there were Ina family feuds that were like small wars, it almost never happened that we wiped out whole families. What is happening now, what happened to your families, Shori, is rare and terrible.”
“And by coming here, I’ve brought it to your family,” I said. “I’m sorry for that. I just . . . didn’t know what to do or where else to go. And I was afraid for my symbionts.”
Hayden nodded, watching me. “I don’t believe my sons’sons would have wanted you to go to anyone else, although you’re already making Daniel’s life uncomfortable.”
I wasn’t surprised, but I didn’t know what to say. He smiled. “You didn’t know, did you?”
“I thought I might be. I’m sorry.”
“You needn’t be. It’s normal. Daniel apologizes for his behavior. He knows you’re much too young to make the kind of commitment he’s thinking of. And your efforts and warnings have kept us safe so far. No one is seriously hurt. What we do next, though . . . well . . .” He sighed. “I suppose we will do what we must. These murders must be stopped.”
He wouldn’t talk about what he and his family meant to do next. He only told me to keep the books as long as I needed them and to come to him when I wanted more or if I wanted to talk about what I’d read.
When he was gone, instead of reading more, I went up to where Wright lay sleeping. I undressed and climbed into bed beside him. He awoke enough to curl his body around mine.
“You okay?” he asked, his chin against the top of my head. “Better,” I said. “Better now.”
“Do they know who killed your family or, rather, who’s idea it was?”
“They know one family name, and where they live. The two injured captives can’t be questioned yet.” “Is Victor alive, Shori?”
“He is.” I swallowed. “Even though he remembers helping to murder both of my families. He even remembers attacking the house at Arlington where you and I and Celia and Brook could have died.”
“But it wasn’t his idea.”
“It wasn’t. So far, the Silk family seems to be guilty of all three attacks.” “Silk,” he said. “Interesting name. I wonder if you knew them before.”
“I don’t think so. None of the Gordons mentioned any connection between them and me, and I think at least one of them would have.”
“What will be done to them?”
“I don’t know. Hayden wouldn’t tell me. But I don’t think anything will be done until the other two prisoners are questioned.”
“You bit them.”
“I did. It will help them heal quickly.”
He moved me so that we lay eye-to-eye and took my face between his hands. “It will help you question them.”
“Of course it will.”
“What will happen to them after that, to Victor and the other two captives?”
“When we’ve finished questioning them, I’ll help them forget us because I’m the one who bit them. Then they’ll be sent back to their families.” I rubbed his shoulders. “They’re not anyone’s symbionts, Wright. They’re only someone’s tools. People who never wanted them, never cared about them, kidnapped them and used them to kill my families.”
He nodded. “I understand that, but . . . they did what they did.” “The Silks are responsible, not Victor and the others.”
He nodded again. “Okay.”
He didn’t sound happy. “What?” I asked.
“I don’t know exactly. I guess I’m just learning more about what I’ve stumbled into and become part of.” I was silent for several seconds, then asked, “Shall I let you alone tonight? I can go sleep with one of the
others.”
“Not with Victor?”
I drew back, staring at him.
“Where is he?” he asked.
“At Daniel’s house. Daniel had room for him, and Theodora will be here soon. And ... I didn’t want him here.”
After a while, he nodded. “Shall I go?”
“Of course not.” He pulled me against him. He caressed my face, my throat. Then, as he kissed me, he slipped his free hand between my thighs. “Are you hungry?” he asked.
I shook my head against him. “No, but I want to be close to you anyway.” “Do you? Good. If you taste me, I want you to do it from my thigh.”
I laughed, surprised. “I’ve heard of doing it that way, although I don’t know whether I ever have. You’ve been talking to someone!”
“What if I have?”
I found myself grinning at him. A instant later, I threw the blankets off him and dove for his thigh. He had nothing on, and I had him by the right thigh before he realized I had moved. Then I looked up at him. He looked startled, almost afraid. Then he seemed to catch my mood. He laughed—a deep, good, sweet sound. By touch and scent I found the large, tempting artery. I bit him, took his blood, and rode his leg as he convulsed and shouted.
