“No. I’m not saying that. I’m saying you might do some good. That doesn’t worry me. Obviously. What worries me is the potential for error.” She watched Rosie absorb that. “You hadn’t really considered that, had you?”
“Don’t do that.”
“What?”
“Make me feel incompetent.”
Litha smiled. “I’m not trying to make you feel incompetent. I’m saying that I have friends, acquaintances,” she looked at Rosie pointedly, “even family who are extra-human, as you say. I don’t want to see them hurt, but I also don’t want to see any innocents hurt.”
“But Mom, they shouldn’t be in this dimension…”
“Just stop right there. Who says?”
“Who says they shouldn’t be in this dimension?” Rosie was taken aback. That was an aggravatingly good question. After a few beats, she said, “Simon says.”
“Funny.”
“It wasn’t meant to be.”
“Nonetheless. It was.”
“Isn’t it common sense that elementals don’t belong here?”
“Will you listen to yourself? Does that mean you don’t belong here? I don’t belong here? What about Kellareal? What about your grandfather?” Rosie flushed when she realized that she’d judged herself right into a corner. “Are birds not supposed to fly? Since humans don’t have wings, maybe birds shouldn’t be in the air.”
“I get it. No need to rub it in.”
Litha sat back and grinned. “I’m not trying to make you feel bad. I’m hoping you’ll consider this from another point of view. There are elementals living among humans. Have been since before there were humans. There are others who come and go. I’m just saying that, if there’s no harm, you should leave them alone.”
Rosie nodded. “I haven’t been considering this from all sides.”
Litha reached out and cupped her daughter’s chin. “That’s all I ask, that you consider things from every point of view.”
“Is this why Monq wanted me to talk to you?”
Litha looked away, lifted her cup, and took a sip of chocolate that was still warm, but far from hot. At length she shook her head.
“Well,” Rosie pressed. “Are you going to tell me?”
“If I share with you what I think Monq is alluding to, it will probably enable him to give you what you want. The problem is that I’m not sure about the ramifications of that kind of shift in power. From where I sit, that seems like a very risky proposition.”
“Now I need you to consider all sides. If you talk to the right people at Black Swan, people who’ve been studying the effects of elemental comings and goings for centuries, they present a pretty good argument for controlling immigration or transit, as the case may be.”
Litha raised her chin and pressed her lips together. “No doubt. Therein lies the quandary.” Rosie smiled. “What?” asked Litha.
“I’m not wild about every little thing about you. I don’t like you questioning the validity of my unit, for instance. But I have to admit that I like having a mom who says things like ‘therein lies the quandary’.”
Litha cocked her head. “Is it that unusual?”
Rosie chuckled. “Yeah. Pretty much for everybody who wasn’t raised by seven Cairdeas monks.”
“Glad there’s something about me you like.”
“Am I going to have to make a verbal list to get you to tell me what I want to know?”
“No.” Litha grew quiet and Rosie could tell she was uncomfortable. “What you have to do is make me some promises.”
“Ah. The deal. Don’t look now, Mom. Your demon side is showing.”
“I don’t have to look. I’m always aware of my demon side. Sometimes it’s very useful.”
“Like now.”
“Yes. Like now.”
“Okay. Name the terms.”
“D.I.T. will not stop or interfere with the activities of any extra-human unless it is certain beyond a doubt that they are behaving in ways that are deleterious to culture, Loti Dimension natives - both human and animal, climate…”
Rosie’s head jerked. “Climate?”
Litha continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “Or evolution.”
“Wow.” Rosie tapped her fingers on the granite of the island bar. “Evolution, too, huh?” Litha didn’t react, but waited. “That’s going to greatly compromise what I told Monq to do.”
“What did you tell him to do?”
“I told him to develop a radar system so that we can track extra-humans who’ve been tagged when they come and go from this dimension.”
“What do you mean tagged?”
“You know, like wildlife preserves do with, um, wildlife.”
Litha’s eyes almost popped out. Rosie wasn’t sure whether her mother was horrified, livid, or both.
“You. Can. Not. Be. Serious,” Litha said through clenched teeth.
Rosie squirmed a little in her bar stool. “I, um, was. Yeah.”
“Your idea was to ‘tag’ extra-humans like animals and keep track of their movements?”
“Well, um…”
“Elora Rose. What is the matter with you?”
“Matter? Well, I…”
“You’re not tagging anybody.”
Rosie felt a heated reaction to being told what to do. “You can’t tell me what to do.”
Litha sighed. “You’re right. I can’t tell you what to do. I can only appeal to your decency and sense of fair play.”
“Fair play!” Rosie pointed at her mom. “That’s exactly what D.I.T. is all about. Getting the residents of Loti a way to defend against invasion.”
“Invasion is a pretty strong word.”
“If the shoe fits…”
“Do you have a counteroffer?”
Rosie bit her bottom lip. “Yes. We will leave everybody alone unless we have a really, really, really compelling reason to believe they’re wreaking havoc. If they are, we’ll let them off with a warning and a tag. If they continue to behave like yeast, we’ll ban them from Loti.”
