No Humans Involved by Kelley Armstrong

  I let the sentence trail off as I realized she was no longer listening. She'd resumed her pacing, gaze jumping from the window to the balcony door, then back, searching the gardens. Her face was taut, but instead of looking pale and drawn with worry, her eyes glittered and color splashed her cheeks. A vein in her neck throbbed.

  She walked faster, slowing to gaze out the window, then striding to the patio doors, slowing again to look out, veering and striding back to the window. Like a house cat spotting a bird just outside the window, its whole body quivering in anticipation, unable to take its eyes off its prey.

  Lucifer's daughter.

  "Hope?"

  She wheeled, lips curling back at the interruption. Then, in a blink, the look was gone.

  "I just...I'm sorry," she said, her eyes still darting toward the window, as if she couldn't pull her attention away. "There's something out there."

  I walked to the window. She reached out, as if to yank me back, then stopped herself and motioned for me to keep my distance. "J-just to be safe. Something's going on out there."

  "Someone's here?"

  A long pause, and I thought she was considering it. But her gaze stayed fixed on the window, straining to see. Not thinking of an answer--she probably hadn't even heard the question.

  Something in the garden. The empty garden vacated by the cops, but still off-limits to anyone in the house.

  Voice neutral, I said, "Do you think we should investigate?"

  Another long pause. I was about to repeat myself when she strode to the door.

  "I'll go," she said. "You stay here."

  "Hold--"

  I grabbed the door before she could get it open. Her head swung my way, eyes filled with a fury that made my stomach go cold. I stood my ground, and again she blinked it back.

  "Something's happening," she said. "I have to go."

  "We aren't supposed to leave the house."

  "I have to go." Each word was icy with warning. A shudder, then she looked at me. "You'll be fine. Just stay here. Whatever happens, stay here."

  She tried yanking open the door, but my foot acted as a stopper. "What good will that do? You have the gun."

  A flare of frustration, jaw setting, then another hard blink. She yanked the gun from her waistband and slapped it into my hands.

  "There. Now--" She jerked the door so hard I stumbled back. "Stay here."

  EVE WAS right. This was a setup. If Hope really was chasing some "chaos event" in the garden, she wouldn't leave her gun behind.

  But if it was a setup, why give her weapon to me? Maybe it wasn't loaded. Clever ploy. Let me think I was armed, so I wouldn't try to escape or fight when someone came for me.

  I turned the gun over in my hands, trying to figure out whether there was any ammunition. It was an automatic. Marksmanship was one of Jeremy's hobbies, mainly bows and rifles, but he had a pair of revolvers and had shown me how to use them once. Had this been a revolver, I'd have been in luck. As it was, I had no clue. Even if I could tell whether it had ammo, the gun might be buggered up so it wouldn't fire.

  But why leave me in a house filled with potential witnesses...and security guards? I'd offered to come along. Why not just say "sure"?

  Maybe because that wasn't May's plan and Hope didn't dare mess with the plan. But why not try to convince me to go with Jeremy in the first place?

  I remembered when Jeremy first asked Hope to stay with me. She'd wanted to argue. I recalled Karl, carefully studying her reaction. Maybe her expression had suggested she was up to something, and when she'd seen his suspicion, she hadn't dared argue. So May had switched to a backup plan--this one.

  Did that make sense?

  Damn it! In my gut, I didn't believe Hope would turn on me. Even seeing that flare of anger in her eyes hadn't changed that.

  But I couldn't ignore the possibility. I needed to get out of this room.

  I WENT downstairs with every intention of hanging out with the guards. But then I started to wonder whether that was safe. We knew these people had magic, including something like a binding spell. Would human security guards, ignorant of the supernatural, be able to protect me? Could they get killed trying?

  Even if sticking close to big men with guns convinced the group to keep its distance, it wouldn't resolve the question of Hope's allegiance. If she was on May's side, she'd just try again, another way, and maybe that time I wouldn't see through the ploy.

  The only way to know was to follow her.

  AS I slipped out the side door, I eased the gun out and wrapped my hand around the grip, finger on the trigger. It would help if I knew how to fire it. I told myself it didn't matter. As Eve would say, bluffing is enough. Act as if you can shoot it--and more important, will shoot it--and that should give any would-be attacker pause.

