Boundary Crossed (Boundary Magic Book 1) (8 page)

“There are those of us who would do much worse than risk an AMBER Alert, as you said, to be in the sunlight,” Itachi added.

“Oh,” I said, feeling stupid.

“To put it another way,” Maven continued, in a voice gone soft and cold, “a null can also
get to
anyone in the Old World, regardless of their magical defenses. She could walk right up to me and shoot me in the chest, and I would die. If you managed to find such a person while she’s young, and still programmable . . .” She trailed off, letting me fill in the blanks.

Horrible possibilities flashed through my head. Charlie being hurt, being brainwashed. Charlie being taught to hate and kill. “I thought . . . I thought it was a human-trafficking thing,” I whispered numbly, fear sending a burst of cold electricity down my spine. Now I felt so much worse than stupid—I felt
helpless
. Charlie was basically the equivalent of free bacon at a dog show, and I was as useless as I was outnumbered. This changed everything.

Maven’s eyes narrowed suddenly, and I saw her nostrils flare. A second later, Itachi shifted restlessly. Oh, God. Could they smell my panic? I was suddenly very aware of the fact that I was trapped in a tiny room with two deadly predators, and I worked to push the fear aside. I squared my shoulders and met each of their gazes in turn.

“I want protection for my niece,” I said to Itachi. “If you really are in charge of the supernatural world in Colorado, I want you to make sure Charlie is left alone.”

Maven tilted her head in thought, an oddly birdlike gesture that reminded me of how Victor had looked at me when he’d been unable to press my mind.

“That is an extremely large request,” Itachi said tartly.

“But within your power?”

“Of course.” A hint of disdain had crept into his tone.

“You misunderstand,” Maven said, acting as Itachi’s spokesperson. “It is not a large request because the task is too difficult. Now that Itachi is aware of Charlotte, he can make it clear that she is under his protection. But she is within his enclave, which means she is already his.” She lifted a shoulder carelessly. “Why should he care about
your
wishes in respect to something that is already his?”

That shocked me. It hadn’t occurred to me that the vampire in charge might already think he
owned
my niece. Everything in me wanted to scream that Charlie wasn’t theirs, that my niece would never belong to anyone but herself. That I would kill every vampire in the state before I let one of them touch her. And if Itachi had said those words to me, I might have done exactly that.

But there was something magnetic about this woman. I couldn’t explain it, even to myself, but she had a force to her, strong as gravity.

“I suppose the question, Lex,” Maven continued, crossing her legs under the burlap-looking skirt, “is, what are you offering?”

“Myself,” I said, firmly and immediately.

Chapter 12

Itachi raised a single scoffing eyebrow. “Do you have any experience in making lattes?” he asked sarcastically. I just stared at him levelly. He added in a more subdued tone, “Witches don’t work for vampires, any more than foxes work for bears.”

Maven glanced at him. “That is historically true, but then again, we don’t have the most traditional structure here in Colorado,” she pointed out. To me she said, “What do you suggest you could do for us, Lex?”

I swallowed, focusing on my wording. I didn’t know much about vampires, but it had occurred to me, of course, that they might be involved in some nasty stuff.
Illegal
stuff. I needed to set my limits clearly without making myself unattractive as an employee. “Security. On call, part time, however you want to do it. The army taught me how to drive a truck, gather intelligence, and look for weapons and for lies. I won’t kill anyone or hurt the innocent,” I added, “but I could be your daytime Quinn. I’m very motivated, reasonably intelligent, and apparently no one can press my mind.”

Itachi stayed silent, waiting for his next cue. Maven was looking at me very speculatively, her fingers now tapping on the file of information Itachi had been reading. “You just got out of one army,” she said finally. “What makes you so willing to join another one?”

That took me aback for a moment. Was that really what this was? Another army? There were similarities, I supposed, but the comparison was too strange to really wrap my head around. Then again, I knew that I would do a hell of a lot more than rejoin an army for Charlie.

I started to say just that, but stopped myself. That wasn’t what she was really asking me. She didn’t care why I wanted to join, she wanted to know why I would
stay
. Why I wouldn’t just sell them out to the first person who promised to protect Charlie instead.

“Because I’ve been part of an army before,” I finally said, “I understand concepts like taking orders, chain of command, and working for the greater good. I also know,” I went on, “that sometimes protecting the greater good means being the lesser evil.”

Maven’s eyebrows raised just a fraction, and I knew I’d managed to say the right thing. “Give me your wrist,” she commanded.

I started to reach out before I even knew I’d moved, but I caught myself and asked, “Why?”

“We are vampires, Lex,” Maven said, not unkindly. “I want to taste your blood. If you work for Mr. Itachi, you’ll be expected to make the occasional donation.”

