My urge to rise vanished at the new pain in my shoulder. Hissing, I took my weight off my hand, then yelped when some guy smelling like vampire hoisted me up. “Hey! Let go,” I shouted, then looked for my mom, even as the man got a tighter grip.
“It’s a containment field,” she said, smiling as an I.S. officer wrenched her arms behind her and zip-stripped her. “Donald and I got stuck in it once during a protest and they let us sit there for five hours before dropping it.” She looked up at the man trying to haul her off. “Hey! I’ve a right to assemble!”
Jenks was grinning, darting back and forth to avoid a man with a net. “Your mom could write a book, Rache.”
They were arresting us? “Dude, I’m on your side!” I exclaimed, then gasped when the guy who’d picked me up off the sidewalk shoved me at a car and wrenched my arms back. “Ow! Watch the shoulder!”
“Nina is still in there!” Ivy was screaming, and I heard the familiar thumps and pained grunts that happened when you told Ivy no. The man let go of me, and I spun, wrists bound as I leaned against the car to watch. I kind of worked for the FIB. We’d get this sorted out as soon as we found Edden.
“Ohhh, that’s going to hurt for a week,” Jenks said in admiration as he hovered beside me, and I winced.
“Jenks, go find Edden, will you?”
“You got it!” he said cheerfully, and darted away.
Ivy was backed up to the shimmering barrier, keeping everyone a good eight feet away with her attitude. They knew who she was, and I thought it dumb they persisted. She was magnificent with her streaming hair and dark eyes, motions clean and sharp as she beat off two more agents who dared to try her.
I.S. officers in specialized vests were going in and out of the barrier as if it didn’t exist. I hadn’t even know they had this kind of thing. Ivy spun when Nina’s voice carried as she was brought through, subdued in a straitjacket as they bundled her to an I.S. van. The zealot was right behind her, and I hoped they put them in separate vehicles. What is taking Edden so long? This strip is too tight.
“Nina!” Ivy called, and then I gasped as a man in a vest came through the barrier right behind Ivy and took her down.
Ivy struggled wildly, and my mom inched to stand beside me, eyes wide in admiration as my roommate wiggled, twisted, and finally succumbed to a martial arts grip that would snap her wrist if she continued, her free hand slapping her thigh in a show of submission.
“Good girl, Tamwood,” the vampire who had downed her snarled. “Get me a restraining harness!” he shouted, louder.
“Hey!” I exclaimed, pissed. He was the same guy who’d zip-stripped me, clearly pleased with himself as Ivy was bundled up by his buddies. “I’m Rachel Morgan, and that’s Ivy Tamwood. What are you doing? We’re here to help!”
The vampire’s smile chilled me, but his charms fell flat as I lifted my chin and stared him down. “Rachel Morgan,” he drawled as he took his field harness off and handed it to a subordinate. “Resisting arrest? You’re going to be locked up for a long time.”
“I did not!” I said indignantly. “I did not do one thing to resist arrest. If I had, I wouldn’t have been arrested! Where’s Captain Edden?” But as the vampire continued to smile at me, I was starting to have doubts. I hadn’t done anything wrong except fudge a little on why I was down here, but once you went into I.S. custody, they could make you sit in a room for over a day before they had to charge or release you.
And here I stood, my magic gone because I played by the rules. I could almost hear Al laughing at me, telling me I deserved to be locked up if I expected a demon to get a fair shake.
“Cormel wants to talk to you,” the vampire whispered.
“Back up, fang breath,” I said, and his nasty smile faltered because he hadn’t scared me. The reality, though, was a little different. Cormel? Great. He wouldn’t accept that this was madness. I couldn’t help him, and even if I could, I wouldn’t.
“You’re making a mistake,” I said softly, gaze flicking to Ivy being hauled up from the pavement, sullen and angry.
The vampire looked back at her. I didn’t like the way his lips curled in satisfaction. “Cormel wants you to fix this. Give him his soul.”
“And be blamed for it when he commits suncide?” I snarled. It was starting to thin out this side of the barrier, though it would probably be at least an hour before traffic would be allowed to resume.
“That way,” the vampire said, shoving me into motion. My mother was behind me, and Ivy in front. The I.S. van was dead ahead, and I wasn’t going to get into it. Once you went into the I.S. tower, the law didn’t seem to matter anymore. And they are afraid of demons? I asked myself, heart pounding. What did they know that I didn’t?
“He wants his soul,” the vampire said, pinching my shoulder as he pushed me along. “You either get it for him, or Ivy dies.”
My pulse raced. I looked at Ivy, then the van. I tensed to do something, spinning when Edden’s voice echoed out, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you doing, Uric? These are my people!”
My knees almost gave way, and the vampire, Uric apparently, stopped, hands scrabbling to catch me as he suddenly had my entire weight to hold. “Edden,” I breathed. “Thank God.”
Uric hauled me back up, and the entire group of us came to a halt, mere steps from the I.S. van. “Since when?” he said boldly, and I jerked when he twisted the band around my wrist to make it hurt. “She can’t work for you. She’s Inderland.”
Edden bulled his way forward, six uneasy but big officers behind him. “She’s a demon,” Edden said, gesturing. “There are no restrictive labor laws for demons. She’s mine. Let her go.”
The scent of angry vampire grew, and the man holding Ivy grunted as she jabbed an elbow into him. “She was resisting arrest,” Uric muttered.
“I was not!” I went slack in his grip to keep him from hauling me off, then stood up when he tried to scoop me into a carry hold. “Edden, I made no move to resist arrest, or I wouldn’t be here now and you know it! This is an abduction. Cormel wants me, and if I go in, I’m not coming out.” I hesitated as Edden chewed his lip, making his mustache bunch. “Edden!”
Edden’s eyes narrowed. He reached for me and Uric pulled me back. “Do the paperwork,” Uric said, and Edden’s eyes narrowed. Jenks hovered, unsure and uneasy.