“You’re lying.”
I forced the words out despite the emotional whirlwind that made it hard to stand, let alone speak. Then my spine stiffened, and I said them again.
“You’re lying. The little girl I saw had to be ten years old, at least. I started working for Don less than eight years ago.”
“A80 turned seven last month,” Trove replied. “Only took the surrogate five months to carry her, and growth hormones took care of the rest. Madigan wanted to see what his new toy could do, and once he added ghoul DNA to her genetic makeup, my, did A80 deliver.”
That tornado returned to raze my equilibrium. Five months. That was how long my mother had carried me, and I’d been fully developed at birth. If I’d been given growth hormones and an additional dose of undead DNA, I might have looked years older at age seven, too.
Bones gripped my arm when my knees began to buckle despite my resolve not to buy any of this. Demons lie, I reminded myself. Even if what Trove said was scientifically possible, that didn’t make any of it true.
“Madigan’s impatience also made him obsessed with you,” Trove went on cheerfully. “He didn’t want to wait for A80 to mature enough to produce her own eggs, and his attempts to synthetically replicate her tri-nature merely resulted in thousands of dead test subjects. I’m used to waiting, so a few more years meant nothing to me, but then you had to attack his compound and give the brat a chance to escape.”
He paused to give me a tolerant look.
“That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? To see if I know where she is? I don’t, but I won’t stop you from looking for her. In fact, I want you to find her. Once you do, please, run tests to verify that every word I’ve said is true.”
“If it is, why would you tell us this?” I choked out.
The demon only smiled, and with brutal clarity, I understood.
Now that Katie was out from under his reach, he needed me to know she was my daughter. It was his insurance that I would risk everything to keep her alive, and along with me, Bones and his allies. The demon wanted war, and he couldn’t have one if no one was willing to fight. Well, Trove had just given me something I’d kill and die for, as he was counting on. He’d probably been hoping we would show up tonight, so he could spill the beans. If we hadn’t, he might have sought us out, unaware that we had the means to kill him.
Pity we hadn’t brought the bone knife. Right now, I’d love nothing more than to shove it through his eyes for gloating over the horrible way he’d used, and still intended to use, a child who might be mine.
With how close he stood, I felt Bones’s cell phone when it vibrated in his pocket. He ignored it, and a few seconds later, mine went off in my tiny clutch bag.
Trove glanced down with a knowing smirk.
“You might want to answer those. It’s important.”
Before I could respond, he disappeared.
“How bad is it?” were Bones’s first words when he strode into his co-ruler’s house.
Mencheres glided up to the entrance, his expression grim as he held out an iPad.
“Very bad,” he said simply.
Bones took the tablet. One look at the screen explained Mencheres’s urgent summons. Despite our shock at Trove’s revelation, we’d flown until we were exhausted, then commandeered cars after that to get here. Now we knew that Trove hadn’t merely been hoping Bones and I would show up at the fund-raiser tonight. He’d been preparing for it.
VAMPIRES AMONG US! screamed the headline on the Web page. More damning, as Bones scrolled down, were the pages and pages of status reports on Madigan’s experiments, complete with video clips showing a glowing-eyed child murdering several fully grown opponents on command.
Since the hard drives had been fried, only one person would have had this information, though of course, the former White House chief of staff’s name wasn’t anywhere on the documents.
“Trove,” I hissed. “While he was droning on, we weren’t the only ones being filled in on the full scope of Madigan’s experiments. So was anyone with eyes and an Internet connection!”
“More sites are appearing as conspiracy theorists and cryptozoologists repost the information,” Mencheres said in somber agreement. “Tai is attempting to take them down to slow the progression of information, but . . . there are too many.”
To illustrate his point, Mencheres minimized that page and opened a new one.
WE ARE NOT ALONE, BUT IT ISN’T WHO YOU THINK, the new headline announced, followed by extensive pathology reports on Katie’s tri-species nature—and what had made that merging possible.
I was too devastated to even curse as Mencheres opened site upon site filled with even more information meant to inflame ghoul and vampire relations. He was right; it was too late to contain this. It had gone viral, just as Trove intended.
Granted, most people viewing these scanned documents wouldn’t know who Specimen A1 was, let alone believe that in vitro fertilization from a half-vampire egg would result in a quarter-vampire child who’d been able to absorb ghoul DNA into her genetics. I mean, I was Specimen A1, and I still had a hard time believing it. Throw in the fact that most humans didn’t know that vampires or ghouls existed, and the reaction, judging from the comments, was open derision.
But the problem wasn’t humans, who’d think all of this was a hoax. It was everyone else who’d know that it wasn’t.
At last, Bones handed back the tablet even though I’d still been reading with a growing sense of doom.
“We need to—” he began, then stopped abruptly when a slender blonde with porcelain-doll loveliness opened the main door without knocking.
“Need to what?” Veritas asked coolly.
I didn’t groan out loud, but it was close. A Law Guardian barging in? Things had gone from horrible to tragic.
“Veritas,” Mencheres said, his tone now smooth as iced butter. “Welcome.”
