Ghost Soldiers (28 page)

She frowned. “No, not like that. I mean a real ride. I just need to get out before I go crazy. Go fast. You know.”

“Allow me a moment to change and select some weaponry.”

“I don't plan on killing anybody.”

“Neither do I.” Xiesha untied her leather apron and hurried up the metal stairs to the living area. Maria waited over by the Benz, leaning on the roof with her chin on her arms, not thinking. Very much not thinking of anything.

A few minutes later Xiesha returned, having ditched her work clothes for long sleeves, slacks and low-heeled boots. No kimonos or Happi coats today, for whatever reason. She carried her pump action shotgun in one hand. Maria still had her Glock, now shoved under her seat in easy reach.

Xiesha set the shotgun on the passenger seat before moving to the loading bay door. She raised it hand over hand by the chain until the Benz had enough clearance to get out. Maria started the car and drove past the protective wall of energy made by Xiesha's wards. As soon as she'd gone ten feet past the threshold, the strange, feather-along-the-skin sensation faded into nothing. She'd asked about the wards once, and Xie had started babbling about “myriad energies tightly interlaced into a complex matrix,” making about as much sense as lawyer-speak.

She waited as Xiesha dropped the bay door down again and came out the reinforced-steel side door. The radio played on low volume—rock music from WBCN. Xiesha climbed in and adjusted the shotgun so it pointed barrel downward and the trigger was clear.

“We're gonna have a hell of a time explaining that if we get pulled over,” Maria said. “I intend to drive fast, so don't be surprised if we end up on some reality TV police show.”

“I have never been on television. I'd look good.”

Maria snorted and put the Benz in drive. It was a bit of a cliché that mobbed-up guys and connected people loved Cadillacs, but she'd always been a Mercedes girl. Smooth handling, engine thrumming with power—not loud, brash power like a muscle car, but far more elegant and refined. She weaved through the long streets of warehouses, dry docks and buildings with walkways spanning across the road, never exceeding the speed limit until she was well clear of the docks.

She opened it up a little on the Massachusetts Turnpike heading west. Eventually she swung off the Turnpike, ending up on a dark, narrow road cutting through Upton State Forest. Xiesha held on tight to the armrest and grinned as the car hugged the road, breezing effortlessly along turns where trees pressed right up along the banks. Maria took a turn at speed, her tires squealing, feeling the low-grade g-force pushing her back.

“Careful,” Xiesha said, but there was pleasure in her voice.

“Why? It's not like we'll die in a car wreck. I don't even know why I'm wearing my seat belt.”

Xiesha laughed—a soft, musical sound. “It is a long walk home, though. And we don't want to cause an accident with other people.”

“All right, fine.” She eased up on the pedal, and the car coasted to a more reasonable speed. “You're right. I just wanted to…I don't know. Go fast.”

They drove on in silence. The trees were dark. The moon hung low in the sky, bone white and nearly full.

“I'm no longer running the Ricardi family.” She twisted her hands on the steering wheel, back and forth, as if she was strangling something. God, she'd just lost everything. And with Karl gone, she really did have nothing. Nothing at all.

“A…
vlessta ni lou moora
?”

She glanced at Xiesha, frowning. “What?”

“I'm sorry. A…
coup d'état
?”

“Something like that. What the hell did you say before?”

“Oh, words for what we called it where I come from. It means replacing the Guild Leader with another who plans to move in a different direction. Most of the time there is violence and turmoil…” she folded her hands together in her lap, “…and a purge.”

They drove on. The radio played a slower, softer song.

“Tell me about where you're from,” Maria said.

“I would rather you tell me what happened with your syndicate. You worked very hard to command it. I…” Xiesha lifted a hand and gestured, as if trying to wave the word from her mouth. “I
rooted
for you. That is the word.”

“Yeah, well, no good deed goes unpunished, right? I tied up all the loose ends, locked in our power, but none of those dickheads wanted to follow a skirt.”

“Dickheads? Interesting imagery.”

