Kiss of the Necromancer (Memento Mori 1)

13

Maggie satin the passenger seat of the black car that Rinaldo said he rented, and watched the city go by. They were driving to a small airfield south of the city. Somewhere that a private jet could come and go easier than Logan.

She fidgeted with her sleeve. “Why did he let me go?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why did he just walk away?”

“I don’t know.”

“What’s he after?”

Rinaldo laughed. “Kid, I’m not an eight ball. You can keep shaking, but I’m not going to come up with anything new.”

Even if she didn’t want to, she had to smile at his response. She knew he didn’t have the answers, but she felt the need to ask the questions anyway. “I just don’t get it.”

“I don’t either. But I’m not going to look a gift-necromancer in the mouth. If he wants to let you walk away, so be it.”

Rubbing the back of her neck, she squeezed the tense muscles there, and felt the ache that ran from her shoulder blades to her head. She was getting a headache from all this nonsense. “If I wanted to get out of the car—just—ask you to pull over, and let me walk away, would you?”

He went quiet for a long moment. “Why’re you asking?”

“I want to know whose cage I’m in. Yours or his.” She leaned her head against the glass of the window. “Or both.”

“Look, Maggie…” He sighed. “You don’t deserve any of this. Any of it. But that doesn’t mean I can change it. You’ve been put in a very bad situation by a very bad man who plans to do, well, very bad things. I’m sorry, and I’m trying to help you the best I can. I promise you I have the best intentions, and yeah, before you say it, ‘road to Hell’ and all that. But I’m trying.”

“I appreciate that, but you didn’t answer my question.”

Rinaldo grunted. “You noticed? Great. You’re one of those types. Fine.” He paused. “No. I…can’t let you walk away. Not yet. There are bigger things at stake here with Gideon. He’s dangerous, and he has something in the works that we’re trying to get a thumb on. In order to do that, we need you.”

“So, I am your prisoner. Great.”

“Hey, now. You could have gone with him. But you didn’t. Don’t pin that on me. You know something smells fishy, and you wanted out.”

“I wanted out because I discovered my so-called best friend is a walking skeleton.” She made a face. How many times had she hugged him? Gone out to eat with him? Cuddled with him while they watched movies? He had felt alive to her. “I don’t like being manipulated. And I don’t like being played. But I can’t get away from that, can I?”

“I’m not manipulating you, Maggie. I’ve been very upfront with everything. I said, ‘come along,’ you said ‘no,’ so I drugged you. Then I told you to get in the car, you did, and now I said we’re flying to the Vatican, and here we are.” He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “That’s abduction, not manipulation.” He paused. “I know that doesn’t make it better, so don’t say it. You’re not in a cage, you’re on a leash. I—”

She snorted.

“What? Oh, damn it all, I didn’t mean it that way!”

That got her to break out in a full laugh. At least he was funny. “Why are you taking me to Italy? Something tells me you guys can scan documents.”

“You’d be surprised. Half my organization still runs on Windows Seven.” When she shot him a dead stare, he ran his hand over his short, graying hair. “Fine. There’s something you need to see there. And it can’t travel.”

“Why do I have to see it?”

“Because…we need you on our side, kid. We really do. We need to be able to trust you to do the right thing when push comes to shove. Because Gideon has some kind of hold over you, and if we let you go back to him, we have no cards left to play. We need you to find his phylactery and figure out what his scheme is.”

“And whatever you’re going to show me is going to convince me that he needs to be stopped?”

“Yeah.”

“Couldn’t FaceTime it?”

He chuckled. “Something tells me that wouldn’t work with you. Trust me. You want to see this. But, hey. Consider it a free vacation. First-class private jet to Italy, all meals paid for, a nice hotel room—it could be worse.”