Survivor in Death

Glass imploded. Shards flew. He saw a blast knock his opponent back, and was on him like a dog.

Eve lay at the base of the steps in Inga's parlor, body vibrating with pain, hands slick with blood. The knife was still in her hand, gripped as if her fingers had welded around it. Isenberry was beneath her, their faces so close Eve could see the life drain out of her eyes.

She heard the child under the sofa whimpering, but it was like a dream. Blood, death, the knife hot in her hand.

She heard footsteps rushing down the stairs and forced herself to roll off Isenberry.

Pain screamed through her arm, her shoulder, so her vision wavered. She saw a room washed with red light, heard herself pleading for mercy.

“Lieutenant.” Summerset crouched until she saw his face. “Let me see where you're injured.”

“Don't touch me.” She lifted the knife, showed him the blade. “Don't touch me.”

She saw the child huddled under the sofa, face white. White so that some of the blood that had spilled on the fall dotted it like red freckles.

She saw the eyes, glassy with shock. Somehow they were her own eyes.

She pushed herself up, stumbled into the kitchen.

He was alive. Blood on him, too. Well, there was always blood. But Roarke was alive, standing up now, turning toward her.

She shook her head, dropped to her knees as her head spun and her legs trembled. And crawled the last few feet to where Kirkendall was sprawled.

Blood on him, too. But he wasn't dead. Not yet. Not yet. She turned the knife in her hand, gripping it blade down.

Was her arm broken? Had she heard it snap? The pain was there, but it was like a memory. If she put the knife in him, if she drove it through him, again and again, knowing what she did, feeling what she did, would the pain go away?

She watched the blood drip from her fingers and knew she could do it. She could, and maybe it would end.

Killer of children, raper of the weak. Why was a cage good enough?

She laid the point over his heart and her hand shook. It shook until her arm shook, until her heart shook. Then she drew it back.

Pushing up to her knees, she managed to shove the knife into her belt. “I've got men down. We need the MTs.”

“Eve.”

“Not now.” There was a sob-or it might've been a scream-trying to claw out of her throat. “Baxter went around back. He's down. I don't know if he's still alive.”

“Cops out front were stu

“I need to check on Baxter.”

“In a minute. You're bleeding.”

“He-” No, no not he. “She caught me a little. The fall was worse. I think I dislocated the shoulder.”

“Let's have a look.” He was gentle, helping her to her feet, and still she went pale.

“Get a good hold,” she told him.

“Baby, you'd do better with a blocker first.”

She shook her head. “Get a good hold.” She got a strong grip on him as well, hissing out three readying breaths as she stared into his eyes.

Wild blue eyes, concentrate.

And with a jerk, one that brought her stomach to the base of her throat, turned her vision bright white, he snapped the shoulder back in place.

“Shit. Shit. Shit.” She caught her breath, nearly nodded, and was grateful he was holding her upright. “Okay. That's okay. It's better.”

And she'd needed the jolt, she thought, not just to dull the pain in the shoulder, but to bring her back, fully, to where she was.

“The kid,” she began.

“Summerset.”

He came out with Nixie clinging to his neck. “She hasn't been hurt.” There was the faintest of tremors in his voice. “Only frightened. She needs to be taken out of here.”

“I want to see him.” Nixie's voice was thick when she lifted her face from Summerset's neck. Her cheeks were wet, her eyes still streaming. But they met Eve's. “I want to see who killed my family. Dallas said I could.”

“Bring her over here.”

“I don't think-”

“I'm not asking you to think.” Eve crossed over herself, and when she wiggled down, took one of Nixie's hands in her bloody one. “The woman's dead,” she said flatly. “Neck snapped when we took that header down the steps.”

Not my arm, Eve thought, though it ached like a rotten tooth.

“There's another upstairs.”

“He's unconscious, unarmed, and restrained,” Summerset said.

“This one's hurt bad,” Eve went on. “But he'll live. He'll live a long time-the longer the better-because he'll never be free again. He'll eat and piss and sleep where and when he's told. Where he's going… you getting this, Kirkendall?” she demanded. “Where he's going, it's like death. Only you live through it, day after day after day.”

Nixie looked down, and her fingers tightened on Eve's. “She's going to put you in a goddamn cage,” she said, clearly now. “Then, when you die, you're going to hell.”

“That's quite right.” Summerset went to Nixie again, picked her up. “Now let's go outside and let the lieutenant do her job.”

Peabody rushed in, a few strides ahead of an army of cops. “Jesus loving Christ.”

“Baxter's down. Out in the back most likely. See if he's alive.” She turned to a uniform as Peabody raced out. “One suspect down on the second floor, unconscious and restrained. A second in that room over there, dead. This one makes three. I want MTs, CSU, the ME, sweepers, and Captain Feeney from EDD.”

“Sir, you don't look so good yourself.”

“Get that going, I'll worry about how I look.” She started to go out to check on Baxter herself, and saw him being helped toward the house byPeabody.

Her knees trembled in relief. “Should've known the sick bastard wouldn't be dead. Where the hell was my backup, Baxter?”

“Got me dead in the shield. Must've.” He pressed a hand to the back of his head, showed the smear of blood. “Gave me a whale of a kick. Cracked my head on the frigging patio. Got the mother of all headaches.”

“Concussion,” Peabody said. “Needs a health center.”

“See he's transported.”

“What the hell happened here? Anybody dead?”

“One of them,” Eve told him.

“Okay then. Tell me later. Peabody, my beauty, get me drugs.”

Roarke touched her lightly on the back. “Let's have a look at that arm then, and the rest of you.”

“Got a couple of jabs in past my guard. I got a couple of sticks into her. Tit for fricking tat.”

“Your nose is bleeding.”

Eve swiped at it. “I broke hers. See who's the pussy now. Kicked her ass right through the door, but she was just quick enough to take me on a ride down that flight of stairs with her. Fall-I think it was the fall- snapped her neck. She was dead when we landed.”

She wrapped a hand around her bloody shoulder, turned toward him. And really saw him for the first time. “You're hit. How bad?”

“He got a couple of streams past my guard,” he said, and smiled. “Hurts like a bitch, too.”

She touched his cheek with her bloody fingers. “Got a black eye coming on.”

“He got worse. Why don't we-oh, well now, that's extreme,” he said when she ripped away the tattered sleeve of his shirt.

“It was trashed anyway.” She poked and prodded at his wound and made him curse in two languages. “Shoulder's nasty.”

“As is yours.” He lifted his brows as two MTs came through. “Ladies first.”

“Civilians first. And I ain't no lady.”

He laughed, and kissed her solidly on the mouth. “You're mine. But we'll suffer through the first-aid together.”

It seemed fair enough, and she could bitch at the MTs, threaten them with violence if they so much as thought of tranqing her. She could coordinate the various teams, get her report on record, and watch three killers-two live, one dead-hauled away.

She'd take her shot at the live ones in the morning.

“I'll go in, take care of the paperwork,” Peabody told her. “There are too many cops volunteering to handle it. One of them's bound to try to get in some kicks for Knight andPreston.”