Cipher (3 page)

“Peace Kristoffersen.” Kat popped the computer back open and lifted one hand to shade the screen from the early-morning sun. “Forty-three, born in Seattle. Her parents dropped off the grid when she was five. Resurfaced in rural Alabama. From there it gets a lot less pretty.”

“Survivalist stuff?”

“I guess. A lot of DHR reports, but I haven’t read them all. That’s most everything until she got a GED when she was twenty-four and went to college. Nothing to say if she’s a psychic or spell caster or what, but that just means if she
is
one of us, she was smart about hiding it.”

He glanced over as he started the car again. “What’s DHR? Like child services?”

“Yeah. I don’t know how much of use is in there.” She still wasn’t looking at him, though now her body language seemed more nervous than hostile. “Usually I could dig this stuff up on my own, but it’s not as fast as some people think. So I called a friend. He said he could send anything you want, up to her bank records or last dentist’s appointment.”

Having the wrong person digging around like that could spell disaster. One bad move could draw the kind of attention no one wanted. “So she’s involved—or has been—with this cult.”

“I guess. Some of the reports make it sound like there was some crazy backwoods militia stuff going on, but I don’t know what my mom would be doing running with a cult in Alabama. Maybe the growing-up stuff was the normal human variety of crazy and this lady got mixed up with the psychics later.”

She needed to hear what this contact had to say, but she also had to prepare herself for what was to come. “It could be bullshit, you know,” he murmured. “A wild goose chase.”

“I know. It could be bullshit, or she could be crazy. I could be crazy for wasting your time.”

The sadness in her voice made his chest ache, and he regretted his harsh words. “I’m sorry. I just don’t want to see you disappointed.”

If anything, sadness sharpened. “Disappointment’s not the end of the world.”

Plenty of people lived through that and worse every day, but it didn’t ease the pain she’d feel—or the way his own traitorous instincts would react to it. “We’ve got time to stop and eat if you want.”

“If you’re hungry. I’m fine.” She eased the netbook closed and set it on the floor between her feet before rubbing her hands against her jeans. “This is all kind of spectacularly awkward. I’m sorry you got stuck with it.”

Because their relationship for the last year or more had been one of constant awkwardness. Once upon a time, she wouldn’t have hesitated before coming to him for help, and he wouldn’t have felt the bone-deep need to warn her away from potential pain. He would have seen it through and picked up the pieces.

He would have been her friend.

“Don’t mention it.” He pointed the car back toward the interstate on-ramp. “I ate early this morning, and I’d rather have the time to check things out.”

“Sounds good.” Silence fell, and they’d gone five miles before she spoke again. “Is there a reason Julio wouldn’t come with me?”

None he could discern—except that he hadn’t wanted to tangle with Andrew. Not that he was about to try and explain that to Kat. “Busy, I guess. I didn’t ask.”

She blew out a sudden breath. “Damn. You’re still impossible to read.” Sudden color flooded her cheeks. “Not that I was trying, I mean. It’s just…you’ve always been in control, but now you’re stone cold. Are you sure you’re not psychic or something?”

“Nope.” His parents had been remarkable people, but nothing about them had been the slightest bit supernatural. “No psychic powers, just me.”

“Yeah, well, whatever secrets you have, rest assured they’re safe from me.”

“Don’t have any secrets, Kat, least of all from you.”

“A lot has changed since we used to share them.” She hunched down in the seat, her posture defensive even though her next words sounded perfectly casual. “How’s Anna doing?”

Andrew tensed, because there was nothing he could say that wouldn’t piss her off. “Fine. She’s fine.” He changed lanes and chanced a glance at her. “Is that really what you want to know?”

She was staring straight ahead, expression blank. “I’m glad you’re happy.”

He snorted out a helpless laugh. “You know, you’re so
sure
of everything, and you don’t even—” He bit off the words. “Ask me if I’m with Anna.”

“I take it back. I was just—I was trying to say the right thing.”

“Ask me, Kat, so I can tell you what you should have already figured out.”

Her sigh sounded equal parts exasperated and annoyed. “Fine, Andrew. Are you and Anna still seeing each other?”

“No.” He clenched his teeth to keep from elaborating.

