by Mark Henwick
There was a silence broken only by Mykayla’s sighs.
“So.” Skylur turned to me, angry again. “I might accept that you changed David’s marque accidentally, but then you thought you’d keep Pia in line by taking her too?”
Before my mouth had time to fall open, Pia’s head snapped up.
“No!” she yelped. “You thought…” She twisted to look at Mykayla. “Oh, God, no! She’s not Aspirant?”
Everything seemed to lurch into motion at the same time. Pia leaped towards Mykayla. Bian came snarling out of her crouch to intercept her. I tried to get between them. Fang 4 turned and lifted his weapon. We all collided. Pia was ignoring Bian, trying to get past and as for me, I was very conscious of the fact that the cold metal ring pressing against my neck was the muzzle of Fang 4’s P90, and a twitch of his finger would blow enough high velocity bullets through my neck to decapitate me.
“Stop!” Diana’s voice lashed out, and we all came to an abrupt halt. “Everyone, take a step back.”
She slipped in between us. “Pia. What’s the matter?”
“David! That girl! The girl is not ready.” Pia could barely speak for her urgency, pointing at Mykayla.
Bian was rapidly disentangling Mykayla from David’s semi-conscious grasp. Diana turned and swooped low over both of them.
She stood back up and shook her head. “There’s nothing, no agent of change. What are you talking about, Pia? David’s barely started crusis, his bite can’t be active yet.”
“No, no! Listen to me. You think Amber bound me. She didn’t. I know David’s not supposed to have progressed yet, but you’ve got to believe me. His behavior today was late phase crusis mania and his bite was active. He bound me to House Farrell.”
Chapter 7
No one moved for a long, breathless minute. For the first time that day, Skylur’s face registered something other than anger—he was deeply shocked. So were Diana and Bian.
Diana bent her head over Mykayla again. After a while, she came upright and shook her head. “His bite definitely isn’t active now. Maybe Bian lowered it below the key level just now.” She frowned thoughtfully. “I’ll grant you, he did seem like he was in late stage crusis mania. And for that matter, Amber shouldn’t have even been able to change his marque in the first place.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “Are you saying I’ve passed through crusis?”
“I would have said that you were pre-crusis when we met last week. Your Blood acquires its strength during crusis, and that’s what gives you the ability to change a human by bite.” She gestured to David. “Or change a marque.”
“But I didn’t bite him.”
“He drank deeply from you. After you had given him some preliminary agent of change in a kiss. Prions, if that’s what you want to call them. That might achieve the same thing.”
“But it felt like he changed me,” I said. “Before he bit me I was almost struggling against becoming Athanate. By the time he was recovered, I...well, I can only tell you how it felt in my head, but it felt like I could bite him and make him House Farrell. That’s when I ran away.”
“A resonance between Bloods?” said Bian. She held Mykayla against her.
“No, I don’t think so.” Diana turned to Skylur. “You realize what this could mean?” Her face stayed calm, but her eyes were starting to gleam with excitement.
“If you’re referring to another of Tolly’s unverifiable assertions, yes.” Skylur made a curt dismissive gesture. “I don’t believe any of it.”
Diana took pity on me. “Amber, David wasn’t due to enter full crusis for at least two months. The fitter you are, the stronger your body’s defenses, the longer you will hold it off and the better your chances in the end. That’s why our Aspirants are prepared so thoroughly, and why we work up to the full dose of the agent of change. And then, once an Aspirant is in crusis, it might last for two more months. That’s why the process is so slow, why we transform so few.” She stared intently at me. “Your Blood appears to have reduced his crusis to a few days.”
Days instead of months? How?
“This is impossible,” Skylur said.
“But if. Do you see the importance?” Bian said to me. “The crusis is the choke point, the bottleneck. With such a long period and such uncertainty, a Mentor can only safely handle a few Athanate going through crusis and with the physical and mental training, the whole process takes a year or more. If your Blood truly makes crusis quicker and easier, imagine what that means to the Athanate as a whole.”
“If it’s easier, then those that fail the Aspirants’ tests, those that become our kin instead, they now have a new chance,” Diana said.
“But it’s not easier. David’s reaction—”
She puffed dismissively. “That was worse because we weren’t here at the start. It would have been nothing.”
“Enough!” Skylur got to his feet. “You’re speculating wildly.” He grew quiet. “And I understand why, Diana.” He crossed to David and made his own inspection before turning back to us.
“Imagine if Basilikos heard so much as a rumor of this. They’d do anything to get hold of Amber and test this theory of yours.”
I shivered at a fragmentary memory of the windowless cell in Obs, strapped down, unable to move. They’d been testing their theories too. I got a sudden, vivid recollection. There had been a voice one time. I couldn’t see the speaker, but I’d heard him call me ‘it,’ like I was a piece of meat on a slab. And Basilikos would be worse.
“No word of this outside.” Skylur glared around at us.
I let a trickle of hope warm me. He’d let Diana save David, and he wouldn’t do that just to kill him. They even seemed to accept Pia had made a genuine mistake. And now he seemed to be concerned for me and my wellbeing. At least all the shocks had displaced that cold fury. We might just get out of this in one piece.
