Boundary Crossed (Boundary Magic #1)(52)
“Kirby, this is Lex. Lex, Kirby. She’s being considered for a job with Itachi,” Quinn said succinctly. “Did you hear about Victor and Darcy?”
Kirby’s eyes narrowed. “Not here,” he muttered. In a conversational voice, he added, “Sure, you’re almost there. Walk to the corner with me, and I’ll point out the street.”
The three of us trooped to the edge of the semi-circular sidewalk, where Kirby pointed down the road, pretending to give us directions. “Yes, I heard that they’re dead,” he said quietly. “And I know they had it coming. I had no idea they were planning to try to kidnap a founding baby.” A doubtful expression crossed his face, and he corrected himself. “Well, a null baby, I guess. Itachi put the word out that she’s protected now.”
I’d believed Maven and Itachi when they’d promised to protect my niece, but it was nice to have the independent confirmation. I cut my eyes to Quinn, letting him take the lead. “They both pledged troth to you,” he said, his voice as low as Kirby’s.
The other vampire nodded. “I made Victor myself. Took Darcy on when she came to Boulder a couple of years ago and started rooming with Victor.”
“And who are you pledged to?” I broke in, just in case Quinn was wrong about the chain of command.
Kirby’s fake-friendly expression wavered as his eyes narrowed at me. “Itachi, same as him,” he retorted, tilting his head at Quinn. Kirby’s eyes were on me, and he didn’t see the little flicker on Quinn’s face as he said this. I filed that away for later.
“How often did you see the two of them?” Quinn asked.
Smiling again—just a friendly college kid chatting with some out-of-towners—Kirby shrugged. “I’d check in with them once or twice a month, or they’d check in with me. And before you ask, no, they never mentioned doing any side work, and they weren’t showing off a sudden influx of cash or bragging about a new job. We would meet somewhere, they’d tell me everything was fine, I’d remind them of the rules, and we’d split.”
Quinn pulled the photo out of his pocket. “Is this you?”
Kirby’s glance was quick and careless, his face revealing nothing. “You know it is.”
“Who’s the fourth person?”
The friendly, open expression Kirby had been forcing suddenly faded. “That’s Nolan. He’s one of the Denver vampires.” He gave Quinn a quick glance. “I haven’t seen him since the purge.”
Quinn asked a few more questions after that, but Kirby really didn’t seem to know anything more about Victor and Darcy’s plans. “Look, I gotta get back to the party before this looks any more suspicious,” he said, his face still cheerful. “Good luck and all. If anyone asks between here and the car, you two are trying to visit your nephew at Tau Kappa.” Without waiting to see Quinn’s response, Kirby turned on his heel and disappeared into the throng of people near the house’s archway.
Quinn shot an annoyed look at Kirby’s back and started toward his car. “Come on.”
A DJ had set up giant speakers and a table while we were talking to Kirby, and as Quinn and I walked back to the car, “The Fallen” by Franz Ferdinand came pulsing out of the speakers. It seemed pretty appropriate.
Back in the car, I asked, “How is it possible that Itachi put that guy in charge of two other vampires?”
Quinn tilted his head to the side as he thought that over. “It’s just kind of . . . how they do things,” he said at last. “I can’t really think of a comparison, except maybe Alcoholics Anonymous.”
I chortled. “Sorry, what?”
“Sponsors,” he said, completely serious. “In AA you have a sponsor, and you also become a sponsor. The whole thing is this big system so you learn responsibility.”
“That sounds ridiculously stupid,” I argued. “What’s to stop Kirby from turning all his vampires against his boss?”
“Because Itachi is the only vampire in Colorado who can officially sanction kills,” he said shortly. “Kirby might enjoy needling Itachi, but he knows exactly how far he can push him. Trust me, Kirby’s dominus responsibilities are the one thing he takes seriously.”
He was staring through the windshield, where we could just barely see Kirby standing in a loose circle with four of his frat brothers. As we watched, Kirby put Chewbacca in a headlock and started laughing.
“I don’t think he was involved,” Quinn said finally, mostly to himself. “Kidnapping a baby so you can train her the way you want, to do the things you want to do—that’s a long-view move. I don’t know Kirby all that well, but I just don’t think he’s a long-view kind of guy. I could see him knocking over a liquor store, sure, but kidnapping a baby?”
“He could have been the . . . you know, the fence,” I offered, uncertain of the terminology. “The middleman for another buyer.”
Quinn shook his head again. “Kirby’s got plenty of money. That whole prostitution thing, which was a hell of a risk, was just for his own amusement. And selling a baby isn’t particularly amusing, nor is the kind of heat that would have come down on him if he’d gotten away with your niece.”
In front of us, Kirby had finally released poor Chewbacca and was telling the throng of brothers a story with great enthusiasm, waving his hands around to emphasize the point. The other frat boys were hanging on his every word, watching Kirby with the fervor of cult members. “I agree,” I said finally. “It doesn’t seem like his style. But do you think he knows something he’s not telling us?” I wished we had gotten Kirby alone so I could have tried the mind-pressing thing again; I was way too new at it to experiment in front of a big crowd of college kids.