“You’re saying that, if someone’s banned and they return, they’d be…”
“Dismissed.”
“Is that a euphemism for murdered?”
“They’d be executed. Yes.”
“Why don’t you call it what it is then? I’d like you to consider that, if you can’t name something, it probably means you shouldn’t be doing it.”
“You have a point. I don’t like calling it what it is because I’m really hoping we’ll never be forced to…”
“Yes?”
Rosie’s eyes found her mother’s. “Kill somebody. I’m hoping that exile, backed by a threat of shoot on sight, will be a powerful enough incentive to curtail nefarious activities.”
“And yet deep down you know that sooner or later that decision will have to be made.”
Rosie sighed deeply. “You really know how to take the fun out of creating a new department of hunters.”
“Rosie, the very fact that your department is going to be staffed by people you call ‘hunters’ should tell you this is serious business. And it’s not supposed to be fun.”
“Yeah. You’re right. Ice cold water and sobering up quickly here.”
“Good. Because you need to go into this with eyes all the way open or get out while you can.”
“I’ll make sure my hunters respect the dignity of extra-humans. I’ll make sure they’re left alone unless their names are mayhem, pandemonium, or bedlam.”
“I think you’re being poetic, but there are demons named Mayhem, Pandemonium, and Bedlam.”
Rosie barked out a laugh. “To use your phrase, no doubt. So do we have a deal?”
“We have a deal, but Elora Rose, I’m trusting you with something that could go awry in the worst way. Promise me that you will also think long and hard about using what I’m going to tell you.”
“Alright,” Rosie nodded. “I will.”
“Monq is talking about Dad.”
“Dad? My d
ad?”
“No. My dad.”
Rosie sat up straight. “Grandpop?”
Litha smiled. “Yes. Grandpop.”
“What about him?”
“What I’m going to tell you could be used as leverage to get him to volunteer as your test subject.”
“No way.” Rosie laughed. “He would never volunteer.”
“He would if there was a powerful enough incentive.”
Rosie’s head canted to the side. “What might that be?”
“Where to begin?” Litha said to herself. “Monq accidentally found something when Deliverance gave blood to be used for the purpose of transporting humans through the passes.”
“What?”
“Making a long story short, he figured out that Deliverance is cursed to be, ah, sexually insatiable.”
“Why do you think that’s a curse? It’s just how he is.”
“It is how he is, but that’s not a characteristic of sex demons. Think about it. I’m not that way. You’re not that way. His parents weren’t that way. It’s not normal for any species to be insatiable. He has only a short reprieve between having his hunger filled and having to look for the next… fix. Because that’s what it is. The curse makes sex a drug Deliverance can’t be without.”
“I never thought about it as being unique. I just accepted him for who he is.”
“That’s just it. It’s not really who he is.”
“How do you know it’s a curse?”
“There’s something in his bloodstream that doesn’t belong.”
“Like a disease?”
“Exactly like a disease. That’s what curses are. They’re something introduced to the victim’s chemistry that doesn’t belong there. It changes their mind, or body, or personality. Makes them do things they wouldn’t do otherwise.”
“That’s what curses are?” Rosie frowned slightly. “Wow. I didn’t know that.”
“That’s because you’ve never taken your witchy side of your heritage seriously.”
“Oh, that’s not true.”
“Sure it is.”
“Okay. Maybe it is. But how does that figure into…” Realization was slowly beginning to dawn. “You’re saying that Grandpop doesn’t want to be the way he is and that, if he knew it was a curse, he’d want it removed.”
Litha nodded. “Wouldn’t you?”
“I’m guessing there’s some risk or you would have already told him.”
“Yes. There’s risk. A surgical removal, magically speaking, could kill him. That’s one reason. The other is that I really don’t think I’m up to the challenge.”
“You think I am?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I’d be much more optimistic about the prognosis if you were the surgeon. Your tracking skills have exceeded mine. I can track anything in this dimension, but you’re able to chase down rabbit holes that would scare the V8 right out of me. If anybody could track down the source of the curse and find out how to remove it, it’s you.”
“I can’t make that a condition of helping me with D.I.T. What kind of granddaughter would turn that into a bargain?”
Litha laughed softly. “A demon granddaughter. It would make him proud.”
When Rosie left the villa, she went straight back to the science labs at Jefferson Unit. She found Monq in the drafting room standing at one of the walls covered in dry erase whiteboard. Luckily, he was alone.
“I know why you sent me off to talk to my mother.”
Monq stopped what he was doing and looked over his shoulder. “And?”
“I will ask Deliverance to be your test subject. But I want you to know that, if he agrees, I’ll be keeping a very close eye on what goes on here. If you humiliate him, or make him suffer, or take advantage in any way, regardless of what waivers he might agree to, I will turn you inside out.” She raised her chin. “In case you’re wondering, that’s not a metaphor. It’s a fact.”
Monq dropped the arm that held the marker and turned. “Rosie, I’m as fond of your grandfather as the next person. No threats needed. I’ll treat him like royalty.”
She took in a deep breath. “I’ll let you know what he says. By the way. Modification in the plan. We’ll only be tagging criminals. Not everybody who’s, um, extra-human.”
