Deep Deliverance: The Deep Series, Book 3 (20 page)

Donte’s expression was one of long-suffering. “The mystics should look to the heavens for signs of other miracles.”

“That’s not very nice.”

“But it’s true. You were so right, my love. You are Pinocchio. I swear on my life, I will make you a real boy or die in the attempt.” Donte kissed him again.

“Does that make you Geppetto? That’s more than a little disturbing.”

“I am the blue fairy. I plan to make all your dreams come true.”

Adin heard the smile in Donte’s words. “Nice.”

“Don’t be afraid of falling into that dreamless void, my love. You’re safe here.”

“I won’t. Good night, lover.”

“Good night, più amato. Rest well.”

Ch
apter Thirty-One

Adin came to consciousness with a slow, languid stretch. He rolled over, only to find the bed next to him empty. That was disappointing. A willing Donte would go a long way toward taking the edge off his morning—or afternoon or evening, whatever time it was—wood. He glanced at the clock.
8:00 p.m.?
Where did the time even go? Deana must be going mad with boredom.

Adin rose and washed up. He dressed casually in the hastily purchased jeans and sweater someone left for him. Probably Tuan. Tuan was thoughtful like that and he knew Adin hadn’t brought much in the way of clothing. Adin padded downstairs barefoot, only to find Deana watching television in the living room by herself.

“Hey, sis.”

“Nice nap?” She didn’t turn from the television, so he couldn’t see her expression. From the tone of her voice, he guessed she didn’t really want an answer.

“I rested.” Adin didn’t know what else to say.

“Sometime we need to talk.” Ominously, Deana still didn’t turn to him. “About everything. But maybe not today. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“I need to let some things sink in for a bit. I’m a little shocked.”

“More so than you were last time I saw you?”

Finally, she turned to him. “Last night I was in crisis mode. This morning I was only half-awake. I’ve had all afternoon to think.”

He sat in one of the leather recliners, opposite her. “I see.”

“Answer one question. Did you want—what happened?”

“No.” He answered honestly. “Not at all.”

She frowned at that. “Then—”

“I nearly died. Donte didn’t want to lose me, and it…just happened. He’s lived a very long time. I don’t think he can bear to lose one more person he loves.”

She nodded. “You really can’t go back to your job, then. Your life. You’ll never be able to—”

“No.”

“Oh, Adin.”

He got up and left her sitting there with her shows. Her voice, so like their mother’s, had sounded keenly disappointed. He was rather proud that he’d rarely heard that tone from his parents. Even when he’d fled Princeton under a cloud of scandal, his parents hadn’t done or said anything that indicated they were disappointed in him.

Hearing it now, over something that had hardly been his fault, was painful.

Yet—it was his fault. He’d played with fire. He’d gotten burned.

His fault, and his alone
.

Talking with Deana made him see he needed to stop blaming Donte, stop blaming Boaz, or anyone else, for that matter, for the consequences of his own actions.

He hadn’t run from Donte—far from it. He hadn’t met with the council when he should have. He’d called Sahar to him when he was too weak to keep himself in check.

Sahar…

Sahar had died because of his foolishness.

A sob escaped him as he poured himself a cup of coffee. He wanted—no, needed—to visit her grave again. To tell her he was sorry, to explain things, to make amends. He would never, ever be that arrogant, foolish man again.

Christ. Maybe Pinocchio was finally,
finally
a real boy after all.

He went from room to room in order to find Donte, but when his search came up fruitless, he went back to the living room.

“Have you seen Donte?” he asked Deana.

She glanced up. “He left hours ago.”

“He left?” Adin stiffened. “Aren’t we in protective custody?”

“I gather you and I are. Tuan told me not to go out until they figure out who rigged your car to explode. Donte just walked out. I thought maybe he was allowed to come and go.”

“He was supposed to stay here with us. Fuck.” Adin took the stairs two at a time. His phone showed three new messages from Barrett but none from Donte. That was just his luck. Ned Harwiche III was finally off his back, and now his kid seemed determined to take over the family business of driving Adin crazy.

