Bite Back Box Set 2

by Mark Henwick

  Yelena was in the kitchen.

  “Morning, Boss,” she said.

  “Morning. It’s…ahhh. What time is it?” My internal clock had failed.

  “Ten twenty.”

  She was dressed for the day, sitting at the breakfast bar, eating omelet and bacon on toast, sipping coffee and reading the Denver Post.

  Some things you just can’t control; I reached for a slice of crispy bacon.

  She blocked me.

  “Exercise first. I’ll start cooking your brunch in half an hour.”

  She was right. Like all Athanate, I did need to exercise. Put the effort in, and the Athanate Blood returned it threefold with health and strength and speed. Stop, and the negative effect would be as dramatic; my body would start to fail quickly.

  And the House charter I’d been drawing up with Pia insisted that everyone not only exercised, but became proficient in martial arts. I needed to keep setting an example.

  “Okay. Where are the others?”

  “David and Pia went to the office at six, as they do most days. The others went to work at about eight. Claude’s gone in to college. Savannah is job-hunting. The servants, I gave a day off.” She crunched the second-to-last bit of bacon. One piece left. “I think Jo’s in the study; she’s waiting to exercise with you.”

  I noticed that, next to the Post on the table, she had our cellphones.

  “That’s my cell.”

  “Yes.” Yelena held it up to show it was switched off.

  “Yelena! Felix will be trying to get hold of me. Naryn probably, too.”

  “Nothing from Naryn. Felix has called three times this morning. Very insistent. That’s why it’s off.”

  “You can’t—”

  “If you respond every time they call you, they’ll keep calling you and you’ll have to keep responding. You have a job to do, and you’re doing it. I’m your Diakon. They can call me. You need good rest when you’re resting, and enough time to complete the last impossible task they gave you before the next one.”

  “But…” There was something in the look on her face. A suspicion formed in my mind. “What did you say to Felix?”

  “I told him to fuck off.”

  I made it to the sink before all the coffee exited through my nose.

  “What?” I coughed.

  “Am stupid Ukrainian,” she said, hamming it up. “English not good. Also, not werewolf. Am stupid Athanate. Don’t understand. No idea he big boss I must kiss feet.”

  I couldn’t stop myself from laughing, but I had to protest. “It might have been important.”

  “Oh, for sure,” she said normally. “Everything an important person says is important; this is a definition, not so? But look at it this way. You’ve just done something impossible at Bitter Hooks which makes him number one wolf in America. What more does he want today?”

  I shook my head. There was a crazy Carpathian logic in there, but there’d be hell to pay when I called Felix back.

  I wasn’t going to convince Yelena. “Okay. I’ll deal with that after exercise.”

  Yelena nodded. “Today I think we should hunt Fay Daniels. Maybe find something about Forsythe.”

  “And visit Mom,” I said.

  I watched as she lifted the last crispy slice of bacon and started to nibble it. I made puppy-dog eyes.

  She laughed like the evil bitch she was.

  It was cold downstairs, in Jen’s basement gym.

  That was okay; I warmed up quickly enough, but I was barely into my abbreviated regime when Jofranka came in.

  I’d known the niece of my car mechanic since I’d been a rookie in the police, about the length of time I’d known Tullah. They’d both shown too much energy for any sane person to bear; I’d introduced them, hoping that they’d wear each other out. That hadn’t gone as planned.

  Now Jofranka was the only employee of my struggling private eye company that was still actually working for it, since neither Tullah nor I were around.

  And she was part of my House. What was the word Yelena used instead of kin? Katikia. Kin of the House.

  Unbitten.

  My jaw throbbed. After I dealt with my Athanate requirement for exercise, there was a requirement for Blood that needed attending to.

  If she agreed.

  Pia and I were working on a charter for House Farrell, and we couldn’t yet find the solution to this one problem. By my rule, the Athanate in my House must never take Blood that was not freely offered; no force or compulsion allowed. The rules for all Athanate, however, stated that any human in an Athanate House had to be kin or Aspirant. Humans that did not want to be bound to the House had their memories erased, and were allowed no further contact.

