Retribution

THE SMELL OF SULFUR DRIFTS ON A GUST OF WIND. A smell and a pile of ash. It's all that's left of Jason Shelton.

Reflexively, I jump back. Even seeing what happened, I can 't wrap my head around it. I stare at the crumpled pair of jeans that a moment ago was clutched in Jason's hands.

Jason said he was a vampire. Yet I had no connection with him psychically. He was certainly not as strong as any other vampire I 've come in contact with. The girls he turned for Burke seem to have no powers, either. Now this. Will the same thing happen to them if they step into the sun?

God. I'd better warn Rose.

I step gingerly around the spot where Jason stood. I'd have killed him in a heartbeat once I got Burke's whereabouts from him. But this is the second vampire immo lation I've seen in two days. Ortiz' death was horrible enough but I understood it. This is completely beyond my comprehension.

My hand shakes when I try to fit the key in the Jag's ignition. I don't know whether to call Rose or Williams first. I do decide to wait until I'm away from the apartment to do it. I pull over on a side street a mile away.

The sight of Jason spontaneously combusting the moment he stepped into daylight has my heart pounding.

What was he? A vampire subspecies?

I pull the paper Williams gave me yesterday with Rose 's address on it. He'd also jotted a phone number and I punch it into my cell phone. Rose picks up on the second ring. Her "hello" resonates with worry and ratchets my own anxiety up a notch.

"Rose, this is Anna. What's wrong?"

Her voice is shaking. "I don't know what's happening. They're dying, Anna. Three this morning. I thought they were all getting stronger."

"Which three?" I'm thinking of Rebecca and how she clutched at my hand.

"Three of the weaker. We had a steady supply of hosts for them. They were feeding. But something happened. They grew weaker instead of stronger. Then, this morning, they started dying."

A picture of Jason bursting into flame flashes through my head. "How, Rose? How did they die?"

Rose's breath catches. "I don't know. They were feeding. Then they just stopped. It was as if their hearts gave out. They were alive one minute and dead the next. I've never seen anything like it."

Different from Jason. Because they weren't exposed directly to sunlight? I remember the room and the large windows.

"I'll come over. But I have to talk to Williams first. Rose, don't let them go outside. And keep the curtains pulled. Better yet, take them all to the back room."

"Why?"

"They're not like us. I don't know why, but they can't be exposed to daylight."

"That makes no sense." But her tone is halting.

"Trust me. None of this makes sense. Just please, keep it dark."

She draws a quick, sharp breath. "God, Anna. The curtains are open now. The ones who died were in the living room-closest to the windows."

She clicks off without saying good-bye.

I don't have to guess why.

WILLIAMS IS UNCHARACTERISTICALLY QUIET WHEN I call him next to fill him in on the events of the morning. He has no explanation for what happened to Jason or how daylight could have affected the girls who died. I tell him about the syringe I found in Jason's apartment.

Maybe whatever Jason used to sedate the girls after he changed them is the reason for their weaknesses. Williams agrees to meet me at the park. He's with Brooke now but says he can be there within fifteen minutes. I ask him to have the witches try another locator spell, and he says that he will. With Ortiz' death, he never got around to asking them yesterday. His voice is heavy with guilt.

I should care that he forgot. Should rail at him for forgetting Culebra. But he had other things on his mind.

Ortiz.

A rare moment of compassion stills my tongue and I hang up without rancor.

I've never felt so helpless. It's been three days since Culebra fell under Burke's curse. I'm afraid to call Frey for an update. He's put his life on hold and his own health at risk. If I don't come up with something fast, I may lose two friends.

Williams is at the elevator when I step out. The bank of telephone operators that occupies the center of the supernatural command center is bustling with activity. The telephones are manned by an army of psychics, real psychics, extraordinary men and women possessing heightened sensitivity to things outside the sphere of scientific knowledge. Their clients include the power brokers of the world.

Today, however, I detect a different timbre to the buzz of conversation. What's going on?

He steers me away from center. I have our people working to locate Burke. If the witches can't find her, maybe someone else can.

He's set the psychics on Burke? His guilt that another night may have brought Culebra that much closer to death is showing. No matter.

I'll take all the help I can get.

He pushes open a door to a side room. The same three witches I met two days ago are assembled around the same pentagram. A map is laid out and one of the women, Min Liu, dangles that diamond on the end of the silken string. As I watch, the diamond jumps and skitters across the map but it fails to light on any particular location. Frustration is painted on Min 's face. The other two watch, each holding a candle and chanting in low voices.

Susan Powers looks up when we enter. She touches the young Hispanic woman's arm. Ariela Acosta motions us in.

"It's not working, is it?" I ask.

Min lets the charm drop. "I'm sorry. The witch is protecting herself."

"She's put up a powerful blocking spell," Susan says. "There is nothing we can do."

I sink into a chair and cover my face with my hands.

Culebra is fighting for his life.

Ortiz is dead.

It's my fault.

I should never have confronted the witch at the restaurant. It only alerted her to the fact that I was on to her. Now she's gone into hiding and I've exhausted any lead I might have had to find her.

There's a knock on the door. Williams answers it and a man hands him a slip of paper. He opens it, looks over at me and shakes his head.

Even his army of psychics has drawn a blank.

Weariness washes over me. I feel the anxiety and unhappiness of the three women standing nearby. Their empathy only heightens my own sense of futility.

I can't think of anything else to say. I pull the charm from inside my blouse. "You may as well have this back."

Min stays my hand with a touch of her own. "No. Keep it." Her eyes flash with determination. "Don't give up, Anna. We don't intend to."

Williams is watching, too, strangely silent.

These women don't know me, but he does. He understands how foreign this is to me.

For the first time in a long time I don't know what to do. No idea. No plan. No way to save Culebra.

Williams leaves me alone in the room while he escorts the witches out. Jason is gone. The file is gone. Burke is gone.

I wish once again that I had done things differently -made a copy of the test subjects' information instead of stealing the original file.

That act set in motion all that followed, including Ortiz' death.

I have one last hope. Maybe Gloria has a contact number for Simone Tremaine.

But that hope is dashed when the operator at the Four Seasons tells me that Gloria has checked out-on her way to Europe for Fashion Week.

Gloria wasted no time coming up with alternative photo opportunities now that the launch party for Eternal Youth has been canceled.

Either that or she wants to distance herself, literally, from the fallout of an arson investigation.

Shit. Arson will be the least of Gloria's concerns if the cream is linked to the murder of those test subjects.

Williams comes back. His black mood matches my own, partly because of the helplessness we feel and partly because of the guilt. It puts us both on guard.

"How is Brooke doing?" I ask finally.

"Barely making it. I wish I could do more. Ortiz will be buried with full honors on Friday."

Buried is a euphemism. We both know there is nothing left of Ortiz to bury. I feel cold, suddenly, remembering.

"It's a good gesture. Ortiz deserves it."

My mind drifts back to Jason. I remember the syringe. I pull it out of a jacket pocket. "I don't know what this is. I think Jason was about to use it on the girl he had in his apartment. The girls at Rose 's all said they'd been sedated. Maybe this stuff is the reason they're different."

Williams takes it from my outstretched hand. "I'll send it to the lab." He steps aside when I stand and start for the door. "What are you going to do now?"

The only thing left for me to do.

"I'm going to see Culebra. And Frey."

"What will you tell them?"

I close my eyes and turn away. I don't know what I'll tell them. I'm afraid it might be good-bye.