Wu answered on the first ring. “I was wondering when you’d call.”
I considered hanging up on him to prove a point but held strong. “How did you know it was me?”
Amusement licked at my ears. “Who else would it be?”
“Your co-workers? Your boss? Your father?”
“There’s only you.”
Careful not to trigger a landmine, I buried the pity welling in me under a layer of annoyance. He had made his choices, and I had made mine, and we both had to live with them. “Are you guilt-tripping me because I didn’t send you flowers?”
He huffed out a laugh. “I prefer balloons.”
“I hate to burst yours, but the facility where you are doesn’t allow deliveries. I was going to send Dad an arrangement, but they vetoed that idea.” And, okay, I might have sent Wu one too had it been allowed to show there were no hard feelings for how things had gone down. “How are you?”
“The doctor told me I can leave in forty-eight hours.”
“Nine hours ago, you were paralyzed and couldn’t breathe on your own.” Charun healed fast, but they didn’t heal that fast. “What’s your doctor’s name?”
“Worried about me?”
Yes. No. Maybe. I hadn’t known Wu long enough to decide if I liked him, but I was relieved Famine hadn’t killed him, and not only because he was my Get Out of Medical Testing Free card. “I just want to make sure that quack isn’t the same doctor treating Dad.”
His soft laughter ended on a hiss of pain, and that was my cue to make a stilted goodbye and hang up before we ran out of things to say.
After yanking on fresh clothes and twisting up my hair, I hit the stairs on a mission. I bumped into Miller and Thom in the living room and cast them a wave as I followed the smell of coffee into the kitchen. For what came next, I required caffeine. Lots of it. I drank it hot, and it burned all the way down, though if I’d hoped the scalding might cleanse my mouth for what came next, I was wrong.
I dialed up Elliot, the eldest Trudeau son, and offered up condolences that burned to ash on my tongue. Oblivious to the truth, he thanked me for all I had done, not realizing his loss was all my fault, and he ended the call after extracting a promise from me to stay with his mother until he arrived.
Jamal, the youngest, who was still older than me, rushed out a few words between panted breaths as he ran to catch his flight. A local friend had called him with the news last night, and he was already on his way home. We arranged for me to fetch him from the airport later, and he hung up without saying goodbye.
Mentally ticking off items on my to-do list, I cut through the living room only to grind to a halt on the threshold.
“Mom isn’t thrilled with you right now.” Sariah leaned over the couch, holding a dagger similar to the one Famine had wielded to Miller’s throat while he sat on the cushions. “And when Momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.”
Thom stood at the base of the stairs, too far away to help without costing Miller his life. Or, if the warnings were true, costing us ours when he imploded.
Hands flexing open at my sides, I advanced on her. “Lower your weapon.”
“Nah.” She eased the edge along the underside of Miller’s jaw, careful not to pierce the skin, a silent warning I had gotten close enough. “Let’s call this insurance.”
One wrong move and Miller would be the recipient of an unscheduled tracheotomy. She left me no choice but to listen to her spiel until I figured out how to disarm her. “Maybe you should talk to your dad if your mom’s happiness quotient isn’t getting met.”
“My parents breed like rabbits. Her home life is not the issue.” She wrinkled her nose, the gesture so normal it was hard to believe her true identity. “I told you to expect a house call. Ring, ring. Pick up the phone.”
“You want to talk?” That seemed unlikely. “Let’s start with Famine.”
“Ah, so you do know about the double breach. I wondered. Sadly, I can’t help you there. That’s your realm of expertise, not mine. All I can tell you for certain is Famine was given a choice between early entry or her coterie. Mom spotted an anomaly and wanted to take advantage for tactical purposes, but the final decision belonged to Famine.”
Miller jolted from the shock. “Famine left her coterie behind?”
“That’s why Mom placed her with Conquest. Famine requires supervision, or she goes off the rails, and Mom needed a breather. She has her hands full plotting world domination while managing a full coterie. She doesn’t have time to keep an eye on Famine too.” A flash of emotion I might have labeled as pity softened her face, there and gone. “Unless Famine’s coterie figures a way through without her, she only has the cadre for support. Given my limited understanding of the nature of the anomaly, that’s not happening. Death’s breach, assuming she can ascend, is their next best chance at breaking through.”
Famine hadn’t lied. Naively, she had trusted War, her sister, to look out for her. She had trusted War to the point of leaving her own people behind without knowing if she would ever see them again. On some level, she must have trusted me too. The betrayal in her eyes when I shot her proved I had made a believer in Luce Boudreau out of one of the cadre at least.
Tonight, Famine had learned I wasn’t her sister. I wasn’t her protector. All the love I had shown her had been meant for the man she pretended to be. And I had to wonder if that same evidence of my identity as Luce didn’t play into Sariah’s interest in me.
