Wild Card (15 page)

No!

“Unless you really wanted me to,” I compromised.

“I know. I trust you. The trouble is, Kaothos is trying to argue me around to wanting it.” She sighed. “Look, it’s best just to stay away from each other for the moment.”

That hurt, on all sorts of levels. I tried to damp it down, get off the emotional stuff and deal with the practical. “What about the PI company?”

“Amber, I would never let you down like that. Of course I’m still working. I’m handling all the normal cases fine at the moment. I’ve got myself a gun like you said and I’m practicing at the range. It’s all going well. Oh, and I’ve emailed you one case you have to do. It’s a Mrs. de Vries. She’s a friend of Mrs. Harriman. In fact, Mrs. Harriman is the client and she’s asking for you.”

“Huh?”

“It’s all in the email.”

Mrs. Harriman was half of the McIntire-Harriman duo that ran the annual Foundation Charity Ball. I’d met her at the Ball and immediately liked her. Of course I’d look at the case. Eagerly. If she became a happy client, that would be the best advertising I could have.

“Well, okay.” I stuck the key in the ignition. “Anything else?”

“Yeah. We’re actually doing better than you think. The company. I’ve emailed you a summary. I’m out a lot. I’ve…err…hired someone to handle the phones. Casual work, part time of course. We’re not obligated.”

My ears pricked up. “Do I know this person?”

“Umm. Jofranka.”

“As in Rom’s niece? Tullah, he’s going to frigging kill me.”

“No he isn’t. He’s really pleased, I swear. I had to make him promise not to thank you before I told you.”

“But it’s dangerous.”

“She’s not working at the office. All the phones are on forward to our cells. She’s sensible and she’s smart. It makes sense; she’s bringing in the work and I’m doing it or subcontracting. She does the billing and chasing. It works. It’s cool and—”

“Just stop.” I closed my eyes and silently counted backwards. It didn’t help much. “I’m done pussyfooting around all these issues. The pair of you want this? Right. You both meet me, tomorrow morning.
If
you get me to agree, then I will set rules and you will follow them.” Tullah tried to interrupt and I overrode her. “That or nothing. I’ve got too much going on to be distracted worrying about what you and Jofranka might be getting into.”

I had no idea what I’d do without Tullah in the company, but I couldn’t let this go.

“But Kaothos—”

“If you can’t deal with her and me in the same room, I can’t trust you to be handling the kind of shit you’ll be coming up against out there.” I softened my voice. “I’m sorry, Tullah, but that’s just how it’s got to be.”

She realized I wasn’t moving on this. We agreed to meet at Manassah and ended the call.

The whole thing left me unsatisfied. Not just having to rein Tullah in and get some semblance of control over things with my PI firm, but the little questions it started echoing in my head.

Had Kaothos done something to me while we were talking in those strange dreamy conversations? What could a dragon spirit guide do? Was a nudge in the right direction all that was needed? And was that me, pushing Tullah to come see me, or my Athanate?

I needed to talk to someone who didn’t have a side in this.
Not
Tullah or Mary.

Who?

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

I made good time getting across town and I parked right in front of the Kwan.

I’d made one stop, at Zenia’s, for a takeout of Greek finger food. Mary loved the baklavas, so it was a kind of peace offering to her. I had allowed Tullah to accompany us out to Longmont, and I wasn’t going to apologize to Mary for it. As I’d said to Tullah, I’d probably be dead if she hadn’t been there. Mary might not see it like that.

Anyhow, picking up take-out looked like the only way I was going to get lunch today.

I felt awkward about even that small delay when I saw the handwritten sign outside the Kwan.

Classes canceled today.

I frowned. How bad was this? The Kwan was always open. Classes did not get canceled.

The door was not locked, but as I slipped inside I felt a prickle over my whole body. Was that a magical ward? The sensation was similar to the one I got from my bracelet when someone was trying to kill me, but there was no threat with this one. And that sharp smell…something important tugged at my memory, but I lost it as Mary came out and greeted me.

“I brought mezes,” I said, holding up the bags. “Shredded lamb in pastry, minced lamb wrapped in vine leaves, fresh salad and a sadziki dip. Baklavas for dessert.”

