Hands Of Flame Part 20

Her name came from two directions, Tony and Alban both voicing concern. She managed a weak smile at them, amused by the way they scowled, uncertain which of them should take precedence. After a few seconds Tony stepped back. Grace, looking surprisingly satisfied, tucked her arm through the detective's as Alban asked, "Are you well, Margrit?"

"Honestly? At the very least I need about a gallon of water, and a blood transfusion probably wouldn't hurt. But I don't think I have time for that." Margrit shrugged and straightened away from Alban. "There's too much else to do."

She managed three steps before her eyes rolled back and she collapsed to the concrete in a faint.

TWENTY-NINE.

DESPITE WHAT HAPPENED in films, it was rare indeed that anyone was quick enough to catch someone as she fainted. Daisani might have done it; Alban could not. He and Tony lurched simultaneously, and Grace's face wrinkled in horrified sympathy as Margrit crashed to the floor. in films, it was rare indeed that anyone was quick enough to catch someone as she fainted. Daisani might have done it; Alban could not. He and Tony lurched simultaneously, and Grace's face wrinkled in horrified sympathy as Margrit crashed to the floor.

Alban scooped her up cautiously, concerned she might have injured herself further, then wondered how much more badly she could be hurt than having her throat cut. "She needs fluids."

"She needs a hospital, hospital," Tony said at the same time, then glowered at Alban.

"Hospitals will only ask complicated questions such as how she survived so much blood loss, and will want to do blood work. I don't know what they'll find."

"The same thing they found in January!"

"Perhaps. But it's been months now, and her ability to heal has adapted and increased remarkably. A doctor might discover she is no longer fully human."

"Then what the h.e.l.l is she?"

Alban looked up from Margrit, who breathed shallowly but steadily, and felt sympathy draw his features long. "Unique."

Tony's expression went bitter. "She was always that."

"Yes." Alban's voice softened and he glanced at the woman he held. "For what little it's worth, I had not meant to take her from you."

"Margrit doesn't get taken anywhere. She goes where she wants." The same bitterness colored his tone. "She didn't want me anymore."

"You're taking this very well, detective. All of it."

"All of it...You mean, all of you? I told you, it almost makes sense. Margrit doesn't hide things without a good reason, and I guess you people are as good a reason to keep secrets as I've ever seen. Besides," Tony added flatly, "she needs me to."

"She needs to not wake up to you two fighting over her." Grace dipped a hand into her pocket and came out with a plastic vial that she unstoppered as she knelt beside Margrit. The scent of ammonia rose up and Margrit hacked, then sat up, her hand knotted in Alban's b.l.o.o.d.y coat again.

"What the h.e.l.l was-Smelling salts? You've got smelling salts? That's the worst stuff I've ever smelled."

Grace stood again, vial safely closed as she tucked it back in her pocket. "I've smelled plenty worse, some of it right here. You're in dire straits, love. How're you planning to get home, looking like that?"

"Alban can..." Margrit faltered, turning her face against Alban's chest. "Alban can take me home, both of us covered in blood, to the housemate who hates him. Or not."

"Wait." Tony crouched, clearly stopping himself from catching Margrit's upper arm. "Cole and Cam know about this? And you didn't tell me? me?"

"Cole saw Alban bringing me home the night of Daisani's masquerade ball." Margrit kept her face against Alban's chest, sounding exhausted. "I didn't tell him. He just found out." She lifted her head, though it looked as if it took effort, and found Cara Delaney with her gaze. "Which is not carte blanche for you to hare off and flay him, okay? He'll keep your secret. G.o.d, some secret. It's starting to seem like everybody knows."

"Five humans out of a million and a half on this island," Alban murmured. "It's not quite everyone yet, Margrit."

"It's enough." Margrit pulled herself to sitting, then, grimacing, wiped her sleeve over her face. Blood smeared and she stared at it grimly. "This is disgusting. Cara."

"Yes."

Margrit's voice went cool and steady. "You let him kill me."

Guilt flashed in Cara's dark eyes and she glanced away only to find other censuring gazes surrounding her. "It was one life for many. One life, to avert war. You saw what happened in just a few minutes of fighting."

"Actually, I missed a lot of it," Margrit said icily. "What with being dead and all."

Color stained the selkie woman's cheeks, but she lifted her chin defiantly and gestured around them, indicating the selkie bodies that lay burned and torn on the floor. "We are not well suited to battle on land. Though we might best be able to afford it in numbers, we would be decimated if it came to war."

