MERCENNARIUM

KELLY

“That was probably a bad idea,” Alex said as they got back into the van.

Kelly waved at Obould's boys loading the gargant into a truck. “It's not so bad. It was fun, and no one died.”

George chuckled. “Boss, weren't you the one saying we shouldn't get involved with the Paladins more than we have to?”

She took off her daygoggles. The ambient light in the van was a bit softer than daylight, about the level of a lightbulb, which meant she could see fine, but it gave her a fierce headache. She could bear it for a little bit—she was tired of everything being dark.

“Maybe you guys are right. But we're having a bad day, and I figured everyone could use a little R&R before another week or so of stakeout.”

Jarasax grimaced as he slid into the driver's seat and started the engine. “That's an understatement if I ever heard one. But I'm not sure this was the time or the place.”

“We did get to have a little fun,” George said, as he scratched at his bandages. They would need to get him better healing soon. “C'mon, Sax, you have to admit watching Adam kill that gargant was worth it.”

Jarasax grunted. “Hardly. We both almost got killed. Hell, I didn't even see the actual kill. Wouldn't you have preferred to stay home over a few broken ribs?”

Kelly rubbed her eyes. The headache wasn't too bad yet, but the incessant sniping was getting tiresome. “Fine, Sax, next time we'll leave you with the van. Happy now?”

He frowned. “Kelly, come on. I'm just looking out for the team.”

“Oh both of you stop,” Alex said as they polished their dayknives. “You're both so overprotective it's embarrassing. Though I suppose I should be grateful Mom let us have some fun today.”

Kelly glared at him dangerously, but he just grinned back. “Don't start that again, Alex.”

“I'm serious,” they said, warming to the subject. “Ling's been chattering about this whenever she gets the chance.”

“Why to you of all people?” Sax asked. Kelly had to admit that she found it a bit curious too. Most people were a little leery around angels, and Kelly hadn't thought Ling was an exception. “Weren't you just complaining we aren't friendly enough with them?”

“Hey, I wasn't complaining.” George shifted in his spot, an annoyed look on his face, and Alex hurriedly continued. “It's just that the rest of the Paladins aren't very sympathetic to her plight. She's not a soldier, she's just someone in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

George grinned. “With superpowers.”

Alex smiled, and nodded. “Yes. With superpowers. They aren't any more interested in listening to her theories than she is to listening about tactics.”

“I don't see the point here.” Kelly's headache was getting worse, but she didn't put the goggles back on yet. Besides, the pain distracted her from the fixer on her arm.

Alex shrugged. “No point, really. She was just talking about how each of us fit into our own little archetype. Derek's the hero, not to mention the father of his group. Laura's the smart one, and the mother.”

“That doesn't make sense,” George said. “If anyone is the father, wouldn't it be Butler?”

“Adoptive parents, then. Derek is in charge of caring for them, that's all I meant. Like how Kelly and Sax are the parents of the retinue.”

Kelly rolled her eyes. “Cute, Alex. Very cute. What did I ever do to deserve this?”

“Oh come on, I'm serious! You take care of us, and we appreciate it.”

Sax looked at them sideways. “Yesterday you threatened to disembowel me and strangle Kelly with my guts.”

“Oh, you've never wanted to kill your parents?” Suddenly their grin faded, and they stopped polishing his knives. “I... guess not.”

Now that was surprising. Alex was usually good about avoiding talking about their past.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Jarasax seemed to think the same thing. “You knew your parents, Alex? You never talk about what happened before you joined your Host.”

Alex slid away their dayknives with a sigh. “That's because I don't like talking about it, Sax. It was a slip of the tongue. Don't worry about it.”

Sax frowned, reached over, and smacked them upside the head. “That's bullshit. You know George's story, and all the details of my escape.” He nodded at Kelly. “And of course you know everything about the shit storm that is Kelly's life.”

“Thanks,” she said dryly. He was right, though. In fact, Alex knew more about it than Sax did.

Sax ignored her. “You don't get to skip your turn on our little sharing sessions.”

Alex scowled. “Fine. My dad was one of the first angels, my mom one of the second-gen vampires. Dad killed mom, I killed dad. We done?”

An awkward silence fell in the van. Kelly became acutely aware of the orcs outside, still cleaning up the gargant.

George shuffled uncomfortably. “God, sorry, Alex. I mean... I didn't realize. Not knowing your parents is better than that.”

But Sax just glared at him. “No, that's not what happened.”

Alex glared right back, and their hands went to the hilts of their knives. “What did you just say? If you think you know me—”

“That's the plot to Vampire Carmilla Saizou,” Sax said.

Kelly blinked, then laughed. “Oh, right! I bought you the disc for your last birthday.”

Alex winced. “Crap, I thought that was Adele. Ah, right. So my mom was a high-level vampire, and my dad a lupe—”

“If your mom was a loli, that's Dance in the Vampire Bund.”

“Uh, I was told my dad was a pilot, by my aunt and uncle—”

“Star Wars.”

“My dad was an antiques dealer and an abusive gambler, and my mom killed him with a cursed sword he got—”

Kelly rolled her eyes. “Now you're just making stuff up.”

They threw up their hands. “Saints above vampire, can't you just let me have my cool origin story?”

Her headache was getting close to unbearable. “Alex, you're just making them curious.”

They leaned their back against the door of the van and sighed. “Fine. I was raised in one of Zaphkiel's orphanages. Spent a lot of time watching TV. When I was eighteen—ten years ago—I took the glow and the eyes and joined the Host.” They waved their hand flippantly at the others. “You all know the rest.”

George snorted, though he tried to hide it. “Well, I'll admit I can see why you tried to come up with something better. It's not very interesting.”

“Be nice,” Sax said. “It took a lot for them to admit the real story.”

Part of the real story, anyway. Kelly sighed and finally put her daygoggles back on. “Don't they teach you a bunch of junk about humility at the angel orphanages?”

Alex shrugged. “I was never very good at learning that stuff. Too much of my father in me.”

Kelly winced. “Don't say that.”

George leaned forward a little. “That reminds me—Sax, what's the word on that data dump Kat set up? The one using MC's system?”

“Not much,” Jarasax said. “I talked to Clarke and got the data, but it's just a five minute audio file between a half-dozen fey, talking about something.”

Kelly raised an eyebrow. It scraped against the daygoggles, and hurt. It was amazing how easy it was to forget that discomfort, just by taking the stupid things off for a few minutes. “Anything specific?”

“Just about how they'll need to be careful their dead homunculi don't fall into the wrong hands. They were talking about the kill switches, mostly.”

Kill switches were pretty much what they sounded like; self-destruct sequences the fey used for their homunculi, to make sure that the body was completely destroyed, and no one would be able to study the corpse.

“That's interesting on its own, though,” Alex said slowly. “They'd only be worried about leaving corpses behind if they were staging a war.”

“They stage wars all the time,” Kelly said. “I don't think it's a big deal.”

But Alex just shook their head. “Their normal turf wars are bad enough, but right now... if a war starts now, a lot of people are going to die.”

“People die every day,” Kelly said gruffly. “Besides, we can handle a few monsters.”

Alex leaned forward, between the driver's seat and the passenger, holding themselves up by the shoulder rests. They locked gazes with her and wouldn't let go.

“How do you think we would have survived the bleeders,” they asked slowly, “if there was a horde of fey-born monsters attacking at the same time?”

Kelly forced herself to avert her eyes. “Wouldn't happen. The fey don't plan.”

“Hm,” Alex muttered. “I'm sure they don't. Kat's intercepted communication is clearly just an anomaly. The fey couldn't, for example, be in league with the Composer.”

No one spoke for a long time after that.