Bite Back 05 - Angel Stakes

by Mark Henwick

  “Huang really did it? Voted against Skylur?”

  Tarez nodded. I could see him debate with himself on several things to say and the way to say them. He was plainly puzzled by what had happened.

  In the end he shrugged and simply said: “Skylur kicked everyone out. Every single House from the Hidden Path or Empire of Heaven got, how should I put it, escorted to LAX.” He checked his watch. “Only Altau, or Altau sub-Houses such as you, or Houses in explicit sworn association with Altau, remain in the country.”

  He wiped his mouth with a paper napkin while I frowned—that sounded like Skylur throwing a tantrum. What the hell was going on?

  “Skylur’s excuse was that he was no longer under any obligation to host or protect them, and, of course, he’s right,” Tarez said. “Neither the Agiagraphos nor the laws of the Assembly require him to allow non-associated Houses in his domain now. And the issue about protecting them from Basilikos attacks was valid, though by now there shouldn’t be any of them left either.”

  I could tell Tarez agreed with my unspoken thought—there was something more going on than appeared on the surface.

  “At least they’ll be home for Christmas,” Alex said.

  “As will you,” he replied. “But I believe Skylur has just a couple more tasks before you go.”

  Alex snorted quietly.

  “How has this affected Panethus as a party?” Yelena asked.

  Tarez let a tired, cynical smile play about his face. “Purely from a matter of internal party politics, it’s the best thing that could have happened to us. Even better than catching Matlal trying to assassinate Houses in the Assembly. All the Houses that had the privilege of arguing side issues to score political points have suddenly realized the game has changed. They’ve realized that even Emergence is not as big a problem as the Hidden Path leading the Assembly. Panethus is firmly behind Skylur once again. We are the biggest single party, once again. Useless against the combined weight of the Empire and the Hidden Path, unfortunately.” He shrugged again. “We’ll see if the addition of Were and Adept changes that, but I doubt it.”

  There was one Athanate group that was significant for me at least.

  “What about the Eastern Seaboard association?” I said.

  Tarez looked grim.

  “There is no Eastern Seaboard association any longer,” he said. “They’ve disbanded and taken Blood oaths to Skylur. All but one.”

  “Ibarre?”

  “Yes,” he said quietly. “Even with every Panethus House his firm supporter now, Skylur has to be seen to be strong. Ibarre realized his revolt was over, but Skylur refused his offer of an oath.”

  “What about the offer to leave the country?” Yelena said.

  “Skylur rescinded that.” Tarez rubbed his face. “However he might have seemed in the brief time you’ve known him, Ibarre had his own sense of honor, and a deep understanding of old Athanate tradition.”

  I swallowed. If Skylur judged Ibarre a traitor, then the lives of the entire House Ibarre were forfeit. Surely…

  “Ibarre and House Ibarre’s entire Athanate delegation here in the city made the korheny, the sacrifice of Blood in payment, to plead for the lives of the rest of their House.”

  “Oh, gods,” Yelena whispered.

  “Their kin here in LA elected to join them. All of them.”

  Ibarre. His two Athanate assistants. A couple of guards. And about twenty humans. Dead.

  “And his House in Maine?” Yelena said.

  “Skylur has accepted the korheny. What he does with them now…” He raised his hands.

  Tarez got called away for an update on the hunting down of the last Basilikos cells. We sat and stared into space, the remains of the meal forgotten in front of us.

  Alex pulled me closer and wrapped his arms around me.

  It was selfish, to take comfort from him and be able to give none back. But the sorrows of the day seemed to overwhelm the good that had happened and sucked everything down into a sewer of miseries.

  Diana and Kaothos. I still couldn’t believe it.

  How must Tullah be feeling? Why hide from the Empire’s Adepts if Kaothos was dead? What were the Adepts doing?

  Others. The Altau guard who’d died at the ranch, whose name I didn’t even know.

  And Ibarre. It was strange to mourn him. Maybe not so much the man but his kin, who’d died rather than outlive him. How did we Athanate earn that?