The next night, the Gordons and I questioned the other two prisoners. Hayden and Preston questioned them while I prodded and reassured them. I had bitten each of them twice. They trusted me, needed to please me.
They, too, told us about what sounded like members of the Silk family abducting them at night. One had been in downtown Los Angeles, looking for one of his girls—one of the prostitutes who worked for him. He was angry with her. He didn’t think she was working hard enough, and he meant to teach her a lesson. Hayden had to explain this to me, and at last I found out what a pimp was. The explanation made me wonder what other unsavory things I didn’t remember about human habits.
The other captive had been on his way to the Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena to pick up his mother who was a nurse there and whose shift was ending. Her car had stopped running the day before, and he had promised to meet her and give her a lift home.
One prisoner was a pimp. The other was a college student keeping a promise to his mother. Both had been collected by members of the Silk family and sent north to kill my family and me. Neither had any information beyond what Victor had already told us.
When both captives were unconscious, much stressed by being made to talk about things that they had been ordered not to talk about, the Gordons and I looked at one another. Again, except for the captives, the company was all Ina.
“What can we do?” I took a deep breath and looked at the younger Gordon males—men who might someday be the fathers of my children. “These people have killed my family. Now they’ve come after you. They’ll probably come after you again.”
“I believe they will unless we stop them,” Hayden said.
Daniel nodded once. “So we stop them.”
“Oh my,” Preston said, his head down, one hand rubbing his forehead. “What else can we do?” Hayden demanded.
“I know.” Preston glanced at him sadly. “I’m not disagreeing. I’m just thinking about what it will mean, now and in the long run.”
Hayden made a growling sound low in his throat. “They should have thought about what it would mean.” Wells, one of Daniel’s fathers, said, “I’ve been thinking about it since yesterday. We need to start by
talking to the Fotopoulos and Braithwaite families, and perhaps the Svoboda and the Dahlman families as
well. The Dahlmans are related to the Silks through Milo, aren’t they? All these people are related in one way or another to the Silks and to Shori.”
And I thought,
“Don’t phone the Dahlmans yet,” Preston said. “Make them your eighth or ninth call. Try the Leontyevs and the Akhmatovas, and perhaps the Marcu and Nagy families.”
“You believe we’ll have time to bring together a Council of Judgment before they try again to kill us?” Daniel demanded.
Hayden and Preston looked at one another—the two elderfathers of the Gordons. Apparently they would decide.
“As soon as we get agreement from seven of the thirteen families, I’ll call the Silks,” Preston said. “I know Milo Silk, or I thought I did. How he and his sons have gotten involved in all this, I can’t imagine. Anyway, once they’ve been notified that we’re calling a Council of Judgment, that we have the first seven families, they won’t instigate another attack.
They won’t dare.” “Why not?” I asked.
Everyone looked at me as though I’d said something very stupid.
I stared back at them. “My memory goes back a few weeks and no further,” I said. “I ask because I don’t know, and I don’t want to make assumptions about anything this important.” And because I was annoyed. I let my tone of voice say,
Hayden said, “If they attack us after we’ve called for a Council, the judgment will automatically go
against them. Our legal system is ancient and very strong. That part of it in particular is absolute. It’s kept feuds from getting out of control for centuries.”
“And what does that mean?” I asked. “What would happen to them if they attacked you again?” “The adults would be killed, and their children dispersed among us to become members of other
families.” He stared down at me. “We would bring the adults to you. You are the person most wronged
in all this and the only surviving daughter. I think you could manage it.” “Manage . . . I would be their executioner?”
“You would be, yes. You would bite them and speak to them, command them to take their lives. I
suspect that you would grant them a gentler death than they deserve.”
For a moment, I was shocked speechless. Of course I knew I could kill humans directly by destroying their bodies or indirectly by biting them and then telling them to do things that were harmful to them, but kill Ina just by biting them and ordering them to die?
“I was