She gave him a look that said she knew she was as welcome as a festering case of herpes but nodded at the greeting. The pretty blonde might look like she was the same age as Tai, but she was older than Mencheres and almost as powerful. She also had the full weight of the vampire ruling council behind her. For her to show up unannounced mere hours after the leak meant that they were as freaked as Trove had hoped.
No matter what happened, I had to kill that demon for all he’d done.
Then the Law Guardian’s gaze landed on me. For a second, I thought I saw pity in her sage green eyes. Before I could be sure, whatever it was vanished, leaving nothing but granite resolve.
“You know why I am here,” she stated. “The council has already ruled, and their decision is final. Tell me where the child is. It must be destroyed.”
“It is a little girl who didn’t ask for any of this!” I burst out.
Her measured stare didn’t waver.
“Neither did you, according to the documents released, which is why you’re not under arrest for treason.”
I advanced forward until Bones’s hand on my arm stopped me.
“You’re saying the council would have considered it treason if I’d knowingly had a child when I was a half-breed?”
Now I was sure about the sympathy that flashed across Veritas’s face.
“People like you and I don’t get to choose our fates.”
A wistful note tinged her voice before it, and her features, hardened once more.
“If you don’t know that yet, in time, you will learn. Now, tell me where the child is.”
Even if she weren’t my daughter, even if she’d been brainwashed beyond repair and we would never succeed in hiding her, I couldn’t sentence her to death by answering with the truth.
“I don’t know.”
Katie deserved what she’d never been given before. A chance. I knew what I was risking by doing this, but what choice did I have? Maybe it was
faith that made me believe God wouldn’t let our races destroy each other over not killing a child for the crime of being different.
Then I glanced at Bones, noting how tightly he’d closed down his aura and how stony his features were. He didn’t look at me, either. His gaze was all for the Law Guardian, whose stare grew pointed.
My soul seemed to suck in a fearful breath. I will do anything to protect you, he’d sworn. Would he betray Katie’s location in order to stop me from trying to save her? It might cost me my life, and both of us knew it.
Don’t, I thought, wishing desperately that he could still read my mind. Please, Bones. Don’t.
“If you’re looking for the child,” he said in an even voice, his power freezing my mouth when I began to interrupt him, “start with Richard Trove. He’s the demon that funded her creation. As for Madigan, take him with you when you leave. We’ve gleaned nothing useful from him. Perhaps you’ll have better luck.”
Then he turned his back, effectively dismissing her.
I still couldn’t speak since he hadn’t released his telekinetic gag, but Veritas wouldn’t know that. I turned around with him, gripping his hand to convey thankfulness that words wouldn’t cover anyway.
Bones squeezed back, a silent pledge that we were in this together. Now I truly felt like we had a chance. Together, we’d been able to do amazing things.
Veritas let out what sounded like a sigh.
“You realize what will happen if the council discovers that you’re lying?”
Bones glanced over his shoulder with a shrug.
“We’ll be sentenced to death?”
“Nothing less,” she said shortly. “If you wish to revise your responses, you may do so now, without repercussion.”
Like a piece of tape ripped away, I felt Bones’s power leave my mouth. Giving me a chance to recant if I chose.
For a moment, I wavered. The memory of his shriveling in my arms was still fresh and unspeakably awful. I never wanted to experience that again, but if we went after Katie, it could result in Bones’s death.
He might have read the fear in my gaze. Or maybe it was my scent that betrayed me. Very slowly, he brought my hands to his mouth and kissed them.
“I love you, Kitten,” he breathed against my flesh.
Then he dropped them, turning to give the Law Guardian a hard look.
“We gave you our answer, Veritas. Now, if you don’t mind, shut the door behind you when you leave.”
Thirty
Veritas didn’t take Madigan with her. Bones wanted to kill him since we no longer needed him to find out who his backer was, but I had a few questions for my former nemesis. Trove could have falsified the records he posted online, yet somewhere in Madigan’s shattered mind, he knew the truth about Katie’s biological mother.
It took hours to get it out of him. In addition to the Grand-Canyon-wide gaps in Madigan’s memories, he also had the attention span of a ferret on crack. By dawn, however, he’d managed enough lucid tidbits to verify Trove’s claims about Katie being my daughter. If ghosts could pass out, Don would have fallen over when he realized that’s where the trail of questions I had him ask Madigan led to.
I was tempted to do that myself over suddenly becoming something I never thought I’d be—a mother. This was one challenge where all my fighting skills were totally useless. My childhood hadn’t been a hallmark example to draw from, either. Due to my father vampirically brainwashing my mother, I’d been brought up believing I was half-evil. I’d hated the otherness that made me different from everyone else, and now I had a child with a double dose of that “otherness” in her.
Of course, that meant I knew everything not to do. For example, I would never tell my child that being different was something to be ashamed of. Katie might have to hide it to survive, but if it took everything I had in me, she’d know that her unique nature wasn’t the problem. People’s prejudices were. And she’d never, ever have to fear that one day, she’d do something to lose me. I hadn’t had that assurance growing up, and I might not know much about mothering, but I knew how badly it hurt when it felt like you were one mistake away from losing your family.
