Another hand squeeze, pulling himself closer with the motion. “You’ll see, Hope. You’ll see. And when you do…”
His eyes rolled back, pure bliss, the tip of his tongue sliding between his teeth. Even through my fear, I felt the waves of chaos rolling off him, that pure chaos, so intense that for a moment, I just wanted to let go, to share that high.
I slid back and disengaged my hand from his.
He sighed. “Yeah, I know. You’re not too happy with me right now. You liked them. Hell, I liked them. Guy, Rodriguez, Tony, Max. Even Bianca wasn’t so bad. But there wasn’t any other way, Hope. You’ll see that soon. You can’t worry about other people. They’d do the same to you. You can’t let anything block you from your goal.”
Another shift, this time stretching his legs, letting them rest against me. “Sonny and I, we’ve been given a gift. To not use that gift would be wrong. You have one too-something that makes you better than any Cabal sorcerer. So why should you work for them? Grovel to them? Why should they hold all the power? Biology is destiny, Hope. It’s time for you to seize your destiny.”
I could only stare at him, searching his eyes for the fever of madness. What glowed from his face was the fervor of conviction. Was it the same thing?
“You killed Bianca, didn’t you?” I said finally. “It was you, in the hall. You impersonated that Cabal guard-the one you claimed robbed you. You killed him and the other one, staged their homes and ‘became them’ to kill Bianca.”
A soft sigh. “It wasn’t supposed to go down like that. I leaked Guy the identity of the guard, thinking he’d take me for the break-in and I’d show them evidence to prove the Cabal was a threat. But he cut Sonny and me out. Fortunately, we had a backup plan.”
“Killing Guy and impersonating him.”
“Oh, that was always part of the plan. Had to be. It didn’t work any other way.”
“You were Guy that night, in your apartment. It was Sonny the first time-taking me there to point out the evidence that you’d both been kidnapped, so I’d support the story for the others. But later, when I went back, you’re the one who showed up as Guy.”
He smacked his open palms on his thighs, setting his whole body rocking. “Yes! You knew it.”
“I didn’t-”
“No, no, you didn’t understand it, but you knew it. See, that’s what Sonny was afraid of. When we saw you and the werewolf in the apartment-there’s a camera, got it from Rodriguez with some other stuff, such a sweet kid, I really hated…”
His voice trailed off, then he smacked his palms on the floor, so hard I jumped. “Gotta be done, right? First thing you learn. You cannot hesitate. Anyway, the camera. We see you and your friend…”
Again, he faded. His gaze jumped to mine. “He’s in love with you, you know. Useless, of course. He has no idea what you need. Anyway, we figured out what he was when he waltzed out as a wolf. Cool trick.”
He said it with a mix of admiration and condescension, the way one might praise a child who’s learned a simple magic trick.
“So we see him and you and we figured out you weren’t who you said you were. Sonny thought you might be a threat. He wanted to get in there, suss out the situation, grab you or…” His fingers tapped against his knee. “Or something. I convinced him to let me go in as Guy, get you away from the werewolf and kidnap you if I had to, so you wouldn’t get hurt. Sonny didn’t want me doing it ’cause he thought you’d recognize me. But I knew it would be okay. You wouldn’t understand what was going on, but still, I knew you’d know it was me. Deep down, you’d know.”
He rubbed his hand over his mouth as if trying to wipe away his grin. His eyes danced.
“Remember that night on the building?” he said. “You understood that. What I was saying. About the Cabals. That’s what I’m talking about. What all this is about.”
“It wasn’t Guy selling you on his theories, was it? You weren’t listening to him; he was listening to you.”
“Sure, but I let him pretend it was his idea.” He flashed me a grin. “That’s the key to working with people like Guy. The seed’s already there. You just need to water it, nurture it, let them think it’s all about them, their ideas and then-” He shook his head. “We can talk about that another time. We’ll talk about a lot. But right now, I need a favor.”
“Favor?”
“Something I promised Sonny I’d talk you into doing. A show of your loyalty.” He lifted his hands before I could speak. “I know, I know, I haven’t won you over. Far from it. But Sonny needs this reassurance now. And you’ll see this is the best way to do it anyway. The least…” A wrinkle of his nose. “Messy. We’ve had too much of that shit now, and Sonny would rather do it this way. So would I and, I’m sure, so would you.”
“What is it?”
“We need you to call Paige Cort-Shit. Winterbourne.” He rocked back with an exaggerated wince. “I gotta remember that. Anyway, your werewolf friend will know you’re with us, so now you’re going to call Paige and tell her you’ve made a big mistake. You’ll say you came along with me willingly, but you didn’t realize what you were getting into, yadda, yadda. Now you want out, but you’re scared of Lucas and the Cabal, so you want your council boss Paige to mediate, ’cause everyone knows she’s good at stuff like that. You tell her you want to talk to her. You’ll set up a meeting for tonight.”
My mouth hardened. “So you can kill her? I will not-”
“No, no, see, that’s what I mean about messy. All we want to do is kidnap her. The idea with Carlos only took us halfway, and now he’s a write-off, so we need to move to plan B.”
“Which is…?”
“Lucas, of course.”
LUCAS: 20
ARMEN HAIG. The human chameleon. That’s what Elena said they’d called him in the compound. He could alter his facial features, not much, just enough to be unrecognizable. The parapsychologist at the compound had postulated-accurately, it would seem-that Haig was a forerunner of a new supernatural race. He’d also hypothesized that in a few generations, Haig’s descendants might not only be able to change their features enough to escape a police officer, but to kill that officer, become him and walk away undetected.
Elena had recalled that statement with a rueful laugh, because she could imagine few people less likely to need to evade the police than Armen Haig. A quiet and thoughtful psychiatrist, he’d been biding his time, planning his escape and trying to decide whether he could trust Elena enough to accept her help. Then the man financing the operation, Tyrone Winsloe, played one of his sadistic games-the sort that made Carlos look like an amateur.
He’d told Elena that Armen had escaped and tried to force her to hunt him. When she’d discovered it was a setup, he’d given her an ultimatum-hunt and kill Haig or be killed. Haig had saved her from making the choice by killing himself. The ultimate act of selflessness, committed for a stranger.