Queen of Diamonds: An Amber Farrell Novel (Bite Back Book 7) Page 3

  “Oh. And are you two sexual partners, then?” Livia asked.

  “Not yet,” Bian said. “Not until both Amber’s kin are back in Denver. We’re still waiting impatiently for that.”

  “Ah, yes, yet more versatile members of House Farrell.” Livia’s lips thinned. “I can’t promise when you’ll get Jennifer Kingslund back. That’s up to Skylur, and I assume it will depend on when he feels it’s appropriate to take back control of his human businesses. As for Alexander Deauville, I understand he’s down in El Paso on werewolf business, so I can’t speak to that either. How frustrating for you.”

  “We’ll have to speak about it,” I said, maneuvering the conversation the way it needed to go, at the same time feeling uncertainty.

  Why had Livia mentioned Jen?

  I understood why Jen was so valuable to Skylur. She’d taken over control of his sprawling mass of companies and reorganized them in preparation for the changes that Emergence would bring. She had to be in New York for that, but apart from obviously missing her, I hated the thought that Jen was somehow under the control of House Flavia. It felt as if it gave Livia a measure of control over me.

  But she waved off my attempt to divert. “Please, finish the briefing.”

  I brought her right up to date. Every other day since New Year’s, I’d infused a new Aspirant. Half came from Bian’s kin, and the other half from former Ops 4-10 members. Twenty in all. For each of them, there had been a short delay, then they’d gone into crusis and they’d emerged safely. The delays and the depth of crusis had been variable, but both far below the expected norms for Athanate. The proof of which was that Pia had been able to mentor all of them without difficulty.

  These stark facts were what Livia wanted to hear from me. It was hard to push aside the blizzard of sensations that swept through my memory as I spoke. The tension before each infusion, the uncertainty, the mounting excitement, the unbelievable immediate pleasure of biting and finally the longer, more profound pleasure from knowing I’d successfully infused another person.

  “So, in a matter of weeks,” Livia said as I ended, “you’ve made it possible for House Altau to establish at least another couple of Houses, or bolster existing ones. From the sound of it, you could even increase that to one infusion a day.”

  While I bit down on my retort, Bian answered smoothly, “Not really the outcomes that are under discussion, Livia. In the meantime, you can appreciate why we’re suggesting an integration of Houses, given that half of these new Athanate were my kin, but were infused by Amber.”

  My jaw was still clenched at Livia’s words. I was not going to become some kind of Athanate breeder, locked away in Denver, infusing Aspirants for Livia to dispatch to the corners of the country.

  “And the hybrids?” Livia asked.

  I snapped my focus back and shrugged. “They had a bigger change to overcome. It took longer, crusis was harder and they’ve had more to learn, but they’re successfully hybrid, and they’re not going rogue.”

  “So they’re safe?”

  “Safe?” I huffed and let my teeth show, wolf style. “Never. But they’re no more likely to snap at you than any other Were, and no more likely to want your Blood than any other Athanate.”

  I took a calming breath. “It’s time to close the first phase and proceed with the second.”

  Livia’s eyes narrowed. “Explain.”

  Not so much of the charm offensive now.

  “The purpose of this project was not for me to stock up the country with new Athanate,” I said. “It was an experiment to test my infusion. We’ve shown I can infuse people successfully and that it reduces the time and danger of crusis. That part is over. The second step is more important: to determine whether my new Athanate have inherited the ability to infuse others in a similarly short time. It’s time for that second step.”

  Livia sat back.

  I’d just issued a challenge to her authority. I needed to re-emphasize it. “In fact, my part is over for the moment,” I said. “The quarantine no longer applies to me.”

  Her expression didn’t change. “The reason I was late for the start of this conference today was I received an urgent call from Felix Larimer.” She fixed me with her stare. “He wants you to go down to Louisiana.”

  I cursed silently—bad timing. Now she’d think my reasoning was being coordinated by the werewolves.

