Yolanda didn't look like a succubus, that was for certain. She looked like a demure flower without any experience in men or related areas. But Seena's sources didn't lie. She was still a Mal, after all, and they knew how to do a good background check. She just hadn't seen the need to mention it to anyone until her stupid brother kissed her.
“Miss McDowell, I don't know what pheromones or whatever you've got...”
Yolanda's eyes snapped up and met her own. “That's not fair, Seena. Don't throw the rest of us in with Malcanthet. Most of us believe very strongly in not using methods like that. Velvet hell, the kind of things we've had to go through because of her...”
Seena raised an eyebrow. “I notice you didn't get insulted when I accused you of polyamory.”
She fidgeted with one of the buttons of the over-sized shirt she was wearing. With a bit of a start, Seena realized it was one of Simon's. Maybe she wasn't sneaking out on him after all.
“It's just...” She shuffled her feet. “You see, we believe that everyone needs love, and love can conquer all, and—”
“I don't need the sales pitch,” Seena interrupted. “I get the picture. I'm willing to assume you have my brother's best interests at heart.”
She smiled weakly. “Thank you.”
“Of course, I'm not the only one you have to worry about. Jelena is angry at you for muscling into her territory.”
Yolanda frowned. “Wait, I thought she was a lesbian.”
Seena shrugged. “Well, I'm pretty sure she's joking. They had a thing forever ago, so sometimes she still brings it up. But Pam really was interested in him. Once she finds out about this she's gonna be pissed.”
Yolanda brushed her golden hair back from her horns. “Velvet... she might actually kill me.”
“It's probably not that bad. Pam's caustic, but there's kindness hidden below that.” Seena paused. “Deep below.” She bit her lip. “Okay, so I haven't actually seen it, but I'm sure it's there.”
Yolanda didn't seem exactly encouraged. “I don't think this is the kind of situation that will bring it out.”
“Yeah... just let me talk to her first, okay?” Honestly, she shouldn't have told Yolanda about Pam's crush. Seena was still surprised Pam had even told her.
Yolanda smiled a little. “No worries there, I promise.” She coughed. “Ah... can I get past you? I need to go to the bathroom.”
“Of course.” Seena stepped aside, and she rushed past quickly to the women's restroom at the other end of the hall.
Now that she was reasonably certain Yolanda wasn't going to try and slit her brother's throat in his sleep, she had to attend to the other half of the problem. She slipped her daygoggles back on, took a deep breath, and knocked on the door three times.
“Yolanda?” Simon called. “That you? The door's open.”
“It's Seena,” she said gruffly. She didn't open the door.
Wisely, judging by the sounds she could hear. He seemed to be rushing around the room, putting on his clothes. After a few minutes, he called weakly. “Come in.”
It wasn't as bad as she had expected. The windows were open, and other than his bed being rumpled, the room was mostly the same as ever. A bit of junk strewn around, but it was the dorm room of three college boys. The only thing out of place was the small pile of cloth next to Simon's bed. Probably Yolanda's clothes, judging from the pink bra she could see poking out from under the jeans.
“Seena,” Simon said from where he sat primly on his bed. “What a wonderful surprise. What's up?”
She didn't bother with small talk. “She's a succubus, Simon.”
He met her gaze evenly. “She did mention that, yes.”
“People are still sore about Malcanthet.”
His eyes didn't waver. “She's not Malcanthet, now is she?”
She frowned. “Dammit, you know what I mean. Why do you think she was hiding it? Word gets out that you're dating a luster, you're gonna be fending off assassins left and right.”
“I've survived assassins before.”
Seena snorted and leaned against the door frame. “That did not count. She thought you were someone else, and was expecting to fight a vampire.”
“Fine. Discount that. More importantly, if anyone sends an assassin against her, they'll go through the Mals, right? And you can talk them out of the contract.”
Seena opened her mouth to retort... then stopped. It was actually a pretty good point.
