by Mark Henwick
I took a deep breath. Suddenly, I was the one trembling.
“I’ll do everything I can,” I said as I reached out to Scott with eukori and sensed his heartbeat, the flow of his Blood, the weak pulse of life throughout his body.
I was no healer like Bian, but I could tell he was slipping away, and he was pulling Amanda with him. It was madness, but I had to infuse Scott right now. Waiting for Diana or Bian to help would take too long.
Linking with me through her eukori, Pia sensed my decision.
“I’ll guide you,” Pia said. She was the only one of us that had real experience infusing humans to set off the change that would result in them becoming Athanate.
On the other hand, we were going to throw out every tried and tested procedure she’d used in House Altau and rely on a blind roll of the dice.
We quickly cleared the area around the sofa and I knelt down beside it. Yelena tore Scott’s shirt away from his neck. Pia knelt at his head and put a hand on my shoulder.
I was a confused whirl of emotion inside. After getting so aroused at the thought of biting Amanda, I was still hungry for Blood. I had no practical idea of what was needed to infuse someone. No idea of what would happen to Scott if I did.
What if I killed him?
“Take it easy,” whispered Pia. “Just bite first.”
I licked his neck. The pulse was faint and erratic, but it still called to me.
Amanda’s scent filled my nose, overlaid with Scott’s own.
Despite all my fears, my fangs burst from my jaw with such sweet anticipation that I groaned.
I sank my fangs into his neck, and the pleasure burned through me as I pulled on his Blood, sending it coursing down the taryma, the network of Athanate channels in my throat.
Even with my senses blurred with pleasure, I could feel my glands releasing bio-agents, flooding back through the taryma and out of my fangs. Nothing yet to do with changing him to Athanate, just a reflex.
Pia began to stroke my back, calling my attention to her.
Eukori communicates sensations and emotions. It wasn’t easy for Pia to communicate clearly how my Athanate glands were supposed to produce the right bio-agents for infusion. Not even the Athanate had words that described what I needed to do in a way that told me how to do it. But generations of Athanate had learned by being guided through eukori, and that was how we were doing it too.
Pia’s sensations and memories flooded into me. It was like walking down a long, echoing corridor. Each sensation carried a shadow impression: another person’s memory, which in turn was overlaid by another, fainter memory, and another, all eventually fading away into whispers and darkness. All of them tried to guide me, evoking a state that my body could interpret and act on.
Sensation poured in: I tasted unfamiliar flavors in my mouth; images like doves flying up into clear blue skies and pale green shoots rising from ashes; a deep stirring in my chest; the feel of cool breezes in the morning and a clockwork spring slowly tightening. More and more. Feelings I had no words for battered me.
Was it the right response? The right bio-agents? The right strength?
“That’s good,” Pia said quietly in my ear. “Relax. Of course you won’t harm him: you’ve accepted him as part of your House.”
I felt more bio-agents flooding exquisitely through my fangs.
Whatever it was I was doing, it was as pleasurable as taking Blood.
“Gently, gently,” Pia kept saying. She and Amanda were syncing with me, anchoring me to my task, keeping the sensations from sweeping me away.
In a minute or two we could feel Scott’s reaction as well, as the infusion slithered through his body, reaching everywhere, seeping into his heart, his liver, his brain.
Waking deeply buried subconscious parts of him.
He went into shock; his heart failed and violent shudders ripped through his body, dislodging my fangs from his neck.
Amanda frantically supported him through her connection with his body, forcing his heart to work again.
Yelena joined us, sharing the load.
It was like teetering on a high wire suspended over a crevasse. One moment we leaned too far one way, the next, the other.
I felt the Adepts get tied in through their connection with Amanda. They were blind about what needed to be done, but they brought raw strength, freely given, that Amanda could use.
“Steady. Calm.” Pia’s trembling voice was in contrast to her words, but we steadied. Slowly, we steadied.
And Scott’s reactions subsided. His heart re-started on its own, even if it was beating erratically.
At Pia’s insistence, I bit him again. His throat was bloody and without Pia’s help I wouldn’t have been able to focus. Together, we were more careful now; bio-agents trickled into his body, spaced out with long pauses.
I lost my sense of time.
Gradually, his immune defenses were turned into allies, until finally, his body was tricked into treating the bio-agents as part of itself and to stop fighting. Changes rippled through him, each small, but building on the previous.
An hour, maybe two.
I was aware distantly that my knees hurt, but it felt as if I were floating in a pool until eventually, Pia whispered: “Enough.”
My fangs retracted. I carefully licked his neck clean, sealing his wounds before resting my head on his chest. I could hear the weak but steady thump of his heart. His flesh was hot to the touch.
There was a feel about him. Too subtle to pinpoint, but we’d started with a dying human kin and at some stage, although he was no longer fully human, neither did he seem so close to dying.
“Did it work?” I asked.
“Far too early to tell,” Pia said. “His body went right to the edge of death. It’s now definitely undergoing the fundamental change of crusis... but...”
