Department 57: Bloody Crystal (24 page)

He knew. Wilkinson would come alive with the last drop and turn on him. Nothing would have separated them until he’d taken Rhodri’s life and become vampire. “Shit. How is he?”

“Dead. Probably best.”

Rhodri couldn’t feel sorry about that. He didn’t even try. “Esti?”

“Coming around.” As if to confirm Kai’s diagnosis, Esti groaned and stirred. Rhodri realized she was lying across his lap, her head on his stomach. At one time he’d have killed for that sensation. He very nearly had. But now all he felt was concern for a colleague. Nothing else. A weight lifted from him when his instinctive reaction reached his brain.

Esti smiled up at him. He’d rarely seen her smile. It still shook him. “You did it.”

Rhodri glanced up at Kai. “We did it.”

Kai flashed a grin, one so wicked Rhodri understood why women and men fell all over each other to get to him. Kai swept up the remote from the floor and pressed a button. The resulting low hum told them the doors were lifting, and with them, the block on psi. It all came flooding back, and it appeared the good guys were winning. He sensed reassurances and barked commands. And concern for them. After assuring them everything was okay here and reporting Wilkinson’s death to Bryn, they caught their breath.

Rhodri felt good. Better than he should have felt, but he’d just fed well. Real well. “Let’s leave him here and carry on. Esti, can you stay with him?” He handed her one of his firearms, the HK45.

She hefted it and smiled. “Sure. If he miraculously comes to life, I’ll have him full of holes before he’s taken his first breath.”

“And you’d love to, wouldn’t you?”

She gave a crack of laughter. “How well you know me.”

They exchanged a look so frank they didn’t need telepathy or anything else to enhance it. She had known how he’d felt about her. That was something he’d never realized before.

He helped her to her feet, and she stared down at the body. “I’m glad he’s dead. It’s cleaner. We could have discovered some useful things from him, but he’d have tainted the mind of everyone who examined him.”

It was the most emotional Rhodri could remember ever seeing her. Thinking back, it was probably her control that had attracted him. When he’d turned vampire, the intensity of emotions and experience had all but overwhelmed him, and he’d had a titanic struggle before he learned to control them. Esti seemed to do it with little effort, but he knew better. She’d worked long and hard for that control, as all Sorcerers did.

He could have sworn she smiled before she turned away.

“One more hallway,” he said to Kai, who nodded grimly. He sent information to the backup team, an emergency call to deal with the victim here.

Before they left the room, he sent a flood of thanks and reassurance to Cerys. She’d saved his life. Now he’d live it for her.

The next three rooms were vacant. Only signs of occupancy—blood-streaked rags and empty restraints. But the last room put Rhodri’s senses on alert. Everything told him of the presence of Talents in this room. Without isolating sigils to ID them, he’d guess at least two.

It would be ridiculous to drop their guard at this stage, so Kai and he entered as they had all the other rooms, low and high, weapons at the ready.

More Talents. Two, as it turned out, a man and a woman. They lay on gurneys. Easier to move them in, he supposed. And he knew as soon as he read their sigils that these were put here especially for him. They stared at him, a lovely blonde woman and a once-powerful male. They both wore their hair long, but then, they’d been here a long time, and they probably hadn’t seen the inside of a spa for a year.

They were strapped to separate gurneys, but they were holding hands.

“We thought you were dead,” Rhodri said.

“Great,” said the man. “We’re being rescued by the king of tact.”

Chapter Eighteen

They’d kept Rhodri forever for debriefing, and they wouldn’t let her near him. The high-rise in Chicago where they’d based their operations didn’t have the resources of the full office in New York, but it had a coms room and an iso room. They’d taken the team in there one by one, putting them in a separate waiting room first, with no TV or other media. “Is this usual?” Cerys asked the head techie, a colorful woman called Candy.

Candy nodded. “Pure debriefings. No interference and done as soon as possible after the assignment. That’s the way Cristos prefers it. And he does as many as he can himself.” She put a long-nailed hand over hers. Cerys glanced down and became fascinated by the tiny designs, a different one on each nail. Some kind of sigil or something similar. “Old runes,” Candy told her with a short laugh. “They mean things like ‘love’ and ‘happiness.’ I mean, who wants a depressing manicure?” She typed like a machine too, faster than most people Cerys had ever seen.