A quick call to Donte got his voicemail. Adin hung up and dialed Tuan’s number.

“Nguyen,” Tuan answered crisply.

“Donte left,” Adin said without preamble. “Did he tell you he was going somewhere?”

“No, he didn’t. God damn it. I’ll bet he went looking for Boaz.”

“Probably.” Adin sighed. “He was still pretty upset. Boaz means a lot to him.”

“I’ve got men watching the safe house, so you and Deana are covered. Did you try Donte’s cell?”

Adin nodded. “He didn’t answer. I’ve had three text messages from Barrett, though. Do you suppose I’m going to have to get a restraining order?”

“Oh, Christ. I forgot to call him. Give me a few minutes. I’ll impress upon him what a dumbass idea it is for him to start harassing a person he’s already being accused of assaulting. It’s possible you’ve picked up a stalker.”

“He’s not a bad kid.” Adin didn’t despise the kid or anything. “He’s a little needy…”

“If I had a dollar for every time someone in law enforcement heard that from a stalking victim.”

“All right, all right. I’ll take whatever action you believe is appropriate. I just don’t get what he thinks I can do to help him. Call Barrett a
nd make him come clean. Maybe he knows something about his friends he didn’t tell you the first time around and now the guilt is eating at him.”

“I’ll call him right now and find out what has his panties in such a knot.”

“And I’ll keep trying Donte’s number. Maybe he’ll pick up once he has the answers he needs.”

“All right. I’ll be in touch.”

“Thanks.” Adin hung up. He hated waiting. He hated worrying and wondering. He hated being cooped up in a house under guard, while Donte was out there looking for Boaz, and Tuan was hopefully finding the answers to the mystery of who blew up their goddamn car.

He hated the helplessness. Hated the walls closing in on him.

Hated being told what to do.

Deana was still in the living room when he went in there to pace.

“What’s wrong?”

“Donte’s gone, probably to confront his man Boaz. Barrett has been calling me every ten minutes, and somebody blew up our goddamn car. But I’m supposed to sit here and wait while the professionals take care of my problems.”

She had the nerve to laugh at his discomfort. “Serves you right.”

“What?”

“Poor baby. Can’t just hurl yourself at your problems until they crumble around you anymore.”

Adin stopped pacing to glare at her. “I beg your pardon?”

“You know that song Mom used to sing to us when you were a kid? ‘High Hopes’?”

“About the ant and the rubber tree plant? Yeah.”

“She sang that song because it’s about you. If you see an obstacle, you don’t ask for help, you just rush out and hit it headfirst until it goes away.”

“That’s been pointed out to me recently.”

“Yeah, well. You know what?” Deana gestured for Adin to sit down. “That’s a good thing most of the time.”

“I sense a ‘but’ coming.” When Adin sat down in the recliner, she used the remote to turn off the television.

“You’re smart. You’re handsome. As far as I can tell you lead a pretty charmed life. It’s good you tackle your problems head-on. It’s good to be independent, but Adin, no one lives in the world by themselves.”

“I know that.” He let his knee bounce. Didn’t really know how to quiet himself. Donte was out there, somewhere, facing who-knew-what, alone. Why couldn’t there be one rule for both of them?

“Tuan is a professional. He’ll find out what’s going on. And if you’re worried about Donte—”

“I am.”

“Something tells me he can take care of himself.”

Adin found his smile when he thought of Donte, dressed for a fight and carrying his sword. “He has been at it for a while. He was making me take Kendo.”

“Yeah? That must have been fun.”

“I don’t want to feel like some weakling—”

“Compared to Donte? To Boaz, and Tuan, aren’t you a baby? Don’t you still need to learn whatever skills they’ve used to hunt and survive and go undetected for hundreds of years?”

“Boaz and Tuan aren’t vampires.”

“I’m aware,” she said. “As a scientist, I’m not as ignorant of these things as you probably were.”

“Right,” he admitted, “I should have known that. I guess I do need to learn some things.”

“It’s awfully hard fighting that overweening male pride of yours, isn’t it?”

Adin opened his mouth. Shut it again. Glowered at her.

