"Thank you, Jason."
As Neo turned away, Quinn followed him back through the main room and down yet another spoke of the wheel of the sprawling safe-house underground. "Was Jason's wife killed?"
"He doesn't know. He's been all over this city, slave to three different vampires, but he's never found any sign of her. I keep offering to get him out of V.C., but he refuses to go without her even though he must know she's probably dead. We're looking for her, too, now. At the moment, he's being forced to keep a low profile." Neo snorted. "He took out nearly a dozen vamps in his escape from his last master."
"How long does he have before he turns Slava and is stuck here for good?"
"Six months at best. Honestly, I doubt he'll leave even then. Not without her."
She ached for the man. "Love can be a terrible burden sometimes, can't it?"
"It can. You've risked much to save your brother." Neo turned, studying her as they walked, a smile breaching his face. "You're not what I expected, sorceress."
Quinn peered at him. "Why? Were you expecting me to show up in flowing black robes with a wand in my hand?" She meant for the comment to be light, and failed. She'd never been comfortable with what she was, and she didn't like that everyone here knew.
"I meant no disrespect, Quinn," Neo said softly, the smile dying from his eyes.
Quinn sighed. "I know. I didn't mean it the way it came out. I just . . . I don't think of myself as a sorceress."
He nodded, understanding in his eyes. "It's hard to change your self-image overnight. Been there, done that."
She peered at him. "Is that what happened to you when you became a vampire?"
"It is. As I told you, I was a slave here for years. I hated the vampires."
"Yet you became one."
"Not by will, I assure you. The one who turned me did so just to infuriate me . . . or kill me. Most who are turned don't survive. But I did. And the first thing I did was kill him for it."
"Have you killed . . . others? Humans?"
"No, though it was a near thing a couple of times."
"You have more self-control than most."
"Either that, or I simply have more passion for my self-professed calling."
"Saving people."
"Giving them the freedom to return to their world, to the sunshine, as I so desperately fought . . . and failed . . . to do myself. It feels like a losing proposition, sometimes. For every human I free, other vamps and Traders bring in two more. But I feel like I thwart the grand scheme with every person I get out of here. And I never tire of watching the joy and tears in the eyes of those I help send home."
Quinn nodded. "I get that. I freed half a dozen slaves through a sunbeam a few weeks ago." She thought of Marcus and the others she'd handed out of Vamp City that day. Soon after escaping with Zack, she'd looked up Marcus and spoken with his wife on the phone, who'd burst into tears of gratitude when she'd told her who she was. Marcus had wanted her to come meet his wife and daughter, and she'd promised to. Sometime. Now she wondered if she ever would. His wife had told her they'd all made it out safely. Celeste, who'd been a newly turned Slava, had had a heart attack as she'd traveled through, but Marcus was trained in CPR and had been able to get her heart beating again. She was fine. Her hair had even turned back to normal.
Apparently, Slavas reverted to their true age upon leaving VC. That sudden aging, even if they weren't too old to live, tended to kill them. Celeste had only been immortal for a year, and, still, without Marcus's intervention, she'd have died.
Neo watched her with interest. "You clearly have power, to be able to free slaves through a sunbeam, Quinn."
Her mouth twisted. "Someday I'm going to be a force to be reckoned with."
"It will happen," he said kindly. "You've not yet come to terms with it. You've not yet embraced it."
"I've spent too many years hating it. Have you come to terms with being a vampire?"
"I have."
She looked at him with surprise and was met with a quick grin. "I've learned to appreciate the benefits of incredible strength and speed, of never suffering pain or injury for more than minutes at a time. And to appreciate the fact that I never age. Immortality is a gift, Quinn. One I never asked for, but one I have come to enjoy. Once you learn to control it, your power will be a gift to you."
He was an interesting man, Neo. She felt comfortable with him. "Don't you miss the sun?"
"I do, though I've found ways around it. Until the magic began to fail and I became trapped, I used to frequent the movie theater in Georgetown on a regular basis. In the dark safety of that theater, with the films rolling, I could immerse myself in your world and pretend I lived once more in the sun. It might have been a false, Hollywood sun, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. And I miss it."