He grinned, knowing he had her. “In fact, maybe you should just talk to them first, make sure there are no misunderstandings...”
Seena walked over and sat next to him with a sigh. “Simon, you can't just—”
“Can't what?” His face was hard again. “We're not hurting anyone, you know that. I remember you giving me a very long lecture on that subject last time I tried to interfere in one of your relationships.”
Seena groaned and flopped backwards onto the bed. “Do not bring that up again, please...”
“I wasn't going to,” he said quickly. A little too quickly. Normally he liked rubbing her nose in stuff like that. Why would he...
Bah. She was overthinking it. He probably just didn't want to get on her bad side.
There was a dainty knock on the door. Yolanda, unquestionably. Simon frowned down at me. “Are we going to be okay? If you really don't want me to date her, I'll break it off right now.”
“No.” Seena straightened into a sitting position. “By the Black Gates, no. I'm worried about you, but it's not your fault or hers. You two shouldn't be punished for it.”
He grinned. “Good. 'Cuz I wasn't gonna break up with her anyway.”
She cursed and grabbed for him. “You little weasel, I'm gonna—”
He jumped out of her grasp, still grinning from ear to ear, and rushed over to the door before she had a chance to do anything else. As expected, when he yanked it open, Yolanda was standing there.
She looked a little bewildered at their antics. “Ah... is this a bad time?”
“Not at all,” Simon said, a little breathlessly. He stood aside. “C'mon in.”
She brushed back him a little too quickly. “I'll... just get my clothes. I'm sure you two need to talk...”
“We're done talking,” Seena said. “It's your turn now.”
Yolanda blinked. “What?”
“You barely ever talk around everyone else. I feel like I don't know anything about you. Tell me something.” She struggled to think of a question. “Like... what's your favorite class this semester?”
Yolanda sat down on the bed next to Seena a little reluctantly. “Ah... Applied Firearms, I'd say. I'm taking it every Friday. I'm doing really well, actually.”
“Is that one of the classes your uncle asked you to take?” Simon asked.
She shook her head vehemently. “No, I wanted to take it. I love guns. My dad had a gun shop when I was a kid.” She smiled a little sadly. “He always said I'd inherit it one day.”
Seena knew an orphan's story when she heard one. “How'd he die?”
To her surprise, Yolanda rolled her eyes. “Mom blew up the workshop while they were inside.” She shook her head. “It was attached to the warehouse. Most of our product—and my inheritance—went up in smokes, but at least only two people died.”
Although she wasn't at the angst and tears portion of the story yet, Simon and Seena both knew from experience that these always ended up there sooner or later. He quite wisely stepped in to steer the conversation back on track. “You never mentioned if there was anyone in the Applied Firearms class you were getting friendly with.”
She brightened. “Oh, yeah! There's a baseline from outside the city, Adam. He's fifth in the class, even though he never fired a gun before he got to Domina.”
“What about you?”
She cocked her head. “What about me?”
Seena smiled a little. “I mean, what place are you?”
“Oh! Third. Second is Merrevian of the Hereafter Notes, and first is an angel named Hoshea.”
Simon winced. “Ugh. He's probably fun to be around.”
His girlfriend—Nine Hells, Seena would have to get used to that—rolled her eyes. “Oh, it's not that bad. I mean, he's a little preachy about everything, but they're getting better, really. There's actually a vampire in our class, and they haven't tried to kill each other even once.”
Simon sat down on the bed between them, forcing them to scoot apart to make room. “Wait, what time is your class?”
“Ten hundred hours. The drake has to wear daygoggles.”
His face scrunched up. “Huh. I would have thought he'd just get a night class.”
She shrugged. “I dunno. I think he wanted to learn how to shoot even when he was at a disadvantage.”
Seena had to lean over to see her past Simon. “How is he?”
She grinned. “Bad. Seriously bad. I'm not sure he can even see three feet in front of his face.”
