Darkfever

CHAPTER 15

Roark 'Rocky' O'Bannion had been born Irish Catholic, dirt-poor, and with genes that would give him the strength, stamina, and body of a prizefighter before his eighteenth birthday.

With his looks, some would call him Black Irish, but it wasn't Spanish or Melungeon blood in his veins, it was an unspoken-of Saudi ancestor that had bequeathed something fierce, dark, and ruthless to the O'Bannion line.

Born in a city controlled by two feuding Irish crime families—the Hallorans and O'Kierneys—Roark O'Bannion fought his way to the top in the ring, but it wasn't enough for the ambitious champ; he hungered for more. One night, when Rocky was twenty-eight years old, the Halloran and O'Kierney linchpins, every son, grandson, and pregnant woman in their families were killed. Twenty-seven people died that night, gunned down, blown up, poisoned, knifed, or strangled. The city had never seen anything like it. A group of flawlessly choreographed killers had closed in all over the city, at restaurants, homes, hotels, and clubs, and struck simultaneously.

Horrific, most said. Bloody brilliant, some said. Good riddance, nearly all said, including the cops. The very next day, when a suddenly wealthy Rocky O'Bannion, champion boxer and many a young boy's idol, retired from the ring to take over control of various businesses in and around Dublin previously run by the Hallorans and O'Kierneys, he was hailed by the working-class poor—whose hope and bank accounts were as tiny as their TV's and dreams were big—as a hero, despite the fresh and obvious blood on his hands, and the rough pack of ex-boxers and thugs he brought with him.

That he was a "damned fine-looking man" didn't hurt any. Rocky was considered quite the charmer and ladies' man, but one with a fine point of honor that endeared him to his faithful; he didn't sleep with other men's wives. Ever. The man who had no respect for life, limb, or law, respected the sacrament of marriage.

Did I mention he was Irish Catholic? A joke around the city was that the young O'Bannion had missed school the day the priest had given the sermon about the Ten Commandments, and on makeup day little Rocky only got the short list: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife—but everything else is up for grabs.

Despite the colorful background Barrons had given me on our soon-to-be third host—and unsuspecting victim, as I was coming to think of them—I would still find myself unprepared for the dichotomies that were Rocky O'Bannion.

"Uh, Barrons," I said. "I really don't think stealing from this guy is a very good idea." I'd seen my share of mafia movies. You didn't march up to the Godfather and rip him off—and expect to survive for very long afterward, anyway. I already had too many scary things after me.

"We'll burn that bridge when we come to it, Ms. Lane," he replied.

I glanced over at him. My life was so surreal. Tonight Barrons had selected a 1975 Lamborghini Countach, one of only three 'Wolf' Countachs ever made, from his absurd collection.

"I think the expression is cross that bridge, Barrons, not torch it. What do you want—every freak, vampire, Fae, and mafia don in the city hunting me down? How many different ways do you think I can do my hair? I refuse to be a redhead. I draw the line there. As much as I like color, I have no desire to paint my head orange."

He laughed. Unguarded humor was such a rare expression to see on that chiseled, urbane face that I blinked, staring.

"Funny, Ms. Lane," he said. Then he added, "Would you like to drive?"

"Huh?" I gaped. What was wrong with him? Ever since I'd come down at shortly after eleven, wearing Fiona's disturbing dress—when I'd first slipped it over my head I'd waited a few seconds to see if it was laced with some awful poison that would make me itch my skin off—he'd been acting like this, and I just didn't get it. He seemed… well… playful, for lack of a better word. In high spirits. Almost drunk, though with a clear head. If he were any other man, I might have suspected him of substance abuse, of being coked up or something. But Barrons was too much a purist for that; his drugs were money, power, and control.

Still, he was so electrically alive tonight that the air around him seemed to crackle and hiss.

"Just kidding," he said.

And that was out of character, too. Jericho Barrons didn't indulge in humor. "That wasn't nice. I've dreamed of driving a C-c—Lamborghini."

"Can't say Countach, Ms. Lane?" With his unplaceable accent, Kuhn-tah came out sounding even more foreign.

"Can," I said irritably. "Won't. Mom taught me better."