I weighed my options, then reluctantly held out my hand. I had no problem with giving blood, and so far we were still well within the “small price to pay for Charlie’s safety” arena.

Maven took my hand, turning my wrist to expose the veins. Her fingers were very cool, but not ice-cold like the grave or anything. “I can’t press your mind properly,” she warned, “but I’m strong enough to press it a little, to help with the pain. Do you want me to do that?”

I shook my head. I’d take pain over mind control any day. Maven nodded and bared her teeth without another word. Her canines looked a little bit sharper than normal, but there was something else off about her teeth, too. Before I could figure out what it was, she was pressing them into my wrist.

To my surprise, they sank through my skin without any resistance. I squeaked as the pain hit, but I managed not to pull my wrist away. She pressed her lips into the wound, forming a seal as my blood spurted into her mouth. I realized dimly that her teeth had looked odd because they were scary sharp—they were roughly rectangular, like any other human’s, but razor-edged.

She held out her free hand to Itachi, and he leaned forward, lifting a clean white handkerchief out of his pocket and handing it to her. I looked away. After a few seconds, Maven deftly pulled my wrist away from her mouth, pressing the handkerchief to it at the same time. She tied the handkerchief around my wrist and released me. When she raised her head, there was a luminous smile on her face. “
Well
,” she marveled, shaking her head a little. There was still enough blood in her mouth to stain her teeth red, and I fought the impulse to flinch. “You are just full of surprises, aren’t you?”

“What is it?” Itachi asked, suddenly curious.

Maven raised a small hand and dabbed at her lips with one finger. “She certainly has active witchblood,” she told him, without taking her eyes off me. Though Itachi looked like he had more questions, he said nothing. I couldn’t figure out the distribution of power between the two vampires, but I decided I didn’t really need to know until I understood my own situation a little better. Maven could
taste
the magic in my blood?

With everything that was going on, I’d nearly forgotten about Darcy’s comment that I had “weird blood.” Now it made more sense. I didn’t know whether to be intrigued or grossed out by that, so I just pressed the handkerchief into my wrist. It hurt, but although I was pretty sure she’d nicked a vein, the blood wasn’t seeping through the delicate white cloth.

“Don’t worry, vampire bites clot very quickly,” Maven promised. “It won’t scar, either.”

I nodded. I wasn’t really worried about bleeding out. Both vampires were watching me carefully, probably waiting to see if I would freak out. “This is officially the weirdest job interview I’ve ever had,” I muttered.

Maven smiled.

“So?” I asked. “Do we have a deal?”

Itachi’s eyes narrowed. “Not so fast,” he chided. “There’s nothing for you to—”

Ever so gently, Maven laid a hand on Itachi’s arm. She leaned over and whispered something into his ear, too softly for me to hear. Itachi’s expression didn’t change, except for the slightest tightening of his lips. When she was done, he leaned back and nodded.

Maven peered at me through the thick glasses she undoubtedly didn’t need. “A probationary period is in order, I think,” she said at last. “We want you to help Quinn find out who came after your niece in Itachi’s enclave.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, startled. “We know it was Victor and Darcy.”

“And Darcy is still out there,” Itachi countered, his voice sour.

“At any rate,” Maven added, “I am inclined to believe someone else sent them to collect your niece. Trying to take Charlotte behind Itachi’s back, before he was aware of her—they might have gotten away with that on a technicality, as they say.” She smiled without mirth. “But to go after her again, once he was aware of her existence, was a very brazen move.”

“And those two were never known for being brazen,” Itachi broke in, as though he just wanted to edge his way into the conversation.

Maven nodded her head slightly, agreeing with him. “I’m afraid someone may have . . . motivated them.”

“That’s it?” I asked, trying not to sound as incredulous as I felt. “You just want me to find out who’s after Charlie?” Hell, I was going to do that anyway.

But Maven held up a hand. “In addition to that, we’d like for you to seek counsel from Clan Pellar on how to use your magic.”

“My magic?” I echoed dumbly. In my concern over keeping Charlie safe, I had nearly forgotten that I could theoretically do . . . something. Magic, I guess.

Maven arched an eyebrow in a way that suggested this was a deal breaker. “If you are to become our ‘daytime Quinn,’” she said, “we want all the use we can get out of you.”

I nodded slowly. I didn’t want to fuck around with witch powers, but I could learn a couple of spells, or whatever the witches called them, to pacify Maven and Itachi. Maybe I could learn something that would help me protect Charlie. “And then we’ve got a deal?” I persisted, working to keep my voice light and respectful. I wasn’t sure I succeeded.

“These two tasks should determine whether you truly are who and what I suspect,” she told me. “If you swear loyalty to us and can prove your value, then we have a deal. We will make sure the Old World stays away from your niece until she turns eighteen, or until you terminate your service, whichever comes first. No one in our enclave will touch her.”

