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I had to repress a bark of laughter at the look on Daniel’s face. It was the first time the veneer had cracked, and while it was only for a second until he gathered himself and the easy smile returned to his face, the brief alarm I’d spied gave me an odd comfort. It meant that—resistant to our glamour or not, and special agent or not—he was vulnerable. While I knew he was human, I’d begun to wonder just what the hell we were up against with our cousin. FBH didn’t always equate to easy pickings.
“I wouldn’t think of it, Smoky. I never cross friends or loved ones, or relatives.” And as he said those words, a ring of truth echoed through them that even I could feel. So Daniel had his own code of honor, as skewed as it might be.
Hanna popped her head around the corner. “Either you come to the table now, or no dinner.” And with a stern look, she disappeared again.
“She means it.” Camille stood, motioning for us to follow. “I don’t want to test her on it.”
As I backed away, Daniel rose smoothly to his feet. “I want you to know, I am happy to meet you—not just because you are who you are and because I think we can benefit each other, but because… what family I have, the family I choose to remain in contact with, mean a great deal to me. I value them and I protect them as best as I can. In case you’re wondering, Hester knows nothing of my activities. I keep her protected from the truth. I have no doubt of her reaction, and I don’t want her worrying herself. She’s got enough troubles as it is without me adding to them.”
I wasn’t sure what it was, but despite the weirdness of what was going on, I found myself liking him. And one glance at Delilah and Camille’s faces told me they felt the same. As we filed over to the dinner table, conversation turned toward other matters.
Delilah turned to him. “So no wife, husband, children… ?”
Daniel grinned. “I’m straight, and no. I never married, I never will marry, and I certainly never intend to have a pile of rugrats around. In my line of work, it would be dangerous to have ties of that nature. And I do best on my own. Sex, paid companionship, suits my needs. But relationships? Not my style.”
“Are you ever lonely?” I took my usual place up near the ceiling—something about levitating above the table soothed me.
“I learned long ago that I’m geared for a solitary lifestyle. And with my training? It would have been a recipe for disaster to become emotionally involved with anyone. We were on constant missions, and if I were worrying about anyone at home, I would have put my unit mates in danger.”
Daniel started to pull out a chair for Camille but Morio smoothly slid between them and led her to a chair between him and Smoky. Smoky pointed to Daniel, and then the chair next him, and Daniel obeyed. Shade sat on his other side, with Delilah beside him.
Hanna had piled the table high with salads and breads and fruit and cookies, and now she held the door for Trillian as he emerged from where he’d been grilling to slide an enormous platter of steaks on the table. They were sizzling, and—for the millionth time—I wished I could eat. Even though Morio had opened up a new door for me with the flavored blood, I was always aware of what I was drinking, and always too aware of how much I liked the feel of it in my body and my throat, of how it both satiated and stoked the hunger within.
As the others fell to their food, I watched Daniel. He had lightened up and was chatting about the house, and his mother and father, and my sisters were soaking it up. It was almost as if there were two Daniels—the one who had come in preening and hinting at blackmail should we refuse to help him, and the one here—jovial, friendly, and with a winning smile. It was hard to keep from taking the bait, hook, line, and sinker.
Were both Daniels simply aspects of a very complex man? Was one side of him a carefully cultivated fake? If so, which one was real? As the evening wore on, I was no closer to having even a clue as to the answers to those questions, and by the time he said good night—at nine thirty—I shut the door behind him, feeling oddly tired.
As I turned around, Camille was sliding into her coat and Delilah had zipped up her jacket. I stared at them for a moment, wondering where they were going, but then remembered we had to go meet Tanne Baum.
“Can we all take one car? I want to talk over tonight’s visit on the way.” I shrugged on a denim jacket, more out of habit than anything.
“I’ll drive. I’ve got the most room.” Camille held up her keys. “And yes, I think that’s a very good idea.”
“Are you sure you girls want to go alone?” Trillian was leaning out of the kitchen. He glanced over his shoulder and said something that sounded like, “I’m on it.”
“You want to come with?” Camille motioned to the closet. “Grab your jacket then.”
Trillian slipped on his calf-length black duster. “The stakes are too high to go it alone. There are too many games going on and we seem to be pawns in a number of them.”
And with that, we headed out the door.
The road was slick with rain, the wind picking up tree branches and tossing them about like leaves. We were in for one hell of a storm, it seemed, and once again, my mind raced back to Elqaneve. But the storm there was sentient, alive in a monstrous way. The storms here had energy, they had some semblance of consciousness, Camille had told us, but nothing like what was going on back home.
As she navigated the standing water that was accumulating on the roadway, Camille finally said, “I heard back from the crematorium. Father’s ashes will be ready to pick up tomorrow, in time for Samhain.”
“What are we going to do about a Samhain ritual?” De-lilah stared out the window, her voice shaky. “We can’t just let it go by. We’ve lost too many people. We have to—”
“We have to honor them.” I normally wasn’t all too upset if we put off the holidays for a day or two, but this time, I knew what it would do to my sisters. And marking the deaths of our father, Queen Asteria, and Chrysandra would go a long ways to helping us move on and focus on what we needed to be doing.
Camille sighed. “We’ll do something, even if it’s simple. So… what did you think of Daniel? I never expected anything like the bomb he dropped on us. The dude is wacked, but I kind of like him. I don’t have any sense that he’s out to cross us—though that isn’t a guarantee.”>He pointed to a jagged scar. “That’s where the bone came ripping through the flesh. After I told him I couldn’t provide what he wanted, Tobi—well, let’s just say my client—told his body guard to break my arm. His man did a wonderful job, I have to say. He shattered my arm as if it were a toothpick and, in his enthusiasm, managed to rip the jagged edge of the bone through the skin. Obviously, I lived, but it took two hundred stitches and six months in a cast and rehabilitation to regain full use of my arm. So I now pick and choose my clients wisely, and I always come through, regardless of what it costs me.”
I stared at him. He was so nonchalant that it began to dawn on me just how strong our cousin was. He didn’t flinch, didn’t even wince when he was talking about his injury. And considering he had been a member of the ISA, my guess was that he’d been trained to withstand torture.
“You were part of one of their elite forces, weren’t you?” Maybe we couldn’t glamour him, but I could force the issue.
He contemplated me for a moment, and the jovial smile slipped away. Beneath it lay the cold, harsh gaze of a predator, and I had the feeling that Daniel could be as deadly as we were.
“Cream of the crop, Menolly. I was the cream of the crop, top of the line. They didn’t want to let me go.” He shifted in his seat. “Before you ask, the reason I left was twofold. I wanted out of the danger zone. And… there were things we were trained to do—things I’ve done—that I could no longer bear on my conscience. They still haunt me, and while I know I can never atone for some of them, I had the strength to walk away.”
