Bite Back Box Set 2

by Mark Henwick

  I left, already about as distracted as I could be, now worrying about Tullah as well as House Lloyd.

  Tullah had to be here with Diana for her to reclaim her dragon. Even if there had been hints that reclaiming wasn’t as straightforward as it sounded, I had hoped that once she and Kaothos were home, things would become easier.

  Or at least easy enough for me to turn my attention to my family, and more specifically, my sister. It was only a couple of days since the shock of Agent Ingram’s revelation to me, and I’d spent a lot of time thinking about it. All the time I’d been caught up in resolving what Forsythe had done to me in my last year of school, I’d completely missed that he’d done the same thing to my sister.

  Initially, I’d thought I should come in like the cavalry and fix things for her, right away, using whatever Athanate powers would do the job. I’d wanted to erase every memory of Forsythe from Kath’s head. Remove every trace of him. Scrub her clean.

  That had been anger speaking. It’d been all about what he’d done to me. It was as if he’d done it all over again.

  Alex and Jen had waited for my rage to burn out and held me while I cried and swore.

  “Now let’s make a plan,” Alex had said quietly when I’d finished. “A plan for Kath. What she needs and how to do it.”

  And so Jen and Alex and Pia and I had decided that we needed to start very slowly—first I had to ease back into the family, and my relationship with Kathleen.

  Which, crises about House Lloyd and Tullah allowing, started with Christmas Eve dinner at Mom’s tonight. Tonight, 7pm. Fourteen hours’ time. In pretty clothes and with my face washed. No excuses. No point turning up in any way that would give Kath something to get angry about.

  Not that she needs rational or reasonable excuses.

  I kicked myself. As Jen had put it, a lot of Kath’s worst behavior was probably bottled-up, denied rage that had transformed itself into a different aspect.

  I needed to be able to let the rages just wash over me without reacting, and start thinking about how to overcome the real problem behind them.

  Starting tonight.

  That was, of course, unless everything went to hell today.

  No point thinking about that this morning, but it was as if my frustrations latched onto everything else I thought about. I wanted to get going and make progress with something and yet here I was waiting.

  I understood Skylur’s reasons for talking to House Prowser, but I’d spent ten years in Ops 4-10 and far too much of it had been hurry up and wait.

  Still, what was bugging me seemed to be more than a mixture of frustration, apprehension and anger. I’d felt odd, ever since Pia had woken me from that strange dream of walking with Tullah. A ‘fingernails on the backboard’ feeling. Something had gone wrong, or was just about to.

  But if it was real, where? Which problem? If it wasn’t real, what was it?

  Bian had suggested there would be something to distract me in the gym.

  If there wasn’t, I was going to hammer a punching bag until either it burst, or Bian came to calm me down.

  But as it turned out, there was a distraction, even at this ungodly hour.

  Chapter 3

  It was Mykayla.

  A few months ago, she’d been a happy-go-lucky Denver girl who liked raves, and had a crush on me and Bian, not in that order. Now she was Bian’s kin, and an Aspirant—a human training to become Athanate. Diana had chosen Mykayla as the first person she wanted me to infuse, to test out whether my infusion would actually reduce crusis, or turn people into hybrids. Or something else entirely. Like kill them.

  Mykayla, crazy girl, had actually volunteered.

  She was training this morning; Aspirants go through a vigorous physical program, so that when their time comes to be infused, they’re in peak condition. It helps them survive the dangerous physical stresses of crusis.

  House Lloyd’s kin was already dying. How could he possibly survive even a short crusis?

  I pushed the thoughts away and concentrated on Mykayla.

  I hadn’t been monitoring her progress while I was away in LA, so I was surprised by the change. Her exercises on the training mats and the sleek look of her body impressed me. Let alone the dedication to get up this early to work out.

  She wasn’t alone. Haven was busy—even the gym, even at this hour.