“In addition to the free babysitting service, Mom hoped you would provide us with more information on the players in this round since you’ve been here longest. We learned about the NSB through you, and Adam Wu, but that was about it.” She acted like telling me was some kind of favor, and she expected me to be grateful. More than anything it made me curious why Wu rated a mention, but asking would only give her more leverage over me. “Mom was counting on Famine to complete a few months’ worth of recon before you caught on, but she’s unraveling without her coterie to hold her together. Her impulse control has gone from questionable to non-existent.”
The bond between coterie members must be symbiotic in its way. It would explain the connection between me and the others, the comfort they took from my touch and the solace I found in theirs.
“Personally, I’m thankful you took care of a future problem for me.” Sariah shifted her weight to get more comfortable. “Do you know how exhausting it’s been hopping from host to host to cover Famine’s ass? Orvis was sloppy, I’ll admit. I kept that host too long. I’m usually not so careless with disposals, so thanks for the help with the cleanup.”
I measured the distance between us, still too far to do any good. “Orvis was your work?”
“I liked that body. The setup was pretty sweet too. Out in the country, no nosy neighbors. I didn’t even mind the rug rats.” The children she had killed and left to burn. “I would have held onto Orvis longer, but after Famine helped herself to a tray of valerian and sneaked out to your house to plant it all over the damn place, I knew I’d have to burn that identity.”
And she had. Literally.
Orvis came after the Hensarling and Culberson fires, which left me wondering, “Where does Ivashov fit into the picture?”
“Girl’s got to have a host.” Her shoulders rose and fell in an easy motion. “I pulled the plug on the Orvis infiltration once I realized Famine had the gall to encourage your aunt to shop at the nursery. It was only a matter of time before you linked that purchase to the valerian in your yard, so I changed hosts and parked the bodies in the basement while I handled the Culberson cover-up.”
All too clear, I saw the sequence of events. Her dragging body after body into the small basement room, locking them in, taking the back way out through the cellar doors she locked tight to prevent snooping in case anyone smelled the decomposition in this heat. Leaving the drip torch had been an afterthought to tie all the scenes together.
“I was in bad shape after our little chat, and I did a piss poor c
remation job.” She patted Miller’s cheek. “Lucky for me, the NSB runs a tight ship. They tied up all those pesky loose ends for me.”
Without bodies for autopsy, we never would have guessed the Orvis family had died prior to the fire. Had Wu known? Or had his involvement ended after he intercepted the corpses? And did it matter? Yes. The truth always mattered. There was an honesty in death worth preserving for the families left behind.
“Believe it or not, Auntie, I’m on your side. See, I did my recon. I know what’s doing above this terrene, and I want no part of it.”
A warning prickle climbed up my spine. For all the talk of this world, no one had mentioned what came next. “What are you talking about?”
“I can’t give it away for free.” A grim smile cut her mouth. “The information cost me too much.”
First Bruster and now Sariah. I was tired of all the carrot dangling. I wasn’t a damn bunny.
“Most of what you’ve told me we already knew.” Just the broad strokes, but none of her intel was breaking news. “What, exactly, is your proposition?”
“You and I are at an impasse, whether you’ve realized it yet or not.” Sunlight glinted off the blade in her hand as she adjusted her grip. “I ought to kill you. You’re the only one who can punch through the ceiling of this world. But you’re also the oldest daughter, the strongest, and you’re invested in saving these humans. I propose you and I become friends.”
“You almost killed Miller.” I let her current position speak for itself. “I see the urge hasn’t passed. That’s not what I’d call friendly behavior.”
“We’re square. I gave as good as I got, that’s all. Ain’t that right, buddy?” Leaning over his shoulder, she pressed a quick kiss to his temple. “I wouldn’t kill him. That would be counterproductive since I don’t want to die.” Her gaze zeroed in on me and the precious inches I had advanced toward her. “Have you seen under his hood yet? No? Good. Trust me. That’s one latch you don’t want popped.”
“War will destroy you if she discovers your betrayal,” Thom said what we all were thinking.
Sariah winked at him. “Then we’d best keep this our little secret.”
Chips of ice hit my circulatory system as I stood there staring at her while she held a knife to Miller’s throat. This was a game to her. All of it. And I was so very tired of playing. Chills swept up my arms, and my focus narrowed to the blade in her hand and the fragile column of flesh beneath its poisoned edge.
“I don’t expect an answer now.” Ready to make her exit, she straightened to her full height and allowed the flat of the dagger to rest against his shoulder. “Mourn your loss and think it over. I’ll pop by in a few days, and we can finalize the parameters of our alliance.”
Ally with my niece, who had as good as greenlighted my uncle’s murder. In what world, and I had learned there were so very many, did she believe me capable of such forgiveness?
I had always been fast, and I had always been strong, and I had never used either attribute to full advantage. Wrapped up in being normal, I had stifled what few charun gifts I could access on reflex. For the first time in my life, I called on both, willed the strength into my limbs and the speed into my soles.
