Part 16 (1/2)
But she was still glad the Pair were getting the h.e.l.l out of her territory.
When she came into view David held out his hands, and she took them, stepping up to him and then turning, slightly, to draw him out onto the floor. One of his hands slid down her back to her waist and the other up to her chin, and she put her lips up to his, claiming his mouth fiercely enough to banish, she hoped, all thought of anything . . . or anyone . . . else. She pulled him with her into the song that pounded all around them, her fingernails scratching lightly through his s.h.i.+rt, her teeth tugging gently on his lower lip.
Miranda remembered once, in a philosophy cla.s.s, hearing about Plato's theory that humans once had had four arms, two heads, and four legs, but they had been split in half by the G.o.ds, and spent the rest of their lives seeking that sundered half with whom they fit so perfectly. At the time it had been a fanciful sort of story, ancient philosophy as written by Disney.
She believed it now.
She was exactly tall enough to rest her head on his shoulder, his arms reaching just right around her middle, hip locking into hip as if they had grown that way from the dark soil of some overgrown, night-blooming garden. She'd danced with him a dozen times and not once had there ever been any awkward b.u.mping; he grabbed her hand and spun her away, then back, and she was laughing at the ridiculousness of such a ballroom move in the middle of a floor crowded with youngsters, but when she came back to him she fit just where she had been, and the electrical charge of that contact nearly tore a gasp from her throat.
One hand circling her waist, he tilted her back, and she bent almost double, her hair sweeping the floor. There were, of course, people watching; if anyone in this room knew vampires existed, they knew these two, and knew that the connection between them was stronger than the forces that held atoms together and kept the moon spinning around the earth.
She wanted desperately to drag him into a corner of the room and wrap herself around him, but as the song came to an end and his mouth found hers again, she barely had time to immerse herself in the delirium of the kiss before a familiar, and unwelcome, sound broke into the moment.
”d.a.m.n it,” David hissed, pulling his lips away to look down at his phone.
His gaze jerked up to her. ”It's Kat.”
”Answer it!” Miranda felt cold dread falling as a stone into her belly.
As David said ”Star-one,” another noise shrilled out, this one a network alarm.
”Faith!” Miranda all but yelled into her com. ”I need you!”
”Here,” the Second said, appearing beside her almost instantly. ”What's happening?”
”Coordinates,” Miranda said to David, who was trying to call Kat back and getting no answer. He switched the screen to his view of the network sensor grid and drew a line with his finger over the screen, spinning the diagram around to match their location.
”Not far from here,” David said. ”Faith, get a team to East Seventh and Comal immediately.”
Faith didn't even bother replying; she simply darted away, already issuing orders into her com, her stiletto heels. .h.i.tting the floor with as much purpose as her usual combat boots. Meanwhile, Miranda had her phone out and was trying to get Kat, but it kept going right to voice mail.
Fear rose in her throat. ”Kat . . . Kat . . . David, something's wrong, we have to find her . . .”
David pulled her off the dance floor, over to a clear s.p.a.ce by the bar where Jonathan and Deven were drinking. Both Prime and Consort looked startled at David's grim expression and her rapidly spiraling panic.
David was still staring down at his phone. ”Her signal dropped off here, but her call came half a block away, so we can a.s.sume she's being taken north-”
”There's no time for your d.i.c.king around,” Deven snapped, and for once Miranda wanted to hug him. ”You. Me. Mist. Now.”
David looked up, shocked, but nodded.
About two seconds later, the Primes had vanished into thin air.
Miranda was still on the verge of a breakdown. ”I have to get there . . . I can't run that fast. The car won't be here in time. Jonathan, what do I do? Kat's in trouble, she might be dying, oh, G.o.d-”
”You haven't learned to Mist?” Jonathan asked, amazed. ”Well, then, we'll start right now. Grab my arm and hold tight-there's no time for finesse, so as soon as we land be prepared to skin your knees and vomit.”
She didn't care about the consequences. All she could think of was getting to Kat. She seized Jonathan's proffered arm and felt a sickening lurch . . .
. . . and the club spun away into darkness.
Nine.
True to Jonathan's word, the second Miranda landed, her knees. .h.i.t the concrete hard enough that she felt one of her kneecaps fracture, and she pitched forward and threw up all over the median gra.s.s.
Then she forced herself to her feet, fighting the waves of vertigo that kept battering her from all sides as well as the pain in her knee, and tried to make sense of the scene before her.
The first thing she saw was blood, and it nearly made her sick again, because she knew whose it was.
”Kat!” she cried, pus.h.i.+ng herself forward from the street into the alley. ”Where is she? Kat!”
Footsteps thundered up to Miranda's side, and Faith grabbed her arm and steadied her. ”Miranda, listen to me-you can't help her now. Just stand back and everything will be fine.”
”I can help her! Let me go!” The panic was so overwhelming that Miranda nearly shoved Faith away, but before she could summon the energy, she felt someone else grabbing her other arm-David.
”It's all right, beloved,” he said. ”Just hold on.”
Miranda, however, was beside herself and couldn't be consoled. ”Is she dead? Did they find her hand? I want to see her hand! David, please, I need to see . . .”
”Easy,” David murmured. ”Come with me . . . one step . . . and another . . . it's all right, just take it slow . . .”
He led her around the crowd of Elite-the patrol team that had come as soon as Kat's emergency signal went out, and the second team headed by Faith that was arriving as Miranda stumbled toward the scene.
The street corner was splattered with blood. A woman's form lay sprawled out on the concrete, blood oozing out around her, her car keys flung several feet away.
Kat was trying so hard not to scream. She was panting, half sobbing, every other breath almost a wail. Her bald head was dripping with blood, as was her arm . . . from the cleanly sliced stump where her hand had been severed. Someone had tied a strip of fabric as a tourniquet and it was already soaked.
Worst of all, there was a knife protruding obscenely from her abdomen.
”Kat, Kat . . .” Miranda was sobbing as Kat was sobbing, and the Queen fell down beside her friend, her best friend she couldn't protect with all the immortal power in the world. ”Help is coming, Kat, I promise.” She tried to rea.s.sure the human, doing anything she could, because it was why she was here . . . for all the good it did anyone.
”Miranda.”
A sharp voice cut through her panic, and she looked over Kat's bleeding, broken body to see a pair of ice-cold lavender eyes fixed on hers.
”Pull yourself together, Queen,” Deven commanded gently. ”She doesn't need to see you like this.”
Miranda took a deep, shaking breath and threw her energy into grounding, bolstering her s.h.i.+elds, and calming herself enough that she could look at the situation realistically.
She knelt beside Kat's body, holding Kat's still-attached right hand, while the Elite tried to stop the bleeding from her left arm and the wound to her gut. A few inches from Kat's arm, the severed hand lay on a clean cloth, blood soaking into it.
Deven's voice grabbed Miranda again. ”Listen to me. You need to tell your people to step back and maintain their distance. The forensic team must start searching for evidence. There should be a trail-we caught the attacker by surprise and I wounded her. Tell them now.”
Miranda jerked her head up and gave her orders, and the Elite scattered.
”Now. You have a connection to this woman, so I will need your help to help her. Do you understand me? Let yourself be open to me, as if I were David calling for your energy. I'll pull from both you and Jonathan. It will work faster this way. Open yourself, and stay grounded.”