Hood cut him a look at that, but he rolled his eyes rather than take offense.
“Volkov wants to see Grier. I’m going to offer him the chance if he cooperates. The visit will be supervised, by the two of us, while he gives his donation. I won’t keep her in his presence a second longer than is required. Your job is to keep your eyes on Grier at all times. My attention will be divided. I need someone focused on keeping her safe.”
“I can do that.” A ghost of his old smile flickered. “If it’s okay with Grier.”
“What we’re here for will help protect the sentinels from another massacre like the one that happened today.” I wanted him to understand there was no room here for personal grudges. If I could set mine aside, then he had to do the same. “For Becky, I trust you to watch my back.”
With a nod, he shut his eyes. “I deserve that.”
Trust was a tender subject between us. That couldn’t be helped. And after the stunt he pulled with Adelaide, I wasn’t in the mood to be generous. But I also wasn’t willing to lose more people when between Linus and me, we had the means to protect them.
“We should go.” Linus reached for the door then stepped out before helping me onto the sidewalk. “We’ll get the time promised to us, but not a second longer.”
On the ride over, I let myself be distracted by Linus. Now that we had arrived, I had no choice but to soak up our surroundings. The faded Victorian with the small side garden was tidy, but the fence surrounding the yard was high and set my back teeth vibrating. I would bet the first bite out of my next donut that meant high-powered wards.
“This is it?”
At first, I thought I had spoken the thought out loud, but Boaz had beat me to it. “What he said.”
“I had no idea this was in the city.” He studied the street sign, which told me there would be questions raised to his superiors later. “How many inmates?”
“Six is the max allowed,” Linus informed us, “and they’re at full capacity.”
Behind us, Hood pulled out onto the empty road while we approached the front door. Here, the pretense vanished. The woman who answered wore her hair shorn on one side with braids tickling her breastbone on the other. Her skin was dark, her hair black, but contacts gave her a yellow iris in one eye and a yellow pupil with a smiley face in the other.
“Hey,” she greeted Linus. “Didn’t expect to see you back so soon.”
“We’re cleared for a visit with one of your residents,” he replied smoothly. “Can we come in?”
“I can’t very well stop you.” She stepped back and allowed us to enter, but she paid me particular attention. “You must be Grier Woolworth. I’ve heard a lot about you. This place must be nicer than your old digs, huh?”
Impact slammed the woman against the wall, and the porcelain figures on the shelf above her head rattled. Forearm braced across her windpipe, Linus let her scratch at him and gasp without blinking.
Boaz looked to me for instruction, but I had nothing.
I eased a step forward. “Linus?”
“I endure your sly remarks, Rue, because I don’t care what you have to say about my mother or me.” He gave her just enough leeway to lift her head, then he cracked it against the wall a second time. “Grier has endured enough. Play your games with me if you must, but you will leave her out of them.”
“Sorry, but that doesn’t work for me.” I closed the gap, anger fueling me. “Rue, is it?” I tapped his wrist, and he lowered his arm. “You’re going to keep your mouth shut and your opinions to yourself. He has never said or done anything to earn the types of remarks I have no trouble imagining you making.”
Rubbing her throat, she rasped, “You can’t know that.”
“Yes, I can.” I rested a hand on his shoulder and guided him out of her space. “Linus is a gentleman. The only people who imply otherwise have left him no choice but to repay their behavior in kind.” Her mouth opened, but I cut her off quick. “I saw what you did, baiting him. It had nothing to do with me. You were targeting him through me, and I won’t be used to hurt him.” I folded my arms across my chest. “Now apologize.”
Her lips flattened into a mulish line. “Sorry.”
“Great.” I clasped my hands together. “Now we can all be friends.”
Rue eyed me like I was a few seeds short of a strawberry, but she accepted the temporary truce for what it was and led us past the formal living room you would expect to find in such a home, through a door reinforced with steel backing, and into a narrow hall painted a dull, institution-beige color. Holes had been patched, badly, on the walls. The floor was scarred linoleum, and some squares were missing entire corners.
This wasn’t the cushy pen I had imagined for Volkov, but it was a long way from Atramentous.
Three identical doors spanned the left side of the hall, the pattern repeated on the right. Those must lead to the cells, or what passed for them around here. But we didn’t stop there. We kept going, straight for the larger entrance right in front of us.