She wore a pitying smile. “Your privilege isn’t worth what it used to be. As a woman in the top of my field, I see guys go through this all the time. Being humble and teachable will make your life a lot easier down the line.”

“Jesus. All right, already. I’m here, aren’t I? I didn’t go haring off to confront anyone on my own. Give me some credit.”

She turned the television back on. “I’ll give you all the credit you deserve for getting yourself turned into a vampire, kidnapped, used for medical testing, and nearly blown up in the space of a week.”

“Remind me to talk to you about a certain testing facility in Reseda. It’s one that Walkeil uses. I looked it up. And I was most certainly not willing.”

“We had that facility shut down, and notified the federal government about the trafficking of rogues. We put it about there was a hazardous materials spill, but we won’t be using any of that company’s facilities again.”

“Good,” he said. Still angry about how helpless he’d been. “Whatever that was they used on me, I’m violently allergic to it.”

“In that case, we should do some skin tests to make sure you don’t run into that particular compound again.”

“Okay.”

After a while, Deana burst into laughter.

“What’s so funny?” he asked. On television, someone was poking around in a decomposed corpse. He felt a little bit of empathy for it. He felt like that corpse himself just then.

“I know exactly what those facilities are like.” She gasped between giggles. “I can totally picture you there. Oh my God. I can’t even—”

“It’s not funny.”

“It
is
,” she insisted. Within a couple seconds, he’d started to smile.

Maybe it was funny,
now.

She spoke in a monotone: “In a moment, you’ll feel a brisk flow of air, the object of which is to dry the product on your skin.”

As he found the lever to recline his seat and put his feet up, he also mimicked the automated voice inside the testing facility. “Congratulations. This completes today’s cycle of testing. Please exit the chamber through the open door. Use caution. Surfaces may be slippery.”

“Oh my God, I can’t bear it. I’m going to pee myself.” Still laughing, Deana got up and ran from the room.

As Adin continued watching, someone found a bug that ate something that could only have come from one specific place on the planet and the murderer of the poor undignified corpse was caught and brought to justice.

He yawned.

The front door lock turned and Adin stood, hoping Donte was home. Instead, Tuan entered, without his jacket, looking seriously harassed.

“What’s wrong?”

“Okay, the Harwiche kid won’t talk to anyone except to you.”

“Then he’s going to have to learn to live with disappointment.” Adin was certainly not going to be dictated to by some spoiled kid.

“That’s what I said at first, but guess what? I think we should go and hear him out.”

“What on earth for?” Giving in to Barrett’s demands wasn’t high on Adin’s priority list. In fact, Adin assumed that would make things worse.

“The police have had five separate calls about prowlers in Barrett’s neighborhood—on his street—in the last four days. Harwiche’s private security alarms were triggered three times, and each time the family cancelled the calls.” Tuan made air quotes. “False alarm.”

“So what are you saying? You think he’s in some kind of danger from his so-called friends?”

“I don’t know what to think, and he won’t tell me. He’ll only talk to you. Alone.”

“Oh hell no. That’s exactly the kind of dumbass thing Donte wants me to quit doing.”

“I know, but something is going on, and Barrett knows more than he’s let on. I think we should go together and ask him about it, only maybe he doesn’t need to know I’m there.”

“Isn’t he a tiger shifter?” Adin rubbed his temples. “I mean, won’t he notice I brought a fucking
leopard
with me?”

“In his human form? No. With you around, he’ll be far too busy thinking with his little head.”

Adin’s mood soured considerably. “So. I’m bait?”

“Who’s bait?” Deana asked from the hallway. “Adin?”

“Yep.” Adin shrugged into a coat Tuan brought for him. It was two sizes too big. “Sort of.”

“That looks like a mattress sack.” Deana strode into the room, arms folded. “And I am going on record that this sounds like a very bad idea.”

“It’s okay, Deana.” Adin got his phone, his keys. “Special Agent Nguyen will be right there. I have to do this.”

