by Mark Henwick
But... the rule that overrode all other rules in the Agiagraphos was to hide our presence from humanity. Skylur was going to break that rule, but he wanted to break it when he judged the time was right, not when one of his inexperienced sub-Houses got caught up with Adepts who had their own rules and concerns.
Emergence was more important to the paranormal community than me and my House.
On the other hand, Skylur had a long memory. I was sure once Emergence was out of the way, questions would be asked and Athanate honor satisfied. Not that it would be much comfort to me if I was dead.
She surprised me with her next comment. “You don’t approve.”
What?
I scrabbled to work out what she meant. “You mean I don’t approve of it being a death sentence for Adepts not joining in your covens? No, I don’t.”
“I see. Tell me, House Farrell, what the Athanate do with rogues?”
Given I had been a rogue, I really didn’t want to talk about this, but I answered with the standard response that Athanate give.
“We kill them,” I said.
“Why do you kill them? Why is it justified?”
I wanted to say to protect innocent humans, but I knew that was false.
“They threaten our existence.”
“Yes. Your Agiagraphos laws. A rogue could go on a spree, killing humans indiscriminately, and leading humanity to discover the Athanate. Leading to an almost certain disaster for the rest of the Athanate.” She sighed and looked upwards. “So it’s justified to kill rogue Athanate.”
“Make your point.”
“You accept the justification for your treatment of rogue Athanate. Given you’re a hybrid Were, I imagine you probably accept the same treatment of rogue Were. Yet, you don’t accept that Adepts might have similar burdens and responsibilities put on them.”
Damn. It was a good argument.
“Okay. But not in all cases, and not in this case. These guys aren’t rogue. They’re...”
I was going to say that Kane and Flint were the Adept equivalent of diazoun, that they were simply unaffiliated. But that was a trap, because Skylur had decreed that there were no diazoun allowed in North America anymore. And in the end, he’d enforce that the same way he had to enforce the laws on rogues. The Hecate could have some similar argument.
I changed tack. “They’re not going around killing bystanders, like rogue Athanate or Were would.”
“A valid point, if the purpose of the laws were to protect humans, but it’s not, it’s to protect the paranormal community.”
Arguing with the Hecate felt like I was in quicksand. I had to admit, to myself, she was right. I’d accepted the laws about rogues with false justifications that made my human side happier.
Not only was she winning the argument, she was seriously unsettling me. She still hadn’t stirred; apart from her face, she might have been a statue. Everyone twitches and gestures. As a human, I’d learned to read the body’s movements and posture, which give me an insight into that person’s thinking. Hell, I depended on those skills playing poker in the army. And now, as an Athanate, I could hear her heart beat, I could smell her stress levels, I could sense the changes in temperature of her body, but I was getting none of the information I depended on when dealing with people.
Her heartbeat was slow and regular, her temperature even, her bio-signs neutral.
It was really unsettling.
Worse, I suspected she knew it.
“We nullify or kill wild talent for the same reasons you kill rogue Athanate and Were,” she went on. “An untrained or insane Adept has far greater potential to reveal the existence of the paranormal community, and is potentially far more dangerous to humanity than any single Athanate or Were.”
“And yet, these two haven’t offended, that I’m aware of,” I said, hoping desperately that was true. I really should have interrogated them more before taking them on reconnaissance.
“Not excessively. Lucky for them. But in any event,” she said, “I’m not here to discuss the politics of how Adepts govern themselves. Not in this instance anyway. Your House Adepts are safe from me, now that the Athanate rules about revealing paranormals to humanity apply to them. I’m not sure they thought this through yet, but they should start to worry about you.”
Damn.
Again, she had a good point. If Flint or Kane behaved in a way that threatened to expose the Athanate, it had become my problem to deal with. Up to and including killing them.
Flint shuffled on my shoulder and Kane’s head dipped.
I changed tack again. “You seem to know a great deal about me and about Athanate business. I know nothing about you. Who are you? Who do you represent? If you say they’re safe from attacks by you, does that extend to the Denver community?”
“That’s all one question. Or two, maybe. I won’t answer for the Denver community, yet. I represent the Northern Adept League, what you’d think of as an association of covens in Canada, Alaska, the Great Lake states and eastern states of the US down as far as New Jersey.” She paused and her hazel eyes sharpened until I could see the icy blue showing again. “You know nothing about us because we have chosen, until now, that the Athanate should know nothing.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
Hell, I have to warn Skylur. A whole Adept association right under his nose that we know nothing about?
“So what’s changed?” I shrugged like it was no big thing. “All of a sudden you’re going to talk to us? And you come to me?”
“Oh, yes. Very specifically to you. And here, in Denver. Not because we think Altau is here, but because this is where Diana and the dragon will return.”
Shit! How the hell does she know anything about Kaothos?
“That’s why I’m here. You and Diana may have fooled the Empire, Amber, but you haven’t fooled us. The point is, you have no idea what you’re doing and we need to meet with the dragon before...”
