Steel Heart
Page 32
My aunt came around the table and sat beside Henry, pushing one of the plates closer to me. “You eat, and I’ll get your father to do most of the talking.”
“What about me?” my mother demanded.
“You are an entity of pure evil, and you didn’t tell me you were still shacking up with your Blade Clan man!”
“Well, look at him. Can you really blame me? He’s a hunk, and he knows how to use his sword.”
“You disgust me, Jenny.”
“Don’t you say shit about my man when you married a rabbit!”
“At least she didn’t call me a complete waste of air this time. That’s what she usually does,” my uncle complained. “For some reason, being black never bothered her, but me being a rabbit mystic? I have broken every rule on the planet with that one.”
“You’re dinner. You’re dinner I can’t eat. And damn it, you actually fucking cried to make certain my sister fell into your trap. You’d be great and rewarding prey, and I’m not allowed to eat you. You disgust me.”
I stared at Anatoly, who shrugged.
Fascinated by my mother’s ruthlessness and almost pitying my rabbit of an uncle, I nibbled on my food while keeping a close eye on the unfolding family drama.
“If you two could stop fighting for a few minutes, there are more important things to attend to.” My father waited, and to my astonishment, the grizzly women settled down and limited their dispute to silently baring their teeth at each other. “I tailed my daughter from Charlotte to Tennessee, debating how best to recover her without ruining whatever she planned; I had initially meant to dispatch the wolf, but I realized she hunted someone from her behavior. While the wolf insisted on biting her, she shook off his magic without issue, so I had assumed my new son had successfully bitten her sometime prior. I also wonder if Siberians actually require a bite, as I had noticed some signs of a bond for a while. At that point, I became less concerned, as she seemed to have the situation under control. I have found it is best to leave my wayward child to her own devices. In most cases, she is usually able to get herself out of trouble. When she can’t, it is trouble no mere mortal can rescue themselves from, at which point help is mandatory. She was not in that situation, so I did not interfere. I then discovered the pack of wolf women she wanted to protect. I assumed my daughter’s kind nature had once again gotten the best of her. I would not ruin her efforts. Then she killed the equine female rather ruthlessly before making her move on the wolf. After your arrival, I waited to make certain my daughter and her mate arrived where they belonged. That, as you know, did not go to plan. I followed my daughter when she slipped away at the station with her horse. She seemed drawn towards the coast, which confused me, but I suspected she had a destination in mind. I lost her trail for a while, and I acquired a suitable horse for me and my bride. My bride met with me, and we began our hunt.”
Everyone glared at me. I chewed on another piece of steak with wide eyes before swallowing. “What? Does anything I do ever go to plan? Don’t look at me like that. It’s not like I wanted to stumble on the convoy with the damned tube. I was just going to check out the one town that got a mention in Ferdinand’s file, and you were all fighting over the main targets. I thought I’d be in and out by morning. Hell, I didn’t even know what was actually going on until I saw their horses and realized they suffered from the same sickness Miracle had. Then Miracle went after one of the men with a strong desire to shed blood. I got mad over all the dead horses and killed the bastards. I figured the tube was the source of the sickness, as that was what they kept moving. I took it, decided I needed to dispose of it, and went to the ocean. That’s where things get sketchy.”
“By sketchy, she means she danced with death and only lives because of the benevolence of the Hope Diamond and the other clan Starfall stones.” My father pointed at my plate. “Eat more and talk less. You were barely conscious for the rest of this tale, so you may as well feed yourself before the mystics get upset with your dawdling.”
As my father would find some way to make me pay for defiance, I gave my dinner my full attention.
“She is a quick learner. She understands if she defies me on this, I will find some heinous way of tormenting her later. Anyway, she ventured into the ocean to destroy that weapon. The Hope Diamond, with some help from the raging waters, tossed her back on shore where she belonged, but not before she was too sickened to fend for herself. With a little help from her horse, I found her. By that time, she coughed blood, and the Hope Diamond glowed red. I believe without the stone, she would have died then.”
“Honestly, she probably would have drowned long before being spit back onto shore,” Cleo said, and the damned donkey pinched my side. “I’ve a mind to have Todd teach you some manners on the mat.”
The First Gentleman raised his hand. “I can help with that.”
“Only if you don’t use your mystic powers. A shock would not be good for her right now,” the donkey replied. “Give it a week. She needs rest and time with Nate. After, you can all take turns beating sense back into her. I’m sure she’s done or said something self-deprecating to have earned it.”
“There was only a minimal amount of whining about how her chosen mate would view her as hideous and would regret her bite. That was around the same time she was coping with sores. The Hope Diamond needed little encouragement to handle those, although she had a rough first week.”
