Chapter 20

Chapter

20

Elyse and I had almost come to blows over how to get Kisten off the boat. She'd been afraid of falling in, and I had finally agreed to toss him to the dock like a sack of dirty laundry. One, two, three, fling… After that, it had been embarrassingly easy to lug Kisten into our borrowed truck and from there to the library. I needed someplace safe underground, and using one of the nonprofit emergency shelters was out of the question. All city buildings but the I.S. and FIB had been closed due to Al rampaging through Cincy last night and had yet to be reopened, and the rare-book vault seemed the logical place.

I had found myself missing Jenks again as we broke in at the delivery door, and it was more than me needing to short out the cameras myself with a well-flung spell. A long book bin and the freight elevator had gotten us all down into the basement—though I was a little peeved at Elyse for not helping me shift Kisten out of the rolling bin and into a more dignified position once we got there. "He doesn't care," she said. But I did.

Unfortunately, he was too heavy for me to lift on my own, and tipping the bin to dump him on the floor wasn't going to happen. So there he had sat as we caught a few winks, his head uncomfortably wedged in a corner, the backs of his knees draped over the side, feet dangling. After several hours, he was chalk white, his blood having pooled in his extremities. His aura, too, was growing thin, and that was a problem.

No soul meant no aura, the nebulous energy field not only serving as the body's first line of defense but also functioning as a conduit of communication between the body, soul, and mind to ensure that when the body died and the soul left, the mind would follow, thereby keeping all three together when they moved to whatever came next.

Not so with vampires. The vamp virus tricked the mind that the body was still alive after death, and as long as the vampire could take in enough aura-laced blood to bathe the mind, the mind never figured it out. It wasn't blood that the undead vampire truly craved but the aura contained in it, a clever link the demons who created the first vampires played upon to prevent the newly undead from destroying their aura source. You take too much blood/aura, the person passes out. You know to stop.

Kisten's soul was indeed gone—transitioned to the ever-after to wait until his mind figured out it was supposed to be dead. The aura from his soul was rapidly vanishing, and without an influx of new, aura-carrying blood, he would die his second death when the remnants of his aura dissipated. I might had saved him from the sun, but nothing could stop him from starving to death as his and Art's virus battled for supremacy, and my soul ached. I'm sorry, Kisten, I thought as I stifled the urge to arrange his hair. But you are alive, undead, whatever.

My gaze shifted to Elyse, drawn by her hand darting out to catch a blob of cheesecake that had fallen from her fork. "You look better," I said, and she bobbed her head, hair dripping from her shower.

"I could have slept for four days, not four hours," she said around her full mouth, then washed it down with bad vending-machine coffee, grimacing at the taste. The slice of cheesecake had come from the employee fridge, stolen, obviously. Elyse had helped herself as if it was hers. The woman ate with the abandonment of a teenager. But then again, she was one.

My stomach hurt too much to eat, and I studied her as her fork rhythmically moved, reading her lingering fatigue, her frustration that I hadn't gotten the stasis charm and taken her home yet. She hadn't said a single bad word about us stealing that truck or busting the library cameras. It had been her suggestion that we raid the employee fridge. I would have thought breaking into the library alone would have put me on the naughty list, being neither moral nor ethical. But perhaps the coven was only concerned about the spells used to manage mischief, not the mischief itself.

"Ah, hey. Thanks again for helping me get Kisten underground," I said as she plowed her way through someone else's cheesecake.

Her eyes flicked from Kisten to me as she ate another bite.

"Everything you said about not being able to keep him alive was a hundred percent valid," I added. "Good news. We can use the same stasis curse to get you both home." Maybe she's mad I'd circumvented her plot to force me into the coven? Unless she was lying about everything and all her promises vanished when I got her home.

"That's good. I'm glad you're interested in getting the charm now," she said, and my lip twitched. I wasn't the one breaking all our deals.

Seeing my disgust, she leaned back, fork dangling as she washed the last bite down with her coffee. That, at least, she'd paid for. With my money. "I'm sorry, but could you remind me who you are doing this for?" she asked.

She was looking at Kisten, and heartache was a sharp pain. No wonder my stomach hurts. "Isn't it obvious?"

She pointed her fork at me. "No, I want to hear it. You're not doing this for Kisten. He's not in a position to care. He basically committed suicide returning to that boat."

I clenched my teeth. The man was right there, probably hearing this on some level. "Having second thoughts, Elyse? I might not have the mirror, but once I get Kisten's body home, I slip your snare, Madam Coven Leader."

Peeved, she took a breath, her hand coming to rest on the table between us as if in placation. "I told you I'm not pursuing Alcatraz for you anymore, and once I talk to the rest, our demand to uncurse Brad will be rescinded. Which all makes me question why you still want to bring him home. I mean, Ivy has remade her life. To make her deal with this again? Who are you really doing this for?"