There were, of course, a couple of other ‘little’ matters that hadn’t been touched on yet. Maybe I’d get away with it tonight…
Diana came and stood in front of me and my heart sank.
“Amber?” Her voice was soft, slightly puzzled. Her hand slipped over my shoulder and gently pulled me towards her. I felt as if I was falling. She came to rest against my neck. The sigh of her breath rushing in was as loud as the frantic thudding of my heart.
Her head came back up almost immediately.
“What?” said Skylur, registering her shock. “What now?”
This wasn’t good.
“Her marque has changed,” Diana said.
“She’s changed her own marque?” There was something in the way he said that. That was very bad.
“I don’t think so,” Diana said hurriedly. “But her marque has picked up something of the Were. Amber?”
I cleared my throat. “Everyone said it wasn’t possible for Athanate and Were to cross-infuse.”
Skylur came over, brusquely pushing my head back as he bent over my neck. I forced myself to stand still for his examination.
“How did you do this?” he asked. His voice was back to its icy worst again.
“I don’t know. I don’t understand anything about what’s going on. I’m not trying to do anything.” I tried to calm myself. “I met with Alex Deauville, the contact you gave me for the werewolves.”
“And?”
“And nothing! A bit of kissing and cuddling. You didn’t tell me it wasn’t safe.”
“One thing after another,” Skylur snapped, returning to his seat. “Sit.”
I went back to the stool, Diana to her chair. Bian perched on the edge of the sofa behind me.
“It should have been safe,” Diana said. “Any ideas on how this infusion happened?”
“Yes,” I said reluctantly. “A complete guess, but when I left David’s, I was passing out from blood loss. Alex came and picked me up. Maybe it happened then, when I was weakened.”
“Combination of circumstances?” Skylur looked at Diana.
She
shrugged. “It can’t be just that. In all the centuries, that must have happened before. I’ve never heard of it resulting in a mixture like this.”
They fell silent, looking at each other.
“Why’s it so important?” I asked. Was this some purity issue with them?
“You’re full of puzzles and worries for us already,” Diana said. “Have you really passed through crusis without help? If you did, how did you have such a low level of the Blood? How was your Blood able to change David’s marque? What type of Athanate bit you?” She sighed. “Now, you’re adding Were to the mix.”
“Your reluctance to discuss how you were bitten leaves us guessing,” Skylur said. “I’m not prepared to base the safety of House Altau on a guess, nor can I leave you free in my mantle.”
Despite my best efforts, the demon got control of my voice. “You tell me why it’s so goddamn important, and maybe I’ll tell you what happened.”
It went quiet. Skylur’s eyes bored into me. “You forget yourself, House Farrell. It would be easy for me to get the answers I need from you. Biting you will not change my marque.”
I felt a chill spread down through me. If he drank my Blood, his Athanate senses would untangle the puzzle of what made me different. But something in me really didn’t want him to do that yet. Something that might be too fragile.
“And we may lose something,” Diana cut in, seeming to pick the thought from my head. Skylur snorted and steepled his fingers in front of his face again, but didn’t object as Diana went on. “It’s important because Panethus and Basilikos are more than just creeds, Amber, they are behavior patterns as well. Humans debate nature versus nurture, and so do we.”
More chills ran down my spine.
“Athanate tend to follow the behavior of those that infuse them,” she said. “Panethus create Panethus. But someone freshly bitten by Basilikos and kept in a Panethus House would also tend to turn to Panethus behavior.”
“But I don’t know what type bit me, and I haven’t been kept in any House.”
“Exactly. All our knowledge says that the most likely outcome for that is rogue. You’re not rogue. The second most likely outcome is Basilikos, simply because it’s easier to fall into that pattern of behavior.”
“So you’re sitting there waiting for me to—”
“Amber.” Diana’s calm tone stopped me.
No one else said anything. There was a coldness in my chest that wasn’t going to go away until this was settled, but there wasn’t anything they could do for me right now. And they were waiting for me to break the agreements I had made about keeping Ops 4-10 secret.
Crap. And worse, I had a suspicion they weren’t going to like the truth. But my links with Ops 4-10 were loosening. I couldn’t ever go back to them. I wouldn’t even get inside the gate without Obs grabbing me, and once they found out my Blood had changed again, I’d never get out. I’d spend the rest of my life in that cell.
This was another decision between a sure bad result and an uncertain one. I had to commit myself to the Athanate, and let go of my agreement with the army.
I took a breath and jumped.
“I was on a mission in South America when it happened, two years ago.” I studied their expressions. They all had their poker faces on, but a tenseness that appeared around Bian’s mouth told me that just South America was already bad news. “I don’t know what they were. They weren’t exactly wearing T-shirts with Basilikos printed on them. Matter of fact, they were dressed in nothing but loincloths. Both sides…” My voice came to a halt. My squad. Every one of them, except me, dead. I shook my head to clear it. “There was one of them left at the end and he got to me. Tore my throat open. Fed on me.”
“What did you do?” said Diana.
“I cut his freaking head off,” I snapped.
