Paperwork occupied me on the trip to the morgue in Redwood. Kapoor wanted to be kept in the loop, but Wu would rather run him in circles, so that left me to file the necessary forms. I took comfort in the routine, the clack of laptop keys, and the fact even world-ending powers couldn’t save you from bureaucracy.
“We’re here,” Wu said to snag my attention. “Are you ready?”
“Yep.” I saved my files and closed my laptop. “Let’s do this.”
The building resembled a plain brick box from the outside, but the interior was ritzier.
Wu stopped at the curved front desk and slid one of his cards across the granite counter. The secretary scanned his credentials. Her eyes popped wide, and her mouth fell open. A tremor started in her hands when she reached for the phone, and her voice warbled when the party on the other end answered.
“M-m-mr. Wu is here to see you,” she stammered. “Shall I send him in?”
We must have been given the green light. The secretary gestured toward a frosted glass door that swung open at the press of a button. She had an entire command center up here. Nice setup. It kept the desk manned at all times. It also made me wonder why that was a priority and what kind of facility we had just entered. This was no county morgue, there was too much shine on every surface, but Wu wasn’t in a sharing mood.
“Please take a seat in room one,” she said haltingly. “Dr. Franklin will be with you shortly.”
Wu didn’t thank her. He didn’t even look at her. He was too preoccupied for manners.
“Thanks,” I told her on my way past, and she attempted a smile that slid off her thin mouth.
The frosted door didn’t wait longer than it had to before closing behind us with a cool gust of air. The hall we entered was sterile enough we could have eaten off the floor. Six rooms on alternating walls stood with their doors open. From a quick glance, I could tell they were all identical.
Wu entered room one and took one of the seats pushed against the far wall. The chairs were mighty cozy, so I opted to stand. Besides, there was a metal slab taking up the center of the room, and curiosity got the better of me.
I was leaning over the side, checking out this weird hook thing when a second door hidden in the wall swung open, and the woman I assumed was Dr. Franklin walked in. She was a short woman, middle-aged, with pink hair that kept falling into her startlingly red eyes.
“Mr. Wu,” she said crisply, her accent peculiar. “You brought a guest.”
“This is my partner, Luce Boudreau.” He cut his eyes toward me. “Or, as she is more formally known, Conquest.”
The good doctor wobbled and went down on her knees. The crack was audible, and I winced. She bowed, stretching her body across the floor, her fingertips almost close enough to brush the toes of my boots.
“Mistress,” she breathed. “I would have prepared an offering had I known to expect you.”
“I go by Luce these days,” I said pointedly to Wu. “No offering required, but thank you.”
Slowly, the doctor rose. Confusion lined her face, and that had me wondering exactly what kind of offering she would have given me if she was stunned I didn’t want one. Gold? Jewels? Nah. Nothing so tame. I imagined only the best would do for Conquest. Probably blessed virgins or small, plump children.
Wringing her hands, she wet her lips. “Would you like to see the body?”
“Yes.” I smiled like her deference didn’t creep me the hell out. “That would be great.”
The doctor returned to the room she had entered through, and I stared at the floor, determined not to give Wu the satisfaction of acknowledging how uncomfortable he’d made me. I almost lost the battle, but lucky for me, she returned fast.
“Here you are.” She preceded a gurney wheeled in by two men who shared her coloring. The body of an elderly man was strapped to the surface. His nudity made isolating the cause of death easy. He had been attacked by an animal or—to be fair—a charun, and it had devoured his entrails. Though his lack of guts didn’t seem to be slowing him down. He twitched from his toes to his eyelids. “I kept him preserved as best I could with the application of low-frequency energy pulses to keep the brain stimulated.”
“He’s in much better shape than the last one,” I allowed.
“You’ve presented us with a superior specimen,” Wu said over me. “Please, do pass your notes along to the other labs. What you’ve accomplished here is remarkable.”
Her smile revealed serrated teeth. “I would be honored.”
Wu rose with fluid grace. “Can we have a moment alone with the body?”
“Of course.” She ushered her assistants away. “I’ll return in ten minutes.”
“That will be fine.” He waited until the door closed before he approached the body. “Place your hand on its chest.”
Eager to get this over with, I did as he instructed. On contact, the corpse sucked in a gasp it used to fuel a string of nonsense syllables that caused Wu’s expression to darken until I had to lock my knees to keep from bolting. “What is he saying?”
“The message is from Death.” Gold washed his eyes, and they glinted like polished coins. “She wants to parlay.”
“She breached?” I snatched my hand back. “How is that possible?”
Santiago had cameras trained on the site where we entered this world and sensors in the water. Any disturbance in the area would register on his equipment. There was no way for her to have slipped in undetected. Santiago was too good for that.
“She wouldn’t require an intermediary if she was here,” he pointed out to me.
I walked to the antibacterial gel dispenser on the wall and pumped a liberal handful. “True.”
“The corpse was reanimated and reprogrammed, both hallmarks of Death and her coterie.”
“Famine left her coterie behind, but Death sent hers ahead?”
