“Wait until you’ve worked with magekind who aren’t out to fuck you over. Then you’ll know what the hell you’re talking about when you make threats like that. I’m serious here. A little cooperation, and maybe I don’t have to hold you like this. Maybe you could learn a thing or two. You’ve never lived among free kin. I don’t even want to guess what Sessani did to you before she sold her own son for cash on the barrel.” He slid another finger across Vahid’s cheek. “You don’t understand what Winters is to me because you don’t understand decent women. Don’t stay this way. It’s a fuck-all bad place to be. Your choice. Stay resentful and ignorant, or pay attention and learn a few things.”
There wasn’t a single psychic or mental twitch in response because Kynan had cut him off from that, too. Petulant pretty-faced boy who didn’t know anything about a world where the magekind weren’t out to make his very existence a hell. “Do I have a choice?”
“Your freedom to choose matters more than you can imagine.” Kynan let up enough for Vahid to relax. He got sullen silence in response, but he was okay with that. The guy needed a break, and Kynan wasn’t going to deny him that. Maybe he should’ve paid more attention to how Winters handled her newbies. She dealt with this shit all the time.
Then Vahid let out a sharp laugh. “Look who’s lecturing me about choice.” He tipped his chin in the direction of the basement door where Winters stood in silence. “Bound up with a witch.”
“Yeah, but look at her. She’s hot. Lots of magic, too.”
Winters let out a strangled snort.
“All they’re good for is making more kin.”
“You’re not going to have many friends of the female sort if you believe that shit. You’ll never know what it’s like to have someone you respect give you all that back and more. What she said about the free kin and humans, that was true. Besides, you seem to have forgotten that you can’t make more kin without one of them.”
“There’s money in girls.” Another smile curved Vahid’s mouth, and it was unnerving to realize he saw nothing wrong with what he’d just said. “Selling them pays for keeping the boys in case they grow up like me.”
Winters stayed where she was, but she put her hands on her hips and raised her voice so it carried. “What does she do with males who don’t manifest?”
“Two hundred dollars and a bus ticket.”
She shook her head. “The more I hear about this operation, the worse it gets.”
Vahid nodded in earnest agreement. “She loses a lot of the boys. There were seven my age. Three of us survived. But there were ten a couple of years younger.” Vahid rocked backward. “I don’t know what happened to them.”
Kynan tapped him once on the forehead and backed off the magic. “You know what happened. Fucking magekind. If they manifested, they got sold to magekind. Like you were.”
Vahid was settling down, losing his belligerence but none of the arrogance.
“Was Goban one of your group?” He avoided looking directly at Vahid. He was finally talking, and Kynan didn’t want to stop the flow of information they needed to take down Sessani.
Vahid shook his head. “Goban was sold when I was fifteen, I think.” His eyes got distant. “Some of the feral ones—”
“What does that mean?” Winters asked. “Feral.”
“Not raised. Like Rangi or him.” He nodded at Kynan. “Some of the ones like him, who have been brought under control, say it’s better to give them girls to abandon than boys to enslave. They are wrong. That only gets them killed. Sessani doesn’t breed demons who make too many girls. If you don’t breed the women, then you are one who will be glorified in ritual death. As Rangi would have been today.”
“Glorified,” Winters said. Kynan recognized her tone and the way she’d relaxed her body and cleared her expression. She talked her newbies through a lot of issues this way. “Is that what Rangi did? Too many girls?”
“Yes. And today he would have died in service to the cause.”
Winters tilted her chin so she could look Vahid in the eye. “Kin like Rangi are why I know we don’t have to live as enemies.”
“Would you have died for Kynan Aijan today?”
“Yes. And I would die for you as well, if it meant saving you and other raised from the likes of Neda Sessani.”
Vahid licked his lower lip, but said nothing in response. Kynan held out his arm and made a shallow slice high on his forearm. When a decent amount had gathered, he swept his fingers through the cut and made the blood dance above his fingers.
The other demon backed away. “You said no oaths.”
