turned away. From the jail, a loud claxon started hooting, and the lot was suddenly bathed in a harsh glow of blue krypton bulbs. Where in hell have they been?
Calm and soothing, the mass murderer coolly got his screaming child from the ruined van. Singing a lullaby, he looked to his wife.
“Ivy,” I breathed, seeing her down and unmoving. Mia was kneeling beside her with her back to me, her blue coat spread, looking like the wings of a bird covering her prey. Staggering, I started for them, yelling, “Get away from her!”
Remus got there first, and with one hand, he yanked Mia up.
“Let me go!” the woman yelled, fighting him, but he dragged her to Tom’s running car, opening the passenger- side door and nearly throwing her in. Holly’s crying competed with the jail’s alarm system, but her cries became faint when Remus handed her to Mia and slammed the door. Giving me a sour look, he paced to the other side and got in. The engine roared. Tom rolled out of the way as Remus gunned it, headed for the road. Frozen slush pelted us, and they were gone.
Feeling as if my heart was going to explode, I got to Ivy, and fell to kneel in the pressed snow. “Oh my God, Ivy. Ivy!” I exclaimed, turning her over and pulling her upright, against me. Her head lolled, and her eyes were shut. Her skin was pale, and her hair was in her face. “Don’t you leave me, Ivy! I can’t live with you being dead!” I shouted. “Ivy, you hear me?”
Oh God. Please no. Why do I have to live like this?
Tears were falling from me, and I choked back a sob when her eyes opened. They were brown, and I rejoiced. She wasn’t dead, or undead, or whatever. White and pale, she looked up at me, eyes glassy and not seeing. In her grip was a faded purple ribbon with a coin laced on it. Her fingers gripped it as if it was life itself, holding on with a white-knuckled strength. “I got it back,” she rasped, victory in her vacant gaze. “She doesn’t deserve love.”
The building behind us was still making that awful noise, and I could hear men coming this way. Ivy took a breath, then another. “I need…Rachel?” she whispered, and then her focus on me cleared. “Shit,” she breathed, and I held her closer, rocking her and knowing she was still alive. She hadn’t died, and I wasn’t holding an undead.
“You’re going to be all right,” I said, not knowing if it was the truth. She looked so pale.
“I’m not. I have to have it,” Ivy said, and I looked at her, seeing the tears making tracks down her face and her fangs wet with saliva. It was obvious what she was talking about. Blood. She needed blood. Vampires were the banshee’s closest relative, and they had a way to replenish auras. They took them in when they fed. Ivy needed blood.
Unafraid, I pulled her farther up off the pavement, and she started to cry in earnest, knowing she couldn’t be the person she wanted and mourning the loss of a dream. “I wanted to be clean, but I can’t,” she said as I rocked her. “Every time I try to be someone else, I fail. I need it,” she said, eyes glowing black. “But not you. Not you,” she begged even as her eyes started to dilate and her hunger took hold. “I’d rather die than have you give me your blood. I love you, Rachel. Don’t give me your blood. Promise me-you won’t give me your blood.”
“You’re going to be all right,” I said, frantic. I could smell antifreeze from the busted Chevy, and the faint smell of hot engine was fading.
“Promise me,” she said, trying to touch my face. “I don’t want you to give me your blood. Promise me, damn it!”
Shit. I looked up, only now seeing the flashlights and the men behind them. My bag with my keys was across the aisle. “I promise.”
There was a crunching of boots on ice, and from behind me came an authoritative “Ma’am, get away from the woman. Lie down and put your face on the pavement! Keep your fingers spread and where I can see them!”
Face wet with tears, I looked up and behind me into the bright security lights, seeing a big shadow behind it. “Go ahead and shoot me!” I screamed. “I’m not letting go of her!”
“Ma’am,” the voice said, and the light dropped to Ivy, then back to me.
“She’s been hurt!” I exclaimed. “I was just in your offices, you idiots. Check your security tapes. You know who I am. You watched the entire thing. You think I ran that jack-shit car into myself!”
“Ma’am-” he tried again.
