Eight Days to Live (11 page)

“I’m at the Bleinart Inn outside Paris, but I don’t know how long I can stay here before I have to move on.”

He was silent for an instant. “That sounds remarkably as if you’re on the run. Are you?”

She ignored the question. “Get back to me as quickly as you can.”

“Oh, I will. But I don’t like the fact that you’re not telling me everything. You know how curious I can be.”

“No, I don’t know that much about you. Except that you’re manipulative and have no compunction about doing exactly what pleases you.”

“Not true. I’ve told you before, I have a kind of code. If I didn’t have some compunction, then I’d be the same kind of monster as the people I hunt.” He chuckled. “But since you’ve chosen to bring me back in your life, it’s inevitable that you do get to know me very well indeed. I’m looking forward to it.”

“I’m not.”

“I know. As I said, you’ve always been wary of me.” His voice lowered to velvet softness. “Do you want me to take away all that wariness and make you look forward to it, too?”

She felt sudden scorching heat move through her. “Hell, no.”

He sighed. “I do hope I can keep from breaking my code and going ahead anyway. You’ve always been a temptation, Jane.” He didn’t wait for her to reply. “I’ll call you when I have something to report. It will be soon. I’m very, very eager.” He hung up.

She drew a deep breath as she hung up. It was done. But what had she gotten herself into?

Nothing she couldn’t handle.

Caleb was her best bet in this insane situation. If it was inevitable that they get to know each other as he had said, then it would happen.

She had a sudden memory of the searing instant of heat she’d experienced a moment before. That undercurrent of sensuality had been present every since they’d first met, but she’d tried to ignore it.

Well, she could handle that, too.

“Finished?” Jock was walking toward her across the parking lot. “You weren’t long.”

“No?” She glanced at the clock on the dashboard. Less than ten minutes. It had seemed a much longer time. “Were you able to get us rooms?”

“Yes, no problem.” He opened the car door for her. “I sent your bags up to your room. No room service, but there’s a coffee bar in the lobby, and I arranged for a to-go order. I’ll pick it up when we get inside. Coffee and a couple sandwiches. Okay?”

She nodded. “I’m not hungry.”

“You should eat. When’s the last time you had anything but coffee?”

She smiled. “I had that bowl of cold cereal you set out for me at the apartment.”

“Good.” He took her elbow. “But that was a long time ago. Let’s see if you can get down a sandwich. We’ll take them up to your
room, and you can eat.” He paused. “And then satisfy my appetite for information. I hope everything went well with your Seth Caleb?”

Had it gone well? She couldn’t be sure. She was as disturbed as she usually was after speaking to Caleb. “I suppose that it went as well as could be expected. He’s going to help me find Weismann.”

“Promising. But I want to know a good deal more about your friend, Caleb. MacDuff will cross-examine me without mercy. If I’m to keep him at the Run acting as guardian, I’ll have to have answers.”

“You’ll have them.” She entered the Inn. “But I’m warning you, he’ll still have problems with my using Caleb. That’s why I chose you and not MacDuff to come with me.”

“YOU DIDN’T EAT VERY MUCH,”
Jock said. “I know the bread tasted like cardboard but it—”

“It was fine,” she interrupted. “I had enough.” She lifted the paper cup containing the hot coffee to her lips. “This is all I need.”

“It’s good coffee.” Jock stretched out his legs in front of him. “Perhaps to make up for those atrocious sandwiches.” He looked around the room. “This is pleasant. I like all those purple and white flowers on the bedspread. Restful.”

“It’s too pretty.” She glanced at the windows draped in sheer white chiffon. “It looks like something from a ten-year-old girl’s wish list.”

“When you were ten, would it have been on your wish list, Jane?”

“No, I was always suspicious of anything that was too pretty. I was a tough little kid.” She braced herself. “And now that you’ve tried to put me at ease, hadn’t you better start the interrogation?”

“Interrogation? You make me sound like a cop.”

No, he was nothing like a cop. His gentle persistence was much more insidious. He would just sit there, smiling that beautiful smile and waiting for her to speak.

“You want to know about Seth Caleb.”

He nodded. “Will it be easier if I ask you questions?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“The main thing I want to know is why you think Caleb can find Weismann when Venable is having trouble?”