If I had anything to say about it, Katie would never know that feeling. But first, I had to make sure no one killed her, either before or after I had a chance to officially meet her.
That was why Bones and I didn’t go to Detroit, despite my longing to rush straight there to find my child. Instead, after a few hours’ sleep so we’d be at our fighting best, we went south.
A tropical storm churned up the waters in Lake Pontchartrain, tossing around the boat we’d stolen as if it were a toy in a bathtub. That wasn’t what had my stomach clenching in nervousness, though. Compared to what I was about to do, having the boat capsize would be a fun.
In the distance, the coastline we aimed for wasn’t lit up as much as usual. The storm had knocked the power out in several places, but loss of electricity was never the biggest concern for New Orleans. It was the levees. The Crescent City was getting a direct hit, though luckily, with a tropical storm instead of a hurricane strong enough to breach the levees.
I didn’t know if the bad weather would help us or hurt my mission, but when Bones said, “Now, Kitten,” I jumped off the boat without hesitation. The weights I’d strapped on kept me well below the surface, yet as intended, they weren’t enough to send me to the bottom. The storm had made the water murky, though. Even with the mask keeping saltwater out of my eyes, my vision was limited to only a dozen feet in front of me, disorienting me.
I pressed a button on the specialized dive watch around my wrist. The green light it emitted matched the glow from my gaze as it showed a digital map. Then I gave a few experimental kicks with my new diving fins, pleased with how smoothly they propelled me through the water. I wanted all the help I could get to conserve my energy.
A few hours later, I crawled up the seawall that bordered the Mississippi River, stripping off my mask, full-body wet suit, and fins once I was back on land. Beneath that, I wore leggings and a long-sleeved top, both black like my dive shoes and dyed hair.
It might not be the ideal outfit for a steamy night in New Orleans, but my skin would announce me as a vampire to those who knew what to look for, and I didn’t want anyone to know I was paying a visit to the city’s most famous resident tonight. Marie had spies at every airport, train station, boat dock, and highway into New Orleans, but not even the voodoo and ghoul queen could have every square foot of the river watched, let alone the canals that led from Lake Pontchartrain to the mighty Mississippi. That’s why I’d swum beneath the concealment of the waves, and why I now walked with what felt like agonizing slowness across the highway and up Fourth Street, heading toward the Garden District.
I didn’t need the map on my watch anymore. I’d visited the Garden District on my first trip here years ago with Bones. Like many others, I’d marveled at the beautiful, stately houses, some built before the Civil War. Prytania Street had been one of my favorites, and the two-story beige-and-pink house bordered by a gate with honeysuckle blooms peeking through the iron bars was one I remembered well.
Don had remembered it, too. It only took one glance at the online photo collage for him to say “That one,” while pointing a transparent finger at the screen. He’d been drawn to Marie’s home when he was hopping ley lines looking for me back when I had her grave power. For that reason, most ghosts probably knew where Marie lived. Other vampires and ghouls did, too, but only someone with a death wish would drop by unannounced.
That’s why Marie didn’t have guards posted. Her house also happened to be one of the few in the city that didn’t have ghosts loitering around it. Don told me that it felt “shielded,” meaning Marie had it stocked with burning sage, weed, and garlic. Even the voodoo queen must want a break from the supernatural once in a while.
Tonight, she wasn’t getting it. I hop
ped over the gate surrounding her property and strode up to the front door. Instead of knocking, I leveled it with one kick. That should get her attention, but in the unlikely event that it didn’t . . .
“Marie,” I called out in a loud voice. “We need to talk.”
Of course, my dramatic entrance would be wasted if she wasn’t home.
“Is that you, Reaper?” a familiar voice drawled, dispelling that concern. “And if so, have you lost your mind?”
Marie appeared at the top of the staircase on the second floor, wearing a white silk robe over a long ecru nightgown of the same material. Either she was calling it an early night or she’d been entertaining in a personal way. I didn’t care which I’d interrupted.
“Never been thinking clearer,” I responded shortly, “and I’m sure you know why I’m here.”
Marie smiled in that gracious way Southern women had perfected, but I didn’t let her pleasant expression fool me. She wasn’t a steel magnolia. She was an attack tank covered by a veil of roses.
“If you leave now, Reaper, I’ll consider not killing you.”
Of course, she didn’t look the slightest bit afraid over my breaking into her home. I was alone and weaponless, as my form-fitting outfit revealed, and she could summon enough Remnants to reduce me to a carpet stain within minutes. Even if Bones had come with me, it might not balance the odds. He might have mastered his telekinesis enough to control humans and machines, but successfully using it against one of the most powerful ghouls in existence? Doubtful.
I could do even less with the telekinetic abilities I’d absorbed from him. My ability to briefly move small, inanimate objects was worthless against an opponent like Marie—unless her most deadly weapon hinged on something tiny.
I concentrated on her ring with the same fear-driven desperation that had led me to crash the ghoul queen’s house. It flew off her finger, banging down the stairs in its rapid path toward me.