“Oh, my kinda gal,” said Bian, and she reached over to squeeze my shoulder.
Fang 4 came back in and held a quiet conversation in Athanate with Skylur. Diana sat still, watching me. What was going on behind those dark eyes?
Skylur finished and turned his attention back to us.
“We don’t have time to take this further now.” He nodded to Diana. “We will proceed cautiously. South America makes it likely that it was Basilikos. That’s one problem. And the infusion of Were is even worse.”
What?
“We’re not saying that Were are like Basilikos,” Diana said to me, “but their pure instinctive behavior is much closer to Basilikos than Panethus. This is something that I will be responsible for investigating. We want you as part of us, Amber, but every part of us affects the whole. We cannot take poison into the association, if that is what you are.”
She sat back. “We’ve all been on edge tonight. Some of that may be due to your marque. Not just the pheromones, the telergic element. We may be picking up subtle emanations of Were from you and reacting badly. We can’t have that in Haven.”
“We could isolate her,” Skylur said, shortly.
“Not ideal,” Diana said. “Better addressed after the Assembly.”
Skylur grunted and sat silently for a minute, his eyes hooded, before he spoke again.
“My responsibility tonight is settling the immediate issue arising.” He paused. “House Farrell, House Altau, attend.”
I stiffened.
“I imposed a ban on House Farrell Blood, on House Altau and all subsidiaries. The penalty for breaking the ban is death.”
Oh, shit!
Skylur waited.
A test. Please, he’s just testing me.
I clenched my fists and made myself remain sitting. Our eyes met. Whether I swore allegiance to him or not, he was the Athanate Master in Denver. He had power of life and death over me and over my House. And the actions of my House and repercussions of them were my responsibility. He needed to know I acknowledged that. I’d made my choice for the Athanate. I gritted my teeth and dropped my eyes.
“However, as an Aspirant of House Altau, David Thaler was unaware of the ban on your Blood imposed on House Altau, and unconscious at the time he fed. The penalty of death is put aside.”
Stop reacting.
I hadn’t even considered the ban when it happened. I realized all over again I needed to understand more about the Athanate and until I did, I was a danger to myself and everyone around me.
Skylur went on, “House Altau acknowledges the Blood debt of David Thaler to House Farrell. House Altau also acknowledges and agrees to the change of marque for Pia Shirazi and David Thaler, from Altau to Farrell. House Farrell accepts responsibility for mentoring errors committed by Pia Shirazi, and for dealing with any outcome arising.”
I could handle that. I would have to.
He wasn’t finished. “As an allied House, Farrell is required to inform Altau of significant security issues, and the failure to inform Altau of Farrell’s prior knowledge of an Aspirant falls under that. In recompense for this breach, the Blood debt is annulled, and House Farrell agrees to provide ten days’ work, of an unspecified nature, to House Altau.”
Ten days. Half a working month, free. I could handle that, too. I’d have to, somehow. But he still wasn’t finished.
“Additionally, Shirazi and Thaler will be assigned back to Altau for a fortnight, barring exceptional circumstances. House Farrell will have access, but if in this time, their marque changes back, Farrell will acknowledge that change without dispute.”
No, mine! I wanted to argue that, but I didn’t dare.
“Is this agreed?” he pressed me.
I cleared my throat. “Yes, House Altau.”
“So recorded,” Diana said, and my heart missed a beat.
Skylur spoke to Diana. “The ban on House Farrell Blood remains in place and is extended explicitly to Aspirants as well.” She nodded, and he continued. “We need to understand what’s happened here before anyone else is involved. Amber’s already scheduled to come in to get further briefings on Wednesday. That process needs to be increased as necessary.�
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Diana nodded. “I’ll organize both and free up Bian. I’m not scheduled for anything essential until I leave.”
Leave? I preferred Diana to Skylur, and I preferred Skylur when Diana was there to take the edge off him. I hoped she wasn’t away long.
“If you find the urge to bite is becoming significant, you will need to be at Haven, Amber,” Diana said, standing to go. “It is vital that we only progress on that under control. And on your Blood, swear, no more security problems.” Diana smiled a little. “At least until after the Assembly, and then you can show us where we need to tighten up.”
“On my Blood, I swear,” I answered, the words ringing in my head.
Damn. What about Larry? What about Adepts? Will they be security problems? Can’t talk about them now.
“Why not come to Haven now?” Diana asked. “Not in isolation, simply at one end of the house.”
That might have been intended as an instruction, just politely put, but I shook my head. “I’ll come in on Wednesday,” I said. I needed time to let all this settle. I needed something outside of Altau and the Athanate that I could cling to and still be me. And I needed to nail Hoben.
Diana lifted David effortlessly from the sofa. “Then I’ll see you on Wednesday.” I nodded. “You realize, Amber, your House will have needs of you?”
“Blood? Yeah, I guess so.” This was freaky. For all my casual reply, this set my stomach churning in confusion. On one level, I didn’t want to need or share Blood, on another my body thrilled at the thought of it.
“Yes, but not just Blood. Leadership, amongst other things. House Farrell is not merely a title. You now have two more concerns.”