  I slid through the shadows along the side of the house, heading for the rear. Ahead, a yellow ribbon of crime-scene tape waved in the breeze, broken from its moorings, as if someone had walked right through it. Hope? Breaking the tape hardly seemed wise, but if not her, then who? Last time I'd looked, the officers guarding the gardens had retreated to their cruiser.

  I darted behind a hedge, then stood on tiptoes to see over it. There, about a dozen feet ahead, Hope walked into the garden with the slow, deliberate pace of a sleepwalker.

  "What the hell are you doing?"

  I almost fell backward. Eve's glare was murderous.

  "I don't know what you think you're doing, Jaime, but you get your ass back in--"

  I cut her short with a whispered explanation as I snuck around the hedge, following Hope.

  "I don't care what your reason is. Get back in that goddamned house right now."

  "It's not a setup. Look at her." I waved toward Hope as she banged her shin against a garden wall and kept walking, oblivious. "She's in some kind of trance."

  "She's luring you in. Making you curious. Making you think it's safe to follow."

  I kept moving. "I've seen her when she gets a vision and that's just what she looks like."

  "And she can't fake that? Don't be--" Eve bit off the rest with a click of her teeth. Then she strode in front of me. "Stop and look around, Jaime. Notice anything about where you are? And where you're being led?"

  I glanced over my shoulder at the hedge, which wrapped around the garden, cutting me off from the view of anyone stepping out the side or rear doors. Then I turned to see Hope heading toward the most secluded corner of the yard.

  "She's not following any 'chaos trail,'" Eve said. "She's leading you to a spot where no one's going to see what happens next."

  Damn. She had a point.

  I glanced back at the house.

  "Finally," Eve breathed.

  "Jaime?"

  Hope was walking back through the garden.

  "What are you doing out here?" she asked, blinking like a wakened sleepwalker.

  "Damn it, Jaime, ignore her--"

  "I was worried about you." I lifted the gun. "You left this behind."

  She frowned and looked down at her waistband, as if trying to figure out how the gun got from there to my hand. Eve shoved me toward the door, but her hands passed through.

  "What happened?" I said.

  "I'm...not sure. Someone..." Hope shivered. "I think someone was killed back there. Just now. I can still feel it."

  She wrapped her arms around herself, shuddering, but her expression wasn't one of fear or concern. She looked almost...rapturous. The hairs on my neck rose.

  "Don't listen to her bullshit," Eve said. "She'll say anything to get you--"

  I tuned her out. Hope glanced over her shoulder, toward that far corner.

  "I think we should check it out." Her voice was high with barely contained excitement.

  "Do you?"

  Her gaze stayed riveted to that deepest, most remote, shadow-enshrouded corner of the garden. My fingers tightened around the gun. Eve had gone silent now, tense, as if waiting to jump in, as if she could jump in.

  Hop
e motioned for me to follow, took a couple of steps, then, seeing I hadn't moved, wheeled back. Her fingers grazed my arm. Eve started a cast. A spell? But it wouldn't work in my dimension.

  Hope's fingers wrapped around my arm. I raised the gun. Eve lifted her hands over her head, something materializing between them.

  I swung the gun. A crack as it connected with Hope's temple. Her eyes went wide. She stood there, staring at me in disbelief. Then her knees gave way and she crumpled to the flagstone path.

  I dropped beside her, my hands going to the side of her neck.

  "Forget her," Eve said. "Get your ass back in that house before they realize you didn't fall for the bait."

  Hope's pulse was strong. I pushed to my feet.

  "Good," Eve said. "Now grab the gun and, next time, try firing it, presuming it still works."

  "It probably didn't work even before that. Why would Hope hand me a working firearm?"

  "Good point. You did the right thing, then, braining her with it."

  "Don't sound so shocked."

  "And you're even wearing sneakers. I'm doubly impressed."

  I grimaced and started for the house.

  "Eve?"