“Are they real?”

“The nails? Partly. Good weapons too.”

Cerys sighed. “I’m sorry. Now it’s all over, I feel kind of—I dunno…”

“Down. It happens, honey. It’ll pass. Then you’re on to the next one, and the next, and it all adds up.” Candy nodded to someone trying to attract her attention and strode off, her heels tapping on the tiled floor.

Cerys glanced at her screen. Previously filled with information, maps, and even, at one point, a weather chart—so she could relay the info to the emergency helicopters arriving to carry the wounded to hospital—now it held a solitaire game. Like everyone else, she was waiting to be stood down, and she couldn’t go until Cristos said so. Not that she would. She wanted to wait for Rhodri. Besides, she had nowhere else to go. It wasn’t like she had scads of money and could just check in to the nearest five star. Unfortunately the windows were dark and shaded. She hoped she’d have time to see something of the city before she left. But that would be up to Rhodri. Once she’d heard he was fine and in the building, all her tension deflated like a slow leak in a balloon, something she hadn’t expected at all. She’d expected it to disappear all at once. After all, she was free now and clear of the menace trying to capture her. Dave’s murder was avenged.

What she wanted was a bath, a bed, and to think again tomorrow. She was still living by night, so this was her winding-down time, in the hours leading up to dawn. Even the jet lag didn’t change that. She drummed her fingers on the tabletop and then reached for the mouse and moved a card on the screen.

And she wanted Rhodri. God, how she wanted him.

The door opened, and there he was, like she’d conjured him from her thoughts. But when he opened his arms for her, she knew he was the real thing.

She flew across the room, and his arms, warm and solid, closed around her. She lifted her face for his kiss, and heedless of the watchers, he obliged, making it long and luscious. Tasting him had the same magic every time, and by now she knew it would always be that way.

He finished the kiss and gazed at her, love and concern utmost in his velvety dark eyes. But no smile. “You’re tired,” she said. “We need to find somewhere to sleep.”

“I’ll be fine, cariad. The bed’s taken care of. I need to show you something else first. Are you tired? It can wait until later if you want.”

“No. Show me.” Whatever it was, it was engaging his mind, and she wanted nothing but her to do that once they got to the promised bed.

“It’s not here.” He released her but kept hold of her hand, warmly enclosing it with a reassurance that heated her blood. He addressed the room. “Thanks for the support, people. As always, exactly what we needed when we needed it.”

The people in the room murmured their acknowledgments. Candy grinned. “Looks like you have other business at hand now. I’ve never seen you less than diamond hard. Congratulations, Rhodri and Cerys.”

The following gentle round of applause made Cerys hide her flaming face against Rhodri’s shoulder. He tugged on her hand and led her from the room. “We have a car downstairs.”

“Is this a good thing you want to show me?”

He gazed at her gravely. “Definitely.”

“Then why so serious?”

He smiled, but she sensed strain in it. “I’m just tired, I guess. And there might be—implications. Don’t ask me any more, please. Not about that.”

“Did you kill him? Wilkinson?”

“Yes.” He bit his lip. “Does that make you hate me? Are you one of those people who don’t agree with killing in any circumstances?”

Considering her upbringing, that wasn’t a bad assumption to make. Just wrong. “No. He might have suffered more if he’d lived, but this way at least everyone has a clean end.”

He drew her closer and kissed her. That simple gesture made her feel more cherished than ever before in her life. He glanced out of the car window. “Here we are.”

“A hospital?” They’d drawn up outside a tall building on Lake Shore Drive. A private hospital.

“There’s a wing here for Talents. Most of it is for minor operations and recovery, but it’s a good cover. They usually don’t need long to recover, however serious the injury.”

“It’s not exactly visiting time.”

He opened the door of the taxi and helped her out. “We have special dispensation.”

It was barely six a.m. Dawn had broken, and she was back to being a small Welshwoman with no particular distinction. Except that she was with a tall, handsome man who drew the attention of every woman he passed. Even now, at this time, there were people about, and yes, Rhodri got a few double takes and backward glances. Classic features, short, dark hair, expressive dark eyes, and a tall, rangy figure packed with muscle tended to do that. And he belonged to her. He’d said so.

