Something moved inside her, something virulent and green, a spiderlike essence that twisted into her own burning amber light. It coiled and cinched around her essence, the amber light fading to green and fading away. Cress tracked it with her own essence, her feathery strands blossoming into fronds of violet and lavender. They embraced the strange green thing, smothering it, constricting its movements as Cress leached its energy. Power surged through Laura, a hot, burning rush as Cress’s essence flared.
Laura shivered violently as the pulsating violet essence drained the green, sucking the light out of it. A yawning ache built in her chest, a hunger and desire to devour. Cress’s essence raced through her, siphoning the spider-shape into itself until the last faint flicker of green dimmed and went out. The purple light hovered around her, slithering around her body signature. Hunting. Stalking. Disappointed, it withdrew, like a reluctant wave retreating from shore.
Laura wrenched forward and slammed into Cress. They fell out of the SUV in a tangle of arms and legs, hit pavement, and sprawled away from each other. Laura dragged herself to her hands and knees as dry heaves wracked her. She sat back on her feet and let her head fall back.
Exhilaration raced through her, an adrenaline surge that made her skin prickle. She pushed sweat-damp hair off her face and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Herself again, her essence shining within on its own, no strange spiderling dancing on her life spark. No Cress either.
Cress squatted nearby on the ground, arms wrapped around knees as she swayed. She stared, not looking at Laura, not focusing on anything but the patch of concrete at her feet. Laura sensed a deep purple corona smoldering darkly around her. Cress lifted her head, her eyes closing as she opened her mouth. With a strange, soft cry, a small cluster of darkness floated out of her mouth. It danced like a cloud of nothing, then dissolved into motes of black and was gone.
Terryn waited near the front of the SUV, his dark wings open high and wide. Around him, around them all, the air wavered like a curtain of water, the distorted images of cars and columns undulating beyond it. They were behind a protection barrier in the Guildhouse parking garage.
Laura felt the flutter of sending. Cress lifted her head toward Terryn. She nodded with a weak smile and stood. She held out her hand to Laura. “How do you feel?”
Laura pulled herself up. “Fine. Considering.”
Anytime Cress looked at her or anything else, Laura thought of it as staring. The weird, whiteless eyes acted like normal eyes, the raised bumps of pupils shifted as Cress focused or cocked her head to examine something. But without that small defining white to either side, she always looked like she was staring. “Do you remember what happened?”
“I started going head-blind and blacking out. Every time I stopped the SUV, I woke up driving the damned thing again.”
Cress nodded. “There was an essence infusion of henbane and moonflower in your system. It was short-circuiting your brain. You threw up the physical poison, but the killing spell released.”
“How the hell did you find me?” Laura asked.
Cress tilted her head. “You called us on the cell and activated your transmitter.”
Laura rubbed the back of her neck. She remembered taking out the cell, then blacking out, then taking the cell out again.
She jumped to her feet. “Sinclair!”
“He’s fine,” said Terryn. “As soon as we received your distress call, we sent someone to pick him up at the Vault. He made an excuse to leave his post and left before anyone knew he was gone.”
Laura slumped down onto the running board of the SUV. “I screwed up.”
“You’re tired and still recovering from the concussion,” Cress said.
“I screwed up, Cress!” Cress took the outburst without reacting. She knew the anger wasn’t directed at her.
“What happened?” asked Terryn.
Laura shook her head. “Alfrey was in the building. I had a drink with Gianni. He slipped something into it.”
Cress leaned against Terryn. “We need rest. We can talk tomorrow. I will remain on call.”
“You don’t need to do that, Cress. I just need sleep now,” Laura said.
“I think it’s better I sleep alone tonight anyway,” said Cress. Laura glanced at her, then away. She didn’t want to think about what Cress had done to her-what Laura had let her do.
Terryn wrapped his arms around Cress and kissed her forehead, a rare show of public affection. “Go upstairs then. I’ll take care of the body.”
Cress held him. Laura felt a surge of essence and watched without comment as Terryn allowed Cress to siphon some of his body essence. She wondered what Terryn would have done if he had fallen in love with Cress and wasn’t an Inverni. With the powerful reserves of essence innate to his species, he had little to fear from a leanansidhe absorbing some off him. It didn’t mean she couldn’t hurt or kill him, just that he would last a lot longer against her than most fey. Cress pulled away from him and walked through the shimmering barrier that hid them from prying eyes.
Body. Terryn said he would take care of a body. Laura spun toward the SUV. Through the open door, she saw a dark shape in the back. She sensed the essence of an Inverni fairy. It should have been stronger that close to her.
“Dammit,” she muttered.
She popped the hatch of the SUV. A shirtless Inverni fairy lay on his back, pale skin bearing ancient blue tribal tattoos across the chest and shoulders, faded with time. In life, Inverni wings flicker with light and color, notably whites and deep blues. In death, they were dim and gray, their diaphanous nature hardening to a fragile membrane that crumbled at the slightest touch. The translucent wings twisted around his arms and legs, a nauseating tangle that would never happen in life. A deep burn mark marred the left half of the fairy’s face. It wasn’t Alfrey.
On top of messing up, she’d put Terryn in a position of having to kill someone. He went for a head shot. Laura spoke a prayer of departing to herself. She didn’t want the Inverni to leave an echo of anger behind for her as he made his afterlife journey to TirNaNog.
“I’m sorry you had to do that, Terryn.”
He shrugged. “The Wheel of the World turns as it will, Laura. It chose me to be at the end of his path.”
Laura didn’t respond as he lifted out the body. She believed in the Wheel of the World, the grand turning of events large and small that determined the course of one’s life. She accepted that things happened for a reason and for no reason at the same time. That didn’t mean she wasn’t responsible for her role in events. It didn’t mean she had to like it. It didn’t mean she knew what her future held. What it meant, to her, was that actions begot reactions and mistakes had ramifications. A dead body was never a good thing to leave in one’s path.
CHAPTER 29
LAURA LET TERRYN unlock the door to the Mariel Tate apartment. She rarely used the place. Mariel had to appear to live somewhere, and the nondescript building where the Guildhouse kept corporate residence suites fit the bill. She turned on the lights as she entered behind him, illuminating the large open studio. If her apartment in Alexandria lacked personality, the Mariel apartment had the bland style of a hotel room.
She dropped her bags on the floor. “Really, Terryn, you had someone do a sweep of all my places yesterday.”
He circled the room with a small obelisk of granite that glowed a steady blue. It was keyed to change color if it encountered other essences. “I’ll remind you that someone managed to get a bomb through security at the FBI building.”