He slanted me a sideways look. "And why is that, Ms. Lane?"

"Cussing in any language is still cussing," I said primly. I knew what Countach meant. My dad was the one that got me addicted to fast cars. I'd been a little girl of seven when he'd begun dragging me from one Exotic Car Show to the next, in lieu of a son to share his passion with. Over the years we'd developed a deep bond over our love of all things fast and shiny. The Italian Countach was the near equivalent of "holy fucking cow" in English, which was exactly how I felt every time I saw one, but that was still no reason to say it out loud. If I managed to hold on to nothing else in the midst of the insanity my life had become, at least I could maintain my dignity and decorum.

"You seem to know your cars, Ms. Lane," Barrons murmured.

"Some," I said modestly. It was the only thing modest about me at the moment. We'd just begun crossing the first of two sets of railroad tracks and my bosom jiggled in—or rather mostly out—of my revealing dress like it was made of molded Jell-O. Okay, so sometimes I could maintain my dignity and decorum. At other times, it seemed half of Dublin was going to see my breasts up close and personal; although I did derive some comfort from the thought that when I'd done my impromptu strip for the death-by-sex Fae yesterday, I was pretty certain no one else had seen me, thanks to the glamour it had been throwing.

We were about to hit the second set of tracks, so I folded my arms in an attempt to hold myself still. As we crossed them, I could feel the weight of Barrons' gaze on my bosom, the heat of it, and I knew without even looking that he had that raw, hungry look on his face again. I refused to glance his way, and we rode for several miles in silence, with him using up entirely too much room in the car, and a weird tension eating up what little space there was between us.

"Seen the new Gallardo Spyder?" I blurted finally.

"No," he said instantly. "Why don't you tell me about it, Ms. Lane?" The playful edge in his voice was gone; it was guttural, tight.

I pretended not to notice and began waxing poetical about the V-10 with its razor-sharp lines and 512 horses that, although it couldn't beat the Porsche 911 turbo in a zero-to-sixty speed test, it still packed a flashy, muscular punch, and before I knew it, we were pulling up in front of O'Bannion's and waiting while valets cleared space for us between a Maybach sedan and a limo. They were human, not Rhino-boys, which made for a nice change.

I confess I left fingerprints on the Maybach. I had to pet it as I walked by, if only to be able to tell Dad I'd touched one. If I'd been living another life, one where Alina hadn't been killed and I wasn't currently up to my neck in nightmares, I would have rung him up on my cell phone right then and there and described the twin-turbo, V-12, 57S touring sedan "for those who want to drive their own Maybach," right down to the interior trim done in black piano-lacquer finish that gleamed in exquisite contrast to an abundance of creamy leather. He would have excitedly demanded more details—and couldn't I go to the nearest drugstore and buy a disposable camera or ten?

But Alina had been killed, my parents were still off the deep end, and calling Dad right now would have served no purpose. I knew, because I'd called home earlier, after I'd finished getting dressed. Ten-forty-five Dublin time was still early evening in Georgia. I'd sat on the edge of my borrowed bed, staring down at stockings that were hooked to an embarrassment of a garter belt, spiky high heels, and the egg-size blood-red ruby nestled between my breasts, and wondered what I was becoming.

Dad had been drunk when he'd answered. I'd not heard him drunk in years. Six and a half, to be exact. Not since his brother had died on the way to his own wedding, leaving his bride-to-be a pregnant widow and my dad standing at the altar, best man to a dead man. I'd hung up as soon as I'd heard Dad's deeply slurred voice, unable to deal with it. I needed a rock—not to have to be one for someone else.

"Wits about you, Ms. Lane," Barrons cautioned, close to my ear, jerking me from the dark place I'd been about to get lost in. "You'll need them here." With his left arm around my waist, his right hand on my shoulder, fingers lightly brushing the swell of my breast, he steered me toward the entrance, locking gazes with any man brave or stupid enough to let his gaze dip below my eyes, holding it until the man looked away. He could not have more clearly branded me his possession.

As soon as we entered the bar, I understood. That was what the women were here: beautiful, impeccably waxed, coifed and groomed, softly laughing, brightly dazzling possessions.