  And Skylur demanded I follow the Athanate rules.

  I put it aside for the moment while she paused at the door and bowed.

  Good.

  When the room was empty, maybe it was a gym. When someone came to use it as we did, it was a kwan or a dojo. You showed respect for the effort of all that used it. Not that I expected anything else of Jofranka, but I was pleased at her acknowledgment.

  She was dressed in her black training gi, her wild hair bound back.

  I paused my execution of Liu Leung’s Dragon form. Liu had modified the standard form to include fully linked butterfly kicks. That would be what Tullah had taught Jofranka, and I wanted to see how she handled them.

  I waved her forward and she came to stand next to me, not meeting my eye. “Dragon form, Shi Fu?” she asked quietly.

  She seemed more nervous than the exercise warranted.

  “Yes,” I said. “Lead. I’ll be right behind you.”

  She swallowed and began.

  I made her go through it twice before leading her in a simpler form.

  Tullah had done a good job teaching her over the last couple of years. Everything needed a little more work, but it always would.

  I took her through the butterfly kicks once more. “These are only for practice and exhibitions,” I warned her. “Or if you make it in the movies.”

  That got a smile from her.

  At the end, we bowed and knelt opposite each other, letting our bodies relax after the exercises.

  My fangs pulsed again. Now that I’d started biting, the urgency to bite all my House was growing. And I had Skylur’s orders. I closed my eyes and tried to reason through it, while my jaw kept pulsing.

  “Boss?”

  I blinked. “Huh? Sorry.”

  “It’s time.”

  “Oh. Yeah, Yelena said she’d cook me brunch.”

  “No.” She rolled her eyes, pretending exasperation when in fact she was a bundle of nerves. “Not eat. Bite. Time for you to bite me.”

  I was shocked; I had not seen this coming. I’d known I would have to talk to Jofranka eventually, and figure out what would be best for her. I hadn’t expected her to come to me.

  The fangs didn’t care. They wanted out now.

  I took a deep breath, willing my Athanate back down.

  “This is a big decision, Jo. And you have your brothers to think about. They can’t be part of the House until they’re old enough to make their own decisions.”

  When Jofranka had moved out of her abusive father’s house, she’d taken her two young brothers.

  “I can be kin and still look after them, can’t I?”

  “Yes, so long as you make sure they don’t know about the Athanate.”

  She swallowed and nodded. “Okay.”

  I started to say more about what binding meant, but she stopped me.

  “I know once I’m in, that’s it, that the binding will mess with my mind, but I guess what I’m saying is, my mind is already messed. Pia’s told me all about rights and responsibilities. She’s explained it all. I know what I want.”

  “Are you absolutely sure? No one’s put you up to this? Said you have to do it?”

  “No one pressured me at all.” She managed a smile. “The idea freaked me out at first, and you can tell,
can’t you, I’m still scared?”

  I nodded. I could hear her heart, taste the adrenaline in her breath.

  “It’s just the biting that’s scary, not, y’know, the binding,” she said. “You being in LA this last month gave me time to think, and I’ve talked to Pia a lot. And her kin. I want to be part of the House. Really, really want it. You know my family always sucked, except for Rom. This is my family now—you and Tullah, Jen and Alex, Pia and David, and the others. I want to stay, and I want to keep working as a PI in your company. To learn from you. I couldn’t stand to lose all that, and I know I’d have to if I wasn’t bound.”

  She was being completely truthful as well as earnest, and my Athanate was loving this.

  I’d bitten Jen and Alex—that was different, they were kin. I’d bitten Dante and Dominé on Skylur’s orders. However much I liked it at the time, I wouldn’t have thought of doing it if I hadn’t been told to. But now that I’d started binding my House, I’d turned a corner. I wanted to bite Jofranka and bind her. I was trembling with eagerness. Worries that my eukori wouldn’t function were pushed aside.

  “Okay.” My voice was croaky. I couldn’t stop the fangs from manifesting, and I barely suppressed a groan of anticipation when they did.