An ordinary Athanate, an Aspirant, fit, healthy and well-prepared by his mentors, might spend weeks or months in crusis. Scott hadn’t been ready in any sense. He hadn’t been healthy. He hadn’t been prepared. No one knew what my infusion would do, even if he had been prepared. Scott might die from the crusis, whether or not my infusion was quicker and less dangerous. Or he might turn into a hybrid Athanate-Were. Or a plain werewolf.
We couldn’t tell.
“Thank you,” Amanda said. Her eyes were red, and she still held his hand.
I was going to tell her to thank me when it worked, but I bit down on the words before they emerged. She knew.
“He’s probably going to sleep for a day after that, and you should be with him,” Pia said to Amanda. “If you need someone to help, or take over for a while, I’ll be somewhere in the house, no more than a minute away.”
Amanda smiled faintly in thanks.
I’d withdrawn my eukori a bit, but I could still feel the warmth of Pia’s offer, and a similarly warm acceptance of Amanda from Yelena.
From Amanda, I got the sense of bone-deep exhaustion and gratitude.
But our eukoris had bound together as tightly as they could to carry Scott through the process of infusion and I knew, under that gratitude and the love she had for Scott, there was more. Something about her other kin, the two Adepts I had hurriedly given sanctuary to.
Her eyes met mine, and I could see her flinch with guilt.
Chapter 6
Still holding on to Scott’s hand, Amanda cleared her throat and started hesitantly. “Thank you for infusing him. You said you accepted my plea for sanctuary, but we need to explain—”
“Actually, sanctuary is a short-term solution,” I interrupted her.
She flinched again.
“Thank you. I understand. Still, I should explain about Flint and Kane.”
“I’m not sure you do understand. There’s no obligation on you for Scott’s infusion. Sanctuary has no cost either; I can tell you that House Prowser does not intend to pursue you or me. Still, sanctuary is not a long-term option if you want to stay in America; Skylur won’t allow it. You’re free to
go–Ireland accepts diazoun.”
I paused. “But I hope you won’t. What I’m asking is for you to stay and become a sub-House.”
Pia murmured. “Boss, taking on a sub-House should really be a process with a careful, informed decision. Discussion on both sides.”
My words were sounding more and more clumsy to my own ears, but I pushed on. “Amanda, I want you as part of my House.”
Her eukori was still twinned with mine. She’d know I was speaking the truth. She also knew as well as Pia that this wasn’t the way Athanate normally handled these things.
“I’m honored,” she said. “And I mean no discourtesy, but… why? Just because our marques... Well, you hardly know us, and there’s all the...” She stopped and gave a short, embarrassed laugh. “I got all worked up to make my case and here I am rather arguing against it.”
My Athanate desire to take her into my extended House was based on the balance of intangible Athanate perceptions and needs. I hadn’t really thought about whether I would like her as a person, but I found I did.
Still, why was a good question for her to ask, and one that Pia answered for me, having given up on cooling me down. “My mistress relies a lot on instincts. They have served us well,” she admitted.
She was right. Things had worked out okay.
So far.
We’d probably been lucky once or twice. Maybe even a few times.
The trouble was, it wasn’t really a strong argument for House Lloyd to agree to become a sub-House, if all she had been readying herself for was to argue for sanctuary.
Unless it was good enough for her.
“Yes,” she said, and I felt a fierce pulse of Athanate joy course through me and come to rest in my jaw.
Her eyes flicked to her Adept kin and she ducked her head. “But I still need to be sure you understand all the problems.”
“You’ve told me these young men are Adept outlaws in Michigan,” I said, looking the two of them over. They were attractive, but that wasn’t quite so distracting that I didn’t get a hint of unease coming off them.
Interesting.
“About that...” Amanda said.
I waited.
One of the Adepts cleared his throat. “It may not be just in Michigan.”
It was the whipcord-wiry one, with the rope of hair running over the top of his head.
“I’m Kane,” he said. “Thing is, we may have pissed them off one time too many.”
“I can imagine.” I smiled. “Any of these pissed-off people in Colorado?”
All three exchanged glances.
“We’re not sure,” the bigger guy said. “I’m Flint. Thing is, we’ve always found that just moving out of the area makes them lose interest. We’ve really moved this time. Never been this far south before, but...”
“Somebody’s taking an interest down here,” Kane completed the sentence.
I wondered if they finished each other’s sentences all the time, and if it was something to do with their power linking together, or if they just knew each other very well.
“Local Adepts, or someone from Michigan has followed you?” Yelena asked.
They shrugged.
“Impossible to tell,” Flint said.
“More a case of that someone-looking-over-your-shoulder feeling,” Kane said.
Which was pretty much exactly the feeling I had as well, over the last day or so.
Was that what I was picking up? Some kind of Adept vibe?
As far as I knew, local Adept communities didn’t really interact much. If this vibe was just the Denver community, well, they already had a beef with me, so taking on House Lloyd probably wouldn’t make it a lot worse. But if I was going to be facing Adept trouble not just from Denver, but from groups of Adepts in Michigan that cooperated with each other, that was a different level.
I let it sink in, tasted the thought.
It needed investigation, but it didn’t change my mind.
