Rose of Jericho (Lilith Adams Series Book 2) (20 page)

Lilith slid her hands over her face as tears streamed from her eyes. She felt like she was losing her mind. Nightmares were nothing new, but this one…it had felt so damn real. What if it was real? What if Peisinoe could implant a latent command, turn him into a sleeper agent? She sounded like a paranoid nut job that should be fitted for a shiny new straight jacket.

A hand caressed over her shoulder, shocking her out of her muddled thoughts. Lilith screamed and shoved the hand away as she ducked out of the corner. “Please don’t. I just…I can’t.”

It still felt like his hand was clamped around her neck. Her chest was burning and she quickly gasped for air. A wave of dizziness hit Lilith like a mac truck and she scrambled to latch onto the dresser. Her hands slid uselessly along the top, sending her crashing hard to the ground.

Lilith gasped and wheezed, her hands grabbing for her throat. There was nothing there. It was just a good ole’ fashioned panic attack. A panic attack that felt like it was ripping apart her lungs. Her vision was already spotty and blurring as she hunched over trying to draw in breath.

“God, Lilith. Please. You need to calm down. It was all just a nightmare.” As his voice got closer, it got harder and harder for Lilith to breathe. She clawed along the cheap carpet, trying to escape, but the pain in her chest was overwhelming. With a final desperate attempt to breathe, Lilith collapsed on the floor completely unconscious.

*                                         *                                            *

There were muffled voices arguing somewhere in the background. Lilith moaned softly and shifted as the grogginess began to melt away. Hesitantly, she cracked one eye open. The sunlight streaming through the sheer curtains was absolutely blinding. With a harsh groan, she squeezed her eyes shut again. Her chest and throat still hurt but she seemed to be breathing just fine.

Lilith braved the light to glance at the alarm clock. Ten o’clock. Crap. The cops were supposed to call with the lab results around eight. She pushed herself up to sit on the edge of the bed and wiped at her sleepy eyes. The voices outside were getting louder. Cohen and Chance were arguing. Lilith crept towards the door and leaned against it, listening.

“I don’t know what the fuck happened, Cohen. She wouldn’t tell me. She just acted like I was trying to hurt her. She had a damn panic attack when I tried to help her up.” There was an angry volume to Chance’s voice but beneath that he just seemed heartbroken and lost. Lilith leaned her head against the door and choked back a few tears.

She was pretty certain that it had all just been a nightmare, but it had felt so real. Even now it was painfully clear in her mind. How can you be afraid of someone who has never actually hurt you? How can you be angry at a person for something they never did? It was all in her mind, but it was still so damn vivid.

“Well we don’t have time for her to visit a padded cell so let me just talk to her. Maybe the lab results will help her focus on something else. Take this and go get us some breakfast and don’t stop for flowers or candy or some other romantic nonsense on the way, Romeo.”

“Let it fucking go, Cohen. You want me to grab you some tampons while I’m out?” His smartass come back brought a smile to Lilith’s lips as she leaned against the door.

“Just go.”

Lilith waited until she heard Chance stalk away and opened the door on a surprised Cohen as he reached for the knob. The shock was quickly replaced by his usual cool, collected attitude.

“Good. You’re awake. We have a lot to talk about.” Cohen moved right past her and took a seat at the little table by the window.

“Good morning to you, too.” Lilith retorted as she closed the door, locked it and moved to sit on the edge of the bed.

Cohen shuffled a few papers that he spread over the table, then he turned in his chair to squarely face her and leaned forward on his knees. His pale blue eyes stared intently at her expectantly. “First, tell me what happened last night.”

Lilith shifted under his intent gaze and wrapped her arms around herself. “It was just a nightmare. I don’t really want to talk about it.”

Cohen’s eyes tightened. “I’m sorry. Did that sound like a question? You stopped breathing twice last night. Tell me about the nightmare.” His voice was firm and unrelenting. He wasn’t going to drop this. Still, it felt fundamentally wrong to confide in Cohen. She didn’t like the idea of letting Cohen into the inner workings of her messed up head.