  As a House, how could I live with such power over people?

  As that churned in my mind, fatigue overwhelmed me.

  Nothing is as it seems.

  The long dragon spine of San Gabriel sprawls over the trembling San Andreas fault and four million people cluster in its shadow.

  In the city, glittering streets cut like knives through the barrios. Monsters—human monsters—stalk the valley and no one hears the sound of endless shackles dragging down in the dark of the sewers. People walk by, blind and deaf, through the haze of heat and car fumes that smells of desperation and last chances. They pass on, through a sleepless city, a city scarred with sun-bleached roads and anointed with azure pools.

  Cool and slow comes the starless night that covers all, in the city that feeds on dreams; and we are such stuff as dreams are made.

  The dragon stirs.

  Sighing sands burst out and leak into the white marble malls to the sound of a thousand snakes, and the people tremble in the neon darkness.

  The dragon stirs.

  The dragon stirs, and the whole world shakes.

  “Amber, wake up.”

  It was Jen. Her arms were around me. I’d fallen asleep in Alex’s lap. His arms were around both of us. It was a good way to wake up.

  “Bad dream?” she said.

  “Ugh. Did we have an earthquake?” I mumbled.

  “No. Nothing. But Skylur wants to see us now.”

  “Us? All of us?”

  “Yeah.”

  I ran my fingers through my hair. That’d have to do.

  “Where are the others?”

  “We left Dominé and Vera with Dante and Tamanny. The girls are exhausted and the guards are still there.”

  Fine. I’ll see them later.

  Assuming Skylur didn’t have something for me to do that would take me away.

  We walked down the hall and trooped into his office, Keith limping in last.

  Just Skylur. No Tarez.

  What’s going on?

  Skylur sat at his ornamental desk. It was empty, save for an old-fashioned pocket watch and a commset. Presumably, he’d been up all night, but he didn’t look tired at all. In fact, it looked like he was buzzing with energy.

  It was shocking. He’d lost his oldest friend, not to mention the presidency of the Assembly and any hope of controlling Emergence. Yet he looked positively happy, behind his usual mask of steepled fingers.

  He glanced at the watch, stood up and launched straight in.

  “Bear with me. Here, in the heart of Hollywood, things are not always as they seem.”

  My instincts were right on that.

  “There’s little time to explain. My thanks to you all on the work you’ve done. You’ve exceeded all expectations.” A small smile chased across his face. “The reward for which is, of course, more work. If you agree.”

  Alex and Jen both had snorted. We exchanged looks.

  I nodded to Skylur. I had given him my Blood oath. He didn’t need to ask.

  “Excellent.” He leaned on the desk. “Political situation: spare a thought for Imiso Correia on her plane heading back down to Rio. She has the presidency. However, before she can convene the Assembly and actually do anything, she has two small problems. Firstly, the Hidden Path has to completely and utterly sever links with Basilikos and her memories of those links have to be erased.”

  “That’s certain? We know the Hidden Path is still connected to Basilikos.”

  Skylur nodded. “More than connected. Basilikos still control the most powerful factions in t
he Hidden Path.”

  “I don’t understand,” Jen said. “Why does that stop her from convening the Assembly?”

  “I think I know,” I said. “The president is subject to the assessment of Truth Sensors for anything they say in the Assembly. It’d be your first question: ‘is the policy of the Hidden Path determined by Basilikos?’”

  “Exactly,” Skylur said.

  “That was the first thing that’s holding her back. What’s the second?” I asked.

  “Even if she tries running things through committees, she needs the approval of the Empire before any major decision.”

  “The man just voted against you.”

  “He did. However, I believe we have an…understanding.”

  “You believe? You had negotiations with him?”

  “After a fashion. There is no evidence of collusion between us, which is as it must be. Correia will set up committees and try and run the Assembly through them. She complained of endless bureaucracy, but that is precisely what she will have to endure. And with every tiny step, she will have to ensure that she has the support of either Huang or myself. This is what the Empire of Heaven has been aiming for.”