Beside me, Kane suddenly shivered and rocked backward and forward. His paws planted themselves on my thigh and Yelena’s. I recognized the skin prickling. My Adepts were about to try to get us out.
Now.
The sensation was like diving into water from a height—a rush, felt over my whole body, my eyes blurring, pressure, disorientation and then suddenly it all cleared.
We were sitting on the bank of the South Platte, in the snow. In our normal clothes. Kane and Flint in their human bodies. Denver skyline behind us.
I leaped up. I could feel the weight of my HK in my holster, but I had a horrible thought that this might be another Denver. One that only looked the same.
“You got us back? This is home?”
“Yes.” Flint looked pale. Whatever he’d done had taken a toll.
Beside us, just a pace or two away, air seemed to boil.
Yelena and I drew our weapons.
The Hecate appeared as we’d first seen her—the shock of white hair and those cold, cold blue eyes. Except this time she sort of ended at about the waist. Her legs were visible, but faded into a blurred shadow.
“Well done,” she said. “I congratulate you on the acquisition of a powerful pair of Adepts, Amber. May you never regret it.”
“Thank you, I guess.”
Would a bullet kill her, if she attacks? Is she even there, or is it just a projection?
But she hadn’t directly threatened me. I kept the HK Mk 23 pointed at the ground.
The Hecate not overtly threatening and even wishing my House well somehow scared me more than if she’d spat curses.
“I was nearly finished with you for today anyway. There’s probably only so much you can take in at once. I have two last things for you to think about,” she said, and her eyes seemed to glow. “First, I demand to meet the dragon, and I can back up my demands, so prepare Diana when she arrives. Second, you should know in the human myths, there are sometimes glimpses of the truth. Glimpses even of the nature of Adepts and Athanate and Were. And of d
ragons.”
I gave a hum. More I hear you than actual agreement.
“Do you know the background of the name Dracula?”
That caught me by surprise. I laughed nervously.
“Yes. Dracul means dragon. Dracula means child of the dragon.”
“Indeed. There it is in the old Athanate, and filtered through the millennia into modern Romanian. I bet the dragon told you herself.”
I nodded, wondering if this apparition could actually see me.
She could, apparently. “I also bet she didn’t tell you the root of the word.”
I frowned. “No.”
“The oldest word, from which the others descend, is drac.” She faded, and her last words whispered through the air as she disappeared entirely. “And drac means devil.”
Chapter 9
I stared at the place where she had disappeared. With the Denver Adepts, I’d known what I was dealing with. This Hecate was a whole different ball game, and she seemed perfectly capable of enforcing her demands.
How had she known about Diana and Kaothos?
“Sorry,” Flint said, breaking into my thoughts. “Our fault. She really caught us off guard.”
“We need to move away,” Kane said, helping his fellow Adept to his feet. “This is all in her zone.”
We trotted back to where we’d left the car, increasingly nervous as we approached the Schown Apartments. There were people around now, cars, normal things. No witches appeared out of sudden snow clouds.
“What’s the time?” I asked as we got in.
I had a clock in my head I could usually rely on, but being hauled off into the spirit world by the Hecate’s coven had screwed with it. My head was telling me it was early evening, but it felt wrong.
Early evening would be another major disaster of a completely different type. It would mean I was late for Mom’s dinner.
“It’s five,” Yelena said. “It feels wrong, no?”
“Time passes differently in the spirit world,” Kane said. “Sometimes really differently. We need to check what day it is.”
“Oh, God, no.”
My cell said it was still today, but his comment spooked me.
Please, I’m not a day late for Mom’s party. Please, please, please.
I dialed home.
Alex answered. “You okay?”
“Yeah. What day is it?”
“Same day it was a couple hours ago. You sure you’re okay?”
“I’ll explain later. We’re on our way back.”
Great. He probably thought I’d gotten a concussion or something. I could just see his expression when I told him I’d been transported to fairyland.
Traffic was light and Yelena was driving, leaving me to puzzle over what the Hecate had said.
Kaothos was a friend. A strange kind of friend to have, but still. Not a devil.
So what did the Hecate mean by that? And if she believed Kaothos was a devil, why was she so eager to speak with her?
Just as urgent, I needed another conversation with Skylur and I was not looking forward to telling him that there was a huge association of Adepts who’d been sitting quietly right under his nose.
Well, as I couldn’t speak directly to him yet, I guessed that was Bian’s problem.
Mine was to get Kaothos and Tullah back together before the Hecate had time to get any more involved.
I called David.
“Yes, Boss?”
“You still get occasional texts or calls from Matt?”
“Yeah. He’s still in hiding I guess, and he doesn’t trust they can’t backtrack him, but he’ll send something now and then.”
Matt was the expert at untraceable. If he was worried about being tracked, I wasn’t going to ignore that, but I needed to be sure about Tullah. That itchy feeling hadn’t gone away.
“You have someplace you can put a text for him to see?”
“Yes.”
“Put up that the boss needs to speak to her assistant and wants her back, ASAP.”
“Okay.”
“Gotta go.”