  Colonel Laine had recruited soldiers from our old battalion, Ops 4-10, after the whole Ops 4 group was disbanded. They’d started out based in Wyoming, but as of a few weeks ago, Haven was their HQ. They were working directly for House Altau now and they were taking their new role as seriously as I would expect from former Ops 4-10 personnel. It wasn’t just people in the gym at strange hours; there was a new multi-channel comms system covering the area, patrols 24/7 with staggered shifts, biometric monitoring of active personnel and surveillance of the locality across the spectrum.

  I could see they were just begging Basilikos to try attacking Haven.

  It was intended that small teams of former Ops 4-10 would be sent from here to just about every House in North America. Skylur had declared that North America was his territory and he intended to strengthen his sub-Houses so that there was no weak point for Basilikos to exploit.

  Colonel Laine looked to have that objective all in hand.

  Keith had wandered off to find breakfast and any familiar faces from his days in Ops 4-10, leaving me alone when the training ended.

  Mykayla came bounding over.

  “Hi, Amber!”

  We hugged.

  “Hi yourself. You’re looking good, girl.”

  “Yup! I’m ready.”

  I didn’t need to ask what she meant she was ready for. The girl wanted to start the process of transformation by being infused by me.

  “You’re ready when Bian says you’re ready,” I said and sat back down on the bench.

  “Come on! Tell me I’m not in top condition,” she insisted. Her face got a little sly look to it. “Get a load of these abs.”

  She opened her gi and lifted her sweaty shirt.

  Yeah, great abs, and an entirely intentional opportunity to appreciate the cutest little pink-nosed puppies too.

  I snorted and grabbed her by her canvas training pants, lifting her up as she squealed and depositing her next to me on the bench.

  I was laughing, and after a little pout, she joined in.

  “Bian put you up to that, didn’t she?” I asked.

  “Sort of.”

  “Either she did or she didn’t. Come on, Mykayla, spill.”

  “She bet me. Said if I got you into bed, she’d agree I was ready to be infused.”

  I laughed harder and gave her a hug. That was typical Bian, but Mykayla hadn’t quite seen all of it.

  “Could have been a double whammy,” she said indistinctly and sighed, her face pressed against my shoulder.

  “Congratulations,” I said.

  She leaned back and looked up at me suspiciously, as if I were teasing her some more.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, Bian might have a horrible sense of humor, but look at it this way: do you think she’s irresponsible?”

  Mykayla frowned. “No. Not at all. I don’t understand.”

  “Hundred percent responsible?” I prompted her. “Ninety? Eighty?”

  “Hundred, of course.”

  “So, let’s say you aren’t ready to be infused, but there was a chance, oh, one in ten, say, that we actually ended up in bed. That’d make her only ninety percent responsible, unless…”

  Mykayla frowned again before suddenly it dawned on her. “Oh! Unless it didn’t matter. Unless she thinks I am ready, and getting me to try and seduce you was a joke.”

  “Congratulations,” I said again.

  “Oh, Amber!” She leaped up from the bench and did a handspring followed by cartwheels in a complete circle so she ended up back in front of me.

  “Today? Now?” She bounced on her toes.

  M
y fangs were throbbing with anticipation, which was distracting, but I managed a shaky laugh. No matter how eager my Athanate was to infuse someone, I needed help to go through the process, and I wasn’t in any hurry. No one knew what would happen when I infused someone. The thought of infusing Mykayla was scary enough. Now I had Scott to think of as well.

  “When Bian sets it up,” I told her, and sent her off to shower.

  She disappeared, and on cue, Bian came into the gym, her brow furrowed.

  I leaped up from the bench.

  “What’s up, Pussycat?”

  She gave me a distracted hug.

  “What we have here, Round-eye, the Empire of Heaven would call a crisis,” she said. “That is, danger at a point of change. I think my first sword sensei would have called it a flying wakizashi.”

  I had to laugh. “I know the wakizashi is the short sword the samurai used. I’ve no idea what a flying one is.”

  “My sensei would toss the wakizashi in the air, so that it was spinning really quickly. You had to grab it. If you caught the handle, all was well.”