“Don’t worry, junior. I’m not asking for a blood bond from you. Not until you understand what that means. I’m making you another promise.”
“What promise?”
“Whether you go or stay, my promise holds. That means if you leave, that’s fine. Do that if that’s what you want. My promise is that if you ask, I will teach you what you need to know. No tricks, no lies. All you have to do is listen.” He brought his hand to Vahid’s lips and let the blood slide to the tips of his fingers. “This is a win for you any way you look at it.”
Vahid knew enough to brush his fingers across Kynan’s and lick the blood from his own fingers. He shuddered long and hard.
He gave Vahid time to settle in with the change. He’d gotten what he wanted. Now it was time to give Vahid something he needed to hear. “Winters has been after Sessani and her traffickers from the second she suspected what was going on. Long before any of the kin understood what or why. She’s going to deal with that witch. That’s a fact.”
“So?” Vahid looked at Winters first, and there was less contempt this time.
“So,” Kynan said. “You owe your freedom to Winters. I’m asking you not to forget that.” He touched Vahid’s lower lip. “Whatever time you had with Bejar, it wasn’t enough. I knew him. He wouldn’t have wanted to fail you like this. Out there on your own, if some mage doesn’t kill you for breathing, you’ll end up mageheld again. Guaranteed.”
Vahid’s eyes flashed colors so fast Kynan wasn’t sure he’d made himself clear enough. He touched a finger to Vahid’s forehead again and sent Nikodemus’s contact info to him so he wouldn’t lose it. Couldn’t lose it.
“Stay with me for a while, and I’ll teach you how to deal with your freedom and give you a shot at keeping it, oath or no oath. No obligation except to follow the rules and listen to my advice. Deal?”
He looked up, and Kynan wondered whether Vahid resented how strongly his physical form resembled Sessani. “Are only you two going after her?”
“If we have to, yes. But we won’t have to.”
After a brief silence, Vahid nodded. He took a breath. “The last time I was at Sessani’s, she had more than a hundred slaves. There are always five or six other mages or witches at the compound. More if there are mages who want to acquire raised.”
“Thanks for the information. Nikodemus will come here, and when we tell him about this, he will send teams after Sessani. We’ll go with a coordinated effort.” He picked up the car fob he’d found on one of the mages and held it up. “Winters is right about the others who came with you. They’re free now, and they probably need some help.” Kynan held out an arm and Winters came to him. “If you have another form, take it. We’ll be faster that way.”
Vahid shifted to a sleek lapis-flecked blue beast, not the jackal-headed manifestation from before, and hooked the car fob with a talon. “Warlord.”
“The only question,” Winters said, “is whether Durian got to them.”
“Let’s find out.” He changed forms and picked up Winters.
Vahid took the lead in the tunnel. Without a bond between them, Kynan didn’t trust the guy. Besides, Vahid knew the way and what was at the other end. Kynan allowed a low-level link so he could communicate the urge for speed. They both saw perfectly well in the dark, so despite the lack of light, they moved silently and quickly through the passage.
What a
relief to leave those ruby-infused walls behind.
The other end of the tunnel sloped upward for the last ten yards and ended at a crude, weathered wooden door that exited to a field more or less in the middle of nowhere, which was the eastern side of a bluff a mile from the house and a hundred yards northeast of the falling-down fence that marked the property line.
As they emerged from the dankness, Durian stood up.
CHAPTER 18
Maddy exited to the field after Kynan said, “My friend,” in a distinctly unfriendly voice.
The back of her head was a block of ice and her chest was vibrating with that unmistakable reaction to a demon of power. She stepped into the sun intensely aware that Durian was sworn to Nikodemus and that she was not. That fact changed everything. Until now, she’d considered Durian a friend. They got along well. Well, they used to get along well. Her entire body shivered with the potential for violence.
He was fast. So fast. He was Nikodemus’s assassin of choice when the objective was speed and efficiency. She’d always liked Durian, but now they were on opposite sides. He would carry out his orders without sentiment. She wasn’t dead yet, and that meant there was hope.
She took a deep breath. Durian could take and had taken oaths of his own.
