Kay Hooper - Blood Sins

Her mother was gone. Her father. Brooke. She had even sent Lexie away.

Ruby had never felt so alone in her life.

The only taxi Grace could boast pulled up to the gates of the Compound, and Tessa rolled down her window to speak to Carl Fisk.

"Good morning, Mrs. Gray." He was, as always, polite.

"Mr. Fisk. I called ahead and talked to Mr. DeMarco; I came to get my car. And to see Ruth, if possible."

"He said you were expected, Mrs. Gray. Joe, you might want to check with DeMarco after you let Mrs. Gray out; he said something about a couple of the women wanting to go into town this morning."

"Okay, I'll check with him. See you, Carl." The middle-aged driver was also polite, but disinterested enough that Tessa had concluded he probably wasn't a church member. Probably.

As the taxi passed through the gates, Tessa wondered for the first time if her driver was a church member. But it was a fleeting thought, dismissed because she had to focus, had to concentrate on shoring up her shields. Even just barely into the Compound, she could feel the skin-tingling effects of the odd energy fields. She thought it was stronger than it had been the day before and wondered if it was caused by the approaching storm system that had surprised the local weather peopleor by something else.

DeMarco met the taxi at his accustomed spot in the Square; beside him, two of the young wives of the church waited, scrubbed and smiling and curiously indistinguishable from each other.

Tessa paid her driver and got out of the taxi, and the two young women got in. She stood beside DeMarco and watched the car pull away.

"Friday shopping?" she asked him quietly.

"They were discussing whether to go tomorrow. Since the taxi was bringing you, I suggested they go today." His voice was just as quiet as hers.

"So there's two away safe."

"I hope so."

"What about the others?"

"Usual routine. Most of the children will be at their lessons, in their homes. Well out of the way, at least initially. There are probably less than a dozen people inside the church, most of them in the recreation area or upstairs in the office space."

"Where's Samuel?"

"Meditating, as he does every day at this time. Tessa, you need to be very careful. There was something different about him this morning."

"Does he know I'm here?"

"I don't know. What I do know is that he held a Youth Ritual yesterday while I was gone."

"Is that"

"Call it an initiation, in stages. As the girls reach puberty, he begins to lead them through a series of ceremonies supposedly intended to purify their path to womanhood."

Tessa felt queasy. "He begins stimulating them?"

"So I gather. The ceremonies for his Chosen ones are attended only by Samuel, Ruth, and the girlsfour each time. But I've seen the afterglow."

"Christ."

Calmly, DeMarco said, "For that alone he deserves to rot in hell. But something unusual happened yesterday, or at least I think it did. This group is the one including Ruby."

"You never said she"

DeMarco cut her off. "I wasn't about to tell you something that would only make you more determined to rescue her as soon as possible. And I had no reason to suppose this ceremony would be any different from the two or three Ruby has already endured."

Not nearly as calm, Tessa said, "So something was different this time?"

"I haven't seen Ruby this morning. Or one of the other girls who was in her group. Brooke."

"Would you, normally?"

"A communal breakfast, with prayers, in the church's dining hall. Not everyone attends, but many do. Ruby's mother was there, smiling. But no Ruby. And no Brooke. I gather the group has a new girl, Mara, but no explanation was offered as to why she apparently replaced Brooke or what happened to Brooke or to Ruby."

Tessa had a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach. "You think he hurt them this time?"

"Brooke's gone," he said simply.

"What?"

"I knew it as soon as I saw Samuel this morning. I could feel it in him, that particular energy. He destroyed Brooke."

Tessa swallowed hard. "And Ruby?"

"I don't think so. You still feel the connection, don't you?"

She didn't have to think about that. "Yes."

"Then she's still alive. But I have no idea where she is."

"I have to find her."

"I know. And I can't help you, except by making sure the chief's distraction is felt all through the Compound." DeMarco checked his watch. "We have about half an hour. The cameras are already cutting in and out, but they always do when a storm's on the way, so no alarm."

"And no watching eyes?"

"Give me five minutes to get to the control room and take care of that."

"What about Ruth?"

"She was busy. I didn't wasn't to disturb her. Be careful, Tessa." DeMarco turned and went into the church.

Tessa glanced up at the clouds thickening in the sky, drew a shaky breath of the cold morning air, and slid her hands in the pockets of her lightweight jacket. She tried to open herself just enough to get a sense of the place but not enough to be vulnerableand immediately felt once again the skin-tingling sensation of energy.

It was almost automatic to instantly retreat, to shore up her shields. To protect herself.

But her determination to do her part today, coupled with her growing worry for Ruby, overrode that impulse for self-preservation. Or just made Tessa more stubborn; she wasn't sure which.

She kept that door in her mind open just a little bit. And listened with every sense she had.

Tessa began to wander around the church grounds, taking the long way to her car as she kept that narrow opening in her shields and tried to probe through it.

"Come on, Ruby," she murmured, "where are you? You've reached me before. Reach me now"

She walked slowly and probed as cautiously as she could, sensing people inside the church, inside the neat little houses, all of them with the eerie sameness that had struck her from her first visit.

All the scrubbed and nice people

Help me! Please help me

Ruby.

"Ijust think you could have mentioned it, Chief, that's all," Robin Keever said somewhat stiffly.

Sawyer closed the Jeep's hatch and faced her, sighing. "Robin, I've already explained that I didn't know feds were in the area until yesterday. Literally yesterday. And I told you about it last night when I got back to the station and found you still hanging around."

"I was off the clock," she muttered.

"That's not the point. The point is that I told you about the feds as soon as I could."

Her gaze slid past him to the Jeep and, still obviously disgruntled, she began, "Well, I just"

"So," he cut her off, "do you want to play or take your marbles and go home?"

She blinked at him, and a small smile worked at the corners of her mouth. "You mean be in on the operation?"

"Yeah. Such as it is." Before she could leap on the offer, he added sternly "Listen to me. We don't want anybody up there in the Compound getting spooked. That means you keep your hand away from your weapon, you keep things casual, and you do exactly what I tell you to do. No more, no less. Got it?"

"Yes, Chief."

"The feds just want to have a quiet look around without making a big fuss about it." He hoped to hell he was as good a liar as DeMarco was. "So they go in as locals. I drive this Jeep, you drive yours, and we each have a couple of uniformed officers with us as we serve the warrant." He glanced up at the grayish sky as a rumble of thunder sounded in the distance. "Damn, the weather's moving in earlier than we expected."

"Do feds melt?"

He stared at her.

"Sorry. Sorry, Chief. Is the weather important?"

"You'd be surprised." He paused. "Really surprised. Robin, I need a familiar officer driving the other vehicle, somebody Fiskor whoever's manning the gatewill recognize. But you are not to interfere in any way with the agents, understand?"