“I was wondering how you’d emerged unscarred, Jesse,” Henry admitted. “The sores from radiation sickness can be nasty and hard to treat properly. I’ve seen them go bone deep in accidents at the plant.”
I paused eating my dinner long enough to ask, “Are accidents at the plant common?”
“No. It only took one major incident at the plant to convince everyone there is a reason they need to maintain three shields around the power generation plant. There’s one a year, and it is usually because someone is an idiot and wants a closer look. They’ve been developing other methods of containment and neutralization, but it is slow going. I expect as soon as we figure out a better and safer source, the plants will be dismantled and shut down.”
“Anyway, in the following two weeks, her mother and I handled her care until she was well enough to begin rebuilding her lost muscle. But, she had a very difficult time eating anything, and we were unable to get her to progress beyond being able to ride her horse.”
I found it interesting my aunt could transform from a family woman to President of the United States at her whim. She straightened and considered my father with a solemn expression. “Do you know why the rebellion delayed their attack? Nate had received missives through the courier network, but we hadn’t realized how accurate or valuable they were until the first day we’d expected conflict and it remained quiet. Then we built our plans around Nate’s intel.”
“When my bride tended to our daughter, I coordinated with the clans to make certain we could do our part. We also sent falsified letters to the rebellion sects to make certain they believed the date of attack was delayed due to issues with transporting the tube and acquiring the Hope Diamond. It was that simple. But sometimes the best solution to a difficult problem is something simple. It was trivial to play their ambitions and greed against them. Their belief in their victory was so strong it blinded them to the reality of their failure closing in around them.”
“Should I expect a bill?” my aunt asked, her tone wry. “I’m not sure the government can afford to pay out that many clans for their assistance.”
“The clans have no desire for payment. They viewed my daughter’s recovery and possession of all the Starfall stones as sufficient motivation to participate. Because the stones chose her, they rallied behind her cause, and she fought for the government that has nurtured us all when the world itself wishes for us to fall. If the clans can keep their stones in control, they are welcome to take what is rightfully theirs—if they can convince them to leave my daughter’s care. They are rather smitten with her.”
> “I’m rather smitten with her, too,” Anatoly said, grinning at me. “I can’t blame them for falling for such a beauty.”
I regarded my food, and as I had nothing I was willing to sacrifice, I debated if I could live without my knife or fork. Before I could fling one of my utensils at my tiger, my father cleared his throat and regarded me with a raised brow.
Damn. “What?”
“You will not assault your mate with your dinner or your utensils.”
“Was it that obvious?”
“Yes. You are a Siberian. It is what Siberians do. Your dinner is for eating, and your utensils are for helping you eat. You can discipline him after you’re finished dinner.”
Anatoly leered at me.
I flung my fork at him, and the bastard caught it before offering it back. Grunting at being thwarted, I schemed how best I would discipline my tiger. It would involve a bed, a lot of growling and roaring, and demands for a second dinner after I finished with him. As I couldn’t get through my plans to dominate my tiger without finishing my dinner, I attacked the rest of my steak with a determination to get it into my stomach as quickly as possible.
Henry laughed. “Good luck, Nate. You’re on the menu tonight.”
“Well, it’s about time. Steph, don’t need us for at least a week. I’m on the menu tonight, and I will be very upset if anything interrupts my status as dinner.”
My aunt turned to her lecherous rabbit of a husband and said, “You don’t need either one of them for a week.”
“Apparently, I have no need of you for a week. If you are going to be retiring to your home for the next week, take your Secret Service agents with you. I’ll send some extra security over, and I expect you to tolerate them until we’re certain the city is truly cleaned out. Otherwise, have fun, don’t kill each other, and make sure you feed your tigress at appropriate intervals. Henry? Are you going to be able to handle them on your own, or will you need Cleo? I might be able to find some other spare mystics around this place somewhere if necessary.”
“Please don’t need me,” Cleo begged.
“I’ll check on the idiots once a day and handle the treatments she needs, but I think they’ll be fine. The Hope Diamond is doing the heavy lifting, so I think it just needs some time and guidance. We’ll make sure her immune system is working during the week. Nate, you need to get your overprotective tendencies out of your system.”
“No, I don’t.”
Cleo snorted. “Yes, you do. Anyway, Jesse is too tired to cause much trouble. I’ll take care of making sure there’s sufficient food for them, and I’ll recruit one of the kitchen staff to handle the cooking, Henry. You can handle the rest. Send someone for me if you need any help, especially with her immune system. I think we’ve gotten the important things taken care of tonight. Make sure she keeps the Hope Diamond close at hand. Embed the damned thing into her forehead. Maybe that’ll work.”