Jen was calling. I switched to her.
“What’s this about not knowing which day it is? You do remember—”
“We’re off to my mom’s. Yes. It was just some Adept weirdness. I’ll explain later.”
“Okay,” she said. “I’m really calling to warn you Bian’s here. I’ve tried explaining that we’re due to go out, but she wants to know what’s happening.”
Good.
“I get to tell you both at the same time.”
“Hmm. Going to happen while we’re getting dressed then,” she drawled. “We are not going to be late for this one, honey.”
I swallowed.
My wife, my husband and I would be naked, in the same room as Bian. Who was my husband’s one-time lover and who had, several times, told me and shown me, she was eager to get in my pants too. This was shaping up to be... awkward.
“Bian, darling, would you help me with the zipper, please?”
Jen was taking Bian’s presence in her stride.
I guessed I was too wrapped up in talking about what had happened to be embarrassed.
Alex was suspiciously worried about removing the towel he was wearing like a kilt. And it didn’t lie exactly flat.
Bian was... Bian. One moment she’d be all business, clarifying something I’d said, and the next she’d be casting smoldering looks at one of us, or even all three at the same time.
“Amber, your hair’s still wet!” Jen said. “Could you help her, Bian? And which of these lipsticks do you recommend for tonight?”
Alex escaped back to the bathroom to put on his underwear. Bian picked a lipstick and then started on my hair.
It wasn’t that wet. Barely a couple of minutes later Bian put the drier down, and started to brush.
I continued talking.
“If the Northern Adept League stretches from the Lakes down to New Jersey, then there should be some in New York,” I said. “Skylur might be able to learn a bit more about them there.”
Bian nodded. “Believe me, I’ll make the point to him when I call later.”
She stopped brushing my hair and rested her hands on my bare shoulders.
I tensed, expecting some of Bian’s questionable humor, such as kissing me in front of Jen and Alex, but she didn’t.
Her voice was serious: “Tell me again the Hecate’s exact words about why she was here.”
“She said: Here, in Denver. Not because we think Altau is here, but because this is where Diana and the dragon will return.”
“So she knows that Diana and Kaothos aren’t dead, and that we put on a smoke and mirrors show for the Empire. And that Diana’s coming back here. And she knows Skylur isn’t going to be here. That’s a lot of inside knowledge, Round-eye. A lot of very up-to-date inside knowledge. For example, Skylur took the decision to go straight to New York yesterday.”
“Well, they’re obviously powerful, this league,” I said.
“More powerful than the Empire’s Adepts? Really? Or do they just have better intelligence?”
I blinked.
“The gray pants, Alex, they show off your ass better,” she said over her shoulder.
Jen laughed and handed Alex the gray pants. He put them on.
Wise choice; Bian was right.
I got dressed as I thought through what she was saying. I knew Bian well enough to follow which way her mind was working on the Adept league, ignoring the distraction about Alex’s ass.
“Have I mentioned recently that you’re paranoid, Pussycat?” I said.
“This morning, in fact. Come on, tell me what I’m thinking.”
I sighed. “There is one person who is not Athanate, and not in this room, who knew exactly what was going on, and why, and where. The only person, apart from Diana, who knew Skylur was going to New York even before you did.”
“Precisely. See? This paranoia is catching.”
“I know you don’t like her.
You’ve always had reservations about Alice Emerson. I remember you telling me she deserved to get thrown off the Mayflower.”
“So I’ve always been right. You blaming me for that?”
I had no answer. I liked Alice Emerson. And Alice was the Adept responsible for the magical shields that were hiding Diana and Kaothos from the Empire. My gut said she wasn’t working against us, but that wasn’t the same as not having any conflict of loyalty. And surely Skylur had bound her?
“Oh,” I said, remembering something else. “Alice was working with the Warders before. Skylur sort of adopted her when they were expelled after the Assembly at Haven.”
“You’re getting there, Round-eye.”
“The Warders’ mantle was New York. It’s a reasonable guess that’s where Alice is from. Which would make it likely Alice is from the League, or has ties to them.”
“You get your paranoia gold star.” Bian clapped her hands.
“And we will lose all gold stars if we don’t get out the door now,” Jen interrupted.
“But we haven’t talked about what the Hecate said about Kaothos—”
“Not my monkey. That’s your domain,” Bian said, urging me out of the bedroom. “First, you’ve got to get Tullah back, then deal with the Hecate. My domain is security and paranoia, and I have my hands full.”
She demonstrated with Alex’s ass, which he totally enjoyed, the traitor.
Chapter 10
My heart was in my mouth as I walked into my mom’s house, ducking the bright and blinking Christmas decorations. My stepfather, John, had gone overboard to make it cheerful, but it wasn’t working on me yet.
Tonight would be my first step to getting back into a relationship with my sister. And the first real opportunity for my mother and stepfather to meet Alex and Jen together.
I would have to explain the rings we wore, and that I regarded Alex and Jen as my husband and wife, and no, I wasn’t changing to any polygamous faith, so there was no likelihood of a church service.