Black On Black (Quentin Black Mystery #3) (33 page)

“That’s not going to happen––” Ian began.

“––Fine,” Black returned at once. “Then name your terms. I’ll terminate the contract with Lucky for bringing you in. I’ll offer my services in penance instead. I’ll even go to mediation if you want...
 
providing I get protection through Lucky’s people and you leave Miriam out of it. I’ll pay damages. But I won’t give her up. And you’re not getting near her, so don’t even ask.”

Ian’s amusement sounded almost genuine. “Why in the gods would I agree to any of that? You’re two hundred years my junior. Do you really think the other seers will see you favorably in this? Historically, as a species, we have not been kind to poachers. What you did is illegal in the Old World. Or had you forgotten?”

“You lost her,” Black growled. “Don’t pretend she didn’t have a say in that!”

“You manipulated her!”

“I didn’t.” Black shook his head, once, behind my eyes. “I seduced her, I’ll admit to that...
 
but no light tricks. No pushes. She wanted me...
 
it was a light connection, brother.”

“A light connection?” Ian’s amusement grew louder. He sounded almost like himself now, and somehow, hearing that was worse. “How romantic.
Gaos d’jurekil’a,
Black. You really are desperate to hold onto her, aren’t you?”

“I’m telling the truth.”

Again, I almost saw him there, leaning against the stone pedestal as he yelled at Ian, holding the grenade in one hand. I felt him struggling. He was in pain from the wound, but it was more than that. I found myself thinking Ian was overpowering him in other ways too, ways I couldn’t see, but that had to do with them being seer.

He’d warned me to stay out of that space. He must have been worried about me being overpowered in that way, too.

Black couldn’t stay out of the space though. He had to shield Angel and Nick.

“...If you don’t trust me, let the mediators decide,” Black said, his breath short. “They can read her...
 
from a distance. They can also read me. I’m telling you, brother, you’re going to be disappointed. You know how this works for seers. Some things are just bigger than promises, no matter how well-meant.”

“Don’t you dare defend that cheating cunt to me!”

“Fine,” Black said, his voice even. “Then how about this––I’ll kill you and me both before I let you near her. I take my responsibilities seriously, brother. Don’t doubt it. Not for a second.”

“Arrogant little fuck.” Ian cursed him again in that other language. “You might not want to promise me that. You’re too young to even
have
a mate, in most seers’ eyes––”

But Black cut him off again.

“––If she wants to go back to you, I won’t stop her.” Black’s voice turned colder. “But I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you. As for my age, brother, we don’t choose these things. They choose us. You know that.”

The gun went off again, closer that time, from a different angle.

I have no idea how he did it, but somehow Ian must have been throwing his voice to make it sound like it came from further down that ramp. Now the shots aimed upwards, from a much closer angle, almost firing directly behind the stone base.

“Move!” Black snarled. “Right now!”

I heard Nick yell something back as gunshots were exchanged from both sides, right before Nick and Angel were scrambling in my direction. They came around the low end of the stone base, making their way to where I crouched, but Black wasn’t with them.

“What the fuck?” I said, when Angel reached me, gripping my arm. “Where’s Black?”

“Down by the wall,” Nick said, motioning with his chin.

I started to rise to my feet, but Nick grabbed my arms with both of his hands, jerking me back down forcibly.

“Goddamn it, Miriam...
 
no! There’s no way to get to him. Not without getting cut to pieces!” Nick scowled at me, gripping me tightly enough to hurt my arms when I struggled. “Anyway, he already told me he’d rip off my head and shit down my neck if I let you get within sight of Ian. Frankly, that might be the only thing he’s ever said to me that I fully agree with...”

“What is he doing?” I snapped, still fighting to get free of Nick’s hands.

“He’s got a grenade,” Angel said to me, her gun back in her hand. “I think he must have a plan, doc...”

I let out a humorless laugh, fighting tears. “He always has a damned plan. That doesn’t mean his plan isn’t batshit crazy...”

I tried to get up again, but Nick yanked me back down. Guilt stabbed at me when I saw him wince in pain as he did it. He was already paler than he had been from the effort of holding me. That look on his face was almost enough to get me to stop struggling. Almost.

“He told us not to wait. To get through the exit right away,” Angel said, holding up her gun. “He said we didn’t need the grenade for that...
 
told me where to shoot the lock.”

“That piece of shit asshole mother
fucker...”
I exploded angrily.

Angel’s eyes widened but she didn’t comment.

I swiveled my glare to Nick. “He has your gun?”

Nick nodded. “Both of them. I have Angel’s trank gun.”

Angel looked at Nick, giving me a bare, apologetic look. “Can you hold her here? I think Black was right.”

Nick nodded, his mouth grim as he looked back at me. “I’ve got her. She’s not going anywhere.”

“All right. I’m on the door,” Angel said, hauling herself to her feet.

“Black was right?” I glared at Nick. “Right about what?”

Nick was watching me with wary eyes.

“He said you wouldn’t be...” He hesitated, then his voice turned blunt. “He said you wouldn’t be rational about this, Miriam. He said you wouldn’t be able to help yourself. That you were likely to do something crazy if you thought he was in danger. He said we’d need to restrain you and probably drag you out of here forcibly...”