  “But Kaothos…”

  “Oh, they’d have preferred to have a dragon, or both the dragon and the Assembly. But never imagine the Empire’s strategy is only what you see. The Emperor is as concerned as I am about Emergence. We will row this boat together, he and I, for all that Correia waves her flag.”

  “And all the time, the Hidden Path dare not disturb the peace while they are the party supposed to be in power?” Yelena laughed.

  Skylur joined in and checked his watch again.

  Before we’d come to LA, I would have sworn the man had no nervous tics.

  He went on before I could ask any more. “Internal situation: as we speak, Naryn is preparing to move House Bazhir to Maine. There, he will take over the remainder of House Ibarre, and help me ensure there is no weakness caused by the aftermath of the Eastern Seaboard association.”

  “You’re returning to Denver?”

  “No. The mantle of House Altau will be the former domain of the Warders. I’m moving to New York.”

  “Leaving Denver empty?”

  Except for us?

  “The Dark Library cannot be easily moved, and so Haven will remain. Bian will return and make it her mantle. Her Diakon, Tom, has been elevated to House Sherman and will take the mantle of Albuquerque.”

  Wow. But why?

  The commset bleeped, and Skylur raised it alongside his head.

  I could hear the voice on the other end.

  “Flight CP 800 has just passed two thousand miles en route to Beijing.”

  “Thank you.” Skylur ended the connection. Strangely, his voice had changed as he spoke on the comms. He sounded as tired and low as he should have been.

  He switched channels on the commset.

  “Tarez. I’m leaving in five minutes. It’s all yours,” he said without explanation. Then he turned to us.

  “Come with me. Hurry.”

  Face grim, he led us at a run towards the back of the building.

  Chapter 71

  Dawn was breaking and shafts of pale light from floor to ceiling windows broke the corridors up into segments. My steps felt lighter. A little lighter; I had reached resolution at a level in my personal life, but the situation in the paranormal world was worrying.

  It was silent and empty until we came out at the rear of the studios.

  Four Athanate in full battle gear stood outside. These guys had not been up all night. They were fresh and alert. They were guarding an unmarked van parked near the door, similar to the ones Altau had been using for security, but bigger.

  “Thank you,” Skylur said to the guards. “Please go to the front of the studios and await instructions from House Tarez on channel 8.”

  When they’d left, Skylur lifted a panel on the back. The van door was controlled by a palm reader and a retinal scan. And a six digit passcode.

  Ben-Haim would approve.

  Skylur opened the door and we climbed in after him.

  The door sealed behind us, and lights brightened.

  In front of us was a rippling sheet. It looked like a sheet of water, falling from the roof to be gathered and pumped back up. It even sounded like it. But water wouldn’t bend like that, and what little sense I had of the energy told me this was an Adept working. A powerful one.

  I was about to ask for an explanation, when the sheet bulged and parted eerily to let Alice Emerson, House Altau’s Adept, walk through.

  “House Altau, House Farrell.” Her lips stretched in what could be called a smile, but underneath she was as tense as a bowstring.

  “As you recommended, we’ve waited until Huang’s over two thousand miles away,” Skylur said, and gestured at the working. “Are you confident this is going to stop his Adepts from sensing what happens?”

  “The working is as close to your shielding of the Lyssae in Haven as I could make it. If they’re that far away, they should be out of range.”

  “Of what?” I asked.

  “Out of range to sense Kaothos,” Alice said.

  My world lurched.

  What?

  “She’s not dead?” I shouted. “Where is she? Where’s Tullah?”

  I even looked around, as if Kaothos had wrapped Tullah up in an invisibility cloak to play a prank on me.

  “The plane that is carrying Elizabetta down to Albuquerque will be returning with Tullah and her parents, but we can’t afford to wait,” Skylur said. “Besides, that’s not where Kaothos is.”

  This was getting crazier and crazier.

