Queen of Diamonds: An Amber Farrell Novel (Bite Back Book 7) Page 2

  At the top of the middle board, Gabrielle had drawn a staring eyeball with the tag alongside it: ‘mysterious help’. Then, later, she’d added horns because she was sure whoever or whatever it was, it was evil.

  I wasn’t sure I’d go that far, but I didn’t fool myself that it was altruistic, either. It wanted something; we just didn’t know yet what that was.

  Briefly, I reiterated what we knew so far and then filled in the final bits of information from today. Most of the Were down in Mexico had allied themselves with Matlal, his strongest supporters being the northern packs from Chihuahua, Sonora and Baja. Though they weren’t yet a super-pack, they behaved like one, and it was centered around the town of Villa Ahumada, where an alpha by the name of Mauricio Gálvez had his headquarters in a fortified ranch he’d named Astilla de Luna.

  Gálvez was a dangerous psychopath. In the same way a fish rotted from the head down, he’d corrupted those packs. They’d become heavily involved in the trafficking of people and drugs, and they’d copied behavior from the worst of the criminal gangs they competed with. Pack members needed to commit serious criminal offenses to show their loyalty. They terrorized and murdered the communities they lived in.

  They were also working against the Athanate Assembly and the Southern League of Were. We could trace their attacks all along the border states.

  We’d always suspected that the level of organization and power involved had to lead back to Matlal. As of today we’d traced the final connections in the spirit world—making it one continuous stain of corrupt power that had spread from Yucatán to Mexico City, through Astilla de Luna, and up into San Diego, El Paso. And now Louisiana as well.

  Even worse, we’d confirmed that what Matlal and the hardcore remnant of Basilikos were doing down in Yucatán involved a way to harness some of the City of Lost Gods’ powers for their own uses. One effect of that had been to somehow anchor the City in close proximity to our physical world—so close that it was now almost impossible to spirit walk without landing right in the middle of it, whether you wanted to or not.

  That use of the power was insanely dangerous in and of itself. More immediately worrying was that he was feeding that power into some kind of working based at Astilla de Luna and the results were being seen as far away as California and Louisiana.

  We had to move now, before the power reached its tipping point. We had to destroy the working, and gather proof that it led back to Matlal—that he was pulling the strings behind everything the Mexican Were were doing.

  More important, we had to accomplish that in the physical world—gather evidence that the Assembly and the Adept League would have to take action on. Maybe even get the Were and Adept Leagues to formally join the Assembly, instead of arguing about it, as they had done for the last seven weeks.

  The rest of the paranormal world had left me alone for that seven weeks. Mostly. The time had been incredibly useful on many fronts, and I was grateful, but it was over.

  But the next step was going to be tricky.

  The Athanate Assembly was delicately balanced at the moment.

  House Correia of the Hidden Path held the presidency, but the real power sat with the two opposition groups: Panethus, led by Skylur, and the Empire of Heaven. Correia had re-formed her political party from Basilikos into the Hidden Path after expelling Matlal. Unfortunately, a lot of those supporting her in her position were actually still really members of Basilikos, and under Matlal’s command. While it stayed this way, the Assembly was in a stalemate. Correia couldn’t command the entire Assembly. She couldn’t even call the Assembly. She was trying to run the functions of Athanate government as committees, but even that had limited success.

  Matlal and Basilikos were deliberately and effectively preventing any progress.

  In the meantime, Emergence crept closer on a timescale Skylur could no longer control.

  Short of huge and improbable shocks like the Carpathians coming out of their isolation and changing the balance in the Assembly, we needed something to be done. The Assembly had to realize the threat Matlal posed, cease their political maneuvering and present a united front for the paranormal world when Emergence broke. Even nearly united would be okay.

  I was the one who had to do that something. And it seemed it could be put off no longer.

  As if on cue, my Diakon, Yelena, and my immediate boss, Bian, walked in together.

  Yelena spoke first. “Big, bad wolves, they want to talk finally.”