"She didn't used to sound like this," Margrit said to Alban. "She used to sound like a normal person. I think the whole debutante-selkie thing has gone to her head."

Cara's face reddened further, her hands clenching into fists at her sides. Alban saw blood leak from a wound in her shoulder, but the girl ignored it as she challenged Margrit. "I made my choice. I would make the same one again, if I thought it would save my people."

"Ah, there we go. The power of conviction, stripped bare of pomposity. That's what I was after." Margrit shrugged, minute movement against Alban's chest that made her seem terribly fragile. "It was probably the right choice, even if I think you made it because you were p.i.s.sed off at me."

"You took everything we tried to gain!"

"Bulls.h.i.t." Margrit pushed away from Alban more cautiously this time, leaning heavily into the support he offered as she got to her feet. "The one thing you really wanted was legitimacy, and you got that. But as it happens, He giveth and He taketh away. Get me Kaimana, Cara. I'm going to make a deal."

It was a motley army that escorted Margrit back into Grace's tunnels. Alban carried her, despite her weak protests that she could manage the journey on her own two feet. Not even she believed it, but part of her insisted that the pretense was important. That, in the wake of being newly alive, struck her as a tactic she should reconsider. There had to be room and reason to stop fighting battles that were only for show.

Alban's clothes were damp with blood, and hers stiffened and dried in folds stuck with his. The relentless sense of humor that had haunted her since she'd awakened suggested that was romantic. Disgusting, but still somehow romantic. More likely it was the slow, steady beat of Alban's heart beneath her ear and the surety of his arms that bore romance, but amus.e.m.e.nt niggled at her anyway.

Grace walked ahead of them, a swaying black-clad form with no evident need for a light against the darkness. Margrit's gaze stayed on her for long moments, watching the way shadows accepted and released her as she led them through the gloom. Impossible answers itched at the corners of Margrit's mind, not quite ready for revelation, and darting away when she tried to follow them. She pressed her eyes shut, then opened them again to follow Tony with her gaze.

He was a step or two behind Grace, his flashlight splashing bright white circles on the walls and tunnel floors. Margrit could see tension in his shoulders and resignation in his walk, and wanted to reach out and rea.s.sure him somehow. She didn't try: first, she was too far away, and second, she was no longer a source from which he would draw comfort. Weary regret wrapped around her at that idea, and she let her eyes close, trusting Alban to carry her without her watching the way.

That, too, struck her as a new thing, born in the last minutes since her awakening. She'd once claimed she liked the lack of control over her life that running in Central Park offered her. Grace had dismissed that with a snort, and now Margrit wondered if the blond vigilante had been right. She was out of control now, but she felt safe, and it was distinctly different from late-night jogging. Then, she realized, she had had felt in control, even if that was nothing more than an illusion. felt in control, even if that was nothing more than an illusion.

Light footsteps echoed around them, the sound making her flinch awake, though she hadn't realized she'd slept. The gargoyles and injured selkies who walked with them all moved with eerie silence, but the tunnels themselves picked up sounds her ears couldn't and reverberated them back at her, making her inhuman escort audible.

Not really her escort; that was a self-centered, human thought. They had their own reasons to retreat under the city. Wounds to lick, if selkies did that. Probably, she thought with another tickle of humor. After all, even humans used kisses to banish minor hurts. It wasn't far at all from licking injuries, and humans had no animal form to revert to. Seal-shaped selkies very likely did use the oldest possible method of cleaning cuts.

Margrit pressed her temple against Alban's chest, trying to stop her mind from such random wanderings. Blood oozed under the pressure and she grimaced. There were too many things to deal with to succ.u.mb to weakness. Janx was furious with her, and that had to be remedied somehow. More than just by fulfilling his demand to bring Daisani down; she wanted the dragonlord to like her again.

Of course, if she did succeed in toppling the corporate bloodsucker, it was unlikely she would have a future in which to worry about whether Janx still liked her or not. Irrationally rea.s.sured by the thought, Margrit opened her eyes and found that while she'd dozed, they'd traveled most of the distance to Grace's downtown hub.

"Why here?" After a little while of unuse, her voice croaked like she'd-Margrit winced, trying to stop the thought before it finished, but the a.n.a.logy worked its inexorable way through to completion: like she'd had her throat cut. Still cringing, she said, "Won't there be a lot of kids around?"

