Boundary Born (Boundary Magic Book 3) - Melissa F. Olson Page 0,86
as casually as I could. My eyes were fastened on the vampires. I recognized two of them from the photos Maven had shown us of the Denver vampires. Three of them I didn’t know. And the last . . . I took a small step sideways so I could see the woman behind Emil’s shoulder. Shock flashed through my chest. It was Opal. She was one of Maven’s vampires, and I had thought she was loyal.
“You?” I blurted. “How could you?”
Opal didn’t respond. In fact, I realized, none of them were responding to anything. “She can’t hear you,” Emil said, not unkindly. “None of them can. He’s pressed them.”
I swallowed hard. Of course Lysander could press vampires. Why hadn’t I thought of that? “That’s how he got Ford and the others to come after me,” I said, mostly to myself. Emil wasn’t working for Ford. Lysander had pressed the vampire to do what he wanted.
Emil frowned. “Yes. And if you’d just gone with them, you could have saved everyone a lot of trouble. We could have laid Lysander back to rest by now, and two fewer people would be dead.” He didn’t sound smug, or like a supervillain in a comic book movie. He just sounded . . . tired.
“Where’s Elise?” I demanded.
He flicked on a heavy-duty flashlight, pointing it over his shoulder. I recognized the metal sculpture at the back of the garden, raised above the others with a few concrete steps. It was a cowboy on top of his horse, reining in a wild mustang as it reared on its back two legs. But the sculpture had always been a rusty brown color, not silver. I squinted at the flashlight beam and recognized the long silver bundle draped across the cowboy’s lap. It was Elise, wrapped in duct tape from her ankles to her armpits. A rectangle of tape was plastered over her mouth as well.
“Elise!” I shouted, and began to run forward.
A vampire stepped in front of me, his expression completely blank. “No, you don’t,” Emil said. He nodded at one of the vampires in the back, who walked mechanically over to Elise, baring his teeth.
“How do I know she’s alive?” I shouted.
Calmly, Emil dipped two fingers into his shirt pocket and pulled out a thin cigar, sticking it between his lips. He patted his pockets for a lighter and finally flicked open a silver Zippo to ignite the end. After taking a deep drag and exhaling, he finally spoke over his shoulder to the vampire near my cousin. “Hit her.”
Before I could so much as open my mouth to protest, the vampire lifted Elise’s head, ripped off the tape, and slapped her hard across the face. “No!” I shouted, but Elise moaned, shying away from the blow. The vampire let her head fall again. I screamed at the sound of her cheekbone striking the metal sculpture.
“There, see? Alive,” Emil said.
“Walk away,” I said through clenched teeth. “Leave now, and I won’t kill you. Brother.”
In response, Emil reached down and adjusted something on the bench. “Come on now, Lex,” he said in a soft, soothing voice. “Let’s get to the car. We’ll leave Officer Luther here, where someone will find her in the morning.” He held out an arm.
I stepped forward, ignoring the vampires who’d begun to close ranks around Emil. “Didn’t you hear me, asshole? Get the fuck out of my town.”
Emil paused, genuine shock on his face. “How are—why aren’t you listening to me?” he sputtered. He touched his shirt near the collar, probably feeling for his necklace.
“You mean why am I not smiling and curtseying and following you into hell?” I snapped.
He glared. “That was a perfect grid, and I buried the stones this time.”
I reached into my own neckline and pulled out the dangling cord, showing him the chunk of mahogany obsidian. I was expecting his face to fall, or maybe get angry, but the look he gave me was different. There was surprise there, and maybe even a bit of respect.
Then the look vanished, and he shook his head. “All right, fine. We could have done this the easy way, but you really are your mother’s daughter. Lysander’s not going to like that.”
“Where is he?” I demanded. “Why didn’t he come himself?”
“He finds it hard to control himself in public places,” he said, his voice cool. “And his . . . mmm . . . supervisors have forbidden him from mass murder. That’s why he has to travel with a keeper.”