  Kristof's deep voice sounded behind us. We turned as he strode around a garden bed. A brisk nod to me, then his gaze returned to Eve. "There's something I think you should--"

  He stopped as he walked through Hope's still form. He frowned down at her.

  "The Espisco half-demon," Eve said. "Bitch tried to lure Jaime out here with some bullshit story about sensing a murder."

  "Mur--?" Kristof rubbed his chin. "I, uh, think she might have been right. There's a body in the back corner, and a very confused spirit hovering over it, trying to figure out why she's not inside that body."

  I turned toward the back corner, but Eve jumped in front of me. "Uh-uh. Even if Hope wasn't lying, that doesn't mean it isn't a setup. You're getting back in that house right now."

  I stepped behind Hope and grabbed her under the armpits.

  "What part of 'right now' don't you understand? There's a body in the back corner. That means there's a killer in this garden."

  "Then I'm not leaving Hope out here, am I?" I glared up at Eve. "Not when she didn't betray me."

  "We don't know that. Now put her down."

  "She's probably a hundred pounds, if that," I said through gritted teeth as I heaved her up.

  "And you're a hundred and twenty, if that. Now put her down--"

  "Eve's right," Kristof said. "I'll watch over her. You get back in the house--"

  "Jaime?"

  A small woman with long blond hair staggered from behind the hedge. For a moment, I thought it was Gabrielle Langdon. Then she looked up.

  "Angelique?" I said.

  "You--you can hear me?"

  She lurched toward me, but stumbled. Kristof caught her. As his hand made contact, breaking her fall, my gut sank.

  She looked up at him as he righted her. "You can see me. You can touch me."

  Kristof's face stayed neutral as he nodded.

  "Oh, thank God," she said, the words tumbling out on a deep sigh. "I thought I was--" She shuddered and didn't finish.

  I stepped closer to Angelique, careful to keep out of touching range.

  "What happened, hon?"

  "Jaime?" Eve's voice was brisk but gentle. "Get inside. We'll handle this."

  "Angelique?" I said.

  "I--I knew you and Grady were up to something finding that body, and you kept me out of it because I'm the new kid."

  "We never--"

  "Jaime, in the house. Now."

  "I understand," Angelique said. "I probably would have done the same thing. But I wanted to know what you were doing. Not to mess things up, but just to prove I could help."

  Oh, God.

  She went on. "That woman came back. The one who was here this morning looking for you. From the paranormal society. The guards said you'd left with your boyfriend. So I followed her out and told her to meet me in the garden."

  Eve motioned for me to stop listening.

  "She was there," Angelique said. "I told her I was working with you. That I knew all about the bodies and the murders. She lifted a gun. I saw it, but I couldn't believe it, so I just stood there and she fired and--" Her fingers flew to her breast, searching for a hole that wasn't there. "It was special effects, wasn't it? The bullet and the blood and my--my body, lying there..."

  I stepped toward her to say--

  To say what? The same thing I'd been telling her all along? Don't worry, hon. Leave everything to me. I'll fix it.

  I couldn't fix this.

  Angelique reached for me. Her fingers passed through my arm and she gasped. Kristof pulled her back.

  "Jaime," Eve said. "In the house now!"

  Something smacked into the side of my head. As I tottered, I stared at Eve, as if she'd somehow reached through the dimensions and slapped me. I swayed, my legs suddenly too weak to hold me up. Eve's mouth opened, alarm in her eyes. Kristof pointed at something behind a row of bushes. A shout.

  The second blow knocked me out.

  THE KILLING ROOM

  I WOKE LYING ON A COLD, SMOOTH FLOOR. I opened my eyes, but the world stayed dark. To my left, someone was breathing deeply. A voice came from above the breathing. A male voice, young and anxious.

  "Come on," he said. "Wake up. You need to wake up."

  A second voice, older, weary. "She can't hear you."

  "How do you know? People see ghosts all the time. Maybe if you'd help me..."

  Ghosts...?

  I thought of Angelique and my gut twisted. I'd genuinely wanted to help her, but when helping her interfered with my own agenda, I'd brushed her off and promised myself I'd look after her later. Well, there was no later now. Not for Angelique.

  "I think she's waking up," the younger voice said.