“It’s what Caleb does. He has a passion.”

“For hunting. What kind of hunting, Jane?”

“He finds people who can’t be found.”

“For whom?”

“He works principally for the Devanez family, who are his relations, but he takes other assignments if they interest him. I know he spent years hunting down a cult that was responsible for the death of his sister.”

“Ah, vengeance. Good punishing evil?”

“In a way. It’s not that simple. Yes, as far as I know, the people he hunts are slimeballs who deserve to be punished. But Caleb doesn’t pretend to be the sword of justice. He’s not that hypocritical.”

“And by what means is your wonderful hunter able to find those people?”

Dammit, she had known that question would come. “He’s . . . unusual.”

“You said that before and in just that tone. I’m intrigued. Are you going to explain?”

“Yes.” She might as well stop stumbling around and just come out with it. “Caleb has certain talents. One of them is an ability to change people’s perception.”

“You mean he’s very persuasive.”

“No.” She shrugged. “I mean that give him a few minutes
alone with anyone, and he can convince them that they want to do anything he wants them to do. He can turn hatred into friendship. If he asks anyone questions, they’re going to answer him. Which would help enormously if you’re on the hunt for someone.”

“I imagine it would,” Jock said absently, his gaze studying her face. “Let me understand you. You’re talking about a psychic ability?”

“I know that it sounds weird.”

“Oh, yes.”

“You don’t have to believe me. That’s why I didn’t want MacDuff coming along. I knew I’d have trouble with him thinking I was off my rocker. I wouldn’t blame him. I’m not sure I believe it. I’m a realist, and what I ran across with Caleb was out of my comfort zone. But I saw him do it with the grandfather of my friend, Patty. He changed him from a bad-tempered bastard to someone almost pleasant. He didn’t promise that it would be permanent, but even Patty could see the difference in her grandfather.”

“One case.”

“I was skeptical, too.” She paused, then said reluctantly, “He gave me a personal demonstration.”

“Personal?”

“Don’t ask. I was ready to murder him.” She added, “But he can do it, Jock. If anyone can find Weismann, it will be Caleb. He’s spent most of his life hunting down people.”

“And what does he do when he catches them?”

Her grasp tightened on the paper cup. “I imagine his death count may be as high or higher than yours, Jock.”

“Really?” He leaned back in his chair. “You do seem to draw us lost souls to you, don’t you, Jane?”

“But he’s not like you,” she said sharply. “It wasn’t your fault. You were sick. You had no choice. He decided on the path he was going to travel.”

“There’s always something that triggers that decision. What was his trigger, Jane?”

“He had . . . other talents. His background is very dark. For hundreds of years those psychic gifts were passed down through his family. Back in the fourteenth century his family used their talents to inspire fear and dominate the small village in Italy where they lived.” She moistened her lips. “According to Caleb, they balanced on the edge of becoming monsters.”

“What other talents?”

“Blood. I didn’t see it, but Eve did. She watched him kill a man without touching him. Most of it has to do with the flow of blood through the body.”

“Blood.” He chuckled. “Good God, he sounds like a vampire.”

“No,” she said curtly. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Is it ridiculous?” His smile faded. “Then what or who is he, Jane?”

“I don’t know. I think he believes that he’s inherited that bad gene that’s been passed down through his family. He said he became a hunter to keep himself under control. Maybe he thought if he was going to kill anyway that he might channel it. The hunting provided a sort of release.” Jock was asking questions she had asked herself and still had few answers, she realized in frustration. “He said it helps him maintain his code.”

“And what is his code?”

“I don’t know him well enough to know that,” she said impatiently. “For all I know his so-called code could change with every shift of the wind.”

“You appear to be saying that you don’t know quite a bit in this conversation. But it’s not like you to trust anyone without a substantial reason.”

“Then this has to be an exception. Do you think I wanted to
have to contact Caleb? I told you, I’m not comfortable with him. But I have to find Weismann.”

He took a sip of his coffee. “You’re right, MacDuff would not have made it easy for you to pull Seth Caleb into the search. He’s a practical man, and he’d not appreciate the whimsy of your action. On the other hand, I have no difficulty with dealing with your psychic friend. I embrace whimsy. Reality can often be too cruel.”