“I’m sorry.” It sounded genuine. “That it didn’t work out, and that I brought it up. I just… Hell, it’s stupid.”

“Tell me, please.”

The sound of her heartbeat filled his ears, pounding too hard and too fast for her placid exterior. “It’s the elephant in the room. It doesn’t matter if we never dated. Everyone tiptoes around like you left me at the altar or something. I’m not going to make it all the way to Alabama with you, me
and
a couple elephants squeezed into this car.”

It was the converse of his own experience. The flip side. For every time someone had threatened to kick his ass for breaking Kat’s heart, someone else had comforted her. “Yeah, well. That big-ass elephant you were asking about? We broke up about five minutes after we started dating, and that’s not much of an exaggeration.”

“The elephant was less Anna and more…” She waved a hand in a vague gesture. “I don’t know. The fact that this is the first time we’ve really talked in over a year? If you’re with someone else, or you wanted to be, you don’t need to tiptoe around me. I’m a big girl, even if no one else thinks I am.”

“Don’t worry, I get enough shit for the both of us. I’m the
last
person who’ll go out of his way to spare you, out of sheer self-defense.”

“It’s not—” Her teeth snapped together. “Never mind. This isn’t what we should be talking about anyway. We need to make plans or something.”

They hadn’t talked in a year, and this was why. There never seemed to be a good time or place to
start
. “If it looks like a setup, we can’t stay. And you know why.”

“Because my cousin married the werewolf princess and now I’m good hostage material?”

Because Andrew would get himself killed making sure she escaped any such fate. “You’re not going to argue the point, are you?”

She sighed quietly. “No. As long as you acknowledge that I’m not helpless.”

Andrew fought to hide a smile. “Hell no, you’re not helpless.”

That seemed to mollify her. Her stiff posture eased, though she kept her arms crossed over her chest. “I know I don’t look like I went all soldier of fortune like you do, but I’ve been getting my ass schooled five days a week by Zola and Walker. I’m a ninja with a taser.”

He nodded solemnly. “I’m sure you would be, if you owned a taser instead of a stun gun.”

“Thanks, Alec Junior. And by the way, I told him the next time he corrected me, I was going to
stun gun
his balls.”

“Carmen might object to that.”

Kat laughed, a clear sound he hadn’t heard in far too long. “Carmen likes me. Though maybe not enough to forgive me for assaulting her husband, even if he does have it coming.”

He flashed her a grin. “Something tells me she’d stop you, no matter how fond she is of you.”

“Uh-huh. Won’t stop me from doing the same to
you
.”

The words may have been a threat, but they made him think of her tugging at his belt, passionate fire lighting her eyes. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Good.” Laughter subsided, but the strangling awkwardness didn’t return. After a moment Kat sighed. “I missed this. Laughing. You always made me laugh.”

“You laughed
at
me. That is not the same thing.”

“You did your share of laughing, too.”

“Well, it was only fair.”

“Yeah.” She lapsed into silence.

They drove for a few miles, and Andrew tried again. “Derek seems happy.”

“He is. He’s so happy I don’t have shields strong enough to block it out.” She sounded satisfied—and a little sad. “He and Nicole have crazy epic love. I think epic love is an epidemic. Seems like everyone’s coming down with a case of it.”

And it left her feeling lonely. Her isolation prickled at his heart and conscience. “Always when they least expect it. That’s something, anyway. It could happen to anyone.”

He caught her looking at him out of the corner of his eye, but she turned away too fast. “I’m not sure empaths are cut out for epic love. Not the strong ones. It’s not really all that safe.”

Another elephant, this one ten times bigger than the specter of Anna. “It doesn’t have to be too dangerous either.”

“Yeah, maybe not.” It was too fast and too bland to be remotely convincing, and she must have known it. “How far to Mobile?”

“Another hour or so. Maybe less.”

“I should check my email. See if Ben’s found anything else. He’s a technopath—they’re pretty fucking rare, which means no one really knows how to protect against them.”

She had her hair up, and when she leaned forward it exposed a complicated pattern of dark ink on the back of her neck. He reached out before he thought about it, brushing his thumb over the tattoo. “When did you get this?”

Goose bumps rose under his hand, and she shivered, her breath catching in a soft gasp he might not have heard if he’d still been human. “Six months ago. I went to the Ink Shrink.”

