City of Dragons: Of Flesh and Blood (36 page)

Farley said, “Before I met Haley I was flesh addicted. So yeah. I eat people, Claire.”

“But you changed.” She said it like he’d gotten a nicotine patch or some shit. It was impossible for Humans to understand these things. The worst drug addiction had nothing on flesh cravings.

Farley waved her off. “I need to go. Garrett will be expecting me.”

“But you changed, Farley. Admit it. You changed because you wanted to.” He walked out the door but she was on him like white on rice. “There are groups…they help couples…” He headed up the stairs and Claire kept talking. “Human-Kin couples. They can help
us
…” The metal door boomed when he punched it open, and a second bang followed when it slammed against the wall. Farley stomped up the hall. Claire had to run to keep up. “They have methods…and therapy…”

Methods? Therapy?

Farley whirled on Claire so fast she jerked back and hit the floor. He could have caught her but he didn’t even try. He wanted her to fall. He wanted her to hurt. Farley threw his hands in her face and screamed, “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“I just want to help you.”

“God of Man, Claire. Don’t you get it? Yes, I changed. Once I changed because…yeah, you’re right, I wanted to. But everything else? No, I don’t want to change. I enjoy it. All of it. I like the fucking. I enjoy
feeding
and being
fed
on. I like being in the Dens. I don’t
want
to be Human. Don’t you understand? Huh? Do you? I don’t want to be saved!”

He looked up to see the entire upstairs office gathered at the end of the hall. Farley rolled his eyes over all of them, attracted by the fear they radiated. They smelled like prey. Everything was too bright and he was breathing too fast. Scales feathered along his neck and arms and he tasted blood in his mouth from where his teeth had punched down. He blinked, trying to clear his vision.

Claire pulled herself off the nap carpet, favoring one foot. Good. Maybe now she’d quit following him. A red head and a brunette eased down the hallway toward Claire. Farley backed up so they had more than enough room to feel safe. They kept throwing him frightened glances while at the same time fawning over Claire and asking her if she was all right.

Propelled by a-whole-lota-pissed-off Farley almost shot right past Garrett’s office and had to do a hard break and grab the door jam.

“Were you yelling at my office help?” Garrett didn’t look up from the file he was going through.

“Just one. Claire.” Farley waited for the man to motion him in, and when Garrett did, he went pacing around the room like a caged animal.

“Problem?”

“Nothing I can’t deal with.” Which was a lie. He was twitchy, itchy, he needed…Haley. Farley stopped and took a breath.

As if reading his mind Garrett asked, “Have you spoken to her since she went out?”

“No.”

The man raised his head. “Seriously?”

Farley nodded. “My phone got trashed. And I’ve been a little…busy.”

“So, you don’t know?”

“Know what?” Garrett tapped the file sitting in front of him. Farley came up to the desk and his boss pushed it over.

“Haley videotaped Orin, that UGA professor, getting assaulted by the Athens PD. It’s all over the news.”

“Honorary professor.” ‘Cause Farley wasn’t about to give that arrogant asshole any more of a title than he deserved. He flipped through the first few pages of the report. There were a couple of still shots, all fuzzy with too much contrast. Indicative of the low pixilation associated with cell phone video, but he could clearly see the blood. It was almost black in the flashlight beams. “Looks bad.”

“How well do you know Orin?”

“How well do I know him? Or how well does Haley know him?” One of Garrett’s eyebrows went up. Farley shrugged. “Haley, Deshi and Orin all get invited to the same parties, dinners, and social shindigs. I don’t get invited to those kinds of things. I’m not Human enough.” And for the ten thousandth time Farley told himself it didn’t bother him. “He’s a friend.” At least that’s what Haley would call him, even though Farley suspected there was more. Way more. “They talk back and forth on the phone a lot. I know she’s invited him here to visit but he never comes. Personally? I don’t like Orin. He’s an asshole. Thinks he’s too good for his own people.” Yeah, the fact he’d blatantly snubbed Haley multiple times didn’t help his warm fuzzy feelings towards the Male. “To tell you the truth I wouldn’t be surprised if he had his Nevus cut out just to make himself more Human looking, because that’s all he cares about.” He shrugged. “That’s it, that’s all I know.”

Garret tipped his chin. “And I believe you.”

