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Venenata mages detoxified by either poisoning their patient with something that would kill the pathogen or by drawing the poison into themselves and metabolizing it. Even though we had cans of nightbloom antidote, time was a factor. The Etterson kids exhausted themselves trying to save everyone. Poor Ragnar looked like he wasn’t sure where he was or what he was doing here.
To my right, Arabella watched Konstantin with silent hatred. I had brought her up to speed as soon as she woke up, and she zeroed in on Konstantin as the reason for Mom’s wound and everything that followed. That’s when Arabella was at her most dangerous, when she didn’t say anything and just seethed.
Konstantin and Alessandro had run to the north gate during the attack, missing Buller by moments. Alessandro torched the first nightbloom with his favorite tactical flamethrower. Konstantin changed shape into one of our guards and went after Krause, but she had fled as soon as she dropped those portals. Once the nightbloom was dead, Alessandro doubled back and ran into Buller and me.
Grandma Frida tapped her fingers on the table, watching Mom who sat across from her. Mom looked paler today, her bronze skin tinted with grey. Grandma Frida told me Mom wasn’t taking her pain medication. The attack had caught Grandma Frida in the motor pool, up to her elbow inside her latest mobile artillery project. The security protocol dictated that she and the three-person guard team protected the south gate, which was exactly what she did.
Leon sat by Grandma Frida. His arms, exposed by his T-shirt, sported hair-thin pale slashes that looked like old scars. Whatever attacked the FBI had gotten him after all. Dr. Patel told me he wasn’t sure they would go away or when. It was definitely making him sick, which was why he’d been asleep in his tower when the nightbloom seed landed on our patio. He’d tried shooting it and Buller, and none of it did any good, not even the minigun. Now he brooded, heartbroken because he felt useless.
The door swung open, and Cornelius entered, his expression grave. Matilda was next, her long dark hair gathered into a ponytail. She was carrying a fluffy Himalayan cat, whose full name was Go Mi Nam and who usually answered to “Kitty.” Patricia Taft was the last to enter, carrying a trash can. Some people had a stronger reaction to nightbloom than others.
Matilda walked over to Ragnar and deposited the cat on his lap. Ragnar blinked at her, startled.
“Comfort,” Matilda explained.
Go Mi Nam dutifully purred like a runaway bulldozer.
“Do I not get comfort?” Leon asked sadly.
Matilda walked around the table, hugged him gently, and patted his hair as if he was a dog. “It will be okay. You can shoot people next time.”
Everyone was finally here.
First things first.
“Family, Prince Berezin.” I nodded at Konstantin.
“Konstantin, please,” Konstantin said with a charming smile.
The family glowered back.
“Konstantin represents the Russian Imperium. He will be helping us with this matter,” I said.
Arabella took the metal spoon out of Runa’s drink and bent it.
I explained the prince, the contract, Smirnov, and everything surrounding it.
Nobody said anything.
“Do you know who attacked Linus?” Arabella demanded.
“Yes,” I told her.
“Did you do anything about it?”
“No.”
The outrage on my sister’s face was so stark, I almost asked Alessandro to summon a shield for me.
“Catalina!” Arabella snarled.
“It’s Kaylee Cabera, and I don’t know how she fits into this yet.”
“I do,” Konstantin volunteered.
I pivoted to him.
“Kaylee was a dud,” Konstantin said. “Luciana was facing a lot of pressure from the family to select an official successor and it couldn’t be Kaylee. Of course, you are already aware of the connection between Arkan and Luciana.”
Alessandro waved him on.
“Luciana contacted Arkan to fix the problem and so he did. Kaylee survived and became one of his mutant Primes. Unfortunately, someone alerted Duncan to the matter, and he went after her. Luciana realized the Warden was making circles around her daughter and getting closer with every pass, so she appealed to Arkan to kill him. He refused.”
“Why?” Leon asked.
“The Warden of Texas is a risky target,” Alessandro answered. “He probably wasn’t sure he could handle the fallout.”
“Luciana took her monster child and did it anyway,” Konstantin said. “And to top it off, she failed to seal the deal. Arkan went into a rage, threw some things, and once he calmed down, decided that he needed to do damage control. He ordered Xavier to kill her and to make it public.”
“And he had her killed at Linus’ restaurant,” I thought out loud. “As a kind of peace offering. ‘Look, she tried to murder you, and I punished her in retaliation.’”
“Exactly.” Konstantin nodded.
In Arkan’s mind, this probably made Linus and him square somehow. And the Russian prince had seen an opening to bring Arkan down. This matter put the Wardens and Arkan on a collision course, so he gave us both a little push. I had put most of this together already, but it was nice to have a confirmation.