On the other hand, she needed to hear from Cohen that it was in her head, that there was no way Peisinoe could have actually been there. With a heavy sigh, Lilith reluctantly shared her side of last night’s events. He studied her face the entire time with no signs of any surprise, disgust or emotion. He simply sat there, taking in the whole story much to Lilith’s relief. When she was finished, he simply nodded in understanding.

“Peisinoe threatened you didn’t she? That’s what Chance was all pissed about when we arrived at the office building.”

Lilith swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded weakly.

Cohen released a short sigh and leaned back in his chair. His sky blue eyes watched her expectant face with a calculated look. “I can assure you that Peisinoe was not here. She is constantly under heavy guard and she’s only allowed to go where Farren directs her. He must have massive leverage on her because she’s never even contemplated talking back to him much less running off. Also, she cannot alter memories, nor can she implant latent commands. I hope that brings you some comfort.”

Lilith was honestly surprised by his reaction. While she was excessively grateful for the information, she was just as grateful that he wasn’t trying to coddle her injured emotions. He simply stuck to the facts and left the psychological stuff alone. It was precisely what she needed to hear.

“Thanks.” Lilith muttered the word and drew her knees up on the bed. “Can we talk about those lab results now?” Anything to draw the attention off of her and her messed up brain.

“Of course.” Cohen nodded very matter of fact and immediately returned his attention to the papers on the table. “You may want to take a look. I’m not sure I understand most of it.”

Lilith pulled herself off the bed and took the second chair at the table. She was infinitely happy to bury herself in scientific facts and figures.

“Okay. So some of this stuff seemed pretty normal. The trace from the wounds on the back of the head are right here.” He pushed one sheet towards her. It was exactly what she thought. “It seems it was just asphalt, gravel and mud from the alley. Nothing unexpected.”

“What about the trace on the rest of the wounds, especially the teeth? Was there anything biological? Any salvageable DNA?” Lilith leaned forward in her chair, eager to see the report. She wanted to solve this puzzle.

“That’s where it gets weird.” Cohen shoved a couple pages toward her with a completely confused face. “It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Lilith scanned through the mass spec results and frowned in confusion. “The tissue caught on the teeth is human tissue. Dead human tissue.”

“Well yeah, of course it’s dead. It’s no longer attached. How is that a revelation?”

Lilith couldn’t help but chuckle. “True, but this tissue is already considerably decomposed, which means it’s been dead for quite a while.”

Cohen leaned his elbows on the table, his brow furrowed deep in thought. “So…what? They shoved something dead in his mouth? Or a dead man tore him apart?”

“Unless you know something I don’t about the realistic chances of zombies existing, I’d say that would be a no.” She started it in a joking tone, but it ended up sounding more like a question.

“Uh, no. I’ve never heard of a zombie actually existing unless you count that one guy in Florida who was high on bath salts.”

“Actually his tox results came back clean. Personally, I think he was just freaking bat-shit crazy. Also, he was very much alive when he attacked that poor guy’s face. The tissue must have been planted or have some other reason for being there. What else do we have?”

“Well, there was a lot of dirt found in the wounds. The analysis is on the bottom there.” Cohen pointed at the graph on the bottom of the second page.

“Hmmm, very high carbon monoxide and ammonium and the presence of lipids. Someone is going through a lot of trouble.”

“What does that mean?”

“Well I’m not familiar with the normal chemical composition of the soil around here, but this suggests that it’s soil from a grave. Of course, the missing hearts could be part of some sort of ritual. Perhaps these grave elements are part of that ritual. We definitely aren’t dealing with your average, garden variety assassin.”

“It must be some sort of scare tactic. Psychological warfare. I’m sure our third cat burglar is running scared. Speaking of which, we have ID’s on our two John Does. I think the home addresses will look somewhat familiar.”

Lilith grabbed the last couple pieces of paper and looked them over. “They’re both from New York City? What the hell are the odds of that?”