“Is she in trouble?” She better not be, because if she was he’d have Deshi’s ass on a silver platter.

“No. Orin’s lawyer contacted Center. Deshi and Haley apparently saved Orin’s life. He was in pretty bad shape from what I’ve heard. What I can’t figure out is how those cops hurt Orin and none of the local boys wound up with a scratch.”

Farley laughed. “Cause Orin has a Jesus complex.” Garrett’s other eyebrow went up. “Sorry, no offense.” Yeah, way to go, now we’re on to insulting the boss’s religious preferences. Okay, how should he put this? “Orin is a freak.” There, that was easy.

Garrett gave him a look. Okay, maybe not.

“I don’t know how else to put it, sir. As far as I know the bastard doesn’t even
feed
normally. Hell, who knows. Most of it’s rumors… But he’s weird.” Farley ran a hand over his head and squirmed under Garrett’s stare, feeling like he ought to confess to some crime he’d fantasized about committing just in case he needed to get it off his chest. “Look, Orin’s what you get when a Kin wants to be Human, okay? From what little contact I’ve had with the SOB he hates himself.” He folded his arms and Garrett’s eyes finally went down. For some reason Farley felt like he’d just dodged a bullet.

“Do you need to call her?” As in, maybe it will make you quit wearing a trench in my floor.

Farley planted his feet into the ground one more time. “Naw, I’m good. I know she’s okay. I can feel her here.” He put a hand on his shoulder. Farley looked at the folder again, flipped the page and stared at a fuzzy copy of her office ID. While he may not need a cell phone to know she was all right, he had to admit it sure would be nice to hear her voice.

“You sure you’re okay with this?”

He blinked and peeled his eyes off the picture. “With what?” Oh yeah, he’d almost forgotten the reason why he’d gotten up this afternoon. “Yeah, I’m good.” One more quick look, then he shoved the file back at Garrett. “What’s the game plan?”

Garrett stood up went across the office and shut the door. When he came back to the desk he sat on the edge. “Paul Husley is on his way to meet us downstairs. He’s going to take a look at you. Apparently Heikman is pretty specific about what he likes and Paul wants to make sure you’re not too tall or too…whatever. He’ll take you to the drop off point and give you the details about the exchange. Paul says Heikman is getting impatient. Our inside contact figures we have about forty-eight to seventy-two hours tops to get those girls out of there.”

“Why such a short window?”

“Heikman moves them to an undisclosed location after a few days at the GLG.” The look in the man’s eye suggested once that happened, there wouldn’t be anything left to save.

“I’m not going to lie to you, Farley. This is extremely dangerous. It isn’t the Dens.”

He snorted. “And you think the Dens can’t be dangerous?”

“Okay, fair enough. But these are Humans. They aren’t going to adhere to your social rules. And that’s one thing about Kin that’s reliable--you follow an order. Humans don’t.”

“Point taken.”

But Farley dealt with the Human world too on a regular basis. Their taboos got in the way, but once he got through the mine field, they were as easy to own as any Male. In some ways easier because they were desperate to taste what they were so afraid to admit they wanted.

Garrett said, “These are some sick people, dangerous people. I wouldn’t let you do this if I didn’t think you could pull it off.”

Farley grinned. “Gee, that sounded almost like a compliment.”

Garret’s lips tugged and he almost smiled. Almost. “Just don’t let it go to your head.”

Farley tapped a finger against his temple and gave a nod. “So? How do you plan on transporting these kids out of there?”

“That’s not your job. The only thing I want you to do is get into the interior and plant a send-receive device. We’ll be able to pick up any and all electronic and digital chatter. No heroics, no stupid stuff. Let SWAT handle getting the kids out. You do this, and they’ll be able to get in with a warrant.” Garrett put his hand in his jacket pocket and held out what looked like an earring. Farley took it and held it up to the light. He was familiar with S-and-R’s that looked like rings, watches, even ball point pins. As an informant Farley used them here and there in the Dens, but holy crap, this little piece of technological genius looked like something out of James Bond.

“That’s the latest and greatest send-receive technology.”

“An earring?”

“Exactly. It works like the others. Just clip it to a phone line.”

Because then the electrical current would act as the power source and the fiber optic cabling would carry the low level signal put out by the S-and-R. Then the entire network would wind up acting like one giant listening device. The electrical pulses caused by voice over line would be picked up by the receiver and sent out on Quad band at anywhere from 850 MHz all the way to 1800 MHz.

