Dead Demon Walking (26 page)

“
Can you help
him?”

“
He will be good as
new.”

I watched her as she watched me, a
smile on her lips but not in her eyes. So many questions swam in my
head. Would she tell me? I wouldn’t know unless I asked.

I took a mental deep breath. “Jacob
told you about Shan, so you went to Nagka to find him. I thought
he’d been happily living in Myanmar till you brought him here. I
couldn’t figure out why he suddenly decided to search for
Elizabeth’s ancestors. It couldn’t be as simple as you bringing him
to the States. He could have come looking at any time.”

Silence built between us as she
watched me with an enquiring expression.

“
He didn’t come because he
was trapped, I guess until you rescued him. He said he starved,
starved but didn’t die. How could that be?”

“
We heal. It is a natural
biological function. We do not die easily.”

Gareth was suddenly between us. “Be
careful what you say.”

From her seat, Gia looked up at him.
“Do not presume to tell me what I can and cannot do,” she said
coldly. “Shan told her too much.”

And he’s not the only
one.
I had not forgotten what Royal and
Gareth said about Dark Cousins just before we took off to hunt
Shan.

“
Knowing our Miss Banks, do
you doubt she will eventually reach a conclusion, the correct
conclusion?” Gia continued. “Now leave us.”

I saw Gareth’s rage in every line of
his body, but he walked from Royal’s bedside and through the
infirmary’s swinging doors.

I swung my gaze back to Gia. “So what?
My body does that.”

Her mouth twitched on one side. She
leaned forward. “You know we are not human, yet you persist in
seeing us as such in terms of physicality.”

I started to mirror her posture, but a
warning twinge stopped me.

“
We heal at a rate your
mind cannot encompass.”

A memory resurfaced, the
shade of young Ernesto as we sat on his stoop and he told me he saw
Gia take a bullet in a dark Clarion street. Ernesto thought she
died, but she reappeared with Rio Borrego a week later apparently
no worse for wear. At the time, I thought her wound must be minor
and she passed out from shock, but did she rapidly heal from a
life-threatening injury? And Daven, maybe he
was
in his house when it burned.
Though they look human, Dark Cousins are alien. Why presume their
bodies operate like ours?

“
Shan’s damaged body
healed, but the process sapped him,” Gia went on. “He dragged
himself through the chambers beneath Nagka, devouring the small
life which dwells there, but never enough. He did indeed starve.
Employing each small reserve of strength he built, his body refused
to die. When he lost muscle mass and tissue, it rebuilt. When his
skin cracked from severe dehydration, it repaired. His organs
refused to fail. An endless cycle of renewal and depletion. He
slipped into a comatose state for years at a time.”

Yet they were not invincible. Vance
killed some. He had the right idea, destroy their bodies and they
can’t repair. But if I believed what Gia said about tissue and
organs, apart from obliteration they could heal from just about
anything.

“
He merely existed for over
a century, no doubt in a great deal of pain. We do feel
pain.”

Yeah, I knew that. I recalled how she
backed off when I head-butted her in the face, and again when I
tried to pop her eardrums. I hurt her, all right, though that
didn’t stop her like it should.

Stunned does not describe how I felt,
not only by what she told me, but that she told me at all. A year
ago, she informed me very firmly not to ask about Dark Cousin’s
characteristics, yet here she was, telling me in person.

I watched her blood swim up the
transparent tubing, then down to Royal’s wrist. “You told him what
happened to Elizabeth as you knew it. You also told him about Hans
Stadelmann, the whole story. He knew Elizabeth’s father dug her out
alive and she was pregnant. He knew she carried his child. So he
tried to find her, as if a century had not passed. He went to Vegas
and read Stadelmann’s book, and found Janine Hulme’s book on the
shelf next to it. He tracked down Janine, went to her house and
found her notes, what Maureen told her. He found Maureen and killed
her family. Yet he left her there? When he returned, she was gone,
so he tried to find her.

“
Janine’s notes led him
that far, so he tracked down Hulmes and looked for written
information in everyplace he went. Why not take Maureen after he
killed her parents, and why kill everyone he came across instead of
plain asking them?”

She shifted on her chair. “He can be
logical one moment and an unreasoning animal the next. He left
Maureen because at that moment, his obsession was that he should
prepare a suitable place for her. When he returned and did not find
her, when he searched for her, he knew only that she was not in
those places he went to and nothing there told him where she had
gone. The occupants were inconveniences who could identify him, so
he destroyed them.”

“
He didn’t stop to think
those people he killed could also be his descendants?”

“
Perhaps he would have
realized that, perhaps not - he is insane, Miss Banks. We made a
grave error in judgment when we ignored Teo-Papek’s
warning.”

“
An error in judgment?” I
closed my eyes. “Lady, you have a way with understatement.” My eyes
popped open. “Jacob knew his father is deranged?”

“
Not to that extent. Do you
not wonder why did he not release Shan from his tomb? When we
insisted we go to Nagka, he tried to dissuade us. He knew Shan was
there, buried alive. He told us only because he knew we would sense
Shan’s presence anyway. He said we should leave Shan; he is so old,
his mind was already deteriorating, he had taken to stealing the
local people, seducing then killing them.”

Yet he loved Elizabeth. I truly
believed that.

“
But we could not rely on
Teo-Papek’s word alone. Shan is an Ancient; we could not leave him
buried beneath Nagka. There is so much he could tell us. And, at
first, after we healed him, he welcomed us.”

Yeah, I bet. Just one big happy
family.

“
He was rational, until he
disappeared. We could not find him. We learned of his rampage.” She
fixed me with her dark gaze. “You will not believe me, but we
regret the loss of life.”