  Embarrassing. I cleared my throat.

  “Come sit here.” I indicated for her to turn around and lean back against me.

  She did. Her body was tense, and she was struggling to breathe normally.

  “Relax,” I said, though I wasn’t.

  I’d done this for Dante and Dominé. Nothing different in the physical act. I needed to remember the advice for biting someone the first time. It was a trade-off between freaking them out by holding them too tightly, or holding them too loosely and allowing them to hurt themselves if they struggled when they felt the fangs in their neck.

  Her heart was racing.

  “Think of it as a training exercise,” I said. “Breathe deeply and evenly.”

  I put my left arm around her, holding her against me, and stroked her head with my free hand until some of that tension left her body.

  She jumped, just like Dante had, when I licked her neck, then giggled.

  The bio-agents went to work, helping her muscles relax and doing their voodoo on her nerve endings.

  Yelena had helped me with the binding before. Was my eukori working well enough?

  I tried reaching, and my eukori seemed to splutter a little. It was too late anyway; I couldn’t hold back. I needed to bite. My fangs pierced her throat.

  She twitched, but other than trembling, she was still.

  I could feel her Blood against my fangs. Reflexively I pulled and her Blood coursed into me. The sensation had lost none of its intensity. The room faded around me; my world narrowed till there was nothing but the taste of her and the sweet fire in my throat.

  For a few seconds, my eukori returned and flared through her. She gasped as we shared every feeling. Her body molded itself to me and her hand reached up to stroke my face shyly.

  “Oh, my God,” she whispered.

  Our eukori tangled and twisted together.

  Mine. Mine. Mine.

  It started to hammer in my head, like a pulse gone crazy. I stopped then, while I still wanted more. More Blood, more binding, more sensation.

  This was about taking her into my House, and my eukori told me that she was already there. I’d done no more than make it formal and give her a hint of the marque. Enough to satisfy Skylur’s demands.

  My Athanate seemed satisfied and my body obeyed. Fangs disappeared. I tasted the bitter aniatropics in my mouth and licked Jofranka’s neck until the blood stopped and the wounds closed.

  Mine.

  A sense of peace snuck up on me, a real contentment. A pride.

  This was good. My House was clicking together, brick by brick, every part connected to every other part, a solid structure.

  “Thank you,” I murmured in her ear. “Welcome to House Farrell.”

  The door opened.

  “Your brunch will get cold,” Yelena called. “I tried over easy, but I think you’ll call it an omelet. There’s bacon and coffee ready right now.”

  Chapter 39

  “I love you.”

  It wasn’t like hearing him whisper it straight into my ear, preferably while we were in bed, but even over the phone, Alex’s words gave me goosebumps.

  “I love you, too. I wish you were here.”

  Yelena smirked, but kept her concentration on driving. More or less.

  “You never know,” he teased. “A couple more days and maybe...”

  “What? Skylur will never let you go while there’s so many Athanate in LA.”

  “I may not be needed.”

  I laughed. No way.

  “No, straight up,” he said. “The alpha from the Heights is driving the other three in the negotiations. You saw his eyes light up when you mentioned getting Were representation in the new Assembly. He wants it so bad he drools on the table.”

  “So Tarez is happy.”

  “Yeah. And the Belles are in. They’re already helping out with patrols, so I even got to sleep last night while you were doing the ritual.”

  “Ah. You’ve spoken to Felix then.” And no doubt there were other things said.

  “Yeah.” I could hear him shift gears. “Is everything okay? Felix said he couldn’t get through.”

  I laughed again. “Bullshit. Felix gave you hell because Yelena told him to fuck off.”

  “Something like that.”

  Yelena smirked even more.

  “I’ll call him and apologize the next opportunity I get,” I said.

  “Okay. What’re you doing?”

  “We’ve been looking for Fay. Tracked her parents down, but they’ve got no information. Or none they want to share.”