Trophies. They weren't people in and of themselves, but reflections upon their men. As tightly guarded as they were lavishly cosseted, they sparkled and shined like glittering diamonds, showing the world what successes their husbands were, what giants among men.

Rainbow Mac would have been as out of place here as a porcupine in a petting zoo. I straightened my spine, held my head high, and pretended that two-thirds of my supple young body wasn't exposed by the short, sleek black dress with the bare back and plunging neckline.

Barrons was known here. As we passed, nods were exchanged and greetings were murmured, and all was soft and lovely at O'Bannion's, if you were careful not to notice the steel every man in the room was packing.

I leaned close to whisper my next question up at Barrons' ear; even with heels on, he was a head taller than me. "Do you have a gun on you somewhere?" I really hoped he did.

His lips quirked, brushing my hair when he replied, "A gun would only get you killed faster in a place like this, Ms. Lane. Don't worry, I don't plan to piss anyone off." He nodded to a short, cigar-chomping, enormously fat man with a beautiful woman on each mammoth arm. "Not yet, anyway," he murmured after we'd passed.

We took a booth in back where he ordered dinner and drinks for both of us.

"How do you know I like my steak medium-well?" I demanded. "Or that I wanted a Caesar salad? You didn't even ask."

"Look around and learn, Ms. Lane. There's not a waiter in here that will take an order from a woman. At O'Bannion's, you eat what is chosen for you, whether you like it or not. Welcome to a time gone by, Ms. Lane, when men provided and women accepted. And if they didn't like it, they pretended they did."

Wow. And I'd thought the Deep South was bad. Fortunately, I liked my steak anywhere from rare to medium-well, could eat just about any kind of salad, and was thrilled to have someone else springing for an expensive meal, so I made short work of it. All I'd eaten today was two bowls of cereal, and I was starved. When I finished, I saw Barrons' plate was still nearly full and raised a brow.

He pushed it toward me. "I ate earlier," he said.

"So why'd you order, then?" I asked as daintily as I could around a bite of rare filet mignon.

"You don't go to an O'Bannion business and not spend money," Barrons said.

"Sounds like he's got a lot of stupid rules," I muttered.

Just then a barrel of a man with big-knuckled hands, a flattened nose, and cauliflowered ears approached. "Good to see you again, Mr. Barrons. Mr. O'Bannion invites you and your companion to drop by the back and say hello."

It wasn't really an invitation and no one pretended it was. Barrons rose immediately, collected me, tucked me into his body again, and steered me along behind the battered ex-boxer as if, without guidance, I might blindly bounce off walls, a short-circuited Stepford Wife.

I was going to be really glad to get out of this place.

"By the back" meant another building quite some distance behind the pub. We got there underground, following O'Bannion's man through the kitchens, down a long flight of stairs, and into a well-lit, damp stone tunnel. As we hurried past openings to more tunnels that were either blocked up with stone and concrete or sealed by heavily padlocked steel doors, Barrons murmured close to my ear, "In some parts of Dublin, there's another city beneath the city."

"Creepy," I muttered, as we ascended another long flight of stairs.

I guess I was expecting something out of a movie: a pack of dissolute, heavy-jowled men crammed into a smoke-filled room, gathered around a table, wearing sweat-stained shirts and gun holsters, chewing cigars and playing high-stakes poker, with centerfolds of naked women tacked to the walls.

What I got was a dozen or so well-dressed men talking quietly in a spacious, handsomely appointed room of mahogany and leather, and the only woman on the walls here was the Madonna and Child. But the Madonna wasn't alone; the august room was virtually wallpapered with religious icons. Interspersed with built-in bookcases graced by a collection of Bibles that I suspected might make even the Pope covetous, hung crucifixes of silver, gold, wood, and even one of those glow-in-the-dark plastic ones. Behind a stately desk hung a series of twelve paintings depicting Christ's last moments. Over the fireplace was a reproduction of The Last Supper. At the far end of the room were two prayer shrines covered with brightly flickering candles, flanking a larger shrine that held an elaborate antique reliquary containing heavens only knew what—perhaps the tooth or heel bone of some obscure saint. A powerfully built, dark-haired man stood before the ancient religious chasses, his back to us.