Cohen shrugged. “It’s not that far away from here. There are plenty of people desperate for money with loose moral values there. Plus you have the major crime syndicates with trained thugs for hire. I don’t know. Doesn’t seem that odd to me. It makes sense not to use locals for a robbery of this sort.”

“Well if our two vics are both from NYC then it’s reasonable to assume that our mystery brain of the operation is also from there. It would make sense to assemble a crew and head up here together. This means we need to head to the Big Apple. I need to see their apartments. Maybe we can find some sort of connection that can help us find the missing mastermind.”

“All right then. As soon as we eat breakfast, I’ll get a new rental car, we can pack up, check out and head there. I will suggest that we do not go anywhere familiar. We can’t go to your apartment, Chance’s place, Gregor’s or any work place. The council will know and they won’t like it.”

“That could still work. I have police connections there, of course, and since I can’t go in to the station, there is an alternative. I have a new partner. I got a few voicemails from her. Since I’ve never met her, the Council shouldn’t know much about her, if anything. She can help us out with research or even lab requests if need be.”

“Well that works out quite nicely.” Cohen cracked a slight smile and leaned back in his chair. There was something else on his mind, but he either didn’t want to voice it or didn’t know how. Lilith was perfectly happy not to know. She was already feeling better with real facts to work with even if they didn’t all make sense.

There was a knock at the door that rattled Lilith’s nerves. She busily studied the notes in front of her, leaving Cohen to swing the door open. Her eyes caught on one last report that Cohen had failed to mention. “
Selaginella lepidophylla
.”

Andrew frowned at her as he swung the door open. “I’m sorry, what?”

“The bits of plant that I found on the victim. That’s the scientific name. Common name is Rose of Jericho.” She dropped the paper on the table, her brow furrowed in confusion. “I’ve never heard of it.”

“The resurrection fern.” Chance’s Cajun-flecked voice rumbled from the doorway where he stood with a couple McDonalds bags and two cup carriers full of drinks. His signature black T-shirt hung from his leanly muscled 6’3” frame and his new jeans hung attractively on his hips. Yesterday it would have made her pulse race with desire. Today her pulse quickened in anxiety.

Lilith glanced up at the frustrated look on his face and quickly looked back down at the report. “That doesn’t sound very common.”

Chance placed the food and drinks on the table and Lilith automatically scooted her chair back a fraction. The memory of his crushing strength and that vacant look was still just too fresh even if it hadn’t been real. It had felt extremely real to her.

Chance swallowed hard as his jaw clenched. He pulled out his share of food and claimed an orange juice and a coffee. “It’s not found at all in these parts. It’s a desert fern.” He retreated to the far corner of the bed and he wasn’t exactly reassured to see Lilith slowly relax into her chair. He knew she was scared of him, he just didn’t know why. Of course, Lilith wasn’t sure that knowing why would help him at all. How could he make up for something he’d never done? And how could she erase the memory of something that had seemed so real that she’d actually stopped breathing…twice?

“You are the strangest dictionary I have ever seen.” Cohen couldn’t keep the surprise off his face.

“I’m no dictionary. It’s used a lot back home in Cajun country.”

Lilith felt a little tickle of excitement as she connected the dots. “Is it used for rituals?”

Chance nodded with a mouthful of McMuffin. “For death rituals, mostly speaking with the dead.”

Lilith’s face lit up as part of her puzzle clicked together. At least she had part of a theory, even if it seemed unlikely and outlandish. The evidence seemed to suggest that the killer used voodoo rituals to keep the dead men from speaking. The crushed throats, the removed mandibles, it made an odd kind of sense. Ensure that the dead men tell no tales. It also made for the most bizarre assassin she could ever imagine.

