"Please tell me stabbing does not factor into your strategy."
I laughed. "Of course it doesn"t. I left my knife in her neck, anyway. I think I"m just going to run around and punch people, see if I can"t find a teenage girl to tase me." I knocked teasingly on the door.
"If you really want to get Raquel out, then you need me. You can"t turn into anyone and everyone you see. I can. So if you really want this covert mission to be a success, why on earth are you leaving your best a.s.set at home?"
"I-Because you-"
I looked at Arianna for help, but she shrugged. "He"s right."
"GAH!" I shouted, throwing my hands up in the air. "Fine!" He was right, of course. I couldn"t risk Raquel"s freedom on anything less than our best effort, and Lend should be part of it. Much as I hated to admit it.
"None of this would be a problem if you"d followed my plan to send all the faeries to h.e.l.l," Jack said, his voice laced with annoyance.
"Do you really want to bring that day up again?" Lend asked, the door doing nothing to m.u.f.fle the threat.
"So!" Jack said, clapping his hands and grinning at me. "We ready to go? What"s the transportation plan?"
"I guess I"ll go with Reth, and-"
Lend shouted, "No, you"re not going anywhere alone with Reth."
"Fine, I"ll go with Jack, and-"
"That doesn"t work for me either."
I laughed drily. "Okay then, I"ll click my heels together three times and say, There"s no place like the Center, there"s no place like the Center," and then magically appear there!"
He was quiet for a few seconds. "You"ll probably be safer with Reth." It sounded like he was speaking through clenched teeth. "And I can keep a better eye on Jack."
"Well, I for one am thrilled to spend more time with Lend. That"s the top of my Fun Things to Do list. We should come up with a secret handshake!" Jack said, pushing me to the side and throwing the door open, which resulted in Lend falling to the floor immediately unconscious. "Oh, whoops." Jack smiled, his eyes gleaming. "Too bad. I like him so much when he"s talking."
"Very funny. Keep him safe, okay? I don"t think Raquel"s in the Iron Wing-she would have heard me shouting. Look anywhere you can think of. They might have her in a random room somewhere. We"ll meet in Raquel"s old office in two hours, whether we"ve found anything or not."
He nodded, not looking at me as he poked Lend repeatedly with his foot.
"And, Jack? That threat Reth made about your hands? I"m going to apply it to Lend, too. Keep him safe. Or else."
I took one last long look at Lend, wanting to touch him but knowing it"d only make me feel worse because he couldn"t touch me back. Then Arianna wished us luck, and I went downstairs and out the door, where Reth was waiting, hand outstretched. He was holding Tasey, the rhinestones sparkling in the early morning light. "You dropped this in the Faerie Realms. It seemed a pity to part you two."
I wrapped my fingers around my trusty friend, maliciously hoping I"d get the chance to use her on someone.
PLAN T.
You have no idea where Anne"s office is?" I asked, grouchy and beyond footsore, seriously envying Jack"s completely healed feet. We"d already been here for an hour and had nothing to show for it other than a few close calls with security patrols. I"d figured since I couldn"t check every room for Raquel, searching Anne-Whatever Whatever"s office for records was my next best bet.
"Surprisingly enough, I do not make a habit of concerning myself with the locations of offices of people I neither know nor care anything for."
"I thought you had some big vendetta against IPCA for controlling you."
"Have you seen anyone who ever once used my name against me? Present company excepted."
I frowned, checking around a corner to a hall that was, as usual, empty. This was so much less exciting than I had been afraid it would be. Reth walked calmly forward, never pausing, never frantically checking over his shoulder.
I wondered what he did to those poor suckers who had trapped him with his true name. I almost asked, but honestly, I didn"t really want to know. "Wait-you didn"t do anything to Raquel." I inwardly cringed. Raquel had used his name against him, and there I went reminding him.
"Hmm. An uncharacteristic oversight."
I snorted. "Yeah, mister always has a plan, you"re constantly missing details." I shouldn"t push the issue lest I convince him that he still had some vengeance waiting, but I couldn"t help it. It was so unlike him.
He waved an elegant hand through the air as though brushing off my observation. "Some things are beneath my attention."
"Liar."
He stopped short, and I walked a few paces before realizing he wasn"t beside me anymore. I turned and found myself sucked into his golden gaze.
"You are quite blind sometimes, my love."