I could do nothing but stare. Was she trying to get me to change my mind and leave him to die alone? "Cincinnati," I said shortly, well aware that I might be dumping Ivy back in the morass of heartache we'd worked ourselves out of once. " You might have agreed to overlook what I did to Brad, but I'm telling you right now the rest won't. If I can't get Brad uncursed, I'm going to have to go into hiding to avoid Alcatraz. Kisten will be solid enough to do what he needs to do if I raise his ghost every sunset. He can keep Constance in line and the DC vampires out. I vowed to keep Constance safe. Kisten can do it. He practically ran Cincinnati when Piscary was in jail."

Uncomfortable, I ran a finger over the pentagram gouged into the tabletop. "Which is why I really appreciate you helping me find a body to put on Kisten's boat." My gaze flicked up to hers. "You're not backing out on that, too, are you?"

"The coven will do what I say—" Elyse began warily.

"Until you tell them to do something they don't want to," I interrupted, and she pinched the bridge of her nose, eyes closed.

"Fine. You're bringing Kisten home to chaperone Cincinnati's vampires. This is your town. Where do you suggest we go to find a body no one will miss?"

My relief was short-lived. Maybe it was a morality test. She was the leader of the coven of moral and ethical standards, after all. Not sure if I was doing myself any favors, I leaned over the table. "I was thinking the safe-haven drop box at Spring Grove. We can catch a bus from here. Be out there around sunset…"

My words tapered off as Elyse shook her head. "Bad idea. I almost got caught using a safe-haven drop box. There are no cameras, which is nice, but they generally have a silent alarm sound when the lid opens. The bodies don't stay in there for more than twenty minutes. We'd have to wait and intercept a corpse, and the people who use the safe-haven service can get…twitchy."

"Okay." I reminded myself she was a few years older than the kid sitting across from me. Almost got caught? "What do you suggest?"

"Hospital or city morgue," she said confidently. "Hospitals keep a close tab on their undead, but occasionally someone walks out unexpectedly, so missing bodies are not unheard-of. But if it was my decision, I'd go with the city morgue."

I grimaced, not trusting this. "Just how often do you do this? And why?"

"The I.S. is always finding John and Jane Does at crime scenes," she said, not answering me. "Whoever left them doesn't want them to be found or identified. You find a dead undead who has been unclaimed for over two weeks, you got yourself a good candidate. Someone already did the hard part for you by separating them from their relatives, if they even had any. Not to mention they are already bagged. No fuss, no muss."

"I ask again, how often do you need an unclaimed body, Elyse Embers?"

"Join my club, and I'll tell you," she said, meeting my gaze straight on, not a hint of embarrassment or shame.

I leaned back, head cocked in suspicion. "I can get us into the city morgue," I said, deciding to take this at face value. "I know how to run the furnace there, too," I finished softly.

"The city morgue has its own furnace?"

My gaze sharpened on her. What had she thought Ivy and I were doing with Brice's body? "That's where the city's master vampire's mistakes go?" I said, making it into a question.

Elyse bobbed her head. "We'll do that, then. With Piscary on the streets, there's bound to be one or two vampiric John Does."

For a moment, I just stared. "Just when I think I know you, Elyse…"

She tossed her damp hair from her eyes. "That only leaves the problem of getting a stasis curse that lasts longer than three days, because there is no way I want to show up at Eden Park with a two-year-old corpse."

I had to work hard to stifle my urge to walk out. I mean, she was right, but she didn't have to be so callous about it. The man was lying right there.

I must have looked kind of pissed, because she was staring at me. "What?" she finally asked, then her expression shifted. "You said you could get one. You can't, can you. You're going to leave me here?"

"I know where one is. I'm not leaving you here," I said sourly. Though it would make my life easier in the short run. "We simply have to go get it."

Unsure, Elyse ran her fork over the paper plate to get the last of the cheesecake. "I thought it was in the demon collective. You can't just say the words and poof?"

I shook my head, trying to decide how much I wanted to say. "It's not demon. It's an elven ley line charm stored in a circle of metal. Pre-coven, older than even the collective. Probably medicinal, so I'm guessing it holds minimal smut." I took a slow breath, reluctant to admit this next part. "It's been used, but it still has its invocation pin and I can probably rekindle it." Even if the charm was elven, it would dovetail with my demon spell to get home. The two schools of demon and elf magic were practically interchangeable—not that either would admit it.

"It's used?" she predictably blurted. "You can't rekindle ley line charms. Once they're done, they're done!" And then Elyse sort of froze. " You can rekindle ley line charms? Is that a demon thing?"

Wincing, I traced my nail over the etched pentagram. "Yes, and yes. It's in Trent's rare-item vault." Two-years-ago Trent would be pissed if he caught me, ah, borrowing it. Getting it would be hard, and she was going to have to trust me. I was going to have to trust her. Oh, God, can I survive trusting her? I glanced at Kisten, wondering how he could have gotten it so wrong. I was sitting beside a coven member scrambling to survive, not direct the course of events. "I've been helping Trent catalog his artifacts and I remember seeing it there. Our best chance to break into the vault is when he's getting married tonight. The wedding is after sunset so the undead can attend. We have loads of time to prep."