  “And if you caught the blade you might lose a finger or two. I see. Tough sensei.”

  “Hmm.” She looked lost in thought for a moment.

  “House Lloyd? Sanctuary? You mean that’s the flying wakizashi?”

  She blinked and came back into focus.

  “Yes. House Prowser told Skylur she has given up any claim to House Lloyd as a sub-House and waived her rights to Blood payment or feud with you.”

  She didn’t seem that enthusiastic.

  “That’s good, right?”

  “Maybe. You did note, didn’t you, that Skylur handed the decision about infusing Scott to us, or more specifically to you. He’s done the same with the request for sanctuary. Our choice.”

  Which meant it would be our responsibility as well.

  I felt a chill down my back.

  It was my choice to take House Lloyd or not, but again, Bian had said ‘our choice’, meaning she was going to back me regardless.

  But Skylur was distancing himself. Not entirely—Athanate oaths didn’t allow for that—but enough that, if things went wrong, it was up to us to fix.

  “Another thing House Prowser mentioned,” Bian said. “You remember down in LA, when she passed on details she’d been able to find—that Forsythe was going to sell Tamanny at a slave auction.”

  “Yeah? Something about information from a criminal and a court case up in Detroit.”

  “Well, apparently Amanda Lloyd was the main person responsible for bringing that criminal to justice.”

  “So I already owed her. She had to know that, and she didn’t try to cash it in. Why?”

  Bian grimaced. “We can ask. From the way House Prowser put it, I get the sense House Lloyd felt she couldn’t use that because it would imply she’d done it for a return, and that would be unacceptable to her, unless everything else failed.”

  “But...” I stopped.

  “Complex person,” Bian said. “Strong principles. Interesting.”

  There was a lot to think about and no time. House Lloyd would be here this morning.

  I should get back to Manassah, but I needed to hear if anything else had been said.

  “Any more on Diana?”

  Bian shrugged. “We’ve no way to call her. It was deliberately designed for Skylur to be my only point of contact. Oh, there are things that have been set up, like posting something coded on social media that asks them to call us, but that depends on them stopping and looking, not to mention deciding if it’s secure enough. She’ll be here soon anyway.”

  Bian didn’t seem worried about Diana. I guess, given that she had Alice and Kaothos with her, I shouldn’t be either. I just couldn’t shake this feeling of foreboding.

  It wasn’t just a matter of her safety. I needed Diana here. I really didn’t want to try infusing Scott without my Mentor on hand. I was relying on Diana to guide me through the process, using eukori. Diana was the Kumemnon, the eldest living Athanate. If anyone had a chance of ensuring things didn’t go wrong, it was her.

  “That situation in New York that got Skylur to change his plans...” Bian said. “Apparently, there’s a large group of diazoun Houses who’ve been hiding out in Brooklyn and the rest of Long Island.”

  I frowned. New York State had been the territory of the Warders, prior to their dissolution at the last Assembly. The Warders had claimed their domain as independent, while secretly cooperating with Basilikos.

  A strong and secure Athanate House might decide to allow one diazoun House to sit on the edge of its borders. Two, if they were very quiet and respectful. But a ‘large group’ of Houses? Inside their territory?

  “The Warders let them?” I asked.

  Bian laughed outright. “Not really. Apparently, the Warders just didn’t have a clue what was going on. Naryn stopped there on the way to his new domain in Boston, and the leaders of the diazoun presented themselves to him, figuring they’d never get away with hiding in Skylur’s territory.”

  “They got that right. Well, I guess they all give him their oaths or go to Ireland. Simple. Isn’t it?”

  The Irish Athanate had declared themselves independent from all Athanate politics and Ireland itself was open to any as a refuge.

  Bian wrinkled her nose. “If it’s so straightforward, then why is it urgent for Skylur to go there rather than making sure Diana gets here safely?”

  Good point.

  “Skylur didn’t explain?”

  Stupid question. Bian snorted.

  “It’s made you uneasy,” I said.