They all laughed, and talked about school and so on for a while longer. When Seena left the two lovebirds alone a few hours later, she was beginning to accept that she might not be as bad an influence as she had thought.
Yolanda had earned a chance, but only one. she wouldn't let anything bad happen to my brother.
Chapter 37: TABERNA
LAURA
It was a full week after Lizzy's little stunt with the calciophage. She hadn't promised to not do anything like that, no matter how much Laura asked, so she had decided to distract her with shopping instead.
“We also need something for Robyn,” Lizzy said as they walked out of the sushi place. “We forgot last time.” She chewed her tongue. “Hm... maybe a gas mask?”
Laura raised an eyebrow. “Why a gas mask?”
“Didn't she say something about going down into the sewers?” Lizzy shrugged. “I'm sure she'll find some use for it.”
Well, she was always better with gifts than Laura was, so she didn't argue.
“We also need to get something for Derek,” Laura reminded her. “Something big. His birthday is next Saturday.”
She frowned. “No, Saturday is the 22nd. His birthday is the 29th.”
Laura sighed. With her power on, she knew she wasn't lying, just an idiot. “I know that. Next Saturday, Lizzy. Next.”
She blinked those beautiful golden eyes of hers, then nodded. “Right. Right. So what did you want to get him?”
Laura couldn't really think of anything. “I dunno. He has pretty much everything he needs. His mom will be getting him more grenades. What else is there?”
“Food, I guess. Him and Akane spend all their money on school, healing, and mercs, in that order. We could get him some of those giant slabs of fish jerky he likes.”
Well, now that their power level had taken a bump, Laura doubted Derek would be spending much money on mercenaries any more, but she didn't feel the need to explain that to Lizzy. They were still hiding the whole Paladin thing from her, and bless her heart, she wasn't asking questions.
Either way, there weren't many options. Jerky might work, but it still felt like a cop-out.
“Ooh, here's that French place I told you about!” Lizzy cried, pulling her inside a small clothing store. “Let's get you a purse.”
“There's a meat vendor down the street,” Laura said. “Let's get Derek's present first.”
Lizzy held up a little black bag to Laura's arm. “Don't you think this contrasts nicely with your skin tone?”
Laura sighed. There was no talking to her when she got like this. So she just smiled and nodded as she squealed and went to find clothes for her to try on, and let her mind wander to more important things.
They still hadn't made any real progress on the sleepers, which worried her. Blood tests did show a few minor chemical abnormalities in the ones they had caught, but they were so small they could have also come from drinking some bad mineral water.
“Ooh! I found a little black dress in your size!”
The Composer was good. It seemed that just like with the empowered, it was impossible to use current medical technology to identify the sleepers. Considering that Domina was the bleeding edge of medical and bio-tech for the entire human race, that was really saying something.
Lizzy ran out of the clothes racks, held a dress up to Laura, and frowned. “No, that's not...” Then she fled back to the racks.
They had to find a weakness. Some way to turn his weapons against him. A way to control screamers was a possibility. Clarke and Laura were beginning to think that the Paladins might be able to pull that off, but it was mostly still a theory.
No, their real hope was in researching the sleepers more. They were clearly just hypnotized, albeit to an extreme extent. If they could find a way to identify them, they would learn so much.
The blood tests would help, if only barely. It would help eliminate suspects, at least. Laura made a mental note to start taking samples and performing the tests without Clarke's knowledge, just in case. Of course, she'd need someone to get the samples...
Lizzy grabbed her hand and started dragging her to the changing room. “C'mon, tell me if you like this one.”
She came into the changing room with Laura and handed her a small, simple black dress with spaghetti-strap shoulders. Laura touched it lightly; it was made out of silk. Very nice silk, if she was any judge.
Laura sighed again. She kept derailing her train of thought. “Lizzy, just... no.” It ended at six inches above her knees, which was about twenty-four inches too short for me.
She pouted, in a way that reminded her why Derek was in love with her. “Something else, then?”