  I’d pretended I was organizing a class reunion, and bounced up to their door trying to look like one of Fay’s old cheerleader friends. They hadn’t been rude exactly, but it wasn’t a productive conversation. She’d graduated from South High and walked out of their life. She wasn’t listed as a missing person, so I suspected they’d heard something from her, but they wouldn’t say, and I didn’t want to press them on something that was clearly painful.

  “Matt?” Alex asked.

  Tullah’s boyfriend was our go-to guy on the internet. Few people could completely hide their existence once he started looking. But Matt wasn’t available; he was hiding out with Tullah.

  “I have to go,” I said. I was juggling two cells. I’d left a message on Mom’s cell earlier and she was calling me back.

  “One last thing,” Alex said.

  I passed the other cell to Yelena to get Mom on the line and hold her.

  “What was the job you gave Dante?” Alex asked.

  “Huh? What?”

  “Dante didn’t go to the club with Dominé today. She took off, saying something about a job she was doing for you.”

  A sliver of unease started to coil in my belly.

  “I don’t know what that’d be. Nothing specific I said to her.”

  Another cell started bleeping, while Yelena was trying to soothe Mom. There was too much going on. She pulled over.

  “Is this an Athanate issue?” Alex said. “Should I tell Altau?”

  What he was asking was whether she posed a security problem. If we thought she did, then we were obliged to tell Altau, and matters might be taken out of our hands.

  No. Mine.

  Biting someone once didn’t make it impossible for them to betray you. The binding grew over time.

  Dante was independently-minded. She might want to prove to herself that she wasn’t under my sinister control. She was also young. She might just have gone shopping and made up a story about doing something for me.

  “No. Alex, keep me posted, but this stays in-House. Sorry, I have to go.”

  I ended the call and grabbed the next cell.

  “Hi, Mom.”

  The convers
ation didn’t go well. What could I say? I wasn’t able to explain the injury or the treatment or even where it happened, and Mom was seriously pissed off at hearing ‘I can’t discuss that’ again.

  Both Jen and Alex had called her over the last month. Even Ingram had called her. She’d been trying to call him this morning and he wasn’t answering.

  Not surprised. I can’t discuss that either.

  “I’ll come over later,” I said. “You’ll be able to see I’m okay. Perfectly fine.”

  Yelena was making urgent cutting signs with her hand, waving another cell at me. Someone had gotten through her defenses, then.

  “Gotta go,” I said to my mother. “I’ll come over soon. I’ll call when I’m on my way.”

  I hope.

  I felt lousy and angry. Lousy that I hadn’t been able to talk to Mom about what had gone on, and angry at Diana that she’d woven that subtle compulsion into my head so I’d never questioned how long it had been since I’d spoken to Mom. Surely there was a time in my treatment I’d have been able to talk to Mom?

  Yelena pressed my cell into my hand. It had the mute on.

  “This I think you have to take,” Yelena said. “This is the alpha from Albuquerque, and he’s saying the Santa Fe alpha has come for a visit. This is a problem?”

  “Shit! Yes!”

  Cameron in Denver? Without warning? Felix would go ape. Or wolf. Whatever.

  I flicked off the mute.

  “Zane?” I said. “What crap is this?”

  “No crap, Amber. We’re in Denver.”

  “We?” I snapped at him.

  “Me and Rita are accompanying Cameron. No one else. We’re just here to talk.”

  “Frigging hell, Zane!” I shouted. “Two alphas and a senior lieutenant turn up without warning in Denver and I’m supposed to welcome you? What the hell were you thinking?”

  “I’m thinking that, in this case, I’m Cameron’s lieutenant. That’s acceptable, given that Albuquerque is a sub-pack of Santa Fe. So, it’s the New Mexico alpha and two lieutenants, come to pay their respects to their neighbors. We’re associated with you; we’re allowed to visit.”

  I couldn’t argue. I hadn’t had time to discuss this with Felix—the fact that as a full alpha of Pack Deauville, I had authority to make associations and receive visits for us, and yet as a sub-Pack of the Denver pack, I couldn’t for him. This was exactly the sort of reason that two or more packs didn’t share territory.