“Haven't you heard the word dickhead before? Karl's been neglecting your education.”

Xiesha smiled. “I've heard it before. I simply find it evocative imagery. An often times effective description for the males of many species. Of what organ with which they sometimes think, I mean.”

She grinned. “You're wicked.”

“I am wicked cool.”

“Yeah, you're wicked fuckin' cool.” Her smile slipped as she watched the road unfolding in front of her headlights. “John Passerini did it.”

“Betrayed you?”

“Yeah. He brought in those Sicilian shooters to send me a message. He knows I'm a vampire. Made sure he let me know he held off on the silver. Remember Cojocaru's pet shark in the tree, blowing his flute? Yeah. The bastard tipped John off, implied he should whack me.” She glanced at Xiesha. “Said Cojocaru was coming
here
.”

Xiesha's expression grew troubled. “An Invidi sorcerer here, trying to turn your syndicate against you…”

“Turns out they were always against me. John let me know I've no power base in the family. He'd already undermined it all. I can't keep the skippers loyal to me. I'd have to kill and keep killing to rule. I'd have to rule by fear.”

“Why don't you?”

“Because…because that's not how I want to be.”

Xiesha nodded but said nothing.

“Everything's broken,” Maria continued. “Why does everything end in betrayal? The Thorn turned on Karl and turned on us. Now they want us all gone. This Cojocaru wants a piece too. His pet sold me out, and maybe he's even coming here, maybe chasing Karl, and looking to take his bite in person. Fucking John stole the Ricardi family from me, my father's
legacy
. Everything I ever wanted is gone.”

“
Was
it what you wanted?”

Maria bit back a snappy answer. The question was too deep for a sarcastic quip. God, she wanted Karl back so bad it was an unrelenting ache in her center. But running the family, was it what she'd wanted? Yes. From the first time she'd realized her brother Paul was destined for the reins of her father's business she'd wanted it. From the first time her father had looked her in the eye and found her wanting for no other reason than she'd been born with the wrong set of equipment below the belt. Hell, maybe everything she'd done had been for him. It didn't even matter he was dead and gone and no longer cared.

But where had it led her? Alejandro Delgado had killed her—had Turned her and made her his slave. Ugly memories fought to resurface, and she slapped them back down. She didn't want to deal with them now. Yeah, she'd killed Delgado in the end, thanks to Karl, but he'd fucked her over big time. Still, she went on, trying to pull everything back together and make it right. Make it into something her father would've been proud to see. Make something so that when Karl came back, he'd approve of how efficiently and effectively she'd run things, and he'd respect her for it.
Everyone
would respect her for it.

And now that pipe dream was gone too. Fucking gone. “Yeah, it was what I wanted.”

“Perhaps you should want something else,” Xiesha said.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“I wanted something long ago. But I failed. I lost things important to me.”

Maria kept her eyes on the road and waited for her to continue. Tension crackled between them, a static electricity of careful words and emotions. She didn't want to speak and break what seemed to be a building connection, even as erratic a link as it might be.

“I left my home and fled,” Xiesha continued. “Jumping dimensions, running, and they chased me. I fled to a great city at a nexus—a place of power and refugees—but they followed me there as well. By then I had gone from wanting ascendancy to wanting freedom to longing for safety. When I came here…” She paused and touched her throat with one slender hand. Her skin glowed softly. “I only wanted to be left to live in some kind of peace.”

“Did Karl bring you peace?” Karl hadn't brought Maria peace. He'd brought her love, hell, he'd stormed a mansion full of vampires and wiseguys to save her, but he hadn't brought her peace. But that wasn't fair either.
She'd
been the one chasing power.

“Peace?” Xiesha touched the center of her chest. “Here.” She lifted her hand and touched her forehead. “And here. Karl is a man whom violence will always find. It is how he moves through the Dreamtime, through the tides of fate. But he is my friend. In friends and lovers we find peace.”

Maria didn't look at her, focusing on the turns in the road. The moon shone above the trees, throwing cold white light as it ghosted across the sky. “Were you ever lovers? You and Karl?”