  “So there can be no confusion about this,” Livia continued, “I told him you would be available when I said you were. The experiment you’re conducting is vital to Panethus. It’s been ordered by Skylur and he’s put me in charge of it. You will remain in Denver, and what you call the first phase of the experiment will continue until I say it ceases.”

  One: she’d caused a huge problem for me with Felix.

  And two: there was no other way to progress now.

  Buckle up, Tara muttered in my mind.

  “I don’t answer solely to you, House Flavia,” I said. “Or to House Altau. I’ve given Skylur my oath, and through that, you have authority over me. But I was appointed by him as syndesmon to the Assembly, to ensure that the integration of Were into the Assembly did not fail through misunderstanding. The fully convened Assembly can dismiss me from that position, or Skylur can debate my interpretation of my responsibilities with me. My assessment of the situation is that my role as syndesmon overrides any further need for me to remain in Denver, so I will be going to Louisiana. I will be acting on Panethus’ behalf as much as the Southern League. If necessary, I’ll discuss my reasons with Skylur.”

  She was furious, but her control was absolute and her voice remained level and reasonable.

  “This is a particularly bad time to be interrupting Skylur. I can understand you may resent me, but your actions aren’t serving his interests.”

  “I disagree.”

  Her eyes flickered to Bian. In other circumstances, the obvious response for her would have been to demand for Bian, as my superior, to punish or imprison me, pending judgment. Bian had taken the same oath to House Altau and Skylur that I had. An absolute oath. Except when it wasn’t.

  Livia was aware now that Bian’s earlier comment about integrating Houses had been intended to put down a marker that she entirely supported me and would refuse Livia’s commands.

  Never give an order you know will be refused.

  “It’s now clear to me you intended this from the outset,” she said. “You’ll get your talk with Skylur, but it may not work the way you anticipated. Remain there.”

  She left the range of the camera.

  Chapter 3

  The first to return to the videoconference room in New York wasn’t Skylur or Livia. It was Skylur’s head of security.

  I’d heard about her, and Bian had shown me the files.

  Naturally, she looked like she was in her twenties or thirties, but I knew she was old. Maybe five or six centuries. Before Skylur had moved to America, she’d been his pelea. The word originally came from the name of a piece of ritual Athanate shield armor, a guard that covered the whole left shoulder and arm, segmented like a lobster shell. ‘Pelea’ was also used to mean a dedicated bodyguard. Close protection, we used to call it in Ops 4-10.

  Remember her name, Bian had told me. Maia Kiriani. Be wary of her.

  She was tall, with short brunette hair, lovely brown eyes, and a look that could freeze nitrogen. She moved like a gunslinger in an old Western film—the guy in the black Stetson. She even got the clothes right—black, head to toe.

  Maia deliberately stood in front of the camera, silently looking at me. Making a point. Then she moved back to allow Livia and Skylur to sit.

  “Bian, Amber,” Skylur said, and we murmured hellos back at him.

  I was shocked at how tired he looked, and he saw that.

  A ghost of a smile crossed his face.

  “Yes, I’m extremely busy, Amber.” He sighed. “I know you will have a valid reason for forcing this conversation to take place, so let me see if I agree with yo
u.”

  “On the surface, this is all about what you can tell people,” I said, carefully not looking at Livia. “You can tell them I’ve achieved what needed to be done in the first phase of the infusion experiment, so my leaving Colorado doesn’t mean the quarantine is lifted while the second phase takes place.”

  Skylur’s lip twisted. What I’d said was correct, but he knew me well enough to know it wasn’t enough on its own for me to be refusing his Diakon’s orders.

  “The Southern League wants me in Louisiana, and my status as syndesmon makes that a valid public reason for leaving Denver and going there.”

  He could read between my words. “Which means there’s an underlying reason.”

  I took a deep breath and launched the strategy.

  “Yes. You need the Athanate situation there to be fixed and you can’t do it. You probably don’t even want to order it. Your Diakon certainly can’t do it. You need someone to do it for you, acting without orders and without it being done openly. I am that someone.”

