Hidden Trump (Bite Back 2)

by Mark Henwick

  “Yes, but—”

  “After I put a ban in place,” he interrupted. “At your specific request.”

  “Yes—”

  “Sit down.”

  I opened my mouth to speak, but caught the slightest hint of warning from Diana. I shut up and we sat on the sofa, David between Pia and me. Diana sat in the other chair and Bian leaned against the wall. The Fangs slipped quietly out. They’d be taking positions in front and back of the house, to keep everyone out. Inside, we were in a cocoon; in our own, narrow place, where the concerns and rules of the comfortable world outside had no relevance to us. What governed the course of events in this room was the rule of the Athanate. I had almost no idea how it worked, but entirely too good an idea of how abruptly and finally the Athanate dealt with problems. I had no recourse to advisors, no chance of appeal and two other people depending on the outcome. And David depending on the speed of resolution. I had to focus on that, stop worrying about myself now and work on saving David first. Take it a step at a time.

  Skylur didn’t give me any chance to start.

  “You should by now have realized that becoming Athanate does not just provide you with benefits, it comes with duties and responsibilities to the Athanate community. Our situation is such that these are not negotiable. There are the rules and you follow them or die. You are Athanate, in my mantle, under my absolute authority and it is my duty to the Athanate to ensure that you obey me.” He paused. “Do you understand?”

  His words were all the more powerful for being spoken quietly. Yes, I understood that the Athanate could only have survived this long by strictly enforcing their rules. And I understood that I had no free pass to behave as I wanted. Whether I wanted it or not, I was part of the community and had to follow the rules. Whatever they were.

  “Yes, sir,” I replied.

  “I have tolerated your actions. Do you understand, I am responsible for you to the Athanate Assembly?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You have found out the location of my House. It is within my authority to kill any Athanate not part of my House and not sworn to me who has that knowledge.”

  He paused again and waited. I nodded. I hadn’t actively spied on Altau, it was simply that they had used my car to kidnap me for my first meeting with him, and the car had a modified GPS that I was able to use to trace where they had taken me. That would have been a good legal point in a court of law. This wasn’t that kind of court, so I kept quiet.

  “I am also within my authority to compel you to do things. Such as telling me where and when you were infused. I have held back from this.”

  I nodded again. Skylur had said he was respecting my prior agreements with the army which forbade me from revealing anything about what had happened. Another good legal point I wasn’t going to raise at the moment.

  Beside me, David’s breathing was deeper and more ragged. That dreamy look came back to his face, and I saw Diana’s eyes flick across and register it. But Skylur wasn’t finished.

  “Instead, I have given you leeway. Not insisted on an exchange of Blood. In fact, put a ban on your Blood. Elevated you to a House. All of which could be subject to question in the Assembly, as evidence that I have insufficient control of my mantle. Almost as if you’d been put up to this by Basilikos.” He paused, as if giving me the opportunity to deny it, before going on. “And now I find you have an undeclared relationship with an Aspirant. Who has drunk your Blood in contravention of my ban.” His eyes bored into me. “The penalty for which is death.”

  No!

  “Please,” I stuttered. “You don’t understand.”

  “Then explain,” he said.

  “Can’t you do something for David first? I’m worried he’s—”

  Skylur cut across me. “We’re not going to expend the effort if we’re then going to execute him for breaking the ban.”

  I felt the blood draining from my face. He would do it, too. I could see it in his expression. I had to get him to realize it wasn’t David’s fault. “When I came here last night,” I hurried on and stumbled to a halt, realizing myself that the next part might contain an equally fatal ruling for Pia. But I had to do something and there was a certain death one way and an unknown the other. Diana’s head tilted questioningly at my hesitation. I swallowed and resumed. “Last night, David was dying. He was hypovolemic, unconscious. He had so little blood in his system his heart was thrashing itself to death. This isn’t his fault. I had to do something immediately. There wasn’t time to get you and I thought an ambulance was out of the question. I made him bite me. I had to force him to bite me.”

  No one said anything. David’s hoarse breathing was the only sound in the room. Out in the hallway, the floor creaked under the steps of one of the guards.

