“You sound pleased,” I said instead.
“Shouldn’t I be?”he asked.“You would be dead otherwise.That thing grabbed you and dragged you into the darkness of those stairs before I could react.Before any of us could.If you hadn’t been able to fight it, it would have killed you.Or one of those other bastardized Relics, made from the skins of our people, would have done the job instead.As it is—”
“As it is,” I said flatly.“The Corps is reconsidering Jenkin’s plan, seeing us as the private army he was trying to create.They’re doing the same thing as Sebastian—”
“No, there’s an important difference.”
“Like what?”
Cyrus poured a cup of coffee for himself and sat opposite me.His hands held the thick-sided mug so carefully that it worried me.As if he was afraid that a sudden surge of emotion might break it.But what emotion?
Something was roiling right below the surface, but I no longer thought it was about me or even Caleb.I didn’t know what it was, but it scared me.“Cyrus?”
“Sebastian wants a strike force,” he said evenly.“A permanent one, to be at his beck and call.And while I’m sure Hargroves would take that as well, right now, he only wants help hunting down this Reaper.”
“You overheard that part.”
“Voices carry.”
Yeah, when an Alpha Were is straining his hearing to make damned sure they do.I just didn’t know why.“The point is, he expects us to fight these things,” I began.
“And is that so bad?”
“What?”I stared at him, caught completely off guard.“A minute ago, you were pissed that Caleb even dropped by!That he mentioned this to me.And you’ve spent the last four days throwing him out on his leather-covered backside—”
“And will happily do so again if need be.You’re in no shape to reenter the fight, and he has no business coming around here, trying to pull you back in.You’ve done enough, and more than!And you’re right; your students need you.But the rest of us—”
“What rest of us?”
He just looked at me.
“Cyrus!They’rechildren!”
“They’re not, though.There’s not one younger than the so-called war mages the Corps is training these days.Hell, some of your students are younger.”
“My students aren’t fighting Relics!”
“Because they can’t.But our boys...”He trailed off, and his jaw clenched again.
“What about them?”I demanded.“What the hell did he say on that phone call?”
Dark brown eyes met mine.“Sebastian laid down the law.Said we’re trying to have it both ways.We’ve been treated like a senior clan so far, because we’re thought of as an offshoot of Arnou, as you said, not as an independent entity.We’ve been allowed in high-level meetings, been privy to information most clans don’t have, been protected from other, predatory groups—“
“Protected?”
“He’s had Arnou guards watching the house.”
“Without telling us?”
“If we’re an offshoot of his clan, does he need to?”
“Damn it, Cyrus!”
“That’s his view, not mine.But we have taken his help with our new members, as well as a myriad of other things.But if we don’t want to be part of Arnou—”
“To fight for him, you mean.”
“Yes, then we’re on our own.Everything gets withdrawn, and we can sink or swim like any other clan.”