“Exactly.” Tuan’s expression was faintly teasing.
A little chilling.
“We’re fresh out of goats.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

The front of the Harwiche estate seemed far more foreboding when the porch light wasn’t lit. Adin took a quick, unhappy glance around the front yard. Even the landscape lighting was off. It was probably late enough that they’d gone off automatically, but still, the darkness lent an eerie quality to the place.

Adin walked up the long driveway, noticing a bench next to a conical pair of trees and a cobblestone path that led around to the back of the house. He hadn’t noticed any of that the first time around. Now, as he watched Tuan skirt the edge of the property and head toward the back wall, he realized he hadn’t really been looking around at all when he’d come for the reading of the will.

He took the steps up to the porch and studied the massive, arched wooden doors. They’d have been as at home on a cathedral as they were here, Adin thought. He went to give the iron door knocker a tap, but the door pushed inward with the pressure of his hand.

Not good.
The back of his neck prickled.

This is one of those sketchy situations, isn’t it?

Donte would tell him to just walk away. He glanced behind him, but Tuan had disappeared, presumably over the wall.

“Barrett?” he called out. “It’s me. Adin.”

“Adin?” A tremulous voice from somewhere inside.
The direction of the kitchen?

“Barrett? I’ll be honest. You’re creeping me out here. How about you turn on the lights and stop playing Halloween, okay?”

No answer.

Adin took a hesitant step forward, and then another. The marble foyer was lit only by ambient light. He avoided the table with the flowers. They didn’t look so fresh anymore. In fact… The house itself didn’t seem fresh. Didn’t feel alive with the presence of family or servants…

Didn’t smell right.

Adin knew that smell, that faintly sick-making unfreshness…

Stop thinking like a human.

Adin turned on his heel to run, but the front door slammed shut with a bang.

Ned Harwiche III stood before him, exuding triumph from every pore of his round pink face.

“Oh, Christ.” Adin let his hands fall to his sides. “Oh my God. Give me a heart attack, will you?”

“Oh, please. I’d love to. If you’d oblige me.”

Adin glared at him. Ned was alive after all.
Why the hell would he play dead?
“Who did we bury?”

“Does it matter?” Ned returned Adin’s question with one of his own.

“Where’s Barrett?”

“In the kitchen with his sister.”

“So all this?” Adin waved his arms to indicate the dark house, the dead flowers, the…whatever else was waiting for them. “Is what? The big reveal in your own private reality show?”

“This,” Harwiche said with great dignity, “is my home.”

“Not exactly,” Adin pointed out. “You’re dead. This house belongs to Sabine.”

“During her lifetime.” Harwiche grinned at him. “After that, my home will belong to my children.”

“And let me guess. You’ve been coming and going. Setting off the alarms?”

“This is my family home.
I
grew up here. It’s time I chucked Sabine out on her worthless ass.”

“That’s a lot of me, me, me. What do your kids have to say about that? Sabine is their mother.”

“The children and I have come to an understanding.”

“Do they understand you’re a dangerous loser?”

Behind him, Adin heard an ominous growl.

“Elizabeth, sweetheart, come to Daddy.”

Adin froze.

In tiger form, Elizabeth was massive, muscular, terrifying. She deliberately brushed against him as she passed, nearly knocking him off his feet. When she was standing next to her father, she crouched low, ready to spring at him. As a threat, having a tiger worked better than anything Harwiche had ever tried before.

Adin called out to her brother. “Barrett? Are you going to let your sister eat me?”

Barrett, red-eyed and miserable-looking in human form, stepped through the kitchen door. “I’m sorry, Adin. There’s nothing I can do.”

“What’s wrong?” Adin asked.

Harwiche answered for his son. “Thanks to Barrett’s little brush with the law, he’s currently unable to shift.”

“Really?” Adin turned his back on Harwiche, which made Elizabeth give him another angry growl in warning. “Why not?”

“Since I’m under house arrest, I have a monitor that makes shifting impossible.” He lifted his leg and showed he had on a thick metal ankle bracelet with a blinking green light on it. “If I try, it emits electrical pulses that scramble my nervous system.”

“I didn’t know they made such a thing.”