  She meant Felix and Cameron. When they’d left for Louisiana at the New Year, they’d said they would call me when they needed me.

  After what we’d seen in the spirit world, I was unsurprised they’d decided that time was now.

  However, there was someone I needed to talk to first. I looked at Bian.

  “I’ve already told Yelena they’re going to have to wait,” Bian said. “We have ten minutes before the scheduled call from New York.”

  I felt the emotion in the room change. We’d laid our plans for just this moment, but putting them into motion was something else.

  We had to stop Gálvez and Matlal, but it was going to be a bloody, dangerous business—and it began with me convincing Skylur’s Diakon that I needed to be set free from the restrictions that currently surrounded me, without telling her what I was actually going to be doing.

  We all turned to Diana.

  She looked tense, but she nodded. “I think we have learned enough through the spirit world. We cannot wait any longer. It’s time.”

  I made to leave with Bian, but Diana held up her hand. “I am concerned with the evidence that the trail of workings in Mexico can now be traced all the way to Louisiana,” she said. “It seems too coincidental, with Felix and Cameron requesting Amber’s presence there just now. Gwendolyn, I think we need someone in Louisiana immediately, quietly, to investigate any unusual workings or Adept activity. Amber can handle problems in the Athanate and Were communities, but if there were Adept problems as well...”

  “The strongest coven is Lafayette,” Gwen said. “It would be the obvious place to start. But I can’t go. Bryn and I can’t leave Kaothos yet. It’s too dangerous.”

  Tullah frowned. Much as she appreciated what Gwen and her Valkyrie spirit guide, Bryn, had done, she and Kaothos were of the opinion that they had to be ready to stand alone soon.

  Gabrielle spoke. “The first step would be to discover if they’ve been infiltrated or influenced by Matlal’s people, like the Denver coven was. As long as they haven’t, then recruit them to help in the investigation. I can do that.”

  Gwen said sharply, “That’s dangerous work, especially for a lone Adept.”

  “It’s up to you,” I said to Gabrielle and Gwen. “It would mean a lot to have you at my back, assuming I manage to get down there.”

  Gabrielle and I had grown close in the last couple of months; I respected her power and loved the excitement and enthusiasm she brought to everything she did. I’d also begun to see her as part of my House. I was sure she had the Adept capability to handle this task in Louisiana, but I also knew Gwen was right. It was dangerous work, and she was young and inexperienced.

  Gabrielle exchanged glances with Gwen, and then said quietly, “I know what you’re risking. You’re doing your part to keep Matlal’s plans from coming to fruition, and I need to do mine.”

  Gwen gave a short nod. “Very well.”

  I could tell she wasn’t happy about it, though. She treated Gabrielle like a daughter, or maybe a favorite sister. She was almost as protective of her as she was of Tullah and Kaothos.

  “I’ll get the next flight,” Gabrielle said.

  Gwen wasn’t finished, but she changed subjects. “Are you absolutely sure about the part of your plan where you keep Skylur in the dark? From what I understand, according to Athanate law, all actions taken by you—and your House—are regarded as his responsibility.”

  Diana smiled. “Keeping Skylur in the dark is more difficult than you might imagine. We n
eed to make sure he has complete deniability in front of the Truth Sensors of the Assembly. He knows I’m here, and he knows much of what’s happening, so he’ll know we’re going to do something about it. Something he’ll be able to use in the Assembly, while truthfully denying he ordered it. In the meantime, his attention is better focused on Emergence.”

  Gwen nodded again, still frowning, still unhappy, but she made no further objection. I gave Gabrielle a hug and wished her luck, and headed out with Bian for our conference call.

  I wouldn’t be talking directly to Skylur yet. As soon as we’d reported the success of rescuing Tullah and the return of Kaothos, he shut himself off, leaving explicit instructions that we were to talk to his Diakon, House Flavia. She was the one we had the call scheduled with.