When she reached Kynan and Vahid, Kynan looped an arm around her shoulder and drew her close like it was something he did every day. She didn’t know whether she ought to push him away or stay as she was, and not because the politics of the available choices weren’t clear.
If she swore fealty to Durian, the question of her loyalty would be over. Once again she would be sworn to Nikodemus, albeit indirectly. Swear to Durian, and she’d end any possibility of swearing to Kynan, and all the tension between them because of that would go away. It was a good solution. An excellent one. So many problems solved with that one simple act.
“Maddy.” Durian stood with his arms loose at his side. He didn’t look pleased to see her, and that sent her nerves jangling. He wore black jeans and a black T-shirt that looked like he’d ironed it. He kept his hair shorter these days, but short for him was shoulder length. She happened to know that Gray preferred that. He had his phone in one hand. She saw the screen go dark.
“Durian.” She touched three fingers to her bowed forehead. Kynan’s resentment of that acknowledgment boiled up between them. She straightened.
Durian held her gaze. “Fifteen magehelds,” he said calmly. “Thirteen of them powerful enough for me to wonder what the hell you thought you were up to. Thirteen magehelds waiting to be summoned.”
“Not by me.”
Kynan drew on his magic. “Get off it, Durian.”
This was Nikodemus’s favorite assassin, and his eyes had just turned purple. It was all she could do not to hold magic of her own. Instead, she lifted her hands. “I haven’t got a phone.” She nodded at his. “You do, though. What did you tell Nikodemus about that?”
“That I would end you before you murdered Kynan.”
Her heart skipped a beat. Kynan smoothed her shoulder and murmured, “It’s okay, Winters. Everything’s going to be okay.”
“Obviously, Durian, they weren’t my magehelds.”
He was impassive as he looked at Kynan, without any outward sign that he appreciated her greeting to him. “I have my directive, warlord.”
She could have everything back if she swore fealty to Durian. All of it. Durian’s friendship, his unquestioning support of her. She’d be one of them again.
“I will fucking kill you, Durian.” Anger rumbled in Kynan’s words, and she felt the echo of that on her side of the bonds. Vahid shifted nervously, unsettled by the rising tension.
“I think you won’t.” Durian smiled. “Should Nikodemus authorize her sanction, he’ll relieve you of your promise to protect her.”
Kynan’s arm tightened around her shoulders. “Like you were going to get inside.”
“I met Rangi and Goban in the tunnel.” He gestured at the tunnel exit.
She would have taken a step forward except Kynan gently brought her back. “You know the truth, then. They would have told you what happened.”
Again he replied to Kynan. “It wasn’t necessary for me to get in. Here you both are.”
“Exactly,” she said. “Both of us. He’s not mageheld.” Every atom of her objected to Durian treating her as if she were the enemy, even though she understood he had to. This time when she took a step closer to Durian, Kynan didn’t stop her. Her legs hollowed out when she imagined herself kneeling at Durian’s feet, asking, begging even, to swear loyalty to him.
Flecks of purple and red flickered in Durian’s eyes. He knew. He knew what she was considering.
“Those two must have told you what happened in there,” she said.
“I heard a story, yes.” He was implacable. “Everything they said could be true, and you would still be an oath breaker.”
Her stomach hollowed out. “Not because of anything I did.”
“My instructions were clear,” he said. “And my loyalty is unquestioned. You, however, are not sworn to Nikodemus.” He tipped his head to one side and gave a small shrug. He knew what it was like to lose his connection to Nikodemus. He knew better than anyone that without her oath of fealty, she could not be trusted. “Or to one of his warlords.”
Now was the time to ask him to take her oath. Now. Kynan took a sharp breath. The words did not come because Durian’s smile was not friendly in the least. Because, because, because she could not say the words.
“It’s okay, Winters. He’s always been a dick.”
She reached into her pocket and took out the driver’s licenses she’d put there, grateful that her hand was steady. “Vahid, would you give these to Durian? Please.”