  "It's probably better for her if she doesn't."

  I blinked and lifted my head. High above me a tiny greenish light, like a smoke detector, was the only source of illumination. I blinked hard. After a moment, I could make out figures. One on the floor, long dark curls pooling around her. Hope. That was the breathing I heard. I let out a soft sigh. Unconscious, but alive. Thank God.

  A young man hovered over her. No more than a teenager, from what little I could see in the darkness. Pale hair. Wiry. Small for his age. He looked more like a hologram than a ghost; I could see Hope through him. Another ghost stood at his side, this one opaque, like most spirits. Middle-aged and stout, his arms crossed, he watched the boy try to wake Hope.

  "She can't hear you." My voice was breathy and weak, as if I'd strained my vocal cords.

  Both men turned to stare at me.

  "She can't hear you," I said. "But I can."

  The boy smacked the man on the arm and grinned. "See? Told you." He turned to me, grin fading fast. "You need to get out of here."

  "Where am--?" I swallowed the rest. My throat was dry, eyes burning, brain fuzzy, but slowly it came back. Someone had knocked me out with a spell. Kidnapped. Again. If I had the energy, I might have laughed.

  I struggled to my feet.

  "That's it," the young man said encouragingly. "Now, find a way out--"

  "There is no way out," the older man said.

  The boy turned on him. "And how do you know? Obviously we didn't find it or we wouldn't be here. But no one was here to warn us." He glanced at me. "Okay, now the door is to your right, about three steps--"

  "And you think they left it open for her?"

  I let the boy guide me to the door. I found the edge of it and ran my hands down either side, feeling nothing but smooth metal.

  "Where's the handle?" I asked.

  "Problem number one," the man said.

  I turned to the boy. "Is there another door? A window? A vent?"

  "It's an eight-by-eight concrete box," the man intoned, like a contractor reciting dimensions. "Soundproofed walls. One way in and out--a six-inch-thick steel door. O
h, and the drain. But unless you can transform yourself into a mouse, you aren't fitting down that."

  "And you aren't helping," the boy snapped.

  "Ignore him," I said.

  I peered around, and could now make out the walls. Solid walls.

  As much as I'd love to free myself from this mess, there was a point at which I had to call for help--and being locked in a concrete box qualified.

  "Maybe I can't get out," I said. "But I know someone who can get in."

  Not being able to act in the living world, Eve couldn't get me out of here herself, but she could always be counted on to come up with a plan. And she'd be able to stand guard and scout the house for escape routes. When I'd been kidnapped, she would have tried to follow, so she probably wouldn't be far.

  I reached into my pants pocket and breathed in relief as my fingers closed around the silver ring nestled at the bottom. If they'd patted me down for weapons, they'd probably ignored that. Little did they know...

  I smiled, clasped the ring and called for Eve.

  "It's not going to work," the man said.

  "Shut the fuck--" the boy began, then looked sheepishly at me. "Sorry, ma'am."

  I motioned for a moment of silence while I summoned Eve again. Then I calmly returned the ring to my pocket.

  "It might take her a minute to get here," I said.

  "If she can." The man lifted his hands as the boy turned on him. "I'm just saying..." He glanced at me. "What is this friend of yours? A ghost, right?"

  "Among other things."

  "Well, there's a reason we're hanging out in this box...and it's not for the scenery."

  "We're trapped," the boy said. "It's like we aren't--"

  He disappeared. A moment later he returned, still talking.

  Seeing my expression, he said, "I faded out, didn't I? It happens. It just started happening awhile ago. Just now and then at first, then more and more."

  Fading. Like the children.

  "Anyway, as I was saying, it's like we aren't really ghosts. I mean, we are because I pass through you." He demonstrated by walking through Hope's still-sleeping form. "But the walls are real, even for us. That doesn't mean a ghost can't get in, though."

  The man rolled his eyes at this youthful optimism. I took out the ring to summon Eve again. As I pulled it out, my fingers brushed a folded piece of paper. Jeremy's protection ward. I touched it, and let out a deep breath. "Even if my friend can't get here, I know someone who will."

  "If he tries to break you out, he'll end up in here with us."