“Of the Iltanis? Maybe fifty, sixty. Hard to know for sure.” Kassa’s gaze moved to Raziel again, and her hand drifted to the gun at her hip. “After the attack where Luciento died, they ran in separate directions. Easier to blend in, harder to identify. Some of them are still operating in the upper city, feeding us information.”
Nadi felt something twist in her chest, a grief so old and familiar it was almost comforting. Finding out there were others should have been a gift. Instead, it felt like a burden. Because now she had people who could be lost.
“Tell me why I shouldn’t give the signal now, and have you both dead for what you’ve done?” Kassa sat back in her chair. “I could get revenge for the death of Luciento, for your family, for all Iltanis? You betrayed your own family, Nadi.”
There was an emptiness in Kassa’s voice. It was simply a statement. There was no anger there, no vitriol, no hate. Just an assessment like Nadi was meat at market, and Kassa was trying to evaluate how much she was worth.
This wasn’t the homecoming Nadi had dreamed of as a child—no tearful reunions, no family embraces. Just the cold calculation of people who’d learned to survive by trusting no one completely. “I had my reasons. I was infiltrating his family. I had given up my life to kill them all. I had a choice to make, and I made it.”
“And now you stand beside one of them.” Kalo kept his tone carefully neutral.
“And Volencia Nostrom is dead by my doing.” She lifted her chin in defiance. “The matriarch responsible for ordering my family’s death is dust because of my blades.”
Kassa’s eyebrows lifted slightly at that. She looked to Raziel. “Is this true?”
“It is.” Raziel kept the fact that his siblings were likely to do the deed the same night to himself. Which was kind of him.
“And tell me. Do you still desire the death of the Nostrom family?” Kassa narrowed her eyes.
“Most of them,” Nadi answered honestly. “In fact, all of them except this one.” She jerked her head at Raziel.
“And what does he want?” Kassa’s smile was as friendly as broken glass. “Because from where I sit, it looks like you’ve brought us the single most dangerous vampire in existence and expect us to welcome you with open arms.”
“To rule the world,” Raziel replied simply. “Starting with the destruction of my siblings and the conquest of the metropolis, then expanding outward from there.”
The brutal honesty of the statement created a moment of stunned silence. Even Nadi, who knew Raziel’s ambitions, was taken aback by how casually he’d laid them out. No pretense,no diplomacy, no attempt to make his goals sound noble or justified.
“At least he’s not lying,” Kassa said finally. “Which makes me wonder, why would we help someone whose ultimate goal is to rule over us?”
“Because right now, you’re ruled by people who want you dead. From a purely practical standpoint, I’m an improvement.” He shrugged idly, as if it were the most obvious concept in the world and the people in front of him were slow students.
“A marginal improvement.” Kalo laughed.
“Most improvement is marginal,” Raziel replied. “The question is whether you prefer a certain death or an uncertain one.”
It was Kassa’s turn to laugh. Raspy though it was. “I’m starting to like you, Serpent. You’re a bastard, but at least you’re an honest bastard. That’s rarer than it should be.”
“Elder…” one of the guards began.
“Don’t.” Kassa held up a wrinkled, scarred hand. “I’m not making any decisions based on old clan loyalties or family sentiment. We can’t afford either. But I am willing to listen to what they’re proposing.”
And Nadi had the distinct sensation she had just let a nigh-literal snake into a birds’ nest.
“The fae clans are a powder keg waiting to detonate,vuampi. Your siblings have upset the balance of power—which was their goal, I expect. Secret alliances are about to become public ones. One wrong spark, and everything goes up. The Wild will burn.”
“That’s their goal. To destabilize the clans so they can pick them apart and control them.” Nadi shook her head.
“The question isn’t if things will explode, it’s simply when, and how we can either control the blast or survive it.” Kassa grimaced.
“We control it. That is what I do.” Raziel’s confidence was as foreboding as it was reassuring to Nadi. “I find the pressure points and I apply force until things break.”
“And if you’re wrong? If the explosion consumes everything, including us?” Kalo arched a deep blue eyebrow.
Raziel smiled, and for once it wasmostlywithout malice. “Then at least we’ll have the satisfaction of knowing we murdered as many of them as we could on the way to death’s door. And that’s more than most people get.”
Kassa went silent for a very long time.
“We’ve been planning a raid on the Nostroms’ main narcotics processing facility for weeks. You’ve seen what their fucking drugs have done to us. I want their production capability crippled. It might slow the feed into our systems enough to wake a few of us up. But we haven’t had the forces to do it. Haven’t had the opportunity.” Kassa looked meaningfully at Nadi and Raziel. “Seems like that opportunity just walked through our door. And a great chance to test where your loyalties really lie, Serpent.”
