Blood Kin (4 page)

We needed better information. The kind they seemed to have. But the informants we worked with were clamming up—waiting to see which way the dice fell in the power struggles, no doubt.

Somehow we had to find some new sources. And soon.

* * *

There was no answer when I knocked on Simon’s front door, so I let myself in, intent on raiding his kitchen if he and Lily truly weren’t home. I was starving and in desperate need of something to stave off my longing for sleep.

I pushed the door shut behind me carefully. My arms and shoulders still ached. Which summoned
her
again. The girl. Damned lucky neither of us had broken anything, though I had only her word that she hadn’t.

The weather vane story was a blatant lie, but we Templars were charged with keeping the peace in the streets, not policing small crimes. Detaining everyone who raised our suspicions in the border boroughs would be a full-time job, not to mention act like a match to kindling on the City’s mood right now.

No one wanted that.

“Simon?” I called down the hallway. There was no answer, but the sudden sound of breaking glass from the rear of the house burned away my fatigue with a burst of adrenaline. I broke into a run, drawing my pistol as I pelted down the long hallway.

“Simon!” I shouted again.

There was another thumping crash, a snarl, and a cutoff yowl. I reached the sunroom at the rear of the house. Just in time to see Lily pulling her dagger free from the throat of yet another dead Beast.

“What exactly is going on here?” I demanded.

Simon was crouched by the body of the Beast, his expression an odd mix of satisfaction and regret.

Lily looked up at me, wiped her dagger clean, and sheathed it by her hip. “Hello, Guy.”

“I asked a question,” I said, trying to keep a rein on my temper.

Simon nodded toward the body. “He broke in. He attacked us. We took steps.”

“So I see.” I didn’t let the string of curses bubbling in my throat free. My gut crawled as I stared down at the Beast. Light brown fur. Like the one we’d killed earlier. “Fuck.” I’d never liked coincidences. “Couldn’t you have just knocked him out?”

“Dead is safer,” Lily said with a shrug.

“But less useful,” I countered. “Now we don’t know what he wanted.”

“I’d say either Lily or me,” Simon said.

“Me,” Lily said, her voice still calm. “He came for me first.”

“He might have just been trying to get you out of the way,” Simon countered.

“We’ll never know,” I said sourly. “I don’t suppose you recognize him?” I directed the question at Lily. She had far more intimate knowledge of the Night World and its denizens than either Simon or me.

“Looks like a Favreau,” Lily said. “Maybe a Broussard. Hard to tell.”

And in hybrid form, the Beast wasn’t carrying any useful forms of identification.

Hell’s fucking balls. In the back of my mind, I’d been half trying to convince myself that I was being overly concerned to worry that Lily and Simon were still targets. But apparently the suspicious, paranoid part of me had been correct.

“I take it this is the first time this has happened?” I said.

Simon nodded. “Yes. I would have told you.”

This earned him a skeptical look. My little brother tended to be pigheaded about his abilities to defend himself.

And now I had to convince him otherwise.

“We need to clean this up.” There was a pool of blood under the corpse, but it wasn’t spreading. Together we rolled the body up in one of Simon’s rugs and mopped up blood. It didn’t take long. What that said about our collective experience with dealing with death and mayhem was something I didn’t want to think too hard about.

Simon threw an extra ward across the shattered window and we retreated to the kitchen. Lily made coffee and, praise God, took the trouble to add chicory. Maybe that would keep me upright a few more hours.

Simon passed me a mug and I was about to gulp a mouthful when I felt a brush of pressure across my shins.

I sighed, put down the cup, and bent to peer under the table.

Lily’s kitten stared up me and leaned harder into my leg.

“Do not claw my boots, catling,” I told her sternly.

She blinked, green eyes huge in a gray fluffy face.

“You might as well pick her up,” Lily said, entering through the other door to the room. “She’ll sit there until you do. And she’ll meow.”

I scooped up the kitten with one hand and deposited her onto my lap. She curled up into a ball practically smaller than my fist. “You’re not getting any of my coffee.” The kitten blinked again and commenced to purr at a volume far louder than such a small thing should be capable of.

“Rondel doesn’t drink coffee,” Lily said with a grin.

