“Everybody screws up occasionally. Take me, for example.”
“Daddy wasn’t a screwup,” she shot back, very fierce now. “He survived for years in a dangerous job and again in the very heart of the Arcane Society. He was on the Council. No one even suspected him.”
“Well, actually, that’s not entirely true. Shortly after he became the new Master, Zack Jones sensed that he had a problem high up within the Society. He started taking precautions immediately.”
She looked shaken. “He didn’t suspect Daddy. He couldn’t have. My father was too smart.”
“Craigmore was good and he’d had plenty of time to cover his tracks before Zack took over. But Zack and Fallon were keeping an eye on everyone on the Council. It wouldn’t have taken them much longer to figure out that your father was the traitor.”
“He wasn’t a traitor, damn you. He did what he had to do in order to survive. He would have died without a steady supply of the drug. He knew he would never be able to persuade the Council to brew it for him.”
“But he didn’t just make enough of the formula to keep himself alive, did he?” Luther said softly. “He founded Nightshade. He saw a path to power and he took it.”
“Shut up. You killed my father and you’re going to pay for that. But first I want to know how you did it. I have to know.”
He spiked up his talent again and took another look at her aura.
Damaris was still running hot, energy bleeding back and forth across the spectrum. The erratic panic was getting stronger. So were the dark pulses.
“How long have you been taking the drug?” he asked quietly.
That caught her off guard. She went very still. Then the laser in her hand started to tremble. Luther felt some of the pressure go out of the beam.
“You can tell?” she whispered.
“Aura reading isn’t considered a high-end talent, but occasionally it has its uses.”
“Daddy didn’t want me to start taking the formula. He said there were side effects. But I insisted. I was only a level seven. I wanted to be his true heir in every way.”
“Craigmore was right about the side effects. The chief one being that withdrawal’s a bitch. You stop taking the drug and then you die. How much do you have left?”
She seemed to pull in on herself. For the first time the panic and despair in her aura manifested itself on her face.
“Enough for the next three weeks,” she said flatly. “The liquid version of the formula won’t keep any longer than a month, even under ideal conditions. That’s why Eubanks’s capsule version was so important.”
“Why aren’t you at the theater watching your sister’s performance?”
“I wanted to go,” she whispered. “But I’m not feeling very good. I think I’m allergic to the formula.” Her mouth twisted. “Maybe it will kill me before I run out of it.”
“Maybe we can do a deal,” Luther said.
“No deals. In three weeks at the very most, I’ll be dead. You have nothing to offer me. I came here to say farewell to my sister.”
“How about a chance at a normal life span? That interest you?”
“Are you talking about the antidote? Daddy said the Society labs were working on one but it hasn’t been perfected yet. Even if it does work, there’s no way the Council would give it to me.”
“It’s not the Council’s decision. Zack Jones could authorize it and he would if Fallon Jones recommended it. I’ve got to tell you that at this point it’s highly experimental, however. There are a lot of unknowns. But it’s not like you have a lot to lose, is it?”
Damaris stared at him, hardly daring to hope. “Why would Zack Jones allow me to try the antidote?”
The beam was very weak now. Damaris was focused almost entirely on the possibility that she might survive, after all. Luther stopped shaking and started to breathe evenly again.
He revved up his senses to the max and sent a suppressing tide of energy at Damaris’s aura. The laser fell to the floor at her feet. She did not notice because she was fighting to keep her eyes open.
He grabbed his cane and went toward her. “The Master will give you the antidote because you have something the Society wants very badly.”
“What?”
“Inside information about the highest levels of Nightshade. Now that your father is dead, you don’t owe the organization a damn thing. What do you say? Do we have a deal?”
“It would be stupid to say no,” Damaris whispered, hugging herself.
He asked her a few more questions. When he was finished he eased more suppressing energy across her aura. She closed her eyes and went to sleep.
It would be stupid not to tie her up while she was out, Luther decided. Once a cop, always a cop.
He secured her wrists and ankles using his belt and the tie he had worn to the opera. Then he took out his phone and called Fallon Jones.
“Craigmore was the founder of Nightshade?” Fallon sounded truly stunned, a rare state for him. “Damaris is his daughter. Hell, yes, she can have the antidote if she’s willing to talk.”
“Figured as much. First things first. You need to send someone to Acacia Bay to pick up Miss Kemble. She’s unconscious at the moment. She told me her sister has no way of knowing that Grace is in town so we’re okay on that front for now.”
“I’ll get someone out from the L.A. office as soon as possible to bring Kemble in to the lab. Probably take an hour or more to get anyone on the scene, though, depending on traffic. Keep an eye on her until then.”
“She said her sister probably won’t come back to the room until morning but there’s no way to be certain of that.”
“Listen up, Malone. I do not want you having a confrontation with Vivien Ryan unless there’s no alternative. We pay Sweetwater to handle problems like that. Get the Kemble woman out of there.”
“Fine. But I can’t exactly walk out through the hotel lobby with an unconscious woman over my shoulder.”
“Got any other ideas?”
“How about getting me another room here in the hotel? I’ll check in and then come back here, collect Kemble and move her.”
“Move her how? You’re on a cane, remember?”
“Trust me, it’s not something you forget. I’ll use a laundry cart.”
“Good idea,” Fallon said. “How’d you think of it?”
“Just came to me.”