“He’s not my friend.”

“Yet he’s coming to help you. There must be some connection.” Connection.

Searing sexuality. Heat. Her naked body moving feverishly beneath Caleb’s
.

No, it hadn’t happened. That had been Caleb’s damn demonstration of how he could influence her perception. It had been just a second’s sensation that had shocked and angered her. She had wanted to murder him then, and the resentment was still white-hot. But so was the memory, and it wouldn’t leave her.

“I don’t know why he’s doing it. He does what he wants to do. He wouldn’t tell me what he wanted in return.”

“That’s always dangerous,” Jock added with hushed melodramatic theatricalism. “What if he wants to drink your blood, my beauty?”

“I told you he wasn’t—” She stopped. Jock was joking, but she was having trouble responding with any kind of humor. “Caleb isn’t dangerous to me.”

“No, he won’t be a danger,” Jock said. “Your blood is safe. I’ll be here to watch over you.”

“I didn’t ask you to watch over me. You’ve given up enough to help me.” She grimaced. “And now I’m asking you to swallow something that there’s no way you can believe.”

“It’s true that I have trouble with thinking anyone could
possess those kinds of psychic abilities. My instinct is that it’s pure trickery.”

“Me, too,” Jane said. “I understand perfectly.”

“But when I was under medication and being brainwashed, I believed what I was being told without question. Could that be part of it?”

“No medication.”

“Then I’ll be interested in meeting Seth Caleb.” He smiled slightly. “Since we appear to be members in the same club.” He rose to his feet. “I’ll let you get to bed now. I’m right next door. Lock your door. Call me if you need me or if you just want to talk.”

“Are you going to call MacDuff?”

“Tomorrow. He won’t expect a call tonight.”

“And are you going to tell him about Caleb?”

He nodded. “The bare bones. No need to tell him that Caleb is a vampire. It would only upset him.”

“I told you, Caleb is not—” She saw his indented lips and realized he was joking again. This time she smiled in return. “Tell him what you like. MacDuff will probably tell you to kidnap me so that he can find a pleasant little funny farm to stash me in.”

“He wouldn’t do that,” Jock said. “He never even thought about putting me in an asylum when I was going through my patch of hell. He cared for me himself.”

“I know,” Jane said gently. “So let’s not make him think he’s going to have to straighten my thinking out, too. Once is enough.”

“Aye.” He nodded as he turned toward the door. “More than enough. I swore I’d never cause him trouble like that again. That’s why I think I’ll forget to mention any details about Seth Caleb.”

I KNEW THAT JOCK WOULD BE SKEPTICAL
, Jane thought as she got to her feet after the door had closed behind him. She didn’t know anyone who wouldn’t have thought she was either crazy or enormously gullible. At least he had been kind and not openly scornful. But the skepticism had definitely been there.

Oh, well, it didn’t matter as long as she had done what she thought was best.

And what was best right now was for her to get in the shower and crawl beneath that too-pretty quilt and go to sleep. The adrenaline that had been driving her was rapidly seeping away, and exhaustion was taking its place.

No wonder. She hadn’t really slept more than a few hours for two days.

She locked the door and headed for the bathroom.

“
I’M AFRAID
, Mother
.”

“Shh, you mustn’t be frightened, Kalim.” His mother was
hurrying him down the long dark corridor. “You’re on your way to paradise.”

“Will you be with me?”

“Not for a while. You’re the only one who they think worthy.”

“I don’t want to go alone.” The tears were pouring down his cheeks as he stumbled after her, blurring the sight of the glyphs on the walls. “Don’t make me, Mother.”

“I do not make you. The angels summon you. Now stop weeping. You’ve reached your eleventh year. You will shame me. We are almost there.”

He couldn’t stop the tears
.

They had rounded the corner
.

The stone altar was just ahead of him. He knew that altar. His cousin, Ali, had been chosen last year. Ali had not been afraid. He had been proud
.

Kalim wanted to be proud. He wanted the fear to go away
.

His mother had stopped and stepped aside. “Go,” she whispered. “Go to paradise, Kalim.”