Chapter 16

O
nce the revelations were over and there were no more facts to distract them, the rest of breakfast was beyond awkward. Chance would glance up at Lilith with a wounded look mingled with concern. Lilith would pretend not to notice and focus way too intensely on her hash brown as she picked it apart. It was absurd. She knew Chance could feel all the volatile emotions pinging around her brain but she couldn’t bring herself to explain it to him. Cohen simply watched each of them with an obnoxiously amused look on his face for a while.

“I can’t take this anymore. The anticipation is just killing me.” Cohen’s words immediately caught Lilith’s attention, sending a stab of panic through her. He had echoed Peisinoe’s words in the dream almost exactly and left her suddenly short of breath.

Cohen crumpled up a wrapper and turned his attention to Chance. Lilith started to protest, but maybe Cohen explaining would be easier. Oh who the hell was she kidding? Cohen would take way too much enjoyment in it. Before Lilith could interrupt, Cohen just barreled ahead.

“Stop looking like a dog that’s been kicked. You didn’t do anything wrong. She just had a really vivid nightmare that Peisinoe seduced you into strangling her. That’s why she stopped breathing. That’s why she had a panic attack trying to get away from you. There. The band-aid has been ripped off.” Cohen returned to his coffee and casually stirred in a packet of sugar.

Chance swung his gaze over to Lilith as it all sunk in. “Jesus,
Cher
. That’s what’s she threatened you with, isn’t it? At the airport?
Mon petit Cherie
, I would never hurt you and I’d never let that bitch…”

“Stop right there.” Cohen glanced up from his coffee with a firm look and held up a hand. “I may not like you much, Chance, but you are a man of your word. Do not make promises that you have no prayer of keeping. If Peisinoe was here and she wanted you to crush Lilith’s throat and smile while you did it, nothing you could do would stop it. It’s not something you can beat through pure willpower. If she wants control, she has it. Period.”

“Cohen.” Lilith’s voice was quiet but just loud enough to catch his attention. “I appreciate the honesty but maybe you could try not to beat him over the head with it?”

Cohen blinked in genuine surprise and then chuckled at his coffee.  He slapped the lid back on his cup and pushed away from the table. “I’m going to pick up a new rental car. If you want to sugar coat shit and tell each other a bunch of fake promises and hollow truths to pretend everything is hunky dory then be my guest. I suggest you pack up your stuff while you’re doing it.”

Cohen nodded to them both in some old fashioned acknowledgement and slipped out of the door leaving nothing but an awkward silence behind him. As much as Lilith hated to admit it, Cohen was right. Sugar coating things wouldn’t help. Only one thing would and that was time.

“Chance, don’t apologize and please don’t make promises. Cohen is right. You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s my problem, my stupid brain torturing me. I just need some time to get rid of the after effects. It still feels more like a memory than a dream.”

He nodded and picked at his breakfast sandwich. She didn’t blame him for being at a loss. If the roles were reversed, she wouldn’t know what the hell to say or do either.

“We still need to talk about how we’re gonna get leverage over Farren and his flunkies. Even if we find that book in New York, we need more. We need that box from Goditha.” He perched on the bed rubbing at his jaw, deep in thought.

Lilith nodded hesitantly. “The trick is getting to it without anyone knowing. I don’t even want Luminita to know. I realize Cohen trusts her implicitly, but even if she is exactly what she appears to be, it’s dangerous information.”

After a few more minutes of jaw rubbing, Chance ran his fingers through his chestnut hair. He had a plan, but judging by his body language, he definitely didn’t like it.

“Agreed. So here’s what I suggest.” Chance leaned forward on the bed, resting his elbows on his knees. He hesitated, his jaw clenching tight, brow furrowed in a determined scowl. Lilith instantly had the feeling that she wasn’t going to like his plan either.

“I’ll have Timothy meet up with us in New York. I’ll take his car, which shouldn’t be tracked, and haul ass down to Knoxville. Timothy can stay with you and Cohen to help out and fill the third spot. He’s roughly my height and a brunette so anyone with only a basic description could easily mistake him for me.”