  “You see,” Skylur said, “Diakon Huang was telling the truth, as he knows it. A young dragon is almost helpless against the lure of a powerful host. Kaothos got too close, and she fell.”

  Too close? Who was powerful enough…

  Then I got it. My jaw gaped.

  Skylur took my arm and we walked through the working, followed by the others.

  Diana lay on her bier as she had in the main hall.

  The shield working curved like a bubble, completely containing the space. It itched. An itch I couldn’t place or scratch.

  I stared at Diana. “But…”

  “She appears to be dead, but she’s not. Kaothos and Diana have created a state so close to death that I can’t tell. More importantly, neither could Huang. But we can’t leave it any longer, or we risk her becoming Lyssae.”

  “How do we wake her?”

  “Not we. You. She was most specific,” Skylur said. “She insisted.”

  “Oh, come on! What am I supposed to do? Alice?”

  The pair of them, Skylur and Alice, just smiled.

  “I kiss her? Like she’s the goddamn Sleeping Beauty?”

  “Come now, Amber, that’s the human’s fable. What would the Athanate equivalent be?”

  I frowned.

  “Blood?”

  Skylur nodded, his eyes fixed on Diana. He pointed to his wrist, and then handed me an ornate knife, very old, with a black, curved blade. Sharp.

  I nicked a vein in my wrist and held it against Diana’s lips.

  The Blood turned her pale lips rich and red.

  “It’ll take a while,” Alice murmured, fingers feeling for the neck pulse.

  “But how can Diana host a dragon spirit?” Alex asked. “Is she hybrid? An Athanate and Adept?”

  Skylur shook his head. “She’s Athanate. But what are Athanate? Former humans who use the energy, just as Adepts do, but in limited ways. Some of us are less limited than others.” He smiled again and brushed Diana’s cheek with his hand.

  “The full powers of the older Athanate come to them from exercising more control over the energy, making it less by rote or instinct, and more by deliberation.”

  “Older,” I said. “Kumemnon. That title for Diana that they keep using. It’s something to do with age. What does it mean exactly?”

  “Come, you
’ve studied the language,” Skylur said. “Kumemnon is a compound word. Take it apart.”

  Was my basic grasp of Athanate enough? “Mem is age. The non at the end, that’s a comparative. It means most? Age-most…eldest? Diana’s one of the eldest? Yes? But what does ku at the front of a word mean?”

  “It creates emphasis,” Skylur replied quietly. “To show something is unique.”

  A little shock to my core.

  “So Kumemnon is the eldest? Diana is the oldest Athanate in the world?”

  “That’s what the elders say, even in Carpathia.” Yelena shivered. “Having met her, I believe it. They honor her, even the Elders who host the Library of Hutsul.”

  The oldest Athanate. I shivered too. How old? What must we seem like, to her?

  I turned to Yelena. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  She shrugged. “I thought you knew.”

  So much more to learn.

  Diana hadn’t moved. There was no pulse, no sound I could detect.

  “How long does this take?”

  Alice sighed. “Not sure. This is not a science.”

  She held a mirror next to Diana’s nose. There was no fogging.

  “Try talking to her,” she said.

  “Diana.”

  Nothing. My small wound had healed. I re-opened it with the blade and pressed my wrist against her lips.

  I bent down and whispered in her ear. “Kumemnon.”

  Did her lips feel softer against my wrist?

  Still nothing.

  “Mentor, I need you.”

  A movement. A phantom breath on my wrist? Nothing on the mirror, but something stirred in the emptiness and brushed against my mind. I got goosebumps all down my body.

  It needs something more.

  Feeling awkward, I pushed Alice out of the way and leaned over Diana until my neck was brushing her mouth. A little shift and I could feel my pulse thudding against her lips. I concentrated every sense into that beat. Felt it pick up and start to race with anticipation.

  I closed my eyes.

  Like Victor had said. Crazy, crazy, crazy.

  “My Blood is yours,” I whispered.

  Fangs.

  I could feel them manifest in her mouth.

  But not enough. I still needed something more.