I raised my head and studied him in the doorway, not reacting. I said, “You’re standing in a money pit that has the chance to pay for itself through apartment rentals on the upper floors. My investigative firm will be on this floor.IfI can find the money to pay for the rest of the construction.”
He had pursed his lips, stared at the unfinished ceiling, and asked, “Queen’s money? Family money?”
“No. Never. The family patented a working based on my work when I was a kid. I’ve got investments from that and a hefty settlement from Asshat.” Then I named a sum that made him wince. “That’s how much I need to finish.”
“Money pit is right. I like the investigations idea. I have some cash. Want a partner?”
EJ standing in the doorway, me on the floor, we had hashed out the ideas and haggled some. Then we shook hands. Not that there had been any question that we’d work together. Not from the moment he had walked in the door. Alone. No family, coven, or queenly help. EJ and I had opened The Firm and stayed financially, physically, and, damn it,successfullyindependent.
But we were so close to losing that freedom. It made me want to weep.
We were reattached to the queen. Maybe to our family coven.
In my brother’s eyes, I could see all that and more.
“Yes,” I said. “We have things to talk about.”
His mouth twisted into a wry expression that might have meant anything.
I turned from EJ’s guileless blue eyes to Walter, lying on the floor of my apartment beneath my null cloak, staked with two stakes, hoping the null cloak and the stakes would keep him in stasis, while one stake should have been enough to paralyze any vamp.
Vamps had a small circle of neurons and nerves just below their belly buttons that, when pierced by wood, rendered them more undead than usual. Normally, as in always, that meant suckheads couldn’t move, not so much as to twitch a finger. They were most often mentally inactive as well. Until Walter.
He had been trying to pull out his stake, while staked. I leaned closer. How much of that was the working in his brand? The brand on his face was no longer glowing, and with him out cold, I felt safe studying the working in the initials scarred into his flesh. In a basicseeingworking, and with my own magic, the layered working was a tangled mess, unlike anything I had ever seen. A dozen shades of green and purple, like yarn knotted by a destruction of kittens, and then half melted together and lit with anilluminationworking. Complex. I’d never be able to unknot it.
I reached out, preparing to place my deadish fingers on the old wound, when a single tread of purple-scarlet uncoiled from the edges.WYgleamed on Walter’s face.
Leaving my hand inches from the undead skin, I said, “EJ? Can you hear if there’s anattackworking blended into Walter’s brand?”
From close by, EJ whistled a soft note.
The bluish-purple thread of intent and power glowed brighter. I pulled my hand back.
“I’d say so,” EJ said. “Let’s not try anything fancy. Or anything at all.”
I sat back and Villetti readjusted the plushy blanket around my shoulders. I leaned into him and his arm went around me. This was the weirdest thing of all—this syncing with Lee was even stranger than the magical bond with my baby brother. Not as if Villetti and I had fallen back to our college relationship, but as if some new pattern had been woven into an existing butlong-forgotten template, altering it, evolving it into something totally new. Something that was both comfortable and…and whatever the heat warming down low in my belly meant.
Out of the blue, we had clicked.
My attention was yanked from my thoughts into a discussion that made no sense. I had drifted off. My clue was the wall screen. It had changed fromOjos’s security protocols and camera views to a split screen showing the queen’s social and political event of the season. On the screen was a static shot of the reception room, an unmoving line of dignitaries, an unmoving line of people to greet them. Ivyanna, our missing subject, was standing in the reception line.
The event when this all started. The place where, somehow, we had been drawn into the web of the queen’s rivals.
“Commencing, real time,” Peg said.
On-screen, Ivyanna shook the hand of several human, local and state government dignitaries, the governor, and then the hand of Edmund the First. There was a bit of chitchat. She moved on to the Consort, where she tilted her head at him in that particularly feminine way that showed interest. The Consort lifted an eyebrow in amusement. Ivyanna bobbed a tiny curtsy and shook the hand of the Dark Queen. Nodded to the royal security guards flanking the queen. Their subject moved away and swayed slowly across the room.
I tallied the number of eyes on her as Ivyanna progressed. A significant number of people watched her, human and vampire.
“Again, please?” I asked.
“Copy that,” Peg said, “rerunning boring stuff.”
He had trained with Alex and was fluent with all the programs used by the queen. And now he was fluent withOjos. He had spent most of the time since the unit had been at The Firm, out of sight, obviously syncingOjoswith the queen’s softwareand protocols. Even more of our independence vanishing. Someone else had access to our cameras and security system.
Probably always had, I thought bitterly.
The reception line moved forward. Ivyanna did her meet and greet.