  Livia twitched. Skylur looked angry, but he waited for me to lay it out.

  “When you took down the Eastern Seaboard association at the Assembly in LA, you hit them twice. You took away their metaphorical head when you persuaded House Prowser to withdraw from the association. She was their intellectual driver, the one who could justify their position in debate. Then you forced House Ibarre into a position where he had no option other than for him and his team of advisors to commit korheny, dying so you would spare the remainder of his House. With that, you took the metaphorical heart out of the Eastern Seaboard association.”

  “Take away the head or the heart, and there’s not much left to fight,” Livia said.

  “Wrong, but I’ll come to that,” I replied. “You moved Naryn to New England, to adopt the rest of House Ibarre, along with the mantle, domain and territory of Boston and Portland. That move, the association could accept.”

  Livia knew what was coming, but at a glance from Skylur, she kept her silence.

  “You moved to New York. No problem with that either, but then you chose a Basilikos Diakon,” I said. “I understand the reasoning. And if the Eastern Seaboard association still had House Prowser, she might have been able to rationalize it for them.”

  “Former association,” Livia said. “Not only does the Eastern Seaboard association no longer exist, I remind you that all the principal Houses have given their oaths, in person, to House Altau.”

  “The association members still talk to each other,” I said. “And among the members of my ‘surprising, remarkably versatile and useful House’, I have people who can snoop on private conversations.”

  That shocked her into a moment’s silence.

  “Not enough for proof,” I said, holding a hand up. “Not even enough to justify an open investigation. But enough to be clear that what’s left of the association is being driven by what you could call the metaphorical gut. The unthinking reactionary part.”

  “One of the Houses gave their oath and is now backing out?”

  “No,” I said. “Because House Labastide in New Orleans never gave you her oath.”

  “They’re just a sub-House of House Wingfield in Atlanta,” Livia said. “They were barely in the old association, stuck out there on the Gulf.”

  “Eastern Seaboard is just a name,” I countered. “Labastide in New Orleans was as much an integral part as House Prowser, even though Prowser was ‘stuck out’ on the Upper Peninsula in Michigan.”

  “Amber’s right. Being at the edge of their territory doesn’t disqualify them. In fact, the most dedicated members of any association are often those at the edges. You should never ignore sub-Houses, Diakon.” Skylur’s voice was quiet and his eyes stayed on mine. “But that was my fault. In giving the old association some dignity by not requiring every sub-House to give an oath, I allowed enmity to fester.”

  “And you can’t rethink your original decision about oaths now,” I cut in before Livia suggested it. “Firstly, it would look like weakness. Secondly, you’ve just made everything much worse by giving Naryn a second domain, in Washington DC.”

  “How did you know...” Livia stopped. “You eavesdrop on our communications?”

  “No. And no need to, either. House Elicott in Washington has been sending angry updates about the ‘invasion’ of his domain to all the members of the former Eastern Seaboard. I’m sure he’s complained to you as well.”

  “It’s not a permanent domain,” Livia said. “He’s been told—”

  Anger got the better of me and I interrupted her. “House Flavia, I suggest you employ another assistant. One fluent in Athanate tact and diplomacy. One who will explain rather than tell.”

  Skylur raised a finger. I backed down. He was right.

  “I apologize, Livia,” I said. “That was out of line. You are under considerable stress, and it’s easy to criticize from the sidelines. I’m playing armchair quarterback.”

  “You know the real reason Naryn’s in Washington, then?” Skylur asked.

  My stomach clenched. We didn’t know, here in Denver, but we’d guessed.

  “Emergence?”

  Skylur nodded. “Agent Ingram has decided that he cannot delay any longer. He and Naryn are working together to introduce Naryn to his bosses. It’s happening,” he said, and his simple words made it a real thing, an almost physical pressure on me. “There’s no more time for maneuvers and preparation. Wherever it is we’re at, that’s what we’re going to have to go forward with.”

