She was laughing now. She realized she was more than a little hysterical. But it didn't seem to matter.
Nothing mattered while Morgead was looking at her with that sick disbelief in his eyes.
"So, anyway..." She stretched her muscles, still smiling at him, but ready to defend herself. "Are you going to try and kill me now? Or is the engagement just off?"
He simply looked at her. It was as if his entire spirit had gone out of him. He didn't speak, and all at once Jez couldn't think of anything to say, either. The silence stretched and stretched, like a yawning chasm between them.
They were so far away from each other.
You knew all along it would come to this, Jez's mind told her mockingly. How can you presume to be upset? He's actually taking it better than you expected. He hasn't tried to tear your throat out yet.
At last Morgead said, in a flat and empty voice, "That's why you wouldn't drink my blood."
"I haven't had a blood meal for a year," Jez said, feeling equally empty. "I don't need to, if I don't use my Powers."
He stared past her at the metal wall. "Well, maybe you'd better drink some of your human friends'," he said tiredly. "Because whoever has us-
He broke off, suddenly alert. Jez knew what it was. The van was slowing down, and the tires were crunching on gravel.
They were pulling into a driveway.
A long driveway, and a steep one. We're somewhere out in the country, Jez thought.
She didn't have time for any more banter with Morgead. Although she felt drained and numb, she was focused on outside issues now.
"Look," she said tensely as the van braked. "I know you hate me now, but whoever has us hates us both. I'm not asking you to help me. I just want to get my cousin away-and I'm asking you not to stop me from doing that. Later, you can fight me or whatever. We can take care of that between the two of us. Just don't stop me from saving Claire."
He just looked at her with dark and hollow eyes. He didn't agree or disagree. He didn't move when she positioned herself to erupt out of the van as soon as the back door was opened.
But, as it turned out, she could have saved her breath. Because when the door did open, letting in sunlight that blinded Jez, it was to reveal five vicious-looking thugs, completely blocking the entrance.
Three of them had spears with deadly points leveled right at Jez. The other two had guns.
"If anybody tries to fight," a voice from around the side of the van said, "shoot the unconscious ones in the kneecaps."
Jez sagged back. She didn't try to fight as they forced her out of the van.
Neither, strangely, did Morgead. There were more thugs standing around behind the van, enough to surround both Jez and Morgead with a forest of spears as they were led to the house.
It was a nice house, a small sturdy Queen Anne painted barn red. There were trees all around and no other buildings in sight.
We're out in the boondocks, Jez thought. Maybe Point Reyes Park. Somewhere remote, anyway, where nobody can hear us scream.
They were shepherded into the living room of the house, and Hugh and Claire were dumped unceremoniously on the floor.
And then they were all tied up.
Jez kept watching for an opportunity to attack. But one never came. All the time she and Morgead were being tied, two of the thugs pointed guns at Claire and Hugh. There was no way Jez could disarm them both before they got off a shot.
Worse, she was being rendered helpless by an expert. The cords were made of bast, the inner bark of trees. Equally effective against vampires and humans. When the guy tying her up was through, she had no use of her arms or legs.
Hugh woke up, gasping with pain, when they tied his injured arm. Claire woke up when the werewolf thug who'd finished winding cords around her slapped her.
Jez looked at that particular 'wolf carefully. She was too angry to glare at him. But she wanted to remember his face.
Then she looked back at Claire, who was staring around her in bewilderment.
'I-where are we? What's going on, Jez?"
Hugh was also looking around, but with much less confusion. His gray eyes were simply sad and full of pain.
'It's all right, Claire," Jez said. "Just keep quiet, okay? We're in a little trouble, but don't tell them anything." She stared at her cousin, trying to will her to understand.
"A little trouble? I don't think so," came a voice from the living room doorway.
It was the same voice that had given the order about shooting kneecaps. A light, cold voice, like an Arctic wind.
The speaker was a girl.
A very pretty girl, Jez thought irrelevantly. She had black hair that fell straight down her back like silk, and eyes that gleamed like topaz. Porcelain skin. A cruel smile. Lots of Power that surrounded her like a dark aura.
A vampire.
She looked perhaps a year older than Jez, but that didn't mean anything. She could be any age.
And those eyes, Jez thought. They're vaguely familiar. Like something I've seen in a picture....
"I should probably introduce myself," the girl said, looking at her with cold mockery. "I'm Lily Redfern."
Jez felt her stomach plummet.
Hunter Redfern's daughter.
Well, that explained a lot.
She was working for her father, of course. And she was a powerful enemy herself, over four hundred years old. There were rumors that last year she'd been working the human slave trade, and making a lot of money at it.
I should laugh, Jez thought. There I was telling Morgead that Hunter wanted to steal a march on the Council-and here he really did. Just not through me, of course. He's sent his only surviving child out to take care of us, to get Morgead to turn over the Wild Power.
And that's why so many thugs-he can afford to buy as many as he needs. And the smooth operation-Lily's a born strategist. Not to mention absolutely merciless and cold as ice.