“Crazy?” I let out a disbelieving laugh.
“I
might do something crazy? You mean crazy like taking Ian on alone when I’d just been skewered through the abdomen with a glass rod?
That
kind of crazy?”

Nick continued to study my face, his lips set in a frown. He was looking at me like he almost didn’t recognize me. “Black said you’re going through something right now. Something to do with what you and he are. He said it was temporary, but I’ve got to say, Miri...
 
I’m worried about you. You haven’t been yourself for weeks. And right now, you’re acting like––”

“I haven’t
been
myself?” The words exploded out of me. “You’re worried about that? Now? That I might be going through a few changes? You just left my goddamned boyfriend alone to be gunned down by a psychopath...
 
and you’re concerned I might not be ‘your Miri’ anymore? Is that it? Am I hearing that right?”

“Miri, Jesus.” Nick’s fingers gripped my arms tighter. “You need to calm down. Please...
 
try to calm down.” His eyes clicked into sharper focus as his mouth firmed. “Listen. I’m the
last
one to defend Black, but he’s right this time. He got you into this mess. He’s right to get you out of it. Whatever that takes...”

“Really?” I cut in. “Black got me into this? Because I thought
you
were the one who introduced me to Ian, Nick. Or am I remembering that wrong?”

Nick blinked at me like I’d just punched him in the face. His eyes widened, his jaw growing loose right before it hardened, pushing out the side of his cheek.

“Miri,” he said. “You know how fucking horrible I feel about that...”

“Then stop pretending it was
Black
who got me into this!” I snapped. “Black didn’t do this! And Ian played you just like he played me. Do you honestly think I don’t know that? Hell, even Ian was working for someone else...”

“Who, Miri?” Nick shook me lightly, his jaw clenched. “This Lucky guy? Is he the one behind all of this? If so, why?
Why
are these people after you? What do they want?”

“How the hell would I know that?” I let out another short laugh, fighting tears. “Hell, you might as well blame my
parents,
for falling in love and having me. These people have been stalking me since I was a kid...
 
or did you really think this all started when Black showed up in the police station that day?”

Nick’s eyes widened more the longer I spoke.

Somehow, that only made me angrier.

“Jesus, Nick...
 
use your brain! My whole family is
dead.
Did you think that was a coincidence, too?”

Nick winced, his face still reflecting that shock.

Even so, I saw him thinking, saw those cop and Special Forces wheels turning in his head as he stared at me. I also saw him realizing something else.

Or maybe the truth of it just finally sank in.

“You really are...
 
like
them. Aren’t you, Miri?”

I let out a disbelieving laugh, one that threatened me with tears halfway in. Choking on it, I looked past him where the gunfire had grown more intense again.

“Miri,” Nick said. “Miri, wait, I––”

“Nick. Just stop, okay? Stop.” I shook my head, forcing back that surge of feeling. “I can’t answer your questions. I can’t. The only one who can maybe is Black...
 
and he’s probably going to die, so you and I might both be shit out of luck.”

My own words hit me in the gut, bringing another nauseating pool of that irrational fear.

I found myself fighting Nick openly then. He gripped me tighter. When I got one arm loose enough to swing at him, he wrenched me around, grasping me in a bear hug from behind, pinning both of my arms with his good arm as he dragged me to my feet. I knew it must have hurt him, given the hole in his shoulder, but he didn’t budge where he gripped me.

I struggled to free myself, but in vain. Nick had about a hundred pounds on me, all of it muscle.

“Let go of me, goddamn it!” I burst out when I couldn’t get free.

“Not gonna happen.”

Angel appeared at my other side.

Without a word from either of them, both restrained me now, half-dragging me towards the other side of the room and the emergency door. I knew Angel got that door open, just like I knew Black didn’t intend to follow us through it, at least not right away. I don’t know how I knew that last part, but I could feel it in every part of me––even over the gunfire being exchanged on the other side of the statue.

Black!
I called him with my mind.
Don’t do this, please! Whatever you’re doing...
 
don’t. Please, don’t...
 
please...

I felt him wince, a coil of pain sliding off him that caught my breath.

Then my head exploded in pain.

It felt like someone had punched me right between the eyes.

I had to withdraw. It forced a groan to my lips, even as Angel and Nick continued to drag me towards the door, which had been propped open by one of Angel’s boots. Something dripped on my face, and I looked down at the drops of blood, realized my nose was bleeding. Even with that pain, even through Black’s silence and the shock of seeing my own blood, I felt things.

My fear worsened once I made sense of what I’d felt.

Black’s bluster had been bullshit too.

He’d been telling Ian the truth...
 
not me. He was willing to die rather than let Ian get to me. And he was pinned where he was.

He couldn’t move from the wall without Ian killing him.

His only hope was to throw the grenade as soon as he felt Ian close enough. He wouldn’t be able to run, so he’d have to throw it far enough to avoid being hit by it––which worried him, since the wound in his side would also make it hard to throw. Moreover, he knew Ian would go after Nick and Angel’s minds the second they got out of range of Black’s ability to shield them, so he had to time it right, regardless of how close Ian got. Ian was already chipping away at Black’s defenses, hitting at Black the way he’d just hit at me, only worse.

For the same reason, Black didn’t answer me.

I felt his worry. I also felt him waiting...
 
for us to get out the door, for Ian to move closer, for Ian to try and follow us, or make a move on Angel or Nick.