"Perhaps I should have listened to the Falchani," Gavin muttered. "I should have allowed someone else to take her. Teach her. I know nothing about her," he turned back to Gavril.
"I want to hit her, every time I see her," Gavril admitted, nodding to his father. "I can't really explain that."
"You accomplished that at least once," Gavin nodded.
"Yeah. By telling somebody else to do it. I shouldn't feel proud of that. Something in me is happy about it, though."
"Makes no sense," Gavin shook his head.
"Yeah."
"Child?" Dee said the moment Astralan dropped him in Gavril's study.
"I'm fine, Dee. All those others at Headquarters aren't."
"I heard that on the newsfeeds."
"I'll be going now. Send mindspeech if you need something," Gavin said.
"I will, Dad. Tell Mom it's partly my fault. Maybe she won't yell so long at you."
"Son, your mother will yell as long as she wants—at both of us." Gavin disappeared.
"What was that about?" Dee asked.
"Dee, it's a family matter," Gavril shoved Dee's question aside.
* * *
Breanne's Journal
Somehow, my feet had automatically carried me to the Comet's Tail Casino, Erithia Cordan's business. I'd never walked through the front door before, and there, on a pillar right inside the front door, was a holo-memorial for Erithia Cordan, the (supposedly) deceased owner of the Comet's Tail.
I read the photograph easily. The poor woman in the display wasn't Erithia—she'd had the misfortune of being captured by the real Erithia, underwent extensive surgery to make her look like Erithia, and had made her way (legitimately) to Le-Ath Veronis to act as Erithia's front. Until she'd become an inconvenience and a target for Rathik Erwin, vampire. He'd been brutal in his attack on an innocent, and he deserved to be punished for that.
Turning away from the holo-image, I surveyed the crowd in the casino. I saw everything from the blissful to deeply despondent in my reading. It amazed me that such opposites could exist side by side. Pulling in a deep breath and holding it for a moment before releasing it, I strode forward.
* * *
Ashe's Journal
Everything is unstable. I feel it. As if the universe has hushed for a moment, waiting for an outcome before choosing a direction. It was the ball poised on a tall, steep tip of a pyramid. Who might guess which way it would fall?
Kalia—Kay—will only allow Bill near her. For some reason, she doesn't find him threatening and I can't explain that. If Trajan or I come close, she withdraws even more than she already has. She seldom speaks and many times I have asked Franklin to come to help with her, but he is in charge of NorthStar in his parents' absence and can't really accommodate my request.
Franklin and I both realize our responsibilities, but I watch Kay when she doesn't know, and it breaks my heart. Somewhere in the future, she and I are together, and we will do amazing things. At least that is what I know at this particular moment. With the instability I feel, so many things might change in a blink, and I might have little or no authority to stop it. That frightens me more than I can say. A single drop of water can cause the bucket to overflow, and I felt we were all waiting for that drop to fall.
* * *
"Cayetes is now our enemy. He has revealed us, I know it," Erithia hissed, not bothering to disguise her teeth. The needle-like projections would frighten even the strongest, but those before her were already obsessed—they would willingly die for her should she even suggest it.
"From this point forward, we are at war with him," Erithia added, thumping a fist on the wide, polished wood table in her casino's attic.
Twelve of her obsessed sat around that table, listening raptly to every word she uttered. None thought to question her decision or subsequent actions. They were prepared to go into battle in any way Erithia desired.
* * *
"If they go to war, they'll pull everything else into the battle. My hope is that it will reveal at least one of the Three as well." He glowed with a malevolent ultraviolet light. Those around him reflected his light—pulsed with it. They were prepared to follow him, no matter what he asked of them. "Once that war is over, we can remake everything as we see fit," he glowed with a deeper malignancy.
"I look forward to the chaos," his lieutenant agreed.
* * *
Lissa's Journal
Lissa, I am in your study
, Gavin sent.
On Le-Ath Veronis
.
I didn't bother replying, I folded space.
* * *
Breanne's Journal
The Comet's Tail was three stories of gaming, restaurants, laughter and despair. Eventually I had to put up my shield—I couldn't handle the readings any longer. Lives, all of them teeming with every emotion possible, overwhelmed me. Learning to shield was the only thing I was grateful to Kalenegar for. I had no idea where the sadistic Larentii was, but I didn't really care, either. If he'd been like Graegar—I had to shove that thought aside like so many others. I would always be a friend to that particular Larentii, and to his grandfather, Pheligar. I'd learned so much from those two, merely by reading them.
Realizing after a while that I wasn't obligated to walk through the casino, or attempt to push past employees to wander through the kitchen in my search for Erithia Cordan, I found an empty corner and turned to mist. That would get me past anyone and through anything. I misted through the kitchen and found nothing. With no desire to stay and watch a waiter get dressed down by the Master Cook, I left quickly.
Misting through security offices and administration came next, but still there was no sign of Erithia. Mentally sighing, I made my way to the last place to look in the casino before moving on the next one. I turned my mist upward—toward the attic.
* * *
Lissa's Journal
"Gavin, what the hell is going on? Did you really mean to let that asshole Skel Hawer get away with beating Breanne? Did you? Where's Norian, by the way? He almost let him go." I was fuming, and turning Norian out of the palace and my bed would likely be the least of my lion snake's worries.
"Lissa, I don't know," Gavin was worried, I could tell, and something wasn't right with him, that was easy enough to see.
"I hear you and Cheedas managed to make Breanne's life miserable at the palace. I haven't even been to my suite, to see what hasn't been done because they didn't do their job," I fumed. "Anybody should be treated as a respected guest while they're here. Cheedas and every other comesula who works here knows that. Tell me why you didn't remind them of their duty, Gavin." My eyes were likely turning red, I was so pissed.
