Part 30 (2/2)

Les.

Her charming friend. Her good friend. She had traveled with him for years. Laughed and cried her way around the world, with him and Maurice.

”Les,” she murmured, staring into her eyes. Grateful that she still recognized the woman in the mirror. There had been a time, years ago, when she hadn't.

She remembered. Bad days. She still recalled, with perfect clarity, how she had felt then-and her current emotions were following a similar course. All she had suffered, until now, was shock and anger. Devastating shock and anger.

But until now, she hadn't let herself feel hurt. Really hurt, in the heart.

And it hurt like h.e.l.l. It was like being betrayed by family, all over again.

She heard shouts. Perrin's voice. It didn't sound like they were under attack, but any anger was enough to make her uneasy. Jenny straightened her shoulders, pushed back her hair, and left the cabin for a narrow, dark hall that reminded her of some pa.s.sage in a tomb. Too many shadows, and deep alcoves. She could see, though. Her vision had improved considerably over the past few days.

Breathing underwater could probably be considered an improvement, too.

And yet, she was totally unprepared for the hand that reached out from behind one of the side doors and grabbed her.

Jenny stepped back and twisted until she was flat against the wall-forcing her attacker to loosen his grip, or else risk a broken arm. He freed her, but she didn't have time to slip down the corridor toward light and freedom. A slender, wiry man flowed from the doorway, blocking her. She remembered glimpsing him last night. Fast, all muscle. Black eyes glittered, and a tattoo of a dragon covered his shaved head. He gave her a toothy grin. Jenny wondered if she should start screaming.

”I know about you,” he said. ”We all watch each other.”

Jenny set her jaw, then forced it to relax when it ached. ”Who are you?”

”Sajeev.” He gave her a sly grin and smoothed his hand over his bald head. The dragon tattoo seemed to flex beneath his fingers. ”Old women are powerful, yes? Powerful and deadly.”

A chill touched her. ”You're not A Priori. Are you Dirk & Steele?”

Consortium? she almost asked.

But he didn't answer. All he did was smile and sidle back into the shadows, out of sight from even her improved eyes.

Jenny fought down a shudder and tried not to run down the corridor toward the light.

Topside, she had to s.h.i.+eld her eyes. It looked like morning, the sun only a quarter over the horizon, and blazing white in the blue sky. A sultry breeze touched her face. No land, no other boats in sight.

Perrin stood barefoot on deck, his back to her. He was dressed only in swim trunks. He wore wraparound sungla.s.ses, and his long silver hair had been tied at the nape of his neck. Jenny glimpsed scars there, a thin trail of them leading up into his scalp. She had seen them before, in the water, but now had a terrible sense of what had caused them. His mouth was slanted into a frown, his ma.s.sive arms folded over his broad chest.

Rik stood in front of him, wearing cutoff jeans. He looked angry. He wasn't as tall as Perrin, but big enough-lean, bronze. Bruised and cut. Jenny had seen his file.

The Consortium had kidnapped Rik, along with another shape-s.h.i.+fter and several members of Dirk & Steele-taking them to a facility in far eastern Russia. All of them had been tortured, experimented on. A Priori had been planning a raid of the facility, but Rik and those others had escaped by then.

Your friends killed my uncle's wife, she thought, watching Rik with satisfaction. May Beatrix Weave burn in h.e.l.l.

Perrin's head tilted slightly, as though he knew she was behind him. Rik glanced at her. ”Finally.”

”Leave her out of this,” Perrin said. His voice was quiet, but in a deadly sort of way that made the hairs stand on the back of her neck. Eddie, who had been leaning against the rail, pushed off and straightened.

”I don't like it any more than you do,” said Rik. ”But if it can be done, I don't see that we have a choice.”

Jenny frowned. ”What's going on here?”

”The thing on the back of your neck-” Rik began, but Perrin shook his head.

”No,” he said. ”I'll kill you first.”

”Yeah, you would,” Rik shot back. ”You're good at that.”

Perrin took a step toward him, and she was suddenly reminded just how big he really was. Almost seven feet of raw muscle and bone. Huge. Every inch of him p.i.s.sed off.

Jenny made a small sound of protest. Eddie was suddenly at her side, a gentle hand on her elbow that disappeared as soon as she pulled away.

”Don't,” he whispered to her, his gaze dark as he watched Rik and Perrin stare each other down. ”I don't know what's between them, but better it gets out now.”

”You sure about that?” Jenny muttered. ”What was Rik talking about?”

Eddie gave her a speculative look. ”Perrin should tell you. But I'll be honest, ma'am . . . I don't like the fact that you know who we are but we don't know you. I have an idea who you work for, but that doesn't make it any better.”

”Talk to Roland,” she replied.

”I did,” he said, voice strained. ”He hung up on me.”

Jenny's mouth ticked up into a grim smile, and that hurt her face. ”You have a phone? Radio?”

”Satellite cell,” Eddie began, but Perrin moved again, swaying toward Rik with deadly grace. Rik did not retreat, but his face hardened until everything about him that was young and soft withered into anger.

”Why are you here?” Perrin asked him. ”Why did you bother? You'd be happy to see me die.”

A nasty smile flitted around Rik's mouth, but it didn't reach his eyes. ”Maybe that's why I'm here.”

Perrin s.h.i.+fted on his feet. Jenny moved, too-circling so that she could see his face better. Eddie moved with her, giving her an uncertain look, but she ignored him. She wished she could see Perrin's eyes behind the sungla.s.ses. His jaw was rigid, shoulders tense.

”She's dead, you know,” Perrin said, with deceptive gentleness. ”That was never a lie. I hope . . . I hope you don't think you're going to find her.”

Jenny didn't know who ”she” was, but the hammer hit true. Rik's entire body hitched, as though a hook was caught between his shoulders. Grief s.h.i.+mmered in his eyes. Hollow, aching pain.

Then, nothing. Swallowed up. But he looked older than he should have, old and hard and tired. So did Perrin, what little she could see of his face.

The parasite twitched. Jenny's vision s.h.i.+mmered. She found herself looking at Rik from a different angle: taller, standing directly in front of him, the world tinted brown from sungla.s.s lenses.

Terrible regret slammed into her-I shouldn't have said that, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but it was out of my hands, done before I could stop them, and there was no fixing that, no forgiveness-and she would have gasped from the onslaught, but she had no mouth, no body, she was nothing but a wisp riding behind someone else's eyes- -until, suddenly, it was her eyes again, and the only mind she heard was her own.

Perrin swayed, touching his brow. So did Jenny. Eddie held her elbow, murmuring words she couldn't hear above the roar in her ears.

She had been in Perrin's head. Right there at the front of his thoughts.

Something else slid inside her mind: that dry parasitic voice, as much a part of her as a needle jabbing into her body.

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