"It's Friday night," Grace said with humor. "Tonight they're topside having fun, and this center's got more lockable doors than any of the others. It's safest for all of you and yours, and that means it's safest for me and mine. There'll be plenty of hot water for bathing in," she added to Alban. "I'll need the cisterns refilled, though, after you're done scrubbing. And I'd just burn those clothes, if I were you."

"They're too wet," Margrit said tiredly. "Too bad. I liked this shirt. I can walk." She patted Alban's arm. He shifted his hold, but didn't put her down, and after a few seconds she decided that was agreeable.

Agreeable. A little blood loss, and she became the heroine of a Jane Austen novel. Margrit tried to laugh, but exhaustion swamped her again.

The next time she awakened it was because cool stone was beneath her body, chilling her all the way through. Alban, stripped to the waist and carrying two steaming buckets of water, edged into his room as she sat up. The front of his slacks were entirely soaked in blood from the knees down, and the thighs were badly spotted with it, all the pale material discolored and stiffening as it dried. Margrit shuddered, suddenly aware of how cold she was. Cold from her center to her skin, as if her furnace had shut down.

Alban looked pained at her tremble. "Forgive the accommodations. There seemed little point in putting you on the bed while you were still..."

"Covered in gore?" Margrit picked at the b.u.t.tons of her blouse as Alban poured the water into a tub she'd never seen in his room before. Fingers too thick to operate properly, she let her hands fall and watched the muscles in his back play easily, as if he picked up a piece of paper instead of gallons of water. A moment later he put the buckets aside and turned back to her, spoiling one lovely view but offering another. Margrit hunched her shoulders against the chill and managed a smile. "I could watch you do that all night."

Gentle humor crossed his expression. "Except you seem to keep falling asleep. Shall I leave you to bathe?"

"No!" Sudden panic spurted in her at the idea, its wake leaving her more exhausted than before. "I don't even think I can undress myself, much less be trusted in a bath. I'd probably drown, and I've had enough of being dead for one night." To her horror, tears scalded her eyes as she spoke.

Alban crossed and knelt by her, a solid, comforting presence as he began to undo the b.u.t.tons she'd been too clumsy to manage. "I believe I've had enough of you being dead for a lifetime. When you're stronger, I think I'll take the opportunity to go to pieces on you." Teasing glinted in his eyes as she gave him a sharp look.

"Go to pieces, huh? I didn't know you knew words like that."

"I've been keeping bad company of late," Alban said solemnly. He undressed her with quiet efficiency, no eroticism in the act, for which Margrit was wearily grateful. Pa.s.sion stereotypically arose in the aftermath of danger, but she had no energy left for anything beyond relief that someone was there to care for her. Alban lifted her into the bath with all the gentleness of a practiced nurse, and she sank to its bottom with a whimper.

That quickly, the hot water demolished all her defenses. She began to shiver uncontrollably, teeth chattering at a decibel that would be funny if she wasn't suddenly so frightened. She reached for Alban's hand, her own shaking so badly it looked like a caricature of cold. "Is there enough room in this thing for two?" She couldn't control the stutter and bit her tongue harder than she meant to in trying.

Concern lined Alban's face. "Not with as much water as is in it now."

Margrit's gaze skittered around the room, and all the books safely on their shelves. "The f-floor will d-dry. I n-need you t-to w-warm me up. P-p-please, Alban."

A moment later he climbed in, his own blood-sodden slacks left on the floor behind him. Water cascaded over the tub's sides as Margrit twisted herself against his chest, hands fisted as she rattled with cold. His arms encompa.s.sed her, gentle fingers stroking her temple, and she finally let go of control and fear in terrible, body-wracking sobs.

THIRTY.

SHE HAD NO idea when sleep had taken her, but wakefulness came easily. Margrit rolled over to search for her alarm clock and the time, and found neither in the gray concrete walls surrounding her. Confusion rattled her before memory caught up and rendered Alban's room into something that made sense. He was crouched in a corner, solid stone protector, and Tony Pulcella, reading a leather-bound book, sat in a chair across from him. "Tony?" idea when sleep had taken her, but wakefulness came easily. Margrit rolled over to search for her alarm clock and the time, and found neither in the gray concrete walls surrounding her. Confusion rattled her before memory caught up and rendered Alban's room into something that made sense. He was crouched in a corner, solid stone protector, and Tony Pulcella, reading a leather-bound book, sat in a chair across from him. "Tony?"

He clapped the book shut as he glanced up. "Hey. Welcome to the world of the li-" Regret for his choice of words spasmed across his face and Margrit found it in herself to laugh.