Rhodri didn’t notice the attention. She wondered if he ever had, but she should have known better because he turned at the door and smiled at her. “Once I might. You’re the only woman I notice now.”

“Sweet talker.” But she felt the heat rise under her skin. He turned and led her into the hospital.

He nodded to the receptionist, who nodded back. “You’re expected, sir. You’ll want the Rohan wing. Do you want me to find someone to show you the way?”

“Thank you, no.”

He glanced at the hospital map and led the way. “What is this?” she demanded, but he wouldn’t tell her. A long hallway later, they’d arrived at the wing. It didn’t look like anything special, except the decor was considerably better than any hospital Cerys had been in before, but she felt the tingle in the air that she had learned told of the presence of her kind. Talents.

He arrived at a door, checked the number, and tapped.

“Come in.”

She knew that voice. Her heart beat double time and seemed to rise to choke her throat.

Rhodri opened the door and led her in.

Numbly she stared, her disbelief dissipating swiftly. “Dad? Mum?”

When her father opened his arms to her, she let out a sob and flew across the room. “Dad!”

He gripped her with surprising strength, considering he was lying in a bed dressed in a hospital gown. He looked just as he did the last time she’d seen him, except his arms were swathed in bandages.

“Always a daddy’s girl,” her mother said, but her voice held humor and love. Deep love.

She couldn’t believe it. “Alive?” She reached a hand to her mother, whose bed had been pushed next to her father’s so there was no room between them.

“Aye, it’ll take more than that to get us.”

“He had you for five years?”

She drew back and sat on the edge of the bed, turning to see Rhodri in the act of leaving the room. “No, you don’t. Come here.”

He grinned and shrugged.

“What’s a nice Welsh boy like you doing in Chicago?” Her mother turned a pouting smile on Rhodri, and if Cerys hadn’t known how deeply her parents loved each other, she might have felt a twinge of jealousy. Both blond, both beautiful, she’d always thought her parents’ looks cast her into the shade, but Rhodri didn’t seem to think so. Being vampires, they appeared almost as young as she was. They’d disguised their appearance in Llandudno, letting the neighbors think they were well preserved, aging gracefully, but they didn’t have to bother with that shit now.

“I’m here to ask your permission to court your daughter,” he said.

Her father raised a brow. “Very thoughtful. You don’t get manners like that these days.”

“Not outside the Talented community,” Rhodri allowed.

“Not inside it either,” he said. “But well said. You know I have no say, but it’s nice that she’s taken up with a good Welsh vampire instead of a foreign one.”

“My uncle lived in Llandudno. That’s where we met. I’m made, not born,” Rhodri ventured.

Her mother sat more upright and put her bandaged hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “As long as you’re good to her. You make her happy, you hear?”

“I will.” It was a vow.

Rhodri crossed the room and sat beside Cerys, reaching for her hand. “I didn’t tell her we were coming to see you. She had no idea. I’m not sure it was the right thing.”

“I wanted to see her face,” her father said. “I wasn’t disappointed. Cerys, I’m so sorry we didn’t look after you better.”

“You did.” Although she knew people would think otherwise, they just didn’t understand her peace-loving, hippie parents. She loved them anyway.

“We put money aside for you, you know. We might want the wandering lifestyle, but we didn’t want you to think you had no choice. And the house was yours too. But when we were captured, that man took it all. I don’t think there’s any left,
bach
.”

Tears sprang to her eyes. It had been a long time since anyone had called her “bach.” Determinedly she blinked the tears away. They had no place here, unless they were tears of joy. “I don’t care.”

“I have enough.” Rhodri sounded firm. “I’ll take care of her. And you, if you want. I have plenty.”

Her father shook his head and ran a hand through his tangled, tousled hair. It looked as if it had been chopped off with a pair of shears. It probably had, just hacked off to keep it out of the way. “No. Sunshine and I have our own ways. But it wasn’t fair to expect Cerys to have the same views. We brought her up to respect the opinion of others, so it would be rather hypocritical of us not to give our child the same courtesy, wouldn’t it?”