forty some odd years. The only thing in the office she wanted to take with her was Farley, and he’d walked out.

Good thing, too. It would have been a mess with him there.

Haley decided to walk home. She needed the time to think. Plus it helped her burn off her anger. Half a block from work, she dialed Farley’s cell. At least the thing was his and not the Center’s. Hopefully he hadn’t run out of minutes.

It rang until it clicked over to voice mail. She hung up and dialed again. On the third try he answered.

“Farley?”

“Yeah.” God of Man, he sounded rough. Like he’d been drinking, smoking, and beating the hell out of himself.

“Are you okay?” He was quiet so long she checked her signal. “Farley?”

“Haley, I know why Jane in the D.A.’s office sent you the email.” Were those sirens in the background?

“Where are you?”

“At the Morris and Law House intersection.”

“Why do I hear sirens? What’s going on?”

“There was an accident.” But there was usually an accident at that intersection and a yearly fatality. The city had reworked the corner four times, but it never seemed to change things. It was just a busy road with too many lanes for the area and too many people coming in and out of the complex.

“Are you hurt?”

“No, no, I’m fine. I just ... Haley ... I’m scared for you.”

“I’m okay.” She thought about Dobson. “At least right now I’m okay.”

The blare of a fire truck sounded off, drowning out the sirens.

“Farley?”

“Still here.”

“You were going to tell me about Jane?” She walked faster, but instead of taking a right at the end of the block towards her apartment, she turned a left, and headed towards Morrison.

“A Prius pulled out in front of a garbage truck. I don’t know if the brakes went out on the thing or what. But it didn’t even stop, it just dragged the car. It’s a mess.”

“Was anyone hurt?”

“You can say that. It was Jane in the car, Haley. She’s dead.”

Haley stopped.

“I went to help. I got the door open. That’s when I saw it. She’s
marked,
Haley. She’s
marked
by Nidia.”

Haley rounded the corner and a barrage of blue, red, and white emergency lights turned the afternoon into some sort of retro dance scene. Only no one was playing any music.

The crack and hiss of radios joined the shouts and high pitched whine of metal cutting metal. At least five cars were involved, and there were people everywhere, sitting on curbs, talking to EMS and Firefighters. The main event looked more like the remnants of a crushed and mutilated soda can than it did a car.

Haley spotted Farley sitting on the curb, watching everything. “Hey.”

White points protruded from under his upper lip.

“You okay?” She stared at his mouth and he nodded.

“It’s the blood.” Farley shifted his legs and reached into his pocket, removing a PDA. “I took this from her purse.” He handed it to her. “Look under D.”

She did and froze. Dobson’s name was there and the last call that had been made to him was this morning. Haley checked for more calls. There were several.

“Justice said it was Nidia and not Medan.” She looked down at Farley. He had his arms folded over his knees and his head was down. “What’s wrong?” She sat down beside him and stroked his arm.

He took one breath, then two.

“I can’t protect you.” Farley’s eyes clenched shut and he looked away from her.

“Protect me?” She put the PDA in her pocket so she could reach for him. He was stiff under her embrace, like he didn’t want to be held, but pulling away wasn’t an option. “Farley, we’ve been friends for a very long time. Why would you need to protect me?”

“I’m your Marked. Your First Marked. It’s my job. You took me as your First, when you should have taken someone strong. Someone like Niles...”

“Where the hell did all this come from?” She tried to get him to look at her, but he wouldn’t. “I don’t understand.”

“Exactly.” He stared at the car wreck. Two neon yellow colored HERO trucks pulled up alongside a small collection of cars that had blown out tires on all the debris. “You’re too Human sometimes, you know?”

Haley sighed. “I know. Sometimes I feel like I’m being pulled apart. I don’t know where I belong.” She touched his head and fondled his red curls. It had been so pretty when he wore it long. “That’s why you’re so important. You help keep me grounded. You accept me...” A small unhappy laugh fell out of her mouth. “Well, most of the time you accept me.”