  “Pia?” Bian said, disbelief edging her voice.

  Pia’s eyes were red and swiveling to and fro across all of us, pleading for understanding. She looked terrified and she said nothing. I must have got her into as much trouble as David.

  “Pia?” Diana sat forward in her chair, a puzzled frown on her brow.

  What was she doing? Was she too frightened to speak?

  Diana crossed the floor and knelt in front of Pia. Her fingertips traced her brow.

  “She’s under a compulsion,” Diana said. Pia nodded and looked at me. Diana reached across and stroked David’s brow. His eyes were glazed, and he didn’t seem to notice her touch.

  “Is there no end to this?” Skylur said. “Now you’re compelling members of my House. What are you trying to do? Start a rebellion in Denver?”

  “No!” I said. “All I did was tell her to shut up. Surely—”

  “Skylur,” Diana interjected. She swung around to look at him, her face grave, and his eyes left me for a moment. “These are no longer members of your House,” she said.

  Skylur came to his feet abruptly. So did I, startled into movement.

  He was staring at me as if he’d never really seen me before.

  I couldn’t get air in my lungs. I felt the cold fingers of his mental powers clamping on my head, sliding icy needles into my brain. Diana had taught me the basics of defending myself. I just needed the fuel for it. I reached into the reservoir of anger in my belly.

  And stopped.

  I couldn’t fight him off. There was no point in resisting.

  Was that me, or was that him making me think that? Think, dammit, think! My life depended on it.

  I couldn’t fight him, physically or mentally. That was me. I knew that. The other option was to submit and hope. I’d done some things wrong. It looked bad. From my feeling of protection towards David, I could barely imagine the strength of those feelings in Skylur, and he’d just found out that I’d stolen David from him.

  And Pia? How the hell?

  None of it intended. And Skylur wasn’t just powerful, he was old, he had gathered wisdom and control. I hoped. Something wailed inside me—no, no, no.

  I was only delaying them treating David. I braced my legs, which were threatening to collapse, closed my eyes and tilted my head back to offer my throat.

  Oh, God, no, please don’t.

  Had I actually said that aloud? Tears were squeezing out and trailing down my cheeks.

  Far away, a voice came. “Skylur.”

  There was a touch of his breath across my throat like flames, sending tremors down my whole body.

  And the pressure in my mind eased off.

  I lifted my head back up cautiously.

  Skylur now stood a little apart. His face was closed, revealing nothing, but at least he’d backed off. I couldn’t stop shivering. He’d been an inch from biting me.

  “Skylur.” Diana spoke again, stepping slightly in front of me. “David is getting critical.”

  He made a gesture.

  What does that mean? What’s his decision?

  Diana swung around.

  There was a sensation of twisting in my head, as if I’d been turned upside down. The urge to protect
David flooded through me like an electric shock.

  Without thinking, I blocked Diana’s path. Sweat chilled my forehead and my mouth went dry. Like Skylur, Diana was faster and stronger than me. Not by a matter of degree, but overwhelmingly. She could paralyze me with a look. There was no way I could stop her from doing whatever she wanted, but my instincts drove me. I needed to protect David and Pia.

  “He’s mine,” I said, my voice strained and my heart in my mouth.

  Diana looked as if I’d slapped her across the face. She came up on the balls of her feet. I sensed Pia leap to my side and Bian flowed off the wall like a dark wraith, the katana suddenly singing in the soft light.

  Oh shit, this is it.

  “Stop,” Skylur said, his voice sharp. We froze.

  “Bian,” Diana said. The katana slid quietly back into its sheath. Bian resumed her nonchalant position against the wall as if nothing had happened. But she was frowning in concern. Pia stepped back. I took a shaky breath.

  Diana half-turned to Skylur, a ghost of a smile crossing her face. “What was it you said to me about her needing training in the duties of a House?”

  She rested her hand on my shoulder. “Amber, David needs me to help him now.” She looked intently at me and her voice became harder. “If he’s too far gone, then indeed, he is yours.”

  I nodded, my stomach sinking. She meant it would be my responsibility if he needed to be put down like a rabid animal.