I opened my mouth to ask for more time for Charlie, but before I could speak, Itachi said firmly, “That is our
only
offer.”

I closed my mouth and nodded tightly. Seventeen years of service, and no guarantee that Charlie would be safe once she was no longer a minor. It wasn’t the greatest bargain I’d ever made, but I didn’t see a lot of alternatives, short of moving into Charlie’s bedroom or trying to convince John to move to Belize. Neither seemed very viable. If I worked for Itachi, at least I could ensure that Charlie got to have a childhood.

“Oh, and Lex?” Maven added. “In the interest of fairness, you should know that if you don’t perform to our satisfaction, there is no deal. Itachi will do whatever he wants with the child, and we’ll kill you if you interfere.”

She said it in a completely reasonable, “just so you know” kind of tone, which somehow made it worse.

“You can try,” I said quietly. Itachi chortled with laughter at that, but Maven just smiled, almost sympathetically.

I rose from the chair and held out my hand, with my wrist still encircled by the delicate handkerchief. “I believe we have a deal.”

After we shook, Maven called for Quinn. I didn’t think anyone would be able to hear through the thick office door, but vampires must have good hearing. He popped his head in, his eyes widening slightly as they took in our new positioning in the room. “Ma’am?” he said to Maven.

“We have a task for you, Quinn.” She nodded toward me. “We’d like you and Lex to locate Darcy. Find out if she and Victor were sent by a third party. Then kill her.”

A sputter of shock came out of my mouth, and Maven turned her head to look at me. She raised an eyebrow. “This is the Old World, Lex,” she said matter-of-factly. “If you truly plan to work for us, you’ll need to understand the way we do things. I accept your stipulation against killing, but Quinn has no such condition.”

I looked at Quinn, but his face was completely unreadable. Maven continued, “Lex, you’ll work with Quinn at night, hunting for Darcy. During the day you’ll work with the Pellars to advance your magic. Quinn will set that up for you. Begin tomorrow.”

I stepped away from the chair, but paused and looked back at the vampires. “And Charlie?”

“I’ll put the word out,” she promised. Itachi gave me a polite, dismissive nod.

Feeling a little dazed, I followed Quinn into the hallway, where I stumbled and had to lean against a wall. He stopped a few feet ahead of me and retraced his steps. “You okay?” he asked.

“Fine,” I said, working to control my voice. “Just a little lightheaded.” It wasn’t the blood loss. I had bled more while shaving my legs. For some reason leaving Maven’s presence felt like moving from strong sunshine into the shade again—not necessarily a bad feeling, but definitely an adjustment.

I suddenly felt very young, and very
naive
. It reminded me of my first deployment to Iraq, where the customs, language, government, and daily risks were so different that it felt like I was on another planet. But now the displacement was happening in my
hometown
. A mile from the hospital where I was born.

Quinn waited patiently until I straightened up again, a question on his face. “Sorry, this is all just happening really fast,” I mumbled. “I think I just agreed to go vampire hunting. With a vampire.”

“Yeah, well, it’s gonna get worse before it gets better,” he said frankly. “Most witches are told all about magic by the time they hit puberty. If you’re going to tag along with me while I go after Darcy, you’re gonna have to pick up a lot of information fast.”

I looked up at him. “I’ve got no love for Darcy,” I remarked, “but are you really okay with just killing her? You were a cop.”

With exaggerated patience, Quinn took my elbow and propelled me forward, his grip like a concrete cuff on my bicep. When we had passed through two rooms, he leaned over and whispered, “They could still hear you, you know.”

“Oh.” Oops.

“To answer your question, I don’t feel great about it, no. But I don’t have a choice,” he said, his tone bitter. “Not everyone
volunteered
for a deal with Maven and Itachi.”

“What does
that
mean?” I asked, a little hotly. “Do you think I woke up this morning hoping I’d get to feed my blood to a vampire?”

Quinn hesitated. “Sorry,” he said after a moment. “I didn’t mean you . . . My situation is different, that’s all.”

“Different how?” I said.

He looked away. “I was sold to them.”

My eyes widened. “You were—”

“Come on,” he said brusquely, giving me a gentle push. “Let’s get you home for some sleep. You have magic lessons tomorrow.”

“Oh screw that,” I shot back. “You’re starting now, right?”

He hesitated. “Well, yeah . . .”

“Then I’m coming with you. What do we do first?”

Quinn sighed, his cool demeanor momentarily ruffled. “You’re going to be a pain in my ass, aren’t you?”

“Maybe,” I told him, and I felt a smile spread across my face. Not a nice smile. “But not nearly as big as I’m about to be in Darcy’s.”