Laura batted against the air bags. “Jono? Jono? Answer me!”
His limp frame hung forward, the seat belt straining to hold him upright. Laura grappled with her belt and wrenched it free. The door was jammed. Furious, she hit it with essence and it flew off with a metallic shriek. She jumped out.
The last black car gunned toward her. She held both arms straight out, fingers clasped, index fingers pointing, and aimed at the oncoming car. From her fingers, a sharp line of essence burned like a spear through the air and splintered on the car’s grill.
Laura swore as the essence flowed around a protection ward on the car. She dragged essence out of the pavement, the asphalt rippling around her with the strain. With a scream, she released it all in a yellow streak like lightning. The ward on the car splintered into fragments of green light, as Laura’s bolt shattered the windshield and detonated inside with a white flash. Glass shards hurtled toward Laura, and she staggered under the onslaught against her shield. The glass hung for a moment, glittering in the headlight glare, then fell to the ground.
Laura swayed on her feet. The Janice glamour wavered, weakened from her dissipated essence. She reached out one more time to the ground beneath her feet, drawing essence out of the earth and into her body. The emerald necklace flared beneath her shirt, a glow that lit her stark features. Panting, she stared at the smoldering black car.
“That’s four,” Sinclair said.
Laura spun. Sinclair leaned against the back of the SUV, an arm wrapped against his ribs. Blood smeared across the side of his head. He cocked a smile. Laura took two long strides and hugged him. “Ouch,” he said.
She let go. She pulled his head down and kissed him with a passion that surprised both of them. When she broke the kiss, he grinned. He lifted his gaze. On the next block, the officers from the squad car approached the gaping hole of the storefront where the other black car had vanished. “There is no way anyone’s going to believe you’re a low-powered druidess after this,” Sinclair said.
Laura surveyed the wreckage. Sinclair was right. If the ripped-open black car wasn’t bad enough, the fragmented asphalt she’d left behind was confirmation that Janice Crawford was more than what she claimed.
Time for another change in plans. “Showtime, Jono. We’ll get people in position as soon as possible, but here’s where you prove you can pull your weight. Play scared and get Foyle on your side.”
“What’s the plan?”
She pushed aside the SUV’s air bag and found her cell phone. Terryn picked up instantly.
“I’m killing Janice Crawford right now. Send a wagon with a body, ASAP,” she said.
Terryn didn’t argue. “Anything else?”
She glanced at what was left of her car. “Yeah. I wrecked another SUV.”
CHAPTER 33
POLICE AND FIRE cordoned off the street at either end. The SUV sat like an exhausted beast, its air bags hanging out the doors like ruptured organs. In the surreal flicker of blue, red, and yellow emergency lights, Sinclair stood over Laura’s prone body, which was still glamoured as Janice Crawford. Two EMTs jumped out of a van with a gurney. They looked human, but their appearance didn’t match the essence fields Sinclair sensed. He recognized the shape of Cress’s essence.
Cress made no indication she knew him. “Step aside, sir.”
He moved back as they shifted Laura from the ground to the gurney. “Where are you taking her?”
They moved with a controlled urgency. “GW. You need attention?”
“No.”
Cress climbed in the emergency wagon, and the driver closed her in with Laura’s body. The van rocked as it pulled away. Cress stared at Sinclair’s dwindling figure through the rear door windows. “Is this wise?”
At the sound of Cress’s voice, Laura’s self-induced trance broke. She breathed deeply, stimulating her heartbeat. “Nothing is. Can I sit up?”
Cress checked Laura’s pulse. “Wait a few blocks. What happened?”
Laura rolled her head to stretch. “They came faster than expected and forced us out of the safe zone.”
Cress’s essence feathered over Laura’s body, tendrils curling along the edges of her body signature, sensing its strengths and weaknesses. As always, Laura felt the desire in the touch, the need for essence that Cress fought against. “You have some bruising. Do you want me to take care of it?”
Laura sat up, Cress helping her with gentle hands. “No. I’ll keep them unless I can’t function.”
On the other side of the van, a draped figure lay on a gurney. Laura removed her emerald stone, the Janice glamour blurring and shifting as it slid off her. She handed the necklace to Cress. “Can you charge it? I’m bone-dry.”
Cress pushed essence into the persona template in the stone. Folding down the sheet on the other gurney, she exposed the Inverni from Laura’s poison attack and slipped the chain around his neck. The glamour field spread over him, interacting with the almost vanished body signature of the dead body. His residual fairy essence shifted and faded beneath the druid signature on the stone, and his physical appearance warped and changed. Laura stared at an apparently dead Janice Crawford.
Cress caught her. “What’s wrong?”
Laura shook her head dismissively. “It’s always odd to see a glamour I’ve worn on someone else.”
Cress folded the sheet back over the Inverni. “Do you think Sinclair is up for this?”
Laura stared out the window as if she could see back to the accident site. “He’ll have to be.”
The van pulled to a stop, and Cress handed Laura a set of car keys. “Terryn’s waiting at the Guildhouse.”
“Thanks for everything, Cress.”
Laura hopped out, and the van resumed its trip to the hospital. Her Mercedes was parked at the curb. The music came on loudly when she started the engine. She leaned her head back. The plan had failed. Whoever had been in the black cars, it wasn’t Alfrey. The power levels would have been higher. He had help, that much was clear. He wouldn’t have sent Gianni after her, even if he thought she was minor league. If he’d come at her himself, he wouldn’t have used a car. No, she thought, he sent henchmen, which meant he had an organization. She reminded herself that the Inverni had threatened Blume in front of a government building. He had balls. Which made him more dangerous. At least no civilians had been injured, she thought. That would mitigate some repercussions.
She drove to the Guildhouse at normal speed. The lights of emergency vehicles up the street flickered in her rearview mirror as she pulled in to the garage. Between the attempted bombing and the mess out front, the Guildhouse was on high alert. It was indirectly her fault, her failure to prevent it. And now, another failed attempt. Doubt worried at her as she took the elevator. She didn’t like losing.
In the public-relations office, she walked through the closet to her private room. She spared a moment to wash her face before activating the Mariel glamour. The tepid water was insufficiently refreshing, but it helped her feel better. When she lifted her head, the calm, cool beauty of Mariel faced her in the mirror, with no sign of Laura’s underlying stress. This is my life, she thought, this is what I do. Hide my face to find comfort and hide myself to avoid problems.
She shook off the melancholy and returned to InterSec. She found Terryn monitoring the news on three stations in his office.