  She sat by David on the sofa, holding hands like a mismatched pair of first dates. David’s trembling eased a little, his eyes half-focusing on her. Her gaze held him and then her hands glided up his arms, past his neck until they held his head. Moving sinuously, she came up on one knee, rising above him and pressing his head back. Pia jerked forward, but Bian was suddenly beside her, one hand holding her. Pia looked to me and I made myself stand still. I had to trust Diana. Pia looked to argue, but she stood back, angry and worried.

  Diana dipped her head over David as if she were going to kiss him, but floated down alongside his neck. She sighed, loud in the silence, and her lips touched his neck. Immediately, David’s rigid body began to collapse back on the sofa and she followed him down smoothly, fastened to his neck.

  “Just pacifics,” Bian said, so close to my ear that I jumped. “Agents that will relax him. It’s all right.”

  It wasn’t all right yet. David’s eyes stared and he moaned and shifted, but Diana’s fangs were buried in his throat and her mouth fastened on his neck. Her eyes closed, as if she were concentrating on sifting the flavors of a complex taste. Every twitch resonated through me. Had she started in time or would I have to kill David?

  Then Diana raised her head from his neck and a little tremor passed through her. David remained slumped, his eyes closed now, blood oozing from the marks on his throat. She turned to look back at me, her movements slow and sensual, her eyes hooded.

  “He will be all right,” she said.

  Relief coursed through me.

  “Bian, he’s flooded with envirics and Amber’s Blood. Take over, while Amber and Pia explain to us just how this all happened.”

  Bian took Diana’s place. With a practiced ease, she put the katana to one side and straddled David. She bent her face to his neck and he moaned as she bit. I blushed. I found it was intimate and arousing. Something I felt I had the potential to do, might want to do. Dammit, something as House Farrell I was supposed to be doing, instead of making everything worse at every step.

  “Well?” Diana said as she and Skylur returned to their chairs. Skylur remained quiet, frowning in thought.

  With the sofa occupied, I sat on a stool. Pia stood next to me, her face a mask of conflict. I could imagine some of the things going through her mind. No doubt she’d been content in the comfort of Altau, a powerful House, with the most powerful of Masters, feeling secure. Then somehow—how?—she’d become part of a House under an Athanate who didn’t even know how to be Athanate. Who wasn’t even conscious of taking her in. Not comfortable and definitely not secure. And yet she’d jumped to stand with me in a hopeless confrontation with Diana. Her instincts were directed to me. No wonder she was having difficulty.

  A bit like me going from being human to Athanate. Suck it up, girl.

  “Pia, sit by me, please,” I said.

  She folded stiffly, as if her joints needed oiling, kneeling at my side.

  I unthinkingly raised my hand to rest it on her and stopped. Maybe later, when we’d all gotten used to it. If there was a later for us.

  “Well?” repeated Diana.

  Concentrate.

  “I’ve known David since he became an Aspirant, long before I first met you. We’ve become close, like brother and sister. He talked to me about Athanate in general, without really giving anything away.” I cleared my throat. “There didn’t seem to be an appropriate time to tell you.” It sounded pathetic to me.

  “And you think this is an appropriate time?” Diana asked.

  “No, of course not, but—”

  “This is the worst time possible,” she said. “Skylur has calls from the Warders on an hourly basis, all being held at the moment. When we get back, what should he say to them? He’s lost control of his mantle?”

  I couldn’t answer that.

  “Go on,” Skylur said. He was back to steepling his fingers, but at least his face looked less angry now. If only I could figure out what he was thinking, I might take some reassurance from that. But I’m familiar with the military concept of expendable assets, of course, and that’s what I suspected he regarded me as. In which case, he was simply pondering how best to get the maximum return from my sacrifice.

  “I worked with David on his physical preparation, and on his telergy. It was while we were experimenting with that, projecting images, we had some mixed signals and, well, we ended up kissing.” I blushed and Pia stirred. “That’s all that happened, but David said that there was some transfer to him in the kiss. Some of my prions.”

  I paused to let them ask questions, but they were just watching me like a pair of cats around a mouse hole.