“Then explain why the damn thing feels the need to climb all over me every time I drink a cup?”

“Maybe she sees the softer you inside.”

I rolled my eyes. “If you wanted a cat who’s concerned with people’s softer sides, you shouldn’t have named her after a knife.” As if to emphasize my point, the kitten spread her claws and attempted to dig them through my trouser leg. Luckily I still wore riding leathers.

Lily’s grin widened. “It will remind people she has teeth and claws as she grows.”

I looked down at the kitten, mostly fluff and purr. “If you say so.” Lily had claws herself, even if she kept them mostly sheathed these days. “Tell me more about the Beast.”

“There’s not much too tell. We were in the sunroom, having breakfast. He came through the window.”

I glanced at the kitchen window, where the pale morning sun was just starting to climb over the tree. I didn’t think it was an accident that the attack had taken place after sunrise. Daylight was when Lily was at her weakest.

“You can’t stay here,” I said. No point beating around the bush.

“We’re not returning to the Brother House,” Simon said in a determined voice. “We’re safe here. We’re warded.”

“So well warded a Beast can come through your window?”

“The ward was down. I was going to move some plants around that wall later. He wouldn’t have gotten through otherwise.”

“So you assume. Or maybe they’re watching you and know when you do stupid things like drop your wards.”

“Doesn’t hiding us away make it seem as though we have something to hide?” Lily said. “I thought the idea was to make it look as though we’re just going on with our lives, like people with nothing to do with what happened to Lucius.”

“Obviously that ploy isn’t working.” Surely they weren’t going to play dumb? They had to know what was going on, as I did.

“You don’t know that. This could be revenge for someone I killed or general troublemaking,” Lily said.

“You’re not that naive,” I snapped. “This is serious.” My mind raced through the implications. If Simon and Lily were under attack, then that was another duty for Templars to handle. Another strain on our forces. And my loyalties.

My jaw tightened. I loved my brother and he’d done the right thing in killing Lucius, but the cost was proving high. If he and Lily were safe in the Brother House, it was one less thing to take my focus off keeping the City safe. I’d done what I could to make sure my parents’ home was well protected, and Saskia, oldest of our sisters, was safe enough behind the walls of the Guild of Metalmages. But Saskia and my parents weren’t likely to be direct targets. Nor was our youngest sister, Hannah, who was only fifteen.

Simon and Lily, on the other hand, were. And I’d be damned if I was going to lose another family member to the Night World. The Blood had taken Edwina from us. Her death had almost broken our family. Losing Simon would finish the job. “It would only be temporary,” I began.

“No,” Lily said immediately. Her voice was even steelier than Simon’s. “Not again. I’m not letting anyone control my life again.”

Beside her, Simon nodded. “I agree. We can’t hide every time there’s trouble in the City.”

“You won’t have to hide if you’re dead,” I said bluntly. Simon’s face stilled but he shook his head.

“No.”

“I’m not leaving you unprotected.”

“We’re not.”

“Hell’s fucking balls, Simon, this isn’t a game. Someone is trying to kill one of you. You need protection.”

“Then we’ll think of something else,” Simon said. “We’re not going.”

“You’ll—” I bit back the words before I could say something stupid. Picking a fight, as appealing as hitting something might be right now, was not going to solve the problem. I forced myself to take another swallow of coffee.

“How was patrol?” Lily asked, expression bland as she changed the subject. “Does anybody seem to be gaining the upper hand?” Her tone was casual, but I knew her interest in the answer wasn’t. She’d been enslaved by the last Lord of the Blood. She knew better than any of us what the consequences of the wrong person gaining control of the Blood Courts might be.

“Not that we’ve heard, but the mood out there is ugly. Most of our informants are clamming up.” I met her gaze. “Unless you can think of anyone who might talk to us?”

She shook her head, red braid bouncing. “No one’s going to talk to me. Unless it’s to try and torture information from me.”

“You must know some names?”

“Every Blood Lord and Beast Alpha has their own network of spies and informants. There are some who work for anyone who’ll pay, but they tend to guard their identities closely and work through intermediaries. And, if they work mainly in the Night World, they’re not going to want to risk talking to the Templars.”