“Only one person is required to carry a message.”
“That little . . . ” I growled. “Sariah knew. She’s known this whole time and hasn’t breathed a word.”
“The decision might have been a private matter between the cadre, but she would have noticed an extra body even if she wasn’t privy to the reason why he was there.”
“Him?”
“There’s only one person she would trust so wholeheartedly.” Wu gestured toward the mumbling corpse. “Janardan, her mate.”
“She sent him through ahead of her.” That’s what he was saying. “He’s already here.”
“So it seems.”
“Great.” He must be an all-around swell guy since he was using humans as Post-it notes. Scribble his message on their brain then dump them in the water. “Do we have a location?”
“We have a general area.” He pulled out his phone and started texting. “That’s all we need. He’s going to be watching to see if we received the coordinates. He’ll make contact after we arrive and he’s had time to assess the threat.”
“Why water?” Santiago was aquatic. I had figured that much out on my own. So were Drosera. It wasn’t stretching the imagination to picture Death as finned or scaled. “I get that it makes our job harder. Pinpointing his location via body dump site is next to impossible without the message.” But there had to be more to it. “What type of charun is he?” I backtracked. “Are they?”
“He is Iniid.” He didn’t glance away from his screen. “Death took his form after they mated.” His lips flattened. “Picture a freshwater dolphin. Imagine it having tentacles instead of flukes. Add in seven rows of serrated teeth, like sharks. That’s roughly how Iniid look.”
“Who thinks this stuff up?” I paced the length of the room. “Are schematics for charun pulled from some book of nightmares?”
“You have a very narrow view of the world.” He put his phone away. “Have you never considered how grotesque our kind might find humans? They’re largely hairless, without scales or fur, claws or proper teeth. They’re flesh. Nothing more. On any other world, they would be considered prey.”
I wasn’t falling for his garbage. “And yet Earth was the terrene chosen as a battlefield.”
He had no ready answer for that. Earth was lousy with humans. Therefore, they must hold some value. I noticed he failed to mention how the species as a whole had survived by evolving their technology. From sticks and rocks to guns and knives to nuclear weapons, humans were a clever species. Often too much so for their own good.
Dr. Franklin rejoined us, and we made goodbye noises before leaving the facility. It must be backed by the NSB to be so well funded and so open in its charunness. They weren’t even playing at being human past the lobby and receptionist.
“We have another stop to make before we return to the hotel.” Wu guided us deeper into town rather than out onto the highway. “I would have given you more notice, but your forced resting period made that impossible.”
I resisted the urge to squirm in my seat. “Do I get details?”
“There’s a clinic in Yazoo City.”
“Ah.” I let my gaze slide out the window as it sank in. “You’re taking me for my first exam.”
“Yes.”
“I wish you had told me,” I said softly. “I would have liked Mags to come.”
“We couldn’t risk the interference.”
“It’s not like she would have wrestled you to the ground for touching me.”
But she would have given him her best disappointed teacher look, which had quelled many a tiny rebellion amongst her kindergarteners.
“I won’t be touching you,” he assured me. “Our top physician was flown in to do the honors.”
“They’re all the same.” I curled in my seat, resting my cheek against the cool glass. “They all want to peel back your layers and see what makes you tick. This one might have more degrees, but that’s just paper on the wall.”
The weight of his stare fell on me, and his hands tightened on the steering wheel. “This was the bargain you struck.”
“This is me honoring it.” I shut my eyes. “Nowhere in my contract did it stipulate I had to be happy about it.”
Conversation died after that, and he turned the radio to a local news station.
The steady drone lulled me to sleep, and I was grateful for the temporary escape.
The Yazoo City clinic resembled every other doc-in-a-box outfit I had ever seen. The only difference being walk-ins weren’t welcome. You had to chat with someone on the intercom and get buzzed in. The lobby was empty of chairs. No family or friends were encouraged to wait. The flipside, I guess, was they must expect to shove their patients down the assembly line quickly if they didn’t rate seating either.
A fresh-faced boy who looked primed for his high school graduation manned the desk, and Wu aimed us in that direction.
“Mr. Wu,” he said, his voice a rolling baritone that made me do a double-take. “Ms. Boudreau.” His gray eyes sparked electric blue. “We’ve been expecting you.”
That made one of us. “How long will this take?”
“Four hours start to finish.” He smiled, and the effect was that of wax melting. “You’ll be in and out before you know it.”
A tremor set my pinky finger twitching, so I clenched my fist. “Yeah. Sure.”
“We aim to make every experience as painless and efficient as possible, so you’ll anticipate your return.”
Uh huh. All girls just loved having their bits fondled by strangers and devices implanted in their bodies.
“Okay, I can’t even pretend to bob my head in agreement with that. I hate doctors. I hate hospitals. I hate strangers touching me. Nothing you do will minimize or change that. Let’s not pretend otherwise.” I let a shudder roll through my shoulders. “Less talking and more whatever-the-hell you’re doing to me.”
