Bitten to Death

Jack lost his balance and shoved a paw in my chest trying to get it back, which made my left breast hurt so much I looked down to make sure it hadn’t caved in. Thinking about my two typical appendages led my mind on to Disa’s multiple freaky ones. And I decided we’d given Pete more than enough time to research their various applications. With a major confrontation on the horizon, I needed to know how to defeat them. Now.

It took him nearly a minute to answer his phone.

“I still have an hour before I have to get up for the day,” he griped.

“Then you shouldn’t have given me your home number,” I replied.

“Did you know you’re the only one who ever calls me here?”

I bit my lip. It’s never good to stand out in a crowd, especially one as sparse as the group that comprises our department. “It’s important.”

“Then get to the point.” I decided the reluctant acceptance in his voice might spare me a lecture the next time we met, and launched into a brief review of the night’s events.

“So Vayl and I got split up and now I’m going in to back him up. He’s with the face-eater, so I could definitely use any info you guys have dug up, you know, before I go pick a fight with her?”

“Hang on.” I heard the squeak of bedsprings as Pete moved his side of the conversation to a location that wouldn’t give his long-suffering wife nightmares. “Listen, all we’ve got right now are a couple of radical theories. Nothing we’re willing to let you risk your life, or your nose, on. So far all I can tell you for sure is she’s not a true Vera.”

“You mean this isn’t something she’s evolved into by using her own powers?”

“Exactly. She seems to have entered into a symbiotic relationship with a new species.”

“And by new you mean one we don’t yet know how to kill.”

“Pretty much,” he admitted. “Our researchers are working on it, but currently all they can tell me is if you terminate her, the thing that’s connected to her should die as well.”

“That’s easy for them to say. They haven’t seen the damage she can do!”

“True.”

I sighed. It looked like I was still stuck in improvisational mode regarding Disa. And that couldn’t include smoking her unless I figured out how to separate her from Vayl. Maybe if I managed to slow her down. Paralyze her even. Huh. Now there’s a thought.

“Listen, Pete, I know Vayl has fed you information on Trusts in general. Has he told you anything about this one in particular that might help?”

“Hang on. Let me get my laptop.”

I stared at the twinkling lights of Patras, growing larger in the window as we left the countryside and headed toward the docks. I realized I was petting Jack’s head while I waited and feeling better because of it. Too bad my work kept me moving so much. It might’ve been nice to try life as a pet owner.

“Jaz?”

“Still here,” I told him.

“Okay, I’ve brought up a copy of Vayl’s report. There’s not much you don’t already know. He says that the Trust demands absolute loyalty. That Hamon nearly killed him when he turned Disa, because that was one of the cardinal sins of the community.”

“Somebody mentioned the rule, but I didn’t realize Hamon reacted that strongly.”

“Yup. Says here most other Trusts encourage turning. But Hamon insisted that nobody create a mate for him- or herself. It also says Vayl suspected the only reason Hamon spared him was because he despised Disa so much. When Hamon discovered Vayl wanted nothing to do with her, he calmed down considerably.”

Aha! And there you have it, folks, the missing thread of holograph Hamon’s tale. The only way you can step into his and Octavia’s shoes is to be a Maker whose mate would wear the mask. Or vice versa. But, damn, who would willingly do that?

I put my hand to my reeling head. “Pete, Disa needs Vayl in that mask in order to keep the Trust from losing its power. I think if that happened worse things than Samos would show up to enslave them, so she’s got to be pretty desperate. But I can’t figure out why she’d take him away. The mask is in Patras.”

“You’d better find out. And soon. Vayl’s the strongest vamp I’ve ever come across, but even he can’t resist all that Vampere magic forever.”

“Got it.” I hung up and tapped the phone against my head, as if it could send me the one signal I actually needed. “Where are you going, Vayl?”

Admes cleared his throat, said something unintelligible. I pushed Jack off my lap so I could turn in my seat. “What did you say?”

“The Weres might know.”

“Why?”

“They keep track of the others who enter and leave Patras. I think it’s a territorial issue. Like urinating on your border, only more intense.”

I opened my phone. “Come on, baby. Please still be here.” Yup, I found the alpha’s number just where I’d programmed it in. Krios answered almost immediately. When I explained my situation, he couldn’t wait to help me out.

“I have a couple of people working the airport. Let me call and find out where your vamps have gone. Back in a flash.”