Laura rubbed her forehead. “Yes. Something else.” Almost anything else would do, but if she said that she'd come at her with lingerie.
Lizzy ran off, and Laura was able to think again.
She shouldn't treat being with her like it was a chore, but it was, really. When Laura shopped, it was simple and easy. Grab what you need, buy it, leave. But Lizzy... well, she shopped like a girl. She spent hours playing in stores she had no intention of spending money in, bought things for no good reason, and altogether wasted time.
She had been like this even when they were kids. At least now she actually had money to spend. Before, Derek and Laura had always been forced to buy her out of the holes she had dug. Who the hell extended credit to an eight year-old?
They really did need to get Derek something, and food wouldn't cut it. Well, they were in a clothing store. Maybe that would work. Okay, it was woman's clothing, but it was still an idea. Maybe a t-shirt. He wore shirts.
Lizzy skipped back into the changing room, holding another dress. “Okay, do you think this is better?”
It was pretty much the exact same dress as before, but much longer. It had a replaceable bottom hem, the kind for when the dress was expected to drag on the ground a little.
“We'll see.” Laura shooed her out so she could try it on.
After putting it on, she found... she liked it. It was pretty rare for her to like something Lizzy grabbed for her, but this seemed wonderful. It fell over her body loosely, not too tight at all. Normally Lizzy tried to get her clothes that were practically painted on.
She turned a few times, checking how she looked in the mirror, and found herself pleased. Lizzy did have a good eye for color. And it would be nearly impossible for Laura to screw up the look by wearing the wrong pants or whatever. That was the benefit of a one-piece.
She looked at the price tag. Too much, even though it was on sale. Five percent off wasn't much...
Five percent. A very specific number. An impossibly specific number.
Not for the sale. That wasn't important. No, it was the sleepers. At the battle with the skins, exactly five percent of the soldiers had gone crazy. The implication was obvious; the Composer had more sleepers that he hadn't activated.
But why unveil them then? That was what they were having trouble with. There were plenty of other, better opportunities he hadn't used. The bats, with the Nosferatu, wou
ld have been a perfect place to use the sleepers. They had enough difficulty even without rioting. Suborn a few key drivers of the Necessarian reinforcements, and the cavalry would never have arrived. The entire area would have been turned, and they wouldn't have been able to do anything about it—there hadn't even been any air units in range.
None of this made any sense. There was so much the Composer could be doing, but wasn't. So many things that would make taking control of the city easier. The only logical conclusion was that he had a different goal in mind.
But they couldn't figure out what that was. Jarasax had theorized that he was like the fey, seeking only his own amusement, but Laura didn't like that idea. There was so much chaos, but it was still under control. The fey and people like them would want more than this.
The body swapping idea would make the most sense. The Composer could fight and die in as many different scenarios as he liked, then just take over a new body and play again, all without killing the golden goose—the city, in this metaphor.
No, no, no. She needed to stop focusing on the simple solutions. She had to ignore Sax's theories, and assume the Composer was an intelligent, rational being. Because she was an intelligent, rational being, and it was the only kind of person she could really understand.
Fact 1: The Composer was not operating at full capacity. No matter how singers and screamers were created or controlled, there were tactical solutions that he was ignoring.
Fact 2: The Composer had sleeper agents, at least five percent in nearly every militia. None had...
And there it was.
None had revealed themselves among Necessarius.
It wasn't much. It wasn't anything, really. It could be data scatter or a deliberate false lead. But if the 'sarians were somehow resistant or immune to this type of control, it would explain everything. The reason the sleepers only played their hand at Bombed Alley was because that was the first time non-Necessarian troops were involved in force.
But five percent... something was still bugging her about that.
What made the 'sarians different? About a thousand things. They were better trained, more tightly controlled, got more regular medical check-ups... silver and gold, even their diets were more uniform. It was the same reason that Malcanthet hadn't had much luck getting her own sleepers into their ranks a few years ago.
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