“Once again, your ignorance is deplorable.” Harwiche gave a shake of his head. “You’re such a disappointment.”

Adin turned back to Harwiche. “What do you want from me?”

“What does anyone want? I want my rivals off the playing field. I want those who have humiliated me to suffer.”

“And you consider me a rival?” Adin laughed. “That’s funny. I never even thought of you as a peer.”

“You son of a bitch.” At Harwiche’s angry words, Elizabeth padded forward, her tail lashing back and forth.

“Barrett? Is your mother all right?”

“No.” Barrett answered in a very small voice. A sniffle followed. “Father killed her.”

“Aw, goddammit. I’m so sorry, Barrett.”

“They made me try to get you here,” he said. “I made my messages extra-annoying, so you wouldn’t answer.”

“I know.” Adin’s heart filled with pity for him. He was just a kid. “It nearly worked, didn’t it? But Tuan was worried about you.”

“You really do have a soft spot for young boys, don’t you?” Harwiche sneered. “First Bran and now Barrett?”

“Don’t make it into something weird, Ned.”

“I’m not, but you see, I knew a distress call from Barrett here would push your buttons in a way a call from Elizabeth never would.”

“That’s not true,” Adin denied hotly. But maybe it was true. Elizabeth was the more powerful of the two siblings. She could never have manipulated him the way Barrett had. “I like Elizabeth. She seems like an intelligent girl. Too smart to do the bidding of the man who killed her mother.”

“Elizabeth has always been Daddy’s girl.” Harwiche gave her sleek, powerful back a pat. “And now that her mother is gone, the estate will be hers. She’ll live here like a queen.”

“It’s true,” Barrett said unhappily. “He always liked her best.”

“He may like your sister, but it’s this house your sister wants. And the money. If I were your dad, I’d be worried about turning my back on her.”

Did tigers express emotions with their eyebrows? Adin could swear Elizabeth’s had lifted, for just a second, at his words.

“I don’t have time for this, Harwiche.” Adin sighed. “Can you do your magnificent revenge scenario diatribe so we can get on with things? I’m meeting Donte for dinner. We’re engaged, did I tell you?” Adin lifted his hand, and while Harwiche’s eyes were fixed firmly on that, he slipped the flash grenade out of his pocket with his other hand.

Fool me once.

Bang!
The burst of light was far worse than he remembered.

He had no idea what it would do to a tiger, but he knew
exactly
what it would do to newly made vampire Ned. His own eyesight would be collateral damage, but hopefully, Tuan would show himself in the next few seconds.

“Oh, shit.” Barrett plastered himself against the wall. A black cyclone sped through the door from the kitchen, passing them at top speed. With a nearly deafening, outraged roar, Elizabeth thundered off after it.

“Barrett!” Adin reached out blindly.

“I’ve got you.” Barrett took Adin’s arm. “You don’t look so badass without a tiger at your side, Father.”

Adin let Barrett lead him. Whether he was heading for the front door or out the back, he didn’t know. He had to trust the kid, and Tuan. He’d given them both a chance.

“I am Kind. I am the apex of the food chain on this planet.” When Harwiche echoed the words Donte had so often used, it was utterly and completely hilarious.

“What a coincidence.” Adin turned toward Harwiche’s voice. “Me too.”

“You smug fucking
bastard
. I’ll kill you.” Ned Harwiche lost control and flailed out blindly, reaching for Adin’s throat. Upstairs, the big cats scrabbled over the wood flooring while things crashed against the walls.

Maybe this was a mistake.

Adin
used the self-defense moves he’d learned from Boaz to free himself from Harwiche’s hold, doubling his fists and punching up between Harwiche’s arms, following up with a strike with the heel of his hand to Harwiche’s nose. Bone crunched beneath the blow. It was sickening, but Adin didn’t let it stop him. If he’d learned anything from the endless lessons he’d undergone at Donte’s request while he was still human, it was to put an enemy down—for good if necessary—in order to escape.

Before he could get Harwiche immobilized, Elizabeth flew at Adin, hitting him with the full force of her massive, muscled body. Tuan followed, knocking her off him, but he was injured. Adin could see—and smell—the droplets of blood trailing from Tuan’s hind leg.