  “I’m uneasy about a lot of things,” she replied. “The security situation once Diana gets here, the dangers of your infusion, the fact I have to rebuild my own House from scratch while holding Haven, not knowing where Tullah is hiding out and why. Yes, I’m concerned that Skylur isn’t briefing me more fully on New York. But this morning’s uneasiness is about this morning’s business: House Lloyd.”

  “What specifically?”

  “House Prowser was complimentary about House Lloyd and yet took no persuading to cheerfully give up any claim. Put yourself in her shoes.”

  I swallowed. Athanate politics were prickly, especially when it came to sub-Houses and associations. Given my own response to thinking of someone taking any of my House away, I would have understood if House Prowser had declared feud.

  So why hadn’t she?

  Maybe I’d gotten lucky. Maybe I hadn’t.

  Bian smiled one of those not-smiles. “Maybe she knows something about House Lloyd that we don’t.”

  “Has anyone ever told you you’re paranoid, Pussycat?”

  “Yeah, lots of people, but they’re all dead, because they didn’t see it coming.”

  Chapter 4

  Fifteen minutes later, as Keith drove us home, I was even more restless, twitchy and uneasy. The hairs on the back of my neck were standing up, and I still couldn’t figure out why.

  Not that I didn’t have an entire buffet of things to worry about. Diana and Kaothos. Tullah. My promise to infuse an elderly, desperately ill kin who wasn’t even mine, and who would almost certainly die from it.

  And to top it off, there was Mom’s dinner tonight, and trying to figure out what to say to Kath.

  Oddly, though, it didn’t feel like any of those things. It didn’t even feel like Bian’s flying wakizashi—or her paranoia. It felt like sensing someone looking over my shoulder, combined with a deep certainty something somewhere had already gone wrong.

  I hoped I could figure out what it was before it blindsided me.

  My cell pinged, startling me. A text message from Yelena.

  Landed at Centennial. On way home.

  No problems. Tove is a mess.

  Yippee. I added that to the worry buffet. Yesterday I’d sent Yelena to make good on a promise I’d made in LA. She’d flown down to California to pick up Tove Johansen, another victim of Forsythe, who’d helped us catch him.

&
nbsp; It’d been a promise made in the heat of the moment without being thought through—that Tove could come live with us to get her life back in order.

  Yeah. Not thought through: all part of the after-effects of going rogue.

  I’d spent months on the brink, before sliding all the way down that slope out in New Mexico. Wild fits of impulsiveness had been one of the symptoms.

  They’d brought me back from the abyss—Diana, Bian and my House. Now it was time for me to figure out how to make good on the promises I’d made, and fix things. If I could.

  So much for a relaxing Christmas holiday with my House.

  I texted back.

  We have a situation.

  Diazoun House inbound, seeking sanctuary. With complications.

  Talk to Pia.

  I glanced at the clock on the dash. In twelve hours and change Kath would be at my parents’ house in Aurora, everyone ready for Christmas Eve festivities. I was determined to be there, beginning the process of letting Kath know that she could count on me again, that I would show up for her and make her a priority. But this morning had its own urgent problems. Amanda Lloyd had called before entering Colorado. Given the time I’d spent getting Bian’s response, Keith and I might arrive back home just as House Lloyd turned up.

  As I saw it, I had three choices: drag her and her kin out to Haven and turn the decision over to Bian; offer simple sanctuary; or take her oath as a sub-House.

  My fangs throbbed.

  Who am I trying to kid?

  I’d already decided, unless something went very wrong in the next hour: if she was willing to give an oath, I would accept it.

  Which meant I had to start thinking hard about how much metaphorical baggage House Lloyd was bringing with them. Hopefully not a lynch mob of northern Adepts, or something subtle that would poison Athanate politics.

  For example, House Lloyd was diazoun, an outsider, so she wouldn’t have contact numbers for the Athanate territories she’d passed through, and, as diazoun, possibly didn’t think it mattered if she passed through another House’s territory.