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Okay, maybe I sold her abilities short. I stare at her, wishing I could push myself right into the memory like Andreas would be able to. “What? I thought Balthazar had nothing to do with them anymore.”
Pearl dips her head in acknowledgment. “Oh, he doesn’t. It was—” She glances at Riva, and her smile falters for a moment. “I told you before how when I’m seducing someone, they always seem to end up blabbing their big regrets to me afterward. One of this guy’s big failures had to do with the guardians.”
Everyone’s attention is trained on the succubus now. Rollick makes a circular motion with his hand. “Go on.”
Pearl sucks her lower lip under her teeth as she appears to think back. “He was someone in pretty tight with Balthazar. One of his top dudes. But he was worried the big guy would never give him any responsibilities outside of the science-y stuff he was mostly focused on.”
Dominic’s eyebrows rise. “Wait… Did you manage to get your hands onMatteo?”
Pearl blinks at him. “Yeah, that was his name. Is that important?”
A sourness laces my tongue and turns my stomach. Something thumps on one of Rollick’s shelves in the instant before I rein in my power.
That fucking smug prick and his sick “procedures.” It’s his fault almost as much as Balthazar’s that we’re in this mess.
“Matteo was one of the two employees Balthazar seemed to count on the most at the villa,” Riva says quietly. “The other one being Toni. He was in charge of trying to expand our abilities—and he’s probably the one who worked out whatever treatment Balthazar’s using now to produce his new and stronger shadowbloods.”
Pearl wrinkles her nose. “Ugh. He did seem like a creep. We should be looking to take him out of the picture too.”
The corner of Riva’s mouth curls upward just slightly. “I already did.”
Rollick chuckles approvingly. Probably the thing I like most about the demon is the fact that he appreciates my woman’s brutal side as much as I do.
Pearl hesitates and then lets out a bell of a laugh. “Well, that’s taken care of then.”
Dominic clears his throat. “You never told us what he said about the guardians.”
“Oh, right.” The succubus rubs her hands together. “Apparently a couple of years ago, after Balthazar went off on his own apart from this Guardianship, Matteo figured it’d been long enough of his boss playing lone wolf and that they’d make progress faster if they continued collaborating with the guardians at least a little. So he set up a visit with some of the head honchos, thinking Balthazar would be pleased with his initiative.”
I can’t imagine that psycho being “pleased” with anyone’s inspiration other than his own. “Let me guess. He was wrong.”
“Oh, yeah. When Balthazar saw the Guardianship people, he told them off with a bunch of insults and threats… It was so bad Matteo was sure he’d have a hard time coming back even if he changed his mind later.”
“And that’s what Matteo regretted?” Riva asks.
Pearl shakes her head. “Nope. He was all torn up about how he’d lost his boss’s trust by inviting them in. I guess Balthazar laid into him too in the moment and then never stopped giving him a chilly attitude afterward.”
Yeah, that fits my impressions of the guy. Matteo was just as sociopathic as his master and worked his butt off following the prick’s insane demands.
Riva’s eyes gleam with anticipation. “That’s perfect.”
My head jerks toward her. “How, exactly?”
She swats my arm in response to my skeptical tone. “The last time Balthazar and the guardians interacted, he treated them like an enemy. All they know is he’s gone rogue and he apparently wants nothing to do with them. Don’t you see how that plays into our hands?”
Zian’s eyes widen. “It might not be too hard to convince them that he’s workingagainstthem. That they’ve got to take action to save themselves.”
“Right.” Riva grins. “Now if only we could nudge his new shadowbloods to rain down a little destruction near wherever the Guardianship’s top dogs are hanging out to make the threat more immediate, we’d be golden.”
Rollick looks up from his laptop. “Who says we need his shadowbloods? We’ve got perfectly good ones right here.”
Andreas glances around at the rest of us. “You’re saying thatweshould rain down some destruction?”
The demon shrugs. “Nothingthathorrible. Just some superficial but suitably unnerving devastation.” His gaze slides to… me, before he glances around at the others again. “I’ve heard your telekinetic prodigy can shake entire mountains. He should be able to shake up the Guardianship too.”
Wait,I’mthe one who has to set this plan in motion?
Everyone else turns toward me expectantly. Zian raises his hand as if he’s in class. “I’ll go too. I can bash and burn things up a bunch.”