But in all honesty, I'd spent the last two years prepping to break into his house. I knew all his passcodes, his SOPs, everything.

"You want to steal it? Merlin's mangos. He's an elf!" Elyse exclaimed. "You don't steal from elves! And sure as hell not one of their ancient artifacts."

I stifled a shudder at the memory of dogs baying for my blood. Under my gaze, Kisten took a slow breath, then went still. "I intend to give it back, so technically I'm borrowing it." But local-time Trent wouldn't see it that way, and I totally understood her alarm. "He'll never know it's us," I insisted. "You're in coven camp and I'll be arresting him at the time of the, ah, borrowing."

Elyse's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "And you can reinvoke it?"

"I don't see why not. It's elven. They used to put people into long-term storage all the time." I went to the table to sort through my bag. I was dead tired but not sure I would be able to sleep. I wasn't really stealing anything so my ethical concerns all revolved around invading Trent's space. I'd promised I wouldn't do it again, but I actually hadn't made that promise yet. Either way, he'd never know, seeing as he would be busy not getting married—and that he would never know seemed the most important consideration. "The hard part will be getting into his labs," I added as I touched the glamour stone around my neck.

Her gaze fixed on the innocuous-seeming amulet. "Labs that don't exist." She hesitated. "He keeps his rare-item vault in one of his labs?"

"In a manner of speaking." Robe, hat, sash, splat gun, forget charm, lethal-detection charm… "The vault is accessed through a ley line pulled into the earth with a magnetic resonator. It's really a two-person job. You up for it?" I doubted she'd stay here with Kisten.

"He uses a ley line as a door? He'd have to go through the ever-after to use it."

I nodded, satisfied she understood the danger when she stiffened, her expression shifting from gratitude that I wanted her there to suspicion that I'd use and lose her when things got tight. "Wouldn't miss it," she said flatly.

"Great." I stood before her and continued to go through my bag, but all I really needed was a smile and my new glamour stone. I already knew all Trent's SOPs and codes. "Once we get the magnetic resonator going, I could use someone to watch my back. I won't have a clue what's going on while I'm in the ever-after."

"My God. You're serious," she said softly, and I glanced up from my bag.

"Two steps, and then I'm back in reality and in the vault." I hesitated. "We good?"

"No, we are not good. But I can get myself out of anything you get me into." Again her gaze went to that stone. "We're going to use that curse again?"

I shrugged. "I suggest we access the grounds around sunset. He should be gone by then."

Because once I arrested Trent, Quen—his security advisor and best man—would be too preoccupied to do anything but delegate any action taken at the estate.

"Okay, I'm excited about this," Elyse said sourly. "When do you want to get a body to put out on Kisten's boat? Before or after?"

I looked at the racks of books as if I could see through them. She had agreed to help, but I didn't know if I could really trust her. I knew she wouldn't do anything to get me caught, but I had a hard time working with someone who might turn on me the moment they felt safe.

Still, I didn't have much choice. I doubted she'd sit with Kisten while I found a body. "Later, but I wouldn't mind seeing what's available so when we're ready, we can move fast." I closed my bag and draped it over my shoulder, and Elyse chuckled as she cleaned the last off her fork.

"You don't need to plan picking up a body. You go, find, and shove into a van."

She was sounding like me, which meant I was sounding like Ivy. Good. I yanked my phone from the charger and pocketed it. "Yeah, but I'd feel better having culled one from the herd. I suggest we check the hospital morgue first. They're not busy during the day, and I know how to access the undead area. If they don't have what we need, we will hit the city morgue."

Elyse stood, patting her pockets for her nonexistent phone or wallet. "And then?"

"Once we locate a body, we get him and Kisten in the same room, glamour the John Doe Vamp, and move Kisten's doppelganger out to the boat to be found by the I.S." I glanced at Kisten slumped in the cart. It was so undignified, but he wouldn't care. "The I.S. will move John Doe Vamp to the morgue on Tuesday thinking it's Kisten. We break in, pop the man into the crematorium before they do a positive ID. Ivy gets his ashes. We go home."

"After we get the stasis charm," Elyse said as I decided against bringing my bag and shoved it behind some books.

"And rekindle it," I agreed softly as Elyse started for the hallway, not a flicker of worry or regret at the idea of stealing what we needed, not caring about the people we would inconvenience or the laws we would break in order to get what we wanted. And that, I think, was what worried me most.

She might be helping me, but it was obvious she didn't trust me, and I, sure as pixy dust glowed, didn't trust her. Worse, I was giving her a front-row seat to the laws I had to break to do my job—and there was nothing I could do about it.