"What do you mean by that?" I snapped. Then my jaw dropped as he actually rolled his perfect, gigantic-bordering-on-anime golden eyes. That was so not a faerie gesture. "You just rolled your eyes!"
"It would appear you are a negative influence after all." He walked past me and I scurried to catch up.
But it had me thinking. I knew for a fact that on at least one occasion Raquel had directly screwed up his turn-Evie-into-a-fiery-immortal plans. If that didn"t get her on his. .h.i.t list, I didn"t know what would. I looked at Reth, wondering if he"d left Raquel alone just because of what she meant to me. That line of thought made me feel strange and squirmy inside. It was easier for me to dismiss him when he was unquestionably a jerk. But he"d helped me so much, even if some of it was underhanded and calculating. I didn"t know how to sort it all out in my head and my heart.
We hit a hallway that I knew contained a records storage room. Maybe it listed where they kept employees waiting for disciplinary hearings. I couldn"t palm it open. "Any way you can open this door?"
Looking utterly and completely bored, he put a hand up to the door and pulled it back as though burned. "Iron."
"Brilliant. I can"t unlock them, you can"t get in them. We"re useless."
"I do recall saying exactly that same thing before we embarked on this pointless excursion."
I rubbed my eyes. Being able to find Raquel, or even Anne"s office, had always been a long shot, but I"d secretly hoped we"d run into someone that we could pump for information or something. I had no doubt that Reth with all his glamoured glory could get some poor sap to spill all sorts of beans. But we hadn"t seen a single soul the whole time we"d been stalking the halls.
Wait. The whole time I"d been following Reth through the halls.
I looked at him, my eyes narrowed. "You"d really like it if this whole effort was a failure, wouldn"t you?" Much as I doubted he cared one way or the other about Raquel"s future, one thing he was invested in was me. And no Raquel meant no more faerie names, which meant no more touching Lend. Maybe forever.
He tilted his head to the side, face inscrutable.
"I can"t believe this." I turned on my heel and stalked back down the hall. "Of course you wouldn"t really be helping me." I knew where we should go, and without Reth to lead me in paths to deliberately avoid any and everyone, I was going to find something out.
I walked as fast as I could without looking crazy in case we did run into someone, quickly navigating the labyrinthine halls to my old training room. I pulled my hand up just short of trying to palm the lock. Odds were, nothing would happen, but what if they"d coded the place to recognize my hand and set off an alarm?
"Bleep," I muttered.
"Problem?" Reth said, leaning in way too close to my ear. Faeries and personal bubbles, honestly. I tried not to shiver at the way his breath trailed warm and sweet down my neck.
"No." Screw technology, I would do this old school. I pulled my hand back, made a fist, and then knocked. Loudly. Repeatedly. Maybe a bit desperately, because I was fast running out of time and if he didn"t open the door...
The door slid open, revealing the shocked and angry face of Bud. "What the-"
I pushed him back into the room and let the door close behind us, shutting Reth out in the hall.
"What are you doing back here?" His face was an unhealthy shade of red. "Are you daft? You were lucky to get out of here once. If they catch you again, you can bet that-"
"I need help. They"re going to try Raquel."
He let out a heavy breath and rubbed his eyes, staring at the floor. "I"d thought as much."
"Do you know where they"re keeping her? I need to break her out before the trial, because after that I might not ever be able to find her again." It was too terrible to think about. I wouldn"t lose Raquel, not like I"d lost Lish.
He put his calloused, heavy hands on my shoulders and fixed his muddy brown eyes on mine. "Listen, kid. I always liked you. And I liked Raquel, too. But, trust me, you don"t want any part of this. Best to leave IPCA to itself and get free and clear again, forever. Disappear."
I opened my mouth to argue when it hit me-that look in Bud"s eyes? It was fear. Bud was like a grizzly bear. He was stronger and tougher than even a werewolf, and he didn"t have any supernatural abilities other than his infinite capacity to yell at me for not practicing my self-defense techniques.
"What"s going on?" I asked.
He dropped his hands and sat wearily on a beat-up folding chair surrounded by free weights against the wall. "This place, well, it"s never been perfect but I always believed in the core of it. That we were doing good. But ever since Anne-Laurie LeFevre swooped in, it"s all gone to pot faster than a gremlin can chew through the hull of a supertanker."
"With the arrests?"