She didn’t look angry, but there was an unsettling tension radiating from her.

“Thank you,” Mary said. She was normally so calm and confident. Not today. “We have a friend here, but it looks as if it’ll stretch, if you’re okay with that.”

“Sure.”

“Come on back.”

We walked through the empty Kwan to the offices at the back. Liu was making tea in the little rest area and waved; little appearances of normalcy masking an underlying strain.

“Please bring some paper plates and napkins, Shi Fu,” I said to him, indicating the bags again.

He nodded distractedly and went back to his tea ritual. Rinse the tea leaves and pot with the hot water, half fill the pot, wait, then add the rest of the water. No stirring. And never allow the water to actually boil. No variations allowed.

We reached the little office.

“This is Ken Weaver, a…colleague.” Mary introduced the man waiting for us inside.

An Adept. They didn’t have a marque like Athanate or Were, but there was definitely a presence about him that was similar to Mary and Liu. An Adept, and a high ranking one too.

I put out my hand, but that was as far as I got.

“What is this?” His eyes went wide with shock.

“Ken, no—”

“Spirit guide me! You think I’d talk to Basilikos?” he shouted, backing away from me. That wasn’t to run away—it was to free his arms to swirl about him. Behind him and around him a smoky apparition of a buffalo formed and my bracelet started to pulse urgently, making my whole arm prickle.

My own wolf spirit guide, Hana, started to snarl, but I had no idea what to do to defend myself from an Adept’s attack. I staggered, bewildered at the sudden threat and assaulted inside by Athanate and Were rapidly descending into fight mode.

Mary shoved Ken back. Her spirit guide formed, and that was one angry mama bear she had there.

“Stop!”

We all froze. I sensed Liu behind me, tea rituals abandoned.

The spirit guides wavered and flowed like wood smoke in the wind, disappearing.

“She’s not Basilikos,” Liu said.

“You say! Look with your own eyes. Are you blinded?”

Ken edged around the other side of the office, keeping the table between us. I moved away from the door. If he wanted out, that was fine by me.

Liu stepped back and held his hands up.

“Just wait, Ken. There will be a reason for this.”

“A reason? Or an excuse? I should have listened to the others. This is madness. You’re on your own.” Ken backed out into the Kwan, spun on his heel and strode angrily away.

The sound of the outer door slamming echoed through the empty building.

I closed my eyes for a moment and waited for my heart rate to come back down. Mary and Liu just looked at each other. An
Oh, God, what have we done
look.

“What just happened?”

They stared at me as if I’d grown another head.

My demon took over and I looked down. “Eh? Shoes on the right feet. No double denim. It was the mezes, wasn’t it? Too much lamb. He can’t eat lamb.”

“Amber!” Mary snapped. “This is no joke.”

Liu touched her arm gently. “I think maybe I will fill the big pot for the tea,” he said, and returned to the rest area.

We sat subdued until the food and tea were ready.

“Thank you. Very thoughtful of you to bring food.” Liu poured me a tea and left the huge pot in the middle of the table.

“De nada. So what spooked Ken?”

“Your aura,” replied Mary. She reached across the table, gripped my hands and stared into my eyes. I felt dizzy, as if the whole room had suddenly swiveled and I was looking down the side of a skyscraper. Mindless fear blossomed in my chest.

“Amber,” Liu said, “tell us what happened.”

I snatched my hands back and the room righted itself. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Your aura has changed—”

“You’ve fed on fear,” Mary cut across him.

“No,” Liu said. “Look again. That is not feeding.”

He offered his hand and I put mine reluctantly into his. There was no dizzy sensation with Liu, no sense of Diana’s bottomless power, or Skylur’s sharpness, but a blend of every sensation I’d felt when someone was messing around in my head. I started to tremble.

“You’ve taken something, using your Athanate telergy. Something very unpleasant,” Liu said, and let go of my hand.

“Stolen?” Mary frowned.

“Why steal something unpleasant? Something full of violence and fear.” He looked at me, waiting.

I slumped in the chair, the adrenaline surge leaving my body feeling weak. I had stolen the memories, in a way. I had to make them understand why I’d done it. And maybe they would know of a way it could be fixed.