“Why did you Mark me, Haley?”

She tried to smile, but it didn’t work. “Because not doing it wasn’t an option. I couldn’t leave you, I ... couldn’t.”

“A smart Female would’ve.”

“I’m not that smart, I guess.” She petted his hair some more and tried to imagine her life without him. It didn’t work. It hurt too much.

“You need to take the PDA to Ken. He can download the info. There might be more on there, who knows? If Nidia is working with Dobson... What’s wrong?”

She shook her head. “I can’t ask Ken for anything. I’m being moved.”

“Where? And on who’s order?”

“Dobson.” Just saying his name made her feel sick. “I don’t get it. Why would Nidia help him kill Kin?”

Farley shook his head and ran a hand over his brush cut. “Nidia is ruthless. A virus would be an easy way to get rid of all her rivals. Hell, she wouldn’t even have to leave the Hive to do it.”

“Yeah, but it would kill her, too.” Nidia and Dobson working together? God of Man, could it get any worse?

“From what I’ve heard about her, she’s arrogant enough to think it won’t, and resourceful enough to have a back-up. Medan would never admit it, but rumor has it Nidia scares her.” That made Haley raise her eyebrows. “Like I said, not that she’d ever admit it.”

Haley stood up and held out her hand to Farley. After a short pause he took it. “C’mon. Let’s go home. I’ll call Garrett. I don’t know if he can do anything or not, but maybe the PDA will be enough to put Dobson under a rock.”

For a while anyways.

Haley had the cabbie stop at the street corner instead of pulling into the parking lot because all the lights were on in her apartment.

A shadow passed in front of the curtains. “Whoever it is, they aren’t very professional.” Which meant they weren’t Dobson’s. And if Nidia was as ruthless as Farley claimed, then she wouldn’t settle for anyone but the best.

On the back of an angry growl Farley said a name, “Darco.”

The cab door flew open and Farley took off across the parking lot. Haley tossed a twenty at the cabbie and ran after him.

“Wait, Farley! Wait!” But Farley was too busy snarling like a rabid animal and weaving through the parked cars. He slid across the hood of a red sedan, hit the ground, and took another shortcut by leaping onto the bumper of an Escalade, going over the top before he hit the asphalt again.

There was a split second of hope at the entrance because he didn’t have a key card, but then an old couple pushed open the door from the inside and he blazed past them.

“Damn it, Farley!”

As Haley started up the steps, the stairwell door crashed against concrete. She got to the hall just in time to see Farley cut down to a jog. He stopped a few feet from her door and pressed himself to the wall. She approached and he motioned for her to stop. When she didn’t, he went in.

The scent wasn’t Darco’s, but it was familiar and there was an odd burnt plastic smell to go along with it. Farley crouched by the bedroom door and held up what looked to be the remains of a hospital gown to his nose.

In the bathroom the shower was running.

Okay, now she was getting pissed. Not only had someone broken into her house and had it smelling like burning milk jugs, but they were taking a shower. Haley marched past Farley and yanked open the door. Among all the white with peach highlights, a lean figure stood under the shower, rinsing the soap from his long black hair.

“Creyal?” He glanced at her from over his shoulder. “What the hell are you doing in my apartment? And how the hell did you
find
my apartment?”

At her back, Farley snarled.

Creyal took his time rinsing off. After he turned off the water, he snagged a towel off the rack before Haley could stop him.

Those were her good towels, the kind that were meant to give a bathroom color, not the kind meant to be used.

Haley was sure all the turning and stretching he did was to show off every piercing and ink mark he wore.

Haley folded her arms and glared. “If you’re through desecrating my bathroom, I’d appreciate it if you’d get out.”

Creyal’s lavender gaze rolled over her. “I came here because I didn’t know where else to go.”

“And how did you find
here
?”