“You did
not
.”

“Did so.” Her T-shirt shifted as she reached for her netbook, proving that the ink continued down toward her shoulder blades. “I got it after I finished my thesis. My life needed punctuation. Or a chapter break.”

“Or a tattoo.” He’d been to see the Shrink himself, several times over the past year. “What’s it mean?”

“Hell if I know.” She sat back fast enough to dislodge his hand. “He twisted a little magic into it for me, and you don’t get to pick those. They pick you, whatever that means.”

“I get it.” He certainly hadn’t wanted a giant flaming bird across his back, no matter what the Shrink said about his totem animal being a phoenix instead of a wolf. “The damn man pretty much puts whatever he wants on you.”

“I suppose shapeshifters don’t have a lot of options. Derek said normal tattoos heal.”

With the attack that had caused him to change, he’d gone from half-dead to prowling around in only a few hours. “That goes doubly so for me, I guess.”

“So you have some? Tattoos, I mean.”

She sounded interested in spite of her studiously casual tone, and he couldn’t help teasing her. “I’ve got a few, Kat. Want to see them?”

Her cheeks turned pink. “No.”

He didn’t blame her for lying. “Let me know if you change your mind.”

The gesture she made was sufficiently rude to end the conversation, and she pointedly opened her computer. “Anything else you want me to look up before we get there?”

“Yeah.” He gave her a mild smile. “What’s the architectural and combat history of the ship? I’m curious.”

“You’re such a freak.” But fondness laced the words, and in a few seconds she’d pulled up a page and started to read. “The USS Alabama’s a South Dakota-class battleship…”

She continued to talk, sometimes reading and sometimes paraphrasing, as they drove. Andrew listened, not so much to her words as to the flow of her voice, familiar and soothing.

In an hour, they’d make it to Mobile. In two, if everything went exactly as planned, the meet would go down, and Kat would get her information. The problem was what he knew—and she did too, down past all her hope.

Things never went exactly as planned.

Chapter Three

Andrew had been spending too much time with Alec.

They arrived for the meeting early enough that Kat had every intention of waiting in the car while Andrew did whatever reconnaissance made him feel more secure. Instead she got dragged out into the crisp January air and glared at until she bundled up in her jacket, hat
and
scarf.

Andrew, it seemed, had no intention of letting her out of his sight.

The wind coming in off the bay didn’t bother him. He looked perfectly comfortable in his stupidly hot leather jacket, and glaring at his back wasn’t nearly as satisfying when she kept getting distracted wondering what sort of tattoos he might be hiding under his clothing.

He’d offered to show her.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.
She was always stupid about Andrew, but she’d never seen him like this before. Focused. Intense. The humor and intelligence that she adored tempered by a dangerous edge. A couple of years ago she wouldn’t have liked that edge.

A couple of years ago she hadn’t had edges of her own.

He stopped outside the visitors’ center and shook his head. “I don’t like it.”

“Don’t like what?” She glanced around at the sparse crowd, but nothing seemed out of place, and she’d locked her empathy up behind her tightest shields the second they’d stepped out of the car. “Is something wrong?”

Instead of answering, he cursed and peered down at her. “Where exactly are we supposed to meet this woman?”

The email hadn’t been specific, and her attempt to clarify had gone unanswered. “I don’t know. I assume she was planning on finding me. Or you. You’re not exactly unknown in supernatural circles.”

“Right. Alec Junior.” Andrew turned in a slow circle. “It’s open, but not open enough. See how this building and the pavilion both block off this area by the waterfront?”

She glanced at the pavilion, then turned and squinted toward the far end of the ship. “We could go wait down there by those planes or something? Or hell, back in the parking lot if you want. She’ll come to us. And if she doesn’t…”

He hesitated. “If I had to pick a spot, it’d be back by the Vietnam War memorial. Not too much elevation, plenty of cover. But it’s almost a quarter-mile, and your contact might never find us.”

Closing her eyes, Kat tried to consider the situation rationally. Possible information against acceptable risk. Not just risk to her, but risk to Andrew. His willingness to throw himself between her and danger had never been in doubt, after all. “You decide. I trust your instincts more than mine.”