“Yeah, okay.” He dug around Nick’s family photos, a pistol, the plastic envelope with the car’s papers, and a dozen maps from all over the country. “You really need to organize this, man.” He found the map of the Northeast and pulled it out, but the print blurred when he opened it. He squinched his eyes shut again and then blinked hard, trying to make out the route.
Nick glanced over and frowned. “You all right? What’s the matter with you?”
“I don’t know. It’s this…the transfer stuff. Don’t worry about it.” He unfolded and refolded the map with the target area facing up.
“Great,” Nick grumbled. “That means it’s something to worry about. I need you at your best if we’re going to—well, shit. We’re going to Boston. We don’t have to do this alone.”
Sam watched him pull out his phone and hit a number to speed dial. John’s name flashed in the display. “Come on, come on, come on. Pick up. Crap.” He tapped the steering wheel while the voice mail message played over the speaker.
“Hey, John. Nick. Got a situation here.” He gave a rundown and the address Sam had identified. “Those people you don’t want to talk about on the phone have Quinn and Riley. We need your help. Meet us there or call me back.” He flipped the phone closed and stepped on the gas again.
“You think it was a good idea to give him that over a possibly compromised phone?” Sam murmured.
Nick shook his head. “I don’t know, man. Anson’s got to know we’d try to come after them. He’ll be ready. Can it make it any worse for them to have heard me say it? Even if they intercept John on his way over, the situation can’t get much worse.”
Sam wasn’t sure he fully agreed with Nick’s logic, but he was sure that Anson either thought he had Quinn and Riley somewhere they couldn’t get to them, or he’d have a trap waiting.
An hour later—four hours after the women were taken, two after Riley’s phone call—they sat in the Charger in a dark parking garage, waiting. Nick had driven around the brick apartment building a couple of times before settling into a spot where two lights were out. John was on his way, but he hadn’t been able to reach any local goddesses capable of fighting, and there were still no protectors close enough to join them.
All Sam’s symptoms had worsened during the drive, too. Nausea, jitteriness, jagged intensity. He wasn’t sure if there was any useable power left in him, or if he’d burned it all off in the fight. He was too much of a mess to tell. None of the ill effects had resurfaced until they drove inland and away from the ocean. The power in him was totally unlike anyone’s understanding of the goddess/energy connection. When he’d pushed the screw in mid-air and then bent it into a ring, he used what was already in him, rather than drawing on the energy of the ocean. The act had normalized him, and he’d felt even better making love with Riley.
Immediately afterward, he’d been completely absorbed by her. But with everything that happened after that, he hadn’t noticed when he started to feel fucked up again. Maybe while Anson talked, but it was hard to tell what was physical and what was emotional.
The apartment building where Quinn and Riley were apparently being held was in Brookline, far enough inland that Sam couldn’t even sense the sea, never mind hope to be calmed by it. The Charles River was a little closer, but he couldn’t sense that, either. Using whatever power remained might make him feel better, but he hated to waste it and was afraid of what would happen when it was gone. He was functional right now—that had to be good enough.
Sam took a deep breath and concentrated on the building specs on his laptop screen. “Okay, looks like six floors, ten apartments on a floor, with four layout variations.” He flipped a page. “Top floor has the luxury units, only four up there.”
“Can you access ownership records?” Nick leaned forward and peered across the parking level. He’d backed into the space so they could keep watch and get away faster when the time came.
“Yeah, but these names mean nothing to me.” He angled the laptop for Nick to scan the list. The protector shook his head and went back to watching for John.
“We don’t have time to research them. Even if the abductors are rich, they might be smart enough to have rented one of the lower units. Put a layer between their names and anyone looking for them.”
“Too bad we can’t count on them not being smart,” Nick grumped.
“Yeah.” Sam shook his head with a humorless chuckle. “They did get us, after all. How’s your head, by the way?” Nick had insisted he was okay to drive despite the nasty headache the tranq gave him.
“Pounding. But it’ll be fine.”
For a fleeting second, Sam considered trying to heal Nick. At the immediate image of his hand on the back of Nick’s head, while Nick screamed and his brains scrambled, Sam stopped considering.
“There’s John.” Nick climbed out of the car and closed his door quietly. The small thud still echoed in the dark silence, and the figure walking up the entry ramp turned, hesitated, and walked in their direction.
Sam dumped the laptop into its case and opened his door, moving slowly and willing his body to cooperate. Every muscle had stiffened and most ached. He forced himself upright and closed the car door to join Nick and John.
“They could be anywhere.” Nick gestured at the building connected to the garage by a stairwell/elevator combo. “We’ll have to search the whole place.”
“How are we gonna have any clue which unit they’re in?”
“I have an idea about that—” Nick broke off at the scrape of a shoe down the aisle. He and Sam both looked, but John didn’t turn.
Sam understood why a moment later, as Marley walked under the closest light.
“What’s she doing here?” he asked.
“She wanted to help.” John gave him an implacable look. “Quinn’s her sister, and Riley’s her friend.”
She reached John’s side and nodded a greeting. “Have you heard from them again?”
“No.” Sam told himself that didn’t mean anything.
“You still buzzing?” Nick asked Sam.
Sam frowned. “Can you be more specific?” He was buzzing in four different ways.
“From the transfer. The power thing?”
“Some, yeah. I guess.”
“Think you could use it like Riley does, to sense where she and Quinn are? Or the Numina people?”
John grunted at the word but didn’t say anything.
Sam lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know. I can try. If I have any power left I can probably detect Riley.” He’d gotten a pulse of her energy at the beach, and something deeper than endorphins had surged when they made love. He could identify that energy if he sensed it again, but he didn’t know how far the range extended or how to seek it, and he doubted he could do it with anyone but her right now.
“So what’s the plan?” John asked. “Just walk around?”
“That’s what it’s going to have to be,” Nick said. “Once Sam identifies their location—”
“If I can identify their location.”
Nick didn’t even look at him. “We’ll scope it out and decide how to go in.”
“I’ll go with Sam.” Marley said. When the men all stared at her, she leaned as if to back up, then straightened and squared her shoulders. “It would look suspicious for you three to walk the halls together. Sam and I can blend in better.”
“You don’t have any defenses,” Nick pointed out.
Marley flinched and didn’t respond directly. “If anyone realizes we’re wandering, we can claim we don’t know which apartment we’re looking for. A dinner party or something.”
Sam was skeptical. “It’s almost midnight.”
“Some people have late parties.”