I started to get up, dragging Ivy with me. “If you call me that one more time,” I huffed, straining until I got her upright, leaning against the SUV.
“Down! Get down!” someone shouted.
A boom shifted the air, and I jerked Ivy closer, managing to keep both of us on our feet. The man with the light turned it toward the sound of the explosion. Men and women were shouting, and the guy with the light looked ticked off that he wasn’t involved. A purplish green haze of Tom’s aura covered a nearby decorated tree, and my stomach turned as the tree started to steam and dissolve. The holiday lights flickered and went out. Holy crap! What had Al taught him?
My keys were in my bag, three cars away. “Stay here,” I told Ivy, and after seeing her leaning upright, under her own power, I started for my keys. “That’s Tom Bansen,” I said as I walked between the man and the sight of the melting tree. “He did this. You want answers, go talk to him. I’m in a city parking lot. You have no jurisdiction, and I’m leaving.” I scooped up my bag and got out my keys. The lethal-amulet detector was a bright, shiny red. No kidding. “You want my ID?” I said as I headed back to Ivy. “It’s in your file. Have a freaking nice day and a happy New Year!”
Shifting my shoulder under Ivy’s arm, we started for my car. Her feet dragged through the puddle of antifreeze, and she was starting to pant. Leaving her leaning against the hood of my car, I opened it. She mumbled for her purse, and after helping her inside, I went back for it. I looked up at the click of a safety going off, but they couldn’t shoot me if I was just walking away.
“Ma’am!” the man tried again, and my blood pressure spiked. But a second voice intruded.
“Let her go. She’s been shunned.”
A bitter sensation filled me, but no one stopped me. “Hold on, Ivy,” I whispered as I got in my car and reached across to shut her door. “The hospital is right next door.”
“Rynn Cormel,” she said, eyes closed as tears coursed down her face. “Take me to Rynn. I don’t care about him. He’s just a vampire.”
Just a vampire? I hesitated, then fumbled with the key twice before I got it in the ignition and the car came to life. Around us, the security people were having fits. Apparently Tom had gotten away, and they didn’t have the authority to detain me.
“Rynn,” Ivy said, staring at me, her head propped up against the door. Her eyes were glassy, and hunger sent a shiver through me. It was starting to take hold. If not for her weakened state, she’d be having a much harder time.
“Okay,” I said, sniffing back my tears. I knew how she felt. She didn’t want to be this person, but to survive, she had to be. “I won’t let him hurt you.”
“Please hurry,” she said, shutting her eyes as they turned a full, hungry, vampire black. Her long pianist’s hand clenched on the door handle, and she pressed herself as far away from me as she could.
Lights on, I pulled out and headed for the exit. The speedometer crept upward, and I waited for a dizzy feeling, but it never came. Apparently Mia hadn’t taken enough from me to affect my balance, but a quick tap on a ley line told me I was still compromised and I dropped it before I threw up from the pain.
“Call him.” Ivy’s voice sent a chill through me. It was low and sultry, in wide contrast to her weakened state. “Use my phone.”
I was starting to see some traffic, and at a red light, I pulled her purse to me, finding her slim phone and opening it up. Five bars. How come my phone never has five bars? Eyeing the bright screen and the traffic light both, I scrolled through the numbers, then hit “RC.”
My heart pounded, and as the phone rang, the light changed and I pulled out into a snow-rimmed street. I didn’t get more than fifteen feet before the line clicked open and a cultured, interested voice said, “Yes, Ivy?”
Shit. I jiggled the phone closer, gunning the engine to make the next yellow light. “Ivy’s been hurt,” I said tersely. “She needs blood.”
Rynn Cormel made an odd sound. “Then give it to her, Rachel.”
Son of a bastard. “She doesn’t want my blood!” I said, looking at her and seeing her in pain. “She wants you. I’m bringing her to you, but I don’t know if she can make it.” I wiped my eyes when the streetlights went blurry. “That damn banshee got her. You’re going to keep her alive, or so help me, I’m going to kill you, Rynn Mathew