“He’s already in medical.” Rue didn’t turn her back on us as she used her master keycard to swipe open the lock. “You have thirty minutes starting from the time I shut this.”
The door clanging behind us caused me a moment of blind panic that turned my hands into claws, ready to rake my nails against the metal and scream until Rue released me, but I gritted my teeth and took in our surroundings. This room was more hospital than prison. Stark, bright, and gleaming with stainless surfaces. I was relieved to find that Volkov had been strapped to an exam table facing away from us.
“This is unexpected,” he rumbled, a thick Russian accent rounding his voice. “You came just last month. Are you so eager for more of our conversation? Perhaps tonight you can tell me what purpose my blood serves you.” He settled into the cracked plastic. “Otherwise, I might not be so eager to…” He whipped his head to the side, nostrils flaring, but he couldn’t see me trembling. “You smell like her.”
Ignoring the implied question, Linus strolled closer. “I have a proposition for you.”
“It is maddening.” Volkov sucked in oxygen until his nostrils whistled. “Did you bring me a piece of her clothing? Have I finally bartered enough to earn that small token?”
“There is no price you could pay high enough to deserve that.”
“A shirt is not so much to someone who has the woman herself.” His voice turned sly. “I could ask for something more…intimate. She and I were almost betrothed. One might argue I even have a right to it.”
The mask of potentate was sealed so flush to Linus’s skin, Volkov had no hope of getting a rise out of him. I hadn’t noticed Linus slipping it on, but he was a master at showing the face required to get the job done.
“Give me two pints of blood, and I will give you the time it takes to collect them with Grier.”
The plastic creaked once before Volkov bared his fangs and started thrashing. “She is here. In this room. That is what I smell.”
Unmoved by the display, Linus watched his tantrum with a bored expression. “Do we have a bargain?”
“Yes,” Volkov hissed. “Bring her to me. Let me see her. The smell is driving me mad.”
Boaz tensed when Linus waved me closer, but he didn’t attempt to restrain me, and he didn’t say a word about what I was about to do.
Maybe he was capable of learning after all.
Black edged my vision, thicker with every step closer to Volkov. I steadied my pulse as much as I was able before circling in front of him.
“Grier,” he breathed. “You came.”
“You agreed to cooperate,” I reminded him, and he went still. “Why did you want to see me?”
“I should have refused your grandfather when he confessed his plans for you.”
“You made your choice.” I managed a politer tone than he deserved. “You can’t unmake it.”
Shifting to stand near his feet, I swapped sides with Linus to give him better access to the equipment.
“I did care for you.” He ignored the prick of the needle. “Surely you must know that.”
“You used your lure on me.” The spot between my shoulders twitched with the memory. “You took away my free will whenever it suited you.”
“I made mistakes.” He began to grow agitated. “I am admitting to them now.”
Linus raised his hand just enough to catch my eye to signal he needed more time.
The opening gave me an excuse to ask a question I had been wondering for a while now. “Did you know Odette Lecomte was Lacroix’s lover?”
“I did,” he admitted after a considering pause. “However, I was ignorant of her connection to you.”
“Mmm-hmm.” As a key player, he would have known it all in case he required the ammunition.
“You were promised to me,” he reminded me softly. “When I am free of this place, I will claim what is mine.”
“Lacroix has named a new heritor,” I fibbed. “He doesn’t need you.”
“Lies,” he hissed. “Lacroix promised…”
“Lacroix talks out of his ass. A lot.” I shrugged. “He’s not going to hand his granddaughter over to a prisoner. He’s not much for jailhouse weddings. We never discussed it, but he doesn’t seem the type. He’s big into pomp and circumstance. Probably expects a lot of lace and silk at my wedding, and that’s just what he’ll be wearing.”
“You will wait for me,” Volkov ordered, hurling his compulsion at me. “I will get free, and I will be rewarded, as promised.”
The urge to bend to his desires rolled over me like water off a duck’s back.
Having pitted myself against Lacroix so often lately, I could appreciate the nuances of Volkov’s power. He was nowhere near as strong as my grandfather, but he was young. Give him a few lifetimes, and he would mature. So would his lure, until he could have anyone he wanted with the crook of his finger. Unless they had protection against him. Protection Linus would soon make available to the public.