I pretended to stumble at the threshold of the door. Barrons caught me. "Oops," I said meaningfully. Though we'd not agreed on a code, I thought saying OOPs was pretty clear. I was telling him there was an Object of Power somewhere nearby. Not in this room, but close. From the sudden acid in my stomach that seemed to be boiling up through the soles of my feet, I suspected whatever it was lay directly beneath us, in Barrons' "city beneath the city."

If Barrons got my not-so-subtle message, he gave no sign of it. His eyes were focused on the man at the shrine, his jaw set.

As the man turned from the reliquary, the two Unseelie flanking him turned also. Whoever the big, bad Unseelie was that was after the Sinsar Dubh, he'd stationed his watchdogs here, too. Our unknown competitor was watching the same people Barrons was interested in: McCabe, Mallucé, and now O'Bannion. Unlike the Rhino-boys at McCabe's and Mallucé's, however, these were casting no glamour of being human whatsoever, which perplexed me until I realized that they really had no need. In their natural state, they were invisible to everyone but sidhe-seers like Barrons and me, and we seemed a pretty rare breed. I had no idea why these Rhino-boys had chosen to remain invisible rather than inserting themselves into O'Bannion's tangible reality as others had done with McCabe and Mallucé, but they had, which meant I had to determinedly not look at them at all. At least when Unseelie were faking passing as humans, I could notice whatever illusion they were presenting and not give myself away, but when they weren't, I didn't dare observe the space they occupied, which was easier said than done. Sliding your gaze over something that looks so alien is a little tricky.

I took a cue from Barrons and focused my attention on the man between them who was, no doubt, Rocky O'Bannion.

I could instantly see how he'd gotten where he was. In any century, this man would have been a fighter, a leader of men.

Dark, brawny, six feet of graceful, glistening muscle in black trousers, a white shirt, and a fine, soft Italian-made black leather jacket, he moved with the confidence of a man who knew his slightest wish was the rest of the world's command. His short black hair was thick, his teeth the perfect white of an ex-boxer with money, and when he smiled, which he did now at Barrons, it was lightning quick and full of dark Irish deviltry.

"Good to see you again, Barrons."

Barrons nodded. "O'Bannion."

"What brings you here tonight?"

Barrons murmured something complimentary about the pub and then the two men moved swiftly into a conversation about recent trouble O'Bannion had been having at one of his shipping concerns down by the docks. Barrons had heard something out on the streets that might be useful, he said.

I watched them while they talked. Rocky O'Bannion was a lodestone, six feet of pure muscle-packed charisma. He was the kind of man men wanted to be and women wanted to be dragged off to bed by—and I did mean dragged off—there would be no dominating this man by any woman. There was no doubt in my mind that the powerful, ruggedly attractive Irishman with the stone-hewn jaw was also a stone-cold killer, and from the way he was trying to pave his way to heaven by plastering over his sins with the putty of religious zeal, he was also a borderline psychopath.

Yet none of it diminished my attraction to him one bit—that was the true measure of the man's presence. I was revolted by him, and at the same time, if he were to focus that devilish Irish charm my way, if those dark, heavy-lidded eyes would turn with favor in my direction, I was afraid I would flush with pleasure even as I knew I should be running as fast as I could the other way, and for that reason alone, the man scared the living bejeezus out of me.

I was surprised to notice that Barrons didn't look much more comfortable than I, and that worried me even more. Nothing disturbed Jericho Barrons, yet I could clearly see tension in the angles of his body and strain in the lines of his face, around the mouth and eyes. Every bit of earlier playfulness in him was gone. He was lean, mean, and hard again, even seemed a little pale beneath that exotic golden skin. Though he stood inches taller than our host and was even more powerfully built, though he usually exuded comparable vitality and presence, at the moment he seemed… diminished, and I got the sudden, weirdest impression that ninety-nine percent of Jericho Barrons was currently focused somewhere else, and being nearly used up, leaving only one percent of him here and now, in this room, paying attention to O'Bannion.

