Doubletake

I frowned. “‘Succubae’ or ‘succubi’ is plural for ‘succubus.’” And they sounded the same whether spelled different or not.

“Yes, that was true until copyright law came into effect and I copyrighted the word and/or syllable ‘bi’ used in any remotely sexual way, which includes a succubus. You may call them ‘Bae.’” Pronounced ‘bay.’”

“You really are a freak, aren’t you?” I considered stabbing him with my fork. It wouldn’t be the first time…or the second. “But whatever, okay. Anything if you’ll go back to watching TV.” I addressed Niko again. “He needs me to build the Bae. And he needs me cooperative.”

Which the Auphe, when they had tried this same plan over a year ago, hadn’t required. They’d had access to Tumulus, a place that would drive me insane in minutes. Frothing at the mouth or catatonic, I didn’t know, but insane enough that they could’ve either used my crazed rage or a catatonic body, posable and reactive as any other male body—but without anyone home in there.

Grimm, an assumed failure, hadn’t been taken to Tumulus. He didn’t know the way. He couldn’t get there. And if he could, he wouldn’t have known its effect on me. He probably didn’t know I’d spent two years there at the mercy of the Auphe while being trained for the big day—gating them back far enough in time to wipe out the human race.

So that was out.

No insanity equals no involuntary cooperation.

“And since the succu bae aren’t willing and I’m not willing—it ain’t happening. I don’t think he’ll try to hurt you or Promise, Robin, or Ishiah. He’s been watching me since I put down the other half-breeds in Nevah’s Landing. He knows there’s no way in hell he’d get me on his side if he did anything to you. I don’t know how many succubae he has or how many Bae offspring, but replacing the Auphe as top ruling race on the planet is going to take a long time. He can’t hold you all hostage while I help him knock up”—I let go of the fork and said it for what it really was—“while I rape succubae for a few hundred years or so.” Assuming I inherited the Auphe longevity. “Robin, Ish, and Promise would still be around, but you’d be…gone. It’s not smart or efficient and Grimm is both.”

“You think he is that much more of a threat than the Auphe? They deserved their place at the top of the evolutionary ladder when it came to predators. We were lucky, very lucky to beat them. That and you were incredibly stubborn, as usual.” Niko tapped my plate and bowl with his fork. I might not feel like eating but I couldn’t fight if I didn’t fuel the machine.

“The Auphe were cunning. Grimm is smart. He has a goddamn degree. What kind of Auphe gets a goddamn degree?” I ate some more. “The Auphe had no problem dying for their cause, bringing the good old days of murder and mayhem back. Grimm will live for his cause. If he thinks you or I are about to take off his head, he’ll gate and come back to play the game later.”

“That is troublesome.” Now Niko stopped eating, but he’d nearly finished his meal, depriving me of fork vengeance. “What do you mean by ‘game’?”

“Trying to kill each other,” I said uncomfortably. This was something new: to Nik and me. It was something I’d not felt with the pure Auphe and probably wouldn’t feel with Grimm if I hadn’t given up part of my humanity months ago to get back all of my memories and to save Nik’s life.

“I thought you said he needed you alive and cooperative, and trying to kill each other is a game?” he demanded.

“Yeah.” I speared a piece of chicken and looked at it instead of my brother. He had never looked at me with disappointment, but I didn’t want to see the first time if it came. “It’s the only game Auphe play with one another. I didn’t know before the Nevah’s Landing amnesia-fest.” I heard the rasp of Niko’s hand touching cloth and knew he was touching the tattoo through his shirt. I didn’t regret it, becoming less human and more Auphe. It’d been for Nik. Even without a single Auphe gene in me, I wouldn’t have been much of a human being if Niko hadn’t been around all my life. Mom would’ve needed a dictionary to look up the phrase “good influence.”

“But now I feel it, felt it when I saw Grimm. I want to kill the bastard because he’s Auphe, a murderer, a monster, because it’s justice, but I also want to…play.”