“Chance, wait. You can’t go down there yourself.” What she really wanted to say was 'Don’t leave me alone with Cohen and Timothy', but it sounded far too selfish. “Besides, what am I supposed to tell Cohen? You went on a road trip so please don’t tell Luminita? No. I don’t like it. How are you gonna even pay for gas?”

Chance started to scoot closer, hesitated and settled for just leaning back on the bed. “Lily, you know I can take care of myself. Plus, if no one knows where I’m going then I’ll be safer than the rest of you. We need that cipher and those missing pages. It’s our only chance to avoid an execution. I’ll take Tim’s credit card to pay for things. Assuming we all live, I’ll pay him back. As for Cohen, I have no idea how to handle that. He’s smart. I’m pretty sure he’ll figure out where I’m going.”

Lilith hated to admit, but Chance was right. Her gut rebelled, but she couldn’t think of one valid reason why his plan wouldn’t work. “I still don’t like it, but I don’t see any other way. Timothy doesn’t have authorization to get in the lab and I wouldn’t trust Cohen with that info in a million years. Even if he could get in, he’d just use the cipher to save his own skin. I need to be in New York to work with my new partner, and figure out who our mystery burglars were working for.”

“That just leaves me.” Chance nodded and flashed a confident smile which faltered a bit around the edges. “Besides, you need…space to shake off this nightmare.”

“Not half the damn country, Chance.” Lilith frowned in frustration. She pushed herself out of the chair and started across the room with every intent of concurring her fear. It was just a stupid nightmare. She could beat it. The anxiety welled in her chest the closer she got to him, freezing her muscles and tightening her chest. She wanted to scream in exasperation.

Lilith stopped in front of the dresser and pulled open a drawer. Sure. That’s exactly what she was planning to do. She glanced behind her. Chance didn’t buy it either. “We should get packed up. It won’t take Cohen long to get a new car.”

“Sure.” His voice was somewhat shaky as he carefully slid across the bed and headed for the bathroom.

Lilith threw her stuff on the bed angrily. It wasn’t really directed anywhere in particular except her atrocious packing job and her damaged psyche. It seemed like whatever Ashcroft and Farren hadn’t taken away, her own mind was determined to get rid of.

              *                                          *                                          *

              The road trip for New Haven to New York was about as comfortable as trying to sunbathe on top a porcupine. Lilith curled up in the back seat, reading and re-reading the lab results, trying desperately to ignore the complicated silence that filled the stuffy rental car. Finally, they pulled up to a random hotel in downtown NYC around two in the afternoon.

              Cohen went into the lobby alone to reserve the rooms while Chance dialed Timothy’s number. Lilith stepped out of the car, popped the trunk and rifled through her forensic case. She hated listening to one side of a conversation, but more than anything, she just needed a few minutes to herself.

              Her fingers brushed over every piece of equipment, every package of swabs and bundle of evidence bags. This was familiar, calming, the one constant in her life. No matter who came and went in her life, she would always have the job. Usually it was a completely useless, pointless job, but it was hers.

              A sudden dart of panic prickled in her chest as she realized that Gregor’s death could mean more than just losing her father. Who was going to run his businesses? Hell, she didn’t even know what they were much less how to run them. How involved was he with the various labs? Duncan was gone too so who was left? What about Gregor’s plans to take their race public? Could she actually handle that? Suddenly, it felt like she had a giant trying to ride piggyback on her shoulders.

              Lilith snapped her case closed, overwhelmed with a hundred questions that she didn’t even know how to find the answers to. As the trunk closed, she shook her throbbing head. No. She couldn’t think about all this. She needed to focus with laser precision on the case at hand. It wouldn’t matter who took over Gregor’s various roles if they all died.

              The sound of the car door opening and closing thankfully snapped her out of her thoughts. Chance stood stiffly right by his door, keeping his distance. Part of her was grateful but the other half was melancholy about the whole thing. Just looking him in the eye made her chest tight.