  Diakon to the head of Panethus, and yet she described herself as Basilikos. She was so set in her ways, she even refused to call herself Hidden Path, the more acceptable name House Correia had taken for her political party. Flavia remained Basilikos, and proud of it.

  Skylur had also explicitly put Flavia in charge of Bian and me, but without telling her everything that was going on in Denver. She knew nothing about the trick we’d pulled in Los Angeles, rescuing Kaothos under the cover of Diana’s ‘death’, and she only knew the bare minimum about the dragon.

  And we had no authority to enlighten her.

  Given those difficulties, and considering what I needed to achieve in today’s call, this was going to be one bitch of a conversation.

  Chapter 2

  I guess I didn’t really expect Diakon Flavia to be on time, but the image of the empty chair on the videoconference screen was still irritating, especially now when so much was at stake.

  Bian snorted and took the opportunity to kiss me.

  As my direct boss in the Athanate hierarchy, she could demand my compliance, but of course I responded enthusiastically. At Christmas, Bian and I had finally acknowledged the simmering attraction and genuine feelings that had been between us since we’d first met, though she’d insisted she wouldn’t take it forward until Jen and Alex were here and we’d talked to them about it. In the two months since, that meeting hadn’t been possible to arrange. And yet, for someone who delighted in breaking rules, she’d stuck to this one strictly. She’d also stuck to Skylur’s restriction on taking my Blood, though I knew that both forbidden fruit tempted her. I could hear the surge in her Blood every time we met, let alone kissed like this.

  “Mmm.” She broke the kiss and straightened her sweater where it had somehow gotten pushed up. “It seems you’ve fully recovered from our last training session. No lingering aches and pains?”

  “Pains? No. Aches?” I smiled and tried batting my eyelashes. “I guess I’ll have to live with those a while longer.” I sat up and sighed. “And if we can swing this, I guess that’s the last training session for a while.”

  “We have to swing it,” she said.

  Diana insisted that we follow all the protocols so Skylur could deny knowledge of my mission. That meant we had to at least try to get Diakon Flavia to allow me to leave Denver on a pretext, and if she refused...

  The problem was, the entire state of Colorado was in an Athanate quarantine. No Athanate allowed in, none allowed out.

  The real reason was to protect the knowledge that Diana was alive from getting out. Even if the Diakon of the Empire of Heaven already suspected it, making it public—and thus effectively announcing to the world that we’d tricked everyone and he’d fallen for it—would be seen as an insult to the Emperor, and the unspoken agreement between the Empire and Panethus to run the Assembly would break.

  However, the excuse given to the rest of the Athanate world, and Diakon Flavia, was that the quarantine was to allow for a controlled test of whether my infusion reduced the period and severity of crusis, and whether that ability was transferred.

  Which meant the quarantine applied most specifically to me, and this conversation had to pretend to be about the experiment, which Diakon Flavia had control of.

  I felt my jaw clench at the tide of frustration rising in me, as it often did when I had to confront Athanate politics.

  Sensing my emotions, Bian squeezed my thigh just as Flavia appeared on the screen.

  “Livia Flavia, House Flavia, Diakon Altau,” she said.

  Her voice wasn’t harsh, but gave the impression of strength beneath the smooth tones. Her face, framed with straight, dark hair, was sharp, with an uncompromising hardness in her eyes and mouth. Those eyes told me she was intelligent. And that she knew she was being lied to.

  As I’d already guessed, this was going to be one hell of a conversation.

  We went through the formal Athanate greetings. She and Bian had spoken before, so it wouldn’t have been such an insult to skip them, but we were being deliberately polite.

  She finished with: “Altau insists we should be less formal, so please call me Livia.”

  Bian and I murmured our names back and she fixed her eyes on me.

  She’d been speaking in Athanate up to that point, and she continued in the same language. “I have Bian’s weekly written reports, Amber, but please don’t just update me on the project. I want to hear a complete overview of how it’s going, in your words.”

  I took a breath and answered her in Athanate.