“Friends. That is all. I could not heal his pain. I'm too different. He loves you. I can feel it—clear and cold, strong and deep like river water. Perhaps you can heal his pain.”

“And that's what I should want?”

“Together, you can heal each other's pain.”

Maria shook her head. “I don't think I'm built to do that. I'm not sure I can.”

“I have seen much of this universe. Stepped through many branes, across wormholes and the desert outside of Entropy. I believe, in the end, there are only simple things to want and to cherish. Love and friendship are the highest. If fate has denied you a position of power above your men, then maybe you should look again at what you have and what you want.”

“John wants me to do special work for him,” she said. “Clip the people he fingers. Make problems go away. He wants Karl too. So much for peace.”

“Perhaps it is the lesser of many evils. You must feed. And Karl will not kill innocent people.”

“He's too honorable.” She said it without bitterness; said it with a smile.

“One of the reasons you love him. One of the reasons I love him.”

Maria's smile faded.

Xiesha gave her a knowing look. “I am not competition.”

“I'm sorry. It's just…he's not here. And I've always been a bitch…aggressive about what I think is mine.”

Xiesha looked out the window at the dark countryside again, but she continued to talk in her soft, musical voice. “I had no love for you when Karl brought you into his world. I advised him to send you out to your Master. I believed you a chink in Karl's armor I couldn't protect him from.”

“I remember that.”

Xiesha nodded. “However, I was right and I was wrong. You
are
a chink in his armor, in a way, but you make him stronger at the same time. While it might have been tactically sound to advise against letting you into our world, in the end the mistake was mine, and Karl was a better judge of you than I.” She smiled slightly. “But then again, I have never been human.”

An answering smile spread on Maria's face. “Sometimes you do a better job of it than others.”

“My point is that Karl is
ours
. We belong to him. He belongs to us.”

They were silent for a long time. She swung the car around east on 140, meaning to hit 495 north before swinging east again on I-90 and back to Boston well before sunrise.

“It's strange you should say that, because I miss my family too.” She suddenly wished she had a cigarette. Weird, because she hadn't felt the need since she'd Turned. “What's an Italian without family?” Her laughter sounded harsh in her own ears. “I don't care if it's dysfunctional or not—I need one.”

“We are your family now. We are a pack, as the wolves say.”

Neither of them spoke again on the drive back to the warehouse. Maria parked inside. Xiesha picked up the shotgun and opened the car door, but Maria caught her arm. Xiesha's skin tingled against her palm as if it held an electric current. “I need to find Karl. He's the only thing that matters anymore. I've been dreaming he's in trouble. If Cojocaru's really coming here, then Karl needs us.”

Xiesha hesitated. “Scrying hasn't worked. Our last option carries huge risk. Tearing through space-time dimensions. If I break the Seam, the Threshers will know. But if we agree, I shall take the risk and open a wormhole in the brane.”

Fighting a Thresher was not a memory she was ever likely to forget. “If one comes after us, can we kill it?”

“Possibly.” Xiesha paused and considered again. “Probably. We'll need many of Karl's weapons. But if we're prepared, I believe we can win.”

As far as she was concerned, there wasn't any other choice. “Let's fucking do it.”

“Then we need to set up. Choose a location. Set wards. Bring weapons.”

Maria clenched her fists in anticipation. “God, it feels
good
to finally be doing something to get him back.” She grinned. “Can we do it tonight?”

Xiesha glanced at the clock and frowned. “There's not enough time to choose a site, gather supplies and create the matrix tonight. Not with the sun so close to rising, and I can't do this alone. It must be tomorrow night.”

Shit. She couldn't escape the feeling that Karl needed her
now
. Although, if he was on the ocean somewhere, there might be no way to get to him at all. She had to be patient. Do this the right way.

“All right then,” she said. “Tomorrow night.” She hesitated. “Hey, Xie…thanks. For talking. For everything.”

Xiesha shrugged—a gesture that made her seem perfectly human. “I should have a radio show.”