Predictably, Vahid looked to Kynan for permission. Durian’s eyebrows arched. The minute the three of them left the killing room, he’d have known Vahid and Kynan were free kin.
“Go ahead,” Kynan said. To Durian, he said, “He’s new and doesn’t know shit. You might have to give him a break or two.”
Though Vahid took the cards from her, he stood motionless. She’d seen similar reactions from newly freed magehelds, that combination of wonderment and terror that paralyzed them. Standing under the wide-open sky with the knowledge that you could go anywhere, do anything, and no one could give a countermanding order, that was a moment of terrible joy. The paralysis of not being told what to do, that, too, was a terrible moment.
“You’ll get used to it,” she said. “I promise you that.”
Halfway to Durian, Vahid stopped, turned his face toward the sun, and spread his arms wide. Slowly, he turned in a circle. At the end, he let go of the licenses. They fluttered to the ground and disappeared into the grass. “I do not have to do this.”
“No,” she said. “You do not.”
“Ugo Cifai. Denis Garzon,” Maddy said. If her life hadn’t turned upside down, she’d have taken care of everything by now. A couple of phone calls and she would have had a report waiting for her by now. Teams would be on their way to the respective homes of those two mages to search for freed magehelds, kin who could not escape, and for talismans.
Durian walked to Vahid and picked up the two licenses. He didn’t look at them, just shoved them in his back pocket.
“They were associates of a witch named Neda Sessani,” Maddy said. “She’s running a breeding program. And worse. Much worse.”
Durian looked to Kynan. He wasn’t stupid, and he’d been around long enough that he had no illusions about human magic users. “I knew something at her house wasn’t right.” He pressed his palms together and lifted them so the tips of his middle fingers touched his nose. “Warlord.” He kept his hands pressed together and pointed them at Kynan. “What have you done?”
“What Nikodemus told me to do.” He brought her back to him, and she frowned. She didn’t like him behaving as if he had some claim to her, and that reaction went to war with the urge to keep close. “I kept her a
live.”
Durian extended a hand to Vahid. “I am sworn to the warlord Nikodemus. You are?”
“Vahid.” He grasped Durian’s hand, and the two shook. Durian flipped his car keys to Vahid. The other demon caught them. “Is there a task for me?”
“No,” Durian said softly. “No task. If you get stopped, better that you’re driving my car instead of one that stinks of magekind.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You should not be here while this situation is unresolved. Go where you like. Someplace you want to be.” After a brief silence, he added, “Did someone give you Nikodemus’ contact information?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Call that number if anything happens. I’m parked a mile down the road. The green Volvo.”
“Warlord?” Vahid said to Kynan.
Kynan took out his wallet. “Do you have money?”
Durian and Kynan agreeing that Vahid should not be here was not a good sign. It meant they anticipated the kind of confrontation that often led to someone being dead.
“We were not allowed money of our own.” Vahid ran his fingers through his hair and looked between Kynan and Durian. “Is this true? I am to leave?”
“You can catch up with me afterward.” Kynan held out several bills and a credit card. “Don’t spend it all in one place. Get yourself a burner phone, and like we said, call Nikodemus if you run into trouble. You have the number. Someone always answers.”
“Thank you, warlord.” Those were the first words from Vahid’s mouth that weren’t sullen or full of pride. He gave Maddy a less grateful look, and leave it to Vahid to manage to be surly on top of everything else. “I will find this Nikodemus for you, witch, and tell him what happened. I owe you that much.”
“You don’t owe me anything.”
“Yes, he does,” Kynan said. “Don’t you forget it.” He put a hand on Vahid’s shoulder and squeezed. “Go. This will get settled. Trust me on that. Hell, I’ll give you better advice than Durian did. Don’t go anywhere with a lot of people. You won’t know if they’re mageheld until it’s too late. Drive up the coast to Jenner and watch the sunset. Stay there until the money runs out or you get bored. Do whatever the hell you want as long as it’s not against the rules.” His fingers tightened on Vahid’s shoulder and his index fingers swept up from Vahid’s collarbone along his throat. “If you decide to come back, I’ll take your oath.”
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