He looked horrible, like patient zero in an epidemic movie. His face was pasty, with shadows around his eyes so dark they were almost black, the eyelids red, the blue glow of his eyes almost visible turmoil. His lips were cracked and dry, his clothes rumpled and stained, his hair standing on end—and, Sam was pretty sure, missing tufts.
“Sam,” he croaked. “I’m sorry.”
And then he passed out on the carpet.
Nick appeared in the doorway. “Where the hell did he come from?”
“I don’t know.” Sam leaped the two steps up to the foyer area and stood next to Nick, looking down at Anson. “What a mess.”
“This had better not be another fucking ambush.” Nick checked the hall, then closed and locked all six locks. “Where are Tanda and Marley?”
“Store,” Riley said. She’d stayed right where she was, on the far side of the room. Her expression bore no sympathy for Anson. “He’s sick like Quinn.”
“What?” Sam focused to view his energy, and sure enough, the power he’d taken looked like Quinn’s…with Tanda’s silvery tendrils gliding around the furious, thrashing power that had been Marley’s. “Good,” he stated with grim satisfaction. “Serves him right.”
“Maybe.” Riley took a few steps closer. “But he’s here. We can take it back. Complete the transfers, so Quinn can get better.”
“Yes.” Sam suddenly felt lighter than he had for days. Weeks, even. “Nick—”
“I’ll get her. Call Tanda,” he ordered Riley, but she already had her phone out.
Sam bent to slap Anson on the face. “Wake up.”
It took a few more slaps, but he blinked awake. When he saw Sam looming over him, he lunged upward, clutching his flannel shirt in both hands. “I’m sorry. I know you won’t believe me, and I know you’ll think it’s because it’s killing me, but I am sorry. I promise, if you help get this out of me, you’ll never see me again.”
“Don’t worry. We’re way ahead of you.”
In a short time, Sam had Anson strapped down on a cot next to Quinn’s bed. They weren’t taking any chances. Quinn lay on her side, a hungry look on her hollowed face as she watched them get everything ready. Riley stood behind her, one hand on a tall brass lamp, the other on Quinn’s shoulder, feeding her strength again.
“All right. What do you need?” Nick asked Quinn.
“Nothing. This part I can do myself.” But she didn’t reach for Anson. “Why didn’t you take more?” she asked him.
His mouth pressed into a line. Sam assumed the answer would piss them all off.
“I couldn’t. I mean, I could. I always wondered if I could get it from you, even though I couldn’t get it from anyone else, because I’d had it last. I could have taken it all. I just…knew that was a very bad idea.”
“But instead of sending it back, you took off like a coward,” Sam accused.
Anson nodded. “That’s about it, yeah.”
Sam rocked on his heels, unable to think of anything else to say.
Quinn set her hand in the center of Anson’s chest. Neither one moved. There was no surge like Sam felt in the Numina apartment, no crackle of electricity in the air. And no evidence, thank God, of pain or sickness. After a moment, Quinn rolled up to sit, then stand.
“Where’s Tanda?” Her voice was strained, but her body straight, her manner calm and determined.
“She should be here any minute,” said Riley. “She and Marley were already on their way back.” She’d barely finished speaking when they heard the front door locks snapping open. Those who weren’t cot-bound moved to the living room, and Tanda burst in, super-pale eyes bright and face flushed.
“I’m ready,” she said breathlessly. She handed a paper bag to Marley, who’d come in quietly behind her. Marley took it and slipped into the kitchen while Tanda met the rest of them in the sitting area.
“We don’t have time to set everything up right,” Nick said. “We’re doing this the down-and-dirty way.” He dragged the side chair closer to the sofa while Sam and Riley lifted the coffee table and moved it across the room. At Nick and Quinn’s direction, Tanda lay on the couch. After Quinn healed her damaged vessel, eliciting the same reaction Jennifer and Chloe had both had, Sam settled into the chair next to her, his stomach churning.
Relax. You’ll fuck it all up if you’re not relaxed. This had to work. It was so close to being over. But what came after? He tipped his head back, and Riley, standing behind him, smiled encouragingly while she brushed his hair off his forehead.
“We’ll talk,” she said. “After.”
The tender promise in her eyes, deepened by conviction, gave him hope. He nodded at Quinn, who stood next to him and took his hand. She closed her eyes, and Sam tried not to tense.
The surge came so fast and hard he didn’t have time to react. Pure, silvery energy gushed into him as if being chased. Quinn yanked her hand back with a gasp as Sam flinched away from the burning touch of the rest of the power. Marley’s power.
“Now!” she yelled, and Sam grabbed onto Tanda. There was no ecstatic rush, no clawing pain, just a smooth glide of power into the other goddess.
“Quinn!” Nick shouted.
Sam turned back in time to see Nick catch his collapsing fiancée. She shuddered with suppressed convulsions.
“What the hell?” Nick’s voice was high with panic. “What do I do?”
Sam lurched out of the chair and crouched over Quinn. “Give it to me, Quinn.” He used the soothing, implacable voice of her old assistant, the voice he’d used to get her to rest, to stall clients who’d take everything she could give and more. “I can handle it.”
Liar.
He ignored the voice in his head that was now strictly his own, and captured Quinn’s hand in both of his. He reached for the power but had no ability to take it. Quinn had to give it to him.
“I won’t do that to you,” Quinn groaned, her jaw clenched so tight they could barely understand the words. She tried to pull her hand away, but Sam held on.
“You have to. You’ll die.” His voice broke. An echo of the sound made him look up, and his gaze locked with Riley’s. The longing and despair there took his breath away, but he didn’t know how to fix it. “Riley,” he whispered.
She shook her head and backed away. He didn’t know if she was withdrawing or giving him permission, but he had no time to weigh his options. He bent back over his former boss, his first love, his friend.
Kind of ironic that he was the only one who could save her.
“Quinn.” He had to connect with her, convince her, but saying her name over and over wasn’t going to do it. “It’s my turn. You know I’ve been wandering. Displaced. This is what I need. It’s my purpose. Don’t take that from me.”
She actually laughed and opened her eyes with a wince. “You are so full of shit.”
“No, he’s not.” Marley appeared and sat cross-legged next to her sister, taking her free hand. “I’m so sorry, Quinn,” she whispered. “All of this is my fault.”
“No, it’s his.” They all turned at Tanda’s hard tone.
She stood behind the sofa, staring at Anson, who had managed to get free of the cot and had obviously planned to sneak out. He was only a few feet from the door. Sam didn’t understand why he didn’t keep going, and then realized why Tanda stood so awkwardly. She held a nine-millimeter in a ready stance, the barrel aimed halfway between the floor and Anson.
“What’s she doing with a gun?” Riley asked in a low voice.
“She’s a PI,” Nick responded, watching Tanda closely. “Which is why she won’t shoot him.”
“You don’t want her to shoot him?” Sam was surprised.
Nick shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t care about him. I don’t think she needs the consequences, after everything that’s happened.”