Siren Song

comfortable around ghosts.

“Are you ready?” I asked my sister’s spirit.

The overhead light flickered once in response.

“Wait. Let me see if I can summon nine-one-one mentally.” He set his drink into the little recess made for it. “Because if they really are police, you’ll be resisting arrest and I’ll be an accomplice. They’d have every right to shoot to kill. Both of us.”

He wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know, so I didn’t comment. I just waited and watched. There wasn’t much to see. He leaned back in the cushions, closing his eyes, the very picture of relaxed concentration. That lasted all of thirty seconds or so, until he grabbed his head in both hands and screamed.

My adrenaline began racing anew as he doubled over and began throwing up everything he’d even thought of ingesting in the last twenty-four hours. That was the last straw. I spun in my seat and kicked the door with every ounce of strength, fully intending to pull the doctor out with me. The door mechanism gave way from sheer brute force, just as I expected, but I hadn’t anticipated the strength of the magical barrier. Normally, magic only prevents magical creatures from passing through. But this kicked the door right back at me as if it had reached the end of a bungee cord. The door caught my legs so suddenly and painfully that I tumbled backward, winding up crumpled against the opposite door, just barely missing the growing pool of vomit.

The door was now hanging at a slight angle and wasn’t latched. But it wasn’t open.

Shit.

I ignored my throbbing calf muscles as I crawled back onto the seat. I used one of the bottled waters from the bar to wet some napkins and handed them to Jeff so he could wipe his face. There wasn’t much we could do about the mess. It stank hideously to my newly supernatural nose and was generally disgusting to my still-human sensibilities. The wake had been at a Mexican restaurant known for spicy food and apparently he’d had copious amounts of tequila. Not pleasant. I scooted away as far as the seat would allow.

I heard the click and static of a speaker and a distorted male voice came over the intercom, just as the doctor screamed a second time. His face was contorted out of proportion, and this time even I could feel the psychic wave that invisibly assaulted him. “We’ve prepared for every eventuality, including your talents, Dr. Scott. Miss Graves, I’d suggest you not try any other foolish pranks or any mental manipulation—brain damage would be a very real possibility.” The speaker clicked off.

Shit. These definitely weren’t the cops.

Dr. Scott collapsed onto the cushions. His eyes were glazed and his breathing shallow and ragged. “Jeff? Are you all right?” Stupid question. Of course he wasn’t. But it’s what you say in situations like this.

It took him a minute to answer and when he did his voice was hoarse. “Do I look all right to you?” He glared up at me.

All I could do was shrug, embarrassed. He might not have gotten the second dose if I hadn’t kicked the door. “Sorry.”

“Give me a minute.” He had another bout of dry heaves. They sounded painful enough to make me feel really bad for him. More than a little guilty, too. When he finally finished, he moved carefully to a spot as far from the vomit as he could get, sinking limply into the seat.

“Um . . . can you see?” I asked him.

“Yes. Why?”

“You’ve broken some blood vessels in your eyes.” Actually, he’d broken most of them. His eyes didn’t have whites. They had reds. That was going to hurt soon. Badly.

“Terrific.” He sighed, closing his eyes. “At least I got a few things from his mind as he was attacking me.”

Really? Wow. Tough guy, after all.

“They’re not with the police. But they have someone on the inside, someone who gave them access to squad cars from the repair lot.”

I opened my mouth to get Ivy started, but apparently he wasn’t finished.

“Originally, they really were just going to deliver you to the state facility. Your future roommate has been paid to kill you. After I climbed in the car with you, they called the person in charge and there was a change of plans.”

His voice was a whisper that I probably wouldn’t have been able to pick up if I were still a vanilla human. There was a thread of rage running through it. They might have hurt him, but he wasn’t out of the fight yet. Assuming he didn’t go into psychic shock, which, looking at him, he just might. “Oh?”

“They’re going to kill me and make it look like you did it, then claim they had to kill you in self-defense.”

Great. Why wasn’t I surprised? “You got all of that in a couple of seconds? I’m impressed.” I meant it. The human brain is a maze. At any given time most people are thinking one primary thing, but there’s all kinds of stuff going on in the background, autonomic physical functions, background sights and sounds that the conscious mind filters out but the subconscious records. It takes real skill and strong talent to pull out individual threads from the mess. Jeff had barely had any time to work with and had come up with the jackpot . . . while being tortured.

“Nice work.”

He kept on talking, fast and low, like he had to get it all out in case they noticed his lips moving. He was probably right. “The guy I looked in on had just been talking to the boss, so it was at the front of his consciousness. I’d have gotten more if he hadn’t caught me at it. That was probably why they attacked me the second time.”

Maybe. But I figured I was sort of at fault, too. “You did good.” Of course he knew that. “I’m sorry you got hurt.”

“I’ll live.” He didn’t really look like he believed it, but—

“Here’s hoping we both will.” I took a deep breath. “You ready?”

Jeff wedged himself into the corner, one arm pressed hard against the gray leather seat, trying to make it seem casual in case they were watching through the tinted glass. Then he pushed his other hand against the cabin wall. He still looked like hell. Pale, with beads of sweat on his forehead. But his expression was determined and he gave me a curt nod.

“Okay, Ivy, do it.”

It took about a ten count before the car lurched left, hard enough to send me sliding across the slick leather. She’d chosen the tires. The force of the move to the side told me she’d gotten both on one side. I whispered to the cool breeze that flitted around, proud of herself, “Attagirl!” Our speed slowed and the driver moved over to the side of the road. Out of the corner of my eye, through the tinted partition, I saw the limo driver reach over to flick the intercom button.

“Don’t try anything stupid.” He turned to glare at us in the rearview mirror, then turned it down as he swept his jacket aside, giving me a good look at a very nice Glock.

I hoped he thought the flat tires were random chance, that they hadn’t been listening in on my thoughts. I wanted the element of surprise if I could get it. Because while I’d tried to act confident for Jeff’s benefit, the truth was that I could barely dignify this by calling it a plan. It was more the equivalent of a last-second Hail Mary pass.

“Too late for that,” Jeff muttered, but without heat. Finding out that he was scheduled to die seemed to have given him a totally different outlook on making an escape attempt.

I leaned over and grabbed the champagne bottle and a glass. The glass was for show. The driver was watching through the glass as he dialed his cell phone. Let him think I needed another drink. I adjusted my position under the skylight as carefully as I could manage without being obvious. Tensing my muscles, I dropped the glass and started shaking the bottle vigorously. The driver had his back to us now, talking on his cell phone—which worked. Since I hadn’t felt the magic go down, the front of the car wasn’t covered by the spell. Which meant it was probably fifty-fifty odds whether the trunk and tires were. Crap. “Remember, as soon as the barrier goes down, try dialing nine-one-one.” I sounded more confident than I felt. Not that that took much.

Jeff flicked a thumbs-up at me. He already had his cell phone out and I could see the numbers displayed prominently on the screen. All he had to do was press “send.” I was gathering my strength, making sure of my placement. I can do this. I almost believed me, but it wouldn’t be easy.

Keeping the driver in my peripheral vision, I strained the power that let me sense magic to the fullest. Luck