Anatoly growled. “No. You will not embed the Hope Diamond into Jesse’s forehead.”
“It would keep it close.”
“No.”
My aunt sighed and shook her head. “Don’t try to talk sense into a pair of Siberians, Cleo. It’s pointless. I’ll have a jeweler come to their house and bring an extra setting and reset the Hope Diamond on a new necklace or some other piece of jewelry. A bracelet, perhaps. Or in a gauntlet or wrist guard so it can be useful for her. In any case, keep that damned thing close to you, Jesse. No letting it wander off, and no wandering off. You’ve already done your share of the heavy lifting, so we’ll finish taking care of the rest of the mess. Take Nate as your reward. I say you’ve earned him. Just try to return him in somewhat comparable shape.”
“I’m still expecting a cash payment for both dispatches, and you can make the teddy bear deliver it on your behalf.”
Gentry sighed. “You’re such a mercenary.”
“Yes, I am. You may assign all blame for how I turned out on your sister and my father.” I polished off the rest of my dinner in record time and pushed away my plate. “Can I go now? I have a tiger to tame.”
Henry laughed and placed the Hope Diamond on the table, which I returned to its pouch. “You can go. Just take it easy. Well, as easy as you can while taming a tiger. Actually, I shouldn’t even bother with talking to you. There is nothing more unreasonable than a Siberian tigress. Nate, be as gentle as she’ll let you be, try not to alarm your agents too much, and remember you need to feed her about twice as often as usual. And sorry, Jesse. No alcohol for at least a week.”
“What is it with you all and beer bans?”
“Your kidney and liver need a week to finish healing, then we’ll see if your body can handle a beer. But until then, you’ll just have to cope with your tiger for your entertainment. It’s only a week. You’ll survive. Just don’t run away and go to another damned bar. Bars get you into trouble.”
Judging from the glares everyone leveled at me, I had no hope of defending myself against the unfortunately true accusation. Technically, tattooing Anatoly in a bar had created a great deal of trouble for me, but all things considered, I would do it again without regret. “No, bars don’t get me into trouble. Smug tigers in bars get me into trouble. I’m an innocent bystander in all this trouble. All I wanted was a beer!”
Anatoly chuckled and grinned at me. “I can’t say you’re wrong. Let’s go home, Jesse. It seems we have a week off work, and I know exactly how I want to spend it.”
I did, too. I had a tiger to tame and a second lease on life to enjoy. Everything else could wait.
Afterword
Dear readers,
Thank you for your patience while waiting for Steel Heart. I appreciate it so much.
This book was hard to write. I, rather lovingly, call it the feral book. Part of the delay in writing this was due to my inherent understanding this would not be an easy book for me to write.
You may have noticed that Steel Heart is shorter than Water Viper. There’s a reason for that. When I initially planned the ‘series,’ it was going to be two books only. After I finished Water Viper, I made the decision to turn it into a quartet.
I’m happy with that decision, as I didn’t feel like I needed Steel Heart to be this epically long novel out for my blood. Turns out it didn’t need to be epically long to be out for my blood, but that’s all right.
The next book in the Jesse Alexander series is titled Stone Bound, and while I’ll make not promises on its release date, it is coming. There will be four novels total in the series plus one anthology. The anthology will consist of short stories, novellas, and perhaps even a short novel. I am undecided about when I will release the anthology, but it will include stories from more character perspectives than just Jesse.
If you wanted to see Nate’s perspective from that fateful day in Miami, you’ll find it in the anthology. If you’re curious about how Jesse caught her two blacks, you’ll find that in the anthology, too. If you want to see Jesse find her way straight into trouble, well, you’re in luck. You’ll find that in the anthology.
Thanks for reading.
P.S.: While Steel Heart is a feral little brat, probably rabid, has bitten, and will undoubtedly bite again, it’s also one of my favorites—I just had to finish writing it before I could love it.
(There’s always one…)
About the Author
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For a complete list of books written by RJ and her various pen names, please click here.
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RJ Blain suffers from a Moleskine journal obsession, a pen fixation, and a terrible tendency to pun without warning.
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When she isn't playing pretend, she likes to think she's a cartographer and a sumi-e painter.
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In her spare ti
me, she daydreams about being a spy. Should that fail, her contingency plan involves tying her best of enemies to spinning wheels and quoting James Bond villains until she is satisfied.
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RJ also writes as Susan Copperfield and Bernadette Franklin. Visit RJ and her pets (the Management) at thesneakykittycritic.com.
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