wrong person.
The body he was using held the door for us. “Come inside, out of the heat.”
Rocco and I looked at each other; then we lowered our hands, slowly, and went for the door. Neither of us looked back; we wanted to give our eyes as much time as possible to adjust to the darker interior of the club.
The dancers were huddled in the center of the room, at the chairs where the customers usually sat. They looked up hopefully as we entered, but the jinn with the knives was in front of us, and that got our attention. It was tempting to have Rocco say the words now, but I was certain if we did that, he’d kill some of his other hostages. Our goal was to get them all out, not just part, so we waited for a better moment. I admit that staring into the nothingness that was holding all those blades was hard. Turning our backs on it was harder, but we followed the man.
I felt the air move close to me and jerked back instinctively. I felt the passage of wind. A different jinn had tried to touch me. The man said, “You avoided his touch; not many humans are fast enough or psychic enough for that, but then you aren’t human, are you?”
I ignored the question, but I swear that the jinn’s attention wasn’t as neutral now. I’d almost say hostile, but maybe that was just nerves talking. Maybe.
Rocco whispered, “I don’t think they like you now.”
“You feel it, too.”
“Oh, yes.”
The man opened the door and held it for us, with a smile. I moved ahead of Rocco, as we’d discussed. Vittorio wanted me alive; he didn’t have the same feeling about the sergeant. So he had to bite his pride and let me take the most chances. Besides, we needed him alive to say the words over the jinn.
The back room was as I’d seen it through Vittorio’s eyes. Rick and Brianna were on their feet, arms stretched to the ceiling, where they were chained. Brianna was crying; her robe had come undone, and she was as naked underneath as she had been that first night when Ted and I were here. She stared at me over the tape that cut across her face. I could feel her terror coming off her in waves. It stirred the beasts inside me, and I told them to be quiet. For once, they listened. Rick wasn’t afraid, he was pissed. In fact, he was so angry, I wondered why he hadn’t shifted yet.
Ava was near Rick. She had a knife in her hand and played it along his skin as I watched. She didn’t cut him, just caressed him with it. There were weretigers scattered throughout the room. Their energy hummed through the air like wires stripped down, so you could feel the bite of it if you got too close. Most of them looked blank, as if waiting for instructions. How many people could he control at once, and how well?
I forced myself to see the room slowly, and not go straight to Requiem. I didn’t want to give Vittorio any more reason to hurt him. The more I cared, the more danger Requiem was in.
But Vittorio wasn’t standing by the table; he was sitting on the edge of the bed with Max and Bibiana. He’d stripped from the waist up so that his scars were very, very visible. They’d transferred Bibiana to the bed, she was tied with her hands above her head, around one bedpost, so that her body crossed one of Max’s arms, where his one arm was still tied to the one post. Her feet were chained to one of the bed legs, but she was short enough that her legs didn’t cross her husband’s body at the legs. She looked pale and delicate, a cliche princess waiting for rescue. Max was missing his shirt. Apparently, we’d had a little striptease while they waited, but he had kept his word. There was no new damage to their bodies, just some of their clothes.
“We’re here. Now what?”
“I want what I’ve wanted since I invited you to Vegas with my gift.”
“You mean the human head in a box?”
He smiled happily and nodded.
“Next time, just send a box of chocolates,” I said.
“Oh, but any man can do that. I thought my gift would be unique.”
I smiled, and could feel that it wasn’t a good smile. “Actually, I did receive a head in a basket once, as a gift.”
The smile was just gone, like it hadn’t existed. The old ones could do that-expression, then nothing in the blink of an eye. “Well, then, Anita, I will have to do something to prove myself unique among your admirers.”
I would have given a lot to take back that smart-ass comment. It had been true, but I could still have kept it to myself.
“Oh, trust me, this invitation was unique.”
“No, Anita, you’re right, I must try harder.” He was angry with me, as if I’d insulted him. “Let us play a game.”
“We came here to negotiate for the release of hostages,” Rocco said.
“And so we shall, Sergeant.” He patted Max’s bare stomach. “Come closer so you can see.”
We hesitated.
“Here is the first rule. When you make me repeat myself, something happens to one of your hostages.”
There was a sound from the other side of the room. Ava was carving a new cut down Rick’s chest. He didn’t scream, but a small sound had escaped him. Ava raised the blade to her mouth and licked the blood delicately away.
I turned back to Vittorio.
“You are not frightened or even impressed. I take it you’ve seen something similar before?”
I had, actually, more than once. Out loud, I said, “I don’t know what reaction you want from me; just tell me and I’ll try to give it to you.”
“What is the first rule?” he asked.
“That if we make you repeat your requests, you’ll have someone hurt.”
“Here is the second rule. I will offer you a chance to do something pleasant; if you refuse, then I will do something painful to the person instead. Is that clear enough, officers?”
I said, “Crystal.”
Rocco said, “Yes.”
“Come over beside the bed, both of you.”
We did it this time, no hesitating. We stood at the end of the bed on its raised dais, looking at Max and his wife, and the smiling sociopath beside them.
“Anita, give Max a kiss.”
“If I don’t?” I asked.
He drew a blade out from underneath the covers. “I will bleed him; one cut for one refusal.”
I took a breath in, then out. It seemed a small request, but I was betting that the requests wouldn’t stay small. “Okay, but if we do this, then you release one of the hostages.”
“For a kiss, it would have to be some kiss.”
I shrugged.
“If I refuse to free someone, are you prepared to watch me slice up the Master of the City?”
I thought furiously, and just didn’t know what to do. Vittorio made a shallow cut across Max’s stomach.
“I didn’t say no.”
“You broke rule number one. You hesitated. Now I’ll ask you again: kiss Max or I cut him.”
I just went to the bed, walked wide around Vittorio, and climbed up beside Max. I looked down into his blue eyes and said, “Sorry, Max.” I leaned over and laid a kiss across his taped mouth.
“Well, you did do what I asked, but that is hardly worth the release of a hostage.” He tapped the blade against his leg.
“Do you want me to kiss him better?”
“Take off the tape, and show me some of that talent I know you have.”
Bibiana made a sound through her tape. I looked across at her. “Sorry, Bibiana.” I took the tape off Max’s mouth.
“He’s going to kill us anyway, you know that.”
“Now, Max, what did I say about talking?”
“You said no talking back to you. I’m talking to Anita.”
“True.”