The boy’s expression didn’t shift. I wasn’t sure it was malleable enough to form three different expressions in the span of five minutes. “Follow me, please.”
He waited for me to step up beside him before leading me toward a set of double doors.
Wu offered no words of encouragement. Just leaned a hip against the desk and ducked his head to avoid making eye contact with me.
Thanks, partner.
Rixton would have at least cracked a joke about me getting felt up without dinner first. Scratch that. He never would have brought me here. No matter how many rules it broke, he would have kept me from this sterile building with its sterile walls and sterile floors and—I cut my eyes to the boy—its sterile employees.
By some miracle, if someone had twisted his arm to get us this far, he would have come with me to stand watch outside the door. One whimper of pain, and he would have shielded his eyes with one hand while he knocked the doctor out cold with his other fist.
That’s what partners did for each other. We looked out for one another.
“Please, enter.” The boy unlocked a door. Unlocked. The room was a self-contained chamber with no doorknob or window or way out except through the opening he was about to close behind me. “The doctor will be right in.” He indicated a stack of white and blue fabriclike paper. “Leave your clothes on the chair. The top goes on like a vest. The blanket is for your lap.”
The snick of the lock clicking into place behind him spiraled dizziness through me.
I can do this. It’s an exam. I’ve had a billion. What’s one more? Nothing.
These people weren’t like the human doctors. They were well aware of who and what I was, so they ought to get the job done with minimal fanfare. As long as no one started bowing and scraping while my pants were off, I would be fine.
I stripped fast and shoved my arms into the paper top, hating how exposed my breasts felt as I reclined on the frigid table. I flicked open the paper sheet and tucked it in around me, which was pointless when the doctor would rip it aside when they got ready to ogle my wares.
“I really, really wish Maggie were here,” I said to the empty room.
A static click made me wonder if I wasn’t being monitored. I didn’t have long to question if I had imagined the noise. A door opened in the rear of the room, admitting an older woman with silver hair and a pleasant smile. They sure did love their seamless doors around here. Maybe it was a charun thing. Or an NSB thing? Either way, it was damn creepy to never know which way to expect company to arrive.
“Ms. Boudreau, I’m Dr. Lachlan. I’ve been assigned to your case, so we’ll be working together from here on out.” She pulled a rolling stool to the end of the table and sat, giving her a prime view of my real estate. “I hope that’s all right with you.”
None of this was okay, but I didn’t exactly have a say in the matter. “Sure.”
“Today I’m going to conduct a general exam,” she began. “That means I’ll—”
“Been there, done that, got the pap smear.” I had to force my thighs to relax when her icy fingers touched my skin. “What else will you be doing? I assume I’m here for more than a general wellness screening?”
“I’ll be inserting an IUD prototype we’ve had luck using on charun with similar biological traits.” She got down to business, and I stared at the ceiling, wishing I was anywhere other than here. “The process takes less than five minutes.” I jolted at a sharp pinch. “Your sister has responded well to treatment. I don’t foresee any complications for you.”
Selling Famine out to the NSB might have bothered me had she not been wearing my uncle the last time I saw her. As far as I was concerned, she deserved everything she got. And if they tested all their doodads out on her before implanting them in me, all the better.
The rest of the visit passed with about as much indignity as you might expect. It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t great either. Maybe I ought to be grateful that if Cole and I ever got past first base, or even to first base, I didn’t have to worry about making our duo a trio, but it was hard to think sexy thoughts with a speculum cranking my downstairs open.
“We’re all done here.” Dr. Lachlan patted my knee. “You can clean up and dress. A nurse will be in shortly to draw blood and take a tissue sample.”
“Great.” I snapped my thighs together. “Sounds like fun.”
Once I was alone, I cleaned up and dressed. Walking felt . . . weird. It’s not like the IUD was big or anything. She had shown the T-shaped device to me before she got started, and it was about two inches or so. The sting at insertion wasn’t a picnic, but that was no reason for me to feel like I ought to be waddling.
Raised voices distracted me from being utterly ridiculous, and I strained my ears to hear.
“Unlock this door,” Wu snapped on the other side. “We have to leave.”
“Her exam isn’t complete,” the boy soothed. “We’re not allowed to open the door until—”
The hinges made an unholy groan, and the door started buckling under the onslaught of his fists.
“What the actual hell?” I muttered while pulling on the rest of my clothes.
“Sir, you must stop this.”
“Open the door.”
“I’m not authorized to—”
Ready to rock and roll, I braced for when the door came down. God only knows what lit a fire under Wu, but if he was coming in hot, I had to be prepared to reach for the cold.
The slab of metal flew open and smacked against the far wall. Wu stood in the doorway, panting from exertion. I had never seen him so disheveled. Not even during the raid on War’s nests.
“What’s wrong?” I searched the hall behind him, but it stood empty.
“We have to get you out of here.” He stormed in, clasped my hand, and hauled me after him. “Hurry.”
“Gotta admit,” I panted, “you’re scaring me here. Who are we running from?”
Wu didn’t slow down as he said, “My father.”