Living with the Dead
Page 102

Adele pulled back, but not before squeezing his crotch. "You gave me a wonderful gift, didn't you, sweetie? One that will make my fortune." She looked at Hope. "When I told Irving I was carrying the child of a seer, I swear the old man got a hard-on just thinking about it."
"Seer?" Hope forced the word past her revulsion.
"Powerful clairvoyants who can project visions to others. Irving had heard stories about them – that's all most people hear, stories. But here they are, and Thom is the most valuable of them all."
"Them?"
Adele waved at the room and walked to a cupboard, taking down a bottle. Hope turned, slowly. Her gaze moved past the flashing TV to another chair, a recliner this time. In it, a hairless man stared vacantly at the cartoon.
"That's Melvin. Veggie Boy." Adele tapped her head. "No one's home. He's practically useless, but he's Niko's son, so they have to keep him alive."
Hope stepped sideways to see what Adele was doing. Filling a syringe.
Hope's hand tightened on her lowered gun. "What's that?"
"A sedative for Thom. He has a wicked temper. When the kumpania or the Cabal starts banging on that door, things will get ugly. I don't want him upset."
"When they do show up, let me do the talking. I'll negotiate – "
"With what?" Her look dripped disdain. "I'll do the talking. I know what we've got in here, and how to use it to our advantage."
"Adele, we – "
A noise behind Hope. A rustling. From the crib.
She'd forgotten the crib. Her knees locked, brain ordering her to stay where she was, not to look, that it wouldn't do any good.
And what good would it do to not look? Cover her eyes, plug her ears and whistle past the cemetery? When she got out, she had to do something about this, which meant she had to take the story back to the council. The full story.
Hope stepped to the crib, and a scream congealed in her throat. It wasn't a baby. It wasn't even human. It couldn't be. A doll. A prank. Adele's plan to shock Hope, distract her so she could get her gun.
It moved.
Hope's scream escaped in a strangled yelp.
Adele laughed. "That's Martha. Freaky, isn't she? Like a giant slug." Once she said that, Hope couldn't shake the image, as hard as she tried to see what lay in that crib as human. It was a woman with long, tangled white hair. She was limbless and eyeless, her body so white it blended with her diaper. She writhed from side to side, mouth opening, mewling.
"She's probably hungry." A flat statement, carrying no sense of obligation to do anything about it. "She's the most powerful of them. But we can only pick up her visions – she can't communicate. That's why Thom's the most valuable.
Aren't you, sweetie?"
Hope looked from Adele, pinging air bubbles from the needle, to Thom, watching Adele with that intent stare.
 
" 'dele," he said, the guttural word carrying the same edge as one of Karl's warning growls.
"Everything's okay, sweetie. I'm just giving you one of your shots, to calm you down."
"No."
"Oh, I know you don't like them. They make you feel all fuzzy, don't they?" She paused, head cocking. "Hear that, Hope? Seems they finally found us."
Hope caught the faint clink of metal. Someone descending the ladder.
"Don't worry. They can't get in." She took a key from the tabletop, waved it and dropped it into her pocket. "Once the door is closed, no one gets in or out without that. Of course, to get out, we're also going to need to get past them."
Adele lifted the needle to check the dose.
"You're going to hold the seers hostage," Hope said.
"It doesn't matter who's coming down those steps – Cabal or kumpania – for either one, these guys are the most valuable things on the property."
She started toward Thom. Chaos buzzed from him, fear muted by uncertainty, sensing danger but seeing only someone he trusted.
" 'dele..." He grabbed the arms of his chair, rising.
"I don't think that's necessary," Hope said. "He seems fine."
"Bold moves, Hope. You have to be willing to make the bold moves." She stopped in front of her. "When you see the options, there's always one that seems like it's too much. It goes too far. That's the one you need to take."
Hope tried to pick up a stray chaos vibe, a thought, anything to confirm her fears. Adele only looked at her, mind blank, face expressionless. But Hope knew. She knew.
The door clicked. They both looked over. The knob turned one way, the other, then stopped. Adele began to circle around Hope. She stepped into Adele's path.
"He doesn't need that shot," Hope said. "He's calm, and I'll make sure he stays that way. You negotiate. Thom will be my responsibility."
Adele tried sidestepping. When Hope countered, Adele's lips tightened in annoyance. "I'm just going to give him a sedative, let him sleep this out."
"No, you're not. This isn't a bold move, Adele. It's craz – premature. We haven't even opened negotiations."
She hesitated. Reconsidering? After a moment, she sighed. "We have to enter from a strong position. Don't you see that? Start by proving we aren't making idle threats."
"But Thom – "
" – is the most valuable seer. A huge loss. Enter from that position, and we'll have them scrambling to save the other two."
She sidestepped again. Hope raised her gun.
Adele laughed. "You aren't going to use that. You need me."
"Not badly enough to let you kill anyone else."
She stepped past Hope. "I gave you a story. Stick with that."
Hope turned the gun on Adele. "Put the needle down."
"Relax, Thom." Adele laid her hand on his chest, pushing him back into his seat. "You're just going to take a nap, okay, sweetie?"
He resisted her push, but didn't shove back, staying on the edge of his seat, fear tempered with confusion, sensing danger, seeing only Adele.
Hope raised the gun, to her head. "Adele, put down – "
"Oh, please." She moved the syringe to Thom's arm. "Bold moves, Hope. You have to be willing to make – "