“Yes, so we always thought,” he said, turning to look at me.“But that wasn’t true, was it?With our captains, if they could do what that vampire said, what you did this afternoon—” His expression flooded with a mix of emotions I couldn’t name, even with the bond, maybe because he didn’t fully understand them himself.“Lia, we’re a match for them—for any of them!”
“Yeah.”I just looked at him.
Because Cyrus was a smart guy, but he hadn’t been trained as I had in the Corps.I’d already figured out the implications he was only now realizing.And skipped past them, because there was nothing I could do about that.But it wasn’t going to take him long to catch up, and when he did—
I drank more whiskey.
He looked at me for a moment, and I could almost see him putting it together.“And right now, two wars are going on,” he said slowly.“A civil conflict within the Were community and a wider conflagration engulfing most of the supernatural world.And this trait could be useful in both.”
I nodded, knowing what was coming.
“But so far, we’ve been on the peripheries of the wider war,” Cyrus said.“Used to help the Corps secure its headquarters from Black Circle assaults, as we can smell dark magic, especially in the concentrations needed for a bomb or other weapon.But we haven’t been expected to fight—”
“Because no one thinks we can,” I said hoarsely, my throat being on fire as I was draining my glass too fast.“Other than as cannon fodder, and Sebastian won’t stand for that.”
“No, but if he knew about this…”
I didn’t say anything that time.I liked Sebastian and genuinely thought he cared for the Were world as few clan leaders ever had.They were usually far more self-serving, putting their own or their clan’s interests above all others.Sebastian was more even-handed, more comprehensive, a true leader of all Weres, not just Arnou.
But right now, that could be a problem.
“He’ll use it,” Cyrus said suddenly.“This power of yours, these people.He will.”
“Of course he will.”I belted back the rest of my drink and half choked.“He already said as much, before knowing all this.How much happier do you think he’ll be to realize he might have a force that could take on a column of vamps, including one with senior masters, and annihilate them?
“Like you said, this is a game-changer.”
“And as you said, bad timing!”Cyrus hissed.“The only way we’re taken more seriously is if we have a larger part to play in the war!That means combat, and I don’t think our allies would be averse to using our newfound strength to make us better cannon fodder.Send us into the thick of things, let us take the risks, the damage, the deaths—
“Letyou.”
I saw when it hit him, and immediately knew that, Sebastian or no, brother or no, Cyrus wouldn’t stand for it.He wouldn’t risk me, he just wouldn’t.It was all over his face.
“No one can know about this,” he told me savagely, leaning forward.“No one at all!”
“No one does—”
“What about that vampire?Carales?”
“I told him I was trying to fill in some missing pieces of our history.He didn’t seem too interested.”
“That doesn’t mean he wasn’t!And you know how they are—”
“No, I don’t.No one does.”Vamps were nothing if not close-mouthed about themselves and their world.And that went double for this one.Who knew what a creature fifteen hundred or more years old thought about anything?Especially one involved with the Pythian Court.
Their secrets had secrets.
“If he tells anyone—”
“Then he does.If we ask him not to mention it, it only ups the chances.”
“Damn it, Lia!Why did you go up there?”
I spread my hands.“Because no one alive knows anything about this.So I went to someone dead.The only person I could think of who might have encountered a captain—”
“And unfortunately, you found him!”Cyrus got up, too agitated to stay still, and I watched him pace with a frown.He wasn’t a pacer.This was bad.“And they’re all connected mentally,” he added.“What one vampire knows, they all do!At least within a family.”
“I don’t think it works quite like that,” I said, remembering what Carales had said.Which matched what we’d been taught in the Corps.“More like, they can talk to each other in their heads—”
