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Slade tried to ignore the fact that Davenport conveniently had a holding area on hand. It was a single jail cell, bars on all four sides. In the center of it, Lomos sat, posture and expression stoic.
Other than the cage, there was nothing more in this open room. Davenport stood off to the side but Eli, next to Slade, watched the wolf brigade captain with contempt.
After a full five minutes of silence, Slade hove a sigh. She supposed she would be the one to do this. A part of her had expected Lomos to be forthcoming, to even explain himself straight away without prompting. That didn’t come to pass.
Lomos didn’t apologize, but he spoke first. “What he’s doing is just.”
Eli bristled but Slade caught his hand, unsure what had gotten into him. Slade half wondered if Eli also had a Legion. Until now, Eli was thoughtful, conscientious, slow to anger, and open to hearing everybody out.
Slade was unsure what had changed. When Eli’s hand slipped around her waist, she regarded him in confusion.
The man was putting his faith into her, akin to saying, You do it. I can’t trust myself.
But Slade could barely stomach it. When she regarded Lomos again, she saw the anguish tinging his cold exterior—this bothered the brigade captain greatly.
“How can it be just, Lom? He’s going to kill a baby to break the covenant. You can’t believe this is just.”
Two brown eyes narrowed in on her. “And what’s the alternative? Vampires keep deteriorating into deranged lunatics?”
“What do you care?” Eli snapped.
Slade held his hand on her waist to keep him calm. It worked. He slunk behind her.
As painful as those words were, Eli had a point, what did a werewolf brigade captain care about the plights of vampires?
Lomos watched her and she returned the gaze.
“What we are now is unfortunate, but we’ve earned it,” Slade explained. “To take an innocent life—to...to take an innocent life for the sake of our own necks? That only solidifies my stance that vampires need not rise to power again.”
Arms folded against his chest, Davenport watched on with a nod. Slade ignored his acknowledgement and instead tried to reason with the werewolf behind the bars.
“Think of what this is; this is barbaric.”
“Right,” Lomos scoffed, “and what do you plan to do? How will you fix this? Every soothsayer and harpy within a hundred miles must know something about this. So long as the focus is breaking the covenant, I bet you any money they’ll stay out. But as soon as the focus changes to stay in and rise to power again, bet your ass Children of Runes from coast to coast will bear down on that place.”
“We cannot really do that, though,” Davenport interjected, “interfering with the will of Fate.”
Lomos scoffed. “No? Then how did these two end up in that mansion trying to steal back a harpy and her egg?”
Slade came to Davenport’s rescue. “He’d sent us back to the parking lot—”
“At what time? A day later? The very moment we were sent to find you all?”
Had it been a day later? It felt like mere hours.
“Wake up. People with the gift can’t directly interfere, no. But they’ll pull whatever strings they have to. And they won’t be the ones in the crossfire.”
Davenport eased off the wall. “Now see here—”
“It’s okay,” Slade told him without looking back. “Maybe it was in your best interest but it was in our interest, too. So I don’t care. Thank you for giving us a chance to go back there.” She stepped closer to the bars and begged Lomos, “How do I stop him? How do I stop Manos?”
Gaze cast low, Lomos shook his head. “You don’t. He’s got my wolves. He’s got foresight from that harpy. He’s even got an egg with a pure rune uncorrupted. As soon as that harpy’s able to talk again, she will tell him what he wants. And he will break that covenant.”
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“He’ll kill that baby, you mean,” Eli corrected.
A hush fell over the room until Slade held the bars. “You won’t go against him, but we will. Is there a way inside? Could you tell us where they keep the child? You don’t have to say much. Just give us a fighting chance. We’ll go in and out quietly at sunup. It stings but I’ll manage it.”
Eli stepped beside her. “We’ll manage it.” He hesitated then said, “I’ll—I’ll contact some other wolves. We’ll—”
“The wolves are already here.” Lomos picked his head up. “We were instructed to gather them. They think they’re coming for some...some crusade to keep vampires suppressed. They’ve come to rescue some primate.” He focused on Eli. “Thanks to your father.”
Swallowing hard, Eli breathed out. “The gorilla.”
“Louis II,” Lomos corrected. He took interest in the floor once again. “What Sovereign Manos said was right. A wolf’s rune is his loyalty. And all werewolves from our time—from your father’s time had sworn allegiance to one vampire or another. Like that thing over there pulling the strings....” He used his chin to indicate the harpy. “An indirect attack won’t matter. But directly, we must show loyalty.”
Floored, Slade whispered, “The wolves provided the primate blood.”
“To the kings and queens of all the provinces, yes. In exchange for a little info here or there. And then they’d rotate it around so no one would try to attack. And it was always a controlled amount. Sovereign Manos killed one—actually killed it. He killed Louis II. That’s going to send the wolves into a panic. They think there’s another one in that manor. Why else would Manos get rid of theirs? He’d have to have his own, right?