Each device was allocated space on the mainframe in IT and the transmissions were recorded onto a solid state drive as they came through. Ken would then run it through the Center’s voice extraction software and it would come out as audible conversations.

Farley punched it through his earlobe right next to the diamond stud and screwed on the back.

“You get that as deep into GLG as you can. It has roughly a hundred yard pick up radius. Closer to the center of the building the better. This is an in-and-out, Farley. Nothing more.”

“Okay, then. The out part?”

“Laundry service. The Bureau has had Agents working on that angle on and off for years so we have it pretty well sewed up. I’ll keep our people on it for the next forty-eight hours on their standard rotation. You get to one of our trucks and they will get you out.” Garrett’s eyes went hard. “Farley, because of the people involved with Roger Heikman, this is all off the radar. We’re counting on the send-receive device to get us a reason to obtain a warrant. If that doesn’t happen, I can’t come in and get you. ”

“I’ll do whatever I have to do to survive.” Even if it means killing people and eating them.

Garrett gave a nod. “I’d expect nothing less.”

Yeah, and hearing his boss say that could only mean this was really bad. As in wind up choking on your own liver bad.

Shit.

Orin felt warm. Incredibly warm. He cracked his eyelids and saw a wave of shiny brown hair. A scent he knew too well filled his nose.

Haley.

He jerked up and tried to scurry backwards, but hit a wall of flesh. He looked over his shoulder. Deshi was behind him.

Dressed, they were all dressed. Well, sort of. Haley had on one of those long white T-shirts and Deshi was wearing boxers. They were identical to Orin’s because he’d borrowed a pair from the Prince.

He glanced around the room. His room, not theirs. Here the carpet was blue and the wall-to-ceiling windows let every speck of December morning sun in. And it was bright. Too bright.

Haley stretched, the swell of her breasts rising, and the hem of that shirt going almost too high. She opened her eyes.

“What are you two doing in here?” Orin hated the panic in his voice.

Haley propped up her head and looked at him. “Nothing happened.”

Well, duh. None of them were bleeding and everyone had their arms intact.

“You were having nightmares.” She slipped out of the bed. “Deshi and I needed a shower and when we came in here you were thrashing around, so we stayed.” She disappeared into the bathroom and Orin looked back at Deshi. The Male was on his back with his arm over his face.

“What time is it?” he asked.

Orin glanced at the clock on the bedside table. “About ten till ten.”

With a groan the Prince pulled himself up and put his feet over the edge. Joints popped as he rolled each shoulder, then pulled his neck to one side. It fired off a crack. “You okay?” Deshi asked.

Was he? “Yeah, why?”

“Cause your eyeballs are burning holes in the back of my head.”

Orin looked away, scurried off the edge and went toward the bathroom. He remembered Haley was in there, thought about the one in the other room, then remembered the glass in the floor. Finally he gave up and stood in the middle of all the sunshine and blue carpet.

If Deshi noticed he didn’t say anything. Yeah, and that just served to piss off Orin even more. “Next time, ask before you make yourselves at home in my bed.”

Deshi glanced back at him, his blue eyes way too bright. “We did.”

Orin crossed his arms. He sure as hell didn’t remember.

“You were out of it, Orin. Tired. Like both of us. We barely got the soap out of our hair before crashing. Haley practically had to carry me to the bed.”

Orin tried to remember, but after the
feeding
he’d been totally smashed.

“Are you hungry?” The Prince must have seen something in Orin’s face because the Prince followed up with, “As in, do you want
breakfast
? I can call room service.”

Orin scrubbed a hand over his head. “Yeah, that’d be good. Thanks.”

Deshi eased off the bed and staggered a little as he made his way across the room toward the kitchen. Haley came out of the bathroom with her hair pulled back in a tight braid.

She looked at Orin. “You okay?”

Was he? No, not really. “I’m good.”

“Did Deshi find you any clothes?”

“Not yet.”

Haley looked at him again. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah.” Damn, he sounded like he’d swallowed a frog. Haley narrowed her eyes and Orin could see her nostrils flare as she drew his scent across her palate. “I’m okay.” He all but ran into the bathroom and shut himself inside.