“I did a redial on the phone number Dr. Meyer used to call you this morning. When I got the number, I did a reverse look up for the address on her computer.” He shrugged like it was no big deal. “I didn’t plan to come without calling first, but I wasn’t given much choice.” He dropped the towel and walked past her into the bedroom and opened her closet.

“What the hell are you doing?” She slammed the door shut, almost catching his fingers. “You come into my apartment, you get in my shower, and now you’re digging through my closets?”

Creyal leaned in close and thrummed.

“If you prefer me like this, I will be most happy to oblige.” He raised his hand to touch her and Farley lunged. Haley threw her shoulder into him and pinned him against the wall. Creyal stepped back, eyes dancing.

“Farley!” Haley held him, but only barely.

“Looks like I’m not the only one who’s been having a bad day.”

The feral went back to the closet. Farley’s eyes flashed orange and red as he watched the other Male pick through her things.

“What do you want, Creyal? And why are you out of the clinic?”

“The clinic’s gone.” Creyal plucked Farley’s black dress shirt from the closet. He insisted on keeping his nice clothes at her apartment because of the rats in his.

Creyal slipped it off the hanger and put it on. He moved over to her drawers. Farley’s glare tracked him across the room.

Haley said, “What do you mean, the clinic’s gone?”

Creyal opened the first drawer and pulled out a thong. A crooked smile cut across his face. He dropped it on the floor and continued pulling out one pair after the other. “Have enough?”

“I like lots of underwear.”

“I’ll say...” He picked up a lacy red pair.

“Don’t you dare, Creyal.” He slid his lavender eyes over to her, then Farley, and promptly made a show of scenting it. Farley let loose with an angry screech.

“Damn it, Creyal!” He went to the next one and pulled out her bras, dropping them on the floor. “Third drawer down. There are pants in there.” She looked at Farley. “Can you please just calm down?”

“He knows the rules,” Farley hissed. “If you won’t make him abide by them, I will.”

“This isn’t the Dens!” Haley grabbed his cheek and made him look at her. “This is my home. The only rules here are mine!”

From over by the dresser Creyal said, “These jeans are a little long in the leg to belong to shorty there. Does he know you’re, how do the
chetrah
put it, stepping out on him?”

“They belong to another Male, Deshi. He’s a friend.”

Creyal’s breath brushed her cheek. “You sure do have a lot of
friends
.” He puckered his lips and kissed the air in front of Farley’s face. Which, of course, sent him into another tirade. “Will you quit aggravating him?”

“Why not? Food is fun to play with before you eat it.” Creyal plopped down on her bed and lay back, twirling her red panties from the end of his finger. “I call dark meat.”

Farley lunged, twisting and turning, his body bending at impossible angles in an attempt to escape Haley’s grip.

“Damn it, look at me!” He wouldn’t. His eyes were on Creyal. All of a sudden, the only thing Haley had in her hand was a piece of his shirt and his arm. The rest of him was going right for the other Male.

Desperate to keep them apart, Haley swung him into the dresser. Farley bounced off and hit the floor. She threw herself on top of him, planted her knees on either side of his hips, and locked her hands on his wrists.

“Listen to me--”

“Let me up so I can kill him!”

“You’re not ruining my carpets!” Farley bowed, almost throwing her off. “Stop it, Farley.”

“Or what? What are you going to do, Haley? This isn’t the Dens, remember? You aren’t a proper Female; you may not care if he disrespects you, but I care! I will not let him treat you like you’re Human!” He bucked her off. Farley was almost too fast. But by some miracle, Haley managed to snag his ankle. His hand shot out towards Creyal, but the Male pulled his leg out of reach.

And damn him, if he didn’t wiggle his toes.

“If I had known this was going to be so entertaining, I would have brought snack food.” His lavender eyes landed on Farley, who was doing a pretty good impersonation of the Tasmanian devil. If Haley hadn’t been so scared for him, she might have been impressed. “’Course as small as you are, being the main course is out of the question.”