That made sense. Only, they’d storm the castle to find a human.
Relief spread through Slade as she smiled. “Good. We can ask the wolves—”
“No. We can’t.” Eli closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against the bars. “We can’t ask the wolves for help.”
“What?” Slade shoved him. “We need all the help we can get. If there’s a wolf army already gathered—”
“He won’t say it, ma’am. But I will. An ape they’ll rescue, a baby that looks human,” he scoffed, “a possible food source for vampires once more? A food source that would tip the scales of power once more in a vampire’s favor?”
That fluttering of hope vanished.
“They’ll kill that baby anyway. And if the wolves won’t, countless other Cha-Ru will.
Cha-Ru, Children of Runes. Any and all feared man. Before the vampire numbers rose high enough, it was man who dominated the earth. Man who abused the earth, hunted her creatures, enslaved and raped their precious Children of Runes. No one wanted to see them roam again, not even Slade.
“He’s mine,” Lomos said, fighting back a sob.
His eyes shimmered and Slade stepped closer to the bars, hoping she’d heard wrong. “What?” When he didn’t answer, she gritted her teeth to keep from screaming, “You gave your child to a vampire!”
“He was safest with a vampire!” Lomos jumped to his feet. “He’s worth more alive to them than dead. That was the point. And no, I didn’t want to do it. Everything in me said not to do it. But I ain’t got no g’damn ape. I ain’t got access to one and the day my kid was born, I started losing runes. And if I’m just a wolf, a single wolf in a sea of weres, how far could I bring him? I can’t protect them on my own. At least the vampire’d keep him alive. Four years after vampires became pariah, I got stuck in the wolf so deep I couldn’t even recognize myself as a werewolf. But I gravitated right to my master—right to Sovereign Manos. Six months later I shifted. After that, despite serving Sovereign Manos again faithfully for years, as soon as my son was born, I turned into a wolf for hours. That’s why I chose and as soon as I did....” His breathing calmed and he sagged, rubbing his face. “As soon as I did, I could shift. But the point was to keep my boy alive. And it’d make no sense for them to feed on him so young. I figured it’d buy me some time. The blood’s more potent around teenage years. And if he’d shift...maybe his wolf would answer and—”
“He’s human,” Eli explained. “He can’t shift, Lo. You’re fooling yourself.”
Lomos trembled when he said, “No. He’ll shift. He’s a wolf. And once he does, it’ll ruin his rune and his blood’ll become as useless as any other werewolf.”
He waited for them to agree but Slade couldn’t meet his gaze. She had to say it though. “He’s human. He couldn’t come through with us because he’s human.” She asked Eli, awed, “How’s that possible?”
Eli often looked others in the eye when he spoke. Now, however, he looked back at Davenport.
The harpy eased off the wall yet again and cleared his throat.
“You still haven’t realized why I want you two to be careful?”
A pit formed in Slade’s stomach and the bottom of her world fell out. Eli’s jaw dropped. Lomos looked the most shaken.
“How?” Eli breathed heavy. “How!”
Davenport fought back a smirk. “You’ve never asked yourself why someone would neuter so many healthy werewolves en masse?”
Eli trembled. “Are you saying...her child and mine...?”
“Would have the same result? Yes. Oh yes. Werewolves tend to breed with werewolves. And a breeding with any other will lead to a werewolf. All except...a vampire.” He was quick to add, “This was a stipulation of Legions convent.”
Slade’s breaths came shallower and shallower still. “She knew.” Her eyes settled on Eli and she wanted to scream at her own Legion. “That bitch. Four times, with four condoms. It was like she was testing me out—seeing how far it could all go. Because she knew.”
The calm that came over Slade didn’t speak of peace of mind or tranquility. It came with her defeat.
Lomos watched the ground as he confessed, “I’d prayed he was a wolf, but in the off chance he wasn’t....” His eyes met Slade’s. “He’s dead anyway. And at least...with the covenant broken, I could have more, and they wouldn’t be vampire food. The next ones might be were instead. And if they turned out the same, maybe Cha-Rus would let them live. But from the start, this was lose-lose. But it’s a chance I’ve gotta take. I have no other choice. I can’t lose them all. And it’s me against the entire world.”
A chill filled the room and Slade struggled with something to say. Not only had her world just been flipped inside out, she’d been damaged beyond repair.
“And you have the same choice to make that I did,” Lomos said, voice cracking. “Sacrifice the one and let him die peaceful and not grown up in some vampire clutch, sucked on day in day out by those parasites. Or go on the run and pray to all creation I can care for, feed, clothe, clean and protect that one child as one very weak wolf. Which would you decide? Because it’ll be your problem eventually, too.”