"Thanks." She sat up, scrubbing her face with her hands and then scratching them through her hair to send curls bouncing around her shoulders. "What time is it?"

"About two-thirty. Drink this." He got up and brought her an enormous bottle of water. Margrit wrapped both hands around it and drained it greedily, not stopping for air until more than half the water was gone. Tony's eyebrows climbed higher and higher as she drank again, and when she finally lowered the nearly empty bottle, said, "Wow. I didn't mean all at once. You're going to get water poisoning."

"You said drink it! Besides, I feel like a mummy." Her skin was dry, pinched against her bones, and her lips felt cracked and thin. "Do I look like one?"

"You look anemic. On the other hand, that's a h.e.l.l of a lot better than you should look, so don't knock it."

"I won't." She finished the last few sips of water, then shook her head. "Did you say two-thirty? In the morning?" Even as she asked she knew it couldn't be: Alban was sleeping, and wouldn't be if it were still night. "Shouldn't you be at work?"

"I called in sick. Alban asked me to keep an eye on you." Tony gestured toward the statue, and for a moment they both looked at the gargoyle, words inadequate to the topic.

"And you said yes," Margrit finally ventured. "Thanks."

"What else was I gonna say?" Tony sat down on the end of the bed, a few feet away from Margrit. "Margrit, this world-"

"I know. I know I've got a lot to tell you, Tony. I don't even know where to begin."

"Grace covered most of it." The detective shrugged at Margrit's look of surprise. "We spent most of the night talking, until Alban came to ask me to watch out for you. She's not what I expected. A lot more fragile than I imagined."

"Grace?" Margrit, remembering Grace's fist connecting with her face, eyed Tony. "Tall blonde in black leather? That Grace? Fragile?"

Tony studied her a moment or two. "Doesn't matter. She filled me in on everything. Her world. Their world. And then I watched the gargoyles when the sun came up. It's magic." He shook his head. "It's G.o.dd.a.m.ned magic. I wish you'd told me, Grit."

Margrit put her head in her hands. "I couldn't. I'd promised Alban, and then when Cole discovered them, he was so angry. Like he was personally threatened by Alban, by the whole idea of the Old Races. I thought that was how most people would react. I thought it was how you'd react."

"I might have," Tony admitted. "I might've, if you hadn't come back from the dead in front of me. But, I mean, dragons, dragons, Grit. There are dragons out there. Like all those old maps say." Grit. There are dragons out there. Like all those old maps say."

"Yeah," Margrit said absently. "I think those were actually sea serpents they were seeing...."

Tony shouted laughter and Margrit jumped, blinking at him. "Sorry," he said, still grinning. "You just said that like it was matter-of-fact. Sea serpents, not dragons. Of course. I'm still wrapping my mind around dragons."

A rueful smile crawled across Margrit's mouth. "I've had a few months to get used to it."

"Wish I had." Tony's laughter faded. "Part of me's completely freaked out. The other part...it's like it's okay if the world doesn't make sense and stupid s.h.i.t goes wrong, if there are dragons. Like how the h.e.l.l can we be in control of anything, if we don't even know about the dragons."

Regret rose in Margrit, a physical thing clogging her breath. She put her hand out and Tony caught it, holding on hard as they met eyes. Margrit found herself looking at the life she might have led, if she'd chosen to trust Tony with the impossible. It was more comfortable, no doubt, than her relationship with Alban would prove to be; there would have been no awkward hours, no carefully kept secrets from the world; not, at least, about each other. It would have been a human life, as ordinary and extraordinary as that, and for a moment it shone brilliantly. "I underestimated you. I'm sorry."

Tony nodded. "So'm I."

Something physical popped inside her as he spoke, the release of one dream for the pursuit of another. Margrit caught her breath, feeling its loss, and released Tony's hand. He crooked a smile that said he, too, knew their moment had pa.s.sed in a more final way than emotional breakups framed. "Guess this is the part where we promise to stay friends, huh?"

"You told me not to say that," Margrit reminded him.

"You're not. I am. You're gonna need friends, Margrit. You're going to need people who get why you go off fighting dragons."

"In four years of us dating you never understood that, Tony. I mean, it's what running through the park was, pretty much. That's always been my way of fighting dragons."

"Yeah, but that was before I knew they really existed." He held up a hand, smiling wryly. "I know it doesn't make sense. Don't ask."

"It makes a kind of sense."

"Grace told me about these favors you've exchanged with Janx," Tony said abruptly. "Is that my fault?"