  “How long before it comes out? Before ordinary people know?”

  Skylur smiled. “That’s going to be driven by the government. We’re already leaking, deliberately, to segments of the population we think will be receptive. Some of that you already know. As my Diakon and I agree, your House is indeed ‘surprising, remarkably versatile and useful’.”

  In this case, I assumed he was talking about Dominé. An initiative started off by Jen had Altau Holdings investing in setting up franchises of Dominé’s Club Vasana in major cities. ‘Blood Orchid Vampire Nights’ were becoming famous. Except now, there were actually vampires attending and on the lookout for kin. There had been Werewolf Nights, too. There had even been a hugely successful Chanting and Spiritual Healing Night at the San Francisco club where the local Adept community had been astonished at the number of people with latent abilities they’d been able to recruit.

  “I will speak directly to House Elicott in Washington, and soothe his fears,” Skylur said.

  “I don’t think that’s enough to quiet the resentment in the association, given the association’s starting position is we shouldn’t be emerging at all.”

  Skylur nodded, conceding the point.

  “The extent of any potential revolt needs to be assessed,” I went on. “The best place to do it is at the House who appears to be the most conservative and reactionary. That’s Labastide in New Orleans. You can’t go down there without setting the rest of the old association on fire. Livia or Tarez going down there for a ‘courtesy call’ would achieve the same result. I have a reason to visit, completely unrelated to Athanate politics. If I’m in the New Orleans area, I would be expected to stop in and introduce myself.”

  Skylur was silent for a minute, sitting back and thinking. Livia watched him, and Maia watched me from the back of the room.

  I wondered if the pelea had any politics or opinions outside of complete loyalty to Skylur. She’d been the resident, long-established House in Seattle when Skylur had moved to New York. One call and she’d given up all that to be his bodyguard.

  Were they lovers?

  I wasn’t sure I was brave enough to ask.

  “Yes,” Skylur’s voice broke into my thoughts. “The first phase of the experiment in Colorado has reached a satisfactory conclusion. You should not have to be involved in the second phase, and your pressing business as syndesmon takes precedence over remaining in Denver.”

  He was not ordering me to go down and in
vestigate House Labastide in New Orleans, in case anyone ever asked him if he had. Especially in front of the Assembly, with an Adept Truth Sensor standing beside him.

  For the same reason, I was not going to tell him exactly which route I was going to take to Louisiana. I wasn’t even going to think about it. The important thing was that I had permission to openly leave Denver for a reason entirely justifiable in front of the Assembly. Focus on that.

  But Skylur hadn’t finished. “The position of syndesmon provides autonomy, but it also requires that you must be able to justify your actions to the Assembly, and argue the benefits your actions and those of your House bring to all the parties involved. All of those actions, since taking up that position.”

  That made me twitch. He knew I’d broken quarantine to save Tullah, and therefore I’d assumed I had his tacit approval. And the quarantine was a House Altau order, not an Assembly order. But now he seemed to be implying, or warning me, that all House Farrell actions might become a matter for the Assembly.

  I wondered if he already knew how much I’d broken the quarantine. I’d not only left Colorado, I’d left the country. I pushed the thoughts away in case something showed on my face.

  “The Assembly is not impartial,” Skylur said. “You know this of the Athanate. Do not believe that the addition of Were or Adept will make it any more impartial. Be prepared. To build the case you will be called to make, the best foundation is success, and the more spectacular, the better. A partial success or a failure leaves fertile ground for might-have-beens to grow.”

  Anytime I had Skylur’s full attention on me, I’d found it unnerving. Some of that was his sheer presence, the weight of his eukori. That should have meant that he was less unnerving in a teleconference. I reminded myself I was looking at nothing more than pixels on a screen, but my hindbrain refused to accept that. Even if I suspected he’d deliberately lightened his lecture by making a joke about growing beans.

  “You must be able to face that examination alone. I am sure you will be a light in the dark, and hold high the marque you bear.”