"More than that. There are rumors-and I stay out of all this, mind you-but rumors of dealings with creatures we"re meant to protect the world from. Things that sure as all heck go against our charter. Things it"s safer for both of us not to know about. I"m asking you to leave it be. I"ll keep an eye out for Raquel, but she made her bed with IPCA and she"ll have to sleep in it. She wouldn"t want you here any more than I do."
I scowled, my stomach crawling inside my abdomen like a living thing. Something serious was going down here to have Bud scared. I was in over my head.
Eh, what else was new. I shrugged. "Raquel wouldn"t leave me. I"m not going to give up on getting her out."
He sighed heavily. "You always were too stubborn. I"ve half a mind to set off the alarm just to get you to run away."
"Aww, come on. You wouldn"t do that. We both know I was your favorite student."
He snorted.
"No idea where they"re keeping Raquel?"
"None. And if I knew, I wouldn"t tell you. Get out. Have a life. And stay out of mine. You"re more dangerous than anything else here."
"Psh. I"m the epitome of cuteness. See? Perky! That"s me. Not dangerous."
He shook his head and opened the door. "Out. And please, kid, I never want to see you again."
"Thanks, Bud. Again. For everything. I"m pretty sure that knife of yours saved my life." He looked at my hands expectantly like I"d have it there. "Oh, uh, yeah. Kind of lost it." Before he could glare I hugged him, then walked out and heard the door slide shut behind me. I"d expected Reth to be waiting, but he was nowhere to be seen. What was the evil creature up to now?
No matter. That was probably as much information, worthless as it had been, as I was going to get. I turned and hurried alone toward Raquel"s old office, letting myself hope that they"d found Raquel and she"d be there with them, sitting behind her desk and practicing her a.r.s.enal of sighs. As I pa.s.sed a cross hall I caught sight of someone. My werewolf guard buddy from before. Bleep, bleep, bleepity bleep. Stopping short of putting a hand up to shield the side of my face, I walked as fast as I could without looking like I was panicking.
He didn"t see me. He couldn"t have seen me. Oh, please, please let him not have seen me.
"Hey! You!"
Could nothing go my way today? I broke into a run, skidding around the corner with Wolfie right behind me. I had just enough time to register Bud at the end of the hall and wonder what he was doing out there, when Bud melted away to reveal the water form of my boyfriend, collapsing to the floor in an unconscious heap.
Time for plan B. Or plan T, really. Time to see how much Wolfie liked Tasey.
PICTURE IMPERFECT.
Wolfie growled, narrowing his eyes. "You know, the best way to get a predator to chase you is to run."
I snorted. "Oh my gosh, did you practice that line in front of a mirror or something?"
He lunged and I dodged to the side, but the hallway was too narrow to maneuver much. I had to keep him away from Lend. I turned to sprint in the opposite direction but was jerked back, my feet nearly slipping out from under me. Wolfie had my collar in his huge hand. I undid the b.u.t.tons, reached into my suit jacket, and pulled out Tasey. He tried to yank me backward, pulling off my jacket with the effort. Tasey on, I twirled to jab it into his stomach, but he was too fast.
Bleep, I hadn"t fought a werewolf ever, and had never had to tase one who was actually expecting it. He grinned maliciously as we circled each other, each looking for an opening.
"I can smell your fear."
"Again with the lines! What do you think this is, a B movie? News flash: you are not a tortured hero and we"re not going to have a hot make out scene after we fight." I feinted forward, but he twirled to the left and slammed his fist into the side of my head. My vision exploded into stars, everything narrowing and closing off as my brain tried to process the pain.
Taser, Taser, Taser, I thought, desperately trying to claw my instincts out of the blow-to-the-head stupor, but before I managed to, he had grabbed my hand and smashed it down onto his knee. Tasey clattered uselessly to the floor as he twisted my arm behind my back, forcing me to bend over in pain.
"Whose movie is it now?" he hissed in my ear, pushing me to my knees.
"That"s quite enough of that," Reth said, and I"d never been so glad in my entire life to hear his smooth, golden voice. Wolfie abruptly let go of my arm. I jumped to my feet and backed up.
Reth had a finger underneath Wolfie"s chin-the werewolf security guard"s face was blank bordering on slaphappy as he stared at Reth. Judging by the look on Reth"s face, though, Wolfie was going to meet a very bad end. Immediately.
"Wait!"
"Hmmm?" Reth didn"t look up at me.
"Don"t kill him."
"May I remind you that you can no longer control me? This thing was going to hurt you."