Kelley Armstrong - Broken

She paused, then nodded.

“Good.”

“I-” She looked over at Nick. “I guess I’ll go pack then.”

I nodded and waited for her to leave, then let Nick give me the non-update.

There were two ways to get past Nick. Prey on his trusting nature and trick him, or clock him over the head and run. I picked option two. Less cruel. I’ve tricked Nick before. More than once. Given the choice between betrayal and a potential concussion, he’d pick the latter.

So, when he wasn’t looking, I grabbed my hairbrush. As he turned, I hit him. He hesitated, and for one terrible moment I thought it hadn’t worked. Then he slumped to the bed.

I checked his breathing and his pupils, making sure the blow hadn’t been too hard. Then I lifted him into the bed and stuffed the pillows under the covers beside him, making a human-sized figure. It wouldn’t trick Antonio when he came to collect us, but it would probably pass muster if he just glanced in the door to check.

Next: shoes and cell phone. Then I was out the door.

I WALKED OUT INTO THE NIGHT. JAIME WAS WAITING UNDER the hotel terrace, tucked between two half-dead spruce trees. When I approached, she didn’t move, as if wondering whether she was well enough concealed just to stay there and avoid me.

“I need you to help me find Hull,” I said.

She nodded, no surprise in her eyes.

“You said you can call a zombie if you have something of hers. Would a finger work?”

She only stood there, worrying her rings, trying to avoid my eyes.

“We can’t do this, Elena,” she said finally. “I can’t. I know you want to, but you’re not thinking clearly and-”

“Not thinking clearly?”

I strode up in front of her. Jaime stepped back, eyes widening in alarm. The second I saw that look, I stopped and stared at her. In her eyes I saw more than alarm. I saw fear.

“You’re worried about what Jeremy will say,” I said.

She shook her head. “No. Well, yes. But that’s not my main concern. Not really a concern at all. It’s pointless anyway.”

She looked so sad then, so deflated, that a twinge of conscience pierced my determination. I shouldn’t drag her into this. But I couldn’t find Hull on my own. Or could I?

“Stay here.” I started to walk away, hesitated, then said, “No, come with me. It’s safer.”

When she hesitated, I strode off. No time to cajole her. After a moment, I heard her footsteps jog up behind me.

“What are you doing?” she whispered.

“Scouting the perimeter.”

“For Hull?”

“More likely a zombie.”

I paused at the corner and knelt by a scent trail. Hull’s, but an old one. I pushed up and kept moving.

“What’ll you do if you find one?”

“I’ll grab it. Make it lead me back to Hull.”

“But you can’t fight Hull, Elena. Not by yourself. Not in your-”

“Condition? Trust me, right now, my condition is what’s going to make me damned sure I can kill him. He won’t even have time to try negotiating.”

Her hand clamped down on my arm. As I wheeled, I swallowed a snarl, but she must have seen it. Fear darted behind her eyes, but she didn’t let go of my arm.

“What about time to cast a spell, Elena?”

“He won’t kill me like that,” I said. “He said he doesn’t care if the babies are dead or alive, but he’s lying. That’s why he was so eager to make a deal instead of just killing me. It makes a difference. Dead, he’d have to sell them fast, before they-” My throat seized up, images flipping past, images I really didn’t want to see, didn’t want to consider. “Better if they’re alive. Then he has time to find a good buyer. I’m not saying he won’t kill me-if it comes to that-but he won’t be quick to kill me.”

I circled the building twice, and found only old trails from Hull, including one that intersected with the scent of the bowler-hatted man, who’d must have stopped by earlier to get his orders. How stupid had we been? Searching for the zombie controller when we had taken him into our “protection.”

He had to be out here, somewhere, watching for our next move. But “out here” was a downtown block. He could be hiding in any of the darkened offices overlooking the hotel or on top of those buildings or in the parking garages-anyplace where he could see us if we tried to make a run for it.

If I had to, I might be able to find Hull, but my best bet was still the woman jogging behind me, her sandals catching in the roots and holes of the hotel gardens.

“The abandoned building where we found the fingers is about three kilo-two miles over,” I said. “We’ll slip down the block behind the hotel and get a taxi.”

“Elena. I…”

I turned. “You don’t want to do this? Twenty minutes ago, you were begging Jeremy to let you have a go at it. So it’s one thing to fly to the rescue and win Jeremy’s gratitude, but going behind his back and doing it is out of the question? Sure, it might save my life, my babies’ lives, Clay’s life…but if that’s not what matters, then it’s hardly worth the bother, is it?”

Her eyes flashed. “This isn’t about impressing Jeremy.”

“No? Then-”

“Prove it?” A small laugh. “Nice trap, Elena, but I’m not falling for it. Yes, I offered to do this same thing with Jeremy. Or with Antonio. Or with Nick. But not with an eight-months pregnant-”

“Five months.”

Her eyes met mine. “According to Jeremy, you’re the equivalent of at least eight months along, so don’t split hairs. You are in no condition to fight a sorcerer and his zombies, and when it comes to fighting, I’m useless. If I let you do this, then I’m just what you accused me of being-a desperately infatuated, self-centered twit who’ll put your life at risk for the faint hope of impressing a man.”

“No, Jaime, I’m the one who’s desperate here. Yes, I’m running on instinct and adrenaline, but it’ll take me where I want to go. You have a cell phone, right?”

“Sure, but-”

“If, at any point, you decide I’m in over my head, all you have to do is use it. Hell, once you’ve delivered that zombie, you can use it to call a cab. No one even has to know you were involved.”

“I wouldn’t do that.”

“But you have the option. You have other options too. You can go back upstairs and pretend you never spoke to me. Or you can tell Jeremy what I’m doing, which might earn you some brownie points…until Clay loses his arm and my babies are put up for sale on the black market and Jeremy realizes he’s made a horrible mistake. Or, you can slip back up there, grab your bag and come with me.”

“I don’t need to.”

“No, you’re right, you don’t need to come with me-”

“No.” She hoisted her purse. “I mean I don’t need to go back upstairs. I didn’t think you were asking me to take a moonlight walk.”

“Good. Let’s go then.”

Yesterday Tee had chastised Jaime for not knowing how to call a zombie. At first, Jaime had chalked that up to Tee’s madness-that she was confused and had forgotten it wasn’t Jaime who’d raised the zombies. But the comment had gnawed at Jaime.

Zombies were ghosts inside dead bodies. If necromancers would summon ghosts, did it matter which plane-or form-they were in? While we’d been meeting with Tolliver and Shanahan, Jaime had been making calls, trying to track down instances of necromancers calling zombies they hadn’t raised.

It had taken a lot of digging to come up with anything. Not surprising. If you can raise your own zombies, why steal someone else’s? What she did find were a couple stories of incompetent necromancers who didn’t have the skills to raise their own, trying to “buy” zombies-pay a better necro to raise them, then take them over. And it had worked…in a fashion.