  “To reiterate the background: my own crusis was unusual. It appeared to be put off for a long time after I was infused, and then, when it started, it passed quickly. It also appeared that a member of my House finished crusis almost immediately after a secondary infusion of my Blood through biting me. Skylur said that, when the time was right, we’d need to check whether my infusion reduced crusis in all cases, whether there was a delay in starting, and whether those characteristics were passed in turn.”

  I paused, enjoying her surprise at my ease with the language. The last few weeks had been surprising to me as well. We’d been exploring the advantages of my Carpathian eukori, and it was amazing how easy it had been to learn the Athanate language by being linked through an enhanced eukori to my teacher. I’d had lessons every day with Diana, Bian or Pia, and was now fairly fluent.

  I went on: “There’s a lot of scientific aspects that we’ve been discussing about protein strings in blood, the way they mimic DNA and the way they fold at the molecular structural level, creating different Athanate characteristics. Some folds are dominant and some recessive, like genes, and they can sometimes be passed on through infusion. Do you want me to go into that?”

  “I’ve read some of the reports on the investigations,” Livia said. “Led in part by Savannah, another one of your House kin. What a surprising, remarkably versatile and useful House you have, Amber.”

  “Thank you.” I smiled at her. I didn’t want to get blindsided by a charm offensive, but it was nice she was making an effort.

  “But to answer your question, no,” she went on. “Please stick to the results of the experiment.”

  “Very well. The major point to note is that there was a fundamental difference between the first two infusions and the remainder.”

  Livia interrupted. “Yes, I understand that Scott and Mykayla are the only hybrids—Athanate and Were mixed. Do you know why? Did you try something different with them? Did it feel different?”

  It was difficult to tell from her expression what she felt about hybrids. Likely not positive; the more conservative among the Athanate thought hybrids were abominations, and she was so conservative she wouldn’t even compromise on the name of her creed.

  “No, no, and no,” I answered her. “Scott manifested first as a werewolf, Mykayla as an Athanate. Within a couple of weeks they’d both become hybrid. The only difference between them and others that we can think of is that I’d accepted Scott into my House, and Mykayla and I have been close for a while.”

  Bian stirred beside me, but Livia spoke first. “Close. Is that a euphemism?”

  Even more than English, Athanate had the ability for words to be used with diff
erent meanings.

  “No,” I said. “Mykayla and I haven’t had sex.”

  Bian smiled, and spoke before Livia could. “I think Amber instinctively regards Mykayla as part of her extended House. Trang and Farrell are becoming very closely integrated as Houses, and we’re talking about formalizing that.”

  Out of sight beneath the desk, Bian’s knee nudged me again.

  Right. Play along.

  Livia raised an eyebrow. I would have sworn she’d caught that look from Skylur.

  “I’m effectively acting as one of Amber’s Diakons,” Bian explained. “And Amber’s Diakons are effectively acting as mine.”

  She was right. All the Athanate that would have comprised Bian’s House had been given their own Houses by Skylur. She had had no one except kin and Aspirants, and Haven was full of Ops 4-10 and wolves in training. So, as I’d progressed from infusing Scott and Mykayla to infusing Bian’s Aspirants and volunteers from Ops 4-10, we’d called on Pia to look after them. And while that was happening, Yelena, Julie and Keith were helping Bian with her security tasks. David had taken over interfacing with local authorities for matters like accounting and taxes, which Athanate Houses did carefully to ensure they remained hidden in plain sight, attracting no unnecessary attention.

  Livia’s other eyebrow had joined the first. However closely they might work together, the suggestion of integrating two Houses was unusual. And unless I’d suddenly developed amnesia, Bian and I hadn’t discussed it at all.

  Not that I was complaining.

  I could guess what Bian was doing—effectively telling Livia that I was not just a new Athanate House with peculiarities and potential, but actually integrated with an existing House. What was more, not just any House, but one that had provided Altau with one of his previous Diakons. So, not to be treated casually. Bian wanted to show her support for what I was working to achieve in this conversation.