Sariah startled when I appeared at her elbow, and she gasped when I closed my fingers around her throat. Her arm was already in motion, muscle memory stepping into the breach until her brain got on board with what was happening. She altered the trajectory of the blade, sweeping it away from her body, eager to sheathe it between my ribs, but lack of oxygen and my proximity restricted her movements, made her clumsy enough I had no trouble capturing her wrist and squeezing until her fingers flexed open, and the blade thudded onto the floor. I hooked my foot behind hers, shoving her down like my knuckles had magnets in them, and the hardwood was polarized.
“You can’t play for both teams.” My fingers dug into her pale skin. “You chose your side when you bided your time until my uncle was irretrievable, all so you didn’t have to get your hands dirty with Famine. You chose your side when you attacked Miller and rang Santiago’s bell.” Crimson welled under my nails. “I can’t wash the blood off my hands, and neither can you.”
“She won’t… kill you,” Sariah wheezed. “She… needs… you. She’ll kill every… single… person you love… to control you.”
“I see that now.” With the cold came clarity, always. “That’s why you’re going to help me send her a message written in a language she can understand.” Reaching across her, I palmed the dagger. “War must love you a great deal if she’s let you live this long.”
A pucker marred her brow. “She… hates… me.”
Only two beings had survived and thrived at War’s side. Her mate, Thanases, and their firstborn, Sariah. That spoke of loyalty, of affection, of an attachment rooted deeper than any of them might understand given their sociopathic tendencies. But I recognized love when I saw it, even if it was a paler shade than any I had ever known, and the Freon pumping through my heart had no trouble lifting that blade or bringing it down with all my strength.
Thud.
Crimson wept from the gash in her abdomen, mingling with the phantom stains under my skin, branding me as the villain I was born to be.
Gasping under my palm, Sariah flailed against me, but I kept my fist clenched on the dagger’s hilt. I couldn’t kill her, not as I was now, but I could do this much. I could hit War where it hurt. Show her how it felt to have your heart bleed.
That snap of emotion alerted me to the fact my rage was burning away the cold place, melting it in the wash of hot blood spilling through my fingers. As the fight drained out of Sariah slowly, her skin began bubbling up, boiling over, the flesh cooking off her bones.
“Get back,” Miller warned, yanking me off her with an arm hooked around my waist. “Move.”
Sariah’s inner monster exploded from her host, and once again I found myself entertaining a super gator in my living room. The beast’s stomach hung too low to the ground for me to tell if the dagger had been expelled, but the poison must have been working.
Lurching toward me, she snapped her jaws, but her attack might as well have been in slow motion. The three of us kept her on the defensive, wearing her down, but it was Miller who approached as she collapsed, and Miller who pried apart her massive jaws. The vicious crack as he broke the delicate bones acting as hinges was deafening, and that was before her agonized roar.
“I’m calling Kapoor.” I hated that I had favorited his number on my phone, but that was my life now. When he answered, I gave him a rundown of the situation. “You might save her if you make it in time.”
Thom shook his head in disagreement or perhaps in warning.
After the call ended, the three of us gravitated toward one another, drawn together because we were stronger that way, and we watched over Sariah as her body twitched.
“We should have questioned her first,” Thom said, a half-hearted afterthought.
“She didn’t break before,” Miller countered, “she wouldn’t have broken now.”
Thom canted his head. “What do you think she meant about what comes next?”
“We’ve searched for fifteen years and uncovered nothing but speculation and lore founded in this terrene’s major religions.” Miller rubbed his jaw. “Sariah is good, but we’re better. There’s no way she peeked beyond the veil on her own. Only Conquest can do that.”
Their conversational tones finished chipping at the ice encasing my heart until the cold place retreated fully and left me to deal with the aftermath. I braced for the surge of guilt over what I had done, the one that would send me stumbling into the bathroom to purge, but it never manifested. I had lost another piece of my soul, but it had been worth it to protect us. And, if I was being honest, the side order of revenge had tasted sweet too.
War had delivered Famine to me. And now I had her daughter. That gave me control over the most pieces on the board. At least until Death arrived. That would tip the balance of power bac
k in War’s favor. Unless I got to our final sister first.
“How fast will she burn through the paralytic?” I squatted beside Sariah and checked her pulse. Slow but steady. “Famine claimed she was immune. Any chance that’s hereditary?”
Given the cadre’s fondness for poison, that’s one family trait I wouldn’t mind possessing.
“Sariah wouldn’t carry a weapon that could kill her. She’ll recover in a few hours at most is my guess.” He raked his gaze over her before coming back to me. “Otillian biology is too chameleonic for heredity to hold much sway. Sariah is the product of a Drosera mating, and you’re no more Drosera than I am. Whatever DNA you have in common with her is in the minority now that War has altered her biology to suit her mate. There’s no way to predict how you would react to the poison.”
Meaning my niece wasn’t fully my niece, a nice wedge of rationality to shove under the door of my mind when I reflected on my actions. Protecting one family, my human one, while cutting down on the other was giving me a complex. “Can you guys handle this while I pack?”
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