Nothing I didn’t know. The Night World usually had plenty of people who’d be willing to snitch a little for some ready cash. But now, with things so chancy, snitching could be fatal. Most people, when faced with the choice of their money or their life, chose the latter.

Which meant we’d have to keep doing what we were doing. Riding into the border boroughs each night hampered by a lack of good information. Might as well ride out with one hand tied behind our backs. We couldn’t be sure where to target our efforts or who we should be keeping an eye on.

I drained my coffee and put the cup down, tapping its thin rim restlessly. I had the ultimate spy right in front of me. Lily was a wraith, able to turn incorporeal at will. Undetectable and untouchable. The sensible thing would be to put her to work.

So why hadn’t I?

Simon interrupted my thoughts with a refill, then leaned down to kiss Lily, who turned up her face, smiling at him.

And that was my answer, I thought, dropping my gaze to the kitten on my lap. Lily and Simon were happy now. They’d earned their happiness. They’d risked their lives to kill Lucius and end the biggest threat to the City’s peace we’d known.

I couldn’t ask Lily to put herself in danger, though I doubted she would refuse. The Night World had enslaved and used her all her life. She’d be more than willing to help us deliver a little justice to them.

But risking Lily meant risking Simon’s happiness. I couldn’t do that. Couldn’t destroy the life he was building. After all, I was already in danger most nights. There had to be someone who could carry on the DuCaine name if the worst came to the worst.

“Any ideas why the Favreaus might be getting involved?” I asked Lily.

“With Lucius gone, the packs will be going for either influence or money. An assassination attempt suggests the latter.”

I imagined that Lily’s head would fetch a pretty price.

“If he was a Favreau,” Lily added.

“We crossed paths with some others who looked like that one on patrol,” I admitted.

“Well, some packs have always been muscle for hire for the Blood,” Lily said.

“Not the Favreaus, though. They have other interests.”

“Historically. But right now I’d guess there’s more money to be made in fighting than gin. Who knows, it might even be some rogue youngsters, looking to break away.”

“That’s all we need.” Pack wars to add to all the general mayhem. Right now I’d give my right ball for someone who had a line on what the hell was going on in the Night World. I drained the last of the coffee and handed the kitten to Simon. I wasn’t in the mood for hours of arguing right now and I needed to report this latest unpleasant development to the Abbott General.

“This discussion isn’t over. We’ll talk when I get back.”

“Where are you going?” Simon asked.

“To talk to Father Cho. And to get someone to help you move the body.”

* * *

“I thought you’d be asleep,” Father Cho said, looking up from the map spread on his desk. His face was drawn, the lines etched into his skin making him look as tired as I felt.

“So did I, sir. But I still have things to do.” I stood politely at attention.

He gestured toward the chair beside me. “Sit.” He added, “Things?” after I did. He glanced at the map, scribbled a few notes on a paper beside it. I took that to mean “start talking.”

“I had breakfast with Simon and Lily.”

Father Cho’s hand stilled. He looked up, black eyes sharp. “How are they?”

“Better than the Beast they killed this morning, sir.”

Father Cho sighed. One hand lifted, rubbed the deep wrinkle between his eyebrows. Maybe his head ached too.

“Any particular reason they’re killing Beast Kind?” he asked.

“He tried to break into their house.”

“Why?”

“Hard to say. They didn’t exactly stop to question him.” I tried to keep the disapproval out of my tone but wasn’t sure I succeeded. Simon’s coffee churned uneasily in my empty stomach, warring with the fatigue and adrenaline stew.

The wrinkle deepened. “I see.”

I rolled my shoulders. “This is getting worse. We’re losing ground.”

“We’ll regain it.”

He sounded certain. In his position, he had to. But in my position, I had to tell him I thought he was wrong. “I hope you’re right, sir. But if things keep going the way they are now, I’m not so sure we will. Not without paying the price.”

“It’s getting that bad out there? We knew there would be unrest with the Blood having their . . . change of government.”

That was a tactful way of saying “after we assassinated their leader.” I was fairly sure I’d never be the Abbott General, because I didn’t like calling things pretty names. Death was death and no matter how much Lucius deserved it, the fact was that we humans had killed him. “The Blood have had squabbles before. They didn’t escalate to this level.”