  “I guess that changed his marque,” I went on. “I understand it started to be more like me than House Altau. He and Pia fought over it. I don’t know what happened exactly. When I came in last night, there wasn’t any time. I just wanted him to survive. He seemed to recover okay, but I also felt that I had completed the change to Athanate. Then I really wanted to bite him, make him House Farrell. That’s why I left.”

  I licked my lips nervously. “Today, he was manic. I had to talk him down. But he was still okay. He listened. I called you.” I had to say something more. “I have no intention of setting up a House in opposition. I didn’t mean for this to happen. I didn’t realize what was happening.”

  “And now, what went wrong, Pia?” Diana gestured to me. “You’ll need to release her, Amber.”

  Had I really compelled her that strongly? I was going to have to be so careful with this control. How did I turn it off?

  “You can speak, Pia,” I tried.

  “Thank you M…” she stuttered to a halt. “Mistress,” she finished in a whisper.

  “You acknowledge her?” asked Skylur. Pia nodded, keeping her head down.

  Before she could say any more, Bian raised her head from David’s throat. She turned with an eerie, inhuman grace, her mouth wide in a snarl, bloodied fangs showing. Her eyes were glittering, and when she breathed out, it hissed in her throat. I could barely recognize her.

  Diana was there in an instant, a hand on her shoulder. She’d moved so fast, it was as scary as Bian’s transformation.

  Bian shuddered at the touch, but her pupils gradually contracted and her eyes lost the glittering edge. Her fangs shrank, became normal canines again. She licked her lips and looked like Bian once more. Unnervingly, her eyes had never left me.

  “Awesome, Round-eye,” she whispered. “I said you were freaking tasty. Even second hand.” Still moving with an oiled precision, she got o
ff David and walked out the living room like a cat. He lay slumped across the sofa, pale and unmoving.

  “She’s taken too much,” I said.

  Diana shook her head. “Bian’s drunk deeply, but no, she’s good. And it’s just the first step.”

  Bian returned with Mykayla, leading her by the hand. I understood then what the next step would have to be. I would have gotten up, but again, Diana had anticipated me. I hadn’t even seen her move and she was beside me, her hand gripping my shoulder like a vise.

  “Not your responsibility,” she said tightly.

  I forced myself to keep still. She was right. I had done what I could for Mykayla. Her decisions were hers to make, and she was only going to do something that I’d done. She was trembling as she straddled David, but she wasn’t behaving as if she were under duress. With shaking hands she stripped off her Kevlar vest and opened her shirt. Bian’s hand rested on her back as she leaned forward and rested her throat against David’s mouth. I could tell the exact moment he bit, the memory of the fangs making my neck twitch. Mykayla flinched, but stayed put. Bian knelt on the sofa and spoke softly in her ear.

  “She’s not ready—” I began.

  “Hush, Amber. This is our work.”

  Fang 4 came in, listening to his comms and scribbling a note which he handed to Skylur.

  “If we’re finished with the floor show,” Skylur said coldly, bringing us back. He folded the note into a pocket after a brief glance. “Pia, your side of it.”

  Pia tore her eyes away from David and sat straighter. “He wasn’t doing well,” she said. “He’d finished all the physical tests easily but we had problems with his telergy development. He couldn’t sustain a connection, let alone compel someone. I couldn’t seem to get through to him.”

  Pia took a minute. “Then his marque changed, just slightly, and suddenly he was handling connections as if there had never been a problem. I tried to fix it. It was like…wrestling a ghost. It got worse and worse. I felt I couldn’t bring him in to Haven. I didn’t want to add to everyone else’s problems.” She closed her eyes.

  “Yesterday, he became manic. I could barely calm him. I tried to shock his body back.” Tears leaked down her cheeks. “I went too far. I took too much. The hunger…” she was trembling and her mouth moved without speaking for a second. “I can’t describe it. For a while, I was afraid I was going rogue. It was so difficult. I thought if I just went away and rested for a bit, I could come back and handle it.” She buried her face in her hands, her voice muffled. “I was a good assistant, but I wasn’t ready to move up to Mentor. I failed everyone, especially David. I’m so sorry.”