“
Plus, you didn’t want
anyone else to catch him. I know the odds are long, but it could
have happened. We generally put our mentally deranged criminals
through a battery of physical and psychological tests and I bet the
results for Shan would be odd. We humans might wonder exactly what
we had on our hands.”

“
Yes. We could not let that
happen, could we, Miss Banks.”

“
He was still in Nebraska
when Royal and I went there. He recognized Royal as Gelpha. He
followed us to Vegas, then here.”

She cocked her head on one side.
“Royal? You think he followed you because Royal is
Gelpha?”

“
And because we were
looking into the murders.”

“
Ah, I see.”

Why did I get the feeling she knew
something I didn’t? Again. But that wasn’t surprising. She knew one
hell of a lot I did not.

“
What will happen to
Shan?”

For a moment I saw genuine grief on
her face, there and gone in a second. “He will not harm another
person.”

“
You’ll - ”

“
Just take my word the
carnage is over.” Gia pulled the IV line from the catheter. She
waved the end at me. “What about you, Miss Banks?”

She offered to give
me
her blood?
God no!
The suggestion
made me sick to my stomach. My lip curled. “I don’t want your blood
in my veins.”

She raised her eyes to the ceiling as
her laughter pealed. She dropped her chin, the laugh cut off
abruptly, her gaze pinned me. “You know so little.”

What did
that
mean?

“
What is that - ?” I began,
but she disappeared in a swirl of air.

Blink.
Gareth stood before me. “Now, let us see to you.”

“
Royal?”

He offered his hand. “He will
recover.”

I ignored his hand.”How long?” I
struggled out the chair, stopped to draw breath, then determinedly
walked to the head of the bed.

“
In his body’s own good
time,” Gareth said.

The IV now dripped a clear fluid. I
laid my palm on Royal’s cheek; it felt warm, but lacked the
intensity of his demon heat. I stroked his silken copper-gold hair
and my hand began to tremble. I never imagined seeing him like
this. So strong, and fast, and intelligent; nothing could hurt
Royal. I swallowed the lump stuck in my throat.

“
Enough!” Gareth led me
from the bed to the chair and sat me down.

Blink
.

Chapter
Seventeen

I passed out the first time I saw a
shade. I knew I’d done it again the moment I woke flat on my back.
I knew where I was. You can’t mistake the feel of hospital issue
plastic beneath your sheet.

Of the many things which embarrass me,
fainting is right up there. There’s the lack of physical control.
Suddenly, you’re a wimp. The sense of helplessness, not knowing
what you or anyone else did while you were unconscious. A hundred
and one things you’ll never know about could have happened; a part
of your life is gone and you will never get it back. Worse, you are
wholly reliant on others.

I didn’t dwell on any of that. As my
gummy eyelids pried themselves apart, I said, “Royal?”

“
Yeah, where is the
sonofabitch?” Mike Warren asked cheerfully. “I’ve had both his
numbers on speed dial for the past four hours.”

“
Shame about your car,
Banks,” said Detective Brad Spacer.

The lights were set on low, which
didn’t help my cloudy vision. Seconds passed until everything came
into focus.

Mike smiled sheepishly as he stood at
the foot of my bed with a wilting bunch of pink and white
chrysanthemums in one hand. I felt sorry for those flowers. He
looked good, his brown suit jacket perfectly hugging his wide
shoulders and thick chest. He’d lost a little weight.

Brad Spacer wore off-duty black Levi’s
and waffle-weave long-sleeved T-shirt in different shades of brown.
He lounged against the wall, running a comb through his short salt
and pepper hair. Gareth sat on a chair near the door, casual in
faded blue-jeans and a pale-blue sweater.

I was torn between smiling because
Mike and Brad came to see me, and asking Mike if he thought I
actually like dying flowers.

Concentrate, Tiff.
I ran my tongue over my lips and tried to work up
saliva in my mouth. My voice came out hoarse. “Royal’s hunting
grouse up in the Uintas. What about my car?”

Mike hunched one big shoulder. “Totaled, I’m
afraid.”

My car is totaled? My
Subaru? What the heck?

Gareth made a face at me,
obviously trying to send me a message with his eyebrows. I
repeat,
what the heck
?

“
I don’t understand, Mike.
What’s wrong with my car?” I think my eyes got a little
wild.

“
You don’t remember? Not
uncommon after an auto accident. Did they check you for
concussion?”

“
I don’t know!”

I’ve been in an emergency care
cubicle, but this was my first time in a hospital room. I wore a
white gown with a tiny blue flower print and by the feel, nothing
beneath. The sheet between me and the plastic mattress protector
was thin as the one covering me to my shoulders, but I felt toasty
warm. I tried to get my arms clear, and yelped. “Ouch!”

I stared in dismay at an IV in the
back of my right hand.

Mike followed my gaze. “Just fluids,
Tiff. “

“
How long have I been
here?”

“
They brought you in last
night at eleven.” Mike checked his wristwatch. “It’s eight, Tuesday
morning. You’ll be home tonight.”

I licked my lips again. “I don’t
remember anything. Fill me in.”

“
Two students heading back
to campus saw your car concertinaed between two trees on Valley
Drive above the canal. From the tire marks, you swerved off the
road.”

“
Valley?” I tried to get my
thoughts in some semblance of order. “A moose, maybe? Or some
drunken asshole ran me off?”

“
I have a team up there,
but I doubt we’ll find anything. Valley gets a lot of
traffic.”

I perused the small room. A
blank-screened television sat on a shelf high on the facing wall
above a waist-high wood bureau. A tall wardrobe fastened to the
wall, two plastic chairs, a metal trolley, a bedside tray and a
wastebasket left little free space for visitors. There were two
doors, one an exit and the other presumably to a
bathroom.