"My Queen, I could not help but overhear," a comesula poked his head inside the door. "Would you like something?"
"No. Wait, I do want something. Haul Cheedas out of bed. Tell him I want to see him. Immediately."
"Of course, Raona." He bowed and left quickly, his footsteps fading on the marble floor.
"Lissa, I don't know what happened," Gavin turned away. "I realize something appeared irregular, but I did as I felt I must."
"Irregular is an understatement, Gavin Montegue," I hissed. "After I talk with my sister, I'll decide whether I'm speaking to you for six months. Maybe more."
"Your what?" Gavin whirled and stared at me.
"You heard me," I snapped. "She's my half-sister. I didn't know about her. Nobody did, until somebody from much higher up came to tell Belen and me. Somebody else was sent to bring her here, after I was given a discreet assignment. Yet I hear from Adam that somehow, she was mistreated from the beginning. Would you like to explain that to me?"
"Raona?" Cheedas stepped carefully inside my study. I frowned at him—something was wrong with him, too, I just couldn't fathom what that might be.
* * *
Breanne's Journal
Thirteen were in the attic. Twelve of them were seated at the table and obsessed by the one who stood before them. Erithia Cordan couldn't see me as mist, so I took the opportunity to read her. As much as I could, anyway.
Evil couldn't begin to describe what she was. The plans she was making with her twelve were nothing short of annihilation. That frightened me. It didn't matter—what mattered was how to take care of this situation so that these thirteen could never go into the outside world and wreak their havoc on the unsuspecting.
Erithia had already placed obsession on all her disciples, and I couldn't risk any one of them getting away. They'd already been programmed to carry out her slightest whim, so I had to think quickly to deal with this. I had to make all of them dead simultaneously, and therein lay the difficulty.
* * *
"Trev, whatever happened to that girl—you know—the one Skel Hawer almost killed?" Kooper set a cup of coffee on the edge of Sheriff Trevor's desk.
"Last I heard, she was engaged to Casimir." Trevor pulled a bottle of blood substitute from the cooler beside his desk and flipped off the lid with a short claw.
"Was it willing—on her part? I hear Gavin has his elbow on her neck," Kooper sipped coffee and watched Trevor.
"No idea. Maybe I'll ask around."
"Let me know. At least Hawer got what he had coming."
"I hear Ildevar Wyyld had a hand in that. Just rumor, mind you, but that's what I hear."
"Do you hear that?" Trevor stood. Screaming had come to his ears, and that shouldn't be. It appeared to be coming from several blocks away, but his enhanced hearing ensured that he'd hear it easily from that distance. "Koop, how fast can you run?" Trevor grabbed Kooper's arm and hauled him out the door.
* * *
Breanne's Journal
Nobody will ever accuse me of not having a sense of humor. A twisted sense of humor, but a sense of humor all the same. When I'd left Earth behind, there'd been a resurgence of zombie interest. There were zombie movies, books, gifts, T-shirts, blogs, advice columns, you name it. Anything anyone might imagine. Everybody was either frightened or titillated by zombies.
In my experience in the Reth and Campiaan Alliances, however, nobody had zombie experience. I did. I also knew how the Larentii could create three-dimensional figures and make them act and sound real. It only required a bit of Larentii power to scare the bejeezus out of a casino filled with gamblers.
Zombies, hundreds of them, now chased visitors through Erithia's casino, while all the humanoids ran for the doors, screaming their heads off. The grimly funny thing? I had Erithia and her twelve shielded against sound so they wouldn't hear. I had plans for the Comet's Tail Casino, and none of her guests figured in all that. I wanted all of them out, and this was the best and easiest way I knew to accomplish that goal.
Zombies chased full-grown adults; their filth-covered arms held high, their melting and decomposing body parts creating horror as their victims ran as fast as they could to get away. Some casino visitors were helping others who didn't or couldn't get out quickly enough. I was grateful that anyone who couldn't walk had a hoverchair, and had already zipped through the exits.
Satisfied, I watched the last guest run screaming through the door before removing images of chasing zombies. They faded into the nothing from which they'd been created. Now, all I had to do was destroy Erithia and her flunkies.
* * *
Lissa's Journal
"Papa Cheedas, do you have any idea how disappointed I am with you?" I stared at him. He'd been more of a father to me through the past few years than anyone else.
"Raona, I know not what came over me," he walked toward me, stopping only a foot away. "It has never been my desire to disappoint you."
He'd been pulled from his bed, just as I asked, and wore a long robe over dark pajamas. Nervously, he stuffed a hand into a robe pocket. When he lifted his eyes, they'd gone red—something I'd never seen before. Then, moving with the swiftness any vampire has, he staked me in the chest before I had time to scream.
* * *
Breanne's Journal
I felt her die as I wound my mist tightly, preparing to release it. I'd have to control the explosion so nobody would get hit outside the casino. I felt her die.
My sister
. The Queen of Le-Ath Veronis.
Somehow, Cheedas, who would never harm her, had done just that. He'd killed the Queen—the one he considered his adopted daughter. I turned to Erithia, who was still plotting a war and the destruction of everything.
"You—die," I hissed, becoming corporeal for only a moment. Who needed gathered mist? I could blow the entire planet apart with merely a thought. Who knew it would take extreme anger to come to that realization?
"You will do as I say," Erithia snapped at me, pointing a powerful obsession in my direction. I laughed.
"Fuck you," I shouted and loosed power.
* * *
"Lissa, cara mia?" Gavin held Lissa's body in his arms. She wasn't breathing. Her heart had stopped. Gavin pulled the stake from her chest and tossed it aside while he wept. Cheedas, held by Rigo, stared in fright at the blood around the Queen's body.