Boundary Crossed (Boundary Magic #1)(84)

I glanced from him to Simon, who was looking at me with wide eyes. A few feet beyond him, Yoda was lying unconscious in the grass. “You guys didn’t hear it?” That was impossible—they’d been standing no more than a few feet away.

“You weren’t talking out loud, Lex,” Simon said. When I just stared at him stupidly, he repeated, “You pressed him without speaking.”

I automatically looked down at my hands, at the griffins tattooed on my arms and wrists. Figure it out later, Lex. My eyes focused on Quinn again. “So what did he say?” he asked impatiently, looming over me. “Who’s behind all of this?”

I didn’t think about it, didn’t even consider it, or I probably would have realized the futility. But I acted on instinct, and in a fraction of a second I’d snapped up the Beretta and pointed it at Quinn’s heart.

“Itachi,” I whispered.

Quinn’s gun was tucked in his belt—I guess vampires didn’t need to worry about shooting themselves in the leg—and I knew he was faster than me, but he made no move to reach for it. “Lex,” he began, speaking in a reasonable tone that bordered on patronizing.

“Simon,” I interrupted, not looking away from Quinn, “do you remember what you said during my first magic lesson? About Quinn?”

“That I trusted him with my life,” came Simon’s quiet voice, “as long as me being alive was in Itachi’s best interests.”

Quinn just looked at me, his face pleading. “Lex,” he tried again, but I shook my head tightly.

“You snapped Kirby’s neck awfully fast,” I growled. “And you staked Darcy, too, just as she was telling me who she worked for.”

“I didn’t know that,” Quinn said.

He began to move now, ever so slowly. He lowered himself onto one knee, then the other. He slowly raised his hands to the top of his head and laced his fingers, keeping his eyes on mine the whole time. “You told me you trusted me,” he said softly.

“I’ve been wrong before,” I replied grimly, keeping the Beretta pointed at his heart. The muzzle had begun to tremble, just a little. It wasn’t a particularly heavy gun, but I still wasn’t going to be able to hold it up much longer without it wobbling. I was going to need to make a decision.

“Then press me,” Quinn suggested. “Press me and ask me the question.”

I hesitated, then shook my head. I couldn’t focus the magic without putting my hands on him, and I couldn’t risk putting the gun down. It might not be the greatest weapon against a vampire, but it was a whole lot faster than scrambling to get out one of the shredders. “I can’t do that right now.”

He nodded, his fingers still laced on his head. “I’m not sworn to Itachi, Lex,” he said, his voice quiet.

“Bullshit,” I blurted. “You work for him directly. You called him from the Pellar farm, probably to tell him we’d be here. To warn him. Why the hell would I believe you?” I said, my voice trembling. I wanted to believe him. I wanted it to be true so badly I felt tears prickling my eyes. But I’d been to war, and I’d seen some of the things people could do to each other. I was many things, but I was no longer naive.

“I called Maven. I swear it,” Quinn said huskily. “I swear on the life of my wife and the lives of my children, I have never pledged troth to Itachi. I am sworn to Maven. I am her agent. I’m her . . .” He trailed off for just a moment, like he was searching for the right words. “Her inside man.”

I suddenly flashed back to the night when we’d questioned Kirby outside the frat house. Kirby had said that he and Quinn were both sworn to Itachi. Hadn’t Quinn reacted to that, just a little? Not knowing what to think anymore, I began to lower the gun, opening my mouth to ask a follow-up question. But as soon as the weapon moved away from his chest, Quinn leapt at me.





Chapter 39



Several things happened at once.

I started pulling the trigger, and I hit Quinn in the stomach and the leg before he soared over me—and straight into Chewbacca, who had snuck up behind me with the length of pipe. The frat boy roared as Quinn tackled him and rode him to the ground. By the time Chewbacca’s back hit the grass, Quinn had sunk his teeth into the kid’s neck.

I just watched, stunned, as Quinn fed off the boy. I hadn’t seen Quinn in action before, but he was powerful, savage. It was nothing like the polite, delicate wrist feeding I’d given Maven.

“Quinn,” I said after a moment. “That’s enough. He’s done.”

For a moment I didn’t think he would listen, but then the vampire detached himself from Chewbacca with a snarl, forcing himself upright. The boy’s body slumped to the ground, but I could see his eyelids fluttering. He was alive.

Quinn turned to glare at me, defiance in his eyes and blood smeared around his mouth. My gaze dropped to his wounds. Vampires had hard skeletons, I was discovering, but I’d shot him in the gut and the meat of his thigh, and his wounds were healing more slowly than Kirby’s shots to the temple had. His clothes were saturated, and he was still bleeding. I looked back up and met his gaze without flinching.

It probably should have bothered me, seeing him feed on the kid. I was dimly aware that I was supposed to be appalled, but all I felt was . . . tired. And relieved. If Quinn really had been working for Itachi, there’d be no reason for him to save my life.