I told them everything about that day, from the time that Jen had been kidnapped right to the scene in the back of the van, where Bian forced me to heal Jen without knowing how to do it. Of course, that included Tullah coming along on the rescue mission, but I found they already knew all about the part where Tullah and I had somehow joined forces to channel Kaothos’s energy into blowing up the factory.

Mary was still frowning, but Liu seemed to understand.

“I thought I could handle it,” I said, wrapping up about the healing session with Jen. “They’re not my memories, after all.”

“They’re not memories, Amber, they’re emotions.” He sighed. “Whether you meant to or not, it’s as if you’re feeding on them. You’ve locked them away,” he laced his fingers together tightly and then slowly released them, “but they’re leaking. And these are not the emotions that Panethus should feed on. That’s what we’re seeing in your aura.”

“Eukori,” I muttered.

“No. That’s the Athanate word for what you sense.” Mary said and stopped. There was something there that the Adepts felt was different, but she wasn’t going to tell me. “It’s their fault, the Altau must fix this. They’re the ones with all the experience of manipulating memories.”

“They already know about it.” I’d told Bian. I needed to wait for Diana to come back and fix me, but I shouldn’t be telling Mary and Liu about Altau’s leaders.

“Then explain to them again,” Mary said impatiently. “They’ve missed the point. This will pull you more and more to the Basilikos side.” She rested her head in her hands. “On top of everything else…”

“Talk to them soon. Today.” Liu licked his lips. He and Mary exchanged a guilty glance. “And… we also have a request we’d like you to put to them.”

I snorted. “You want something from the evil Athanate?”

They had the grace to look embarrassed.

“The community we talked about before,” Liu said. “Obviously, we have to persuade Tullah and Kaothos to join. We need to give Kaothos a reason to participate. We need to know how a community is formed with a dragon. We talked to all the communities we could in this country and no one has any suggestions.”

“Tell it like it is,” Mary said. “They’ve abandoned us to our crazy scheme. Ken’s the only one willing to help. Was.”

Liu’s hand came to rest gently on Mary’s shoulder.

“Which leaves us with a problem,” he said. “However, we know that communities have been built around dragon spirit guides in China. The trouble is, we have no contacts with them.”

Mary looked up. “But the Athanate in China have.”

I connected the dots. “So, you’re looking for Altau to make contact with the Empire of Heaven and ask them to put us in contact with Adepts living in China.”

“Yes,” Liu said. “Do you think this would be a problem? Would they do this for us?”

He genuinely didn’t know.

I licked my lips and prepared a rant on the problems I could see. There were no official connections between the Empire of Heaven and the Panethus Athanate, except through the Warders. Who’d just been disbanded. Panethus and Basilikos were on the edge of a war, and the Empire wouldn’t want to get involved in anything that dragged them into it. And Altau was maxed out playing the hand it’d dealt in the Assembly.

I stopped. I could almost hear Bian’s whisper in my ear. Athanate issues stayed inside the Athanate. It left a sour taste in my mouth.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I’ll ask if there are lines of communication we can use.”

Calmer finally, we spoke in general about a community built around just the four of us, if we could get Kaothos and Tullah to agree. We finished the mezes and drank the tea.

All of what they said was dependent on finding out how to form a community that included a dragon spirit guide.

And somehow, this had ended up on me.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

At the door as I was leaving, I pushed my hand through and back, feeling the prickle of energy on my skin.

“Is that a warning spell?”

Liu nodded. “A very simple working. We use it when we’re not open for classes. We know as soon as someone comes through the door. It’s very faint; only someone like an Athanate or Were would notice.”

“Or an Adept?”

He nodded.

“But I can smell something, too,” I went on. “That’s not a smell that identifies this type of working, is it?”

“No,” said Liu. “Again, only a few paranormals would even notice it, but it’s the same for all external workings. It fades over time. Internal workings, those entirely inside the body, they do not have this signature.”

The smell was tantalizingly familiar. From where? The night at Longmont, obviously. When had I smelled it again? What did it remind me of?

My mind skipped and I remembered getting off a flight in Hawaii with Keith, heading for the beach, a whole four days of R&R between the end of one mission and the start of training for the next. The wind had been blowing across the strip and the smell of aviation fuel was gently pushed aside by the smell of the ocean.