“So Timothy is still freaking out but I haven’t filled him in on anything yet. I just told him I needed his car with a full tank of gas and his credit card. After promising to tell him what the hell is going on, he finally agreed to meet up with us. He’ll be at the Brooklyn Diner on 43
rd
at 6 o’clock. He didn’t sound exactly thrilled with letting go of his precious Honda Accord or his card, but he knows it has to be important for me to ask.”

              Lilith’s nose wrinkled instinctually. “The Brooklyn Diner? Why? That’s right in the middle of tourist town.”

              Chance leaned his back against the car and shrugged his shoulders. “The man has a sweet tooth. Loves that Noodle Kugel crap.”

              Lilith laughed softly as her eyes drifted to the lobby doors. When she looked back, Chance casually slid his hand towards hers and that dart of panic stabbed through her. The thought of his warm hand tightening around her neck stole her breath and she instinctually backed up. Her eyes met his and she saw the sudden sadness in his hazel eyes. She wanted to say something, anything to take that look away, but all words in the world wouldn’t make a bit of difference if she jumped away every time he tried to touch her.

              “Hey! Got the rooms.” Cohen’s voice shattered the awkward moment as he casually jogged toward them. Lilith wiped at her face as if trying to remove the nightmare from her head. She tugged on a hollow smile and walked toward Cohen, leaving Chance behind her. The guilt was starting to hurt worse than the nightmare, and she already had more guilt weighing on her shoulders than an entire catholic parish.

“Before you start bitching, they don’t have ground floor rooms.”  Cohen flashed a smug smile at Chance that was actually meant to be friendly. Odd. “Guess you’ll have to deal with the 14
th
floor.” Cohen smiled and waited for the smartass comeback, but none came. Chance was lost in his own thoughts and just grunted in frustration at the demon. Cohen frowned, perplexed by not getting a rise out of him. His cool blue eyes swung to Lilith and he lightly shook his head.

Cohen slapped a keycard into Lilith’s hand and gave her a very significant look. “You can’t let Peisinoe in your head like this. She’s under guard in Alabama. I need your head in the game, Lilith. What I don’t need is a pair vampires that are more useless than the sparkling emo vamps in Hollywood. Do what it takes to snap out of it.”

Lilith simply nodded and took the key before heading back to the trunk of the car. He was absolutely, one hundred percent right. She was letting the siren’s threat control her. Of course that was precisely what Peisinoe wanted, but it sure as hell didn’t mean Lilith had to give it to her.

She grabbed her luggage and her forensic case before heading into the hotel lobby. She could hear whispered words behind her, but she ignored them. There was no magic wand she could wave to erase the memories, whether they were real or not. She just had to block it all out for now and concentrate. They had the addresses for the two guys in the morgue. They needed information and she had work to do.

*                                            *                                            *

Thirty minutes later, Cohen, Chance and Lilith parked their rental car on a busy street in Queens. The dilapidated neighborhood looked like it was straight out of Coming to America. There was a cluster of gang members huddled together on one of the stoops, a homeless guy in a threadbare coat pushing a shopping cart full of random junk, even a few eager working girls getting an early start to the evening. Street parking only meant they had to park five blocks away. Joy of joys.

Cohen straightened his tie and smoothed down his suit as he eyed the rough street. He actually looked nervous. Sure, there was graffiti on the brickwork, trash littering the sidewalks and gutters, and tons of rotten wood and cracked paint. Still, it was a far cry from the ghettos of Philadelphia. At least 80 percent of these buildings had functional roofs that weren’t collapsing.

“Classy neighborhood, huh?” Lilith grabbed her kit and started down the sidewalk fearlessly. Just two weeks ago she would have waited for the cover of night and snuck inside while jumping at every sound. Now she had bigger things to worry about than a bunch of thugs. She’d met the boogeymen that go bump in the night face to face. Hell, her nightmares were scarier than this street. Plus she had a big, strong bodyguard behind her and a demon next to her. It randomly occurred to her that she had no idea how old Cohen really was. With their regenerative gifts, he could be as old as her father or even older.