Everything hurt.
Jez woke up slowly. For a long moment she had no idea where she was. Someplace-moving.
She was being jolted and jarred, and that wasn't good, because she seemed to be bruised all over.
Now, how had that happened... ?
She remembered.
And sat up so fast that it made her head spin. She found herself looking around the dim interior of a van.
Dim because there were no real windows. The one in back had been covered from the outside with duct tape, and only a little light came through at the top and bottom. No light came from the front. The driver's compartment was closed off from the back by a metal wall.
There were no seats in back, nothing at all to work with. Only three figures lying motionless on the floor.
Claire. Hugh. And... Morgead.
Jez stared, crawling forward to look at each of them.
Claire looked all right. She had been in the backseat with a seat belt on. Her face was very pale, but she didn't seem to be bleeding and she was breathing evenly.
Hugh looked worse. His right arm was twisted oddly under him. Jez touched it gently and determined that it was broken.
And I don't have anything to set it with. And I think sbmething else is wrong with him-his breathing's raspy.
Finally she looked at Morgead.
He looked great. He wasn't scraped or bruised or cut like the rest of them. The only injury she could find was a huge lump on his forehead.
Even as she brushed his hair back from it, he stirred.
His eyes opened and Jez found herself looking into dark emeralds.
"Jez!" He sat up, too fast. She pushed him back down. He struggled up again.
"Jez, what happened? Where are we?"
"I was hoping you might tell me that."
He was looking around the van, catching up fast Like any vampire, he didn't stay groggy long.
"I got hit. With wood. Somebody got me when I left my apartment." He looked at her sharply. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah. I got hit with a car. But it could be worse; it was almost a train."
They were both looking around now, automatically in synch, searching for clues to their situation and ways to get out They didn't have to discuss it The first order of business was always escape.
"Do you have any idea who hit you?" Jez said, running her fingers over the back door. No handles, no way to get out "No. Pierce called to say he'd come up with something on the Wild Power. I was going to meet him when suddenly I got attacked from behind." He was going over the metal barrier that separated them from the driver's cabin, but now he glanced at her. "What do you mean, it was almost a train?"
"Nothing here. Nothing on the sides. This van is stripped."
"Nothing here, either. What do you mean, a train?"
Jez wiggled around to face him. "You really don't know?"
He stared at her for a moment. Either he was a fantastic actor, or he was both innocent and outraged.
"You think I would do something to hurt you?"
Jez shrugged. "It's happened in the past."
He glared, seemed about to get into one of his Excited States. Then he shook his head. "I have no idea what's going on. And I would not try to hurt you."
"Then we're both in trouble."
He leaned back against the metal wall. "I believe you there." He was silent for a moment, then said in an odd, deliberate tone, "It's the Council, isn't it? They found out about Hunter's deal with us, and they're moving in."
Jez opened her mouth, shut it. Opened it again.
"Probably," she said.
She needed Morgead. Claire and Hugh weren't fighters. And whoever had them was a formidable enemy.
She didn't think it was the Council. The Council wouldn't use hired thugs; it would work through the Elders in San Francisco. And it would have no reason to kidnap Morgead; the deal with Hunter Redfern didn't really exist.
Whoever it really was had a good intelligence system, good enough to discover that Morgead knew something about the Wild Power. And had a lot of money, because it had imported a lot of muscle. And had a sense of strategy, because the kidnappings of Jez and Claire and Hugh and Morgead had been beautifully timed and nicely executed.
It might be some rogue vampire or werewolf chieftain who wanted to grab power. It might be some rival vampire gang in California. For all Jez knew, it might even be some insane faction of Circle Daybreak.
The only thing that was certain was that she was going to have to fight them whenever this van got where it was going, and that she needed all the help she could get.
So it was important to lie to Morgead one last time, and hope that he would fight with her.
She had to get Claire away safely.
That was all that mattered. The world would survive without her and Morgead, and even without Hugh, although it would be a darker place. But it wouldn't survive without Claire.
"Whether it's the Council or not, we're going to have to fight them," she said out loud. "How's your energy-blast trick? The one you demonstrated when we were stick-fighting."
He snorted. "Not good. I used up all my Power fighting the guys who tackled me. It'll be a long time before I recharge."
Jez's heart sank. "Too bad," she said unemotionally. "Because those two aren't going to be able to do much."
"Those humans? Who are they, by the way?" His voice was so carefully careless again.
Jez hesitated. If she said they were unimportant, he might not help her save them. But she couldn't tell the truth, either.
"That's Claire, and this is Hugh. They're-acquaintances. They've helped me in the past."
"Humans?"
"Even humans can be useful sometimes."
'I thought maybe one of them might be the Wild Power."
"You thought if I found the Wild Power I wouldn't tell you?"
'It occurred to me."
"You're so cynical, Morgead."
'I prefer to call it observant," he said. 'For instance, I can tell you something about your friend Hugh, there. I saw him in the city, just once, but I remember his face. He's a damned Daybreaker."
Jez felt a tension in her chest, but she kept her face expressionless. "So maybe I'm using him for something."
"And maybe," Morgead said, simply and pleasantly, "you're using me."