She followed him into a large storage room at the end of one of the tunnels. A deserted room far from anyone else. Neo seemed nice enough, but he was still a vampire. And she suddenly wondered if anyone would hear if she shouted for help.
"You're in no danger, Quinn," Neo chided softly. "I wish only to show you something that you'll find interesting."
"I'm not afraid."
"Perhaps not. But your tension has risen."
"You can feel it."
"A little. I'm very sensitive in that way, able to feed off of almost any wariness. That's why I have so little need to cause true fear. Everyone who comes here is at least wary. Most are thoroughly terrified." He looked at her evenly. "If you'd rather wait for Arturo or Micah, I'm fine with that. But there's something I need you to hear. I believe there's a permanent break in the worlds down here."
She met his gaze and saw no subterfuge. And at the high peel of childish laughter deep within the storeroom, her eyes widened and she motioned Neo to lead the way through the stacks and stacks of boxes that appeared to fill the room. As they walked, the music carried to them, followed by voices.
But when they turned the final corner, there was no one there.
Neo smiled with bemusement and drew his finger to his lips.
As she listened, she realized the music was a children's tune on television. Overlaying it were the voices of children. And a woman.
"Are you finished with your cereal? Aidan, where's your vitamin? Did you eat your vitamin?"
A little girl piped up. "He fed it to the roses."
"Aidan . . . did you put your vitamin in Mommy's rose vase again? Son . . ."
Quinn smiled, meeting Neo's gaze, a hundred questions on her tongue. Neo escorted her back through the path of boxes until they could talk quietly without being overheard.
"I hear them regularly when I'm in here. We all do. Since you can travel out through sunbeams, I was wondering if you can find a way through there. If you can, it would save us untold efforts in getting slaves out through the Boundary Circle though I imagine Aidan's mother would have a heart attack."
"Let me see if I can find anything." Quinn retraced her steps, following the sound of the television show, but though she searched, she could see no sign of the break and no way to breach it. And she should be able to, even inside.
"No go," she whispered, shaking her head.
Neo shrugged. "It was worth a try." He smiled. "That kid entertains me. You should hear the places Aidan's stashed his green beans."
They started back, but had gone only a few yards when the floor began to shake suddenly and violently. The boxes stacked high on either side of them began to wobble and rock. And they began to fall.
Neo grabbed her, curving around her as cans of food rained down on top of them. One can clipped her on the elbow, another on the foot, smarting. Finally, after more than a dozen seconds, the quaking stopped.
Neo pulled back, looking down at her without letting her go. "Are you all right?"
She nodded. "A sunbeam."
"Yes."
And Arturo was out there, somewhere.
"Mommy?" The voice of the little girl-Aidan's sister? She didn't sound scared, but annoyed. "Mommy! Aidan dumped rice in the fish bowl."
Neo's eyes lit with laughter. "That kid's got a food fetish."
Quinn laughed quietly, meeting Neo's warm gaze. She liked this vampire.
He tensed suddenly, releasing her slowly. She straightened and turned to find the source of Neo's tension. Arturo stood in the path, his eyes hard as flint.
He was jealous and he had no right to be. And no reason.
"Vampire," she said coolly, and started toward him. "Neo just saved me from being crushed by cans of food. How's Cristoff?"
As she started to brush past him, he took her arm lightly, but possessivley, his eyes shifting toward Neo, a warning in their depths. "We'll discuss it later. It is time we left for Tarellia's."
Men and their pissing contests.
"Release me, Vampire," she said quietly as they headed back to the hallway.
Instead, his grip on her arm turned to a light caress. "I heard the crash, tesoro mio. I feared you would be injured."
He'd come to save the day and found another male had done so already.
Her pique with him dissipated and she turned to him with a sigh. "Thank you for coming to my rescue, Vampire, even if it wasn't needed."
His eyes warmed. His cool hand slid down her arm, his fingers sliding between hers.
Oh, Vampire, what am I going to do with you?