“I accept there may be some trouble from the Adept communities. We’ll discuss it as a House, along with everything else,” I said firmly. “Later.”
Amanda had gone very pale, but she nodded once, short and sharp.
I could taste her answer in her eukori.
Yesss.
“Diakon Vylkove, Zamenik Shirazi, attend,” I said. I needed witnesses.
I reached out and took Amanda’s hand.
She was still in shock, but her voice was strong. “I petition, for all House Lloyd, association and acceptance to the mantle of House Farrell. I offer our Blood, lives, loyalty and obedience to House Farrell. We will honor the obligations and responsibilities of the House and submit always to the absolute rule of the House.”
The words echoed through me. Fangs threatened to erupt again, but I needed to speak clearly first. I hoped I remembered the responses right. “Under the authority invested in me as House Farrell, I accept House Lloyd within my mantle.”
Letting my hand go, Amanda reached out to her two Adept kin. “I swear, on my Blood, my House will honor this association, and return oath for oath, faith for faith, Blood for Blood, life for life.”
“I grant the rights and privileges within my gift.”
“My Blood is yours,” she said.
“It is done,” I finished.
“So witnessed.” Both Yelena and Pia spoke softly.
With our eukori open, I could feel the oaths bind themselves around our hearts.
“Mistress,” Amanda said.
“It’s Amber,” I replied.
“Or Boss.” Yelena laughed as she and Pia enjoyed hugging the Adepts in welcome.
I wanted to enjoy an exchange of Blood with Amanda right away, but Pia moved in quickly.
She carried the unconscious Scott and led Amanda away to a bedroom. I could hear her telling Amanda that her kin would sleep for at least a day, and the best thing for both of them would be to sleep beside him.
Leaving me disappointed on one hand and both elated and eager on the other.
New members for my House. A possible first infusion.
Amanda needed to time to recover, which meant I needed to keep her other kin out of her hair.
“So,” I hissed amiably at the new Adept members of my House, backing them into a corner. “What are they after you for?”
“We’re not interested in giving up our shamanic magic....” Flint said.
“Just because they think we might do something wrong sometime in the future,” Kane completed.
“And you’ve done nothing wrong?” I pressed them.
They glanced at each other. “We’ve killed,” Kane said. “In self-defense. Never an Adept, to our knowledge. Unlike them.”
“Even they’ll admit that our fatalities were in self-defense, but they still have rules about it we don’t follow.”
Tullah’s mother, Mary, had fallen foul of something similar down here, so I wasn’t surprised.
Yelena and I were watching them like hawks; I knew they were telling the truth.
“Fine. You can tell me more about it some other time. Today, there’s something bothering me. I’ve been noticing it all day. It was there when Amanda’s call woke me, and it’s still there. That itchy feeling. Someone looking over my shoulder, as Kane said. I’ve felt it before, when a shaman used a working to call me from miles away, down in Albuquerque. What exactly do you boys think it is?”
“Could be a Calling,” Kane said. “But we wouldn’t feel that if it was only for you.”
“Not necessarily shamanic,” Flint said.
Apparently, this speaking alternately was a habit.
“Not necessarily only for you, either.”
“Don’t know it’s Denver’s community.”
“Doesn’t feel right for Denver. Or Denver alone.”
“You can tell that?” I asked.
Flint shrugged. “It’s more northern style. Feels more modern. Not what we expected here.”
They could tell the difference between modern an
d traditional workings? Northern and southern? That might be useful; I wondered if they could teach it to me. I put that away to investigate later.
“So someone followed you down and maybe they’re working with the Denver community?”
Kane shook his head. “Not followed. We’d have felt them. This is like... they flew here. Got ahead of us.”
“On a magic carpet?” Yelena said, leaning on my shoulder and raking the guys over with her eyes.
Kane snorted. “Delta, more like.”
“So, let’s assume it some kind of broadcast meant for both you and me, and it involves the Michigan Adepts... it kinda leads to the question, how did they know you’d be here?” I looked at Yelena. “Tracker on the car?”
“No.” Yelena shook her head. “Is checked.”
Yet another question to store up for later.
“But whoever came down from Michigan, they’re working together with Denver?” That was a key point for me. I didn’t feel overly threatened by the Denver community alone. They knew I was connected with both the werewolf and Athanate communities and would hesitate to come after me. But both Denver and Michigan together? Something regrettable might happen.
Kane waggled his hand. “Difficult to say. Can’t even be sure they’re from Michigan. If we got closer to the source we could probably tell.”
“Dangerous to get closer?”
Kane smirked.
“They got close to you in Michigan,” Yelena said.
“And they still couldn’t lay a hand on us. Four or five covens trying to work together,” Flint said.
“And just getting in each other’s way,” Kane completed. “They all tried to trap us in House Prowser’s estate and we still got out.”
“Truth is, the more they bring, the more inefficient they are.”
“You see, their style depends on everyone working seamlessly together.”
“Yeah. No practice, no good.”
Yelena grunted, unconvinced, but both of us knew the two of them weren’t lying—boastful or not, they believed what they were saying.
“Can you do stealthy?” I asked. “Can we get closer without them knowing?”