Monq nodded once. “Understood.”
Rosie found Deliverance nuzzling the neck of a Breitlingen warrior in Lokevek Dimension. The woman, whose chest was heaving under her bronze breast plate, opened her eyes halfway when Rosie spoke from behind the demon.
“Grandpop. Sorry to interrupt, but I need a couple of minutes.”
He looked over his shoulder. “Busy,” he warned.
“Are you really hungry?” She took the little hiss he made in response to mean that, yes, he was hungry and did not want to be interrupted. “Okay, then. I’ll just wait over there in the next, um…” She looked around. They were in a structure at the top of a mountain that looked like the stone ruins of what had once been a magnificent castle. “On second thought, find me at home when you’re done.” He ignored her because he was ‘busy’. “Kay, then. Bye.”
Rosie paced in her apartment as she waited. She had limited experience with anxiety and was finding that she didn’t care for it at all. In her head, she rehearsed a dozen different ways to present the information and none of them sounded right.
“Freaking freaky family,” she muttered, as she stomped toward the kitchen to get the leftover Monte Carlo under the glass dome on the bar. It was a brownie with chocolate liqueur, which meant it was chocolate to the max.
She raised it to her mouth and was just about to take a bite when Deliverance appeared. Looking like she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, she held it out to him. “Monte Carlo?”
He smirked and took a seat at the bar that looked into the kitchen. “No thanks. I’m full.”
She put the treat back under the glass dome. “That’s nice.”
He looked curious. “To what do I owe the occasion of a surprise visit?”
“You can’t complain about surprise visits. You do it to people all the time.”
“I’m not complaining. Just asking. What’s up?”
“Want to make a deal.” There. She’d said it. Short. Sweet. To the point.
Deliverance’s face slowly split into a blindingly beautiful grin. “Really? It just so happens that I’m in the mood to talk deals.”
“Alright then. Here goes. I have something you might want. You have something I need.”
When it seemed she’d finished talking, he said, “Good start, but I’m going to need more.”
“Okay. Starting over.”
He cocked his head. “Are you nervous?”
“Don’t get me off track. If you could have anything, what would it be?”
Deliverance’s smile slowly faded until it was completely gone. He seemed to take the question into his soul and, the more he thought about it, the sadder he became.
“Is this like a knock knock joke or do you really want to know?”
“I really want to know. I have my reasons. So tell the truth.”
“It would be nice if I didn’t spend most of my life refueling or setting up the next situation.”
Rosie took in a deep breath and let it out. “What if there was a way to give you that?”
“Rosie.” He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head.
“No. Really. It turns out that you live like this because you were cursed.”
He blinked rapidly. “Cursed?”
“Yeah. Monq found evidence of it in your blood when you gave for the travel bank. Somebody, a witch I guess, altered your chemistry so that you’re constantly hungry. It’s like a sexual tapeworm.”
He looked back and forth rapidly then got to his feet like he had someplace to go and wasn’t sure where. “You can change it? Cure me?”
“I honestly don’t know. According to Mom…”
“Litha knows?” He looked incredulous.
&nbs
p; “Yeah. She…”
“And she didn’t tell me?”
Rosie couldn’t tell if he was mad or hurt or both. “Since she thought she couldn’t reverse it, she didn’t see the point.”
“The point,” he repeated.
“How are you going to fix me?” he demanded. He was animated and determined. He also seemed to have forgotten all about the deal portion of the discussion.
“I don’t know for certain that I can do anything about it. For one thing, I’ll need to track down the source. It will take time and cover some uncharted territory. But I’ll try. If you’ll do something for me first.”
Deliverance looked at Rosie like she’d slapped him. “Do something for you first? Ah. The deal.”
Rosie didn’t think the look he was giving her was pride, but she’d gone too far to turn back. She decided the best approach at that point was the rip-the-Band Aid-off method.
“Monq is working on some stuff for me. He needs somebody to test things on. If you’ll do this, I’ll do my best to figure out how to reverse your curse.”
“Well played, Granddaughter. In all my time, almost a millennium, nobody has ever left me with no choice. Brava.”
“Grandpop, I…”
“Stop acting like you’re sorry. You should be proud of your accomplishment. It’s checkmate. You’ve offered me what I want most in exchange for giving up my freedom and sovereignty over my own body. I agree.”
Quietly Rosie said, “Okay,” but she didn’t feel victorious in the least. She felt like she wanted to burst into tears.
Had she just betrayed her grandfather to get some toys for D.I.T.? Was that what poets and novelists meant when they talked about ‘selling one’s soul’?
Litha had been wrong about Deliverance being proud of her. He looked devastated.
“Do I need to report to Monq now?” He didn’t look at Rosie, which made her want to take back everything that had happened since she’d sought him out.
“No. I don’t know when he’ll need your, um, help. A few days maybe. And it won’t be all the time. I told him he can’t compromise your dignity or hurt you.”
“Well. That’s something,” Deliverance said almost inaudibly. Then he disappeared without another word.
Finngarick (Order of the Black Swan, D.I.T. Book 2) Page 12