Adin scrabbled back as the wounded leopard and the tiger faced off. Tuan was so beautiful it took his breath away.

Harwiche had crawled to the wall behind Elizabeth, who paced angrily back and forth, her golden eyes never leaving Tuan’s.

Tuan stood utterly still. Watching. Waiting. Barrett’s breathing was loud in the silence.

“Elizabeth, it’s over. Leave them alone,” Barrett begged his sister. “Tuan’s your friend. He’s helped us both.”

Elizabeth continued to pace.

“If these men leave here alive, you’ll go to jail,” Ned shouted. “Is that what you want? Instead of being mistress of Harwiche House, you’ll be doing prison laundry in some hellhole. They’ll ruin you like your brother—make it so you can’t shift.”

“Don’t listen to him. None of his plans
ever
work. He’s the Wile E. Coyote of the unseen world.” Adin leaned his back against the wall. He had a second flash grenade, but Harwiche wasn’t a threat anymore. “A jealous little man who holds a grudge for a really long time. You don’t need him. You never did.”

“Kill him, Elizabeth.” Harwiche played his last card. “Make Daddy proud.”

Elizabeth stilled at his words. Tuan tensed, ready to defend Adin.

Oh, hell.

Elizabeth sprang at them, her mouth gaping fiercely, her eyes like slits. Tuan let out a roar and coiled all his strength into his hind legs, ready to clash with her in midair if need be. Despite his wounds, Adin knew Tuan would protect him.

Adin squeezed his eyes shut, certain that any moment he’d feel the powerful clamp of Elizabeth’s jaws on his shoulder, or the swipe of one of her massive paws, ripping his throat out.

A high, keening shriek, and a booming thud on the floor next to his feet made him flinch back.

“
Elizabeth!
” Barrett’s shocked shout tore through Adin’s heart.

Adin opened his eyes and saw Barrett fall at his sister’s side. She lay on the ground with an arrow through her eye. A pool of blood was slowly spreading over the marble tiles.

“Oh, Christ. No,” Barrett cried. “No!”

“Barrett. I’m so, so sorry.” Adin dragged Barrett away from his sister’s lifeless body, behind a leather club chair. “Stay down!”

“Let go of my boy, you
bastard
.” Harwiche sank his teeth into Adin’s neck, and the pain—oh God. The tearing, wrenching pain was awful, his grip so fierce, the pressure unimaginable. Adin lay helpless, wondering where the archer was,
who
he was after, and whether anyone cared if Adin was in the way or not.

But Harwiche was undead and crazy, and that made him Adin’s more immediate problem. With each minute he fought Harwiche, the likelihood he’d feel an arrow pierce his body grew. As a last hope, Adin pushed his thumbs into Harwiche’s eyes, but even that, even feeling the orbs give and burst beneath the pressure wasn’t enough to deter the bastard. Adin was certain he was doomed, and sorrow like he’d never known filled his heart.

If only he could see Donte one more time…

If only he could tell his lover he had not one single regret…

As suddenly as the attack came, it ended. Harwiche dissolved into a nasty, gritty sort of dust that settled over Adin’s face like greasy ash.

“Oh, yuck.” Adin gagged. He put the back of his hand over his lips while his stomach lurched again. “I think I threw up in my mouth just now.”

Tuan nudged him with his velvety black nose and growled.

“Ah, God, Tuan. Thanks, man. I owe you my life.”

Tuan licked the side of Adin’s face with his rough tongue. Adin laughed because it tickled. He turned his head to the side to escape, and that’s when he saw Boaz standing over him with a crossbow in his hand.

“
Boaz!
”
Adin gasped, startled. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Just tidying up, sir?” Boaz’s usual hauteur was firmly back in place. “Will you be requiring anything else?”

“Shut the fuck up,” Adin muttered. “Did you just save me
again
?”

“Of course not, sir.” A quick movement collapsed the deadly looking weapon, after which, Boaz shot his cuffs. “As
if
.”