“If one of you kills the other, how does that help the son of a bitch’s plan?” Niko asked with an edge of confusion and of that anger he rarely showed…until Kalakos had shown up, which was yet another problem to be handled.

“If he kills me, I wasn’t good enough to be part of the Second Coming or father the new race. If I kill him, he wouldn’t be good enough either. It’s a test too. Like him siccing Janus on me is a test.” I gave up on the food. I’d eat after I showered. “But mainly it’s a game he hopes we’ll survive long enough to complete his plan.”

“You can’t think that it’s actually…”

“Fun?” The grin crawled across my face of its own volition. I tried to hold it back, but I couldn’t. “It is so much fucking fun I can hardly goddamn stand it.”

And I could see then that while I didn’t regret handing over a slice of my human pie to save Niko’s life, he did. “Shit.” I exhaled. “Ah, shit. I’m sorry. But I couldn’t let you die, Nik. I couldn’t do it.”

“I know.” He wrapped a rough arm around my neck, squeezed, and bumped his forehead lightly against mine. “I’d have done the same damn thing. It might not be the right thing for the world, but sometimes the world has to take a backseat.”

He straightened. “You’re not worried as much that Grimm will kill you; you’re worried that he’s…” He searched for the right word, Nik who knew every word, all the time. I think he didn’t want to say it.

I said it for him. “Contagious. The asshole is contagious.” I’d seen him once now and I was running down the dark road as fast as I could go, and there was no slowing down. I’d tried. Part of me was running, part of me was pushing, and part of me was trying to turn around. That last part was small now, too small to have a chance of holding its own. It was slowing me some, though. All parts of me were stubborn, large or small.

“I’m less worried about him turning Janus loose on us again than just seeing the bastard.” Ah, the hell with it. If I let this shit stop me from eating, I’d starve to death in a week, because we weren’t solving the Grimm situation that quickly or easily. I pulled the bowl back and went to work.

“If he finds out you’re limited to three gates—two, actually—that could be much more of a problem.”

Unworthy and spoiled, crippled and useless.

I shook my head and smiled at him. A real smile, the kind I saved for the brother who’d raised me and no one else. It was completely human and completely genuine. “He won’t find out,” I lied, because how could I know? But the lie was the best thing I could give Nik. I didn’t want him blaming himself for the gates. If he hadn’t given Rafferty the okay to rewire me, limit me, I might have gone all Auphe by now, reached the bottom of the road a long time ago. Chances were high.

Besides, Nik was wrong—it wouldn’t be a problem if Grimm found out.

He’d kill me.

But Niko was also right. Sometimes with family the world takes a backseat, but sometimes it doesn’t—not when you were the family, the solution, and the problem…problems.

And when your problems are going full monster and helping create a new race to enslave or slaughter humanity…

Death solves them all.

It wouldn’t be long before Janus found us. Tonight, maybe tomorrow night. Grimm’s tests and games were nowhere close to being done. That’s why when Kalakos finished and Niko took his place in the shower, I thought it was time to wrap up the loose ends. We might not have a chance to again if Janus crushed each Vayash like a cockroach. Robin was making his way through the honey-fragrant lighter fluid cup by cup, and how he wasn’t dead or blind by the time he reached the fourth bottle, I didn’t know. There was tolerance and then there was taking to heart that embalming fluid shortage Jackie had told us about. After one last cup, he sprawled on the couch and was out. Not passed out. He was drinking the Chinese version of moonshine, but it’d take a barrel of it to knock him out. He was asleep, tired same as we all were.

Talk about your long day. Gods, monsters, minefields of metal, and too much ass-kicking to recall.

I was ready for my shower and a spot on the floor to sleep too, but first there was something I had to do. Kalakos sat on the floor by the low table—there was no room for anything larger. He crossed his legs the same as Niko always did, and helped himself to the leftover food. The bastard resembled Nik so much, they should’ve been brothers, instead of father and son. And he had saved Nik from the Cyclops.