"Beautiful woman, Jericho," O'Bannion said then, turning his gaze—as I'd feared—my way. And as I'd feared, I blushed. The boxer stepped closer, circled me, looking me up and down, and made a rough sound of masculine approval in the back of his throat.

"She is, isn't she?" Barrons replied.

"Not Irish," O'Bannion observed.

"American."

"Catholic?"

"Protestant," Barrons said.

I didn't bat an eyelash at the lie.

"Too bad." Rocky turned his attention back to Barrons and I breathed again. "Good to see you, Jericho. If you should hear anything further about my troubles at the dock…"

"I'll be in touch," said Barrons.

"You like him," I said later, as we picked our way back through the nearly deserted four a.m. streets of downtown Dublin. The information Barrons had given him had actually been pertinent, identifying several members of a local gang as the thorns in O'Bannion's side.

"No, Ms. Lane," Barrons replied.

"Okay, maybe not like," I corrected, "respect. You respect O'Bannion."

Again Barrons shook his head.

"Well, what, then?" Barrons had accorded Rocky O'Bannion a certain solemn distance he'd not shown any of the others and I wanted to know why.

He thought a moment. "If I were in the middle of Afghanistan's mountains and could choose either one man to fight barehanded by my side, or a full complement of sophisticated weapons, I'd take O'Bannion. I neither like nor respect him, I merely recognize what he is."

We hurried along for a few blocks in silence.

I was grateful to be out of the stilettos I'd worn earlier and back in comfortable shoes. When we'd left O'Bannion's, Barrons had whisked us back to the bookstore, where he'd demanded a full report of what I'd sensed. After I'd told him, he'd left me alone in the bookstore while he'd gone off by himself somewhere to "get reacquainted with some of the finer points of the city's sewage system," he'd said.

In his absence, I'd gone upstairs and changed. I could figure out proper sewer-crawling attire all by myself—something old, dark, and grungy.

We'd returned to the general vicinity of O'Bannion's Pub & Restaurant in a dark, nondescript sedan I'd never have noticed parked in the shadowy rear of Barrons' fascinating garage, left it at the curb several blocks from our intended destination, and hoofed it from there.

"Stay here a minute." A hand on my shoulder, Barrons stopped me on the sidewalk, then strode into the middle of the street. He was his usual self again, occupying more space than was his due. He'd changed, too, into faded jeans, a black T-shirt, and scuffed black boots. It was the first time I'd ever seen him in something so… well, plebian for him, and the hard, muscled body those clothes showcased was nothing short of incredible, if you went for that kind of man. Thankfully, I didn't. It was like seeing a powerful, stalking black panther, blood frothing its muzzle, wearing street clothes—very weird.

"You've got to be kidding me," I said when, shoulders bunching and biceps bulging, he lifted the manhole cover, slid it aside, and beckoned me.

"How did you think we were going to get into the sewer system, Ms. Lane?" Barrons said impatiently.

"I didn't. I must have purposely bypassed that thought." I walked over. "Are you sure there's not a convenient flight of stairs around here somewhere?"

He shrugged. "There is. It's not, however, the best point of access." He glanced up at the sky "We need to get in and out as quickly as possible, Ms. Lane."

I understood that. In very little time it would be dawn, and the streets in Dublin began bustling with people as early as daybreak. It would hardly do to come popping out of a manhole right in front of them, or worse, inches from a car's front bumper.

I stood over the open hole in the street and peered down into the darkness. "Rats?" I asked, a bit sadly.

"Undoubtedly."

"Right." I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. "Shades?"

"Not enough to feed on down there. They prefer the streets. Take my hand and I'll lower you down, Ms. Lane."

"How will we get back up?" I worried.

"I have a different route in mind for our return trip."

"Does it involve stairs?" I asked hopefully.

"No."

"Of course not. How silly of me. And for our return adventure," I said, in my best game-show-announcer voice, "we will be scaling the side of Mount Everest, hiking boots to be provided by our trusty sponsor, Barrons Books and Baubles."

"Amusing, Ms. Lane." Barrons could not have looked more unamused. "Now move."

I took his outthrust hand, let him dangle me over the edge and drop me down. Destination: a darker, even scarier Dublin, deep underground.